Chapter 21
Sophia
I wake in the morning, fully refreshed as Dean makes breakfast in the kitchen. There’s something sexy about a man who makes breakfast in the morning after rocking your world all night long.
Last night started off shaky.
Who would have expected Bishop Blackstone would show up at the club? When he watched Eddie kissing me, I couldn’t handle it. There wasn’t any part of me that was turned on. Not even knowing Dean was upstairs watching.
I couldn’t think straight with Bishop sitting only inches away from me. I wonder if he could tell? Could he sense my apprehension? I don’t care. Part of me wanted to bash his skull in. It was horrifying sitting there on that bed between the two of them.
“Hey there,” Dean says, mixing a bowl of pancake batter. “Hope you like blueberry pancakes.”
I smile. “Who doesn’t?” I give him a kiss on the cheek, and he wraps an arm around me, staring into my eyes before kissing me fully on the lips.
This is all so domesticated with him. For a moment, I can see a bright and promising future between the two of us. It’s the first time in a long time where I want it. I want the house and the kids. I want it all with Dean.
Maybe we’re not the type of couple to have the white picket fence with the dog in the lush green yard and two point five kids, but we can have something real. Something beautiful. Can’t we?
He fixes me a plate of pancakes and I take a seat at the kitchen island. He sits next to me with his plate, and I dig in.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” I ask.
“Well, I’ll be working in my office for a bit while you visit with Rosa.”
I swallow my bite. “Right, okay.”
He reaches a hand across the island and places it over mine. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
I nod. “Absolutely.” I am up for this. I feel like my life has been leading to this moment. Bishop Blackstone is going down.
“I want Leo to take you to and from Brooklyn when you go to see Rosa.”
“Of course.” I know he’s worried about me, and for the first time in a long time it feels good to have someone care about me in that way.
We finish our pancakes and head off to his room to get ready.
“I need a shower,” I tell him.
“Me too.” He laughs and drags me into the bathroom with him. Dean turns on the water and the steam fills the bathroom, encasing us in our own little bubble. One I never want to escape.
I step under the spray of water, and Dean slides in behind me.
“I love the way you feel,” he says as he runs his hands over my skin. “Let me wash you.” He grabs the loofah sponge and fills it with soap. He pushes the sponge over my body, making sure to get every spot. “You’re so fucking pretty.”
I stare up into his eyes, his soft gray eyes. “I need you right now.”
He places the sponge back on its rack and moves with me as we let the spray wash the soap off my body. He kisses me with a soft touch and it turns more urgent the longer we keep kissing. “Sophia, there’s just something about you,” he says between kisses.
“There’s just something about you, too.”
We haven’t talked about a future for us. We haven’t discussed what will happen once we catch Bishop and the mission is over. We don’t know what the future holds, but for the first time since we’ve begun this crazy charade, I no longer fear it.
I welcome our future. I welcome a future together, because it’s what I truly want. And I hope with everything I have that he wants it too.
He moves me against the shower wall, spreading my legs as he enters me in one thrust.
He pushes inside me, deeper as he holds me tight. “The way I feel about you is intense. I’ve never felt this way before… we are in tune, Sophia.”
I run my fingers through his wet hair. “I’m feeling the rhythm, Dean. I’m feeling it.”
“It’s like every time I’m around you, my heart raps like a million machine guns firing.”
I kiss him, pulling back after a minute of feeling his lips against mine. “I feel the same way.”
It isn’t an admission of love, because Dean and I don’t need that right now in this moment of time. No, we only need each other. We only need the promise that this thing between us is heading in the right direction.
He tugs at my hair, bringing my head back so he can kiss me again. His body feels good against mine and as the water hits us, he makes love to me in his shower.
His movements become hurried, frenzied even as he pushes into me harder and harder. My body trembles, my orgasm looming in the distant future. I drag my nails down his back as his fingers dig into the skin of my ass cheek.
“I’m so close,” I call out, my body turning to fire in an instant from all the lust coursing through my blood.
“Give it to me,” he demands. “Give me everything, Sophia.”
He pounds into me harder, making my orgasm swell and crash into me like a tsunami.
He follows me, his orgasm showing up moments after mine.
Later, I make it to Rosa’s house. Her daughter lets me in when I knock, and I step into the living room. It’s warm and quaint with sunlight shining in through the bay window. There’s a blue couch hidden beneath magazine clippings of dresses and nails. Most likely the daughter’s handiwork.
“My mom will be right out,” she says, sitting on the couch and picking up a magazine.
“Thank you. What’s your name?” I ask her as I take a seat on a pink couch across from the blue one.
“Daphne.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Daphne just kind of grunts with a head nod, and I chalk it up to a teenager thing.
Rosa steps into the living room through a back hallway. “Sophia, let’s talk in here.”
I stand, nod to Daphne, and follow Rosa into the kitchen.
“How are you?” she asks, pulling me in for a hug.
“I’m okay.” I return the hug, feeling a sense of happiness and familiarity with her.
“I saw you with Bishop at the club and got worried.”
I nod. “It’s okay. I’m a big girl.” I wink.
“Well he’s left town now. He’s in Miami.”
I blink. “Maybe I should go there.”
Rosa raises a brow. “You need to be careful.” Then her face softens into a smile. “Do you want some tea?”
“Okay, sure.”
She busies herself with getting down two mugs and pouring the hot water from the tea pot. She smiles at me as she hands me my cup. “As you know I worked with Bishop for a long time, running things. ”
I stir a little sugar into my tea. “I know.”
“I was happy to finally get away from him, putting in my time and retiring to this house he bought me. I’m still a servant to him, for the most part, but I’m able to live my own life now.”
“That’s a good thing. I’m happy for you.”
She takes a sip of her tea, her long brown hair falling over her face, hiding it from me just a bit. “I know a lot of his secrets. I know how he was able to get you across the border. I know which company helped him.”
I hold my breath. “Why did you tell me Bishop would be at Mia’s house on that night that I went there?”
She takes another long sip of her tea. “He should have been there. I don’t know why he didn’t go. Someone said it’s because he got a tip on one of the other daughters surfacing in LA, so he went there instead.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Are you all right?” Rosa places her hand over mine and gives it a little squeeze.
I nod. “I’m doing really good. I, uh, met someone. He’s great.”
Rosa’s face lights up. “Tell me all about him.”
“I promise I will, but first can you show me what you know?”
She nods. “Sit tight, let me get the paperwork.” She gives my hand another squeeze as she gets up to leave the room.
I glance around, looking at her very normal kitchen. You’d never suspect looking at a kitchen like this that she once worked for the most notorious mob boss in the world.
She’s got pasta sauce in a large pot on the stove. The garlic smells delicious, and my stomach grumbles a little.
Rosa returns after a few minutes. “Listen, this information could get me killed. You were never here.”
I nod. “Absolutely.”
She hands me some paperwork, and I glance at it, not sure what I’m looking at.
She points to a name. “This is the name of the company who made sure the shipping containers made it to America.”
I look closer. “This can’t be right.” My mind reels with the name written there.
“This is the paperwork for the shipment of when you came across. Maybe it can help you.” Rosa waves a hand, like she just wants me to have all the information even if it’s not valuable.
“Maddox Securities?”
Rosa puts on her glasses to take a closer look. “That’s the name of the company, have you heard of it?”
My heart splits as I try to keep my composure in front of Rosa. “Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it.” I stare at the paperwork in disbelief. “I have to go,” I tell Rosa, thanking her as I leave her house.
Dean’s company was the one who ensured I made it to America? Dean’s the one who worked side by side with Bishop to enslave women. How could he not tell me?
Has this all been one big lie?
I make my way back to his place, thinking the entire way. When I step into the front foyer of his condo, I worry that when we find Bishop, Dean won’t be able to go through with it. What else has Dean been hiding from me?
I feel dizzy and heartbroken. Like never before.
I can’t even look him in the face right now. I want Rosa to be wrong about this. I want this whole thing to go away.
Being taken away from my home was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was lucky enough to get away. I escaped, just barely making it out with my life. But what about the other women?
They weren’t lucky like me.
Are they even still alive?
I shudder at the thought, wishing I could find them to set them all free. No woman should ever live that lifestyle.
These women were still enslaved and I need to do something about it.
I remember when I was young, being taken to the man who would take my virginity. Rosa held the door open to the hotel room, her eyes full of unshed tears.
“You need to leave here. This is no life for you.”
I swore to her I wouldn’t survive, but she told me I was strong. She was with me when I traveled to the Blake Hotel. I spotted the man from far away. The man who bought me.
The man who’d have his wicked way with me.
I couldn’t do it.
I cried to Rosa.
He’d received my picture weeks prior and put in a top-dollar bid for my virginity, and I was to succumb to him fully.
I was scared, and Rosa helped me that night. She helped me escape but I wasn’t able to help anyone else.
Life had never been grand, but at least I was away from Bishop’s stronghold.
Now I find out my misfortune was at the dirty hands of Dean Maddox.