Dynasty: A Mafia Collection

by Jen Davis

  Renee glanced at her watch, gathered her papers into one stack, then began tapping them together on the table to make them neat and orderly. She set the papers down and looked at her friend with a smile. The smile told him that she did care he was in the room and she was happy to see him.

  He took a sip of his drink and held it up in front of him. “Can I get you anything?”

  She stretched her arms out behind her. “No, thank you. I feel like I haven’t seen you in so long. You’re doing well?”

  Drink in hand, Elias sat across from Renee and relaxed. This was the Renee he loved, those rare and tiny moments when her mother shone through. “Life is fine. How’s school going?”

  “Ugh. Midterms.” Like that was the only explanation to answer his question.

  He smiled over his drink. “I’m sure you’ll do well. You are an excellent student.”

  “I’ve been taking summer classes which will allow me to graduate a year early.”

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had not heard. “Really? And after graduation?”

  Like stating the obvious, she said, “I’m staying here, of course.”

  Keeping his face stoic, his heart deflated. He had been hoping she would have a life of her own. She had such a bright future ahead of her, but would never see it unless she got away from her father. He said the only thing he could say, even if it was a lie. “I’m glad to hear it. Things just wouldn’t be the same without you.”

  “So,” Renee picked up the stack of papers, “she’s good?”

  Elias changed gears from personal to professional and nodded. “She’s good. She may have the capacity to develop an addiction, but I say that because she’s a smoker.”

  Renee raised an eyebrow at him. “Not for long.”

  “That’s why I say she may have the capacity.”

  Renee nodded in understanding as the conference room door opened and a thin, freckled girl poked her head through the door, her eyes searching the room. Elias knew what Renee was thinking as he walked the girl over to the table to stand in front of Renee, who simply stared at her, taking inventory of her possible new employee. Renee gave an accepting smile to Elias. He nodded to both Renee and Alice, and quietly left the room.

  ***

  Renee knew her name was Alice Jenkins, barely eighteen years old. At first glance, Alice was acceptable—her skin wasn’t pocked or scared, and she seemed to be well nourished. Alice kept brushing her hair behind her ears, probably a nervous habit because, try as she might, Alice could not hide the fact that her legs were shaking. Dressed in a pair of denim cutoff shorts with a midriff t-shirt, Alice chewed on her lips and bit her nails. That would have to stop.

  Renee tried to relax Alice with a smile and extended her arm in invitation. “Please. Come sit.”

  Alice let out a nervous breath and slowly took the chair next to Renee. Renee, deciding she was uncomfortable, stretched out her legs, sat up in her chair, and straightened her back.

  “Alice Jenkins?”

  Alice nodded. When Renee raised an eyebrow at her, Alice spoke. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Scanning the papers in front of her, Renee spoke as if she were talking to herself. “Eighteen, grew up in Boston, and of good health. Except for the smoking. The women who work for us do not smoke.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Alice shifted uncomfortably in her chair and cleared her throat. “Sorry. I guess I’m a little nervous.”

  “There’s nothing to be nervous about. You either take the job or you don’t. You can relax.” Renee sat back in her chair and decided that sitting cross-legged was more comfortable. “Why don’t you start by telling me what your understanding of this job is.”

  “I need money and a place to live. I have no place else to go. I’d basically be a prostitute.”

  “No.”

  Alice was confused. “But that’s how he made it sound. The guy, the one I met at the club.”

  “Miss Jenkins, let me be blunt. This job is client companionship, not prostitution. While both professions exchange money for sex, our clients are men, and sometimes women, who require prudence and secrecy. We provide them with both, along with clean, healthy, and discrete young women. In exchange, you will be paid generously and provided a room of your own in this hotel where you will live and work. You will do what is asked of you without question.”

  “What if I don’t want this job?”

  Renee asked a question she already knew the answer to. “Miss Jenkins, if you were under the impression that this job is that of a common prostitute, why are you here? There are ten other girls here who joined us for the exact same reason. Money.”

  Alice’s eyes widened. “Ten? But how do they do it?”

  “You mean emotionally?”

  Alice nodded. “Well, yeah.”

  Renee didn’t have the personal experience to correctly answer the question so she gave the speech she rehearsed after Sasha left. “Sex is not just physical. Take the emotion out of it and you’ll be fine. This job is a choice. However, if you choose not to accept this job, when you leave here tonight you will be expected to keep this interview secret. The best way to ensure that is to remember that not only do you know who we are, we know who you are and we have the resources to make sure you understand that fact. Should you choose to stay, you will have rules that must be followed or there will be consequences. You will report to me because I am your boss. My boss, and believe me when I tell you this, is not the person you want doling out punishment for breaking the rules.”

  Alice’s eyes opened wide in both fear and curiosity. “Who is your boss?”

  “My boss will be known to you should you accept the job. You will always be clean and presentable. What you’re wearing now,” Renee gestured at Alice’s outfit, “would be worn in your room, on your own time. When you are outside of your room, you are representing a Family and behaving accordingly. You will not drink alcohol to excess. You absolutely will not smoke. If a client asks you to do something that makes you uncomfortable, you immediately, and I do mean immediately, come to me.”

  “What I find uncomfortable could be different for someone else.”

  Smart girl after all. Alice pulled herself together quickly and Renee was beginning to like her. “Let’s start with drugs. If you are entertaining someone who smokes marijuana and they would like you to join them, you have a choice, but nothing will be to excess. You must be in control of your faculties at all times. If you are not comfortable and don’t want to do it, then you politely excuse yourself and you come to me. If you have a client who likes bondage, but that’s not your thing, you politely excuse yourself and you come to me. But most importantly, if you have a client who raises a hand to you, you immediately come and find me. Do not give them an opportunity to raise that hand twice. Understand?”

  Alice nodded and Renee continued. “The clients have rules as well. One point that is made clear to them is that should their particular choice of recreation involve needles, that choice will not include you. Just like you, they receive consequences if they break the rules. You will not act like a giddy pre-teen child. You will be courteous and respectful. You will have a checkup with Dr. Michaelson once a month, but anytime you feel you need to see him, all you have to do is let me know. He is not a client, nor will he ever be, so you can be assured he will treat you with kindness and respect. Lastly, you will receive a tattoo.”

  Alice furrowed her eyebrows. “A tattoo?”

  “All of the people who work for us receive a tattoo. This is to let certain people know whom you work for. Yours will be on the back of your right shoulder. Some part of the tattoo must always be showing with the exception of certain social events that will require the tattoo to be covered. Do you have any questions?”

  Renee watched Alice as she contemplatively nodded her head.

  “What happens if I get pregnant?”

  “We take measures to make sure you don’t. However, if you do, we have a doctor on staff. Something very important you sho
uld know is that there is no quitting this job. Should you accept and receive your mark, you will never be allowed to voluntarily leave.”

  Chapter 9

  She hadn’t seen him since her birthday party, so when Renee walked into Matthew’s office and saw him casually leaning against the wall by the door to the adjoining room, known as the Red Room for the amount of blood spilled on the floor over the years, she stopped dead in her tracks. She hadn’t stopped thinking about him since her birthday, but after searching the hotel relentlessly and not being able to find him, she had given up on ever seeing him again.

  He smiled at her as she entered the room and all she could do was stare at him, hypnotized. What the hell is wrong with me? She didn’t understand why her heart beat a little faster and her breathing quickened when she saw him. She made a mental note to talk to the girls; one of them must have the answers because Renee was completely at a loss.

  They stared at each other for a minute before he extended his hand. “Christopher Reynolds.”

  She could swear an electric shock bolted up her arm as she took his hand. “Renee Parnell.”

  “I know who you are. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  He grinned and she could feel her face begin to flush. She tried to push the unfamiliar emotions aside, which was easily done when she heard a pained grunt come from the other side of the door.

  “You found him?” She knew the answer when Christopher smiled at her. Renee heard something hard make contact with the man who owned the excruciating grunt that was instantly followed by a more pronounced howl of distress. Mr. Sweeny was in the process of learning his lesson for disrespecting her father with an ill-timed comment.

  Christopher was beginning to make her nervous as he continued to stare at her in silence. She sat in one of the chairs across from Matthew’s desk, setting the folder she was carrying on her lap and trying her best not to turn her head to look back at him.

  “How’s the eye?”

  She had completely forgotten about her fading black eye. “Better.”

  “I’m guessing you’re a baseball fan?”

  She couldn’t help but smile at his question and gave a shallow nod.

  “Red Sox?”

  She could feel the blush rising in her cheeks again and desperately wished she knew both why she was blushing and how to stop it. “I just like the game. I’ve never played but I’ve spent some time at the batting cages.”

  “Obviously,” Christopher replied with a laugh.

  “What about you?”

  “Hockey,” he said, as if it were the only acceptable answer.

  “Ah,” she replied. “I’ve never watched it before.”

  “You should check it out.”

  With you? she thought, but instead said, “I will.” And she would.

  They locked eyes for a few heartbeats until the guarded door opened and Matthew entered his office while wiping his hands. Before the door closed behind him, Renee saw a lifeless Mr. Sweeny lying on the floor and a pool of blood slowly beginning to surround him from the knife protruding from the back of his neck. She thought nothing of it.

  Matthew was clearly agitated by Renee’s presence, casting a suspicious glance from Christopher to Renee, narrowing his eyes at her. “What do you want? I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

  “My apologies. I wasn’t aware you had visitors.”

  Matthew gave her a cold, hard stare, implying that he did not approve of the schoolgirl crush behavior he had just witnessed, nor did he appreciate the casual dress and the tired eyes. Renee returned the stare and waited; he would either dismiss her or he wouldn’t.

  “We have a new employee,” she said as he snatched the file out of her hand. Clearly her interruption would not be presently forgiven, but after the episode in Saffron’s room, and the fact that he had told her to find someone else while Saffron recovered, she didn’t care whether or not she had interrupted a meeting.

  As Matthew gave the file’s contents a passing glance, Renee was daring herself not to turn her head to the left. She did not, however, dare herself not to move her eyes, and she did so carefully and slowly, catching a glimpse of Christopher in her peripheral vision. He was staring directly at her, very still and very patient, not minding the interruption of their earlier conversation. Other than that, she couldn’t read anything in his expression that might give away what he was thinking.

  Matthew thrust the file back at Renee. “She smokes.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Renee stood her ground. Alice was her first recruit since Sasha had left and she was going to stand by her decision. The tension between father and daughter had grown considerably since she took Sasha’s job—he was trying to break her and she was trying to prove there was nothing he could do to stop her.

  Finally, Matthew conceded. “She’ll do.”

  Renee gave a small, victorious smile and turned to leave the room, casting a quick glance at Christopher. The door to the Red Room opened once more and Renee’s smile turned to a scowl as Crescent and another new face exited the room. She immediately didn’t like Crescent’s young associate. Her gut sent out intense warning signals that he would eventually be trouble, and she would do well to pay close attention to those warnings. She and Crescent gave each other hateful stares before she decided to leave the room, but Matthew stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

  “Gentlemen, this is Renee, our resident madam.” Matthew gently squeezed Renee’s shoulder. “This is Christopher Reynolds and Tucker Wilson, new members of the Family. Gentlemen, out of everything you take away from this meeting tonight, what I say next will be the most important. It’s best to remember it, because you will only be told once. I’m sure you already know Renee is my daughter. My daughter,” he focused his stare on Christopher, “is not to be touched. Should I find out anybody has harmed her, they will answer to me. Should I find out anyone has touched her without permission or injured her in any way, they will answer to me. If you know of anyone who has hurt or attempted to hurt her, you will let me know immediately.”

  Matthew had been repeating these words for years to everybody who came to work for him. Two men decided to test the warning and quickly disappeared. The only one it didn’t apply to was Mr. Crescent.

  Renee nodded at each of them and said, “Gentlemen, it’s nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Just as he had done at the party, Christopher tipped his invisible hat with an attentive smile and she had the sudden urge to giggle and blush. It was difficult to suppress the giggle and all she could do to respond was nod in acknowledgement, one corner of her closed mouth turned up into a thin smile.

  Tucker stood before her with complete indifference and made no attempt to greet her. Her smile instantly faded as she gave him a hard stare of concentrated disapproval. Young, cocky, overly confident Tucker Wilson was in desperate need of a quick lesson in etiquette. Standing next to Tucker, Crescent merely watched with a thin smile on his lips.

  Renee slowly approached Tucker like a cat on the hunt. “I know you’re new, but I know for a fact you have been informed of the established propriety that is required of everybody in this Family. Contrary to what you may believe, Mr. Wilson, you are no better than anybody else in this Family, least of all me. I wasn’t simply born into this Family, I have worked to earn my place and don’t appreciate being ignored when simple courtesy is all that is required.”

  Tucker’s attitude and tough exterior quickly crumbled as he realized that challenging the rules was a mistake. “I didn’t mean…it won’t happen again.”

  Faster than a whip, Renee’s knee met his groin and Tucker doubled over in pain, trying not to vomit. Matthew and Crescent had no reaction while Christopher silently winced.

  Renee leaned over and whispered in Tucker’s ear, “You are correct, Mr. Wilson. It won’t happen again.”

  She left the room quietly, closing the door behind her. She slid across the door to lean against the wall, hugging the file to h
er chest, and smiled, once again breathing easier as a wave of relief washed over her. Then, suddenly, relief was replaced by inexplicable excitement. She knew she would see Christopher again, and when she did, there would be an actual conversation involved. The only problem was that she had no idea what to say, how to say it, or how to feel. She pushed herself off of the wall and walked through the glass doors separating the hallway from the executive offices. Once in the hallway, she looked left and right to make sure nobody was around, then ran down the hall to the elevator. She had to find a female counterpart to talk to and she had to find them fast.

  ***

  “What did you expect?” Christopher asked as he took a drink of his beer. The hotel bar was quiet. After his day of finding and bringing in Mr. Sweeny, then having to dispose of him in the next county, it was late and he just wanted to unwind.

  Tucker snubbed out his cigarette and looked at Christopher. “Well, I wasn’t expecting her to kick me in the balls.”

  Christopher laughed as the bartender approached with a questioning look. “He was rude to the boss’s daughter.” The bartender made a sucks-to-be-you look at Tucker as he exchanged Christopher’s empty beer for a full one. “It was a knee, not a foot.”

  “Whatever,” Tucker said, taking a long pull off his own beer. “I still feel like throwing up.”

  “Don’t let her age deceive you,” the bartender said. “She may be young, but she knows how to make a point. She’s a good girl, though. She’s got a good heart.”

  Tucker let out a huff of contention and Christopher smiled into his beer before asking, “Are you going to do that again?”

  “Fuck no,” Tucker said into his beer. “Lesson learned.”

  “Look,” said Christopher, “I know you think you’re a big badass here, but, dude, I don’t think you understand what you’ve done. All you had to do was say hello to her. You disrespected her and got kneed for it. I would say you’re lucky that it came from her rather than Crescent or Parnell himself.”