Paying Her Debt (6 page)

Alex’s heart thudded in his chest, and he rose from his chair.
George stepped forward too. Shock stamped across his face.

“
Dios
…Attacked?” Alex breathed.

“Yes, sir,” Rick continued. “Andy lives in St. Pauls. I don’t
know why the hell she was walking home. I’ve told her time and time again to
make sure she gets the bus. They found her a mile or so from her apartment, so
she must have been walking.  I guess she was worrying about money again or
something.”

“What happened?” Alex demanded.

“A mugger. Luckily a group of parents taking their kids to school
found her. I dread to think what would have happened if they hadn’t.”

“Is she okay?” George asked, before Alex could.

“No, sir. She was beaten up pretty badly. The hospital wants to
keep her in overnight at least. Though she was already trying to check herself
out when I left.”

“What the hell!” Alex exploded. Strange feelings fizzed through
him, and he didn’t know what to make of them. Overriding it all though was the
thought that he had to go and see the waif. No not the waif, Andy, Andrea. She
was hurt, and as Rick said, she had no one to turn to. Who else but he could
fix things?

“Why would she try and check herself out?” he demanded.

Rick shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “She can’t afford the time
off work, sir,”

George shot him a guilty look, one he shared. So she
was
hard up, couldn’t even afford the bus home. Remorse filled him, eating away at
his anger, and he clenched his fists before grabbing his jacket. “I’ll take
care of this, Rick. Leave it in my hands.”

“That’s not all, sir,” Rick said, stopping Alex at the suite
door.

“What?”

“Whoever did this stole her bag. She tried to stop him, but he
took it anyway.”

“And?” He had no time for this. He’d replace whatever she lost,
damn it. He had to make sure she was okay. Why that was so important he didn’t
know and wasn’t planning to think about right now.

Rick looked down at the floor, color flooding his face before he
answered. “This is why she didn’t want me to tell you.”

Impatience hit, and Alex snapped. “What is it, man? Get to the
fucking point.”

“It had your wallet in it, sir.”

Chapter
Nine

Andy closed the door of her apartment before making her way over
to her bed. Every single cell in her body felt raw, like they’d been chewed by
a pit-bull and spat back out again. She winced every time she took a deep
breath, and her face ached in a million different ways. It was all she could do
not to feel desperately sorry for herself.
Gotta look on the bright side.
Because,
she reassured herself, despite appearances to the contrary, there was a bright
side. None of her injuries were permanent. Nothing was broken. She’d been
injured much worse in the past and came through it. Surely she could do the
same again?

Dropping her keys on the bedside table—thank God she’d had them
in her pocket—Andy curled up on her bed.
Gotta look on the bright side.
She repeated the mantra in her head, over and over, trying somehow to convince
herself. But it wasn’t working. Where was the fucking bright side? Somewhere
else was where. Probably taken with Pete as he hightailed it out of the area.

Curling in on herself, she winced as her ribs screamed against
the action. Andy repressed thoughts of her errant fiancé. The bastard was gone
wasn’t he, and she’d long since learnt to depend on no one but herself.
Men
are all useless. Pete left you. Iannou fired you…

She groaned. She’d lost Iannou’s wallet, all his cash and that
lovely ring. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she racked up more medical bills
she couldn’t afford. She didn’t even have enough money to get the bus to work
tonight, not if she wanted to eat. Yet, how could she walk in this state? It
would take hours to get there. She’d need to save her energy for the actual
work, the scrubbing of the toilets and making of the beds.

Iannou flashed through her mind again, and she imagined exactly
what he’d think when he found out about the wallet. She’d have to tell him of
course, find some way to pay it back, and the thought settled in with all the
other worrying ones like a dead weight. But coupled with the money worry was
something else Andy could not understand. After waking up in hospital, her first
thought had been of the brooding Greek and not in terms of his wallet. She’d
been overcome with an odd urge to see him. Like that was ever going to happen!
The only thing Iannou was going to be interested in was the huge amount of
money she now owed him.

Where’s the fucking bright side?

The tears started then. Hot scalding drops fell down her face.
Sobs shuddered through her body, which did not help the pain throbbing through in
side. She lay there, sunk in the lumpy bed, no money to her name, no one to
turn to for help—not a single person, beyond an old work colleague, that
cared—and in that moment all the bravado she’d lived on for the last year
crumbled around her.

Andy cried like she should have months ago. Cried until her face
was red, and the misery in heart deepened to the point where it hurt more than
the bruises on her body. She was lost in her sea of wretchedness, her well
deserved pity party, for what might have been minutes or hours. The banging on
the door was the only thing that pulled her from it.

Startled, Andy shot up before she even knew what she was doing.
Pain exploded along her ribs, and she cried out. The cry was followed by
another as without warning the door shot open. The single lock—all she could
afford—gave away to whoever was forcing it.

Panic filled her, and she scrambled back against the wall. Eyes
frantically looked for something, anything to defend herself.

The door opened with a resounding thud. The wall it hit shaking
ever so slightly. “So there you are.”

“No.” The word fell from her as she recognized the man stood in
her doorway, even as an inexplicable sort of relief flooded her.

“Yes,” he said. “You’re a hard woman to find, Miss Jones.”

And Andy’s heart, her poor, bruised, battered heart, both sank,
and unaccountably soared.

* * * *

It was all Alex could do not to shake her. How could she be so
stupid as to leave the hospital? Didn’t she realize she was injured. Had she no
comprehension of just how awful she looked?

He looked her over, comparing her appearance to the snoozing waif
of yesterday, and pulled in a shocked breath. Her pale little face was marred
by bruises. One running the length of her cheekbone, the other flowered out
from her mouth, where her split lip was clearly obvious. Alex’s hands clenched
by his sides and murderous anger filled him.
I’ll find whoever did this. I
won’t rest until I do.
He made that promise to himself there and then and
was resolved in keeping it. He was Greek, and Greek men protected their women,
kept them safe.
Your woman?
Both panic and disbelief hit at that thought,
and he took a step forward, though surely it should have been a step back?

“What are you doing here, breaking into my apartment?” she asked.

Alex’s heart gave a strange little thud, and he shook himself
inwardly. “I was worried.”

She gaped at him. Doubt stamped across her features. “Worried?”

“Yes.” To injure someone as delicate as her? It defied belief.
Because she was delicate. Alex could see that now. As delicate as the phantom
who came to him in his dream and teased him into the sort of desire he hadn’t
felt in years.

“But—”

It made no sense to her. He could see that, but then it made no
fucking sense to him either. “Why did you check out of the hospital?” he asked,
and then realized it had come out as a demand.
Moderate your fucking voice,
Alex. You’re scaring her.

She shivered on the pitiful excuse for a bed, her hands holding
her side. She looked as though she was in pain and the very thought angered
him.

“I’m fine. I don’t need to be in the hospital,” she replied.

“You can’t afford the time off work you mean,” he stated.

She flushed and lowered her gaze. “That’s none of your concern.”

“You’re my employee.”

She glared back up at him. “You fired me.”

Shit.
“Yes, I suppose you could say that.”

“I don’t need your help, Mr. Iannou. Besides I know why you’re
really here. Rick told you, didn’t he?”

She gave a funny little gasp with those words, and Alex could see
her face tighten.
What had that bastard done to her? How much pain was she
in?
Keep calm.
“To what are you referring, Miss Jones?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “He stole your
wallet.”

“Yes, I know.” Surely, she didn’t think he was concerned about
that? Yes, it was true he was enraged with the loss of his
Yiayia’s
ring, but it was hardly her fault. She could not be held responsible for his
own carelessness or the actions of a thief.

“I’m so very sorry,” she whispered. “I tried to stop him but he
was too strong.”

Rage filled Alex again, and it was clear to him then that Andy
had no idea how to look after herself. No sensible woman would work herself to
death, walk such dangerous streets, or try to fight off a mugger.

“This is not something we need to discuss,” he said.

“I’ll pay you back the money,” she said.  “It might take a while
but—”

He cut her words off. Insulted beyond measure. “The only thing
you’re going to do, Miss Jones, is go back to the hospital. I am, in fact,
going to take you there myself.”

He was, he realized, beginning to feel responsible for the little
waif, and he didn’t understand why that feeling gave him a strange sort of
thrill. It was ridiculous, stupid, and utterly absurd. He didn’t even know her.
They’d spent the sum total of maybe an hour in each others company and yet… there
she was. Looking like the epitome of a damsel in distress. Who else but Alex
could be her knight?
George would do it.
He growled at the thought,
anger flooding him. He’d take care of her. She was his employee after all, his
responsibility.
You all but fired her
. He batted the thought away.

“I’m not going back to the hospital,” she said. “I won’t go, and
you can’t make me.”

So she had a stubborn streak? Alex smiled slowly, cheered by this
show of spirit. “Then you will come to my hotel. I will keep an eye on you
there.” As soon as he said the words, they made a peculiar kind of sense.

She gaped at him, this suggestion clearly not finding favor.
“What? Why would you suggest that? This is ridiculous. You’re not responsible for
me. You fired me!”

He shrugged. “I never actually did, Miss Jones. You gave me your
card and walked out.”

She shook her head. “You were going to.”

Yes, he was but that was beside the point. Waving away her words
he gestured to her face. “Regardless, it does not change the fact that you are
injured and need someone to look after you. There is no one else I understand.”

She glowered. “I can take care of myself.”

“You have no family, no friends. No one but Rick. Would you
rather he were here? I got the impression he would be eager to help.”

“I don’t need anyone.”

Like a willful child, she clearly needed a firm hand. Alex saw no
choice but to give her one. It was for her own good after all. If she wouldn’t
go back to the hospital, he’d have to install her in his suite. What other
choice was there? “You will come with me, Miss Jones. Neither you, nor I, have
a choice in that matter.”

“This is ridiculous,” she protested. “You can’t make me.”

He smiled, a slow smile. She bit down on her lip and curled farther
into the wall, as if trying to disappear. She’d shown the chink in her armor
already, and Alex was not a man afraid of using such weapons to get his own
way. The only other option was to leave her all alone in her dreadful
apartment, in pain, without anyone to care for her. Alex did not understand why
that thought was anathema to him, or why he felt an overwhelming need to ensure
her safety. Until he did understand it, she would stay where he could watch
over her.

“You owe me tens of thousands of pounds, Miss Jones.”

She blanched. “The wallet….”

He nodded, dampening down any guilt over his actions.
It’s for
her own good.
“If I remember correctly, there was a few thousand in cash
and my Grandmother’s ring.”

“The ring,” she whispered.

“Yes, it’s worth a great deal. The emerald alone could buy a
small house.”

“I can’t pay that back,” she said, shoulders slumping. “It would
take me years.”

The chink.
“I know, and that is why you will come with me
without any protest. You owe me a great deal, Miss Jones. For the time being,
you will do as I say, and right now I say you’re coming to my hotel with me.”

“What do you want from me?” she whispered.

And Alex had no idea what to say because he didn’t know what he
wanted. Ever since he’d found her snoozing in his loading bay it seemed that
his equilibrium had been shot to hell. The guilt, the dream, the desire. He
paused and took a deep breath, yes, desire, he accepted it now—clear and
resounding. His mind finally recognized what his body had a day ago. He wanted
his sleeping beauty, wanted her with a fierceness which shocked him. And if he
had to use her guilt to get her…then so be it.

Chapter
Ten

It had been so long since Andy had slept in a comfortable bed
that despite the total what-the-fuckness of the situation she couldn’t help but
sink into it. Pillows were piled high around her head, and a huge quilt covered
her. The sore parts of her body were grateful for the comfort, and inexplicably
Andy both relaxed and fizzed with a completely unwarranted excitement.