Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
RACHEL
“Ineed clothes. Zoe has some of my things that I kept at her apartment. They’re in the house, so that’s lucky. If you hurry and eat, I’ll take the tray and the dishes back when I go over.”
“There’s no rush. About now Zoe’s getting her ass caned, so she won’t be ready to see anyone for a while.”
I turn sharply to face him. “What?”
“You heard me.” Sasha sits on the end of the bed.
I glare at him. “That is not fair.”
He waves off my objection. “When you talked, did you calm her down or wind her up?”
I stare at him.
He waits.
“I told her I’m okay. Also, that things are complicated between you and me and that we had a fight this morning.”
“Did you tell her what it was about?”
“No, I didn’t have time.” I fold my arms across my chest. “But she’s my best friend. I tell her most things.”
His silence unnerves me.
“I can tell her whatever I want,” I add defiantly.
“Be careful with that.”
I narrow my eyes. “Maybe you should be careful what you do, so I don’t need to cover for you.”
“Don’t give me attitude, Raven. You said you could handle brutal honesty from me.
If you can’t, then say so. But don’t drag Zoe in the middle.
She didn’t say she wanted to be in the know on my dark dealings.
I know she’s your best friend, but as C’s girl, she’s also the crue’s new queen.
So be careful for her sake, because I could handle a cold war, but I don’t think she could and she has to be around me a lot. I’m C’s right hand.”
I think it over and know he’s right. If Zoe stopped speaking to Sasha and gave him dirty looks, Sasha would take it in stride.
He’s had plenty of practice with people keeping their distance.
But Zoe doesn’t like cold silences. She needs to talk things out and clear the air.
She hugs and kisses and supports people and feeds off the positive energy she gets in return.
I nod, then sit on the bench and stare down at my lap.
I’m capable of keeping secrets from Zoe.
I never told her my father threatened her life because I didn’t want her to become afraid of him while still needing to see him, or the alternative, becoming afraid and staying away.
I’d done what I needed to do to protect her, and I’d kept it to myself.
“He’s punishing her because she came to check on me,” I say, realization dawning.
“He’s punishing her because he told her not barge in on us without warning first thing in the morning and she disobeyed him.”
“And that’s what I can expect?” I ask, leveling my gaze on him. “That you’ll make decisions for me? Like Frank does? Like Alberto does? Only with you, I’ll also get physically punished for disobeying?”
“Does it feel the same?” he asks. “When I do something to you, when I exert my will, does it feel the same to you as when Frank or Leone does it?”
“No,” I admit.
“It cuts both ways, Raven. No one can order me to do anything. Not even C. If he wants something from me, he asks or suggests, and I step up. The only person I’ve ever let order me to do something I didn’t want to do is you.”
“When did I—?”
“When I was sick,” he says. “It was miserable. The pain and the fevers and the fucking weakness. I could barely roll over. Bone-deep pain. Bone-deep exhaustion. I wanted it to end. I was ready to die. But you said fight, and I fought. You said stay. And I stayed. You got in my head, and that’s where you’ve been ever since. ”
I rise and cross the room to him. I stand between his knees, take his face in my hands, and kiss him. Our tongues touch, our breath mingles, and our arms wrap around each other.
I don’t know if we’re good for each other, or if we’re going to destroy each other. I only know we can’t stay away from each other anymore.
ANVIL
When we go to the castle, things are calm and under control.
To her credit, Zoe’s a great hostess. The four of us are in the kitchen and I notice she doesn’t sit down, but otherwise, she flutters back and forth making appetizers and serving them on crystal platters I didn’t even know C had.
Rachel’s wearing an indigo dress and some exquisite dark makeup that makes her look like an urban fantasy cover model. Made up, she’s got that kind of freakish beauty that makes me want to carry her upstairs, tie her to the bed, and fuck her till she passes out.
Trick wanders in and scores some freshly made guacamole by moving it to a separate counter where he’s the only one who can reach it.
“Rachel, I agree with ‘Vil. That’s a good look,” he says.
Rachel looks between us, confused, since I haven’t said shit.
“Don’t fuck with her head,” I say.
“You sure? Because I’ve got a bigger mind fuck that I was going to share with the whole group. But I can wait for the business meeting instead.”
“Don’t be a tease, Trick,” Zoe says. “What? Tell us.”
“Frank is putting Rachel up for sale.”
“What?” Zoe hisses.
Trick dips a tortilla chip into the guac bowl and eats it. “As the creator of Rachel’s Palermo Princess brand, and as the creator of Rachel, he feels entitled to compensation.”
For the fifth time in twenty-four hours I regret not choking the life out of Frank when I had the chance.
“The fucking nerve,” Zoe snaps.
“Am I expensive, Trick?” Rachel asks, mock casual. “Or have I been discounted because of my low class bastard daughter beginnings and the taint of my recent abduction?” Her casual sarcasm mimics Trick’s deadpan delivery.
Trick’s gaze cuts to me, which is smart, because I’m smoking mad.
After a beat of my silence, he says, “Expensive. I’ve never bought a girl for more than a weekend, but working out the math, yeah, if there were an auction, we’re talking Sotheby’s.”
“God damn it, Trick,” Zoe says, slapping his arm and laughing. “It’s not funny. Frank’s such a dick.”
“Is it an offer he’s made just to C Crue?” C asks.
“What’s the difference?” Zoe asks.
“I want to know if he’s asking us to buy Rachel’s brand and her freedom. Or if he’s trying to traffic her to the highest bidder,” C says.
Trick frowns. “Fuck that distinction.”
“Trick,” C says patiently. “Walk it to the end.”
“C’s saying that if we buy the brand and your freedom, Rachel, Frank will back off,” Trick says.
“That’ll leave Leone, who may just decamp once the deal has been made.
But if Frank sells you to Leone, then Frank will have to work with Leone to get you away from us so that he can get paid for delivering you,” Trick says.
“And for the record, I knew what you meant as soon as you said it, C. I still vote to fuck the distinction.”
“It’s all crazy. You should not be fighting two syndicates, period. Let me talk to Alberto. I’m sure I can convince him to go home,” she says. “Frank probably told him that I’m being held against my will here. Once he knows I’m not, he’ll leave.”
“I see no problem with her having a supervised conversation with Leone,” Trick says.
“Not in person,” C says.
“Of course not,” Trick says. “By cell.”
“You’ve been quiet, Anvil. What do you say?” C asks.
What I want to say is screw Alberto Leone and screw Frank Palermo, too.
They can wait and wonder what I’m doing to Rachel while she’s in our compound.
They should’ve watched her more closely.
They should’ve treated her better, so she didn’t take off, wandering around without protection. Anyone could’ve snatched her up.
“I don’t care if she talks to him,” I say.
“I should do it face to face. He’s not a threat to me, and I—”
“No,” I say.
“Sasha—”
“No.”
She scowls at me. Again with the attitude.
My arm snakes out and catches her around the waist. I haul her up against me and stand, so her feet leave the floor.
Both she and Zoe gasp. C and Trick move aside, clearing a path. I take her into a guest room and set her on her feet.
“You can’t do that,” she says in a low voice, full of warning.
“You’ve got things backward,” I say, spinning her so she’s facing away from me. I unzip her dress. “Lay your outfit over the chair.”
She jerks forward, clutching the unzipped fabric. “I take back what I said,” she snaps, turning to face me. “You’re better off keeping this side of you hidden.”
“Too late,” I say, pushing aside the way her words hit me. I can certainly take it. “You’ve been reckless in the past and you’ve gotten away with it, but the stakes are higher now.”
“The stakes were always high! Lives were at stake. You think I don’t know that?”
“Leone tried to kill Frank and C to clear a path to you. You can underestimate him in your mind if you want to, but the rest of you is staying where I put you, which is well out of his reach.”
We were soft with Zoe at first, and it almost got her killed. Rachel’s not going to disobey me while there’s a threat to her right outside the gates.
“Sasha, I was engaged to him, and I cheated on him. Don’t you think he at least deserves for me to break things off with him in person?”
“No. He deserves nothing.”
She shakes her head. “He does care about me. I think you’re letting jealousy cloud your judgment.”
I pause, weighing her words. Am I jealous of Alberto Leone?
No. I was when I thought he was going to marry her, but not now.
I’ve had her and will have her in ways he never will.
“Yeah, it’s all consuming. If only I could overcome it,” I say sarcastically.
“Get your dress off, Raven, or I’ll help you with that. ”
She narrows her eyes at me. The sparks of her anger and defiance tease my cock.
“I don’t agree to this right now.”
I cross the distance between us, pick her up and toss her on the bed. She tries to leap up, but I’m there before she gets a chance. I pin her wrists down and cover part of her body with mine.
She struggles, but I hold her in place easily.
“How are you any different than them?” she demands.
“I’m different because I’ll hold on tighter than either of them ever did.” I move my hands to her dress and tear it.
She curses and slaps my arm. “I don’t have many clothes here!”