Chapter 26 Whip #2
Kade stepped back a few inches, the easy smile he’d had for me all night suddenly disappearing.
“Ah, Daddy, you were so close to snagging me, with those pretty blue eyes and older, experienced vibe you got going on. Now I find out you were just using me to get to my cousin all along? Geez, way to mortally wound a guy. You know he’s not gay? ”
“That’s okay. I’m not here to fuck him.”
Apparently I wasn’t going to be fucking anyone tonight, not with the way Levi and I were steadfastly ignoring each other, and X was taking up all of Violet’s time.
I didn’t begrudge them some fun. We’d had a long run of shit.
They should enjoy themselves. I didn’t want Violet anywhere near Nyah’s family.
If they were as bad as Nyah had told Violet, then the farther she stayed away from them, the better.
“You here to kill him?” Kade asked, wiping down a glass and asking the question as casually as he might have asked someone for the time.
“No. I’m a friend of his sister’s.”
Kade changed his tune instantly. “You know Nyah?”
I nodded.
“She’s been gone for weeks. Ric’s been really worried.”
My mouth pulled into a grim line, and I studied the man, trying to determine whether I could take his words at face value. “If he honestly cares about her, he should be. She’s not safe.”
Kade’s eyebrows furrowed. “That a threat?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all.” I pointed to Violet on the dance floor. There were a handful of other women on it, but men outnumbered them ten to one. “See my girl out there?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Your girl? Thought you were into prison tats over there?”
“Can’t a guy be into both?”
Kade sniggered. “Oh, to look like you. Must be nice.”
We were getting off track. “She’s become really attached to your cousin the last few weeks. They’ve been working together in a little town a few hours away. But Nyah didn’t show up for work two days ago. She’s missing.”
Kade put the glass down in the sink. “Shit. I think you better go talk to Cedric then. Come on. I’ll take you.” He called out to the other bartenders to say he was taking a minute and then rounded the bar.
I was still sitting on the stool, debating whether going with him was a good idea or not. I had my gun tucked into the back of my jeans and covered by my shirt, but that wasn’t going to be much good if Kade took me into some room surrounded by mob men.
Kade held a hand out to me. “You coming or not?”
“This guy likely to shoot the messenger?”
Kade laughed. “Won’t know until you try, right?” He wiggled his fingers. “Come on. Ric isn’t a bad guy, and he loves his sister. He’s going to want to hear anything you have to say.”
Clearly sick of waiting for me to assess the situation, he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the stool. He didn’t let go as he weaved through the crowded club that had filled up considerably while we’d been talking. The alcohol sloshed in my stomach, giving my head a pleasant buzz.
One that was pretty much wiped out completely when my gaze caught on Levi’s across the club.
Kade didn’t miss the way Levi stiffened, his gaze burning through me and Kade like we were doing something wrong.
Kade tutted. “Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise? Is he going to beat my skull in with his meaty mega fists?”
“No.”
“You sure? Because this probably looks a little suspicious, me dragging you down dark hallways, into private rooms…”
I gave Levi one last glance. His expression was unreadable. He was like stone.
It fucking pissed me off. I didn’t need him to get all deep and into his feelings, but fucking hell.
I was sick of him being so adamant there was nothing between us.
He ran hot when we were alone, then cold as ice when we were in public.
Maybe I should have been more generous, but he wasn’t a scared fifteen-year-old kid, kissing a boy for the first time.
An attraction to a man might have been new to him, but he was thirty-fucking-five, and we were in the middle of a gay club.
And he still couldn’t come over and kiss me?
If he couldn’t do it here, he couldn’t do it anywhere.
I was so sick of being a dirty little secret.
I’d spent every waking moment thinking about what the hell I was going to do with my life now because I couldn’t stand the thought of fucking anyone but him or Violet ever again.
I’d been scouring the newspaper, searching for anything that would make me enough money that I didn’t have to go back to being Wyatt DeLeon, the sex worker.
Wyatt was a shell of the man he’d been when his wife and kids were alive. Wyatt was dead on the inside, fucking around for money because it was the only time he’d felt even a spark of being alive.
I wanted to be Whip. With X driving me nuts. With Violet sweet and soft in my arms.
With Levi beneath the sheets, his body hard against mine, his fingers and tongue and cock demanding.
Fuck Levi. Fuck him for making me want that. Fuck him for only giving it to me when we were behind closed doors but never outside them.
“He can think what he wants,” I told Kade.
Kade chuckled beneath his breath and pulled me past a roped-off area, giving the bouncer watching it a nod.
“Cedric know his security is somewhat lacking?” I asked. “That guy didn’t even look twice at me.”
“He thinks we’re going down here to fuck. The whole club probably does. But you already know that, don’t you? And you’re using it to make Jail Bird jealous.”
On instinct, I shook my head.
Kade laughed it off. “Come on, we’re here.” He rapped his knuckles across an unmarked black door. He opened it as he called out, “Ric! Got someone here who has news about Nyah.”
I was willing to admit I had been envisioning a scene out of a Godfather movie. I’d expected men in expensive dark-colored suits, sitting around a mob boss, his fingers adorned in gold, and beautiful, scantily clad women draped all over him.
The reality was quite different. A slim man with black-rimmed glasses sat behind a desk, peering at a computer screen.
The desktop was a mess of papers, pens, and take-out coffee cups.
There was no dark, suave suit to be seen.
Just a nineties retro T-shirt with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it.
Kade cleared his throat. “Ric. This is Whip. He needs to talk to you.”
Cedric dragged his gaze away from the screen and blinked up at me. “Is she dead?”
I bit my lip. He’d said it bluntly but not without emotion. He tried to hide it, but his fingers shook as he lowered them beneath the table.
This guy was not at all what I’d expected. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I hope not. She went missing two days ago, and nobody has seen or heard from her since. We were hoping that—”
He let out a sharp laugh. “You were hoping my father had her?” He shook his head. “You’d be better off wishing she was dead. Because that’s what she’d prefer if he does have her.”
“You sure he doesn’t?”
Cedric nodded. “My father barely notices me. I run his books. Keep track of his finances. Our other brothers are his brawn and the outward-facing muscle of his business, but—” He gestured down at himself.
“I never exactly fit the mold. So I was put to work in other ways, behind the scenes.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on in my father’s house.
If he had Nyah picked up, then I would know.
” He turned back to his computer. “I’m sure she’s fine.
She probably just got spooked that our dad knew where she was and had to move on. ”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She’s become really close with my girl and she’d started a relationship with a friend of mine. I don’t think she would have just walked out on both of them without a word.”
“She walked out on me without so much as a goodbye, and I’m her brother. This is just what she does. I can’t even be mad at her for it. If Dad were going to marry me off to one of his ancient, narcissistic, violent friends, then I would run without looking back too.”
I still wasn’t convinced.
Cedric sighed and sat back in his chair.
“I can see you actually care about her, and I appreciate that. But she’s run before, and she’ll run again.
This is her life. If my dad catches up with her, she may as well be in prison for the rest of her days.
You can’t blame her for just skipping town.
If she saw someone we know, that would have been enough to send her running to start over again.
She wouldn’t risk someone mentioning where she was to our parents.
” He stood, holding out his hand, clearly ending this impromptu little meeting.
“I appreciate you making the trip out here. It’s clear my sister made some true friends, and for that, I’m really grateful.
She deserves some happiness. I’m just sorry it couldn’t last.”
I took his hand. “Me too. My girl and her, they were close.”
Cedric nodded, and there was true regret in his expression.
“Enjoy yourselves tonight. Kade, give them whatever they want, on the house.” He eyed me.
“But in the morning, be smart and leave. Go back home before our father gets wind of your presence. He ruins everything he touches. Don’t let that be you. ”
His gaze slid back to his computer, and I realized I was being dismissed.
His warning didn’t scare me. But I believed him when he said Nyah wasn’t here. It was what I’d suspected all along but just hadn’t wanted to believe.
Maybe his suggestion that Nyah had run was true. For all I knew, she’d gotten on a train that morning and was now sunning herself on a beach a few hours up the coast where nobody knew her.
I hoped like hell that was the truth.
But my gut said it wasn’t.
My gut said Nyah was as dead as Toby was, murdered by a madman who was always one step ahead.