Chapter 9
ENZO
Arriving at the club, I tag along with Dante, who came when Carlito texted for us to join him. I was planning on seeing Joelle whether my brother was gonna be here or not, considering I couldn’t stop by last night due to some business that needed taking care of.
Dante doesn’t know the extent of our—I don’t know what the fuck to call it. Relationship? Whatever label Joelle and I attach to us, it doesn’t matter, I don’t want my brothers to know I like her, especially Dom. He’ll think I’m distracted from our plan. But I’m not.
In six short months, we’ll enact our revenge against the Bianchis, and in the meantime, we’ve been setting everything up. Synchronized perfection. That’s what we’re after. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing we can control that is.
They won’t see it coming. Hell, they probably think we’re dead. We’ve been training for this for years now, utilizing Roger, one of our men, who owns a martial arts school. He made our body a weapon, preparing us for what’s coming.
I get out of my Royce, waiting for Dante as he gets out of his car, making it over to me.
“Maybe your girlfriend will be here tonight.” He bumps my shoulder with his, chuckling low.
“Yeah, yeah, go worry about yours. Joelle and I are friends.”
“Right, tell that to your dick.”
“What the fuck you know about my dick, bro?”
“Just sayin’. You don’t kill for just anyone.”
I keep my mouth shut as we head inside, not wanting to be too damn defensive or he’ll catch on. As soon as we enter the main area, we find Carlito there with two other made men, strippers on each of their laps, drinking shots as their hands fall on the women before them.
Carlito spots us walking up. “There you fuckers are! Took your asses long enough.” He roughly throws the woman off him and she practically stumbles as he comes to a stand, clasping each of our palms. “I gotta introduce you to my cousins,” Carlito continues, not giving a fuck that he just disrespected that woman.
“This is Riccardo and Tommaso. Boys, this is Patrick and Chris.”
They greet us with a tilt of a chin. We take a seat, me next to that fuck, and my eyes immediately scan for my girl.
She isn’t out here. I don’t know what the hell I’ll do if one of them makes her dance for him.
Nah, I do know. Their dicks won’t be the only thing they’ll be eating if they touch her.
“All right, ladies and gentlemen,” the emcee announces. “Let’s welcome the one you’ve all been waiting for, Miss Joelle! Give her some love!”
The place erupts with whistling and applause. Carlito parks his ass back down, leerily staring onto the stage while I glare at him, wanting to pop his eyes out and squeeze them.
The room darkens to almost black, the music changing into something with a bit of danger. The stage erupts with a mist, and then she appears, like an angel finding her way through hell.
The lights return to a dim as her hands glide up the pole, her eyes closed, while she sways her hips softly for a moment, then she swings around.
I face her head-on, but we’re toward the back with a few tables before us. If she looks this way, she’ll see me.
Joelle climbs up, her legs split in the air before she grabs the pole with her thighs and rolls down the length of it while upside down. As she does, her palms touch the floor and her gaze lands to mine. With all the assholes here, their cocks probably hard for her, I’m the one she sees.
She continues to dance, glancing at me when she can, her tits out now for every unworthy asshole. I want to carve out their eyes for merely looking at her. I want that body naked just for me, but I can’t demand that of her. She’s not even mine, is she?
Damn, I’ve never felt this possessive about a woman before. It’s a new feeling, but one I’m liking. Though I kinda hate it right now, knowing I can’t do a thing about it, like throw her over my shoulder and tie her to my bed or some caveman shit like that.
“She’s fucking hot, isn’t she?” Carlito shouts over at me. “I’d fuck her right in front of Raquel. Maybe that’ll get that sour bitch jealous.”
Don’t kill him. Don’t kill him, I repeat like a chant, my fist tightening at my side.
“What did he say?” Dante whisper-shouts into my ear. He must’ve noticed my change in mood. We’re good like that. My brothers and I know each other a little too well. That comes with the territory though. Growing up, all we had was one another, and we quickly learned to pick up on each other’s cues.
“He said he wants to fuck Joelle in front of Raquel to make her jealous.”
“I’m gonna gut him like a pig on Christmas.”
“Do people eat pig on Christmas?”
“What the fuck does it matter?”
“’Cause your shit makes no sense.” I chuckle. “I don’t know where you come up with some of the crap you say.”
“Whatever, man, this isn’t English class. How about you shut up and watch your girlfriend instead of worrying about what I say.”
I continue laughing at his irritation as another girl jumps on the stage now, her red hair as long as Joelle’s. They say something to each other, the redhead’s eyes going to me for a moment as she nods. Then they’re both dancing on the same pole.
What the hell was that about?
I watch Joelle until the song ends, and both women climb off with two others replacing them.
“You boys drinking?” Carlito asks.
“Nah, we gotta drive,” Dante answers, leaning over me.
Carlito nods once, his attention on the stripper he had on his lap before he threw her off, pulling her back on top of him, dollar bills sticking out of her hot-pink G-string.
The redhead struts her hips, heading straight for me. When she’s real close, she bends to my ear. “Joelle told me you wanted a dance.”
“She what?” I pause, jaw straining. “No, sweetheart, I don’t need one, thank you though.”
“She asked me to come. She insisted.”
I open and close a fist at my side.
What the hell is she doing?
“Excuse me,” I tell her, getting to my feet so I can find Joelle and ask her what this is all about.
I head to the back, knowing she’s either in the dressing room or dancing for someone, which I don’t wanna fucking think about right now. I’ll look through every goddamn square foot of this place until I find her. She can tell me to my face why she sent another woman to dance for me.
Reaching the dressing room, my hand lands on the doorknob with every intention of going inside, not giving a shit if it’ll make her mad. She won’t be pissed for long when I’m through.
Tonight, I’m gonna show her just how much she means to me. I’m done holding back. We’ll figure the rest out together. She won’t belong to anyone but me. If I have to kill every man who tries to take her from me, then that’s what I’ll do. I’ll keep her safe. No one will touch her.
The knob twists, turning all the way before I push the door open. It takes me a second to process what’s happening inside, what I’m actually seeing. It almost cripples my resolve, and I find myself reaching into my pocket, retrieving a knife.
Joelle continues to kiss a blond guy, his palms on her bare ass. She’s completely unaware that I’m standing right here, my heart downright breaking. I didn’t even know it could do that.
Suddenly, she turns her head toward the door, finding me there. Her face pales as she fixes her bra, no longer showing me what she was so eagerly showing him.
“Who the fuck is that?” I snarl, baring my teeth, the knife in my grip as I advance, almost halfway to them, wanting to see that man bleed all over the goddamn floor.
Her lower lip trembles, her features twisted up, but she doesn’t move, she just stays there. And that cocksucker has the balls to stare me down.
“You better talk quick, Joelle, before I kill him.”
“Yo, who the fuck you think you’re talking to?” The guy tries to stand and come at me, but Joelle shoves his shoulder back.
“Babe, give us a minute, okay?” she tells him.
“Did you just call him babe?” I could hear the blood rushing in my head, the pulse at my neck pounding in my ears.
She ignores me, kissing his cheek while the need to murder something, anything, ravages for space in my heart. My entire body tenses, about to go off like a bomb. I’m going to kill whoever the hell he is.
He rises once she climbs off him, scoffing at me as he passes with a look that says he’s won a game I had no idea I was even in. If it wasn’t for Joelle in front of me, that blade in my hand would’ve ended up in his neck.
Once he’s out the door, I close the knife and place it back in my pocket. Before she has a moment to say a word, I’m on her, my body pressing into hers, pushing her up against the wall.
“Talk,” I explode, venom tangled within the word. “And I swear, it better be good.”
“Get the hell off of me!” She attempts to force me away, her palms shoving at my chest.
“Wrong answer.” I grip both of her wrists and pin them over her head. “What were you doing with him?” My face slides to hers, my lips so close to her mouth I can capture it, kiss her ruthlessly. Savagely. Like she deserves.
“Tell me I misunderstood what the hell I just saw.” I back away only enough to see her, to see the truth in her answers. “Tell me that was some damn joke.” My voice lowers as she gazes up at me, her brows pinched tight, her chin quivering. “Because otherwise, I swear, you’ll kill me, Joelle.”
“Enzo, don’t do this.” She begs for something I don’t understand. Her eyes light up with the fury of her tears, shining within them, blue oceans replaced by stormy seas.
My palm roughly clutches the back of her neck with one hand, while holding her wrists with the other.
“Who was that man, baby? Tell me,” I breathe, the question dripping with emotion. “Fucking tell me now.”
“I—” she stammers, tears rolling down her cheeks. “H-he…he’s my…my boyfriend.”
“Bullshit,” I whisper over her lips. “That’s fucking bullshit. You’re lying.”
She sighs with a deep pull of a breath. “I’m not. I’m sorry. You’re a great guy, but me, I’m not a good person. I never was.”
I laugh bitterly, my fingers straining into her flesh, her pulse throbbing against the pads of my fingers, my chest expanding with every rough exhale. “I don’t believe a damn word that’s coming out of that pretty mouth.”
“Enzo,” she urges. “Listen to me!”
I stare back into those eyes.
“That guy, he really was my boyfriend. He’s been my boyfriend for years.” She avoids my gaze, wandering onto the floor. “I was only after your money. The more I make, the happier my bosses are. You were nothing more than a customer.”
My vision blurs, my entire body ringing, flames of rage sweeping over me until I’m consumed.
This can’t be happening. She’s fucking lying.
There’s no way she was pretending this whole damn time.
But what if she was? What if you finally let someone in, and all she did was pretend?
My grip on her weakens, my heart weakening with it.
She has the decency to look defeated.
I let her go completely.
“I’m sorry, Enzo. I—I hope one day you can forgive me.” Tears flood her eyes.
I smirk, staring at her with disgust. I can practically feel it dripping off of me in ripples. “There’s nothing to forgive. You’re forgotten already. A distant fucking memory I’ll gladly wipe away for good.”
“Enzo,” she softly cries. “Be happy.”
I take one last long look at the woman who managed to break through the cage of my heart, only to shatter it in the end.
I walk away.
When I return, and I will return, she won’t recognize the man I’ve become.
JADE
ONE WEEK LATER
As soon as he was gone, my body crumbled into a million tiny pieces. But I had to do it. I had to break both of our hearts. I had to let him think I’m a monster, a cruel one.
I wanted to scream out the truth, but I couldn’t. I had no choice. I lost the only man who’s ever given a damn about me. The only one who made me feel alive for the first time in so long, and deep down, I know I’ll never feel this way about anyone again.
My plan was well thought out. I knew the moment I sent Sienna to dance for him, he’d reject her and try to go find me in the back.
I was ready for him.
One of Faro’s men, the one from the night I killed Paulina, who stood back and watched while his friend violated me, was to pretend to be my boyfriend. When I told Faro the plan, he sent that guy. At least it wasn’t the other one.
The plan for Enzo worked. Too well.
I saw the pain rivaling with maddening wrath in those heavenly eyes. He hated me. I felt it. I betrayed him. That’s all he saw. All that I let him see.
Even if, in some alternate world, we could have had something, that died the moment I broke him. He’ll never forgive me. He’ll never trust me again. It’s no wonder I haven’t seen him since. Why would he come anyway?
I’ve kept it together at work, but at home, I shed my pain into the pillow, hating that I did that to him. The tears fall silently as they always do. I never let anyone hear me cry, not even myself.
Fixing my white, sparkly bra in the mirror, I’m ready to step out on stage. My hair falls with spiral waves, pinned on one side, and all I want to do is rip it all off. But instead, with one more quick breath, I head out. As soon as I do, I see him.
A panicked gasp falls from my lips as my gaze stays glued to him, seated in one of the areas closest to the stage, with Kora grinding on his lap.
He doesn’t notice me at first, but once he does, he grabs her hips, his features hardening with a glare riddling his face.
My insides curl with disgust at seeing him with someone else, someone who isn’t me. I know this isn’t him. He doesn’t care for this. He’s doing it to punish me, and it’s working. My heart, it literally aches.
I climb the steps onto the stage, seeing her facing him now, his eyes on her breasts, and all I want is to scream, to break everything in this goddamn place!
I begin my dance, every one of my movements quick, jerky. My spins are sharper, my legs whipping out with a violence so raw, it fuels me, my pulse pummeling quicker.
He’s mine.
My breathing intensifies, the song’s melody attaching itself on to me. I bleed the words, the beat. It consumes me, driving my anger to new heights.
As I twirl down the pole upside down, dangling with my legs gripping the metal, I find him standing up, Kora grinning as she leads him away.
As he goes with her, he holds my gaze, his exhales roughing through the heavy climb of his chest. A muscle in his jaw twitches before she pulls him away, where I’m sure he won’t be doing much talking like we once did.
It’s really over.
Whatever we had is now gone, burning our fairy tale into the nightmare from which it came.