“You’re full of shit you know that?” she said calling me out without a care. She was lucky we were in OZ right now or I’d make her eat those fucking words quicker than she could breathe. “You forget Ryder was keeping an eye on her as per her brother's request. She was at the auction.”
My face hardened. The auction wasn’t public knowledge and neither I nor my brother knew that assigning Rider the job of keeping an eye on Slick would lead her to that hotel. I was surprised myself after hearing it, and then that night seeing her in that sea of monsters, dressed in red and ready to be picked I couldn’t help but want her. She had some balls, and I hoped those balls were big enough to help her survive my father's torture. “Anyone ever tell you your mouth could get you in trouble?”
She smirked. “All the time, but I don’t give a fuck. I want information that I know you have because I was with Ryder that night Slick entered that hotel and you know who we saw a few hours after… Y.O.U.” she pointed out.
I chuckled in a not so happy way, shaking my head before leaning forward and glaring at her. I wanted to strangle this bitch and the sad thing was, she knew it but kept on pushing me. “Why do you want to know?”
“That’s for me to know.”
“Just like it's for me to know you’ve been obsessed with Slick since she stepped foot in here.” Her eyebrows reached her hair line, and the moment it did she acted like it never happened, turning her face stern with a slight smile. “Or was that after she fucked that guy you’ve been eyeing?”
“Seems someone has been stalking not only Ryder,” she smiled trying to seem unaffected, but I could tell, she was pissed. And who wouldn’t be after the guy you’ve been after fucks the girl you hate, and didn’t give you a backwards glance?
I smirked. “I’m observant, and you observe a lot of things when no one is paying attention. Now tell me, why do you want to know where Slick is?”
“Doesn’t matter.” She stood abruptly but I grabbed her wrist while she scowled down at me.
“It does. And you keep sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong is only going to get you killed.”
“Bad news motherfucker. I’m already dead.” She snatched her hand away and briskly walked toward the bar.
I was curious as to what the fuck she was talking about but my phone started ringing in my pocket. Pulling it loose, I saw my father's right-hand man, Ricardo's name across my screen. I answered. “What is it?”
“Hector is dead,” he said grimly. “You need to come home.” I admit it wasn’t the first thing I expected him to say, but there it was. It wasn’t earth-shattering news either, and even though he was my father and we were somewhat close, still something poked at my emotions. And it wasn’t grief.
“How?”
“Asthma attack last night. You have to come to the estate. There are some things we need to discuss.” I barely blinked at his final words, surprised that the biggest danger to our father was himself. Growing up, the man made himself seem invincible even though every time he got riled up he’d have to take a few puffs from his inhaler. Isaiah and I used to use that to our advantage, and there were a few times we’d find it funny when he’d yell at us and have to stop to take a few breaths.
I chuckled at the thought, rattling off a quick response before hanging up the phone. The almighty Hector Morales was dead, which meant my brother and I were the rightful heirs of his empire. It had always been a dream to run my father's business. I was like him where Isaiah wasn’t, which would mean the odds were in my favor.
I walked to my brother's office and entered, finding him pouring a drink with his cell phone to his ears. He glanced at me with a grim expression when I moved to the couch in the corner, and sat with one leg over my knee. As I leisurely settled into a comfortable position he snapped at the person on the other end before tossing the phone on his desk. “What’s with you?” I asked.
“Fucking suppliers getting on my last nerve. What are you doing here?” He sat at his desk leaning back while taking me in.
“Papa's dead.” I didn’t ease him into it because I knew the one thing he and I both shared was a dislike for the man that gave us life. “Thought you should know, since apparently we need to go to Columbia to settle his shit.”
I watched his inscrutable expression as what I said sunk in. Isaiah was always an easy man to read, he wore his expressions on his face and you could always guess what he was thinking. Like right now, he was processing it, but didn’t know what to feel seeing that the man was our father, but not a very good one. He pressed his index finger along his bottom lip before taking an easy sip from his glass. “I’m not going to Columbia, and how did he die?”
“Asthma attack and why aren’t you going?”
“Because I want nothing to do with that shit. Whatever he left for me can be shipped here, as for everything else you can have it. You’ve always wanted your own drug empire.” He stopped eyeing me up and down. “You certainly look the part, so I’m not going to stop you. It’s all yours.” I couldn’t help it if I took a lot of father's traits. I even sound like him since I was born in Columbia and spent the first sixteen years there before we started coming to America frequently.
Isaiah was born of an American dancer named Amaya Rose, who our father met whenever he visited New York. After he was born nine months after they met, she refused to move to Columbia, so papa agreed to let her keep him with her but in return he had to visit in the summers. She died when he was eighteen and by then he was fit to make his own decisions.
“And that’s it? I won’t get any problems from you later being super rich and all that? You won’t get jealous?”
He chucked eyeing me amused. “Now why would I do that? Just as long as you sign your and dad's shares of OZ over to me, we should have no problem in the future.”
“Ever the smart negotiator, brother. I see no problem with that since I never really liked this place anyway.” I stood and went over to the bar making myself a drink and while pouring the 1962 Glenmore into my glass, I heard my brother clear his throat behind me. Turning I watched the serious expression on his face as my brow lifted in response.
“How is she?” he asked, and the she he was referring to, was the very same she he always asked about. I didn’t know what happened between the two of them but whatever it was had my brother very concerned and me very fucking annoyed.
“I wouldn’t know. I’m not the one fucking her— or was fucking her seeing as he’s dead now.” I smirked taking a sip and leaning against the bar. I hated the fact that my father was the one that got Slick, seeing as I was so eager to have her on my dick after finding her at that hotel, but I saw no other choice.
When Ryder told us about Slick’s unexpected trip to Phoenix, I instantly knew what she was up to. I thought it was genius, the way she took the information and used it to make herself rich. I wasn’t wrong about her being a beautiful woman that would sell for a lot of money; money that could have been mine if she had given me the option rather than her brother.
I wasn’t wrong in my assumptions because when I entered that room and saw how beautiful she looked all primed and proper with her head facing the floor I knew I wanted her, but it wasn’t my choice. She was afraid of me and her brother wouldn’t hand her over to someone she was afraid of no matter how much I offered. So, I made a decision, one I didn't regret because I knew one day she would have no choice but to come to me. “Are you going to let her go, now that he’s dead?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t see the point in you keeping her—” He stood walking around his desk and pausing with his legs pressed against it. With his arms folded over his chest he continued, “we know she’s not going to talk after what she’s been through.”
I huffed a laugh. “You mean after what she put herself through.”
“You could have let her go to someone else, anybody else. You know what dad was like. How he treated women.” Growing up with the man I watched first hand, even had to partici
pate in some of his sick parties. Isaiah on the other hand only experienced it once when he was seventeen. He watched as our father chained a woman to a metal beam hanging from the ceiling before he whipped and fucked her in front of a room full of people. And that wasn’t even the worst thing he had ever done. It was beautiful, but to Isaiah it was disgusting and made him angry which made papa angry and caused the two of them to be at each other’s fucking throats all the time.
“Yeah I know how dad was, but what I also know is that every other fucker in there that night wanted her for the same reason. She knew what she was getting into and I figured this way we could keep track of her.” That was mostly true and now that our father was dead, his property became my property. What Isaiah forgot was that he had no control by giving over full control of everything to me. Slick was now mine, and I wasn’t going to give her up that easily.
He sighed. “What was she fucking thinking even going there that night?” he asked, flexing his neck.
“She was thinking fucking smart. No woman I know would risk their lives like that.”
“Yeah and I hope it was worth it.”
I pushed off the bar leaving my empty glass behind. “I’ll head up tonight. See what the damage is. And don’t worry you’ll have your papers signed as soon as you draw them up.” I smirked heading for the door. I was eager to get out of Vegas. And by now I was very sure you knew why.
Chapter Four
Christopher
I sighed pissed off when I answered the phone on the third ring. “You said you would call three hours ago.”
“Yeah well unlike you who lives off daddy's money, I have a job.”
“ I'm fucking paying you well enough that you don't need that job. Now tell me you got something on her?” My father was eager to have Izzy once he saw her picture, the only problem was, no one seemed to know where she was. Reed was MIA since my father’s little visit, so no one's seen him in weeks, and their old apartment had been rented out to someone else. My father was growing impatient and so was I.
“No and you’d do well to come and get the information you want for yourself. I’m done with this shit.” I could hear the irritation in her voice and it irritated me. Sure, Penny was a decent fuck, but she was shit at everything else and she pissed me off every chance she got. Like right now. She and Ryder were there the last time Izzy was seen and now suddenly she had amnesia. Fuck that.
“I’m paying you to do me a favor—”
“Well not well enough if I have to be called out by that fucker Victor. I don’t need this shit.”
“Then clearly you don’t need that fifty grand you’ve been trying to save for that ridiculous car you just bought. Trying to seem richer than you are, Penny. Didn’t daddy teach you better than that?”
“You motherfucker,” she growled.
I chuckled. “Come on Pen-pen you can’t hide anything from me. I know all your dirty little secrets. I’m also particularly fond of the fact that you’ve been fucking your best friend's boyfriend— is it three months now? I wonder how she’ll take it.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me. Get me what I want, Penny—”
“Chris?” she called, knowing I was about to hang up.
“Yes?”
With a sigh she paused briefly. “Look, a few months back Ryder and I followed Slick to this hotel in Phoenix. That night she left with another man.”
I sat up straighter with the vein in my neck threatening to rip from my skin. “What are you saying?”
“It was an auction, Chris. She was sold. I don’t know to who or why, but that’s all I can tell you.”
The fuck? My hands itched with the need to reach through the phone, and wring her neck. She knew about this all along, and said nothing while playing me like a fucking puppet? “And why tell me now after I’ve been paying you for months to get information for me?”
She sighed again. “You know I actually thought we had something, Chris. I figured if I could just keep you focused on me then maybe you’d forget about her and maybe we could pick up where we left off. You kept calling—”
“Because I stupidly thought you were doing what I was paying you to do.”
“I-I-I sorry,” she said sounding remorseful, but it was too late for that. She had been sitting on information for months, information that I could have used to find Izzy, but instead I played right into her hands.
“Bullshit you’re not sorry because we both know you don’t care about Izzy and you don’t care about me. The only reason you want me is because I want Izzy.”
“You don’t know anything you conceded cunt,” she sneered into the phone with a venom I knew only she possessed. Penny and I barely dated, and only shared a few nights within the span of two months. There was nothing between us; nothing like I had with Izzy. “I care about you, I got you into the club, I gave you whatever you wanted. Not her, never her.”
“This conversation is over. Don’t call me again.”
“Chris please I didn’t mean—”
“You did; the next time I catch even a whiff of you, Penny, you’re going to wish I had killed you.” I hung up and threw the phone on my night stand. With my blood levels reaching new highs every part of me wanted to leave and end Penny’s existence. She knew for months and I still couldn’t believe that Izzy, my Izzy was in the possession of another man. For months I had been calling worried that something bad had happened and it would seem I had every right to be, because clearly she couldn’t take care of herself, and now she needed me to get her out of this mess.
I laid against the pillows, trying to push the thoughts from my head when the woman laying next to me groaned before turning over, exposing her naked breasts when the sheet moved down her stomach. I climbed on top of her and pushed my hardening dick inside with one hard thrust. Ehe groaned, eyes remaining closed. I preferred it like that, this way she looked a lot like my Izabella. This girl, Lia I think was her name, had blonde hair and porcelain skin like Izzy’s. I liked her eyes closed because the color was all wrong. Izzy’s was hazel, this girl's was blue, it ruined the illusion, spoiled my fantasy. But I wanted to fuck her, I needed the release and meeting her tonight was like a sign, pointing me in the direction of Izabella.
She groaned again, lifting up and meeting me thrust for thrust as I buried myself deeper. Don’t open your eyes, I pleaded, watching her face as her eyeballs moved behind her eyelids. Sweat coated my skin as pumped harder, making her groan louder and then she opened them. Anger filled my veins and I tried to stop it, pleaded with myself not to do it, but she wasn’t her, she wasn’t my Izzy. Why couldn't you have kept them closed?
My fist clenched and connected with her face as I continued to thrust. The shocked expression on her face quickly morphed into fear as my fist connected again and again, until she had gone unconscious. Blood coated my knuckles when each hit turned her beauty into ugliness. I didn’t mean to do it, I never meant to do it, but it was her fault, falling for my lies and charm, thinking I was a normal guy who would give her a good fuck and then turn her away. I wasn’t any of those things. I was far from normal.
A few more thrusts and I came hard, falling against her chest with my own almost closing in on me. Her heart was still beating so I knew she wasn’t dead. I never planned to kill her only hurt her for feeding me lies. I climbed off the bed and walked into the bathroom, turning on the lights when my reflection met me in the mirror. Dark hair, dark eyes, a straight nose and square jaw; blood smeared my forehead and hair as I gazed at the crimson color against my skin. I hated the color of blood as it reminded me of a reoccurring dream I used to have of being covered in it. I didn’t know whose or why, but in the dream I was staring at my reflection, much like this and I’d be covered from head to toe in the sickly fluid. I had the same dream every night for a year when I was younger, and they only stopped when I met Izzy.
She was this burst of light that calmed my darkness, and the moment she was gone, the darkness came back. I didn’
t know how much I truly needed her until two years after we broke up. She thought I never reached out in the five years we were apart, but I did. My mom still lived in town and every time I went to visit her I would stop by Izzy’s house and watch her. Sometimes she was walking in from work, other times I could see her through the windows.
She always looked sad and I knew most of that had to do with her mother. The woman had a bad habit of making the lives around her miserable, she was like an anchor pulling everything down as she went, and that guy Remy was the ship. He was one of the problems making Izzy sad and I knew she’d appreciate my help with getting rid of him.
Remy was a thin guy, strung out from all the drugs in his system. Half the town thought he was crazy and would never think twice if he was gone. He never saw me coming, even though he was looking right at me when the knife slid across his neck, spewing blood all over the place. I knew the police would see it as a drug deal gone bad since he was known for selling and using. As for everyone else, he was just another useless life off the streets. The easiest kill if I ever saw one. As for Izzy’s mother, that was another crime entirely.
After I washed the blood off my face and knuckles, I returned to the room and called my fathers' associate, Bow. He was the guy you called when you needed something moved and not seen. He was going to take her to one of my father's buildings in the valley where he kept the girls to be sold. Once her face is healed, she’d be ready to train, and in a few weeks some sick pervert would find her attractive enough to own.
After talking to Bow, my phone rang with Penny’s name flashing across the screen. Clearly she didn’t understand my parting words, so maybe I needed to shove the knife a little deeper. “My previous threat wasn’t enough to stop you was it?”
“I hate you you sick fuck, and I hope she guts your heart out, again.”
I smirked. “You and me both, sweetheart.” She quickly rattled off some information about Reed’s living arrangements in San Diego. There was no sign of Izzy, but she got me his number and address. The call ended with another threat on her life before I dialled the number of a guy who owed me a favour.
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