Depravity (The Captive Series Book 2)

by Penelope Marshall

  Finally, I was standing in front of her, eyeing her tight dress and stiletto heels as the other women quietly watched. “Why do you look so pissed off?”

  She looked at the floor.

  “Hey, I’m talking to you, Ty.”

  She glared at me. “Just make your fuckin’ decision and move on.”

  Her anger amused me. “I pick her.”

  The other ladies groaned as they dispersed and floated around the club, looking for something to do.

  Larry walked over to me. “Yeah, she’s a tough one to crack. Good luck.” He smiled, patting me on the back.

  Ty headed through the dark hallway toward the back room without a second glance. I smiled, knowing she was in for a rude awakening. I trailed behind her and stepped into one of the private rooms made for these sorts of rendezvous.

  Dance rooms, my ass! I thought as the smell of rubber condoms ripped through my nasal cavity.

  Ty sat down on the red vinyl booth seating with flecks of gold glitter that glimmered in the recessed lighting. The black walls lent a certain dirtiness to the whole business that was to take place in the next few minutes.

  “Are you ready?” she asked, a disgusted look blanketing her face.

  “Shit, am I that disgusting to you?”

  “No, but a man that needs to pay for sex is.”

  “Oh, I’m not paying for this,” I explained as I plopped down on the slippery vinyl and clasped my hands behind my head.

  She shook her head. “Fuckin’ Larry.”

  I chuckled. “Well, are you ready to start?”

  “And who says chivalry is dead?” she asked as she started to undress like a robot.

  “Damn, can you undress in a sexier way?”

  “Why? Can’t get it up without a show?” she asked sarcastically.

  I held out my hand. “Stop—bring your sweet ass over here and sit with me,” I said, patting on the vinyl next to me.

  “Sit and do what?”

  “Just sit and nothing. You looked like you needed a break and I was in the position to give it to you. Shit! Can’t a guy do something nice without the third degree?”

  “Not in my experience,” she sassed, making her way to the chair adjacent to mine.

  “You’re fuckin’ welcome,” I replied crassly.

  I had chosen the sourest woman of the bunch, but that seemed to be my lot in life.

  Ty

  I plopped my tired feet on the round table in the middle of the room the girls used to dance on so the men could see up their skirts. They always tried to tell me if I showed my goods, I would make more money. Who cared about money if this is what I had to do for it?

  I shook my head. I don’t think I’ve ever just sat in this room and taken in the scenery. Men think this shit’s easy—to be tossed around like a piece of meat. A cow with an ear tag indicating how much I cost and, for a little extra, they could take me into a room and do whatever they liked. It wasn’t always this way. I had things. Nice things. I had a mother and a father who loved me—or so I thought.

  Men—who needs ’em?

  Not me. I’d been around that block a few times and I swore to myself never again would I let some asshole have a crack at my heart.

  I shook my head. “Thank you! Is that what you were looking for?” I asked rudely.

  “I’m not lookin’ for shit. I was just tryin’ to be nice. I guess it’s true—no good deed and all…”

  I was being a bitch to him, and with no reason other than he was a man. “No, you’re right. You were just tryin’ to be nice. I’m being a bitch. I’m sorry, and thank you,” I said softly as I twiddled my thumbs. “I don’t know what you think you’re gonna get, being all nice and shit? If it’s ass, then let’s just get it over with. Otherwise, I don’t wanna owe you shit. Owing something is worse than just paying up front.”

  “Man, someone really fucked you up, didn’t they?”

  I let out a slight chuckle. “If you only fuckin’ knew.”

  “I’m gonna take off my shirt in case anyone walks in. Is that okay, or am I gonna catch hell for that too?”

  “Do what the hell you want,” I said, looking around the room until Mace’s chiseled body caught my attention. The tight elastic of his boxer briefs peeked over his jeans. I might have enjoyed this one if he hadn’t been such a gentleman and let me off the hook.

  The next twenty minutes were pretty silent as he sat and scrolled through his phone. His irritation was apparent in the way his fingers tapped on the cell phone screen with more force than needed.

  The sound of Larry’s nasally voice coming to check on us wafted down the hall and through the cracks of the door. I shot up out of my seat, ripped my dress off, and straddled Mace.

  Startled, he asked, “What the hell?”

  “They’re coming to check on us,” I whispered as the door creaked open.

  I leaned in hard and pressed my lips to his, pretending to play the part. Unfortunately for me, the sparks emanating from our lips at that moment were not an act. At least for me it wasn’t. It was a spark I hadn’t felt in years, and honestly, I was pretty lost in the moment.

  Until, of course, I heard Larry’s voice. “Really, Mace, you still haven’t gotten her panties off? I mean, how do you screw that up?”

  Mace pulled away but continued to gaze into my eyes. “I—I—” He shook his head. “Shut the fuck up, Larry,” he growled as he flung me over to the vinyl next to him.

  “Well, come on, quit stuttering. You had your time. Let’s go,” he said, holding the door open, motioning for Mace to come out.

  I wrapped my arms around my legs to cover myself and nibbled nervously at my thumb as I watched him walk out the door. Before he left, he shot me a wink and smile, then closed the door behind him.

  This guy…

  Mace

  I looked back down the hallway, thinking about the kiss. I hadn’t been kissed like that in years, not since Alexa, and I wanted to run back in the room and take her on my lap.

  Why did I have to be such a gentleman?

  I walked to the exit, trailing behind Larry.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, right?” Larry asked.

  “Yeah—tomorrow,” I said, unable to get my mind off of Ty.

  “Okay, maybe the next time I throw you a bone you pick it up rather than just look at it, huh?” He chuckled as his greasy hand patted me on the back.

  I shrugged his hand off as I walked toward to my car.

  Why did I have to be such a fuckin’ gentleman?

  I hopped in my car and headed home. After a cold shower or two, I was going to need to sleep the rest of my frustration off. The drive home was short, and after sliding into my usual parking spot, I grabbed my gun and phone and headed in. I laid my keys, gun, and phone on the counter and stopped at the fridge for a cold beer.

  “That fuckin’ broad.” I shook my head as I screwed off the beer cap and took a swig.

  Why did I let her under my skin?

  I only ever let one woman that close to me, and that bitch took me for a ride.

  Alexa.

  Even her name still made me cringe. She was sexy as all hell and had the attitude to match—I guess Ty kind of reminded me of her.

  I was young when I met her, and I had the un-jaded heart to prove it. I let her run me into the ground, trying to please her. But what she never told me was she was unpleasable; my rank and my bed weren’t enough for her, and they were never going to be.

  Being a twenty-something-year-old spring chicken with no experience with women before her made me the perfect mark for her treachery. I came home one day from a month long mission to a piss stick with two perfect blue lines zipping across the little plastic window. I couldn’t have been happier to be having a baby with the woman I loved.

  I was there through her morning sickness, through her cravings, through her mood swings. Nine months of that shit and I still had a smile on my face; until the day she went into labor.

  I rushed her
to Mercy General, the same place we had gone every month for her prenatal appointments. The same place we saw my baby boy for the very first time on some grainy monitor. They printed out pictures which had ‘Baby Boy Asher’ printed across the top of the ink blot that was supposed to be my son.

  Baby boy Asher. I was going to name him Cooper and teach him everything I knew about everything. The same way my pop showed me. I loved that kid before he even took his first breath.

  Two hours later she pushed out baby boy Asher. But to my surprise, baby boy Asher had a head full of curly black hair and dark chocolate skin, with a set of light green eyes that reminded me of my CO’s—my African American CO. The room went silent as all eyes fell on me. Everybody knew.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked, as she hadn’t yet seen the evidence of her infidelities cradled in the nurse’s arms.

  Baby boy Asher, my ass!

  I had never been so hurt in my life. I had been through the most grueling military training known to man, and that hurt less than the crushing agony that this woman had just dealt me from in between her legs.

  I wanted to stab her between the eyes and set her on fire. But I showed restraint and quietly stepped out of the room. After all, I wasn’t going to let this bitch take the last thing I held dear away from me—the Navy. Killing her would have certainly done just that. So I went home, packed up all my shit, and left. I never saw that bitch again, and for her sake, it was probably for the best.

  I couldn’t tell you how many times I saw that fucking CO, though. I saw him at briefings, around the base, and once I even got caught alone with him on an elevator ride up ten floors. I dreamt about cutting his dick off and ramming it down his throat. But I wasn’t positive he was the father, and I was positive that she didn’t know, either.

  That’s the day I vowed to never again let a tramp have a crack at my heart. And here I was thinking about Ty; a girl who reminded me so much of the one who fucked me sideways to hell and back.

  What kind of masochist knowingly sets themselves up for failure?

  A fucking insane one in my book and that wasn’t going to be me. I finished off my beer and threw it in the garbage as I made my way to the bathroom to take a cold shower and finally get Ty off my mind the old fashioned way.

  The Next Day…

  Another day and another fifteen cents to watch this asshole. It had been hours since I had seen any movement from the club, but finally, the main entrance door flung open and out walked Larry. He stood at the edge of the door, apparently holding it open for someone else, which to my surprise, turned out to be Ty. I had no claim to her, but I must admit I was a little jealous to see the two together after yesterday’s kiss.

  But that’s a woman. In one day, out the next. No fuckin’ loyalty.

  Looking around like a heroine addicted squirrel, Larry gripped Ty’s hand, and half-jogged toward his yellow Camaro.

  “Finally,” I said, turning the key in the ignition, readying the car to follow him. “When I see this muthafuckin’ Eli, I’ma punch him in his nuts for being late again,” I threatened under my breath.

  Larry threw Ty into the passenger seat, got into the driver seat, then screeched out of the parking lot of the club. I followed about three car lengths behind, looking around for anyone else who might be following him. It was a pretty uneventful drive to Larry’s apartment, where I assumed he was going to bang Ty, then head back to the club.

  This girl. Nothing but trouble!

  Not that I cared, or would ever admit, but how could someone like her want to bang someone like Larry? But to each his own, I guess—it wasn’t my business—she wasn’t my business. I needed to forget about her and remember Blain’s rule.

  My cell went off as I passed Larry’s building on my right, looking for a parking spot on the other side of the street to get a better view.

  I picked up the cell from the center console. “Hello.”

  “Hey Mace, I’m sorry I’m late, man. I was with this girl last night, and she did things—ya know?”

  “I don’t give a shit if she gave you head while hanging from the rafters. You’re fuckin’ late again, and I need to take a piss,” I growled.

  “All right man, I’ll be right there. Where are you?” he asked, half out of breath.

  “Are you still fucking her?” I asked, shaking my head as I looked at my side mirror, readying myself to make a U-turn.

  “Uh…no…I…” he stuttered.

  “Listen here, you son of a bitch. If you don’t get here in the next twenty minutes, I promise I’m gonna fuck your world up,” I threatened.

  “Calm down, Mace. I’ll be at Larry’s in a few,” he said.

  “How did you know I was at Larry’s?” I asked.

  “Uh…’cause you said so,” he stuttered.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Yes, you did, man. You must be tired as fuck,” he said. “I’ll be there to relieve you so you can get some rest.”

  I shook my head. “Yeah, I’m pretty fuckin’ tired. Tired of you being late. Twenty minutes, Eli. Twenty minutes,” I reiterated as I hung up.

  This is the shit Blain kept harpin’ about—women—and their ways of distraction. I threw the phone onto the passenger seat and took a deep breath. My bladder was going to need to hold on a little longer until this asshole decided to make his way to work.

  Eli was right. I must have been really tired because I honestly didn’t remember telling him I was at Larry’s. I shrugged as my phone went off again.

  I reached over to pick it up. “I swear if this is you, Eli—” I was interrupted by the distinct sound of rifle fire and the whistle of the bullet breaking through my windshield. I went on high alert, adrenaline permeating every cell as I lay crosswise over the middle console and the passenger seat, waiting to see if another bullet had my name on it. I glanced up at the driver seat headrest to see a clean bullet hole in the black leather, right where my forehead would’ve been if the phone hadn’t rung.

  I turned the ignition on, jammed my foot on the gas, and spun my wheel to the left, driving onto the street adjacent to Larry’s apartment building. The Mustang’s wheels spun in place, releasing a cloud of burning rubber and fumes as the car finally gained traction and screeched off.

  I was still laying down, looking up through the windows of the buildings, trying to ascertain how far I should go before I hit the brakes. The minute I saw Larry’s familiar brown brick building to my right, I slammed on the brakes and shut off the car.

  “Fuckin’ Eli. I should be home takin’ a piss right now,” I growled.

  I pulled my Smith & Wesson .380 along with my leg holster out from underneath my seat and yanked the rear view mirror from the windshield. As soon as I opened the driver door, I slipped out and crouched down immediately to survey the scene.

  These muthafuckers weren’t gonna catch me off guard again.

  I didn’t see anyone, so I strapped on my holster and ran over to the side of the building, slowly edging my way over to the corner. I held up the rear view mirror slightly past the corner of the building to see if the shooter was visible from where I was standing. I angled the mirror up and down and side to side until I caught a glimpse of a man with a black hooded sweater, walking intently for the entrance of the building holding a rifle at his side. I set the mirror on the ground and waited a few seconds, counting his steps, picturing in my head where he would be standing at that point.

  Leaping out from the side of the building, I aimed, shooting two rounds at the assailant. His body dropped like a ton of bricks on the light gray concrete sidewalk. I ran over to make sure he was dead. Nearing the body, I could see the blood pooling underneath him, streaming from a hole in his cheek and one in his forehead. With my gun still pointed at him, I picked up his rifle and ran into Larry’s building to get him out, since I had recognized the man to be Bandi Matiglio, a lieutenant in the Peruzzi crime family, one of the most feared in the Italian Mafia. If they had sent him to take care of Lar
ry, then Larry was in far deeper than he had led Blain to believe.

  I made quick work of the two flights of stairs and banged on Larry’s wooden door. “Open up, Larry. Shit just got real.”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he yelled from inside the apartment.

  The door flung open to Larry standing in front of the door, shirtless, frantically zipping up his pants.

  I looked around the room for Ty and caught a glimpse of her running into the bathroom. “Hurry the fuck up, Ty!”

  I turned back to Larry, who was trying to put on his cheap two dollar penny loafers; his attempt at being a legitimate businessman. “Two minutes. I’m waiting two fuckin’ minutes—then I’m out.”

  “Hey, I had a deal with your boss. You’re supposed to keep me safe.”

  “Yeah, from a low-level shake-down, not an all-out assault I hadn’t planned for. I don’t even think I have enough ammo to get us out of the building,” I said, beckoning him to the door with my gun. “Let’s go. I don’t have eyes outside!”

  “All right, all right,” he said, buttoning up his shirt as he ran for the door, brushing by me. “Are you coming?” he asked, halfway down the stairs.

  “What about Ty?”

  “Leave her,” he yelled back.

  I took a step into the hallway, but my conscience got the best of me mid-step.

  “Damn it!” I growled.

  I couldn’t just leave her. Even if they didn’t find Larry, they would kill her just for being in the apartment. I ran over to the bathroom, where I found her crouched down in the corner, shivering.

  “Let’s go, Ty.” I looked over her trembling body. “Ty,” I whispered, stretching out my hand.

  Speaking to her in a rough tone wouldn’t accomplish anything at this point, since she was already scared to death. My hand hung in the air for a second, until she loosened her grip on her jacket lapel and clasped my outstretched hand. Gripping her soft skin tightly, I pulled her to her feet and scooped her up like a baby. The sweet smell of summer apples wafted from her hair as she pressed her cheek into my chest.