“Speak!” he roared and grabbed a fistful of my breast.
“Ye—yes,” I cried out.
“Good. And I take care of what’s mine. You want to get your hair and nails done? I’ll pay for it. You want a new dress? I’ll get you that too. But you obey me and only me. From this point forward, everything you want in life will be provided to you by me and only me. You understand?”
I nodded again.
His grip around my throat tightened, and then he was palming my pussy, squeezing it. “When I ask you a question, you answer me!”
“Ye—yes,” I stuttered again the best I could with his palm closing some of my wind pipe. There was a loud bang, like a door being opened and hitting the wall at full force. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to know how many more men had come in to rape me.
“Get off of her!” a guy roared, and the one who had his hands on me was gone. I slightly recognized the voice, but I was too scared to register it.
I balled my legs up to my chest, and as I rocked in the fetal position sideways on the couch, I covered my ears trying to block what was happening around me. Even as I pressed my palms hard against my head, I could still hear everything.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Crash.
“I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”Seth?I’d know his voice anywhere.
Bang.
A body wrapped around me from the back and I jolted. Against the hand covering my ear I heard, “Shh, it’s Paul. I’ve got you.”
Finally.
The floodgates opened, and I drowned in my sobs. I kept my eyes closed, not waiting to see what or where I was. If I opened then, the room, the scene, the situation would forever be burned into my brain, and I didn’t want that.
“What the fuck is going on?” I jolted again at the loud boom of a voice, a voice I quickly recognized as the older man.
Then Paul was gone, and I was back to shaking, fearing he had been ripped away and I was going to be next. More crashes and bangs echoed in the room. Things—bodies maybe—hit walls, and noises I didn’t recognize radiated through my hands and to my eardrums. Then I heard the click of a gun. A sound I’d only heard in movies.
“Drop it!” Seth shouted. “Drop your fucking gun, old man!”
The man laughed. “I knew you weren’t a businessman. You Metro?”
“I’m Special Agent McKenna, and I said to drop your weapon!”
“You know I run this town, don’t you, boy? You think you can just come in here and wave your gun around and I’ll drop to my knees like a pussy? Cops like pussy too, and that’s why you’re all workin’ for me.”
“Tony, I said to drop your weapon.”
The old man, who I now knew as Tony, laughed. “You’re outnumbered, son, and I suggest you take your ass out of here before you get in trouble.”
Seth snickered. “That’s where you’re wrong. Karma has caught up with you.”
Tony chuckled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Twelve years ago, you made a mistake. Hell, you’ve been making them longer than that, but now, this one has caught up to you.”
“What? Your mother was one of my girls? You think that you’re getting payback now by putting me in jail?”
“No!” Seth shouted. “You sold my best friend’s virginity, and now you’ve tried to sell my woman.”
A hand wrapped around my arm and I was being hauled off the couch. It was then, and only then, I opened my eyes. When I did, I was staring into the emerald eyes I wanted to wake up next to every morning. Except he was on the other side of the room with Paul, both of them with guns pointing toward us, and there was a gun against my head.
“This your woman?”
