by Leah Wilde
The skinny, pimpled valet boy nodded, gulped, and carefully slid into the driver’s seat. I followed Stefano towards the door.
He nodded to the bouncer as we approached the entrance. The man jumped up from his stool to unlatch the velvet rope and usher us inside. “Right this way, gentlemen,” he said, stooping low in a quasi-bow as he pointed us through the double doors.
We entered the club. Strobe lights zoomed around the ceiling and the pulsing crush of house music filled the air. Stefano weaved through the crowd, headed for a dark hallway on the far side of the room. We sliced across the dancefloor. Every dancer’s eyes widened as they saw us and they immediately moved out of the way. This was clearly a Capparelli joint. The patrons knew when to defer to the family.
Reaching the hallway, a massive boulder of a man in a black suit and black tie stopped us. “Who’s this?” he said to Stefano, sticking his chin out at me.
“New guy,” Stefano replied. “Just took down Magnum in the ring.”
“Magnum?” The man’s eyes widened as he spoke. He whistled. “Well, damn. How ’bout that?”
“He’s working security tonight,” Stefano said.
The man in black nodded and ushered us into the open elevator behind him. We stepped inside and the doors slid shut, restoring silence to my ringing eardrums. I reached towards where the bank of buttons should be, but there was nothing. I paused, confused, with my hand in mid-air. Stefano laughed as the car began to descend despite us not having selected a floor.
“Only goes one place,” he said.
We coasted to a stop at the bottom. When the doors opened again, they revealed a much different scene. It was a large, cavernous room, something like a cabaret club. Red velvet covered seats were arranged in half-circle rows around a circular stage. Bright spotlights were aimed at the curtain, but nothing was moving yet. A variety of people were sprinkled across the seats, but the lights on the audience were kept extremely low. I couldn’t make out a single person’s face.
“This way,” Stefano said. He gestured towards a small bar set up at the back of the room. A few men were clustered around it as a barely-dressed bartender mixed drinks in a silver canister. Stefano tapped one of them on the shoulder. The man swiveled around.
“Alberto, this is the new guy,” he said, pointing at me.
I met his eyes as he squared up to face me.
“You working tonight?” he demanded brusquely.
I nodded. “Emilio sent me.”
“Good. Go to the basement. You’re guarding the girls.”
I was about to ask for clarification but I noticed that we had drawn the attention of the other few men at the bar. One in particular was looking at me with interest. He had pale eyes and an unremarkable frame. This wasn’t a tough guy, not a hitman or an enforcer. He stood with the air of someone in complete control. It could only be one person.
Antonio Capparelli.
“You’re new?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes.”
“What’s your name, new guy?”
“Dominic.”
“Dominic, tell me, where are you from?” His voice was low and smooth, like whiskey on the rocks. But I could tell this was a man who would not hesitate to resort to violence if called upon. The vibe rolled off him in waves. He was a panther, unafraid to spring when provoked.
“Way out in the boonies,” I replied.
“Who were your parents?”
“Dad worked the docks.”
“And your mother?”
“Whore.”
He chuckled and sipped his drink. “Was that her nature or her profession?” he inquired.
I shrugged. “Same difference.”
He laughed again. “I guess I wouldn’t disagree.” He pursed his lips and tilted his head to the side as one hand stroked his chin. A shrewish but pretty blonde woman peered out from his elbow with a furrowed brow. “I’ll tell you what, Dom. I like you. I want to keep my eye on you tonight. Alberto, move Dom to my table. I want to see how he handles himself during tonight’s…affair.”
“You got it, boss,” Alberto replied. He turned to me. “You heard the man. You’re on Mr. Capparelli’s table tonight. Watch yourself, kid,” he warned. Then he walked away, whistling.
Antonio gave me a lingering stare before turning back to his conversation. I looked at Stefano where he stood on the fringe of the circle. He gave me a nervous grimace, as if trying to smile, but then turned tail and disappeared. Good fucking riddance.
A bell sounded, high and clear over the slow murmur of the people littering the room. As soon as it did, everyone began to move towards the velvet seats. I heard Antonio say, “This way, dear,” and extend an elbow to the blonde woman. She took hold and they moved towards a table on a raised dais in the middle rear of the seats. I followed close behind them after checking to make sure the safety on my gun was off. I wanted to be ready for whatever was coming next.
The gig seemed simple enough. We were in a Capparelli club in a Capparelli neighborhood. No one would be fool enough to launch an assault here. Everywhere I looked stood muscular bodyguards armed to the teeth with high-powered pistols and a look in their eyes that said not to fuck with them. I did my best to imitate them, settling to a wide-legged stance at the bottom of the shallow staircase that led up to where Antonio and his woman were seated.
I felt the cool metal of the gun in the back of my jeans. I entertained for a moment the thought of turning around and unloading a clip straight between Antonio’s eyes. End it all now. Just kill the motherfucker and let whatever happened happen.
But crime families had a funny way of growing two heads whenever you cut off one. These fuckers were cockroaches. If we let even one of them get out alive, they’d spawn and reappear sooner or later. No, it had to be complete and total annihilation. Killing Antonio wasn’t enough.
They all had to die.
The bell rang again and the sound of conversation and rustling clothing died down. All eyes turned towards the stage. The curtain split a tiny bit and a man strode out. He was tall with curly hair, dressed in a nice suit. I stood maybe thirty yards straight back from him, enough to see that his eyes were devoid of anything I recognized as emotion.
I still wasn’t sure what was happening here. A stage, an announcer—it must be some kind of a show. Maybe the girls Alberto had referred to were the performers. It wouldn’t be unheard of to have strippers or even a sex show. But that explanation didn’t sit quite right. The men occupying the seats in front of me didn’t look like the type to be content with just watching. They were all fat and grubby, although their filth was the kind that had dollar signs attached. These were hungry bastards. It had to be something else.
I got my answer soon enough when the first naked girl was trotted onto the stage. She was dark-skinned and shaking like a leaf. Her eyes were wide like hubcaps, clearly panicking. Even from this distance, I could see her skin pimpled in goosebumps. Her hands were tied behind her back, although I saw that they’d forced her into a pair of tall, black stilettos. She walked slowly so as not to trip.
“Come here, honey,” said the man in the suit with a glittering smile. The girl shied away. He laughed. “She’s nervous,” he explained to the crowd. “But don’t worry, you can fuck that right out of her.”
The assembled men chortled as the girl descended even further into abject terror. I felt my stomach curdle. These sick fucks. That girl looked as innocent as anyone ever had. I wondered if they’d stolen her from her family. That would hardly be surprising.
“Let’s start the bidding at one hundred thousand dollars,” he suggested. He scanned the crowd, cupping a hand over his eyes to block out the rays of the spotlights. A few men raised their numbered cards to place a bid. He started to work them, calling out numbers as the price crept higher.
“Come on, folks, who doesn’t want to buy a tight little slut to have around the house?” he joked.
Again, a low, rumbling laugh rippled through the crowd.
My fists tightened.
The first girl went for a few hundred thousand dollars and the next came out as the process repeated itself. This one, a rail-thin blonde, went quickly, and the one after, a red-haired girl with voluptuous curves, was sold even quicker than that. After the bidding had ended for each of them, they were led to the far side of the stage by a grim-faced handler.
The spotlight swung to stage right and the announcer warmed up the crowd for the next girl to be sold. As soon as she walked into the light, my stomach flipped.
I couldn’t explain the reaction. It was purely physical. My blood seemed to simmer and freeze at the same time, while a sickly tinge ran along the nape of my neck. The girl was stunning. Her body was petite but curvy, her unbroken skin shining like cream in the overhead glare. Her eyes were round and scared, but there was a warmth in them despite her fear. She kept her hands clasped in front of her.
I felt an inexplicable desire to touch her skin. That red slash of a mouth, the way her dark hair tumbled over her shoulders. She was objectively beautiful, but it wasn’t like I’d never seen a beautiful girl before. They hung around the clubhouse all the time, eager for a taste of the dangerous life we led. This one was different. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about her that called out to me. I wanted to respond to it, to hear it further.
I was vaguely aware of the bidding beginning as I drank in the girl. I could feel myself growing hard for her. What the fuck was going on with me? I had a mission at stake. I needed to get back in control of my body and my thoughts.
The announcer’s voice startled me out of my confused thinking. “Do I hear two hundred thousand?” A hand punctured the air a few seats to the left of where I stood. I looked down to see who it belonged to, and for the second time in as many minutes, recoiled in surprise. I recognized that skinny motherfucker. His face had been laser-etched into my memory since the moment I saw him in the apartment I once shared with Slim.
This was the bastard who killed him.
“I have two hundred thousand from the man in the back row. Going once, going twice…”
My body reacted before my mind did. My hand shot up as I called out, “Three hundred.”
The man whirled around. His gaunt face was quivering with rage as he looked to find the man who’d suddenly started bidding against him. He saw me and his eyes narrowed. I heard murmurs on all sides. He spun back to face the auctioneer.
“Three twenty!” he yelled.
I didn’t hesitate. “Three fifty!”
“Three sixty!”
He was going to keep chasing me if we did things like this. I had to do something drastic. I swallowed, cleared my throat, and called out, “Six hundred thousand dollars.”
The crowd fell eerily silent.
I snuck a glance over to Slim’s murderer. I was a roiling cauldron of emotions. Anger, desire, cold focus, and everything in between. I didn’t know where to begin or what I should do. All I knew was that I wanted this girl and I wanted to spite this man. This was the only way to have both.
The auctioneer paused for a moment, thrown off his rhythm by the sudden animosity sparking in the room. He stuttered, then found his voice and said, “Going once, to the gentleman in the back. Going twice. Sold.”
The skinny man seethed. His face was an apoplectic mess of splotchy red. I stood silently. I didn’t know what to do.
How was I supposed to react? I’d just bought a girl.
Chapter 16
Isabel
The lights of the stage were blinding. The bidding had taken place so quickly that I was still reeling. At first, it had seemed like the skeletal man seated in the far row was keen to win, but at the last moment, the one standing wide and brooding at the bottom of the raised dais had leaped in. Even from here, I could sense a brewing hatred scything back and forth between them.
But all that was merely background to the panic pumping through my veins. I was exposed to this crowd of ravenous strangers. All I had on me were high heels. Everything else was vulnerable beneath the spotlights. I tried to hide myself, but I knew it was no good. I was the prey. The sharks were all around me.
“Six hundred thousand dollars!” the man had called out. I squinted and tried to get a better look at him, although the lights were too bright to make out much detail. All I could see was that he was massive, so muscular that I thought he might as well have been sculpted from marble, and the shadows of his face were dark and mysterious. It was an intimidating combination.
I didn’t have much time to look further. The stocky man who’d assaulted Caroline walked on stage and pulled me towards the far side from where I’d entered. I tried to look more, but he tugged, and I had no choice but to follow him.
Adrenaline had started swirling in my bloodstream the moment I had walked onto the stage. My muscles were twitching with it, boiling over with the fight or flight response. I had to run. This was my only window.
The moment we crossed off the stage, I wriggled free of the man’s arm around my waist and bolted for a nearby staircase. My thighs surged with effort, but the heels were slowing me down. I jumped up the first few steps, but I had to grab onto the railing to stop from falling over when my right heel slipped out from under me.
I felt the man’s hand wrap around my ankle. “Get back here, you fucking whore!” he swore as he yanked hard. I fell. The bony part of my kneecap struck the edge of a step, sending bright lines of pain spiraling throughout my leg. I gasped as the man reeled me in towards him. He slapped me across the face, adding fresh pain to the mixture.
The fight drained from my body as he straddled me. His chest rose and fell as he caught his breath. His face was twisted in anger. “I told you not to run, you goddamn bitch. Why is it so hard for you sluts to listen?” He sighed and hauled me upright by one arm. “I hope to God that whoever bought you teaches you how to fucking behave. Come on, let’s go.”
“Where are you taking me?” I moaned.
“Down to a nice, private little room so just you and your new master can get to know each other. After all, new pets need to be broken in, don’t they?” He laughed to himself as he shoved me down the hallway towards a staircase that twisted back to the cells below.
Instead of throwing me back in the cell I’d first woken up in, he towed me further along the basement level. We crossed a threshold into a different wing of the building. The dank hallway gave way to a plush velvet floor. Spiky red doors lined the sides of the hall in the same way that the cells had in the previous corridor. He guided me to the last room, opened the door, and pushed me in.
“Wait here,” the man ordered. “Your master will be here soon.”
The door clicked shut behind me.
I stared around the interior. Leather whips were hung up along the wall. I saw viciously pointed electric tools, restraints and masks of all kinds. A thick, intricately coiled rope hung from the ceiling. There was an oddly-shaped black chair decorated with straps that looked designed to pin someone to their hands and knees. A circular, crimson-colored bed was pushed against one wall.
The whole room had a sickly, horrifying vibe. I could practically hear the screams of the people who’d been in it before me. I prayed that mine would not be next.
But a gnawing feeling in my stomach told a different story.
Chapter 17
Dominic
“You motherfucker,” blustered the skinny man as he strode up to me after the auction had ended. “She was mine.”
I stared him down coolly, not moving, although I subtly shifted my weight to the balls of my feet, ready to strike back if he made any sudden moves. One hand slid slowly around my back to grip the barrel of the gun.
“Guess not,” I said.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Everyone around here seems real interested in that question. I’m the new guy. Name’s Dominic.”
“You don’t understand how shit works, do you, asshole?” He had stepped close enough to me
that I could smell his breath. Sweat beaded on his forehead, sliding in droplets around one vein that stood out prominently like a subway route.
“Are you going to be the one to explain it to me?” I asked menacingly. I noticed a crowd had begun to gather around us, drawn by the raised voices. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Antonio looking on interestedly. I focused on the man in front of me.
“If you don’t watch your fucking tone, I’ll beat you down right here and now,” he spat back.
“Be my guest,” I growled. I bent my knees slightly. This dumbass didn’t know what he was getting himself into.