Chapter 5
ENZO
I’ve never actually looked forward to hanging out with a girl before. Normally, they call, or I call. We fuck, then we’re done. I don’t know them, not really. And they sure as hell don’t know me. They know whatever I allow them to know, and it ain’t much.
With Joelle, it’s different. I want to see her, and it isn’t for sex. It’s her. I want to see her. Even if it’s only at her job. I’ll take whatever I can get.
I park my car in the strip club lot, step out, and walk over to the bouncer who lets me in. Continuing inside, I don’t see Joelle at first, scanning the whole damn place.
Maybe she’s on break or some shit. I march over to an empty sofa, and as I’m about to take a seat, I spot her in the far corner by the back. But she’s not alone. She’s with a man.
His palm grips her upper arm, his face hard, brows tight, mouth moving a mile a minute while she remains quiet.
My feet are already moving, needing to rip his beard off his damn face and feed it to his corpse. He dares to put his hands on her? It won’t go unanswered.
“Drop your fucking hand off her,” I bark out, practically growling like a damn animal. She pivots right, finding me marching up, her stare growing wide.
She shakes her head a little, mouthing no, but I ignore it. I don’t know who this man is, but he won’t be touching her. Ever again.
The asshole doesn’t drop his hold. He tightens it instead, and she flinches.
He’s gonna die. Slowly.
“Hey, pal. This is a business conversation,” he mocks with a tilt of his upper lip, too much hostility in his tone. “Why don’t you take a hike, huh? She’s not in service right now.”
“Fuck, man.” I scoff with a shake of my head. “It’s like you’re asking to die.”
He finally releases her, a glare radiating from him as he moves in on me, his face nearing mine. Luckily he let her go when he did, because I was about to slice his throat open like a fountain with the knife in my pocket. “Are you threatening me, you piece of shit?”
I grin so wide it fucking aches, and as soon as his fist comes at me, I grab it, twisting it hard as he lets out a groan. Violence fills my heart, not seeing a man, but prey. My prey.
“No!” Joelle pleads, her hand on my shoulder, her softness tearing through the harshness soaking my veins.
“Please don’t do this.” Her warm exhales fall over my neck, her words a whisper in my ear.
“I work for him. They’ll hurt me if you hurt him.
You have to let him go. Do it for me. I’m begging you! ”
Her safety, that’s the only reason I drop this asshole’s hand.
He grumbles in pain, rubbing his wrist, eyeing me with a snarl, about to come at me until Joelle palms his chest.
“Stop it!” she tells him. “He’s a high-paying customer. You think the boss is gonna want you to mess him up? Why don’t you think with your brain for a change?”
“Bitch, you think you can talk to me like that?” He readies a palm, intending to slap her, but I pin him with a growl, putting myself right in front of him.
I should end him. I can make it quick. Somewhere quiet where no one sees me. She wouldn’t even know.
“You ever call her a bitch again, I will cut that tongue from your mouth.”
“This fucking guy.” He laughs. “He’s still talking.”
“Patrick. You’re here for a private dance, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, my eyes still on this man. “Let’s go.” Before you see what I’m truly capable of.
She grabs my hand, pulling me backward and I move with her.
“I’ll see you around, pal,” he spits out, staring, and the hint of that threat has me wanting to finish what I started. I begin pulling out of her grasp, glaring back at the fucker.
“Don’t, Enzo. Come on, forget him. For me.”
My breathing quickens, and I focus on her to stop myself from killing him. The only reason he isn’t dead is because of her. When I eliminate them all, and I will, I’ll do it when my need to spill their blood doesn’t affect her.
Finally, turning around, we head to the back. “How the hell could I forget him putting his fucking hands on you, talking to you like that?” We step into an unoccupied private room, and she closes the curtain.
“If I’m used to it, then you’ll have to learn to tolerate it too.”
“Fuck that!” My palm tightens over her cheek. “I’ll never allow anyone to speak to you that way.” She places her hand over mine, a haunted look in her eyes.
“What are they doing to you, Joelle? Don’t lie to me.”
She pulls in a long inhale, her body practically wilting. “Why can’t you just let things go?” She bows her head. “I don’t want to lie to you.” Her gaze finds mine again, her eyes bleak. “But I can’t talk about it. So just drop it, okay?”
There’s too much pain clouding the features of her face. The truth she won’t admit is there, submerging her in hell. I want to take it all away, to end the lives of every single one who’s made her feel this way.
“Come,” she says softly, dragging me to the sofa.
I attempt to steady my racing heart, my barraging breaths. She needs that. I know she does. We sit side by side, her fidgeting with her long, red fingernails, me bouncing my foot on the floor like a damn lunatic.
“Hey.” She draws my focus to her, her palm landing on my knee like a lightning bolt, zapping me to life.
“Yeah, baby?”
Her eyes, that angelic face, her grip around me, the need to be her protector, to save her, it’s all there.
Why her? What makes her so special?
Who the fuck knows? We can’t control how we feel about someone. Sometimes feelings, they just happen, unexpectedly. And meeting her, wanting to know her, it’s unexpected all right.
“I’m your baby now? I thought you were looking for just a friend.” A smile tugs at her mouth as she comes to straddle me, draping her arms over each of my shoulders. Her whole face lights up, and fuck, it makes me want to be a better man, to make her look this way every day, knowing I did that.
I snicker. “I call all my friends baby.”
She lets out a raspy giggle that goes right to my cock.
I curl my arm around her back and pull her closer, staring up at her. “You’re my favorite though.”
“Oh yeah?” She bites her lower lip on a laugh. “You’ve got a hierarchy of babies?”
“Mm-hmm, and you’re at the top of the list. You’re on top of a lot of my lists.”
“Lucky me. Or is that what you tell all the girls?” Her gaze flirts with mine, her voice dancing with an erotic current that makes me hungry for more.
“Only the pretty ones,” I tease, my lips twitching with amusement.
“But you’re more than just pretty, you’re damn special.
I may not know you well, but I can’t explain wanting to be around you.
” I let the pad of my thumb brush over her mouth, locking her gaze with mine.
“I never felt that shit before, never wanted it. Not until you. And that’s the damn truth, baby girl. ”
She forces her blue gaze down to my chest, like she’s trying to hide that she feels the same.
“Look at me,” I demand, softly nudging her chin up with the back of my fingers. “Don’t hide.”
This time she doesn’t.
“I’ve never even hung out with a girl before, unless I was fucking her,” I confess, and for once, I’m afraid of being judged for it. “And I do want to fuck you, by the way, you know, in case you get some weird-ass ideas. Again.” I shoot her one of my crooked grins.
Her eyes roll and she laughs. “Duly noted.”
Lifting her hand, my lips land on the center of her palm, just as she holds my cheek with the other, her mouth lowering there with a tender kiss.
I pull in a harsh breath. “That’s the first time I’ve ever been kissed like that.” I throw in another confession. “That’s officially my favorite kiss.”
“I’m sure you’ve had way better kisses than that.” Her voice goes low and raspy.
“Nah. None of them meant shit.” I roll my fingers up her spine, curving them into her hair, holding back a groan, my cock throbbing. “Not until you.”
She shuts her eyes, her brows pulling with…with what? Regret?
I’m too damn afraid to ask. She doesn’t even know me, or everything I’m going to do in the name of my family. She’s sitting with a monster, and she doesn’t recognize his face.
Will she fear me? Hate me? I guess we’ll find out. Because Joelle, she’s not going anywhere.
My other hand drifts to her knee, my fingertips gliding up, and when I glance down, I almost jump off the seat.
“What the hell is that?” Anger swells in my gut, not meant for her.
“What are you talking about?” When she glances to where I stare, she tries to get off my lap, but I clutch her tightly, refusing to let go.
I grip her jaw, pulling her face gently toward me. “Baby, who left those bruises on your thigh? Tell me who fucking did that.”
“Enzo, please…” She sighs with a drop of her shoulders. “It’s nothing. Let it go.”
But I can’t. I won’t.
“Joelle, all you have to do is give me a name. That’s all. They’ll never find his body. I promise.”
Her eyes go round. “You’d kill? For me?”
I lower her lips to mine, inhaling her heavy, scattered breaths. “Without an ounce of hesitation.”
“You can’t,” she murmurs. “There are too many...”
“Too many of them?” I finish for her when she won’t, my lips stroking over hers.
She exhales, defeated.
“I know who you work for, Joelle. I know what they’re capable of. I swear to you, baby, they’ll all die, and you and me, we can be a thing after it’s over. If you want it.”
Shit, that was fucking stupid. The girl is gonna think I’ve lost my mind, talking to her like this. But maybe once things are safer, we can try. The thought grips me with hope of something more, something better in my fucked-up life.
She moves back enough to look at me. “I want that so much, but I just ca—”
I press a finger to her lips. “Don’t say no. Not yet.”
Not ever.
She nods, a frown taking hold. “I can’t let you kill for me. I can’t have that on my conscience.”
“They were dead before we ever met. Now I have even more reason to make their end painful.”
Her chin trembles, but she tightens her jaw, steadying the ache forming behind her eyes, like it’s hiding. Like she’s its keeper. She tries so hard to be strong, but slowly it’ll destroy her. Pain always does.
“You don’t know what you’re getting involved in,” she says, all evidence of her sadness is now a distant memory.
“I can say the same about you. But here we are, baby. And I’m not going anywhere.”
JADE
He holds me like he’s always meant to. Like his arms are the safest place on earth. But it’s all a desperate illusion my mind has created. I’m not safe with anyone.
“Are you going to tell me who hurt you?” he asks for the second time, refusing to give in. I want to tell him, I really do, but I can’t. I have to think about my son and the repercussions to him if I do.
I wish Enzo could find those three men and make them suffer for what they did to me last night. I want him to beat the living hell out of the bearded man who drove me to them, the man who I now know as Roman, the one who was scolding me for not doing my very best work with those men.
After they were through with me, they complained to Roman. He told me he wouldn’t tell the Bianchis if I fucked him again. That’s what Enzo walked in on.
I’ve never seen Roman before the night he showed up at my place, but Faro likes to change the men around. He doesn’t want anyone to get attached to each other.
I don’t know how a man like that has a daughter as nice as Chiara. She’s oblivious to everything her father is doing, all the women and children he’s destroying. She hates him too. She’s told me so plenty of times.
Chiara is as good of a friend as I have. If my life were different, I could see us being friends outside of this place. We mainly talk here at the club. The people in charge don’t allow us to have anyone over or go anywhere. It’s part of the rules they have set for us.
The gym and work are the only places I can step foot in with the shitty car they provide us, monitored with a locator so that we don’t get any ideas. My body is my job, and they make sure I keep it in prime shape, or else they’ll have no use for me.
They also supply us with the basics like food, clothes, and toiletries.
We get no money. They even take our tips.
They want us dependent on them for everything we have.
They fill our gas tanks too. We get a basic flip phone that we’re only allowed to use for work purposes.
None of us would ever dream of calling for help.
Every week, I have a woman come to my place and do my nails. They want us to look as good as possible for their clients. The better we look, the more money they get. That cash I’ve gotten from Enzo so far, I’ve managed to hide it in a tampon box, hoping they never look there.
Some of the clients at the sex club are men with more money and power than anyone should have. They’re politicians. Celebrities. You name it. With us, all their wildest dreams can come true, as long as they’re willing to pay for it.
My mind drifts to the night before, to the three men and what they did. My pulse races, envisioning it as though it’s happening all over again.
“Let’s see how well she can take this.” One of the men laughs, after they’ve all had a turn with me. He twirls a large baton in his hand, like he’s performing a circus act, while two others hold me down by my wrists.
My breathing grows agonizingly heavy, my eyes remaining on him as he walks up closer, the thud of his footsteps slithering up my flesh with piercing dread, and when the baton lands softly on my inner thigh, I flinch.
“Bad girl,” he croaks with a grin so wicked, it sours my soul. Before I realize what he’s doing, he lifts it up in the air and hits my thigh with it, again, then again. He hits me a few times more while I scream through the gag in my mouth.
The other men fondle my breasts even as the beating stops, and then, he shoves the baton inside me.
“Joelle?”
I hear the distance of his voice—Enzo’s voice.
“Joelle, you’re shaking. What’s the matter? Talk to me, baby.”
I clear my throat, ridding myself of those thoughts, my body still trembling. Enzo gazes at me so tenderly, the agony, the tears, they scream and claw to get out, but I won’t cry. If I start, I will sob in his arms until there’s nothing left.
With him, I’m vulnerable. For once, someone cares—someone sweet, powerful, beautiful. And he wants me, or what he thinks he knows about me.
But the ugliness is still buried deep where he can’t see its tattered ruins. Will he still want me then? No. He won’t. No matter what he says, no matter what he thinks he wants. He wouldn’t want a whore. And I am one.