21
Orion
“The fuck do you think you’re doing?”
I jumped, hitting my head on the hood of Mr. George’s beautiful Mustang. I’d been distracted since the other night. What the hell had I been thinking about asking Sable to go somewhere private, thinking that he would treat it any differently than he would with someone else?
Dad stood in the garage’s doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. I’d been purposely avoiding him since the morning I’d seen his exchange with Jayden.
Maybe if I ignored it, I could deny ever knowing anything about it.
It was wishful thinking, because if I knew my supposed best friend, he’d already told my father I was aware of his shady business.
“Working? What else do you expect me to do?” Being flippant with him was a mistake. It was a fast track to him hitting me again, but I’d deal with it if it came down to that. Maybe I’d actually feel something again for the first time in days.
Dad pushed off the door frame, circling me like a predator hunting its prey.
Fuck, I didn’t need any of this. All I wanted to do was get this last part installed so Mr. George could finally take his baby home.
I wouldn’t need to keep worrying that some of the other jackasses that my father employed would fuck it all up.
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Jay already told me that you know what I’ve been doing.”
And there it was. I rolled my eyes as I wiped my hands on a dirty rag. “Since when do you call him Jay?”
It was stupid to ask him because I was feeding into what he wanted me to do.
He wanted me to talk to him about the pills because if I didn’t attack him for it, maybe he thought I’d want in on it.
Not a chance. I was still trying to figure out how to get out from under the garage to start my own business.
There was no saving this one with what he was doing to it.
He laughed, the sound of it lacking all sense of humor. “You think that boy spent time around you because he wanted to be your friend?”
I bristled because, what the actual fuck?
Dad had always been cruel, but there were times that Jayden had been genuine.
He’d gone through hell and back when his mom had overdosed.
I’d been by his side every step of the way.
My dad knew nothing about that and to insinuate that Jayden was using me?
Though after what I’d seen in the office the other day, it might not be too much of a stretch now.
“You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
Dad stopped in front of me. Every muscle in my body locked up because I was ready for him to attack. It’s what he did best. There was no way he was about to change his colors just because I’d caught him committing a crime.
“Don’t know what I’m talking about? Fuck, son.
This is what I’m talking about.” Before I could process what he was doing, his hand wrapped tightly around the collar of my t-shirt, pushing me backward into Mr. George’s car.
His hold on me was enough to cut off my air supply.
I clawed at his fist, trying to get him to let me go.
I knew it was pointless. He wouldn’t drop it until he’d made his point—one of these days it would be when I was dead.
“You listen here, you little piece of shit. You didn’t see anything the other day.
Got it? Nothing happened in that office if anyone asks.
If I catch wind that you’re out there blabbing about seeing shit, I’ll make your life more of a living hell than it already is.
I’ll make that pretty little wife of yours suffer, too.
” He spat in my face before finally letting me go.
That first gasp of breath burned. I fell to the greasy floor, coughing.
Wiping at my face because how fucking gross was it he’d actually spat on me. Then again, it could have been a whole lot worse. At least I wasn’t walking out of the place with a black eye again. But I was walking out with a fresh threat against Whitney.
Guilt churned in my gut because she deserved so much better. Not only because my family was trash, and she had no clue just how much violence I’d kept away from her, but I wasn’t any better after fucking Sable senseless the other night.
It wasn’t the appropriate time to think about it.
Hell, no time was the appropriate time, but all I could think about now that his name was on my mind was the sounds he made when I drove into his body again and again.
I’d wanted someone to enjoy sex like that for as long as I could remember.
Then, when it was all over? Fuck. It was like some switch had flipped, where he wasn’t the same Sable I’d spent the last few weeks getting to know.
When he asked me to pay him? I didn’t know how to take that. Of all the times we’d been together... the quiet moments, the stolen kiss in his kitchen... I thought maybe something was different between us. That was my fault for thinking like that when it came to a whore.
I knew it was different. I’d watched how he was with his other clients.
He didn’t talk to them like he talked to me.
He wouldn’t have let just anyone take him home that night, following him inside.
When someone hired him? I watched as he charged them before they had even entered the back room. So what the hell had happened?
I would beat myself up forever unless I went there to figure it out.
It was a bad idea—there was a reason I’d stayed away from Faded Sins since that night.
The move seemed like he was trying to create space.
I’d given it to him right after I’d paid him double what he’d quoted me.
Normally, I wasn’t the type of person to throw that kind of cash around, but he was worth so much more than a measly three hundred.
Maybe that was what I needed to take my mind off the shit show with my dad.
Mr. George’s Mustang would be with us for at least one more day because there was no way I could go back to work focusing on it now. If I crawled under that hood, I’d mess something up, and it wasn’t worth the risk.
At least Dad hadn’t asked me to do anything outside of keeping my mouth shut. The last thing I needed was to have to start dealing with him as well. If it came down to that, I was gone. I didn’t care if it cost me my life. It wasn’t like I was living that great of one, anyway.
I closed the hood of Mr. George’s car, making sure it was all locked up.
Now that I knew about the drugs, I also did a quick scan of the outside of the car because I wouldn’t put it past my dad to pin something on an unsuspecting old man.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I locked everything up and walked out onto the street.
The fresh air did nothing to calm me down. I was focused on only one thing. It was the wrong thing, but that wasn’t important.
Leaving my truck at the garage might have been a mistake, but I needed the walk to the club to clear my head. Every day was a bigger and bigger mess. It was my own making. How the hell did I dig my way out of it?
I must have zoned out, because I was standing in front of that black wooden door before I realized it. It wasn’t a short walk, so maybe I’d done too much thinking. Or not enough in this case, since I couldn’t remember any of it.
The music washed over me as I pushed the door open walking inside. It was still early, but people were already filling some of the seats.
That was when I saw the one thing that could make this day worse.
Jayden spun on the barstool, a beer bottle dangling from his fingertips as he laughed at me. “No shit, man. I knew I’d find you here.”
I rolled my eyes because, as much as I was angry at him for fucking up his life, I needed the escape of the club.
It didn’t matter about the shitty things he’d said about me or Whitney.
A good buzz from some booze could drown it all out.
The worst part of all of it was that I now knew he would run his mouth to my dad.
The last thing I needed was to make that man proud.
Victor’s eyebrows raised when he looked up, noticing me sitting next to Jayden. He grabbed one of my usual beers from the fridge, popping the top before bringing it over to me.
“The way you hightailed it out of here the other night, I didn’t think we’d be seeing you again,” he said as he placed the bottle in front of me.
Jayden’s stare only intensified with Victor’s comment. I almost wished he hadn’t said anything, but he had no way of knowing that my friendship with Jayden was on the rocks.
I cleared my throat before picking up the beer, taking a large swig of it. How the hell did I talk to Victor about what happened? Sable obviously hadn’t said anything. That was a strange thought because I thought the two of them had been close.
“I needed a break.” It was a small lie, but it covered me enough that Jayden lost interest. He had turned to the stage, watching Raven as she swung her hips to some song I’d never heard before.
I frowned at seeing her up there before turning back to Victor. “Where’s Jazzy?” Because I was the person who now knew the dancers by name. Fuck, I’d been in the place way too much if that was the case, but I hadn’t seen her in a couple of weeks.
Victor’s eyes widened at my question, looking around the bar before leaning in close. “She’s going to be out for a while. Something unexpected came up.”
He didn’t elaborate further—it had me worried.
I knew that between Victor and Jazzy—they were Sable’s friends.
Sable hadn’t said anything either, not that he’d had much of a chance.
He didn’t have a way to talk to me outside of the club other than knowing where I lived, but he didn’t seem like the type of person to just show up out of the blue, especially with the way things ended the last time we were together.
The staff at the club were entitled to their private lives. I’d inserted myself into Sable’s when I took him home. Asking about Jazzy might have been a little too much.
And it was like thinking about him summoned him. The lights dimmed, and music filled the air. I had been there enough to know what type of music Sable normally danced to. This had the same seductive beat he liked to pick.
Worship by Ari Abdul played—a spotlight cast a glow on Sable’s thin frame as he swayed to the music in the middle of the stage.
It was another night where he started while wearing less, but I wouldn’t complain.
His collection of tight little shorts had to be impressive because I’d never seen him in the same pair more than once.
This particular pair was shredded along the bottom, all the way up to his groin.
He might as well have been wearing nothing but underwear, and I’d be seriously surprised if he was wearing anything under them. I knew enough that he normally didn’t.
Once the song concluded, the room went dark. The lights came back on to an empty stage—my chest tightened because I wanted to see him. It was an unusual exit for him.
I didn’t want it to bother me. He wasn’t anything to me, but he’d made it very clear that I couldn’t be more than a client. Not that I could be anything more, seeing as I was still married. I shouldn’t be considering being something more to anyone.
“You look tense.”
Jayden’s words made me jump. I’d almost forgotten that he was there.
Shit. I needed to be more careful, though he probably had a good idea that something was going on by now.
There was no reason for me to keep coming back unless something was.
He came to get his dick wet, so I had to be doing the same thing.
He watched me with interest as Sable made his way out onto the floor. I leaned forward in my seat because I was dying for him to notice me. To come over and get his drink from Victor flirting like he’d done all the other times I’d been there.
That didn't happen, though.
No, Sable looked up. Those gorgeous blue eyes of his widened when he saw me before he cut to a different part of the bar, waving down Victor to come to him.
My heart sank because I should have expected that.
There was a stupid part of me that hoped things wouldn’t change, but I was an idiot if I thought they would stay the same.
“Looks like I need to get someone a drink. Stay here, I want to ask what this is all about,” Victor said as he made his way to where Sable was leaning against the bar, waiting for him.
My hands grew numb as I watched the two of them talk because I wanted to be involved, like I had been for weeks.
I wanted to be the center of Sable’s world—that was so fucked up.
When he looked up at me again, his smile was weak as he took a sip of his drink before walking out into the room, making a point to avoid me.
“You fucked him, didn’t you?” I turned to glare at Jayden.
“Shut the fuck up.” It wasn’t a denial, but it wasn’t telling him the truth either.
Jayden only laughed, slapping me on the shoulder. “Fuck, dude. I didn’t think you had it in you. Here I was thinking you were all pissed at me for the other day and you’re no better than the rest of us.”
He wasn’t wrong.
There I was giving him a hard time for dealing drugs with my dad, while I was off cheating on my wife. Though in my scenario, Whitney was the only person getting hurt. What he and my dad were doing could hurt hundreds.
“What’s he talking about?”
I rested my head on the bar-top in front of me. This wasn’t how I wanted to talk to Victor about what happened between Sable and I, but part of me thought he would have already known.
“He’s not going to come over here tonight, is he?” I tried the tactic of asking another question.
Victor hummed. I had to look up to see what the hell he was doing. His arms were crossed over his chest as he stared at me. “So you crossed the line.”
“Fuck, man. Can you blame me? You’ve seen him. You’ve fucked him, too.”
Victor held his hands up in surrender. “There’s a difference between you and me. I met him outside this hellhole. We were friends before this shit even started. You are and always will be a client. The best advice I can give you is to move on.”
I furrowed my brows because this was beyond fucked up. The man had been shoving us together since the beginning. What the hell was all that mess about having me take him home. Did he think I didn’t have a thing for Sable and was just being friendly?
That was when I did the stupidest thing I could ever have done.
I looked out into the crowd again just in time to see Sable grab the hand of another man, pulling him toward the back room.
That pain in my chest intensified as my heart stuttered to a stop.
I knew this would happen. It was his goddamn job.
A hand on my shoulder kept me in my seat before I even knew I was trying to stand up to follow them.