“I did nothing,” I utter, trying to steer my nerves to calmer place.
“Well clearly you did,” Cassidy snipes and throws the dress at me.
It’s entirely made of an unusual material and immediately I know I’m holding an Elie Saab original. His dresses have always been my favorite, long before Clara dressed me in them. It’s light in color, a pop of bright peach, and hangs loosely apart from the silk ribbon around the waist, pulling it in for definition. The moment I look up I have a makeup artist telling me what color eye shadow would look divine with it, which lip color would make me pop.
Shortly after I’m finished, I grab myself a glass of champagne. Now I’m dolled up, makeup and hair ready, the dress waiting to be worn, and I feel talons of nerves begin to flick at me, gripping me tightly. I allow the alcohol to drain into my system, not stopping at all.
I watch Luca from my spot across the room. She panders to every one of Cassidy’s whims like a panting puppy at her feet. She laughs at ever joke, answers every question, tries to evolve to be a miniature version of Cassidy. It sickens me. If I knew this would all unravel I would never have just abandoned the club, my position, them.
Brianna comes over and sits with me. She doesn’t speak, just hands me another glass of champagne. We sit in equal silence, no longer is it awkward and wary between us. We’re back on an even tandem with one another. I’ve forgiven and forgotten her sins, and she holds none over me.
“Luca told me my leaving is what changed everything for all of you girls.” I gaze down at my hands. “I’m sorry for that.”
Brianna puts her hand onto mine. “It changed it, sure, but it just hastened the speed of something already set in motion.” She gives my hand a squeeze, and I force myself to look up. “Clara just used her anger toward your disappearance as a reason to tighten the reign on us. She gets full reward for making that club what every man wants. There are no limitations.”
I bite my lip, wondering if this is unchartered territory I shouldn’t approach, but I need to. “Have you ever been forced into my old room?” I ask, and I feel a thunder of anticipation rumble through me. My old room is like some torture chamber now. Cassidy seems to love domination, but when it comes to clients she loves the submission, so the room is clearly fit for her. I just wanted to know how many men are that way inclined with their fetishes and fantasies.
“Once,” she counts, holding her index finger up at me. “I made such a lousy submissive to him, he cut the session short and threw me out,” she chortles at her own disapproval. “Too disobedient for him, and he couldn’t even tolerate it! Not like Christian Grey,” she muses teasingly. “That man loved a disobedient wench. Some men just don’t know a good thing when they get it.”
I have to laugh. This is like the old Brianna. The woman she was before she was riddled with devilish bargains and addictive substances. She has that pizzazz and I-just-don’t-care attitude. If a man didn’t want her, she never lost any sleep over it. She never saw it as her loss and clearly that part of her has never changed.
“Cassidy is the one they all want,” Brianna admonishes and screws her faced up. “Don’t know why. The girl grunts when she comes. It’s not a turn on.” Brianna laughs loudly when I look at her in horror. “It’s true! She’s so loud when I was at her apartment block before with Alex, she was with some man she picked up in a bar and it was all night long and just grunt and groans. She never got a second date.”
“I think that’s more to do with her personality,” I counter and shrug, trying to keep myself from laughing.
“God, I’ve missed you!” Brianna declares and suddenly throws her arms around me, tightening them around my body. “I love having you back, but you need some meat on your bones. I’m sure Jace won’t like you this skinny.”
“I don’t get a social life remember. I’m in the pit until opening hours and back in there when we close. I don’t get proper food. Only what Eli brings me.”
“I think that’ll change after tonight. Why else would Clara have you dressed to the nines, looking gorgeous and ready to bring you to a party?”
Total humiliation is my first thought, but then I wonder if there’s been so much interest in me being a client’s Viper Girl that maybe, just maybe, she wants to reinstate me permanently. It’d sure make a better living than I’m in right now. I have to take small mercies where I can.
“C’mon,” Brianna gestured. “Let’s go get our dresses on. Like old times.”
Like old times. That hits me hard. We used to be at our peak with the club, now we’re both the ones who occupy the bottom level of the viper chain. We used to rule the roost without unwittingly knowing we did it. We used to have power and attention, now we’re just pushed aside and forgotten. So this time I decide to give myself to the old times and allow Brianna to grab our dresses, so we can get changed and help one another with the finishing touches.
We face away, but when we both have the dresses on, we’re each other’s first to give the nod of approval. Brianna looks magnificent in this cream dress. I look at myself and worry about the dress I’m in. I’m not sure if it’s a bribe or something to soften whatever blow Clara is powering up for.
She ushers me out of the back room excitedly, and we walk the small corridor. Already I feel my heels pinching slightly and remind myself why I hate brand new high heels I haven’t chosen. I feel my body prickle with coldness, panicking over the others’ reaction to how clients will react tonight.
When I come out into the main room of the salon, I have to admit I feel a million dollars, and apparently from the silent gawps of everyone, I look it. It’s the first time I feel attractive since getting dressed up to free my husband. I needed this to get through the party with the same feeling.
“Well apparently you do scrub up well,” Cassidy sneers, as even she’s unable to truly cuss me down. “The drivers are here, so at least you didn’t make us late.”
The attention disappears as she leads the herd of girls out of the salon and to the awaiting cars. Brianna and I just follow up behind them all and go for the last car. When I climb in, I’m satisfied to see Benson driving, and he gives me an approving nod. I relax back and allow the journey back to the venue fade away.
I don’t even realize I’m walking to the backroom of the building until I’m inside and the hubbub is overwhelming. I just get lost in the operation being run in this room, readying us girls into our order and it begins – the introductions of Clara Delvine’s prestigious Viper Girls. It’s all happening so much faster than I remember, and I don’t have time to fully panic right now.
As the crowd of Viper Girl diminishes, I linger around and wait as Brianna leaves the room to make her entrance. I’m given the signal and make my way to the door. I run my hands over the dress, felling all the embroidery beneath my palms and take one final breath as I hear it.
"I'd like to reintroduce you to Joely Gilbert!"
Clara’s voice is boomingly loud and in its usual dominant manner. As I follow the sound of her introduction, I am met with a crowd far larger than any I have walked out on before. The number of members Clara has acquired has more than doubled since my last party, and it’s taken me getting this reintroduction to see it.
“I know a lot of you are surprised to see my former head Viper Girl here,” she begins to say as I approach her, but I slow as I’m confused by this part. “I managed to wrangle my runaway viper with a deal she just couldn’t deny – was too good to pass up. Right now, she’s my disgrace, but I know a lot of you would like a girl who’s not got a lot to lose. Hell, you’d like to work with the dog of the club just to help get her in my good graces.” She then claps her hands together. “Trust me, she needs all the help she can get. You knew her as the best, now you can get her at a considerably reduced rate.”
It started as one short chuckle at my own expense then the masses joined in. Everyone starts to howl in laughter at her insulting manner. I look around, feeling trapped by the chortling crowds and there a
re only a few who aren’t finding this hilarious. Everyone is staring at me, and I feel like I’m shrinking in size.
I don’t hang around. I run away from the room as fast as I possibly can. I don’t care about being in heels or a designer dress. I don’t care about the all the eyes on me. It all becomes real to me. I am the disgrace. The embarrassment. I am the outcast. The club’s dirty girl and now everyone knows it. The Boss made sure of that.
I am The Runaway Viper. It’s now official.
***
I’ve been unable to hold my head high since last night. I’ve been beaten by the ridicule I received all night. So much so I cut the evening short and left before I should have. I tolerated as many backhanded comments and inappropriate touches as I could before I bailed. Ever since, my confidence has taken a nosedive.
Now I’m standing in the club, by the bar, clientless and dressed in a sheer jumpsuit. It’s lacy and just about covers my nipples with a bit of modesty. Regardless of what she did, I’m still not prepared for what might happen after Clara approved of the outfit I chose from the pile she had given me. She hasn’t mentioned last night’s events, and it’s almost like she wiped the slate clean.
It does nothing for the nausea that washes over me again and now as she approaches me, she has that look in her eyes that only increases the uneasy feeling in me. The one so full of fire and malice. Her lips pout as she begins to speak, and she tells me I have a client. I nod and turn to go find him in booth six.
Except I don’t move. When I clock him I don’t go toward him, seduction clocking me falsely. I flee. I turn and run because my flight and fight response are screaming one thing – RUN! RUN! RUN! It’s Sam who stops me. He’s like a wall of concrete persuasion separating me from some wanted warped sanctum and the nightmare behind me. I look up at him, my eyes trailing up his chest. It’s with every centimeter higher I go that my heart begins to rapidly race. I feel the pain increase in my chest as panic and anxiety start a frenzy throughout my body and I feel my legs turn to jelly. When I meet his gaze, it’s cold and stony. He’s bearing down; challenging my soul to take another step further out of line and all I do is gulp.
“I think the club’s back that way,” he whispers to me, pointing in the opposite direction over my shoulder. When I hesitate a moment too long, he forces me to turn around and when I do, I’m met with Clara, her face so full of thunder.
“Please, Clara,” I begin to beg her. The nausea I’ve been suppressing all day arises and I have to hold my breath for a second before continuing. “Don’t do this. Anything but this.”
“I think Clive is the least of your worries. You deserve optimal mistreatment for all you’ve caused this club,” Clara sneers, unhappily to me.
“I’ll pay any other way, but not him,” I speak, my voice disappearing into a slow whisper.
“Yes, him,” Clara states clearly, not backing down. “You’ll be his Viper Girl from now until I say so.”
“What was so bad I deserve this?” I ask, back chatting for a little help at understanding. “You’ve locked me up, chained me up, mentally blackmailed me and now this. What have I done to this club that’s so bad I don’t get to catch a break?”
She laughs in response. “You want to know what they’ve been through?” I just nod, not sure I want to poke the snake and provoke it, but I need to know. “Get into my office now!”
She brushes past me, and I walk toward her office, Sam already holding the door opened. I’m barely within the room when the door shuts and Clara speaks up.
“I’ll let you know everything I changed as a result of you leaving,” she begins with and sits upon her desk. "Your little stunt running off with your beloved made me close ranks on the girls. I allowed men in I never would have before. Men with pasts, men with intent. Before I let only unhappy businessmen in because well, my husband was one, and I never managed to make him content in all our six years together. Now I let men in who need a real release. Those who need a physical one." She pauses as if the memory is still so horrified she's still living with it as a reminder. Finally, I see her weaken at the treatment us girls have to endure. "Luca was the first to get a man like that. He had so much anger, and he went too far. She wound up like you had once, Joely - hospitalized, battered, bruised." Clara offers another harrowing silence between us. "Except she came back a different woman. She knew the reason she was chosen by him was because she was docile and meek in comparison to the other girls. He wanted to break her." She laughs mirthlessly. "I suppose he did. She's been the most obediently perfect girl since. I only made Cassidy head girl to make her shut up. Stupid girl threatened to go to the officials."
My mind reels on the thought of anyone laying a hand on Luca. She will, even now, always be my first girl to free. I remember the passive, unassuming girl who sat at Clara’s desk, terrified and scared of what she had just done.
"Of course, the new turn of events only got us a lot more attention from wealthier men. The accounts thrived, I had the chance to up my game, and I did. This place might be darker than it was, but my clients are at their happiest now. There aren't any areas we neglect anymore, Joely. A man can make you into whatever the hell he wants, and I won't ever bat an eyelash. Just you see."
I want to beg with her again. I want to bargain with getting another client, but I know she won’t budge. Before she may have, but now, I stand no chance against The Boss. She is out to see me pay, and I thought I had, but apparently it was only the start.
“Do you need to know anything more or is that tiny insight enough?” she asks me so bitterly, and I dread to think what else has happened behind the doors of The Viper Rooms, so I turn away from it blindly and shake my head. “I thought not. Now I suggest you get out there and offer Clive Bennett the night of his life.” She flicks her hand in dismissal but doesn’t dismiss me completely. “Or you’ll be sleeping outside.”
With her final words I am ripped from the room, thrown back into a dangerous game of being an empty vessel for men who have more feeling than they should. I’m supposed to be the emotionless one in these relationships, but I can’t do it. I can’t switch myself off.
I realize that now as I walk as confidently back to the club as I possibly can. When I enter, I see Clive propped up at the bar, drumming his thick fingers against the wood. He spots me, and as he beams at me, I take the slow death over to him.
“Evening, Mr Bennett,” I comment compliantly and politely.
“Ah, Joely Gilbert, you finally came back to me,” he comments, a small ounce of mirth suffocating his tone.
This is the beginning of my end. As his arms snake around me I remember our first meeting. It had been a long time ago since I last envisioned his face. I had been clouded by Jace and a blissful life. Now it was right in front of me, smiling with evil glee and staring at me with those menacingly intent-filled eyes.
This is why I ran. This is my body screaming at me not to stay here. I never wanted to feel his hands on me again. I never wanted to feel how violent one hold of his could be again. As his hand grasps onto my hip, he squeezes so hard I feel the pain go bone deep. I close my eyes and bite my lip as to not yelp out loud in pain.
"It's been a while," he speaks so lowly into my ear, the seduction palpates from him, and I'm physically disgusted. He goes to kiss me and I instinctively move away. Like all pain receptors my body is screaming at me to move away from possible hurt, but Clara sets into mind, and I know I have no right to pull away. I have no right to deny Clive what he wants from me.
Even if it means I end up like I did before.
"I've got to say I have missed you," he continues, oozing with disputation all over again. "No other girl feels quite the same as you do when I dance with them at the parties."
His words send a hummingbird of panic through me. Each note thrumming upon parts of me that have lived for so long silent and abandoned. Clive awakens parts of me I never wanted to know, and I never wanted to hear the distant howl of fear so haunting and tortured,
but it's there, being released into the abyss of my unwilling behavior. I have to live with it’s beseeching torment.
I gaze over his shoulder, trying to steer my vision from Eli and find myself met with Josh and my brother. I weaken, even physically lose the ability to breathe for a minute, and I feel trapped. Eli and Josh know of Clive, know what he did to me, but Spencer doesn’t. I’m sure he will soon.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Eli interrupts Clive’s advances, and I break away from him. “Joely, you’re eight o’clock is here. Clara ordered you welcome all clients the moment they arrive.” He says so as he places a bottle of champagne upon a silver tray and three glasses. “It looks like you’re nine o’clock is there too. Clara won’t like you ignoring their entrance.”
“You’re right,” I say and grin. Clara never made that order this time, but I love Eli for implementing it to give me a moment of respite and an incentive to make it through the hour with Clive. I apologize to Clive and quickly take the drinks tray and head over to the table.
“Your drinks, Mr Phillips and Mr. Smith,” I play my part as Shads walks past.
“Why were you with that bastard?” Josh asks as I offer them a bottle of champagne. It was originally Clara’s orders for all of my clients to receive a welcome and a drink until I’m a fully initiated girl. “After he nearly killed you and you’re schmoozing him?”
I see Spencer bridle at the sound of that, and I know he’s still pretty clueless to the events that led up to Jace literally having to kidnap me. I try to keep a brave face on and just grin. I won’t give anything away even if I want to break out in dread.
“I don’t get a choice,” I tell him with a watery gaze. “She’s given me my orders. He’s my client now.”
Josh leans in across the table. “You get a choice for your own safety, Joely!” Josh’s anger is only mounting, and I can see from the redness of his face, he’s only going to madden. “Jace will not stand for any of this.”
The Runaway Viper (Viper #2) Page 16