Damage Control

by M. S. Parker

  “I don’t have another ten grand.” Now I understood the desperation some of these women must feel. Or at least a shade of it. I needed to get Camry away from this scum.

  “Then you better get it.” Stefano leaned in, still smirking at me. “Until you do…she’s mine. But I’ll give you some time. A few weeks…interest-free. Hurry it up though. You wanted to do business with me, so we’re doing business.”

  Seventeen

  Piety

  I’d put entirely too much time into my appearance, and I knew it.

  I’d even gone shopping.

  Not that I minded shopping, but how many women went shopping just to buy an annulment dress?

  A wedding dress, sure.

  A dress for a date? Or even when you knew you’d see your ex and you wanted to knock him dead, just so he’d know what he was missing out on.

  But this wasn’t any of those.

  I was going to see my yet-to-be-ex and sign annulment papers, and I wanted to look good. Not because I wanted him to know what he was missing out on – but because I wanted to look my best.

  I’d chosen a sheath that was almost the same color as my eyes and paired it with shoes the same shade. Keeping the makeup light, I’d done my best to look good without making it obvious I’d spent nearly an hour getting ready.

  I hardly slept the night before. I was too anxious about seeing Kaleb again, and I didn’t want the effects of a sleepless night showing on my face.

  “Is this the place, Ms. Van Allan?”

  The driver of the car I’d hired met my gaze in the rearview mirror, and I looked out the window, already going to check my phone. But I didn’t have to.

  I saw Kaleb.

  He was sitting on a bench outside the towering spiral of glass and just the sight of him made my heart race.

  “Yes. This is the place.”

  He parked, and I climbed out.

  He passed me a business card. “I won’t be any more than ten minutes away, so call me when you’re done,” he said, smiling.

  “Of course.” I slid out of the car and started toward Kaleb, hoping none of my nervousness showed on my face.

  My heart was racing. Just seeing him again had my belly twisting inside. It hadn’t been long – just a couple of days – but it felt like it had been forever. I wanted to go to him and kiss him and stroke my hands over him…

  He looked up, and my racing heart tripped a beat or ten.

  Forgetting my mental decision not to let him see my nervousness, I rushed closer and caught his hand just as he stood up. I placed my other one on his cheek. “What is it?” I asked, studying his eyes.

  “Nothing.” He gave me a tired smile and nodded toward the skyscraper at his back. “You ready to get inside and get this done? Get you out of the heat. You aren’t used to it.”

  The heat of the Las Vegas sun beat down on us but instead of saying yes, I cupped his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I…” He sighed, and it was like the energy drained out of him with that expulsion of air.

  Sweat beaded on my neck and began to trickle down my spine. “Come on. There’s a coffee shop.” I nodded toward it and took his hand. “Let’s go in there. The meeting isn’t for another half hour.”

  “I thought you said…” Kaleb frowned, checking his watch.

  “I asked you to meet me here at two. I didn’t tell you when the meeting was.” I flashed him a smile. “I wanted to see you.”

  A ghost of his old grin came and went. “Come on.”

  Inside the coffee shop, I got both of us iced tea.

  Sitting at a table in the back, the booth over a guise of privacy, I took his hand. “Talk to me,” I said. “Please.”

  “I met with Camry’s dealer.” He looked away, jaw clenched tight. Everything about him seemed tight, like he might shatter. Or explode.

  I wanted to go around the table and sit next to him, but it wasn’t the time. I knew that, somehow.

  “I guess things didn’t go as planned.”

  “No.” He laughed, and it was a terrible, broken noise, like broken glass and rusty nails. “Son of a bitch. Scum-sucking, bottom-feeding son of a bitch.”

  “Tell me how you really feel.”

  He stared at me, then a faint smile curled his lips. “I’m being polite, actually. Piety, this man…shit, I’m not even sure if he qualifies for the title. I’m not even sure he qualifies as human. He’s cold-blooded…a snake.”

  “He’s stringing you along, isn’t he?”

  Kaleb closed his eyes.

  Reaching out, I covered his hand with mine. He turned his hand up and linked our fingers.

  The connection hit me hard, straight down to my soul, and I tightened my grip.

  “How did you know?”

  Lifting a shoulder, I said, “As angry as you are, as frustrated as you sound. Wasn’t hard to guess. I…ah…” I licked my lips, debating on how to answer. “I know girls who’ve gotten caught up with men like him – or at least men who seem to have things in common with him. He sounds like a predator.”

  “He is.” Kaleb clenched his jaw. “We met at a strip joint he owns. There was this girl.” He shook his head. “Piety, I swear, she didn’t look like she’d had a decent meal in weeks. I wanted to put some clothes on her and feed her.” He laughed sourly and dragged a hand down his face. “That sounds awful, I guess. I was taking my clothes off for a living just a week ago, and here I am, wanting to help some girl who, for all I know, could have willingly chosen to do what she’s doing.”

  “I think you know she’s not.” Rubbing my thumb across the back of his hand, I willed him to look at me. “And there’s a difference between somebody who wants to strip for a living and someone who is either coerced or forced into it.”

  “He offered her to me.”

  My jaw dropped.

  Now he did look at me. “She looked so sad and scared standing up there. There was nothing sexy about it at all, but there were men cat-calling at her, and I was thinking about how pathetic the whole thing was. He saw me looking at her and said I could have her for the night. Free.”

  Somehow I managed to close my mouth.

  “I wanted to beat the shit out of him.”

  “Now I do too,” I said. I wasn’t…surprised. Not exactly. I hadn’t been lying when I said I’d worked with girls who’d been forced into lives they weren’t happy with. The shelter I worked at took in a lot of girls who were trying to get out of prostitution, and we had to deal with pissed-off johns quite a bit. Some treated women like they were nothing more than just commodities, a product to be sold or traded.

  But knowing it and having something like that happen so close to me…

  Unconsciously I tightened my hand on his.

  “You look like you want to make him eat his own face,” Kaleb said.

  “Ew.” I blinked at the disgusting mental image, then laughed. “I think it would be a nice punishment. Have any suggestions on how to make it happen?”

  “No. But I’ll think about it.” He slumped a little deeper into the seat, his eyes staring off at nothing. “He wants another ten grand. Says the money I paid him covered Camry’s drug debt, but that he’s entitled to get the money he’ll lose when she leaves him. She’s one of the favorites – like she’s some kind of piece of meat.”

  “Kaleb…”

  “Look, I’m sorry.” He went to slide out of the booth, shaking his head. “We should head on up to the lawyer’s office, see if they’re ready for us. If not…look, I don’t need to dump this on you. You’ve already helped me enough.”

  I caught his hand. “What are you going to do?”

  He stared down at me. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “You’ve been trying to do that ever since he dumped this on you, haven’t you?”

  He didn’t answer, but judging by the dull red flush creeping up his cheeks, I could take a good guess.

  “Come on.”

  As I led Kaleb out of the coffee shop, I called the
driver. “Come on back, would you? It didn’t take long.”

  I hung up before the man had a chance to answer and turned to meet Kaleb’s eyes. “That was my driver. He’s on his way back. We’ll get this figured out.”

  He just frowned.

  I called the lawyer’s office next and looked away as I waited for the receptionist to come on the phone.

  His attention grew more intense as I canceled the appointment, explaining that something urgent had come up and I’d get back with them when I needed them – so terribly sorry.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded. He gestured toward the entrance doors for the office building, just a few hundred feet away. “It’s right there.”

  “You’ve got bigger problems, Kaleb…and I’m going to help.”

  “It’s not your problem, Piety,” he argued. “I’ve got to fix this on my own.”

  “I’m your friend.” The word felt…funny. We were friends, I thought. But that was such a mild term for what we had. “Friends help each other, right?”

  “And what do you propose we do?” He crossed his arms over his chest, staring me down. “Are you going to pay me to stay married to you for another week or two? Give me more money so he can jerk me around again? Is that the solution you have in mind?”

  “No.” Then I shrugged. “Actually, I don’t have a solution. But this guy is a user – you’ll never be free of him as long as you play his game, so I don’t think paying him is the answer. But I’m not walking away and leaving you – or your sister – alone to deal with him.”

  “My sister isn’t your concern,” he said gently, reaching up to cup my chin.

  As he angled my head back, forcing me to meet his gaze, I tried not to let him see how much I loved having him touch me again.

  I’d missed it – missed him – every second.

  I’d felt the loss of him every second.

  It was hard enough to convince myself that I needed to come out here and handle the annulment. The only thing that made it even semi-tolerable was knowing I’d see him again. But the thought of walking away now when he was dealing with this was just intolerable.

  “She is.” I leaned in and kissed him gently. “Because she’s yours and I’m concerned about you.”

  Eighteen

  Piety

  I’d booked a room at the Bellagio before I left Philadelphia.

  Now, as my driver came to a stop at the elegant, grand entrance, I tightened my hand around Kaleb’s. He was staring at nothing, and I knew part of him wasn’t here.

  He was thinking about his sister.

  I wished I could take the worry away, but I was too acutely aware of the sort of trouble she might be in. The first month I’d been at the shelter, I’d worked with a girl who’d tried to get away from her john. She’d tried so hard.

  One day, she left the part-time job at a coffee shop, and he caught up with her, threatening that she still owed him.

  When she stood up to him, he’d beaten her senseless.

  People like this Stefano were bottom-feeders. We had to find out how to help Camry.

  “Thanks, Delano,” I said as he helped me out of the back of the car. I passed him a twenty. “Would you be available tomorrow if I need you?”

  “You just give me a call, Ms. Van Allan.” He tipped his hat to me and nodded at Kaleb as he climbed out.

  Offering my hand to Kaleb, I waited for him to take it before we started inside.

  The concierge had seen me coming, and he already had my room key ready as well as a bellboy on hand to take the luggage Delano had unpacked from the trunk.

  “I still can’t get over that,” Kaleb said abruptly.

  I glanced at him, puzzled.

  He gestured to the bellhop walking in front of us as we started down the hall. “You didn’t even have to check in. They were just…waiting for you.”

  “Ah…” Blood rushed to stain my cheeks red. “Well. Yeah.”

  He laughed. “You’re embarrassed by it. I imagine your dad would be furious if a place like this wasn’t ready to get down on bended knee the moment he walked through the doors.”

  “Probably.” I nodded at the bellboy as he held the elevator doors for us, nudging Kaleb in the ribs so he’d stop.

  But he either didn’t get the hint or refused to take it. He met the bellboy’s eyes. “What’s it like? Working at a place like this?”

  “It’s a good job, sir.” He smiled politely at Kaleb.

  “I’m not a sir.” Kaleb snorted. “I’m only here because I’m lucky enough to be hooked up with her. Otherwise I’d be…hell, a week ago, I was taking my clothes off for a living.”

  “What was that like?” The bellboy smiled again, still polite, but I saw a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Working at a job like that?”

  “Good one,” I murmured. Then I winked at the bellboy. “Ignore him. He’s had a rough few days.”

  “I understand.”

  Once he had my suitcase in the room, he nodded at us and accepted the bill I extended, then left, closing the door softly behind him. Meeting Kaleb’s eyes, I said, “When I’ve had a bad day, I get a little bratty, just to make me feel better. It looks like we share that in common.”

  “Sorry if I embarrassed you.”

  “Oh, it takes more than that to embarrass me.” I sat down and reached for the ankle strap of my shoe. “But questions like that to an employee, in a place like this? The wrong kind of answer, overheard by an asshole sort of manager could get somebody fired. I think that would make you feel like shit.”

  Kaleb hissed out a breath and turned away, shoving both hands through his hair. “That doesn’t make sense. I was the one being an arse.”

  “But this hotel is meant to cater to the guests. If a manager decided that the kid had somehow insulted you…” I shrugged. “Things are different here when it comes to that sort of thing. People are more uptight a lot of the time.”

  “You’re not.” He looked back at me, eyes wild and hot. He came to me, and a few feet away, he went to his knees.

  I’d been in the process of reaching for my other shoe, but at the look in his eyes, the muscles in my body started to feel curiously lax and limp, overheated too, like a puddle of hot wax. He crawled to me and bent over, pressing his lips to one knee, then the other.

  “I missed you,” he murmured. “I didn’t expect that to happen, but it did. It’s like you’re a fever in me, Piety. I’m not certain I like it.”

  He reached for my remaining shoe and sat back on his heels, staring into my eyes as he freed the strap and slowly slid the shoe off.

  “I wasn’t expecting any of this to happen,” I said truthfully. “But I’m not exactly unhappy with it.”

  It kind of stung that he might be.

  “I didn’t say I was unhappy with it.” He ran his thumb along my instep.

  It sent a shiver through me, and I had to swallow a sigh when he began to dig his fingers into the tight muscles of my left calf. “You’re the best damn thing to happen for me in ages. But I don’t have time for this…for you…for all the things I feel for you.” His fingers moved higher. “And damn me if I give a flying fuck.”

  My breath caught in my lungs, stuttered, and hitched there.

  Then he straightened, coming up in front of me and tugging me to the edge of the bed until we were eye to eye, chest to chest, belly to belly. “I get around you, and it’s like nothing else matters. I don’t like that, Piety. I have to think about my sister and you make me not want to care about anything.”

  “You’ve spent most of your life taking care of her.” I traced my finger across his upper lip. “It’s okay to want something for yourself every now and then.”

  “She needs me.” His gaze fell away, his hands resting on my thighs.

  For a moment, I thought he’d get up, walk away.

  Then he looked back at me. “But I need you.” He leaned in and kissed me, his mouth hot and demanding.

  I didn’t even have time to brace m
yself, not that it would have mattered. The kiss was deep, and his hands were hard, hungry, as he pushed my skirt up and stripped away my panties.

  “Tell me you want me,” he said against my lips.

  “More than I’ve ever wanted anything.” And it was nothing but the truth. I needed him so deeply, so desperately.

  He tugged me closer, and I thought he just might pull me down onto his lap and take me right there, but he went for the hem of my dress instead, peeling the skirt of it up and stripping it away until I sat naked in front of him. The surplus cut front had let me go without a bra, and I shivered a little, the cool air drawing my nipples into tight, hard buds.

  Then his mouth closed over one, and it was heat and wet that made me shiver, that puckered and tightened my flesh.

  I cried out and shoved my hands into his hair.

  He gripped my hips, fingers restlessly kneading.

  He went back and forth between my breasts, and I wiggled closer, an ache spreading through me.

  When he slid one hand between my thighs, I whimpered and spread them wide, eager for more.

  But he didn’t touch me.

  In fact, he straightened and stared down at me.

  Panting, I waited, watching him.

  “What are you doing?”

  He shook his head and caught my shoulders, easing me down to the bed.

  When I lay flat, he kissed the underside of my left breast, rubbing his chin back and forth across my flesh so that the stubble growing on his chin rasped over my skin. He kissed my belly. My hip.

  I arched up, whimpering.

  When he nuzzled the folds between my thighs, I whimpered and curled one leg around his upper torso.

  Then he licked me, opening me with one long stroke of his tongue.

  I arched up, screaming, but the sound was breathless and broken.

  He did it again, then stabbed at my clit with his tongue.

  “Piety…”

  Even the brush of air over my skin felt like too much, and I fisted my hands in his hair, trying to draw him closer. “Please,” I moaned.