13. Lena
The tension settles in the room, its presence still suffocating as the minutes tick by. I settle onto the sofa, sipping on my now warm drink, and watch them. Both men are at their desks, seemingly hard at work investigating the bouncer and whatever connections he might have to Obsidian.
Devin steals glances my way now and then, his eyes filled with a mix of curiosity and guilt. He’s abandoned the mask that covered his still slightly bruised face. His phone keeps buzzing on the desk with notifications, but he hardly acknowledges it. I can only imagine how Vince betraying them and possibly being a mole has turned the whole club on its head.
Why would someone who’s been working here for so long turn their back on it? What was he offered in exchange for information on the club's inner workings and possibly my whereabouts? From the outside looking in, the society that Matt is a part of just looks like a bunch of elite businessmen who come together to rub elbows and show off their partners. It wasn’t lost on me that it was always a power play between everyone, and somehow, Matt had busied his way to the top.
I think back through the years, and I could kick my own ass for not seeing the signs that something was amiss. I furrow my brows because I did see the signs, and some of his stories didn’t add up, but I just chose to ignore them for the sake of my relationship. I thought he was the love of my life and that I wanted to be with him forever. I turned a blind eye to the blood on his knuckles when he would get home late and every other suspicion.
I am so fucking stupid.
The way the other partners looked at me when he brought me around was a mix of pity and disgust. They saw me for the pawn that I was in his game of power and either realized that I didn’t even know what part I was in his grand scheme of things or that I was complacent in the fact that he was constantly fucking other women and murdering people when I wasn’t there. He really is an evil motherfucker.
I rub at the knot in my chest, trying to ease the tension that threatens to steal my breath entirely. While I wouldn’t say I had rose-colored glasses on all the time, it seems like I just chose to close my eyes—and maybe I was just fully complacent. We lived in a beautiful penthouse apartment; he bought me anything I wanted and provided me with an escort to go anywhere I wanted.
He said he loved me and that I was his.
His to control.
I run my thumb over my empty ring finger, the roaring in my ears nearly deafening as memories come flooding back because when things were good, they were really good. He showered me with gifts and took me on vacation to private islands, where we would stay in large beachside villas and were waited on hand and foot by a full staff. He showed me the world while simultaneously showing me off. He would kiss me gently and fuck me hard as if I was the center of his world.
I squeeze my eyes shut as the darkness begins to cloud my mind, shifting my memories and reminding me why I ran. Because when it was bad, it was torturous. My cheeks heat as I think about the feeling of his hands on me and the names he would spit at me like venom, diminishing me to a heap of tears on the floor. Kicking me even harder when I was down.
Early on, he would flip the switch—pull me into his arms and beg for my forgiveness—but as the years went on, he would usually leave altogether after a fight. Instead of gathering me in his arms, he would leave expensive gifts or send an expensive dinner as an apology. The gifts would be shoved into the closet, and the food would taste like ash on my tongue as I turned into a shell of myself. He would take me to galas, walking in with me on his arm as the cameras flashed in our direction, capturing his award-winning smile as everyone praised him for being a giving man, all while slowly taking away pieces of me.
I don’t even feel the hot tears sliding down my face until a thumb brushes one away. My eyes snap open, meeting Devin’s bright blue eyes from where he sits on the coffee table. He watches me curiously. “Where did you go just now, love?” There’s a concern in his voice as he catches another tear, this time putting the drop to his lips, as if he’s trying to taste my sorrow.
I delicately wipe my face, doing my best not to mess up my makeup any more than I likely have. Bri would kill me if she knew that I was crying about Matt, let alone in front of two very attractive men, one of whom seems extremely interested in me. I sniff. “Just lost in my own head. I’m fine. I promise.”
He definitely doesn’t buy my lie, seeing right through it. His eyes cut to his desk as it buzzes across the wood before he looks back at me, his eyes full of questions. He stands, huffing, as he crosses back to his desk and snatches up the phone. “This better be good,” he bites out to the unsuspecting person on the other end.
He stiffens before turning to the TV, getting close to one of the boxes on the screen. He groans quietly as he scrubs his hand over his face.
“Tell her that he didn't show up for his shift, and we have no idea where he is.” He whips his head to Tony, and I see the flush crawling up his neck. He runs his hand through his hair, gripping it at the roots and tugging it. He lets loose a breath. “Just get her the fuck out of here. Charm her however you need to, and fucking let Chuck know what happened last night because I don’t need some fucking rookie snooping around.” He hangs up the phone, his eyes flicking to me and then right back to Tony, who’s watching him carefully.
Devin’s head drops back. “Vince’s mother came here looking for him. I guess she thinks she has been stood up for their weekly dinner. We need to make sure that nothing about his disappearance leads back to us and make it look like he skipped town.”
Tony holds his gaze but nods before his fingers start flying on the keyboard, doing whatever it is that he does. He leans forward like someone has come out of the screen and is trying to pull him into another world. The light from the screens illuminates his face, making his gray eyes glow. I notice a small scar that cuts through his eyebrow, making him look even more ruggedly handsome. His bright, gray eyes shift to me, and I nearly topple back from the intensity of his gaze, like a tidal wave crashing over me, and I can’t decide if I want to let it take me under or not.
After a long, drowning moment, he averts his gaze. My heart is nearly thundering out of my chest and I really can’t figure out how his one look has me nearly falling over. I can’t be that fucking desperate, can I?
Devin’s fingers fly over his phone as he makes his way back to his desk, his jaw tense. He drops the phone onto the desk, lowering himself into his chair. Even when he’s stressed, he seems to have this unbothered casualness to him. It’s honestly a little unnerving as he props his chin onto his knuckles, lost in thought.
I can’t stand the silence anymore and want to see how much they are willing to tell me. “So, who exactly was Vince? He seemed like something more than just a bouncer.”
Devin scoffs, his eyes still distant. “A fucking nuisance who seems to bother me even from Hell.”
Hell? “Is he dead?” I ask as my mouth goes dry. “Did you kill him?” I try to keep my voice steady, but my voice cracks as the words almost choke me.
The room goes still as they look between each other and me, speaking silently. They’re either trying to decide if they’re going to tell me the truth or lock me up in this basement that Devin has mentioned multiple times. The muscle in Devin’s jaw ticks, his fingers curling around the arm of the chair.
“Not this time,” he answers through clenched teeth. “Someone more deserving of the opportunity did, though. He’s nothing more than ash in the wind now.”
The words are tight, and as much as I want to know who, I swallow down the rest of the words over the lump in my throat, leaving well enough alone. Clearly, this whole situation has them rattled.
Devin suddenly stands, stalking toward me. My body prickles as he towers over me, reaching down and hooking my chin with his finger. He tilts my head back, forcing me to look up at him. He runs his thumb over my bottom lip, and as if on instinct, my tongue darts out, running across the pad of his finger. His eyes light up even more as he gently pushes his thumb past my lips, hooking it over my teeth. Heat pulses through my body as he slowly removes his finger from my mouth. He brushes his knuckles across my face before tucking my hair behind my ear.
I bite my bottom lip, and a feral grin pulls at his mouth. His eyes burn brighter, causing my skin to feel like it’s on fire. I release my lip from my teeth as he bends over, resting his hands against the back of the couch, caging me in. He lowers his face to mine, his mouth only a breath away from mine. He drags his tongue over his bottom lip, and I swallow down a whimper that tries to expose how turned on I am.
I mimic the movement, and his eyes drop to my lips. My fingers touch one of the buttons on his shirt, and I feel a pull to him like the moon to the Earth as stars twinkle in his eyes. I want nothing but to stay in his orbit, curl my fingers into his shirt, and pull him to me like gravity. I want our mouths to crash together like the waves in the tide, drowning one another in tongue and teeth.
His breathing deepens as if he’s fighting the same urges I am. I can hear the leather of the sofa groan under his grip as if he’ll shred it to pieces. Heat curls in my stomach as his eyes linger farther down my body. I lean forward slightly, letting my lips part, and invite him in. He pulls in a breath, as if he’s about to dive deep into the waves of our desire, but the sound of a throat clearing halts him.
He growls quietly as he straightens, turning his attention to Tony. My hands tremble, the remnants of the ice in my drink clinking against the glass. I curl both hands around the tumbler, pressing my fingers into the cool glass and doing my best to calm my racing heart.
“What?” Devin snaps at Tony, running his fingers through the hair that fell over his forehead, moving it out of his face. Tony doesn’t bother looking at him as he changes the camera view on the screen, blowing up one of the feeds to take up the whole screen. The security feed silently shows three men standing idly next to one of the stages, looking like they’re up to no good. They’re all dressed in dark jeans, fitted black tees, and basic, black masks.
A few women approach them off the dance floor, but they don’t even bother to acknowledge them, sending the now-rejected women slinking back into the crowd. Their heads don’t move much, but it’s clear that they’re scanning the crowd, on the hunt for someone. For me.
I don’t recognize them as anyone Matt associates with, but there are clearly a lot of people working under him and anyone else in Obsidian. Money talks, and it brings out the darkest of people to do the elite's dirty work.
“Send out an alert to keep a close eye on them.” Devin’s voice is sharp, the command in his tone. Like a sergeant preparing for war, he walks closer to the screen, examining the men closer as Tony zooms in on them.
He pulls his phone out, pressing it a few times before lifting it to his ear. “Tash,” he bites out before filling her in. “Send one of the girls their direction and see if we can lure at least one of them off the floor and into a room. They’re here for something more than a good time,” he adds, his tone harsh. His back is tense as he ends the call, clutching his phone. The veins in his forearms bulge as his other hand curls into a fist.
He looks at Tony who shakes his head disapprovingly. Devin lets out a huff of a breath and drops his head back, looking up at the ceiling. “She’s gonna have my fucking balls for that tone, isn’t she?”
Tony makes an amused sound, muffled from beneath his mask, and returns to his work.
“Do you know who they are?” I ask, unease replacing the desire in my chest.
Devin turns, his eyes narrowing. “You don’t recognize them?”
I look at them again, but nothing rings a bell. “No, why would I?”
He watches me for a moment, as if he’s trying to decide if I’m actually telling the truth or not, which makes me uneasy. Just a few moments ago, this man was caging me in, putting his thumb in my mouth, and looking like he was going to devour me whole. Now, he’s looking at me as if he wants to lock me up and interrogate me in his mysterious basement.
“Because they’ve been seen here before with Matt. He seems to keep the same crew around him when he’s here.”
“Minus the women he fucks,” I cut in, anger slicing through me.
His body relaxes slightly at my remark, and the crease between his brows smoothes. “It seems as though that they would be looking for you, love.” His words are a little softer this time, but his tone still has an edge to it .
“Why would they be looking for me? How would they know that I was here?”
“It’s not like we were discreet when we sent our drivers to pick you up,” he says matter-of-factly. “You willingly went to enemy territory. He believes you belong to him,” his voice drops lower, “and thinks he can steal you back.”
“I don’t belong to him. And he can’t steal me back if I wasn’t stolen from him in the first place.” I lurch forward and slam my glass down on the coffee table, the shaking in my hands working its way over my body as the rage pulses through my veins.
Devin’s lips curve up into a devilish smirk as he saunters back to me, his own body pulsing. Leaning down once again to cage me in, his breath is warm against the shell of my ear. “You never belonged to him, love.” My pulse is racing, heat flowing through me in a mix of rage and desire as his lips brush against my ear, causing the heat to flood between my legs. His voice is low, a rumble in his chest as he says, “But you are ours now.”
I grip the edge of the couch as he pulls back, and his lips are once again a breath away. My skin turns hot, and my fingers dig deeper into the couch to ground myself. I should scream at him, telling him I’m not a pet someone owns. I should tell him to fuck off and leave, go back to my apartment, uncork a bottle of wine, and drown myself in trashy reality TV.
But I don’t do any of that because he’s not the cause of all of this. And even as the rage flows through my veins, it’s undoubtedly due to Matt and the way he had me trapped in a gilded cage for so long. Calm rushes over me as he lets out a warm breath, the smell of whiskey and mint flooding my nose. I close my eyes and breathe in his scent. His knuckles brush against the column of my neck before his hand curls around my throat. I lick my lips and press my thighs together. The electricity is buzzing between us, causing my pussy to throb.
It’s agonizing to have this man so close to me against my better judgment. My lizard brain screeches at me to grab him and shove my own tongue down his throat. I want to feel his strong hands grip me, feel the sharpness of his teeth rake across my skin. I let out a whimper as the electricity pulses through my clit, needing him to touch me and let me have my release.
His eyes darken as if he’s reading my thoughts, and he gently squeezes my throat. His lips are so close that one small move forward would finally bring them together, relieving the tension between us. But once again, a throat clearing breaks our trance, pulling him away from me.
I’m nearly panting like a bitch in heat as Devin stands up slowly, his eyes holding mine. My gaze flicks down to where I’m now eye level with the bulge pressing against the zipper of his pants. My mouth waters as I think about the feeling of it beneath me last night as I writhed against it while he finger-fucked me.
I swear I hear him groan under his breath as he drags himself away from me, a promise in his eyes for more to come. We both put our attention back on the screen, watching as a woman dressed in lingerie and a black lace mask approaches the trio of men.
They do their best to wave her off, but she’s persistent. She keeps casting her line until, finally, one of them takes the bait. She links her fingers through his and leads him to a private booth.
They slide in and she immediately straddles him, and it dawns on me that this is the exact same booth that Matt would bring us to. She runs her hands through his hair, down to his shoulders, and across his pecks. If I didn’t know she was sent to seduce him for an interrogation, I would think she was really into him. She’s good.
He grabs her waist as she runs her hands farther down to his abs. He whispers something into her ear, and she leans back, nodding her head. She slowly slides off his lap, and they scoot out of the booth.
Her fingers once again laced with his, she leads him around the booths and up the stairs, disappearing behind one of the black, lacquer doors that must lead to private rooms .
Tony flips the camera view to show her walking down the hallway, giggling at something he said before she pulls him into one of the rooms.
I anticipate the camera switching over, but it stays in the same view. My heart races as I wait to see her reemerge, but we’re left waiting for what feels like fucking forever.
“What’s happening in there?” I ask, anxiety rippling through me.
Tony lets out a snort, drawing my attention to them. A devilish grin spreads over Devin’s face. “She’s playing with her food. A fly caught in our web.”
My eyes bounce back and forth between the screen and Devin as I realize this man won’t leave tonight alive. The tension in the room grows as we wait for what I assume is a signal from her. Ten minutes pass, then twenty. I worry the corner of my lip as the seconds tick by. After what feels like ages, Devin’s phone finally buzzes, popping the bubble of unbearable silence.
“He’s out.” That devilish grin slaps itself back on Devin’s face, easing the tension between his brows.
My anxiety can’t take the waiting game anymore as I blurt, “What do we do now?”
His grin widens as he crosses the room to me, holding out a hand. “It’s time to remind them whose house they're in and why they shouldn’t fuck with what’s mine.”