Vincent clearly felt more passionate about getting back to Kansas City. “Fucking Kentucky.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
The Secret to All Made Men
I love you. Those three little words Vincent had told her hadn’t left her since he had spoken them. It was the most unexpected thing. Vincent Vitale was not a man born to love. He had told her not to say it back, and she hadn’t because her body, mind, and heart were torn on how to feel about him.
She watched Vincent slide the card through the slot. “If you have to go straight to work, why can’t I go home?”
“The deal was you stay with me.” He barely opened the door for her to enter, making her squeeze by him. “And I want you here when I get off work.”
Lake’s body heated, understanding what he meant. Okay, maybe my body isn’t that torn.
“What am I supposed to do, helplessly wait for you? You don’t even have a TV, and that’s really freaking weird.”
“I just haven’t gotten around to that part yet, and I have a computer that’s perfectly fine to watch stuff on. It doesn’t matter. I have a surprise for you anyway.” He headed up the stairs to get dressed.
Surprise? She followed him when he disappeared, going to his open closet door after him.
“You can’t tell me you have a surprise then walk aw—” Her eyes drifted to the end of the closet which had her black dress, a couple of other dresses beside it. “Whose are those, Kim’s?” Her eyes started to water.
Vincent finished pulling his shirt off. “What are you talking about?”
“Those dresses. You fucked Kim again, didn’t you? I’m not experienced enough for you, am I?” She wiped at the tear that slid down her cheek.
“Lake, those are new dresses I bought for you while you were gone. The tags are still on them.” He came over and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. “I never fucked Kim. When you came in that bathroom that day and I found out everything, I swear to you, I haven’t wanted to fuck anyone besides you, baby. I love the fact that the only experience you have is with me. Baby, you are more than enough for me. When I told you I love you, I meant it.” He lightly kissed her forehead. “Now, why would you say that? Kim told you that, didn’t she?”
She moved her eyes down to his chest, unwilling to tell him and unable to lie.
“That’s why you left, wasn’t it?” He tugged at her hair.
Partly. Lake still couldn’t tell him, but she didn’t have to; it was written all over her face.
Her head slightly leaned back when he came down to kiss her, giving him a better position to claim her. She placed her hands on his bare chest, causing her to melt into him. They had spent too long apart, and her body was craving his.
“You don’t have to work, do you?”
Vincent placed another kiss on her lips. “I do, baby, but I promise I will be back.”
She hated the loss she felt when he went back to getting dressed, but she didn’t mind watching him strip down, either. Damn, he’s perfect.
When he started putting on a nice suit, it reminded her where he was going.
“Why do you have to work in the casino? Aren’t there a million other jobs you could do?” She didn’t think the mafia lacked job positions, and thinking about Vincent working with half-naked women when she wasn’t down there anymore made her a little jealous, which she really hated.
Vincent took her hand after he straightened his tie. “There is nothing for you to be worried about.”
She started following him through the house. “You made it your mission to stop me from working there.” So I shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
“That’s fucking different.”
“No, that’s not!” She jerked her hand from him.
He grabbed her hand back, holding it tighter to where she couldn’t jerk it out again. “Yes, it is. You were wearing lingerie around a bunch of old men.”
“Yeah, and you’re a guy surrounded by a bunch of girls in lingerie.”
“The difference is no one will be thinking about fucking me, and trust me, baby, I’ll be too distracted by thinking about how I plan to fuck you tonight.” He opened his front door.
Lake’s cheeks started burning from his words. She was shocked when he took her into the hall, shutting the door behind him and going to the next door down at the end.
“Where—what are we doing?”
He knocked on the door. “Your surprise, remember?”
Nero opened the door a second later with Elle standing behind him.
“You and Elle can hang out while Nero and I go to work.”
Lake raised her eyebrow at him. “It’s also to make sure I don’t run away again, isn’t it?”
“Of course not.” Vincent leaned down and gave her a kiss, swiping his tongue over her bottom lip and making Lake weak in the knees. “Elle, call me if she even thinks about fucking leaving,” he said, leaning up.
Elle broke hers and Nero’s own kiss, blushing. “I swear.”
“Hey!” Lake pushed at his chest.
Vincent laughed before he stole another kiss from her then pushed her into Nero’s apartment. “Bye.”
Lake crossed her arms and scrunched her nose at him before Nero shut the door. She was still upset he was going to work in the casino and that he thought she needed a babysitter.
“How do you do it? Vincent drives me crazy,” she said, turning to Elle. The two looked so happy together.
Elle giggled. “You haven’t figured out the secret, have you?”
Lake shook her head, wondering what the secret to all made men was.
Elle’s cheeks grew pink again. “You have to let him dominate you.”
Excuse me? “Excuse me?”
“They are um … very aggressive, and you have to accept him.” Elle’s tone changed. “All of him.”
“You do know Vincent’s a psycho, right? He has a very, very bad side, which frankly scares the shit out of me.”
Elle smiled at her. “You’ll learn to love it.”
Her eyes widened, wondering how in the world a girl as sweet as Elle was saying these things. Just when you think you know a person…
It would be a cold day—never—before she was going to let the dark, psychotic side of Vincent dominate her. She shivered merely thinking about it…
Chapter Forty-Eight
In Case of an Emergency
Lake couldn’t believe Nero and Elle lived right beside Vincent. She didn’t know why that shocked her, but she found it kind of cute that childhood best friends lived beside each other. That also explains where Nero always disappears to.
Looking at his beautiful place, she saw it resembled Vincent’s in a way. They both had a modern flare, but Vincent’s was much darker. Nero’s place was black and white, not too dark and not too light. She could tell he had designed it to accommodate not only him but Elle. A lot of the things that had been put in there were for her. It made Lake a little envious; their love seemed so perfect.
Elle was a great person to be around and they got along great, finding themselves to be fast friends. Lake related to Elle in ways she honestly didn’t expect. She didn’t come from a rich family, having to go to Legacy Prep High on a scholarship, and from what she could gather, Dante didn’t care for her much, either. There was something else Lake saw in her, which reminded her of herself, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on it.
“It was hard for me, too, when I first started dating Nero, dealing with all the girls he had been with. I had to see them every day at school,” Elle told her.
Ouch. Lake wondered how in the hell their story had even started. She still didn’t like the thought of Vincent working in the casino. It actually pissed her off the more she thought about it.
“I just don’t think I can get over the fact that he’s freaking working around half-naked women. Does that make me a bad person? How do you deal with it so well?”
Elle blinked, staring at her stupidly. “What did you just say?”
“No … He’s working around half-naked women?” Elle looked hurt.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed you knew when you said Nero had told you I worked for Dante. I was a cocktail waitress in his underground casino.” She didn’t particularly want to tell her the next part. “Down there, girls have to dress in lingerie.”
“All he told me was you worked for Dante and he had to work every day for the next month to keep Vincent from killing people, making it seem like the hardest job on the planet. He didn’t mention anything about being surrounded by girls or lingerie or being half-naked.”
Lake got even madder seeing Elle’s pain. Nero obviously kept that a secret from her for a reason, the same way Vincent was eager to get back to work when she had wanted him to stay and play.
“Fuck them. They are assholes.”
“So, he’s just standing down there watching girls in thongs?” Elle was still trying to comprehend what her boyfriend was calling work. “That’s so unfair. He made me quit the diner because he didn’t like it when I poured guys coffee!”
She didn’t want to tell her what they were doing in their thongs.
“Vincent got pissed when he found out I was working down there, but he doesn’t give a shit that I don’t like him working there. I have a reason to be upset. One’s practically obsessed with him and refuses to cover her tits!”
Elle gasped. “He’s dead!”
Lake looked at Elle, wanting to even the playing field. “You wanna go have some fun?”
* * *
“Bitch, say what?” Sadie picked up her long curls off her neck and quickly put them in a bun.
Vincent had thought it was fair to warn Sadie that Kim was done, but he hadn’t expected Sadie to go after her. He followed behind her as she ran off to one of the rooms in the back.
“Oh, shit! Bitch about to get pimp-slapped!” Amo said enthusiastically as he followed behind Vincent.
“I ain’t fucking missing this.” Nero was right behind him.
I wanted to—he watched Sadie practically kick the door in. Never mind, this is better.
Sadie grabbed the back of Kim’s fake blonde hair, yanking her away from her knees as she was giving a very round, older man a blow job. She pulled her away so hard and quick the man screamed, grabbing his junk then running out of there.
Kim raised her arms above her head, trying to grab on to the hands that were pulling her hair. “Owww!”
Sadie yanked harder, sliding her across the floor and finally pulling out a handful of extensions. “What did you say to Lake, you fucking little whore?!”
Kim’s eyes started to water. “Nothi—”
“Wrong answer, bitch!” Sadie started shoving her blonde extensions in her mouth.
Holy fuck. Vincent felt like he was watching some show on the Discovery Channel where one female killed another in the wild.
Amo and Nero’s faces resembled his gaping mouth and unable-to-even-blink eyes as Kim started choking on her own hair.
Sadie kept forcing it in until the long, blonde hair disappeared.
“It wasn’t enough that I demoted you down to the slutty cum girl, was it?” She forced Kim’s mouth closed, holding it shut and making Kim gag. “I can’t fucking hear you over all the choking you’ll be doing behind trashcans.”
As soon as Sadie let her mouth go, Kim coughed out most of the hair and continued gagging as she cried, trying to get the rest out.
Vincent liked choking people, finding it satisfying, but Sadie took it to another level. Hearing her awful gagging stilled his anger, finding peacefulness in the violence. He didn’t feel bad for the bitch in the slightest, knowing she had said cruel words to Lake and made her run away from him without a word.
Amo slapped the back of his hand. “Pimp-slap, please!”
“A fucking hard one,” Vincent agreed.
Nero held up his hand. “Wait for it…”
Sadie kicked Kim’s boob with her stripper heel. “Get up, bitch, before I pop that implant with my heel.”
Kim tried to stand while still choking, her wails not making it easier for her to stop. Finally, she was able to manage, holding her throat.
Sadie stared at her a moment before she reeled her hand back and slapped Kim across the face with the back of her hand, giving her one final blow, which made her fall back down to the ground.
“Bitch!”
Amo started slowly clapping, giving her his applause and appreciation. “Pimp-slapping goddess.”
“Second greatest bitch takedown I’ve seen.” Nero applauded.
Vincent started praying, Dear Father, thank you for bitches slapping bitches.
* * *
Lake pulled her black dress down a bit. She was happy Elle had told her Nero kept a key for Vincent’s place in case of an emergency. This is an emergency.
She had put on the black dress Vincent had kept for months, not wanting to touch the new ones he had bought. Elle wore one of her many sexy, white tight dresses that Lake didn’t think she needed to accumulate one more of.
Elle didn’t want to open the door. “Are you sure we should do this? Vincent told me not to let you leave, and Nero will—”
She put her hand on her hip. “You know there are poles down there, right?”
“Fuck it.” Elle threw open the door.
Lake and Elle stopped in their tracks when they saw Lucca coming out of the door across the hall. His hair was all wet and he seemed a little out of breath, but his reaction to them seemed to be the same as theirs from getting caught.
She liked Lucca more since their last encounter, and Amo had only gone down the more that asshole had spoken the past month. However, Lucca’s points to win over Chloe just took a hit. Minus fifty points.
“Well, where do you think you two are going dressed like that?” He leaned against the door and looked them up and down.
“I told you this was a bad idea.” Elle shot Lake a look. “We didn’t even get past the door!”
Considering they were already busted, she didn’t have anything to lose.
“We want to go dancing at Poison because we’re mad at Nero and Vincent. Is there any way you can just pretend you didn’t see us?”
Lucca laughed at her. “Darlin’, what the fuck makes you think I would do that?”
Lake returned the favor of looking at him up and down. “How about we also pretend we didn’t just see you.” She turned to Elle. “Chloe doesn’t need to know about this, does she?”
“Hmm, I don’t know…” Elle crossed her arms, trying to somehow look intimidating in a sexy dress.
Lucca leaned off the wall and walked slowly to them, his eyes piercing their souls.
Oh, shit. Lake tried to keep her stance, but she was about to run away, pissing herself. How do I always do this to myself?
He finally stopped an inch away, easily able to snatch them up and beat some sense into them. “I’ll drive,” he grumbled, turning down the hall.
* * *
Sadie released her hair from the bun then fluffed her curls back out, acting like nothing had happened and Kim wasn’t lying naked on the ground, crying.
She turned to Vincent. “Satisfied?”
He looked down at Kim who was pulling another piece of hair out of her mouth. “That’ll do.”
“What did I miss?” Lucca came into the room, taking in Kim’s appearance.
Amo smiled. “Sadie choking and pimp-slapping the shit out of a bitch.”
“Send me the tape?” Lucca asked Sadie, pointing at the camera in the corner.
“Sure thing.” Sadie smiled at him as she left the room.
Amo followed her out. “I want a copy, too.”
Me, too, Vincent thought.
Lucca pulled out a cigarette then lit the end. “I see you got your girl back from Kentucky. Does everyone there really fucking wear camo?”
“I didn’t see muc
h camo, but I saw a lot of fucking leather,” he said with a bit of a growl in the back of his throat. “How’d you know? I just brought her back.”
“Remember I told you I didn’t want her back, because she’s a pain in my fucking ass? Well, she literally looked me in my damn eyes and threatened me.” He pointed his cigarette at Nero. “And your girl backed her the fuck up.”
Nero laughed, finding it amusing. “Two girls threatened you?”
Vincent wanted to be mad but between Lucca’s face and Nero laughing, he found it hard.
“What was the threat?”
Lucca took a hit off his cigarette. “They threatened to tell Chloe something.”
Nero and Vincent about died laughing hysterically that the two clearly knew what would get under his skin.
“I’m sorry. I’ll talk to her,” Vincent told him, trying to stop from laughing.
Nero tried to stop, as well. “Yeah, me, too. You going to go play poker?”
“No, I just came by to tell you fuckers I just dropped Lake and Elle off at Poison.” Lucca didn’t look pissed off anymore.
“What!” Vincent and Nero yelled in sync.
“Yeah, they looked pretty hot,” Lucca rubbed it in.
Nero’s nose started flaring. “Fucker, you better hope no one’s touched her.”
Shit! Vincent turned, rushing to leave, remembering all the guys who had surrounded Lake the first time she went dancing.
“Motherfucker, I’d kill you if I had the time!”
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Devil and the Angel
Vincent and Nero tore through the crowd, looking for their women. He realized Lucca was right; Lake running away and getting into trouble was too much of an everyday occurrence. I swear to God, I am going to fucking lock her ass up from now on.
“Lake is a fucking bad influence. She’s not coming around Elle anymore! I can’t have her rubbing off on my girl again!” Nero yelled at him over the loud music. They both were getting agitated when they couldn’t find them immediately.
He yelled back at him, “How the fuck is this all Lake’s fault? I’m sure Elle had something to do with it!”
Vincent (Made Men Book 2) Page 23