Love and Other Wicked Games (A Wicked Game Novel) (7 page)

“We need to find somewhere to hide,” Cal said.

Bless this woman, she didn’t even question him. Instead, with a slight catch in her voice she said, “That shouldn’t be too difficult around here.”

Cal knew exactly what she meant. “No, I suppose not.”

This working class area of town around the central commercial district was one that most people forgot about, and everyone who lived here and lived this life was forgotten along with it. As much as that pulled at Cal’s insides he couldn’t dwell on it now. He needed a place to hide and this was exactly the place for someone trying to stay hidden.

“What about there?” The woman ran up next to him and pointed off to the right.

Up ahead there was a tiny alley jutting off the already narrow road. Cal nodded his head and they both took a deep breath before picking up the pace. They made a quick turn down the tapered side street where Cal found exactly what he was looking for: a wayward inn where rooms could be rented by the hour.

As they approached the inn and slowed their pace, the woman came up to his left side where he saw the wide eyed look of nervousness in her eyes.

“What’s the matter?” Cal asked as they finally stood still, side by side. “Never seen a brothel before?”

“What?
That’s a brothel?
” The woman’s voice was a nearly indiscernible squeak and her face turned a rather alarming shade of white.

“God, no. Brothels are much nicer than this.”

She looked the building up and down several times. He had to admit, it was a rather alarming sight. Old wood, black with decay, and windows so smudged that they were opaque. Her mouth opened and closed as she looked back to him but no words came out right away.

“I—it was just—” Cal sighed and rubbed the space between his brows. “It was another jest. Honestly. This isn’t a brothel.”

“Oh, I know. I was just disturbed by the thought of you—you know—in a brothel doing—doing—
things…
” She circled her hand in front of her from stomach to mouth as if trying to get the words to come out. When that failed, she covered her face with both hands. “You’re right. I have no capacity for humor after all…”

Cal shook his head with an amused smile. “Quite the contrary. Humor is a game of intelligence and it’s clear you have plenty of it, whether or not you were able to verbalize your thoughts without embarrassment.”

“I’m not embarasse—” She let out a deep sigh. “Oh, lord. Let’s just get this over with.” She linked her arm in his and took his hand as they made their way towards the inn. “What shall we tell them?”

Cal didn’t object to her touch, in fact he rather enjoyed the feel of her so close to him. Although she was fashionably dressed, she didn’t wear gloves like most women he knew. And when she laid her small hand on his he could tell that she didn’t have hands like most women he knew either. In contrast to her well-bred appearance and demeanor her hands held the signs of gentle wear. This knowledge comforted him, and made him feel warm and calm and even safe. But it was more than that. It was more than the physical touch and the awareness it gave to him. It reached deeper. It was the way she touched him with such familiarity, closeness, and trust. It made him feel, if even for just a moment, that everything was brighter than it seemed.

“What shall we tell who?” Cal asked as he relaxed against her.

“The shopkeeper. Or the bartender… or would it be an innkeeper? I’ve never been to a place like this before…”

“I should think not.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I do,” Cal responded. “But they won’t ask or even care who the two of us are, or what we’re doing here at the inn. I guarantee we’ll be the most unmemorable people they’ve seen all week.”

“But… but isn’t that the exact reason why we
will
be memorable? I mean we should at least have an explanation, shouldn’t we? Some kind of story?” There was a hint of unease in her voice.

“Why?” God dammit. It wasn’t as if he’d expected her not to figure it out. She’d have to be a bloody fool not to realize that they were running for a reason. That didn’t mean he wanted to acknowledge that to her now, if ever. The less she knew the better for both of them.

“Well, you know—because—what if—” she stopped and pointed her hand off behind them. “What if—”

“What if someone were to ask?” he allowed.

“Yes.”

“They won’t get an answer.” If he wasn’t going to explain everything to her, the least he could do was try to reassure her of her safety.

She pressed her lips together and breathed out sharply from her nose. “But how do you know—”

“A little faith,” Cal said with a pat on her hand. “You’ve trusted me thus far. I’m just asking for you to trust me a little bit longer.”

With a heavy sigh she nodded her head once, curtly. Cal smiled and then opened the door to the inn allowing her to enter in front of him.

The inside of the inn was not much an improvement on the outside. There was a single row of food stained wooden tables along the right wall leaving barely enough room to pass on the left by the bar. The dirt floor was filthy, even for dirt. Cal could make out bits of food and waste around the tables as well as several muddy areas dispersed around the narrow room. Cal assumed that was the source of the musky and pungent odor filling the room, but he didn’t want to speculate exactly what had caused the muddy areas.

The fireplace in the back was lit, filling the entire room with a small amount of soot and smoke. Other than the fire, the only light in the room was the dim and dappled rays of sun that came through the tiny smudged window of the door. But those rays of light only served to accentuate the smoke and soot in the air. On the far side of the room Cal could just barely make out a few poorly dressed and grimy bar patrons, along with an equally unkempt woman in a low cut dress, at the table closest the fire. As Cal expected, none of the occupants gave him or his companion a second look.

The woman tightened her grip on Cal’s arm.

On their left, the woman behind the bar approached them and when she was within earshot, she folded her arms and leaned down on the bar.

“You lost?” she asked eyeing Cal and his companion up and down. A piece of her greasy hair fell over her eyes and she wiped it away with a filthy rag in an equally filthy hand.

“Well, actually we—ouch!”

Cal elbowed his companion in her side.

“Not at all ma’am,” Cal answered the barkeep.

“Ma’am, is it?” The barkeep raised a brow. “Sounds like you’re lost to me.”

“No. Ma’am. We’re in exactly the right place.”

She kept her brow raised and shook her head. “If you say so.”

“Oh, I do.” Cal reached into his coat pocket where he retrieved a small velvet bag which he threw on the bar. It landed with a faint metallic
clink
. Both the barkeep and the woman on his arm looked at him curiously.

The barkeep reached out a tentative hand and took the bag, undoing the ties and looking inside. Her eyes widened slightly but she kept her face even as she redid the ties and placed the bag into her dress by her bosom.

“Seems you’re in the right place after all…” She cocked her head sharply to the side in the direction of the stairs in the back left corner, before turning and going back to whatever it was she had been doing before.

Cal nodded his head and then led the woman on his arm towards the back of the inn.

“But—wait—” She didn’t let go of his arm but she pulled against him, looking to the barkeep behind them and then back to Cal. “What was—was that—” She lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned into Cal. “
Was that money?
”

He felt his mouth twitch but he didn’t answer. He unhooked his arm from hers and placed his hand on her lower back giving her a gentle nudge up the stairs.

“How much—” She turned around to look at Cal. “How much—
where did you get that?
”

“It’s no matter right now.” Cal pushed her lower back again and followed her up the stairs to the small landing and constricted hallway that connected to it. The only light in this space came from a small, soiled oil lamp hanging on a nail on the wall. The doors to the individual rooms were barely visible and Cal had to squint his eyes in order to see them even after he squeezed past the woman and walked down the hall.

“
Did you steal it?
Is that why you’re being followed?”

“What? No!” Cal turned, eyes still narrowed, and looked at the woman. “How ridiculous would that be? Steal money, run, and then use it all to hide? What would be the point of that?”

“Maybe you just like running…”

“What?” Cal continued to glare at her.

“Alright then, maybe you didn’t spend all of it. Maybe you have more—”

“Maybe I do. Now shush!” He gestured his head back towards the stairs that lead down to the pub where the other inn patrons were congregating. “Do you want other people to come asking after those sorts of things?”

“Oh,” she said as she clasped her hands in front of her and rocked her arms nervously from side to side. “I didn’t think about that.”

Cal sighed, and for not the first time today he wondered what he’d gotten himself into by bringing her along.

He knocked on the first door on the right side of the hallway and heard a loud crash in response as if someone had thrown something at the door. He stepped away and went to the second door, knocking firmly again. When he didn’t hear a response he turned the handle slowly and glanced inside. The room was slightly better lit than the hallway but not quite as well lit as the pub downstairs despite the large window on the far wall. Nonetheless he could tell that the room was unoccupied. He stepped inside and gestured for the woman to join him.

She followed quickly.

“Close the door,” he instructed her as he took the flint box from a small table and lit the oil lamp next to it.

The woman walked across the room to the window and pulled the heavy curtains further open, disturbing the surrounding dust. She coughed several times before turning back to face him.

“Now what?” she asked.

She was wringing her hands in front of her chest and biting her bottom lip something fierce. She was nervous as hell. But damn if it didn’t make her all the more intriguing. And beautiful.

Cal knew he shouldn’t be thinking this. Especially now that they were alone together and would be for some time. He reminded himself again of the promise he’d made to not let her get too involved or to become too attached. He wasn’t entirely sure about her feelings but he was failing miserably at the later. What was worse, he couldn’t seem to help it. It had been such a long time since anyone had been on his side. Even though they were strangers he felt a connection to her that went deeper than he could understand.

Cal gave the room a once over and was not surprised to discover that the only place to sit was the bed. He brushed off a corner of the sheet and sat down, patting the space to his left.

“Well then. We’re going to be here for a while,” he said letting go of his better judgment. “Shall we finally get to know each other?”

Ellie turned and looked out the window, devoting all of her attention to the areas surrounding the inn. There wasn’t much to see even if the window hadn’t been so dirty and grimy… except for more dirt and grime, and more buildings that looked remarkably similar to the one she was already in. And some buildings that looked even worse. That was of no matter though. Right now she didn’t really care what was or was not in front of her to see, as long as she was not seeing what was behind her. But that desperately handsome man behind her was not so easy to ignore… and neither was the manner or location in which he was situated.

If someone had asked Ellie to guess how her day would go, and then told her to let her imagination run wild to all the places she could ever possibly envision, nothing she came up with would have ever been close to the reality. Twenty-four hours ago she was a normal woman working in a dress shop. She most certainly wasn’t the type of woman to kiss a strange man or to run away with a strange man. Or to be in a room, in an inn,
with a bed
, with a strange man. It was horribly scandalous. And terribly wicked.

And Ellie was surprised to find that she liked it. Very much.

“What are you looking at?” she heard the man ask from the other side of the room.

Ellie sighed and turned very slowly holding her crossed arms close to her chest as if for protection.

The man was leaning back on his arms now into a more relaxed position on the bed. She’d known he was handsome. There was no getting around that. But his position on the bed gave her a better view of him, and for the first time since they’d met she was finally able to give him a good looking over. The lines of his body were long and lean, but he had a strength that told her he knew work, though only recently. His head was tipped back towards the ceiling showing a strong jawline peppered with ebony colored hair. It was clear he hadn’t shaved since the last time she’d seen him and perhaps for a day or so more than that.

His manner of dress though, was a bit confusing. He was dressed like a laborer or worker of some sort, in a simple shirt and trousers, but the fabrics of the clothes seemed almost too fine. It was possible that he was employed by a well-to-do family and was given their castoff clothing, but even that didn’t seem to fit. His mannerisms, speech, and attitude were that of someone who should be more finely dressed, someone who should not be running and hiding in a place such as this. And he had all that money… At least she’d thought it was money anyway…

He definitely wasn’t a conventional sort of man by any sense of the definition and he didn’t have a conventional sort of look. But something about him made her feel safe and comfortable, and to be honest she found him and this entire situation quite appealing. More than appealing.

Oh, Lord
. She could feel her cheeks warming up and turning bright red. She should have stayed facing the window. Or better yet, she should have just stayed in bed.