Chapter 35
Dixie
Curled up on cushions on the floor by the window, I let Tyler push my earpiece in.
He held up a finger to pause me then left the room. He spoke in a whisper, but the words were clear as day through the comms. “Hey, doll. Know how pretty ye are right now?”
I smiled. “Can you hear me, too?”
“I can.”
“Then come here and show me rather than telling.”
“Mila will be able to hear as well, so keep it clean.”
My sister’s voice sounded in my ear. “What a second to pop my earbud in. At least it’s working, right?”
My soft laugh brought Tyler’s return.
He cast an amused and definitely turned-on look over me then checked his watch. “Wallace is due any minute, so I’m heading down. Remember, my camera view will also have sound, but you should hear your uncle over Mila’s hidden mic.”
He lingered, so I rose on my knees, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and pulled him down to kiss me. My boy didn’t hesitate, parting my lips with his to make his claim.
We hadn’t done nearly enough of that.
I needed a week of just living on his lips, learning him and taking our time.
Tyler groaned into the hot press, adding so much to my discovery on how I loved his kisses.
“Uh, guys? I can still hear,” Mila said.
Tyler broke away, gave one final press to my forehead, and left.
Warmed through, I resumed my hiding, whispering an apology to an amused Mila.
Below my perch, a queue had formed outside Divine. Neon-pink lights swirled over the cobbled walkway and reflected onto the river and across to the bridge.
Somewhere out there, my uncle was making his way to the warehouse.
When I’d started here, Alisha had given me the right to add names to a list of people who would never be allowed into the brothel. All the sex workers were given the same chance, no questions asked. Wallace had been one of those I’d vetoed. I wondered if he’d ever tried to get inside.
A few minutes on, and in my earpiece, Mila’s voice came, singsong, as if she were chatting to herself. “Walking up the steps to the VIP lounge, music is a bit loud.”
I could make out the song, ‘Beggin For Thread’ by BANKS, but it didn’t overpower their voices. Made me think how we were begging for scraps of information though.
“No problems for me, sis,” I replied.
“Good to know. Tyler is behind me. Con and Riot are around, too. Pretty sure I spotted Arran at the doors.”
It helped to know she was protected and safe. I kept my mouth shut so she could concentrate.
Music and chatter made up the backdrop of her call, then she spoke again, this time not to me. “Oh, hey!”
A female voice returned, and I recognised Molly.
“Hey, skeleton girl. Need a drink?”
“Actually, I’m here to see someone. Alcohol feels like a good idea but probably won’t help.”
“Like that, is it?” the chatty bartender continued. “Who are you meeting?”
“Our uncle is—” Mila stopped dead.
My heart slammed into my ribs.
She corrected herself fast. “I mean my uncle. Kane doesn’t call him that.”
Shit. Nothing had really been said, but I felt her panic as if it were my own.
Molly’s tone changed, like she’d again picked up on people acting weird. “Gotcha. There’s a dude coming up the steps now. That him?”
My sister thanked Molly, swore under her breath, then neutralised her tone. “Wallace. It’s been a while.”
Wallace Marchant’s voice followed. “Ah, the prodigal granddaughter. What, no drink ready for me?”
My phone screen lit with a notification. Tyler had activated the feed from his body camera. I tapped it, getting a view across the bar from where Mila slid into a booth next to Wallace.
It was a relief to see her okay, even though nothing physical had happened. I switched to stare at him.
Earlier, she’d shown me our uncle’s socials.
He’d aged from the man I remembered but was just as soft around the edges.
In his photo reel, he was always someplace sunny, drink in hand, no cares in the world.
Now, he lounged in the black-and-pink booth like he owned the place.
Good tailoring transported him from slob to bored rich boy.
Resentment hit hard. I’d worked on my back while he’d never lifted a finger. That would never have been me, even if I’d stayed. It wasn’t Mila either.
Wallace gestured for a waiter. Convict sauntered over.
On Tyler’s camera, Wallace took him in then curled his lip. “On second thoughts, never mind. I didn’t realise you’d kept that one on.”
Mila folded her arms, and Convict sank back into the shadows, their point made.
“Why did you call me?” she said.
Our uncle regarded her. “Did the solicitor tell you about the vote?”
“Of course.”
“So you’ll be there?”
Her brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s so boring how it’s dragging on. I wanted to make sure you hadn’t turned flaky and lost interest.”
He’d called her ahead of the solicitor, which meant he’d known the vote was going ahead before she did. I stored that thought away.
Mila ignored his taunt. “I’m not actually sure it can happen. The will reading will fail like the first attempt did as we won’t have all the main recipients present. Austin specified it, and Darcy Marchant is still missing.”
Wallace’s knowing expression slid into a crocodile smile. “That won’t be a problem.”
Ice stole over me. Tyler stood taller.
Mila asked, “Why?”
“She’s being declared dead. The vote will go ahead as planned.”
Shock was a gut punch to my stomach. It recoiled through Tyler, too, in a subtle but real jerk of his frame.
Mila spluttered. “That isn’t possible.”
“It is. The claim has been filed with the high court and will be heard tomorrow.”
“But… Doesn’t she… How can anyone be sure?”
Wallace shrugged. “Her mother gave a witness statement agreeing she hadn’t seen her daughter in seven years and considered her dead. It’s all above board. The solicitors did all the shit necessary to push this bloated corpse of a process on.”
Mum told them I was dead. Dead to her, dead to the world. I folded in on myself and gripped my legs. Why would she do that? The answer came fast. For money. But the solicitors couldn’t have swung for a bribe.
“Ask who paid for it,” I whispered.
Mila repeated the question, her earpiece tiny and hidden.
Wallace sniffed. “My guess is that bitch, Denise Harford. She’s been breathing down our necks.”
As quickly as the hurt had injured me, that name brought me out again.
“What if she isn’t dead?” Mila was saying.
“Who gives a fuck? She’s been gone years.”
“You should. She’s your niece. She lived with your parents.”
Wallace’s eyes narrowed. “You know about that? Who told you?”
“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is she’s family and we won’t give up on her.”
He dusted off his hands. “Knock yourself out. I don’t give a shit. Anyway, it’s too late. At ten tomorrow, she’s gone. Off to meet Austin in the afterlife. Paperwork makes it real.” He tittered at his own joke.
Mila’s breathing had sped up. She took a few seconds over what to say next. On the camera view, Tyler shifted as if impatient.
“What happened to her back then?” Mila finally asked. “Why did she leave?”
“Ran off with a boy, Dad said. He was gutted over that stupid little slut.”
Wallace lumbered to his feet, unknowing how each lie was a bullet to my chest. He leaned in to Mila.
“Don’t waste your energy on her. And definitely don’t waste this chance. Turn up ready to vote. You’re still pro the business going ahead, right? Always Austin’s girl.”
A man blocked Tyler’s view. “S’up. Got a second?”
Tyler pulled back, giving me a view of Lex, my old colleague. “No.”
Lex stepped up again. “You can if it’s about Dixie. I know you guys are tight, but everyone’s saying she left. I call bullshit.”
Tyler’s tone stayed cool. “Back off.”
“I can’t get hold of her, so pass on a message, will you? She was interested in working with me again, you heard her say so. I’ve got a show tonight with Liliana. Dixie loves that chick. A threesome would kill it.”
I did love Liliana, but because she was sweet and funny. Writhing against her for money? “Hell no,” I whispered.
“The answer is no,” Tyler told him.
A shout came from elsewhere in the nightclub.
The music ceased, and I caught a glimpse of people peering over the railings, Mila and Wallace’s conversation stopped.
“Attention, please,” Shade called out. “It’s early in the evening, folks, but there’s enough of ye here to play witness.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Buck.
This piece of shit forgot his job description and his responsibility to guard those under his care.
He needs a lesson in what happens to men cursed with toxic masculinity and who think they’re more valuable than the fairer sex. ”
A smack ricochetted out, then a moan of pain, faces wincing at whatever they could see down on the floor.
Lex’s voice returned, louder. “Wait. Is Buck being punished because of something to do with Dixie? I heard a rumour.”
Tyler snapped. “Don’t say her name again.”
“Fuck off,” Lex snapped back. “What are you, her keeper now?”
Tyler didn’t answer, but his muscles tensed, like he was poised to do something.
Lex didn’t know when to quit. “She’s a sex worker, man.
A mattress actress. A whore. I don’t mean that to be derogatory—that’s our job.
We fuck for money. Quit acting like her pussy is solid gold and let me at her.
If Buck hurt her, he’s getting his punishment.
I’ll get Dixie back in the game where she belongs. ”
In a flurry of movement, Lex was sprawled on a table, Tyler’s hand at his throat.
I winced. “Don’t kill him, but please stop him talking.”
Tyler snarled something then pulled Lex up and propelled him towards the stairs out of the VIP lounge. His action gave me clear sight of Wallace, out of the booth and far closer than I’d imagined.
“As fun as this has been, I’m leaving,” our uncle called back to Mila.
She didn’t reply.
Her expression haunted me. It took me back to his statement at the start. They were declaring me dead.
I’d done the same, turning my back on Darcy Marchant. But never in any legal way as that was still the name on my ID, even if every bill paid was under a fake name. Without that, I didn’t exist.
I wasn’t her, and I wasn’t the whore Lex wanted either.
For all I’d wanted to hide away, everything since my return had been about me making decisions. When I would see people again. Where I wanted to be and who with. I’d be damned down to my sparkly toes if I let them take that choice away from me.
“Let him go,” I said clearly into the mic. “And meet me upstairs. I’m done with sitting this out.”