Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
ROME
The puddle of blood beneath Emilio is quite impressive, but I need to slow down so the piece of shit doesn’t bleed out before Luke gets here. He should be here by now, but I suspect he probably swung by the infirmary to check on Scarlett.
It’s what I would do.
The door opens and in walks my cousin. He glances at me, and I see the rage.
Murderous rage.
Emilio isn’t leaving here alive.
Without a word, I pass Luke the whip and step out of the way. I gesture for the other men to leave the room, leaving only Luke and me here.
“Please,” Emilio whispers right before Luke hits him. “You can call my boss. He’ll pay you to keep me alive.”
Luke pauses. “Who the fuck is your boss?” he growls.
“Damien.”
Luke’s gaze whips to mine.
What the fuck?
How did one of Damien’s men get membership access to my club?
Luke doesn’t say another word. He whips the man over and over again, circling him. He strikes him from behind, from the side. On the head, the ass, over his dick. He’s stopped screaming, and now the only sound is the crack of the whip against flesh that might as well be ground beef.
“He’s dead,” I say after a particularly brutal gash on the neck makes Emilio bleed out the rest of the way. “Luke.”
But he takes one more lash before he drops the whip, heaving.
Luke turns to me.
“I’ll send some of our men to take him to the graveyard, but I’m not going with them. I need to get upstairs to Scarlett.”
Under normal circumstances, Luke would never presume to tell me how anything was going to go, and he’d follow my instructions to the letter.
But tonight, he’s my friend. My cousin.
“Did you see her?”
“On my way here,” he confirms with a nod. “He fucked her up.”
“He did. I assume you’ll be keeping her with you?”
He nods again.
“Permanently?”
“Yeah. She’s mine.”
I smile at him. “Good. I like her. I was going to offer her an apartment here since she and Eloise are so close.”
“She’s with me,” he says, shaking his head. “She doesn’t need her own place.”
“Understood.” I clap my hand on his shoulder as we leave the room, and he looks at me with surprise.
No, I never initiate touch.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“No, I’m pissed as fuck. Look, I get that she loves her job, but I’m not okay with anyone else touching her.
I’m trying to be cool about it. I know I’m an asshole, and a piece-of-shit human, but she should have what she wants, even if it’s fucking other men in the playroom.
And I know that something like this won’t happen again, but I don’t want anyone putting their hands on her. ”
“I get it,” I assure him. “I feel the same way about Eloise. Listen, Scarlett’s going to be out of the game for a while. Given her injuries, she may not want to come back, and if that’s the case, that’s fine with me. But I might have a new position for her soon.”
We step into the elevator.
“What position?”
“One that I need to make available first. I’ll talk to Scarlett about it when she’s ready. But she wouldn’t be in the playroom anymore. Not like she has been.”
Luke blows out a breath. “Here’s to hoping that’s what she wants.”
I take out my phone and type in instructions to have Emilio’s body disposed of and the cell cleaned.
When we reach Luke’s floor, we step out of the elevator and find Michael standing guard at the door.
“They’re inside.” He sighs. “Boss, I tried to take Miss Lulu upstairs, but she basically told me to go fuck myself and refused to leave Scarlett. I stayed nearby and made sure they were safe.”
I nod. And then smile. My girl is made of steel, and although I’d be furious at the why, I’m glad too. She needs that strength to be my girl and live in my world. “I should have known. Thank you. We’ve got it from here.”
Michael nods and strides away.
“Your girl scares everyone,” Luke informs me before he punches in the code to his door. “It’s pretty impressive.”
I chuckle and follow him inside, and what we find has my heart stuttering in my chest.
The two women are on the couch. Scarlett is held up with cushions, so her back isn’t being crushed, and she’s dead asleep.
Eloise sits beside her, facing her, brushing her fingers lightly through Scarlett’s blond hair. She’s crooning softly to her.
“You’re so pretty,” she says. “Everything’s going to be okay. Our guys handled it. You just sleep now.”
Yeah, baby. We fucking handled it.
I step closer, and my firefly turns her head toward me and smiles softly.
“Hi,” she whispers. “Luke, come take over.”
She gingerly stands, and Luke sits where she was and leans in to kiss Scarlett’s head.
“I can come clean her wounds tomorrow,” Eloise offers, but Luke shakes his head.
“I’ve got her,” he says, but looks at my girl. “Thank you, Lulu. I owe you one.”
“Nah. She’s my friend. She’d do the same for me.”
I pull her into my side and wrap my arm around her shoulders, bury my nose in her hair.
“Come on, firefly. It’s time for you to go home.”
“Yeah, let’s go home. I’m hungry.”
I look back to say goodbye, but Luke’s focus has already shifted, and he’s crooning to a sleeping Scarlett.
When Eloise and I walk into the penthouse, she kicks out of her shoes, then immediately walks into my arms, presses her head to my chest, and holds on tight.
“Holy shit,” she says. Her voice is quivering.
“You held it together for her,” I murmur, running my hands up and down her back. “You can let go, baby.”
She sniffs against me. “That fucking sucked,” she says, holding on tight. “Tell me you hurt him.”
I kiss her cheek and her forehead. “We hurt him.”
“Good.”
I won’t lie to her, but I also won’t always give her all of the information. She doesn’t need to know that we basically tore that son of a bitch apart. She’s seen enough of it in her young life.
“I want to take self-defense classes,” she informs me. “Do you offer them here?”
“This conversation took a turn I wasn’t expecting.” I tip her chin up so I can see her face. “I’m your self-defense, firefly.”
“I know, but I think it would help my self-confidence. When the mayor touched me …” I growl low in my throat, but she keeps talking. “I froze. I didn’t like that.”
“I’ll make arrangements for you,” I tell her and brush my knuckles down her soft cheek. “Did he mark you?”
“No, he was just such an asshole. What is it with men not taking no for an answer?”
“I’ve never had this issue in my club in the decade I’ve owned it,” I confess to her. “And it’s pissing me off.”
I also suspect that it’s Loveland’s fault.
I’ll deal with her tomorrow.
“You said you were hungry?” I ask her.
“Yeah.”
“We could order in.”
“I’m going to make mac ’n’ cheese.”
I grin at her. “That actually sounds really good. I have a box in the pantry, I think.”
The way she turns her nose up at that is adorable.
“That’s disgusting. Do you know how many preservatives are in that? No, babe, I’m making real mac ’n’ cheese.”
Babe.
I think that’s the first time she’s called me anything other than my name.
“Why do you look like that?” she asks.
“Like what?”
She tips her head to the side. “Gooey.”
I laugh and take her hand, leading her to the stairs. “I’m never gooey.”