Joey reached across her naked breasts, the feel of her skin against his own not escaping him. He closed the door, engaged the locks and the child protection locks.
“You jump out dressed like that you won’t have any skin left,” he snapped.
She shut up until they got to his apartment and then she tried to run. He easily caught her, carried her upstairs, and tossed her on the sofa. He stripped off his t-shirt and threw it at her.
“Oh, so it’s okay that you’re topless but not me?” she smirked. “What’s the matter, Joey? Don’t like my tits?”
“Don’t talk like that. That’s not you. I don’t know what you’re doing but that is not you.”
“Again, you don’t know me,” she said pulling on the t-shirt. “I have to go back to the club. I’m already in trouble.”
“You’re not going back.”
“I have to,” she said standing. He pushed her back down, then hovered over her lap, his knees pinning her to the sofa.
“You are not going back.” She squirmed and Joey ground his teeth together, willing her to stop.
“Joey! I have to. Please!” she begged, tears in her eyes now.
“Why? Why the fuck would you need to be in a place like that?” She said nothing, just shaking her head as the tears continued to come. “Answer me! Why?”
“Because I owe them three-hundred thousand dollars.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Three hundred thousand dollars?” asked Bo. “Is that what she said?”
Joey turned to see his teammates standing at the door to his apartment, staring at the two of them. Marissa folded her arms over her chest, hoping to hide the fact that she was naked beneath Joey’s t-shirt.
“That’s what she said,” frowned Joey. “How? How do you owe them that much money?”
“Joey, please,” she said wiping her nose on his shirt. “Please just let me go back.”
“No. How could you possibly owe them that much money? Are you doing drugs?”
“No! No, you know I would never do that,” she sniffed.
“I never thought you’d strip either, but here we are. Do you have to give them your tips?” She nodded and Bullett tossed him a clean t-shirt. “Bullett, Bo, Red? This is Marissa Jordan.”
“Jordan? Do not fucking tell me she’s onetheJordans,” said Bullett.
“God, they know my family? Of course they do. Everyone knows the famous Jordans. All famous except me,” she cried.
“Everyone knows, honey,” said Bo. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here but let us try to help. Why do you owe them that much money?”
“I’m so stupid,” she cried. “My roommates, ex-roommates, convinced me to go on a boat ride with them one weekend. They’d been bugging me about it for weeks. The boat was owned by three guys that they partied with before. I was tired of spending all my time studying. The first few times,it was fun. We danced, talked, and just had fun. There was nothing weird happening.”
“Then what happened?” asked Joey, grinding his teeth.
“You’re not helping,” she said staring at him.
“I’m trying, Marissa. Believe me, I’m trying to hold back my anger and the desire to blow that fucking place to pieces. Then what happened?”
“It was just one hand of poker. It was for fun, pennies. I won a little over five dollars. It was silly.”
“Oh, shit,” muttered Bullett.
“The next time it was a minimum of a dollar, then the next twenty. I was winning for the most part, then I lost a ton. I took money from my college fund and paid it off. I think they thought I had a lot of money and they invited me back. I told them I didn’t want to play and they said I either had to play or they’d dump me in the Atlantic. I can swim, Joey, you know I can but we were far out. There’s no way I would have survived.”
