Unyielding (Death & Devotion #1)

Chapter 1

VALENTINA

The music was blaring, the air was thick with the smell of alcohol, sweat and smoke.

The Velvet Room was one of many slightly unsavoury family businesses we owned but by far a cut above the rest. This little gem of a sex club was owned by my brothers but operated by my second-oldest brother, Zane.

The man was slightly unhinged, with tastes to match.

I usually kept myself removed from the family’s businesses—being the youngest, a woman and not interested in contributing in any other meaningful way, my value lay in my ability to be sold off like chattel to form alliances in this ever-violent underworld we lived in.

Tonight wasn’t about me though; it was about my best friend, Matt.

He was getting married and this was how he decided to send off his single years—by being gyrated on by a throng of almost-naked women on the more muted level of the club, which was strictly reserved for erotic dances.

Ashleigh, his bride-to-be, would have castrated him if he’d even thought about seeking out one of the upper levels, where almost anything was permitted.

Walking towards the back, I found Matt sitting in a booth surrounded by some of his friends.

Where Matt was a gentle giant, Tim was an awkward gamer guy Matt had gone to university with.

Andrew, who sat at the end of the table, was a creep in every sense of the word and had been banned from nearly every club in the city.

The only reason he was allowed inside these walls was that he was far too scared of my brother to try his usual antics—lest he felt suicidal.

I greeted Matt, as always, with a slight nod, paying no mind to the other two.

They were his friends, not mine, and they were far too scared of my family to bother trying to form any kind of friendship with me.

Matt and I had fallen into an unexpected friendship with him, having been the son of one of our housekeepers.

When we first started earning real money and bought our home ten years ago, he became a sort of third brother, given that we were the same age.

Matt and I considered each other blood in every meaningful sense of the word. We had tried to make that a reality as kids when we were sixteen, slicing open our hands and shaking over a single oath. Now, at the age of twenty-five those scars served as a reminder of our vow to one another.

Nothing and no one.

It meant that quite literally nothing and no one else would ever come between our bond.

No matter where we were dragged in life or the paths we decided to take, we would always be in each other’s lives and have each other’s backs.

We were na?ve to the realities of the world and as the years wore on, our lives began to centre around different things and different people but we still remained each other’s anchor.

Always there if we needed someone who understood.

‘Hey V, going to get a dance tonight?’ Matt asked with a smirk. He knew this was not something I enjoyed and that I was only there to support him and throw back free drinks. Shaking my head, he laughed at my reluctance.

‘This kind of thing isn’t my scene.’

‘Come on, you should know better than most that these girls want to be here.’

‘Women Matt, they’re not girls.’ He dipped his head in embarrassment, nodding an apology my way.

I did know though. My brother Zane opened this place as a refuge for the women who were being drugged, abused and taken advantage of across the rest of the city.

One by one, my family shut down every club in the city and opened this monster.

It was five levels of sex and sin, built on a lack of inhibitions.

The women set their own hours, own boundaries and own rates.

My brothers barely got a cut compared to what most clubs had taken.

They created a safe space for these women to partake in this line of work without fear.

Security was better than anything any politician would have on their roster and ten times as vicious.

Zane was known across the city for his particular brand of violence when the less-than-intelligent decided to cross him or anyone he considered family.

And every one of these girls became family the moment he took them in.

Zane had bought the building across the road and converted it into apartments with twenty-four-hour childcare on-site.

Not one of them paid childcare fees or rent; he funded the entire thing out of his own pocket.

It was his version of repentance for his sins.

There was a counsellor on standby at any time of day or night, and every person who worked here, whether they were a dancer, escort, bartender, or cleaner, had their education fully paid for.

It was a safe haven in every sense of the word.

He viewed himself as a blight on this world and this was how he made up for what he did in the shadows.

The great care he took with the people that worked in the Velvet Room translated into a lively, energetic and passionate atmosphere.

There was life breathed into every square inch of this building.

I had been to other clubs in the past for similar events.

You could feel nothing but depression, fear and despair rolling off the bodies and walls of those places.

Matt grabbed my hand and pulled me to one of the secondary stages, sliding out a chair for me to sit in.

There was a pale, lithe thing dancing on a pole, with long black hair trailing down to her lower back.

Matt called her to the edge of the stage, whispered something into her ear, then handed her a bill.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him as she raised her gaze to meet mine, before nodding and moving back to the centre of the stage.

Matt walked away with a wink thrown my way as the dark-haired dancer dropped to the floor of the stage and crawled towards me, spreading her legs and leaning into me in time with the music.

‘What’s your name?’ she asked in that same purr all these girls had for their clients. It was a forced sensual tone that just wasn’t believable to me. But to the average man, I’m sure they lapped it up, thinking their mere presence alone was enough to sexually undo these women.

‘It’s V,’ I answered. She gave me her stage name, one I didn’t bother to memorise.

Nova? Aurora? Something galaxy-themed. As she focused her dance on me, my eyes stared at the shuttered look in her eyes.

She seemed bored. She could have been scrolling on her phone for all her face let on, while her body moved as though she was thrumming with passion.

I just couldn’t grasp the clear disconnect.

I sat there wondering what the men in my life found so fascinating about these places and these women.

When her dance ended she sat herself on the edge of the stage and asked if I wanted a more private dance. I pulled one hundred dollars from my bag and passed it to her as I shook my head no and returned to the boys.

Matt raised a brow in question as to why I didn’t go with the dancer, but I merely shrugged.

I stood on the edge of the table, barely paying attention to the conversation, making noises of agreement here and there to act as though I was engaged in whatever asinine thing they were discussing.

I felt slightly guilty for being here and being miserable, but Matt knew me well enough by now that he never took my displeasure about being surrounded by people personally.

It wasn’t long before another dancer made her way to the table.

She was tall, with legs that seemed to go on for days.

She wore a red lace set that crossed around her ribs to her back.

As she made her way around the table to speak to Andrew, her tight, short curls bounced with every step; the lights reflected off the bleached ends that faded into dark brown roots.

She leaned over the table to show case her red lace wrapped breasts while I absorbed the caramel colour of her skin that glistened with a light sheen of sweat.

My mouth dried, and the sudden urge to lick my lips overwhelmed me.

This was new; perhaps I was no better than the men who came here.

Andrew was holding out for a set of twins who were wrapping up a dance, so he wasn’t interested in the dancer in front of us.

Tim shook his head no as soon as she stepped towards him; he looked ready to hurl, having had one too many whiskeys.

I could see Matt’s knee bouncing under the table and knew, as soon as she approached him, that he was too far gone, craving a cigarette, to be able to sit through a dance.

She turned to address the boys, seeming not to bother with me yet.

‘Come on, boys, don’t you want to have a little fun tonight?

I promise to make it worth your while,’ she said in the most chipper tone I had ever heard in an environment such as this.

She was practically thrumming with positive energy, a bright smile plastered on her face that met her deep brown eyes and appeared genuine, even in the face of multiple rejections.

Something about her energy pulled at me.

Matt was about to reject her once again, but I interrupted him by stepping in front of her.

‘How about me?’ Matt looked as shocked as I felt, but something about her trying so hard made it almost unbearable for me to watch her crash and burn, flailing in a sea of rejection. I wanted to preserve a piece of her dignity so she wouldn’t have to beg. She didn’t deserve that.