by Lauren Wood
BLURB
She’s off limits. Way off limits.
She thinks that I will just let her walk away.
What she doesn’t know is how much her body makes it impossible.
I couldn’t get the fiery redhead off my mind.
I was wrong. I will pay for p*ssy.
The problem is I don’t know if once will be enough.
I have never been to one of these things before.
Are these girls really willing to give up their innocence?
Men like me didn’t want a relationship.
Too much drama when women are a dime a dozen.
I would rather hear them all scream my name, then stick with one.
I always get bored. And walk away.
I never f*ck the same b*tch twice.
But damn if those emerald eyes and pouty lips didn’t make me break all of the rules.
I wanted her all to myself.
I had to own her.
Body and soul.
Was that for sell as well?
***
Chapter 1
Lucas
“Damn Lucas, this is one hell of a party.”
I clapped Marcus on the back as I hugged him to me. It had been too long since I had seen him. “Glad you could make it Marcus. I didn’t think you were going to come. Where is your old lady at?”
Marcus had a look on his face that told me that she wasn’t with him. She had issues with this lifestyle and I was almost surprised that she had even let him come down for it. I never thought I would see Marcus listening to a woman, but he loved Angela and I was happy for them both. I missed one of my best enforcers though. He knew that he always has a job if he wants it, but I had a feeling that I was only going to see him when Angela let him come.
“Well Angela is always welcome here.”
“After what happened with the Arc Angels, I don’t think she is going to come back to New Orleans. I have told her that it is safe, but she isn’t trying to hear it.”
It was strange to hear him talk like that. There was something so weird to hear one of my best men talk like that. He was in love. That was for sure. I swear there was something going around lately.
“I can understand that. This is a hard life for women. They are the ones that get to patch us up, but she had a little more in-depth look in our life.”
“I wish she hadn’t. Now I am working at a garage in Pascagoula.”
“Are you missing the action?”
Marcus wanted to say that he didn’t, but I could see it in his eyes. There was no way that he didn’t miss the excitement. It was about the only thing that kept me going some days.
“It’s here when you want it.” I had a feeling that he wouldn’t want back in, but I was still holding out hope. David did a good job and he was bringing along Zach to learn a thing or two, but Marcus was the man that I had always went to when I wanted to get something done. He had been with me since the beginning, him and his brother.
He made a noncommittal answer, but we both knew that he was out. I had joked about him being put out to pasture. He was so happy with Angela that he didn’t even seem to care about the ball-busting that had become a norm. All he was worried about was keeping her happy. It made me a little sick to see his balls clipped like that.
“So who are you here with Lucas?”
I looked around and shrugged. “Some little blonde that is running around here with a nice set of tits. I picked her up earlier and she gave me a hand job on the way over.”
“Still going with the guarantees, huh?”
“They are all guaranteed Marcus if you know how to play them. All this chick needed was a smile and a wink. You know how those bitches are. I can’t get away from their asses if I tried.”
Marcus just shook his head and grinned at me. I know that he was missing more than just the action from the criminal shit. He was missing all the sluts that hung around as well. How could you not when there was a steady stream of strange?
“One of these days you are going to have to settle down with one Lucas. You will find her and that will be that.”
“She better have a hole as tight as a fist then, because I doubt it. I don’t care how good a bitch can suck, one won’t be enough.”
“Suck what?”
Ethan came up and got into the conversation. It was just as well. I couldn’t talk to Marcus like this.
“Marcus is telling me that I need to find a wife.”
Ethan laughed and I was comforted. At least someone else got it and wasn’t ready to marry the first good girl to give it up.
“Fuck that, what the hell do you want a wife for?”
I looked where he was looking and watched a little raven-haired beauty stripping on the table. She wasn’t the first or the last of the night, but she sure did have good timing. “No wife is going to do that Marcus. You barely get to see the pussy when you get married. Here, I see it all day every day.”
The woman that had our attention smiled my way. I was starting to think that I needed black instead of blonde tonight. Her tits jiggled not too far from me and someone behind her started to pull her panties down. I got a glimpse of the shaved mons before she was grabbed from behind. I started to move forward and saw that she was smiling. Just another slut.
I walked away with a bit of confusion and in the same thought, wonder of what it would take for me to get like Marcus was. I don’t think there is a woman alive that would get me to quit the gang and play it straight. If I was ever going to be with a woman, she was going to have to be down for me and the lifestyle I have. That was all there was to it. It was the reason that I was still single, that and I wasn’t too interested in forever with anyone. I was doing good to get through a day without getting bored with a female.
Looking around, I thought of the one that I had met and invited here. I knew there was going to be a lot of people, but it was even fuller than I would have imagined. I had lost the short little blonde, but it wasn’t that much of a loss. I would either find her or I would find someone else. To me, women were easy come, easy go. I didn’t worry about it.
“Lucas?”
She was back when I turned around. Why couldn’t I remember her name?
“Hey there you are.”
“I was looking for you. I went to the bathroom and when I came back you were gone.” Her cute little cherub face was pouting prettily and all I could think about was how those tits were going to feel in my mouth. But I didn’t like her tone .
“Things move fast around here. I had to welcome some old friends back. Do you need a drink?” Cause you need something to calm your ass down.
I knew this girl a total of thirty minutes and she was already trying to bitch me out for something that I didn’t even know I did. This was not looking good and the request to get her a drink was really just a ploy so that I could get some breathing room away from here. Glad that there were so many people to hide me, I set about losing her this time in the sea of people. I would find another bitch for the night.
It took me upstairs to my bedroom. Everyone knew this floor was off limits and I listened to the music downstairs while I sipped my beer. My mood was dark for some reason and I didn’t want to go back down there. It was getting late, but the party would go on for as long as there was alcohol and women. There were plenty of both still in attendance.
I looked out the window when I saw a reflection of flashing blue lights in front of me. I could have sworn that they would be here for me and the party, but instead the lit up car went to the neighbor’s house next door. There was a little distance in between houses, but not enough that I couldn’t see the police get out in the beam of light from the headlights.
Not being one to get into other people’s business, I looked away and went back to my beer. My plans were to go find a new chick for the night to keep me warm. If I wouldn’t have heard screaming, I wouldn’t have looked back up. There was a high-pitched scream that I could hear over the loud music thumping under m
y feet.
Now I was interested and I squinted to see a little better. One of the officers stood in front of the barely opened door and there was another one with his hand hovering over his piece like he was about to draw it standing behind the door to use it as a shield. The cop at the door was trying to get in, but the door was slammed from the inside and I couldn’t hear anything anymore. The silence was deafening, even with the background noise of the party downstairs.
When the second cop finally drew his gun, it was clear that something bad was happening next door. I couldn’t think about that though. I had a crap load of people in my house and the music was jamming. I started downstairs to turn it off and try to make it so that the cops weren’t here next. There were enough drugs on the property to get me put away for a very long time.
I didn’t know much about the guy that lived in the house next door. I tried to keep to myself and all I knew was that he was a small time dealer, but it wasn’t even enough for me to worry about. He didn’t cut into my profits, so there was really nothing to worry about. There had been whispers that the man dealt in guns as well, but those were just rumors and I liked to stick to fact as much as I could. It was easier that way.
I got to the radio and turned the music down. There was a little ruckus from a few of them, but I didn’t care. I needed everyone to shut the hell up until the cops left. More than that, I wanted everyone to leave, but that wouldn’t be a good idea right now. Whatever was going on next door needed it’s space and it would just draw more attention. We were all just going to have to wait out the drama that was playing out next door.
I found Marcus and told him a little of what was going on. I wanted him to be my eyes while I tried to move some of the product. Anything that wasn’t hidden or locked up needed to be that way. I hoped that I wouldn’t have a reason to do this, but it was safer to just make sure that it was done anyways. It was better to be safe when it came to the police.
I heard a shot ring out next door, followed by several more. Since there was no music, the talking drowned out most of it, but I moved back to the window upstairs to see if I could see anything. The screams of a woman were what bothered me most. The police around here could be brutal and I don’t know what pulled me to the glass pane, but I wanted to know what was going on. It was like I had to know or something. Not sure why, but there was some kind of reason in my gut.
Watching the police shoot into the house, there was a couple of return fires that lit up when the bullet glanced off the metal. Both cops ran for cover and the screams started again. Why did I want to go over there and help? I was not the helpful kind of guy, especially when there were cops involved and it had nothing to do with me. But there was something about it all that made me on edge and I wanted to help.
“Lucas, it looks like there is more cops coming. We need to get out of here. Let everyone else stay. We can get out with the back and down the alley. I say we get the hell out of here now before they are over here asking questions.”
I looked towards the neighbor’s house again and I agreed finally. I didn’t want to for reasons unknown to me, but I was okay with that. The need to get out of the area before the place was flooded with police was definitely more important. I didn’t know anyone over there and I didn’t know that the woman screaming was worth saving.
“Come on Marcus. We can’t have you getting caught here when you are supposed to be north. You know that the probation officer isn’t going to be happy with you. Don’t want you to get in trouble with the misses.”
We both knew that wasn’t the half of it and that I had my own reasons. It didn’t matter why, we both needed to get out of there before something bad happened. As we were going out the back door, I saw a woman from the neighbor’s house climbing out of a window. Chaos was going on behind her and she looked up to meet my gaze for a moment.
Her brown eyes were wild and it stopped me in my tracks. Who was she? Who was this woman with the wild, long dark hair making her escape? Her body was barely covered and I could see her curves clearly. It was the wrong time to get turned on, but I was hard as a rock in seconds. The bitch was gorgeous and instead of playing the victim, she was getting out of dodge. That turned me on even more.
“Come on Lucas, I know you hear those sirens. They are getting close and then we are not going to be able to leave.”
He was right, but I watched the young woman land on her feet and take off out the back gate before I made a move. It seemed that we both had the same idea. I didn’t want to be around when the police came either, but I had to wonder if she was the screamer that I had heard earlier.
I didn’t know the details of what was going on at the neighbor’s house, but I was just glad that she got out of there okay. I shouldn’t care. I did care though. Marcus pulled me from my thoughts and I followed him a couple blocks over where we had a few bikes stashed away for this sort of thing. I always had to be ready to get out of dodge and tonight was one of those nights that I just had to get the hell out.
Chapter 2
Fran
Caspien had lost his mind. He never was the most stable guy, but I had never seen him like this. One minute he was doing okay and we were joking and the next minute he had snapped. I didn’t know what to do, so I locked myself in the bathroom. If he would have went away, I would have let it go, but he didn’t. Finally I had to call the cops, something that I knew he would never forgive me for, but what else was I supposed to do? The man scared the crap out of me when he was like this.
So when I felt like the bathroom door was going to come down, I ran. It was all I could think to do. There was nothing else to do but run and that was exactly what it was that I was doing.
The ground was further than it seemed and though I landed the right way, I could still feel the pressure in my ankles and knees when I hit the ground. There were two men that were looking my way, going into the darkness of the back gate. I had seen one of them before, but the tall redhead wasn’t one that I knew. Were they friends with Cass? I hoped not because I wanted to get away from him. This wasn’t the first time he had been this way. I blamed that crap he was on, but it didn’t matter. I just had to get out of here.
The shots fired got me moving and I made my way out of the yard and through the back yard into the street. Sirens were in the distance, coming closer and I needed to get some distance between me and this place. I don’t know what I was thinking getting with a guy like Caspien, but I had learned my lesson once and for all. It just wasn’t worth it to date a bad boy. It sounded good in theory. They are exciting and they will always keep you on your toes. But I was looking forward to some quiet in my life. After living with Cass the last couple of years, I needed it bad.
There was just a question of where I was going to go. My family was not around, but it didn’t matter. I had no cash, though I did have a friend that I could stay with from work. All I had to do was get far enough away from Caspien. I should have stayed and talked to the police, but I felt like Caspien would have had no problem turning me into a shield or leverage. It was easy to see that he didn’t care for me in the way that I hoped he would. I had hoped that he would see that he loved me and calm down. Whatever he was taking changed all of that though.
My eyes looked around for the two men that I had seen leaving next door. The first man that had seen me was tall and blonde. I had seen him around before. I just didn’t realize who he was. Why were they leaving out of the backdoor? Most likely they were as criminal as Cass was. There were just too many criminals around here and I needed to get out of this rotten neighborhood.
***
“Fran, wake up. Are you okay?”
The sun was bright in my eyes from it streaming in through the windows. It made me feel like my eyes were going to burn out of their own socket. Stephanie was looking down at me as if I had grown a third eye.
“What’s up?”
“It’s time for work. What happened last night?”
I remembered going to her and t
elling her as little as possible to get her to let me stay. Steph and I had been friends for a couple of years now, but I have never stopped by like I did last night. I was sure that I was a wreck. Cass had ripped some of my clothes when he was throwing me around. Now there was most likely bruising on my face because it hurt to even smile.
The grin I had for my friend turned into a grimace and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. “Cass got on some drugs and went crazy I think. I snuck out the back window while he shot it out with the cops. I really don’t know what happened after that.”
I tried to be as nonchalant as possible. I didn’t want to have to worry about all of the questions. The truth was I didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t even know if Cass was still alive, but it begged to reason that he wouldn’t be. You can’t just shot at the cops around here. They shoot back in that neighborhood, they had to dealing with me like Caspien.
“What?”
I wasn’t going to repeat myself again. I didn’t see a point. Stephanie was just going to have to take me at my word. I was still tired and trying to remember why I was up so early.
“It’s fine Steph. Thanks for letting me stay here last night.”
I moved to get up and touched my head where it was killing me. I could feel the tenderness in my face and in other parts of my body. I felt like every inch of me had been hurt and there was nothing that I could do about it. I wanted her to see that I was fine, but that was a hard thing to do when I felt like I was going to keel over. This wasn’t the first time that Cass had put his hands on me, but I knew that it would be the last time. I was done.
“No problem Fran. You know that you are always welcome here. I just worry about you. Ever since you got with that guy, you have to put on makeup to hide what he does to you more often than not.”
“That is over now.” I thought that most likely Cass was over and I know that I should have been sad. I was in a way because there was a good man underneath it all, but at the end of the day, I was more relieved than anything else.