The Hitman’s Virgin (Unhealthy Obsessions #1)

Chapter One

Evander Watson stared out across the parking lot, watching the bar that held the woman of his dreams, Callie West. The young woman had taken him by surprise and he wasn’t known to be easily surprised.

He glanced through the file he’d requested on her. He’d gotten it within hours of meeting her, giving him every detail of her life. She wasn’t on any social media, which shocked him as most young people were addicted to it.

Her bank statements showed most of her habits, aside from being broke. Callie lived a rather boring and sheltered life. She donated some of her money every month to select charities. She also volunteered at a local dog shelter in her free time. There was a charm on her purse of a dog.

He’d never known a kind, selfless woman like her in his circles.

The only reason he stumbled across her was because he had to deal with some business where she worked.

It wasn’t a popular joint, just a strip club that had seen better days.

Callie worked behind the bar in a too-tight shirt, with men trying to grope her each night.

He didn’t like it. She deserved so much better.

Slamming the file shut, he shoved it in the glove box before getting out of his car and heading toward the bar. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot and as he entered, he was overcome by the pungent scent of cigarette smoke, alcohol, and sex.

Like always, Callie was at the bar, serving beer while a woman swung her naked body around a pole on the stage. Callie’s blonde hair wasn’t up in a ponytail as it had been that first night, but cascaded around her shoulders. She looked like a fucking angel from heaven. A very curvy, heavenly angel.

His cock hardened at the sight of her. Several men were at the bar, and he knew those looks on their faces. One of them was there way too frequently for his liking. They were imagining her naked, but none of them were going to see her like that. Callie was all his. Every precious inch of her.

She placed a bottle of beer down in front of one of the men, and he grabbed her arm, pulling her close.

She let out a little squeal, and anger rushed through Evander as he stepped in closer.

He gripped the man’s wrist, applying just enough pressure to make a point.

The asshole attempted to fight for dominance, trying not to show he was in pain. The fool.

“That is no way to treat a lady.”

“She’s no lady,” he said.

“You know what, Mitch, I think we should go and see Leah. She wants our money.” The guy who sat next to this fucker tried to play the peacekeeper.

Evander released the man’s wrist and waited. He hoped the bastard would take him on. No one touched Callie. And he was always up for a good fight.

They left, as did the rest of the men sitting at the bar.

“Wow, er, thank you,” Callie said.

He turned his full attention to her.

“How’s your arm?” he asked.

Callie looked down at herself and smiled. “It’s nothing. It’s all part of the job, right?”

“Dealing with asshole men, yes, I can see that.”

She laughed. “What can I get you?”

“A beer.” He had no intention of drinking.

“I think I recognize you. Do you come in here often?” Callie asked.

“Sometimes.” He’d been coming in most nights, but rarely did she see him.

Callie didn’t need to know that for the past couple of months, he’d been stalking her.

He knew all of her movements, what she liked, what she hated.

Even some of her taste in music, which was not the same as his.

She loved modern pop. He was more into soul.

There was also a nineteen-year age gap, but age was just a number.

“I thought I recognized you. If you don’t mind me saying, this place is beneath you. I know a good bar a few blocks from here that would be more your style.”

“And why is that?” he asked.

“The suit. It’s designer, right? Trust me, we don’t get people like you in here that often. My boss tries to remember the glory days of years ago when it was the best thing going.”

“If you don’t like the place, why do you work here?”

“I can’t afford to be too picky. The job market isn’t exactly open for me right now.” She shrugged. “I go where I need to. Besides, I’m not afraid of a little hard work. You may not belong here, but I do.”

Evander thought of the file he had on her. Her mother died when she was eighteen, but before she moved to the city, she lived in a trailer park in a small town. He wanted to take her away from all of this. To fill her life with all the things she deserved.

She placed a beer right in front of him, and with no one else to serve, she grabbed a tray and headed out, scooping up the empty bottles and glasses that had been left on tables. He heard the sound of stickiness under her shoes as she walked.

He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her away from this shithole. She wasn’t happy. He saw it in her eyes. She avoided the men who were currently staring up at the stripper on stage. Callie didn’t look anywhere but at the tables. She moved as far away from the men as possible.

Evander kept an eye on them. None of them would be touching his woman.

Callie’s days of working here were numbered. He already planned to take her away from this place, and seeing how unhappy she was, he intended to speed things up a notch.

****

Callie hated working at Guy’s Titties. That’s what he called it and he wondered why business was struggling. It might have been fine when he opened it so many years ago, but now, it was tasteless. He still had a regular clientele.

It also didn’t hurt that some of the girls liked to add a few extra jobs on the side, and he was willing to provide them the rooms for a price.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought of what went on in the rooms upstairs.

The men always looked sweaty and gross when they came back down. She knew they wanted her too.

Guy had even said if she wanted to earn extra money, he’d be happy to oblige. But she took a job as a bartender, not a stripper, and she had no plans of changing that, even if stripping did pay a lot more.

She wasn’t losing her virginity in a place like this either, not to men who made her fear for the human race.

There was no way she was going to be able to trust any man after what she witnessed on a daily basis.

Most of the men who entered the bar were married, and they still fucked the women who danced. They were disgusting.

She finished brushing Leah’s hair. The stripper was a nice woman, but with all the dancing, beer, and everything, her hair always got knotted up, and Callie didn’t mind brushing it for her.

“There, all done.”

“Thanks, darlin’. You’re a lifesaver.”

She doubted that. Brushing hair wasn’t exactly a lifeline, but she felt sorry for these older women. They seemed to have given up on life. “You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Callie said.

“You’re not going to head upstairs? I saw the crowd tonight. If you were willing, you’d make a real killing with that pussy of yours.”

She tried not to judge those that did it, but Callie wasn’t one of them. “No. I couldn’t.”

“Sweetheart, we make crap money. It’s a good way of helping pay those bills. Who’s going to judge you? Not me.”

“How do you do it?” Callie asked. “They’re … married. They’re gross.”

Leah laughed. “Exactly. At least I know I’m only going to see them for a few minutes and they’ve got to pay for it. I’m a mother of two, Callie. Trust me, you would rather spread your legs than hear your kids cry from hunger. I do what I have to for my babies.”

Callie went to Leah and hugged her. “You’re a good mom.”

And she wasn’t mocking the woman either.

Leah was a good mom. Kind, sensitive, and putting her kids first. Callie didn’t have that growing up.

What she got was a woman who made waves in their small town by sleeping with every married man who’d have her.

Callie had gotten into many fights when kids teased about her loose mother.

The difference between them was that Leah loved her kids and was with them every chance she could.

Her struggle was for their benefit. Callie had always been second to everything as a kid.

“You’re going to make me cry. Get on out of here,” Leah said. “See you tomorrow.”

She pulled her bag over her shoulder and made her way out of the back into the darkened alley. Guy told them all he’d get the light fixed, but he never did. Any expense, no matter how small, was clearly too much for him.

She hated the dark. Callie felt true fear roll up her spine as she imagined every scary movie she’d ever watched. It was stupid.

“So, you think you’re too good for me, do you, whore?”

She recognized that voice as Mitch, the one who had been trying to get her to go upstairs with him for months.

He must have been hiding in the shadows by the dumpster.

He was a married man with five kids. From what she knew of him, his wife hated him, as did his children.

He drank and gambled away his earnings, leaving his family to fend for themselves.

He was a selfish, mean asshole. Not to mention a pig.

She didn’t say anything, attempting to walk past him, but it was too dark, and he grabbed her arm.

This time a lot tighter than he did back in the bar.

She let out a cry as he suddenly shoved her across the alleyway, her back hitting the brick wall.

She tried to stop her fall, and in the process scraped her hands down the rough, brick surface.

The reality of what could happen hit her hard and she started to panic. Callie whimpered in pain and fear.

He didn’t stop there as his knee came up against her stomach and she dropped heavily to the ground. She tried to gasp for breath. He grabbed her hair, pulling her head back, and she screamed.

“You’re not too good for me. I’m going to own your pussy, Callie. You’re all mine now.”

He lifted his hand as if to backhand her, and she braced for it, but it never landed. In fact, the grip he had on her lessened and she saw he was held captive by the man she talked to at the bar earlier. She couldn’t remember his name, but then she quickly recalled he’d not given it.

“I thought I already told you, that’s no way to talk to a lady?”

She heard the distinctive sound of the bone snapping, and then Mitch was too busy hollering in pain. The man in the suit dropped him to the floor, stepped over his writhing body, and moved toward her.

He crouched down, hiding Mitch from her gaze.

She flinched as he put a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head back. “Are you okay?”

Tears filled her eyes. She was in pain but she never asked for help. It was one of the few things she had learned as a young person—to never ask anyone for anything, that way she wouldn’t be disappointed.

“Th-thank you,” she said.

“I’m not going to leave you alone, Callie. He won’t hurt you again. No one will ever hurt you again.”

She wanted to call him a liar, that someone was going to hurt her, they always did, but there was something in his voice, she wasn’t sure what, but it made her pause. This time when he touched her, helping her up, she didn’t flinch. His touch was soft, gentle.

There was still pain in her stomach, and she put a hand on it. Evander captured her wrist and moved her toward the light, and she saw that her hands were covered with blood. She’d hurt herself more than she realized.

She was just about to warn him that blood made her faint, but the world went dark before she got chance to utter a single word.