What We Do in the Night (Day to Night #1) - Stylo Fantome Page 0,101

the bar,” Valentine said. “Angel was letting some basketball team run train on her in the Moon Room. I may never go back in there again.”

“God, that dick,” Ari groaned, falling back to sit on the bench. “I hate him.”

“He talks about me with you?” she was surprised. Evans had been a return customer to Caché, but she'd only talked to him a handful of times, usually leaving him to his own pleasures and devices. He was with a different girl most nights, though he'd been showing a partiality for Miyuki whenever she made an appearance.

“All the fucking time,” Ari growled. “He likes to give me shit. He knows about us, our deal, and he's determined to get you for himself. I told him you weren't on the market.”

Valentine's jaw dropped.

“Jesus, I'm not a fucking house, Ari!” she snapped. “You fucking people, sitting around talking about us plebeians like we're objects.”

“Okay, yeah, calm down,” he said, holding up a hand.

“Calm down? Me calm down? You came storming in here ten minutes ago ready to charge me for a crime I hadn't committed, and I need to calm down? Fuck all the way off, Aaron.”

“First of all – never call me that again. Second of all – I was upset because I thought you had broken the rules, and because that guy is an asshole. I was entitled to my anger. You're upset because I was talking to someone about you. You're not entitled,” he informed her.

“First of all,” Val mocked his tone of voice. “You're an asshole, and if you can't understand why I'm upset, then everything we talked about two weeks ago – everything we've done since then – was bullshit.”

“You knew I was an asshole when you met me,” he reminded her. “So none of this should be shocking to you.”

“You know what? You're right. Thinking you might actually be a decent person is entirely my mistake,” she snarled, then she made her way back to the bathroom.

Ari didn't stop her that time, so she was able to walk through it and into the closet. She grabbed her backpack off the dressing island, then stopped long enough in front of the sink to grab her toothbrush and deodorant and birth control and other toiletries. Then she strode back across the apartment, her bag hanging from her hand.

“You always try to leave when things get the least bit intense,” he pointed out. “Instead of standing here and fighting it out, you run away. Coward.”

“I'm a coward?” she gasped, pointing a finger at herself. “You're scared of your own goddamn father – that's a coward.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” he warned her.

“No. I leave because my life is already shitty, and I don't need you making it any worse,” she said.

“Worse? I've only made your life better, and you know it,” he pointed out. She laughed loudly.

“Are you fucking kidding? You make everything worse!” she yelled. “You make me hate myself!”

“You can't blame that -”

“You have a fucking life, Ari,” she kept shouting. “An awful fucking life that you don't even like, so it makes you feel like shit. And since you're a coward, you went out and paid someone else to let you treat them like shit, too.”

“You know what, you're right,” he said, his voice steely as he finally climbed to his feet. “You should run away right now.”

“Ooohhh, I'm so scared,” she sneered. “Daddy's Boy. Can't stand up to him and tell him you don't want his life. Can't even stand up to yourself and admit you might actually be fucking feeling something for someone else, because it fucking scares you! Coward!”

There was a long, painful silence. She was breathing hard, clenching her hand in a fist around her backpack strap. Ari was breathing hard, too, his face like a steel mask. But where her anger was hot, his was like ice. It chilled her clear to her bones, and she belatedly wondered if maybe she'd gone too far.

Whoops.

“Well, Saint Valentine,” he said in a low voice. “I must commend you for a job well done, but as you just pointed out, the two weeks are over. Thank you for your services – I know some men who will be delighted to know you're finally available again.”

“Oh, fuck this,” she said, turning and striding to the door. “Fuck this stupid apartment, and fuck your stupid money, and fuck all of this!”

She swung it open so hard, it banged against the wall behind it and came back, smacking her