Chapter 38
Xavier
I stare at Jamison across the room as his face paint is being finished. He looks like Satan himself in his signature suit with his blood-red face and blacked-out eyes. I smirk, thinking how fitting his face paint is compared to the rest of his body. On a typical day, no one would guess the inky darkness that swallows his soul and entire body. He is entirely opposite his brother. Not that Jonathan doesn’t have his own demons, because I have definitely seen him close to his worst. Jamison, though, is on another level.
He looks over at me, raising one eyebrow in question. Before I have the chance to give him shit, Andre walks in. His face is painted identical to mine. White with black and grey covers his face and neck down to where the collar of his all-black shirt meets his neck. The perfect skeleton. He stands in front of where I sit, blocking my view of Jamison.
“We leave in ten minutes,” he states.
“Where is your brother?” I ask him.
He turns his body towards Jamison and rolls his eyes. “He is meeting us there. He says he prefers not to be on babysitting duty again, seeing as how Jamison ditched him last time.”
We both look over at Jamison, causing him to raise his eyes from his phone.
“I got lost,” he replies in a bored tone.
Andre rolls his eyes. “We all know you didn’t get lost. Aside from my brother, you and Jonathan are the only other ones who could probably get around there blindfolded. Cut the shit.”
A flicker of something crosses Jamison’s face, but it’s gone before I can catch whatever slight emotion it might have been.
Andre continues when he doesn’t get a reaction. “We just need a distraction. Do whatever you want until then, okay?”
“I’ll be ready,” Jamison murmurs without looking up.
Sometimes I wonder what the hell that man has on his phone that he is always so immersed in it. I’m lost in thought when Andre tells me the driver is here to pick us up.
“Shit, has it been ten minutes already? Why isn’t Jamison driving with us?” I ask as we walk out towards the car.
“My brother and I discussed it and decided it would be better to all go separately. Less chance of being recognized.”
I nod in agreement as we get into the backseat of the car. Andre immediately pulls out two black cloaks from a duffel bag and hands one to me. The rest of the ride is silent. The anxiety of what we are about to do starts to sink in, and I secretly wish I had just one pill to take the edge off. I know this feeling of want will never go away, but eventually, it will subside. I just need to get there.
‘The distraction of my sexy as fuck girlfriend would be nice right about now,’ I think to myself while the lights pass by. Before I know it, we are pulling up to the same old building as last time. I exited the car, hearing Andre telling the driver we’d text him to stay close by for pickup. He comes up beside me right before opening the door.
“You ready?” he asks me.
I straighten my collar before turning to him and muttering, “As fucking ever.”
He smirked and opened the door, and we both walked in.
The lights are dim and swirling in red tonight. “Imposter” by Henri Werner plays in the background. I laugh internally. Of course, Sasha’s annoying ass ringtone that played on her phone every time someone called her would be playing as we walked in here. I doubt Andre recognizes it. He was never around enough actually to hear it or pay attention to Sasha anyway. The powers that be are definitely fucking with me today.
We make our way through the main floor, stopping every few minutes or so to mingle with the crowd. The goal tonight is to blend in slightly better than last time before we make our move. I see a flash of white in the crowd and catch myself staring into the identical face painting as mine. I turn to glance back, ensuring Andre is still next to me, but the face is gone once I look towards the crowd again. I nudge Andre, interrupting his current conversation.
“I swear I just saw someone with our exact face paint.”
“I’m sure we aren't the only skeletons here, Xavier.”
“Yes, but I swear this was exactly the same,” I cut back, my irritation showing.
Andre rolls his eyes and mutters, “Enough,” back at me before returning to the man. I catch bits and pieces of the conversation while scouring the room again in search of that familiar face. They speak of business and other shit before I hear the man ask, “Have you ever been to the Diamond room?”
“Of course,” Andre laughs. “I love when pussy glitters.”
They laugh out loud, and Andre slaps his hand on the guy’s back like they’re best friends. This guy is an idiot soaking up the attention my friend gives him as if he’s something special.
“Let's go now, then,” the man says.
“I thought you would never ask,” Andre says before motioning me to follow through a familiar set of doors after the man swipes his card. I spend the next few minutes following behind, listening to this annoying man boast about his businesses and properties to Andre while attempting to tune out the screams coming through the doors we pass by.
At one point, the man laughs while pointing at one of the doors and tells Andre he must bring him there sometime. Andre turns towards me, his disgust visible. He quickly schools his features before turning back to face the man again. Before I knew it, we were walking through another set of doors, and all the shiny things temporarily blinded me. Andre drags me over to a table, where the man introduces us to other men he knows, and we all sit down. Drinks are handed out, and I take mine, knowing full well I won't drink it. Fifteen minutes go by while I listen silently to all the men around me.
Usually, I would be perfect in these situations, almost as good as Andre, but I’m strung too fucking tight tonight. I haven’t seen Sasha anywhere, and I’m starting to worry. What if she isn’t here? What if something already happened to her?
“Relax,” Andre whispers under his breath.
“Your friend new?” the guy asks curiously.
Andre turns to him with a full, dazzling smile before grabbing my hand and moving it to his thigh.
“He’s been here once before. A man of few words, but we have similar tastes.” He turns back to me, raising his brows.
I squeeze his thigh, attempting not to look awkward, “Oh, umm yeah, very similar.”
The man and Andre laugh, and I relax but keep my hand on his thigh. If I have to pretend to want to feel up my friend to save my sister, I’ll do it.
Suddenly, the man grabs a petite blonde and yanks her onto his lap before running his fingers down her face. She looks horrified but doesn't move a muscle while he strokes and caresses her body.
“You guys ever had one in the private rooms?” He asks as he inhales her scent like a fucking creeper. I want to throw up.
“Never,” Andre lies smoothly. “Can we go in together?” he asks, gesturing towards me.
“You can do whatever the fuck you want for the right price. I’m a regular here, so they let me have a small teaser before I take them in.” He licks up the side of the girl's face. She doesn’t move, but I can see the moisture pooling in her eyes as she stares into nothing.
Andre leans back, wrapping his arm around my chair, pretending to ponder before looking at me. “What do you think? Want to try out a room?”
Silence passes, and the man interrupts before I can answer, which is good because I’m not sure I won’t throw up everywhere if I try to speak.
“First time’s on me, boys. Come on,” he says as he stands up, yanking the girl behind him. “Pick,” he instructs.
“Anyone?” Andre asks.
“For a private room, anyone here is up for grabs.”
Andre already knows this, of course, but he’s playing along. I have no clue what he’s doing. I have been searching for Sasha and haven’t seen her anywhere. Before I know it, he’s dragging me around the room to a back corner with sheer curtains. I couldn't see this area from my seat. The curtains part, and there sits Sasha sandwiched between two men. They both are caressing her while whispering in her ears.
She doesn’t look like she’s about to cry like the other girl. She looks numb. She looks like a fucking shell. Andre grabs her hand, pulling her off the couch and into his arms. “This one looks delicious,” he says as her eyes widen. She attempts to say something, but he pushes his fingers into her mouth. “Shhh, we like our women silent.”
The man chuckles beside me and nudges me. “She is delicious and compliant. One of my favorites.”
I want to punch him in the fucking face. I want to take him out back and slice him up before feeding him to the dogs. I wish I could see his whole face to memorize it for the future. Instead, I give a smile, one I am most definitely not feeling.
“Follow me,” he says while we walk behind him, passing through more doors. The familiar hallway greets me, and I’m fully prepared to sit like I did last time, but Andre grabs me and drags me through the door as he pushes Sasha inside.
“Have fun, boys,” I hear the man say before the door clicks closed. Sasha stands in the middle of the room with her head down. I stand leaning against the door, carefully avoiding her naked form as my friend approaches her. Andre removes the top of his cloak and smiles at Sasha, tilting her face to his.
“Hello, beautiful,” he says.
Her eyes widen for the second time tonight as she looks at him and then towards me while I pull my hood down to expose my face.
“You guys can’t be here,” she attempts to pass Andre like she’s going to run through the door to escape, but his voice stops her in her tracks.
“Do you want to be here?”
She looks at me before turning to him. “I don’t have the luxury of choosing. I never have.”
I’m suddenly sad for her. Sorry for the life she had to live while I was safely tucked away in bed every night. My life may not have been perfect, but it was ten times better than the kind of life she has had. I grab her arm, pulling her towards me.
“We are here to help you,” I say.
Her eyes go angry. “What the fuck do you care for? You guys never gave a shit about about me before. I was just an assistant your friend could play with when it appeased him.” She rips her arm away, still glaring at me.
“It’s what family does,” I whisper while my eyes plead with her. She looks over at Andre, confused. I don’t have a chance to say anything else before Andre grabs her again.
“I would love to extend this family reunion, but we are on a bit of a time constraint,” he says before removing what looks like a syringe from the sleeve of his shirt. I can't promise you will have control of every choice you make when you leave here, but I assure you, it will be better.”
She takes a step back, clearly out of fear.
“See you soon, beautiful,” he says before plunging the syringe into her neck. He catches her as she drops to the floor, easing her down before standing back up and adjusting his shirt.
“What the fuck Andre?” I growl out. “What the fuck is going on?”
“We need to go now,” he says, not bothering to explain as he pulls his hood up and motions for me to do the same. The lights in the hall flicker off, startling me. Andre yanks me out of the door and through the adjacent doorway just as the lights in the hall flicker on again. The room would be identical to the first, where we left Sasha if it weren't for the two bodies lying on the floor instead of one. The original man and girl we followed back here lay motionless. It might be safe to assume they were drugged, but I can’t be sure since Andre is being an asshole and not telling me shit.
“Help me pick her up,” Andre says, motioning to the girl.
“Why are we leaving Sasha in that room, Andre?” I ask him as I grab under the girl’s other arm. He pulls his phone out and opens the door as the lights in the hall flicker off again.
“We have thirty seconds to make it to the end of the hall before these lights go on again. Do you trust me, brother?” he asks as we make our way quickly down the hall.
“Yes,” I say, not needing a minute to think about it. He swipes a keycard on another door, bringing us into a low-lit hallway.
“I’ll explain everything once we are out of here. I will need you to keep your mouth shut and follow my lead when we walk through these other doors, okay?”
I nod at him in annoyance as we round a few more corners before coming up on a single door. “Ready?” he asks.
“Yes,” I grunt out. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be ready for, but I’m not in any position to argue. All I can hope is that whatever Andre is up to doesn’t put my sister in even more danger. We walk through the door, and a red light immediately hits us. It looks like we are back in the main lobby. We don’t make it five feet before we are stopped by a few guys in security uniforms.
“What are you doing with a diamond out here? Those are supposed to stay in their case.”
Andre stumbles a little, and I glance at him in confusion. It’s when he starts speaking that understanding dawns on me. He slurs his words as he lets go of the girl, leaning her against me. Grabbing the guy on his shoulder, he gets close to him and whispers.
“We wereee juuust lookinggg forrr some fuuuun guys.”
The guy rips Andre’s hand from his shoulder in disgust. “How the fuck did you get her out here?” he asks while the other guy pulls out some sort of radio.
Fuck. We are not getting out of here alive.
Andre smiles really big and pushes himself between both guards, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.
“Itss okayyy guys. Weee can sharee.”
The first guard moves quickly away from Andre and grabs the girl from my arms. I stumble in surprise, which works in my favor because the second guard rolls his eyes while muttering about “drunk idiots” as he lifts the radio monitor closer to his mouth. Before he can click it on, another man in a cloak backs up into him, sloshing half his drink onto the guard’s arm.
“What the fuck?” the guard screams as the man turns around to face us. He’s got a drink in each hand and a lit cigarette hanging from his lips. I have to stop the smile from appearing on my face when I see Satan himself, AKA Jamison, with a smug look on his face. The guard pushes the poor girl, who is still drugged, towards the other guard before slapping one of the drinks out of Jamison’s hand. It splatters across the floor and curtains behind us.
“There is no smoking in the main lobby,” the guard seethes out.
I see Jamison's stern glare as he stares down the guard. “That was costly liquor you wasted,” he says before removing the cigarette from his mouth and dropping it to the floor at the guard's feet.
Suddenly, a hand grabs my arm, yanking me backward into the crowd forming. The last thing I see is the guard's wide eyes as his leg catches fire, along with the curtains and tablecloths beside him. The lobby erupts in chaos, and we take the opportunity to flee out the front doors. The crisp night air assaults me. I want to breathe it in, but I’m also fully aware that we just left Sasha, my sister, in that burning building.
“We have to go back,” I yell at Andre as I turn back toward the doors. He grabs both of my arms, shaking me.
“I told you to fucking trust me,” he spits out. “Get in the fucking car Xavier.”
I’m so distraught I don’t even realize our ride has pulled up. Andre shoves me in the back before sliding in. He speaks to the driver before sitting back in his seat and pulling out his phone. I glare at him, and after a few minutes, he looks up.
“What the fuck is going on?”
He sighs before unbuttoning a few buttons at the top of his shirt. An anxious habit he has had since college. He never could keep the top buttons on for more than a few hours. I always knew precisely when he was anxious or stressed out.
“We are about to pull up. I need you to not be mad at me or anyone else.”
“What?” I ask, confused, as we pull over on the side of the street. We both exit the vehicle, and the driver takes off.
Andre motions me to follow him across the street into a parking garage. We take the stairs up to the second floor, and at this point, I’m so done with Andre’s silence I might fucking explode. I don’t have a chance to start screaming at him because as we turn the corner, I come face to face with three men leaning up against a blacked-out SUV. All three are wearing the same clothes as Andre and me. All three have the same skeleton face paint as us.
There stand Antonio and his two cousins.
Andre doesn’t get the chance to say anything as I turn towards him and punch him directly in the face.
“You fucking asshole,” I yell, prepared to go after him again. Antonio steps between us, stopping me.
Andre rubs his jaw before speaking. “I deserved that, but that's the only pass you will get from me.”
I’m too angry to care. What did we go through all of this for?
“Were you guys just fucking with me tonight?” I grit out.
“We couldn’t tell you, Xavier. We needed everything to line up correctly. I couldn’t risk you freaking out like last time. I needed to be sure, especially with everything going on, that you wouldn’t get stuck in your head and blow our cover,” Andre says.
I shake my head at him. “We did all of this for nothing. Why didn’t we grab Sasha? Huh? Your plan fucking sucked, and now my sister is still in there. You should have told me. You should have, you should have…you could have…” Anxiety cripples me, and I grab my head, suddenly feeling lightheaded.
“Calm down and take a deep breath,” Antonio says as he grabs my shoulders and holds me up.
I look at him, and he looks over my shoulder, nodding before turning me around. His cousin opened the back door to the SUV, and I walked towards it. I see the sheer material peeking out from a thick blanket and a head of blonde hair splayed across the seat. There’s no mistaking Sasha’s sleeping form lying across the seat.
“How the hell did you guys get her?” I ask, bewildered.
Andre slaps his hand on my back, guiding me to the other door to get in. “I told you, everything had to line up perfectly.” He says, motioning for me to get in beside him. He carefully lifts Sasha’s head, placing it on his lap before pushing some of her hair from her face and looking up at me. “We were the bait,” he states.
“Bait?” I ask, perplexed as I watch him run his fingers over my sister’s hair. “What about Jamison?”
He laughs. “Jamison was our bait. We all provided a distraction so that Antonio could sneak out with Sasha. We couldn’t have done it without him.”
“And us,” His cousin chimes in from the passenger seat.
“You guys were all perfect,” Andre says with a smile.
His cousin smiles back at us. “Don’t forget about us and how perfect we are when you take your position.”
Andre rolls his eyes before muttering, “I won’t.”
We spend the rest of the ride back to my place in silence. It gives me time to think about all of the shit that has transpired in such a short amount of time. Will Sasha be mad or excited to be free? Will she be scared? She can’t stay in the States. We all already made that decision for her. She’s going to leave with Andre and head back to Italy. I watch as he plays with her hair absentmindedly. Does he like her? He didn’t seem too eager to ‘babysit’ her, as he called it, but now, as I watch him, I can't help but wonder if there’s more there.
I won’t lie and say I’m not worried about sending her to Italy with him. He’s no saint and never has been. His temper is dangerous, but I know he won’t hurt her, at least not physically. After all she’s been through, I’m sure a quick-tempered mafia heir will be the least of her worries. With any luck, he will be married off soon anyway, and maybe one of his aunts can take Sasha under her wing.
We pull up to my place, and Andre carefully grabs Sasha to carry her up. Once we make it inside, he takes her into my guest room. Corrine walks out of my bedroom door just as I walk in.
“Jonathan is asleep on the couch. I wanted to be here when you returned, so he brought me. We got here about an hour ago. I hope you don’t mind, " she says, fidgeting with the edge of her shirt.
I grab her chin in my hand and tilt her head up to mine. “Of course I don’t. You being here is just what I need. And soon, it’ll be every day that I get that.” Then I kiss her softly before pushing her backward into my room and kicking the door closed behind me. I pick her up in my arms, and she wraps her legs around me tightly, making me groan as she rubs herself against my already-hardening dick.
I turn on the shower, checking the temperature before dropping her to her feet. I kiss her again, this time with more urgency, as I pull her shirt off, and she drops her shorts. She stands there unbuttoning my shirt and then my pants before helping me out of them. I push her into the steaming shower and close us in before pressing her up against the wall. She molds to my body, running her hands down my arms.
“Are you okay?” she asks me, her green eyes wide with concern.
“I think so. As long as I have you, I’ll always be okay,” I say, making her smile. I brush a strand of hair out of her face. “I just need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?” she asks as I press myself harder against her.
“Make me forget Butterfly,” I say, kissing her again. “Not you…Make me forget everything, except you, exists for just a little bit.”
I pull away to look at her. To make sure she understands what I mean. How much I need just her at this moment.
“I can do that,” she whispers before slamming her mouth against mine again. Our touches are frenzied as I hike one of her legs up and rub the head of my dick against her pussy, coating it in her wetness. I groan out loud when I feel just how much she wants me.
“This perfect little pussy is always so ready for me,” I say before easing my dick inside her. I toy with her a little, just pumping in and out of her in shallow thrusts.
“More,” she moans out while grabbing my ass, trying to push me deeper.
“You sure you can take it all?” I ask her, smirking as I continue to torture her with just the tip.
She looks up at me with so much want before her lips part. “Fuck me, Xavier.”
I go crazy at that moment, grabbing her other leg and holding her up against the wall before plunging into her, filling her to the hilt. She screams out, her back arching and her nails digging into my shoulders. I pound into her, finding the perfect rhythm before I feel her pussy begin to tighten. With just a few more deep thrusts, I feel her shatter around me, clenching me so tightly it sends me over the edge with her.
Afterward, I shower and clean her up before taking her against the bathroom counter like the other day, where I watch her beautiful face as she comes all over my cock two more times. By the time we make it to bed, we are both spent.
“I love you, Corrine,” I say as I close my eyes.
“I love you too, Butterfly,” she whispers back.