by Ashlee Price
His face changed to the one I’d seen over and over again when I told him no. Greg was nice and all of that, but once he was told no to something that he wanted, everything about his demeanor changed. Now was one of those times.
“I came a long way to see you, Mariah. Are you not going to let me in?”
He’d come a long ways and he looked good. There was a familiarity with him that I didn’t have with anyone else, and I was moving back to let him in before I really thought about it. After everything that Greg had done for me, I at least owed him that much. I needed to hear him out, and then I would give him whatever answers that he needed. I had no intention of going backwards, though.
“Come in, Greg, but I’m telling you now, it’s not going to be like old times.”
Greg didn’t look very happy, and I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t making anything easy on him, and I certainly wasn’t going to fall into his arms like I suspected he thought I would. Did he really think that just because he’d come down here I was going to be all beside myself trying to get back with him?
“I don’t want it to be like old times, Mariah. I want it to be better. Not having you was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever gone through, but it showed me how much I really love you, Mariah. It showed me that we were meant to be together.”
Chapter 17 – Elie
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but you have to come into work. I give you a couple of days off and now you’re asking for another one? You’re going to have to give me a better reason than you don’t feel like coming in. That’s not going to cut it, Mariah.”
“Elie, I can’t.”
“Why, what’s going on?” There was a tone in her voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. Something was wrong, and I had to get to the bottom of it, one way or another. I had big plans for Mariah, and I couldn’t go through with them until I got her in the club to talk about it. I knew that once she heard what my plans were she would be willing to do what was necessary to benefit both of us, but I had to get her there first.
“It’s not really anything that I can talk about over the phone. I just don’t know how much longer I’m going to be in the city.”
“What do you mean? What happened?”
My mind was racing with possibilities, and I was half-tempted to send Bruno over there to make sure that she didn’t leave. I was not above holding on to her until she started to see things my way.
“Just someone that I used to know popped back into my life, and he’s making a lot of threats. If I don’t go, I don’t know what he’ll do to me.”
“You think he’s going to hurt you?”
She snorted like the thought was preposterous, but I couldn’t understand what was bothering her so much. If he wasn’t going to hurt her, then what did he have to threaten her with?
“No, it’s not like that. I just… I don’t know, Elie. I have to figure this out and then I can come back in. I know that I might not have a job then, but I’ll still see.”
“That’s not going to work, Mariah. You need to go ahead and tell me what’s going on. I’ll come there if you want. You’re at Sasha’s, right?”
She told me that it was fine, but I was more than willing to go see what was going on with her. I needed to convince her that the last thing she needed to do was run off. Whoever it was, they could be taken care or, just like the problem that she thought she had. Maybe this was my moment to find my way in.
“No, it’s fine.”
“If you’re not coming in to work, it’s not fine. Tell me what’s going on or I’ll be over in a few minutes. We need to work this out and get you back on the books. I have too many people that want to see you, Mariah. What’s causing you all of this trouble?”
“It’s my ex.”
“Well, that’s no big deal. Does he know where you work now?”
“Yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“Well, if he’s just an ex and he finds out you work for me, I’m sure he’ll leave you alone.”
“Greg’s from Michigan, and he’s a cop.”
That was a little more complicated. A cop couldn’t just disappear like most other people could. His brother officers, especially his partner, would never stop looking for him. I was going to have to be smart on this one.
“So what’s he blackmailing you with?”
“I did something a long time ago and Greg knows about it. He could tell on me and I’d go to jail. That’s what he’s holding over my head. My hands are tied and he knows it. There’s nothing that I can do.”
“Mariah, there’s always something that can be done. This situation is no different.”
I wanted to ask her what she’d done, but I decided that I didn’t need to know. It really didn’t matter what she had in her past. I didn’t care. I didn’t like the idea of dealing with a cop, but he was a long way from his jurisdiction, and I could send a message that wouldn’t cause half of the police force to look into it. I was already planning what I was going to do next.
“You don’t understand, Elie. Greg is kind of scary.”
She didn’t know me very well, and I was glad that she still saw me as harmless. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone was so wrong about me, and I was sure that it wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t have to act scary. I had hired thugs who would get their hands dirty so I didn’t have to.
“Don’t you worry about him, Mariah. Just tell me his name and where he’s staying, and I’ll make sure to take care of it.”
“I don’t know where he’s at, Elie. That’s the thing. He just showed up last night, although I think he has been following me, because I saw him while I was out the other day. I just want to get out of town for a little while. I can’t deal with him, and he told me he was going to give me a day to think about it before he called it in. I know that he’ll do it if I’m still here when he comes back.”
“He’s going to meet you at your house?”
She told me that he was, which sounded perfect to me. I wouldn’t have to worry about chasing him down because he was going to come to me.
“You get out of there for the night and come in. Or you can come and stay with me, but I’ll make sure that someone is there tomorrow to send a message for you. You don’t have to be afraid, Mariah. I told you that I was going to take care of you, and I meant it. There’s no need for you to go anywhere.”
She didn’t sound entirely convinced, but she would after I did exactly what I promised. I was going to make sure that everything was taken care of.
“What are you going to do to him?”
“I don’t think we need to talk about all of that.”
There was a pause on the other end. I’d forgotten how delicate she was. Even after being at the club for over a month, she didn’t have the hardness that many of the other girls had or developed. Mariah was just so fragile, and I think that was why I felt so protective over her. It was one of the reasons that I wanted to help. That, and to get on her good side so that she’d agree to what I wanted her to do.
“I don’t want him to be hurt, Elie. Greg helped me out when I needed him most, and I don’t want to see him hurt.”
That was exactly what I was going to do. It was the only way to really send a message, and even though he was a cop, I was more worried about Mariah leaving than what would happen with that.
“I’ll do my best not to.”
“You have to promise me.”
“Mariah, you’re ready to leave the city because of this guy. I think that you need to worry more about you than him. If he’s threatening you and trying to blackmail you, it’s beyond your control what happens.”
She was quiet for a time, and I reminded her that it was all going to be okay. I knew that this guy wasn’t going to be a problem, not to me and my guys. The only thing that was going to make it hard to deal with was what he did for a living. That was the only part of the new plan that bothered me. A cop was harder to get r
id of. But not impossible.
Mariah tried to get me to tell her what I was going to do, but I wouldn’t come clean with anything. She didn’t need to know the details.
“Don’t worry about any of it, Mariah. You’ve told me and now I’ll take care of it. This is what we do for each other here at the club, Mariah. We’re like a family, so we help each other out.”
“Thank you, Elie. I don’t even know what to say right now. I was sure that I was going to have to leave town, and I don’t want to start over somewhere else.”
“You won’t have to, Mariah. We’re going to take care of everything.”
Mariah thanked me again before she hung up and I was left to think about the unexpected developments. I needed Mariah to do some things for me, and now that she was going to owe me, I had the perfect idea of what going to be payback. I already had something in mind.
Sitting back in the seat, I was trying to figure out how everything had changed. Here I was worried about how I was going to maximize my profits from Mariah and the idea of it came to me. Now all I had to worry about was one man who happened to be a cop. It was a lot easier than trying to convince Mariah to give up her virginity. Once I got it taken care of with Greg, I was going to be able to use that to my advantage. The whole ‘family’ speech was going to be helpful later.
I made a few calls and rounded up a few bad men. I needed to find out where this cop was and a little bit more about him before I made my move. It was hard to do anything in New Orleans without everyone else finding out about it, but I did have a few people that I trusted with such information.
“Donnie, did I tell you the name?”
“Yeah, I got the name, Elie. Do you know where he’s staying?”
“No, I need you to find out and just hold tight until you talk to me.”
“Why?” This wasn’t the way these things usually went. I wasn’t sure why I was going to need pictures, but I had a feeling that it was going to be best to have them. I wanted Mariah to see firsthand that she was going to be okay. She may have claimed that she didn’t want violence, but she did. All women did, in their own way. They wanted to feel safe over everything else.
“This isn’t going to be like one of the normal jobs I have you do, Donnie. I need you to take it slow and send me some pictures of where he’s at when you find him. Let me know when you have and then we’ll decide what to do from there. I’m going to try to reason with the man. I just need to find an angle.”
It was the exact same thing that I’d said about Mariah. All I needed was an angle and everything was going to be okay. It was safe to say that I’d gotten the angle that I needed, so now I just had to get the other guy out of the way. What was it with this woman that made every man around her go a little crazy? I could feel it happening to me as well, and even though I realized it, it didn’t seem like I was able to stop it. I was hooked as well.
Chapter 18 – Greg
Mariah didn’t want to see me, and even though I wanted to respect her wishes, I wasn’t going to stay away from the woman I loved. She was everything to me, and even though she was going down this dark road, I didn’t want her to think that she was lost. She wasn’t. Just like time when I had to help her before, I was going to be there for her, even if no one else was.
She looked as good as I remembered, maybe even a little more so now that she had this great amount of confidence that she hadn’t had before. The fact that she was still innocent was a testament to what was supposed to happen. I couldn’t believe that she was still intact, but it was still all that I could think about. I’d wanted her since the moment that I wrapped that warm blanket around her years back when I got called in on a job.
Mariah had been so helpless and so scared that she’d clung to me when I found her in her old childhood home. The chaos that must have gone on there would never be spoken of out loud, but it didn’t have to be because the horror of it was clear in her eyes. She may not have been killed that night, but something inside of her had died. I’d been trying ever since then to bring that part of her back to life.
This was just another step in her recovery, and I felt like if I went home without her, I was going to be failing Mariah. I’d told her that I was going to help her, and leaving her wasn’t an option. She was running because we were getting closer, I was sure of it.
I played the day before in my head and mused on the fact that I would see Mariah again soon. All of the time that I’d spent on that website made me realize how much I missed her physically. I missed her company as well, but Mariah was talented, and I missed the types of things that we used to do together. There was no way to replace a woman like her, and I hadn’t even tried.
The clock said it was two in the morning and I couldn’t sleep. How could I sleep when Mariah was so close, yet still not in my arms? I’d given her a day to figure out what she wanted to do, to decide and make the right decision, but I was not above dragging her back home. It was where she belonged and it was where she was going to end up.
After lying down in the bed and looking at the ceiling much longer than I had any reason to, I pulled out my phone and went to the website that I kept telling myself I didn’t want to see. Mariah was on my phone soon enough, and I was left trying hard to breathe. My hand moved to touch myself and I closed my eyes, imagining that it was Mariah touching me. I missed her so much. I was close to coming when I heard a noise at the door of the motel I was staying in.
I wasn’t expecting anyone. No one knew that I was there. Mariah knew I was around, but I hadn’t told her where. I’d figured that I would go see her tomorrow at her house and take care of all of this. All I had to do was make it through the night. No one was going to be welcome, so I didn’t even bother getting up to answer the door. It just didn’t matter who it was.
When the knocking increased, it was more of an annoyance than anything else. I wanted to know what was causing someone to break into my quiet time, but it still wasn’t enough for me to get up. It was probably someone who was looking for someone else and just had the room number wrong. I was sure that was what it was. There was no reason to think anything else.
“Greg?”
When I heard my name in a rough, gravelly voice, then I started to take notice. It wasn’t someone here for someone else. He was here for me. The fact that I didn’t know anyone in town was a good indicator that I wasn’t going to like this meeting. Wracking my brain with the possibilities of who was on the other side of the door, I was slipping my boxers back on and slowly opening the drawer in the nightstand next to me.
My gun was in that drawer, and I’d just wrapped my hands around it when the door in front of me splintered open and two men started to walk through the newly opened threshold. My gun went up with my hand, pointed at the dark-haired man closest to me. He looked surprised that he wasn’t the only one with a weapon – and that the one he was holding wasn’t as deadly as mine.
“What do you want?”
The one holding the knife was silent for a minute, and then he moved it to his side.
“Are you Greg Bellam?”
“Yes. Who the hell are you? You can’t just barge in here.”
“We’re here to deliver a message.”
The man didn’t seem to fully appreciate the situation he was in. I was in no mood to have a discussion with him, and I certainly wasn’t apt to listen to anything that the two of them had to say. It was clear what kind of message he was trying to send me.
“Who do you work for?”
The two men looked at each other and then back at me with faces that were hard to read. They weren’t going to tell me who had sent them, not willingly, anyway, and I was okay with that.
“Why don’t the two of you come in here? Since the door is already open, I’ll let you let yourselves in.”
***
It didn’t take much to get the information that I needed. The two men were goons for the Fetish Club, and it wasn’t hard to see where this was pointing. The only thing that I di
dn’t know was how much Mariah knew about their job. I knew what it was before they even said it. They were there with a message to leave town and to leave Mariah alone. It wasn’t something that I was going to do, though, not even close. I was here for Mariah and I was leaving with her, no matter who liked it or didn’t.
After I got all of the information that I needed, I had an urge to go find Mariah and ask her what was going on. I’d given her an ultimatum when I’d gotten frustrated at her reaction. She wasn’t as happy to see me as I was happy to see her, so I’d slipped and threatened a bit. Now I saw that she’d gone to this Elie and was trying to get him to take care of me.
It was either that or he’d decided to do this all on his own and now I had to give him my own message to help him understand the situation. There were two scenarios with two very different endings. I needed to know which one it was, but I trusted a man in pain more than I could trust whatever came out of Mariah’s mouth. I was going to have to go to Elie and straighten all of this out before he found out what had happened to his men.
I went to the club and found that no one was there. It was almost five by the time I got there, and it appeared that I was at least an hour late for catching up with anyone. It changed my plans as to the where, but not the what. I left determined to find Elie before the sun was all the way up. I wanted to catch him before he went to bed. I didn’t want him to have any good dreams today.
Elie’s house wasn’t hard to find, especially since he was on several websites that were linked back to an address a few miles away. I didn’t know the city, so I hired another taxi to take me around. I was ready for anything, except Mariah being involved more than just telling him. If she’d somehow set it up, I knew I was going to be crushed. No matter what happened between us, Mariah was always going to be someone I loved. I couldn’t just let her go, and no one was going to stand in my way. Some thug sleaze-ball who ran a place like the Fetish Club was certainly not going to be the one to get in my way.