by Evelyn Glass
“What the fuck was—“
“That was for how you treated me at the auction,” I snarled, and dared him to hit me back. Part of me wanted him to. Part of me wanted to beat the ever–loving crap out of him, even though I knew that would be a terrible idea. But, to my surprise, once he had caught his breath back and got himself upright, he offered me a grin instead of retaliation.
“I’ve got to admit, you’ve got a hefty punch on you for a tiny little thing,” he remarked, eyebrows raised. “And I probably deserved that.”
There was no way he would have taken that from anyone else. No way in hell. But he wasn’t going to mess with me when he knew fine well that I held his fate in the palm of my hand. I wasn’t going to exploit that power. Not now I’d gotten a decent hit in, anyway. I felt a lot better knowing that at least he had an inkling of the hurt I’d been through that night. He turned to me, grabbing his beer, and leaned in to me again.
“Why are you sticking around here?” He asked, frowning, a sudden hint of suspicion passing across his face. “Why don’t you just get out?”
“Huh?” I slid my eyes away from his, hoping he wouldn’t pick up on the guilt that flashed through them at his words. I couldn’t let him know that Breaker, more than the cops, was the one getting this show on the road.
“Is it to do with your father?” He asked, and my stomach dropped to my feet. I felt dizzy, and the alcohol churned in my stomach so much I thought I might throw up all over the bar, right where I stood. He shrugged, as my vision swam in front of me before slowly returning to normal.
“I mean, that’s what I assumed,” he replied. “I didn’t know you knew who killed him, though.”
“Yeah, well,” I shrugged, managing to keep my voice steady even though it felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest.
“I don’t know how you cope with it,” the auctioneer leaned in even closer, and I fought the urge to shove him away from me, to sprint out of there and leave that place for good. “If I was somewhere, and I knew that the person who killed my dad was there, I’d—“
But before he could go on, a door opened towards the back of the club, and both of us immediately glanced in its direction. My blurry vision centered on someone walking through, and a powerful cocktail of emotions hit me when I saw that it was Breaker.
He made his way towards me, smiling as though nothing was wrong, but a few days of close contact with him let me see that he was trying to hide something from me, and he wasn’t doing a particularly convincing job of whatever it was. I wanted to fall into his arms and let the tears that were threatening finally take over, but I had to keep my cool. My father needed me to. Because now, I knew that there was more hanging on this that just taking down this terrible place and saving the women who had found themselves trapped in the same predicament as me. Now, my father’s legacy hung on it too. My father’s killer was part of this place, somehow, and I would be damned if I let him walk free. I had always suspected that there was more to his death than I could see on the surface, but now I knew for certain, and I had to do everything I could to make sure that no–one made it out of here without giving me everything they could on what had happened the night of his death.
Breaker finally reached me, and he put his arm around my waist. I gratefully leaned on him, glad that I had someone to cling on to. For a minute there, it felt as though I was going to collapse to the floor in a heap. He gave me a funny look, as though he hadn’t expected to see me like this, and then turned back to the company at hand.
Thaddeus Bane was the only other one to leave that room. I craned my neck to see if anyone else was in there, but the door had clamped shut behind them before I could get so much as a look in. What had they been talking about in there? I turned my attention to Breaker, and knew at once that whatever was about to come out of his mouth, it was bad news.
Chapter Fifteen
I didn’t want to hand her over. That’s why I reached out to touch her first, to let her know that this wasn’t my decision. If I could have had it any other way, I would have, but I needed that information from Thaddeus, and I knew that it would be his way or the high way. I prayed that she could defend herself against his advances, because the thought of his slimy hands all over her made me want to grab a glass from behind the bar and drive it into his scummy, smarmy face. After everything else she’d been through—and now she had to think that I had betrayed her, on top of everything else. I hated this so much it made my chest physically ache, but I couldn’t see another way out of this. And now, at least, I had a name. A name that thrummed angrily around my head, burning bright against the blackness of my thoughts.
“Get your hands off her, man, I don’t want you sullying her up for me,” he leered at her. “And couldn’t you have put her in something a little more appealing?”
Angel shot me a look. She was asking for answers, but I couldn’t give her any. I avoided her gaze and pulled my arm away from her reluctantly, pushing her lightly towards Thaddeus.
“I didn’t dress her for this,” I tried to keep my voice light and cocky, finding some way to convince Thaddeus that this wasn’t getting to me as much as it was. Angel stumbled slightly at my touch, and Thad caught her, grabbing her firmly by the shoulders and giving her a sweeping look up and down.
“Don’t worry, she’ll still do just fine,” he assured me, and I wanted to punch in his dumb fuck face. The way he touched her, the way she pulled away from him and shot me a look that told me she had no idea what was happening and wanted it to stop…I couldn’t even shoot her a glance that told her that everything was going to be okay. I couldn’t even squeeze her hand, because that would have been enough to give away the fact that I actually gave a damn. Thaddeus thought he was just taking a toy for me, that I was doing little more than handing over my bike for a spin, but it was so different with her. I had never felt what I had for Angel for anyone before, and it was a motherfucker to know that she’d probably never really trust me again after what I had done.
“Just one night?! Thad ran a hand up her arm, ad she yanked it away as though he were a fly who was pissing her off with his presence. I had to hide a grin at her disgust. She had never reacted like that to my touch.
“Just one night,” I repeated firmly, running a hand over my head. Angel shot me a look, a hard one, one that was trying to figure out what was going on as much as I was. I still wasn’t certain that this was the right choice, but now I knew who had killed Angel’s father. She would thank me, eventually. I hoped.
“And you’re happy with your payment?” He pulled her tight against his side. She leaned away from him, arching her back to put as much space between the two of them as she could, but he just held her closer. I was pretty certain that he liked her resistance. It made him feel as though he was overcoming something by forcing her to pay him attention like this. He could have any woman he wanted, but of course he wanted the ones who didn’t want him back. He must have been bored of having women agree to sleep with him by now, and in his twisted mind, the way out of that rut was to find a woman who didn’t want him and twist the world to make it so she had to have sex with him. I had never known an asshole this awful before, and I had to clench my fists to keep from showing exactly what I thought of him right there in the bar. If I wasn’t certain that a dozen on his cronies would jump on me at once, I would have done it.
“Yes,” I agreed through gritted teeth. Angel had given up trying to implore me with her eyes, and was now just slumped up against Thad, resigned to her duty. I couldn’t bear to see her like this. I needed to get out of there. Thad seemed to have the same idea, and glanced at the door, tugging Angel along with him as he called over his shoulder to me one last time.
“I’ll make sure not to hurt her, Breaker, but I can’t promise she’ll be as good as new when I’m done.”
“Just get out of here!” I snapped, the last vestiges of good humor vanishing from my voice in an instant. Thad cocked an eyebrow, and wagged a finger at me tau
ntingly.
“Careful how you speak to me. Or I might take it out on her.”
And before I knew it, he and Angel were gone, and I was left wondering if I hadn’t just made the worst decision of my life.
Chapter Sixteen
My head was spinning with everything that had just happened. How was I meant to take all of this in? My entire body had seized up with terror, and it hurt to even draw breath.
Thaddeus was guiding me towards a building right next door to the club, a place that looked to be falling apart at the seams from the outside. But as he led me in, I saw that it was in good shape—new furniture, freshly waxed floors, newly painted walls. Everything reeked of expense. This must be where he stayed when he wasn’t at the club, though that smoky, scummy place seemed to suit him a lot better than here.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” he swept his hand around the place grandly, a shit–eating grin on his face, as though he expected me to swoon into the ground at the realization that he didn’t stay in a total shithole. Well, sorry, but my standards were a little higher than that. I crossed my arms across my chest and leaned up against a wall.
“I’m surprised you can even stand up with the shit that he’s got you on,” Thad remarked, speaking as though I wasn’t even in the room. His patronizing tone made me want to scream, but I knew I had to play it cool, at least until I figured out what I was doing here and why Breaker had been happy to swap me in. I pretended to sway a little where I stood, hoping that I could lull him into a false sense of security. I had no intention of letting him lay a single fucking hand on me, but I did want to know what was going on, and he seemed like the only one with a firm grasp on that.
“Come on, let’s get you up to the bedroom,” he approached me again, sliding an arm around my waist. I fought the urge to pull away from him in disgust, but I knew that what he wanted was someone docile and useless, someone who wasn’t going to fight back under any circumstances. He must have known he was playing with fire. He knew I was a cop, after all. He must have known that I had fighting training, that I could defend myself from almost anything. But yet, here he was, his hands snaking all over my body, his hands straying down my ass and giving it a good squeeze. He let out a small groan of approval as we reached the top of the stairs, and he bundled me into the bedroom. I stumbled convincingly, hoping he was buying my whole drugged–up thing.
Looking around, I noted that we were the only two people in this room. No guards, no staff, not even another woman sleeping off the night before in his bed—just the two of us. Perfect. He didn’t know what he was in for.
He pushed me down on to the bed, and I sat before him quietly, watching as he began to undo the buttons on his pants. A cold shiver brushed over me as he leered at my body, pressing me down so that he could take me all in.
“If I was Breaker, I’d never let another man put a fucking hand on you,” he murmured. “And I’d make sure you were so out of your head you couldn’t so much as get out of my bed…”
He yanked his pants down, and glanced down at the ground so he could step out of them without tripping up. That was all the invitation I needed to strike, and I leapt to my feet at once. He glanced up, just in time to see my fist sailing towards his mouth. He tried to jerk back and away from my hand, but I wasn’t having any of it. I landed the punch squarely on his nose, and he fell to the ground at once, squealing like a stuck pig.
“You fucking bitch!” he snarled, his voice dripping with rage. I bounced a few steps back from him, holding my hands up in front of me to defend myself but he had already clambered a good ten feet away from me. His nose was pouring blood, and if I had to describe what he was doing at that moment in time, I would have gone with “cowering.”
I strode over to him, and caught him by the lapels. He was heavy, so I couldn’t exactly lift him on to his feet, but I dragged his face closer to mine. His nose was clearly broken, and it was letting out a small whistling noise every time he breathed in. It would have been almost comical if it hadn’t been so pathetic. I lifted my fist to land another punch on him, determined to get the information I needed, but he held his hands up protectively over his head and let out a small whimper. I had never seen anything like it in my life: a grown–ass man, the head of some criminal empire, no less, sitting on the floor, gushing blood and trying to scramble away from a woman half his size. I wished I had a camera to capture this moment. Seems like Thaddeus didn’t like his pussy to scratch.
“Please, don’t,” he begged me, as I pulled my fist back to land another shot on him. I left it hanging in the air, the threat of it still very much present.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t,” I snarled. I hovered my fist threateningly over him, letting him know that at any second I could change my mind and send him sprawling with one more strike. How had he gotten this far in business with so little backbone? Had he always just surrounded himself with people who would protect and look after him no matter what? Surely, he would have had to throw a punch at least once in his life. Though, the way he was clutching at his nose and sidling away from me, I wouldn’t have been completely stunned if you’d told me he never had.
“I’ll tell you what Breaker knows,” he shot back quickly, instantly in negotiating mode. Now, here was something he was actually good at. I let my first drop for a moment, but didn’t release my grip on his lapels.
“Keep talking.”
“I told him…about how your father died,” he eyed me carefully, and I felt that dizzy, sick feeling one again, that sensation that seemed to send the floor shifting out from underneath me. But I kept my head in the game, and refocused my eyes on the man in front of me. Now was a chance to get the information I needed from him.
“And?” I pressed him.
“He traded you in for a name,” he went on, his voice slightly indistinct where I’d bashed his nose so hard that it wasn’t sitting straight anymore. “He would have done anything for it, I swear.”
“Including giving me to you?” I muttered, mostly to myself. Thaddeus didn’t answer, looking humiliated.
“If you don’t tell anyone about this, I’ll give you the name too,” he raised his eyebrows at me. Okay, now he had my attention. I leaned back on my heels, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Why should I believe you?” I demanded.
“I don’t give a shit who killed your father,” he snapped back in return, and I raised my fist again. He withdrew, and lowered his voice back to a tone that could at least be mistaken for respectful.
“Look, I’ve got no reason to lie to you,” he reasoned with me. “I just want to get out of here. And besides, it’s not like Breaker isn’t going to tell you, anyway.”
“Just…just fucking tell me who it is,” I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. I was enjoying having this much power over this piece of shit, but at the same time, I really, really hated that I had to hear this from him. I wanted to be the person who brought down the guy who killed my father. I wanted to pin him to a wall, to make him admit it, and take him in to the station to spend the rest of his disgusting little life locked up in a cell somewhere. Preferably with the entrance cemented over. I hated the fact that I had to get the help of a man like Thaddeus Bane, but needs must when the devil dances on your doorstep.
He took a deep breath before he spoke, examining my expression one more time, obviously trying to figure out if this was the only way out of his predicament. Upon seeing that it was, he finally spoke. For the first time in my life, I heard the name of the person who had killed my father.
“Raven Merlot.”
“What the fuck?” I wrinkled up my nose, confused. “What kind of stripper name is that?”
Thaddeus raised his eyebrows, and I could tell he was reveling in the fact that he had regained at least a little of his power.
“You wouldn’t dare say that to her face,” he shot back at me harshly. “She’s an assassin. And a good one, at that. You’ve probably seen her hanging out around the club. I think
she’s jealous of Breaker and you, actually.”
“What the…” I thought back to the woman who had been watching us from the shadows that day as we had made our way out of the club and back to his apartment. Breaker had brushed me off when I had pointed out that she was staring at us, but I had known at once that there was something amiss. That had to be her. I could still remember the way her eyes bored into mine, the way she seemed to get a read on me as soon as she set eyes on me. I wondered how long she’d been watching us from the darkness like that. I wondered how much she knew.
“They used to fuck, Breaker and Raven,” he went on, and I could tell he was taking some kind of twisted pleasure in the fact that he got to be the one to break this news to me. “Oh yeah, they were a pretty hot couple back in the day. If I was him, I’d never have let that piece of ass go…”
I shoved him back down to the ground in one, harsh motion. I didn’t need to hear anymore. I didn’t want to. He collapsed in a heap at my feet, shutting up at once. Every time I felt as though I had a grasp on the situation, someone delivered me a new pile of information and it felt as though everything was spinning out of control again.