“Some top-secret shit or something to get ready to go to Virginia,” Gabe replied.
I laughed, watching Gabe take out thick mats. “Top secret? He’s not even in the FBI yet.”
“You know how Paul is,” Autumn countered. “He’s silly and makes a big deal about everything.”
I nodded. That he did and the dude was always making us laugh. “So what do you need me to do?”
“Just watch this time,” Gabe replied.
A few minutes later, women started to walk into the room. I watched as Gabe and Autumn introduced themselves and shared their backgrounds: Gabe, an ex-Army captain, and Autumn, a victim of domestic violence. Gabe explained that I was going to be an instructor soon as well.
Throughout the class, the attendees partnered up to practice chokeholds, grabs, and simple takedowns. Each one took turns trying to take Gabe down as though he were an attacker. He explained how some of them who were having a hard time could breathe better if they slightly moved his arm from around their necks, not letting the attacker keep the upper hand. He showed them vulnerabilities on his body that they could hit to stun him or knock him off balance, and he showed them weaknesses in his hold that they could exploit to get free. Even though I was combat trained, it amazed me how, even in practice, a woman would freeze when someone attacked them from behind. It was scary to think about it, especially since Seth’s wife, Cat, and Vinny’s soon to be wife, Tessa, had both been kidnapped. But what made me even more excited to help out my friend was that Gabe taught them how to analyze the mechanics of a hold instead of just panicking, and I knew I could do the same.
My group of friends was trying to better the world, and I wanted to be a part of that change, too.
Most of my dates were beautiful, successful, intelligent women who didn’t have time for a relationship or needed something extra in their life. For someone who didn’t truly date before I became an escort, it still amazed me how I could pull it off as though I’d been doing it for years. I’d never had an official girlfriend before, but that didn’t stop me from learning how to be the perfect boyfriend when I needed to be.
A few days after I returned from Tennessee, I accessed Saddles & Rack’s back office on my phone and saw that I had a girlfriend experience date booked for Sunday afternoon and evening. The woman wanted to include going ring shopping. I didn’t know what a woman gained from having a fake date take her shopping for rings. It wasn’t as though I was proposing marriage to the stranger, but what I had learned in the years I’d worked at Saddles & Racks was that women just needed to feel special and wanted, so if I had to spend a few hours pretending as though I would one day propose to this woman, I would.
This would also be the first time I’d ever shopped for rings, and I didn’t exactly know what I was doing, but I was going to wing it like I did a lot of my dates.
The instructions were to pick Leslie up at her hotel room at the Venetian, so after leaving my truck with the valet, I made my way to the room number that was provided. When the door swung open, I was slightly taken aback. Leslie was beautiful with long blonde hair, stunning green eyes, and legs for days. Usually, the women who wanted a boyfriend experience had a hard time getting a boyfriend for whatever reason, and I didn’t think Leslie would have that problem. Ever.
“You look beautiful, hon.”
“Thank you.” She stepped back for me to enter her suite. “Can I get you a drink?”
Since we were in a hotel room and the bar was limited, I didn’t think she’d have the makings for a Negroni, so I said, “Gin and tonic if you have it.”
“Sure thing.”
“How long are you in Vegas for?” I asked, moving to the window to check out her view. Of course, it was a view of The Strip. It was mid-afternoon, and not as glamorous as it was at night with the sparkling lights, but it was still a place people flocked to.
“Just the week. I’m here for a convention.”
“Oh? What do you do?”
Leslie handed me my drink. “I’m in pharmaceuticals.”
“Ah, so you get all the good drugs.”
She laughed as she sat on the couch. “Something like that.”
I took a sip of my drink and sat next to her, casually resting my hand on her bare knee that was exposed beneath her black skirt. I set my glass on the coffee table. “Are you excited about tonight?”
“Nervous,” she breathed.
I grinned to comfort her. “Don’t be nervous, hon. You’re in good hands.” In fact, I knew the best way to relax her before we headed out for dinner and drinks.
My hand went farther up her leg and under her skirt. I grabbed Leslie’s glass from her and set it next to mine before leaning in and kissing her neck. Things progressed with only my fingers doing the pleasuring until she was loosened up.
In more ways than one.
When I gave my two-week notice at the casino, I expected to work two more weeks before my last day, but they let me go right away because they had an entire stack of applications from women wanting to be cocktail waitresses. I was okay with that because I was eager to start my job at The Velvet Box and learn all I could.
It had been two weeks since I started, and I was loving it. I never knew there were so many different cuts and grades of diamonds. I couldn’t wait to own something—anything—from the store once I could afford it.
My mother had jewelry, but when Keith went to sell the pieces, he found out they were fake. The only real pieces she owned were her wedding and engagement ring, and I’d hid them from Keith when I saw him rummaging through her jewelry box the day after our parents died. I knew something was off, and when he asked me where their rings were, I’d shrugged and told him I didn’t know and that maybe they had been burned with them. In reality, I had taken the rings, including my dad’s, and put them in the air vent in my room—I’d seen it done in an episode of Veronica Mars. Before Keith could find out if they still had them on their person, they were cremated, and he assumed—because he didn’t want to look suspicious as to why he was urgently wanting their jewelry—they burned with them.
I was starting to gather my purse from my locker when Steve walked into the small break room. “Cassie, I think you’re doing an amazing job.”
“Thank you so much.” I beamed.
“Have a good couple of days off, and I’ll see you on Monday when I’m back in. Martina and Ray will be here on Saturday with you—they’ll show you how to close up for the night.”
“Can’t wait.” I’d been working only until six when the store closed, but now my hours would be longer because it took another hour to close the store and put all the jewelry in the safe before leaving. Someone—usually Steve and one other person—came in at nine a.m. to put all the jewelry out again.
Grabbing my purse, I walked out of the store and started toward the bus stop when a car horn honked. I turned and saw it was Micky. I’d been avoiding him because I was worried he’d ask me to hang out with him again. I really wanted nothing to do with him.
He pulled up to the curb and rolled down the window. “Need a ride?”
I hesitated because of who it was, but I would get home faster by car than riding the city bus, so I sucked it up. “Um, sure.” I still had a slight fear that we would crash and die. Anything was possible, but over the years, my fear had been conquered more times than not. I just couldn’t see myself getting behind the wheel.
“Where are you coming from dressed like that?” he asked as he pulled into the flow of cars.
I looked down at my black slacks and floral blouse. “Work.”
“I thought you worked at the casino?”
“Worked,” I emphasized. “I got a job at The Velvet Box two weeks ago.”
“The jewelry store?” I nodded. “You get free shit or what?”
“No.” I chuckled. “A twenty percent discount.”
“Or five-finger.”
I furrowed my brows. “Five-finger?”
Micky laughed. “Yeah. A five
-finger discount.”
“What does that mean?”
He chuckled harder. “It means you steal it.”
I sucked in a breath. “I would never steal from Steve. He gave me this job without me knowing anything about jewelry.”
“All right. I was just joking.” We didn’t speak for several minutes until he asked, “Do you need a ride tomorrow?”
“No. I have the next two days off.”
“I can pick you up on Saturday if you want.”
“Really?” I pretended I was interested only because riding the bus was a pain.
“Yeah. I’m sure the bus gets tiring.”
I grinned. “It does.”
“Then I’ll be waiting for you.”
“I’ll be getting off about seven now because I’ll be closing the store.”
“The store closes at seven?”
“No, six, but then we have to put all the pieces away.”
Micky grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ll be waiting for you at seven then.”
“Thank you.”
He drove us the rest of the way home. “I need to talk to your brother for a bit, but you want to grab dinner or something?” he asked as I tried to make a break for it by going up the stairs to my room.
“Talk to me about what?” Keith asked, coming around the corner.
I didn’t wait and continued up the stairs to my room, not caring about what the two of them discussed or hearing any of their conversation. I didn’t want anything to do with Micky and would never grab dinner with him.
Plus, I had Veronica Mars to watch.
I was starting to get comfortable talking about the items we had for sale. I was also starting to get sad because most of the people who came in seemed to be looking for engagement rings. My last boyfriend was in high school before my life changed, and I felt as if I’d never have one again. I was used to being alone, but it was lonely, and I wanted to be normal. I wanted to have friends and hang out and go to the movies and have fun and be a normal twenty-one-year-old. I wanted to try my first sip of alcohol and dance until closing at a club.
I wanted to feel love again.
It had been a busy day, and I’d sold two engagement rings, a diamond bracelet, and an emerald pendant necklace. The commission I’d earned was enough to pay all the bills for the entire month, though there were some days when I sold nothing, so I knew I had to be smart about everything. The more I thought about getting out from under Keith’s thumb, the more I thought a clean break was the way to go, but I hated to think that the house my mother had baked cookies in—the house where my dad built Keith and me a treehouse in the backyard—was going to turn into a dump. Though it was already getting there since I refused to clean up after Keith and his roommates.
The door opened as I checked the clock on the wall. We only had twenty minutes until closing. My gaze moved toward the customers, but as I opened my mouth to welcome them, I became lost for words.
When I worked at the casino, I would recognize regulars from time to time because they were regulars, but there were also a lot of one-time patrons. One night I got asked who I thought would be the next to tie the knot out of the three single men who were celebrating their friend getting married. I never thought I’d see any of those guys again because I’d assumed they were in Vegas just for the bachelor party. Yet Brad, the guy I hadn’t picked to get married next because I found him to be more attractive than the other two guys, and therefore, I didn’t want him to be the next to get married, just walked into The Velvet Box. With a woman.
My last words to him at the casino has been about breaking my heart, and I didn’t even know why I’d said that.
As the doors closed behind him, his dark gaze met mine, and he hesitated briefly before he slowly smiled. My belly did weird things, and I wasn’t sure why, but I was instantly nervous, and my palms became sweaty.
My gaze turned to my co-workers Ray and Martina, to see if they were going to help him, but Brad stepped closer to me and grinned wider. “Cassie, can you show us engagement rings, please?”
I snorted under my breath. So, he was the one to settle down next? “Sure, right over here.” I motioned to one of the cases that held the diamond rings, and all three of us walked over, me on the opposite side of the case.
“Show me what you like, hon.”
I waited as the woman peered into the case. When I looked up, Brad was looking at me. He wasn’t looking at his girlfriend as she searched for something that caught her eye, and I wondered why. Was it because he recognized me? My name was on my name tag, so it wasn’t as though he’d remembered it—unless he had? If he remembered me, did he think I would ask him about the bet he had with his friends and was trying to tell me not to bring it up?
“This one is nice.”
I tore my gaze from Brad’s and looked to see what the woman was pointing at. I grabbed the key from around my wrist and unlocked the glass case to take out the one carat, pear-shaped, halo ring. “I love this one,” I stated. “Rose gold is very popular right now, and this is so beautiful.”
“I love all the small diamonds around the bigger one and the small ones on the band,” the woman said.
“Is that the one you’d want?” Brad asked her.
She grinned. “I think so, but I’d love any ring you gave me.” She ran her finger down his chest. A chest that looked hard and muscular beneath his button-down shirt.
My heart clenched. I didn’t know this guy from the next to walk into the store, but if I were honest with myself, he was the first guy I’d been attracted to in … forever. His short hair was dark, almost black. He had dark brown eyes that I swore sparkled like a brown topaz. I wanted to touch his short beard, wanted to feel it against my face as he kissed me. His body looked perfect and fit and strong; I wanted to feel it against mine and know what it felt like to have a man ravish me like I’d seen in romantic movies.
I opened my mouth to talk more about the ring, but my gaze moved past Brad to the door, where I saw what looked like four men coming toward us wearing black ski masks and holding handguns. My heart instantly had another reaction as it started to beat faster in my chest, and once again, I was at a loss for words—not because of the gorgeous man standing in front of me, but because of the terror walking toward us.
Just as the door opened and the men stormed in, Brad turned to see what I was looking at. Before any of the five of us in the store could react, the masked men barreled in. One yelled in a deep voice, “Everyone get your fucking hands up—now!”
Without hesitation, I shot my hands straight into the air. Two of the robbers aimed their guns at Martina and Ray, one stayed by the door as though he was a lookout, and the one I assumed was the leader because he was the one who’d spoken, pointed his gun toward me.
“Get behind me, Cassie,” Brad growled.
I looked to see that Brad was moving his girlfriend behind him. I moved over a step so his body was shielding mine even with the glass case between us.
“Listen up,” the lead robber said, again in a voice that sounded as though he was trying to mask his own. “Do as I say, and no one gets hurt. If I see any of you going for any sort of alarm, I won’t hesitate to shoot you. And you”—he wiggled the gun at Brad as though to show emphasis—“just stay there, and everything will be fine.”
“All right,” Brad replied. “I agree. No one needs to get hurt.”
My gaze moved to his girlfriend, who was pressed up against his back, her face buried into it. I wished with everything I had in me that we could trade places. I wanted to hide behind him like that, to actually feel protected and not just hope he’d stop a bullet if someone were to fire.
“Now,” the same robber declared, “we’re going to hand you bags. All you need to do is fill them up, and then we’ll leave. Got it?” I nodded again, watching as Martina and Ray started to fill their bags. The leader came over to me and extended his hand with a black bag in it. “Be a good Little Dove and do as you’re told.”
> I blinked as I reached for the bag. Little Dove? Was it Keith?
Before I took the bag from Keith, Brad reached for the gun and swiftly removed it from his hand. “Now, you listen to me, motherfucker.”
Keith laughed, and I waited with bated breath.
“Cassie, go hit the silent alarm,” Brad ordered.
I started to move, but Keith lunged for Brad, his fist hitting him in the jaw just as Brad pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t go off; the only sound it made was a click. While Keith and Brad tussled, the other guys snatched the bags from Martina and Ray and moved toward the exit. Brad rotated, hooking his arm around Keith’s neck.
“I could kill you right now,” Brad seethed.
And then it happened.
A gun went off.
I jumped, and Brad’s girlfriend screamed. I didn’t know who took the shot, but in a blink, Keith groaned, and Brad dropped his arm. When he was free, Keith ran out the door with the others. I looked at Brad and saw blood seeping through his blue button-down shirt.
Five Years Prior …
The dirt and dust kicked up outside the Humvee as Fields, Brown, and I were on our way back from doing a routine check on an Iranian village not far from our basecamp. It was just the three of us making sure the village had everything the people needed, and that no one required attention or medical care.
An explosion shook the ground and lifted the Humvee off the ground, rolling onto its side. I was shaken, rattled, and jerked around with the vehicle. When I came to in the back seat, my ears were ringing, and my head was throbbing.
“Everyone okay?” I asked, trying to blink the pain away.
Fields groaned. “My leg is pinned.”
Fuck.
“I’m good,” Brown stated. “You, Rhodes?”
“Fine.” I heard chatter coming toward us, but not loud enough for me to make out any words. “We gotta move. Call for backup, Fields.”
My door was against the ground, so I moved, opening the gunner’s hatch to climb out.
Gin & Jewels Page 4