Dannika Dark - Six Months

He scoped out the room. “I’m looking for something ah… vanilla.”

“We have taffy and wafers over here,” I suggested, leading him to an aisle on the right. I thought about offering the almond bark since a local lady worked with us to sell her candy, but I didn’t think that’s what he was looking for.

“That all you got in here that’s vanilla?” he said, coming up behind me.

I spun around with a wafer in one hand and taffy in the other. “I’m sorry, but it is. We don’t get that request too often. We do carry products that have vanilla flavoring in them, but they’re diluted with other ingredients so it’s not as strong. Is this for a special occasion? I might be able to look in our catalog and order it.”

Up close, I noticed a teardrop tattoo on his brown face and a scorpion on his thick neck. He smiled with closed lips and grabbed each piece without removing his dark eyes from mine. I backed up against a shelf but didn’t want to appear rude by weaving away from him. He placed the wafer in his mouth first and swallowed it after two bites.

“I’m Sanchez.”

That’s when I heard my inner voice screaming to get out. The main lights were off, leaving only the accent lights on near the windows and the sign behind the register. I was alone in the store with a guy hitting on me.

Not just that, but doing it in a creepy, roundabout way. I noticed a bandage on his arm and backed up a step.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sanchez. Let me grab something else I think you’ll—”

“No,” he said decidedly, wedging in front of the small space I was trying to squeeze through. I had the wall to my back and nowhere to go. “You look pretty vanilla to me. How do you taste?”

Something knocked off the shelf and rolled across the floor. My heart sped up when his tongue swept across his bottom lip. By the glittery expression in his eyes, he liked seeing me nervous.

“I’m sorry, you need to leave. I have to lock up the store,” I said in a firm voice.

“What if I want you to open up? ” he said suggestively.

Sanchez had rock-solid arms that looked eager to crush me in his grasp. He chuckled while chewing on the taffy. “I work for Delgado.”

I blinked in surprise at the familiar name and cleared my throat. “I paid him.”

Delgado was a loan shark my grandma had owed money to. We’d only met once because he’d wanted his payments in cash, so he always sent a guy to collect. I’d squared away the debt to him, though.

“Mmm, true.” Sanchez pinched the tuft of hair below his bottom lip. “Delgado wants the interest. All you paid was what was borrowed.”

My brows slanted in an angry line. “He didn’t tell me that! All he said was that I owed him three thousand and that’s what I paid.”

Sanchez’s eyes roamed down my shirt and he stared at the lettering that said Sweet Treats, written across my C-cup breasts.

“How much is the interest?”

I was relieved when he lifted his hand and held his fingers in the shape of a zero. Until he took his other hand and poked a finger in and out of the hole. “Pay me what I want and I’ll buy you some time.”

Guys like Sanchez thrived on intimidation. I grew impatient and narrowed my eyes. “I don’t care what you want; what does Delgado want?”

A smile crossed his face and a silver-capped molar gleamed back at me. “Been a few years. Interest builds up. Now you owe more than you paid.”

“That’s not fair!” I shouted, pushing him away as I struggled to get around him. He walked me against the wall and slammed his left hand over my head, leaning in hard.

“Be nice.” He bit his lip and lowered his eyes again.

I got scared. Sanchez stopped smiling and I cowered like a cornered animal, now understanding why they lashed out violently. He bent forward and licked the tip of my nose. I wrinkled my face, turning away from him.

“Five large, or one night with me and I’ll give you a discount. I’ll be real sweet. But if you don’t pay him what he’s owed, then I start taking fingers,” he said, lifting my right hand up between us. “Starting with the pinky.”

Faster than a heartbeat, Sanchez shoved my pinky finger into his mouth and clamped his teeth down hard. I tried to pull it out, but when I felt them lock on the bone, the threat became vividly real. This man didn’t really want to sleep with me—he wanted to mess with my head before he minced me up.

Sanchez closed his lips around my finger and eased up, so I quickly pulled it out and wiped my hand on my jeans.

“I’m not doing anything with you,” I growled. “When does Delgado want his money by?”

He tucked his business card in the hem of my skirt. “Saturday,” he said, backing up and stalking out.

“That’s in three days!”

As he opened the door, Sanchez glanced unapologetically over his shoulder. “Noon, Saturday. If you bring half the money, then I’ll… I’ll just take your pinky toe,” he said with a dark laugh, briskly walking out the door and into the night.

I slid down the wall. “Oh God, what did you get me into, Grandma?” I whispered.

That night, I made a desperate decision. I devised a scheme to deduct money from the company account to pay off Delgado. I had access to the account to pay bills and Lexi wouldn’t notice the transaction right away. My plan was to redeposit my own paychecks until I covered the amount withdrawn. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t know what else to do.

When I got home, I refilled my wolf’s water dish and poured him some dog food I’d picked up at the store. He lapped up the water but only sniffed the food before scratching to go out. He was acting peculiar since I’d walked in the door. When I had first sat down, he wouldn’t stop smelling my right hand.

And growling.

Something deep, dark, and ferocious that made my stomach feel all fluttery and reminded me of how wild he might actually be. But his leg had improved, so out he went while I got on the laptop and transferred company funds over to my personal account.

It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done because I’d crossed an ethical line. I was stealing and could wind up in jail because of it, not to mention I was betraying Lexi.

Hermie and Salvador paddled around in their fishbowl without a care in the world. I stared between Sanchez’s business card and the one Maddox had left behind. I wondered if borrowing money from one shark to pay off the other would get one of them off my back.

Which wasn’t a bad idea.

I already owed Maddox more than I could possibly pay, but at least he wasn’t threatening my life or my fingers. If my grandma had borrowed frequently from the man, she must have trusted doing business with him.

My cell phone rang, pulling me away from my thoughts.

“Hello?”

“How’s my April Showers?”

“Hey, Trevor. Where are you?”

He sighed. “A Burger King in bumfuck nowhere. I wanted to eat inside, but a couple of rednecks were giving me the Deliverance stare. Did you ever see that movie? It gives me the heebie-jeebies about driving anywhere in the South. Not that I have much of a choice,” he said with a snort. “I got all my stuff packed up.”

“That was fast.”

“Yeah, I did it porn style. In and out.”

“Thanks for the visual,” I said, rubbing my eye.

“I’m headed back tonight.”

Shoot! I hadn’t cleaned. Trevor had visited my home only twice before, but I wanted to tidy things up and make it special since he had been through a rough breakup.

“How long is your drive going to be? If I’m at work when you get here, I’ll have to hide the key somewhere.”