Page 18 of Wolf Cursed
It felt like a standoff, except I had no idea what the stakes were.
“You know how to answer a phone?” he asked.
I nodded.
“What about computers?”
“I aced my classes and even took one college course in accounting,” I said.
I didn’t bother explaining my classes had all been done on a refurbished laptop provided by the state to low-income households. A computer was a computer, right?
“Why?” I asked.
“I need someone up front to schedule and do invoicing.”
“You want me to work for you?”
“Like you said, you can’t take charity.”
Hmm. “So, I’d earn a paycheck?”
“It doesn’t pay much but yeah. Fair and square. As long as you do the job.”
I looked around the small bedroom. “I can’t exactly afford rent.”
“You can have this room,” he said. “Perk of the job.”
When I opened my mouth to argue, he cut me off. “You’ll pull your weight here too. Cook, clean, take care of the place. Do that, and we’ll call it even.”
I bit my lip, considering it.
Vorack wasn’t likely to just forget the debt my father owed. Not after witnessing that monster he’d become. And I damn sure didn’t want to live the rest of my life on the run from him. If I could earn enough to pay him, it would clear me. And it wasn’t like I would find a better deal anywhere else.
Besides, I’d worked in diners and dives since I was fourteen. Stocking and running a kitchen was the easiest work he could have asked for.
“Okay,” I said finally. “You have a deal.”
Oscar grunted his own agreement, and just like that, I had a home and a job. A new life. I wondered what Kai would do when he found out. If he’d be angry. I snorted to myself. Of course he’d be angry. I couldn’t imagine him any other way, honestly. Okay, that was a lie. I imagined Kai all sorts of ways. Angry and naked. Angry and kissing me. Angry and taking my clothes off.
At first, I’d considered my attraction a response to my grief. Anything to distract me. But now, I was starting to wonder if there was more to it. The thought should have scared me, but all it did was excite me in ways that were, without a doubt, going to get me into serious trouble. Story of my life.
Chapter Five
Despite my protests, Oscar insisted I spend the entire day in bed, downing Aspirin and water until the pounding in my head and the throbbing throughout my body became manageable enough to function. After he returned to the shop and the next round of painkillers kicked in, I found myself sinking once again into a restless sleep. My dreams were horrible; nightmarish visions of my father becoming a monster and then dying and then waking up and doing it all over again.
I watched my father’s funeral through bleary eyes and fuzzy thoughts. Tears ran freely down my face, but Oscar, dry-eyed and stoically silent, stayed for all of it. I was glad. Other than us watching the live stream, there was no one present. Once, I thought I saw a figure in the corner of the camera as they passed by the gravesite. A man dressed in a dark jacket and sunglasses. His haircut had reminded me of Vorack, but he was gone too fast to know for sure.
After that, I was too lost to my own grief to even care.
By the time the service ended and the live stream cut off, Oscar was fidgeting. I told him to get back to work, and the moment he was gone, I gave in to my grief and cried myself to sleep.
Hours later, Oscar brought me dinner—another paper bag full of fast food—and even through my haze of pain and grief, I realized he needed that cooking and cleaning more than he’d let on.
The place wasn’t gross, but dust motes danced in the slanted sunlight that streamed in through the windows, and the fast-food dinner seemed like a habit.
By the next morning, I woke a little less achy and a lot more clear-headed.
Oscar’s bed was already empty when I stumbled to the bathroom and took a shower. But when I emerged, a couple of pairs of leggings along with a few sports bras and tank tops had been tossed onto my bed.
