AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Something to make sure I don’t wake up hungover as hell tomorrow?" she suggested, and I laughed.
"Trust me, if I had access to that, I’d be a billionaire already," I replied. She leaned against me, resting her head on my shoulder, and I planted a kiss on top of her head.
There was nothing left to be said. But I would sit with her all night, if that’s what it took, to get her through this.
Even if I wasn’t sure exactly what tomorrow was going to look like.
Chapter Twelve – Stefano
I watched the house from my car, narrowing my eyes as I eyed the enormity of the mansion in front of me.
The Caronis had money. Big money. And they were showing it off any way they could. What was this place, their brothel? Where they had girls working out of? I knew Selina was there, but I hadn’t seen anyone else coming and going. They must have had them locked down tight, working day and night to afford this place. Fucking assholes.
I dipped my finger into the baggie in my pocket and rubbed some of the powder on my gums, letting it hit my system and give me the boost I needed to keep my eyes open. I had been out here for nearly a full day now, camped out in my car. The motel owner had started asking a few too many questions about what I was doing there, and I didn’t want to answer them. No, all that mattered to me now was getting Selina out of there and getting the both of us back on our feet.
I knew she had to be missing me by now. I took care of her, made sure she had a place to sleep, something to eat, coke to use whenever she needed it. Were they even giving her anything to help her keep up with her clients in that place? I didn’t know. None of the dealers I was aware of had said anything to me about stopping by the Caroni place.
Maybe they were trying to keep it clean in there, attract a higher class of clientele. I had heard about places like that before, those big, fancy establishments that pretended they were better than the street corners most of these girls worked off of. Governors, senators, and businessmen could come in and use the girls, paying top dollar for the feel that they owned them for a little while. And doing fuck knows what to them in the process. I knew those rich people could get freaky as shit, and I could hardly imagine what they might have been doing to Selina.
She was beautiful—men would have paid good money to get a chance to be alone with her, I was sure of it. That was why she’d always been high volume when she’d worked for me; there were a string of regulars who couldn’t resist that long red hair and her bright green eyes. Damn, I would have been one of them if I didn’t already have her all to myself.
I gritted my teeth, grinding them together as I stared out of the window. The guards on the door seemed to change every three hours, and they left their post for a couple of minutes when they did—it would give me a chance to duck into the place if I played my cards right, sneak in there before anyone could stop me. And find Selina. God, I fucking missed her—missed the way she looked at me, like she knew I was the only guy in the world who actually cared about her. When I got her back, I was going to show her just how much I’d missed her …
Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me. I jumped and started the car, slamming it into acceleration to get out of there. I didn’t know if that had anything to do with me, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to go sitting around and wait to find out.
I tore off down the street, drumming my fingers on the wheel to the beat of a song playing in my head. It wasn’t going to be long till I got to her now.
Not long to wait now.
Chapter Thirteen – Selina
I woke the next morning with a throbbing headache, my body wracked with nausea and sweat and some vague memories of what a fool I’d made myself the night before.
Groaning, I turned over and saw a glass of water next to my bed, along with some painkillers and a bag of chips. I smiled slightly, despite my discomfort. Paulo clearly knew how to handle a hangover, even if he’d told me he didn’t have the cure for it. I reached over and chugged the glass of water and then lay back on the pillow, trying to gather myself.
Fuck. I had made a mess of things last night. It had started early in the day, when I had felt that nagging urge for something to take the edge off. I had tried to talk myself out of it, but instead, I had managed to talk myself around to just having a few drinks instead. It wasn’t as though booze was that big a deal for me, right? Everyone drank once in a while. And after everything I’d been through, I deserved a chance to switch my brain off and just relax …
At least, that’s what I told myself. Before I knew it, I was hammered drunk, hardly able to walk, when Paulo had come to find me. And he had been so sweet, so kind to me, even though I was pretty sure I didn’t deserve it. When I had tried to come on to him, and he had turned me down, I had been hit by a shockwave of emotion as so many things fell into place with me—that he was saying no because of the state I was in, and there were so, so many men who’d said yes for that exact same reason.
Because they knew I would be pliable in that state. Plenty of guys had started coming to me because they knew I used, and I didn’t give a shit if they did the same in their bookings with me, as long as I could take some too. Sometimes, I didn’t even remember the booking by the time it was done, and that was the way I liked it—the less I knew about how those men had used me, the easier it was for me to pretend that I was safe and happy there.
How many of those men out there were there? Those men who were all too willing to have sex with a woman when she was completely out of it? The thought of it sent a shiver down my spine, and I felt my stomach twist up into a sickly knot. It wasn’t just me, either; I knew there were other girls who used, got themselves high or drunk to get through an appointment. There had never been a shortage of men willing to take us up on our services.
It was so twisted, now that I looked back on it. And I had just … I had just let it happen. I had never thought there was anything really wrong with it. And what did that say about me? What did that mean for me? I had been complicit in it, let the other girls go through it just the same way I did.
I didn’t know how I was going to be able to live with those memories; sometimes, it just felt like more than I could take. Even as hungover as I was, I wished I could drink again, something to take the edge off. Reality just felt too sharp for me, too painful, and I didn’t know how much longer I could survive in it.
I crawled out of bed and into a shower, trying to scrub off some of the alcohol smell that was leaking from my pores. I felt so fucking guilty for putting Paulo through all of that—as if he didn’t have a hard enough time handling his own addiction in the first place, only for me to come along and get that drunk in front of him. He’d poured out the bottle last night, he’d told me, and I couldn’t imagine the strength it had taken to do that.
A strength that I knew I lacked right now. A strength I didn’t know if I would ever be able to muster up inside myself. Sometimes, it was more than I could stand, all of this. The other girls must have hated me …
I got dressed and made my way downstairs, searching for something to eat, but, before I could make it to the kitchen, a voice caught my attention.
"Oh my God, Selina!"
I flashed around, shoulders hunching up as soon as I heard that voice. It took me right back to my days at the brothel, and I felt a twist of sickness in my guts at once.
But then, I saw her—Marnie, smiling at me, her eyes clear and her face warm. She reached out to give me a hug, and I returned it, not even thinking.
