by Sam Crescent
Ursula gathered the books she needed and took a seat. The moment she opened the first textbook, she was absorbed into her studies.
****
Stephen met James outside his club. The other man wore a pair of leather pants, white shirt, and leather jacket. Stephen couldn’t help but chuckle at his attire.
“Stephen Knox is laughing early in the morning. This is news to report. Should I get a hold of the media? Your woman must be good for you,” James said as he got in the car.
“Ursula is none of your concern. I’m happy. Cadeon is meeting us at Rebecca’s. He has a key.”
“I hope your thoughts are not true. I would hate to have to deal with the Dominic shit again.” James closed the door, securing his seatbelt.
“Everything adds up. I don’t like this either.”
“Have you done any digging?” James asked.
“Nothing new. I haven’t gotten ‘round to it this morning. I don’t want to alert Ursula. She still doesn’t know about Possession, and at the moment I want to keep it that way.”
“You’ll have to tell her eventually.”
“Not today. At the moment this is too dangerous for her. I want to keep her as safe as possible.”
“Black is dangerous, I’ll give you that, but prostituting women? Or buying them? I don’t get it.” James stared at him.
Stephen knew it sounded far-fetched. “There is a lot of shit going on in this world that I don’t agree with. Money is money no matter how it is earned. If you’ve lost a large sum of money and you need to get it back and quick, wouldn’t you do everything you could to get it back?”
“I’d earn it the good old-fashioned way. I’m not wired to earn off the backs of women, Stephen. I never have been.”
He knew James spoke the truth. Stephen would do the same. No woman would earn his crust.
“Well, I wouldn’t turn a woman black and blue,” Stephen said.
“I would turn a woman’s ass red, but I’d never abuse her. Hitting a woman in violence is wrong. I don’t agree with it. If Lloyd is looking to get out of jail then I don’t know how we can stop him.”
“I don’t think him getting out of jail is the problem, James. I think the means he is going to use is the problem.” The more he thought about Lloyd the more he began to worry. He could use the clubs as leeway to try to get out of prison. Possession and Ravage could easily be shown in the wrong light.
“Fuck, he better not have a death wish. If he tries to take my club down, I’ll fucking kill him,” James said.
They sat in silence for the rest of the journey.
Cadeon sat in his car waiting for them when they pulled up outside her house. They all got out, the cold biting Stephen through his jacket.
“I told Tate and Kevin to not bother today. They’re meeting us with the others at the club.”
“Okay,” Stephen said.
Cadeon knocked on the door. It had been a few years since Stephen had last seen Rebecca. The door opened, and her head popped round. He noticed she didn’t greet anyone but Cadeon.
“I’ve got some friends with me who want to ask you a few questions.” The door was left open, and Cadeon escorted them all in. They found Rebecca in the sitting room. She’d wrapped a blanket around her. She sat on the farthest end of the couch.
“I’m sorry. I’m cold,” she said.
“You don’t need to be afraid, Rebecca. I care about you. How is everything with Tate and Kevin?” Cadeon asked.
“They try to help me. I find it so hard. I want to go outside. My doctor doesn’t think I have that symptom she mentioned. She thinks I’m repressing memories, and it makes me think I don’t want to go outside.” Rebecca chuckled.
“Do you remember me?” Stephen asked taking the seat in front of her.
“Yes.”
“And me?” James asked.
“Yes.”
“We need to ask you a few questions.”
“Ask away. I don’t have a lot of guests. I’m not slow. I’ll answer anything you need me to.” She gave a nod at all of them.
“Are you comfortable talking about your time with Lloyd Black?” Stephen asked.
He noticed the fear in her. She fidgeted on the couch and stared between him and Cadeon. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll talk about him.”
“What about your own life?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Stephen glared at James. “We’ve recently come into some information that may be crucial to something that is happening. Do you recall much of your life before marrying Lloyd?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Ask me anything about Lloyd, but I can’t tell you about my past.”
“Why?” Stephen asked.
“Because I’ll be in trouble. I’m only allowed to say that I met Lloyd and fell in love. I’m not allowed to say anything else.”
Stephen nodded his head. He would need to wait until Monday to get the answers he needed.
“I want you to tell me about Lloyd. Were you his only woman?” Stephen asked.
“No. He would have meetings at his house where a selection of girls would come. He’d pick them out, and then the others would leave,” Rebecca said. “I had to provide entertainment after he made his purchase.”
“He brought these women?”
“Yes. He always said they were a good investment. Men always needed a hole to fuck, and they kept him in the lifestyle he was accustomed to.” He saw the tears in her eyes. The barrier she was fighting against was breaking down. “When he had the meetings I was so afraid. He would warn me that if I didn’t please the man he handed me to, then he would sell me, too, and make sure I didn’t have a good life.”
Her hands kept rubbing her legs.
“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you everything when we went to the club, but he made sure I was never alone. The pain if another man spoke to me hurt so much. I wasn’t brave enough to fight him. I wanted to fight him all the time. I was never strong enough.” Cadeon wrapped his arms around her. Stephen watched the woman come apart at the seams. Guilt filled him to the very core. He hadn’t been paying attention when this woman needed it most. He’d been too upset by the lack of a woman in his life to give a shit about anyone else.
He would change it. Every member was being thoroughly checked from now on. All his existing members would be investigated.
“The man you had to entertain, what was his name?”
“Dominic, and he was British. I never knew his last name.”
And there was the connection he needed. Cadeon comforted her while James and Stephen left. They drove in silence to Possession. He pressed the security digits then waited for the gates to open. Like always he went through the back entrance.
When they were in the privacy of his office, Stephen lost it. All his anger he took out on the furniture in his office. James stood in the corner with his arms folded, watching him.
“Trashing your office is not going to change anything that happened. This was not your fault,” James said.
“Not my fault?” Stephen threw the computer to the floor. The screen smashed. “Do you think my father would have let that slide? He would have known instantly what was going on. What did I do? I sat back and did nothing.” He walked over to where James stood. “That woman has no life because of me. She lives in a house that she refuses to leave. What kind of life does she really have? She depends on a lot of people, James.”
“And you think trashing your office will solve all of those problems?”
“Your father gave you one piece of advice, to look after the club and make sure all members are safe. You’ve done that. Ravage is flourishing, and you’re in complete control of everything you do. My dad asked me to keep Possession in the same high regard. I fucked it up, James. He asked this one thing of me, and I messed it up.” He started to laugh at the situation. James stared at him. “Do you know what the funny thing is? I was jealous of all you. You knew what possession was all about, while I tho
ught it was a load of crap. I now know it’s not.”
He stared round the office, the same office his father had used and his father before him. There was a lot of history in the room, and he’d trashed it.
“You’ve fucked up, so deal with it. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life messing up. Rebecca got hurt. You’re on the ball now. Don’t mess up again.”
“That simple?”
“I wasn’t always a dominant, Stephen. When I found out about my parents’ preferences I freaked out and rebelled. It was only after time that I realised the real person I was. This is who I am. The woman I meet has to accept me how I come. I’m not going to change.”
Stephen nodded, unable to do anything else. There was a knock on the door, and Lucas entered. He took one look at the mess then left.
“I guess we’re meeting elsewhere.” James left him to go find Lucas. Stephen grabbed his cell phone to call Ursula. He needed to hear her voice.
The call carried on without answering. When it went to voice-mail he hung up and re-dialled her number. She answered on the third ring.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hi, it’s just me. I wanted to check in.”
“You couldn’t stay away too long. Are you missing me?” she asked.
He glanced around the room, his temper calming down the moment she began to talk. “You have no idea how much I’m missing you. How come you couldn’t get to the phone?”
“I was sucked into college work. I have this paper to write. When I get interested in it, I can’t do anything but work. That’s the way I am.” She chuckled.
“I’m glad.”
“My sister is going to be at my parents’ next weekend. She wants to meet you.”
“It should be fun,” he said. Every word she spoke allowed him the chance to completely calm down.
“Yeah? What if you see her and decide you like her more than me?”
“That would never be possible.” He knew there was no other woman on the planet for him.
“How do you know?” she asked. Stephen heard the doubt in her voice.
“When I’m with you do you really think I could pass you over for someone else?”
“You haven’t met her.”
He sighed. “She wasn’t the woman who came for the job interview to clean my house. Also, she hasn’t put up with my temper and made me work for a conversation. You do all of those things.”
“What about sex?”
“Are you seeking a compliment?” he asked.
“Always.”
He laughed at her playful tone. “If you’re ever in doubt of my affection, touch the pendant I gave you.”
There was rustling, and he knew she was touching the necklace. “It is a beautiful necklace.”
“I would not give that to any woman in my life. I gave it to you.” He sensed her smile down the line.
“Will it always be like this?” she asked.
“Yes. The only difference between now and the future is I’ll be sitting by you when we’re talking.”
James came to the door and gestured for him to hurry up.
“I’ve got to go. I’ll be home soon.”
“Okay, I’ll miss you.”
He hung up wanting to say so much more to her. Stephen shut the phone then walked out the door to find James waiting for him.
“Are you okay?” James asked.
Stephen nodded. “I’ll get by. Are they all here?”
“Yes,” James said. Stephen followed the other man out of the room then down the hall. They were inside a small room with a pool table. Cadeon sat at the bar nursing a beer. Tate and Kevin looked worried.
All the men stood when he entered.
“What’s going on? We heard you went to see Rebecca. What’s going on?” Kevin asked.
“It would seem Lloyd Black has other business ventures,” Stephen said. “He was involved with Dominic in some way, and he’s going to do everything he can to bring down the two clubs.”
Cadeon took a long swig of his beer.
“But he signed one of those forms keeping the club protected,” Sean said as way of an argument.
“You’ve met Lloyd. Do you really think he’d give a shit about a piece of paper? He’s in prison. If he can feed the police or someone any information about this place then that is his escape clause.”
They all looked shocked. Stephen was past shocked. He had no clues about what to do. His father would know, but he wasn’t his father.
“Then we need to link him to Dominic and the underhand dealings,” Tate said.
“How are we going to do that? It would be our word against his. When he blows the lid off this place we’d be nothing but suspects in anything they wanted to throw at us. Wealthy businessmen in the line of fire sells newspapers and promotes people. You all know this,” Stephen said.
“I’ve got contacts in the police force as well as other places. I can keep this story out of the paper, but it will require payment along with membership,” Lucas said.
“Membership? This club is supposed to be exclusive. No one is supposed to know it exists,” Stephen yelled.
All the men snorted at his statement.
“Exclusive? Stephen, I knew about you and this club many years before I even met you. Your club stays quiet and out of the media because there are men who want in,” Lucas said.
Stephen glanced around at all the men. He noticed James smiling. “Is what he says true?”
“Yes. Our clubs remain but a rumour among most people, but then most rumours have a slight edge of truth. It doesn’t take a person long to find out what is the truth and what is not.”
“Then we do what we can. I need to talk to my lawyer about Lloyd.” Stephen stood, running his fingers through his hair.
“I’ll reach out to my contacts. I’ll see what I can do,” Lucas said.
The others spoke in agreement. Stephen made sure to announce to the members present in the club the danger they might be in. Several men offered their services to try to help the club while others left without the intention of returning. Stephen noted all the men who left and would dissolve their membership. Anyone who left without offering assistance was not a true Owner. His club would remain for the true possessives, like his father had kept it before him.
He left early to make it home with enough time to spend with Ursula. The weekend was looking up, but he still had much to do. His only consolation was his woman.
She stood in his kitchen frying up some chicken. Her smile greeted him as he circled her waist and held her close. He inhaled her scent, and all of his worries disappeared into the night.
Chapter Fourteen
One week later
Ursula glanced over at Stephen as he drove down the long country road to her family’s house. They lived in a four bedroom house along a country road. The whole place was usually dead, but with the sudden injection of cash the street was busy.
“What are you thinking?” she asked when he had to stop suddenly.
“I’ve never driven along a busy country road before.”
“Your eyes are going to be wide open by the end of today.” She flicked through a map trying to do something with her hands. Her nerves were getting the better of her. She was in love with him, and she hoped her parents liked him. Glancing back over at him, she hoped he liked her parents. The more she thought about their differences socially, the more she felt their relationship was a bad idea.
You can’t back down now. You’re in love with him.
She shut off the thought instantly. They hadn’t spoken about love. She toyed with the pendant between her breasts. Every time she had doubts, she’d seek out the piece of jewellery he’d given her.
“You’re treating me like a snob,” he said.
“I’m sorry. I’m judging you before we’ve even got there.”
“Cadeon’s woman, Violet, came from a lot less.” He took her hand, kissing her knuckles while the traffic stopped.
“What
do you mean?” she asked. The smallest touch of his lips made her pussy tighten. They’d made love that morning. She didn’t understand the feelings inside her. Her parents were protective of one another. Did they feel this need to be part of the other’s life? They must; they were married.
“Violet was hidden away by her mother in order to protect her. She had a very protective upbringing in an unconventional sense.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Her mother was a prostitute. She hid Violet away so she didn’t have the same life as her. Cadeon loves her regardless. Don’t judge me, Ursula. Seeing this part of you is refreshing. I want to know who you are.”
“You always say the right things.”
He smiled then turned his attention back to the road. She watched him for a few more moments. He hadn’t spoken any words of love. Cadeon loved Violet, and he could overlook her past. Did Stephen love her? He cared about her; she couldn’t deny that. Love was different. She knew not to expect loving words. Paul had never spoken them to her. She had never spoken them to him either.
“Stop being nervous.”
“I’m not.” She chuckled, taking a deep breath as he pulled up against the road to where she pointed.
“This is your house?” he asked.
“My parents’ house. They own it. Well, they’re paying a mortgage and all. This is where I used to live before I moved out.” The door opened, and Caroline stood wearing a really tight jumper. “Here we go. Are you ready?”
“Never better. Can I leave my car on the side of the road?” She gazed at him and saw him smiling. He got out of the car laughing. He walked round the car to help her out.
“I couldn’t resist,” he said.
“I’ve never seen you this perky.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, nuzzling her neck.
“I’ve never been to meet the parents. This is a novelty I’m going to enjoy.” She laughed then sobered up when she saw all of her family waiting for her.
“Here we go.”
Ruby rushed out to them embracing her in a bear hug. “I’m so pleased you came.”