“Let me go,” I mumbled against the hand, kicking my legs as I tried to get away. I heard a chair drag against the floor behind me, and then I was thrown down onto it. Mateo rested his hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place. “Please?” I begged, looking at Sebastian as tears ran down my cheeks.
He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head slowly. “Fucking hell, Tessa.”
“I thought her name was Scarlett?” Tony asked.
“Stage name,” Sebastian clarified. “Tessa here is my angel.”
“Your angel?” Xavier asked.
“My pure, sweet Tessa.” Sebastian ran his hand over my cheek, and I swallowed.
“Please just let me go,” I begged again, looking up into his dark blue eyes.
“I can’t do that,” Sebastian answered and stepped back, running his hands through his perfectly styled hair, and began to pace.
“Why not?” I looked at the dead body next to me. “I won’t tell anyone. You know that.”
Sebastian moved in front of me and bent at the knees. “While that may be true, I can’t take the chance. Murder will cost me more than a drug charge, Tessa Baby.”
My stomach coiled at the name. “Please? Melony and I will just leave. I won’t tell her or anyone.”
He stood and looked at Mateo. “Get rid of Melony.”
“No!” I screamed.
“I’m not going to kill her, Tessa,” Sebastian stated, and then looked back at Mateo. “Get her in a car and have her leave.”
I kept my mouth shut, hoping and praying she wouldn’t question why she was leaving without me. Hoping and praying she’d actually leave and hoping and praying I wasn’t a dead woman.
Mateo left, and Tony took his place, placing a hand on my shoulder. His grip was firmer as he pressed down, actually restraining me. Mateo had simply placed his hand on my shoulder. This was harder, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like any of it, and I just wanted to go home and wake up from the nightmare.
“Please!” I begged again. “Just let me go.”
“I can’t do that,” Sebastian repeated and started to pace again. “But I’m not exactly sure what to do with you.”
“Just kill her and get it over with,” Tony suggested.
“No!” I shouted. “Please, I have a son.”
Sebastian stopped in front of me. “How did I not know you have a son?”
“Because I go to work, dance, and leave. I don’t gossip, and I keep to myself. Melony only knows I have a son because …” I stopped myself from reminding him she was my neighbor because I feared he would still do something to her.
“Because why?” he asked.
“Because she’s my best friend.”
“She’s the one who got you the job at Red Diamond, right?” Sebastian questioned.
I nodded.
He bobbed his head. “That’s right. Makes sense that the two girls who don’t do extras are best friends.”
“Please, just let me go. I swear I’ll never tell anyone.”
“I can’t do that,” Sebastian affirmed. “I’m not a stupid man, Tessa.”
I sniffed, my tears still streaming down my face. I was fucking stupid. Why had I gone into an area alone in a drug dealer’s house? I’d seen enough TV to tell me that was senseless, and yet I fucking did it. All because I wanted to see a bathroom? God, I was an idiot.
“You know what women are for,” Tony cut in. “Use that to your advantage.”
I looked up at him, confused by what he meant.
“Yeah, keep her up here and fuck her,” Xavier chimed in. “I bet her pussy just might send you to heaven.”
“No, please!” I shouted and tried to struggle against Tony’s hold on me. He held my shoulder tighter, and then placed a hand on the other, forcing me down harder.
“Will everyone shut the fuck up so I can think?” Sebastian bellowed.
“I’ll take her,” Tony stated. “I have an entire warehouse of whores ready for Mexico.”
Sebastian stepped forward, getting in Tony’s face, finger pointed at him. “You are not taking her. She’s mine. Do you fucking understand?”
“Fine, but you have a house full of people, and now two bodies on your hands—one of them dead, so you better figure your shit out before someone else walks in here.”
“Please,” I begged again, this time as a whisper. “My son’s autistic and he needs me.”
Mateo walked back into the room.
“The girl leave?” Sebastian asked.
Mateo nodded. “Took some coercing, but yes. Told the driver to take the long way home, too.”
“Good. See, Tessa,” Sebastian cupped my cheek, “Mel’s fine.”
“But I’m not,” I whispered.
“You’ll be fine, Tessa Baby.”
“Will I?”
Sebastian smiled tightly. “I hope so.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Please, just let me go.”
He sighed. “No can do.”
I looked up at him. “But my son.”
He thought for a moment then stepped back, barking orders. “Mateo, get the car. You two,” he pointed at two guys, “clean this shit up.”
“Where are you going?” Tony asked.
Sebastian looked at me and smiled. “To get Tessa’s son.”
“No!” I shrieked.
He brushed my hair behind my shoulder, and I tried to shrug him off. “Don’t worry. You’re going too. Mi casa es tu casa.”
“What?” I whispered.
“My house is your house.”
“I know what you said, but I don’t understand.”
“I can’t let you go, so that means we’re getting your son and you’re moving in here.”
I stared up at him. “For how long?”
“Indefinitely.”
“No.” I started to sob harder.
“Don’t worry, Tessa Baby. I’m going to take good care of you.”
One hour turned into two.
Then two became three, and by the fourth hour, I still hadn’t heard from Tessa. I’d texted her a few times with no text back. No call. Nothing. I didn’t have Melony’s number, didn’t have Sophia’s either. But knowing that Tessa had a stalker made me worry. Did something happen to her and Melony on their way home? Tessa had said she’d text me when they were leaving her boss’s house. Were they still there? I never thought I would be driving to my girlfriend’s place at midnight to see if she was home, worried she was kidnapped, or hell, just blowing me off.
When I got to Tessa’s, I noticed the living room light that usually shined through the window by the front door was off. I knocked. There was no answer. I knocked again. Nothing. I tried calling Tessa’s phone again, hoping to at least hear her phone inside so that I’d know she was okay and probably passed out drunk, but I didn’t hear anything. I knocked again, this time harder. Still nothing.
“Vinny!” I heard my name, looking over to see Melony rushing out of her apartment.
“Hey,” I replied. “Where’s Tessa?” As Melony ran to me, I noticed that she’d been crying. “What’s wrong?”
“Tessa—”
“Where is she?” I asked, placing my hands on Melony’s shoulders and looking down into her tear-stained eyes.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Sebastian’s bodyguard—”
“Who’s Sebastian?”
“Our boss.”
“Right. I saw his bodyguard the night of the fight.”
Melony nodded. “Yeah, and he made me leave. Made me leave without Tessa.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” she cried.
“Where’s Colton?”
“Sophia said that Tessa came and got him before I got back.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know what’s going on. The driver took forever to get me here, and then when I arrived, I stopped by Tessa’s, and no one was there. I went to Sop
hia’s, and she said that Tessa came and took Colton. Why would Tessa take Colton somewhere at this hour?”
“Where’s Sophia?” There was no reason for Tessa to take Colton anywhere at this hour unless he was sick. I needed to check with Sophia.
She pointed at Sophia’s apartment. “Home.”
I walked to Sophia’s door and knocked, not caring that it was midnight. Sophia watched Colton until two-thirty in the morning on Friday and Saturdays, and I was hoping she was still awake.
When she answered the door a few moments later, her eyes widened. “Vinny!”
“Hey, Sophia. Do you know where Tessa went?”
She shook her head. “No. She came in with a guy—”
“A guy?” I asked, raising my voice in concern—and anger.
She nodded slightly. “A man I’d never seen before. She also looked like she’d been crying.”
“What?” I bellowed.
“She took clothes with her.”
I looked over at Melony. “What the fuck is going on?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. She went to the bathroom at the party and never came back.”
I dug my wallet out, pulled out my S&R business card, and handed it to Sophia. “If she comes back, call me. If you hear anything, call me.”
“Do you think she’s in danger?” she asked.
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I hope not. Call me if you hear anything.”
Sophia nodded, and I stepped back as she closed her door.
“What are we going to do?” Melony asked.
I took another deep breath. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” she cried.
“Me either,” I admitted. I’d thought Tessa and I were good—moving forward. Now I wasn’t so sure. But, it didn’t make sense. Why would she stay and Melony leave when they went together? Why was she crying? Why did she take Colton? I had too many questions and no answers.
“Can I give you my number in case you hear anything from her? I’m really worried.”
“Yeah, I’ll give you mine too.” I pulled out my phone, and we exchanged numbers. “Do you think he kidnapped her?”
Melony blinked and then motioned for me to go inside her place. “Want to go inside?”
“Yeah.” I walked inside, and she closed the door as I sat on her couch.
“Sorry, I don’t want the neighbors to hear anything else.”
I chuckled sarcastically. “Besides someone being kidnapped?”
She sat in the chair beside the couch. “Our boss doesn’t just own Red Diamond. He’s also a drug dealer.”
“Of course he is,” I stated and rolled my eyes. In the years I’d been escorting—especially in Vegas—I’d seen it all, or at least I assumed I had. I didn’t do drugs or any of that shit, but some of my clients were into Molly or whatever else they needed to get high to have a good time and relax. I’d also been to my share of strip clubs in my day, and seen drug deals go down.
“What do you mean?”
“Most strip clubs are fronts for drugs and shit.”
“I wouldn’t know any of that. This is my first club to dance at.”
“Then how do you know he deals?”
“Because some of the girls do too.”
“Does Tess?”
“No! We only dance. Tessa apparently didn’t know about the drugs before tonight.”
“Then why the fuck did she get Colt and go back to your boss’s house?”
“Maybe she didn’t?”
“Then where would she go? Who was she with?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “She got uncomfortable when she found out tonight about the drugs and the fact that Sebastian’s a drug dealer.”
I looked off, staring at the TV that was off. I needed to find Tessa. Something wasn’t right, and I was worried. We had plans. She wouldn’t make plans and then go with another guy. She didn’t even like when her boss called her Tessa Baby and now she was …
She was what? Spending the night? There was no way.
“Is the party still going on?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Let’s go there.”
“Really?”
“If something’s going on, I want to know.”
“What if he’s dangerous?”
I took another long breath and leaned back on the couch, thinking. “Actually,” I shot up, “I know the FBI.”
“What?”
“My buddy just married an FBI agent. We’ll get them involved.”
“Okay.”
“Fuck,” I groaned, rubbing my hands down my face. “They’re on their honeymoon.”
“Shit.”
“But,” I snapped my fingers, “her friend is here, and he’s a cop.”
“Okay.”
“Though, he’s not Metro.” I sighed. “Should we call Metro?”
“I don’t know, Vinny. I’ve never dealt with this shit before.”
“Neither have I.”
“What if she did it on her own?”
“Did what?”
Melony shrugged. “I don’t know. Decided to stay the night?”
“We had plans,” I informed her. “I was supposed to stay the night. Plus, Sophia said she looked like she had been crying.”
“Right. She mentioned that.”
“So, she’s not doing this on her own,” I stated. “Something’s not right.”
“You think he kidnapped her?”
I shook my head slowly, thinking with a long sigh. “It’s the only explanation.”
“But why? He has an entire house full of people. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Tell me exactly what happened.” I sat back down on the couch and leaned forward, my elbows resting on my knees.
“Nothing happened. We showed up, got a few drinks, saw Sebastian for a minute while he introduced us to his friends he was walking with. Then we went to watch a pool tournament, saw our friends from Red Diamond, and hung out for a while. Tessa wanted to leave, and so did I, so she told me to get an Uber while she went to the bathroom. I was standing outside when this guy came up and told me to leave.”
“Told you to leave?”
Melony shrugged. “He was nice about it, but I told him I was waiting for Tessa. He said that she wasn’t coming, and when I questioned why I had to leave, he just told me that I needed to leave now.”
“So you did? Just like that?”
“No, of course not. I told him I wasn’t leaving without Tessa, but then the Uber arrived and next thing I knew, I was being picked up and put into the car. Physically picked up by this guy and put into the backseat. Then the driver left and went the long fucking way home. I tried calling Tessa over and over, but she never answered, and I didn’t have your number.”
“Something must have happened. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“What would have happened? We were drinking and watching pool.”
“I have no fucking clue.”
“So, what do we do?”
“I’m going to go talk to my friend Seth.” We weren’t close, but I’d hung out with him at the fight and while we got ready for Paul’s wedding. Plus, I didn’t know what else to do. If I called Metro, what would I say? My girlfriend came home, got some clothes and I assumed went back to her boss’s house? From everything I’d seen on TV and the movies, once a person was kidnapped, they stayed hidden. They didn’t go home to get an overnight bag.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No. Stay here in case she comes back.”
“Right.” She sighed. “This is too surreal.”
I grabbed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. “I know, but I’m going to fucking find her. I’ll be damned if the first woman I fall in love with disappears.”
She smiled slowly. “You love her?”
I blinked, not realizing I’d actually said the L word. I’d never been in love before, but what I felt for Tessa had to be love. Thinking abou
t her hurt, kidnapped, or dead made my heart fucking ache and I didn’t fucking like it. I wanted those butterflies girls talked about. I wanted to laugh with Tessa, hold her, kiss her, make love to her again. I wanted to cook breakfast and dinner for her and Colton, and everything in between.
I wanted them.
I wanted them back.
“Yeah, I do,” I admitted. “I love them both.”
Her smile widened. “I can’t wait for you to tell her.”
I stared into her blue eyes. “Me, too.”
I wasn’t going to think about the fact that I might never get to tell her. I was going to think positively. I knew a fucking FBI agent for Christ’s sake, and if that didn’t count for something, I didn’t know what would. I needed to find them and tell them, maybe get their help and advice. Or I could walk into a drug dealer’s house and find Tessa myself.
That was going to be plan B.
I dropped my hands and moved to the door. “Call me if you hear from her.”
“You, too.”
“I will.”
As I walked down the stairs toward my SUV, I dialed Gabe. I didn’t know where Paul lived anymore. When he quit S&R, he moved out of the house he and Gabe had shared when they transferred to Vegas from L.A.
“Vin?” Gabe answered, groggy.
“I need your help.” I slid into my car.
“At this hour?”
“Tessa’s missing.”
“What do you mean Tessa’s missing?”
I cranked the engine, and after a few moments, the call transferred to my car speakers. “It’s a long story, but I need to find Joss or Seth.”
“Not possible.”
I put my car in reverse and pulled out of the space. “Why not? I know Paul and Joss are on their honey—”
“Yes, but …” He paused for a moment. “Shit. Look, tomorrow afternoon the mission starts.”
“Their undercover mission?” I asked, turning onto the street in the direction of Gabe’s because that was the only place I knew.
“Yeah.”
“So? That’s not tonight. I need their help tonight.”
“I don’t know where they are. Paul just told me that Monday the mission starts and he’d be off the grid until it was over. He couldn’t give me any details.”
“Fuck!” I slammed my hand against the steering wheel. “What do I do?”
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