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He grinned at me—a warm, sincere smile that lit up his whole face. I managed to smile back. I couldn’t remember the last time a man had looked at me like that, without some edge to his gaze that had warned me of what he was really planning for me.
He jerked his head towards the kitchen.
"Come on," he told me. "Let’s get you something to eat. You’ll feel better with some food in your stomach, trust me."
I hesitated for a moment before I went after him, but then, I followed him towards the kitchen. My stomach growled suddenly. All at once, the appetite that had been missing all this time was starting to creep back in.
Maybe he had a point, after all.
Chapter Four – Stefano
I paced back and forth in the shitty little motel room, the vacancy light flickering through the window outside.
If she thought she was getting away from me that easily, she had another thing coming.
I leaned down to sniff up the bump of coke on the windowsill, tipping my head back to let the drip hit the back of my throat. The buzz was clanging inside my brain, a low whine in my ears as my brain whirred and tried to figure out what the fuck I was going to do next.
When I’d gotten the tip that those Caroni fuckers were going to cause trouble at the brothel, I’d made myself scarce, figuring it was just a precaution, that they wouldn’t actually dare make a move against me, but they had.
I’d heard back-and-forth from some of the other guys who ran houses like I did that the Caronis were trying to clear out some of the bigger brothels from the city, probably so they could start one of their own without competition. They took all my girls, drove them out to God only knows where …
And her. They took her from me.
I let out a grunt of irritation as I tossed my phone onto the bed. After everything I’ve done for her, that bitch just walked away from me. I bet she planned this with them, schemed against me. It seemed like the kind of shit she would do, that conniving …
My phone rang on the bed where I left it, and I grabbed it and answered it at once.
"Who is this?" I demanded without bothering to check the caller ID.
"I’ve tracked her down," the voice on the end of the line, Killian, told me. "She’s with the Caronis. At the mansion on the other side of town."
I got to my feet and began pacing back and forth as I took in the news. I’d sent Killian out to figure out what was going on while I laid low in the motel room and waited for the heat to die down. I’d heard from a few of the other guys I knew in the business that Alex Caroni and his crew were taking out guys like me who gave these girls a place to live and work from.
Like they would have been able to do anything else with their lives, anyway. Didn’t they get that? These women, they wouldn’t have been able to make anything of themselves if it hadn’t been for people like me. I gave them a place to live, a place to work, somewhere safe where they could choose most of their clients. And what did I get in repayment? A week hiding out in the fuck-end of nowhere, waiting for a call to break the news of where Selina had gone.
Alex Caroni probably already had her selling herself for his back pocket—as if he needed it. I was the one providing for those girls, and he was going to just step in and take that glory for himself? Yeah, I wasn’t going to stand for it. Not when it came to Selina.
I’d seen her grow from a teenager into this full-grown woman. I’d known her back in her dancing days, had even given her coke to help her get through her tougher shifts for free. She always seemed happy to see me, and I could tell she liked having me around. It only made sense for me to offer her a real job, especially given how impressive her skills had been when she was alone with me.
With that long red hair, her bright green eyes, and her icy-pale skin, she brought in a lot of customers, and damn, I was proud of her for keeping up with it as well as she had. She could work all day and all night, getting guys in and out of her room for as long as she was awake, only needing a few bumps here and there to keep her going. She told me she got into this to take care of her family, and what cash she was keeping, it had to be going back to them.
I had brought her all that business. I had kept the guys coming. That ungrateful bitch had just up and taken off the first chance she got. She didn’t understand everything I had done to keep her in business. She was going to fail without me, I was sure of it.
And that meant I had to catch her before she fell. I had to get her out of there. I had to get her back to work, where she belonged, so we could both start from the ground up again. I wasn’t exactly pleased to be facing the possibility of having to rebuild, but with Selina by my side, I knew I’d be making enough soon enough to get other girls back and willing to work with me.
"Give me the address," I told him. "I want to contact them. Let them know who they’re fucking with."
"Careful, Boss," he warned me. "You don’t want them to find out where you are …"
"I know what I’m doing," I spat back angrily, the rush of coke pulsing through my bloodstream. I wasn’t going to be told how to handle my shit, not by someone like Killian, someone who’d only started working for me last year.
And the only one of my men to make it out of the attack on the brothel unscathed. I didn’t have much in the way of enforcers ready to fight for me, especially with the shit the Caroni family had been pulling across the city. People were nervous; they didn’t want to put themselves in the line of fire. But when I’m done with them, there won’t be anything to fear from Alex Caroni any longer.
"Give me the address, and don’t get smart with me," I warned Killian. "I’m the one in charge here. Remember?"
"I remember," Killian muttered, sounding a little too close to irritated for my liking. I gritted my teeth, holding back the barrage of abuse that was at the tip of my tongue at that moment. I knew I was just pissed because of what had happened to Selina, but I couldn’t let it get to me.
I had to keep my head on straight and get back my best whore before someone else could start putting her to work.
