AllFreeNovel
Share Us
COLTER
Red.
I can see that’s this woman’s color.
Red hair. Red corset. Red peacoat to cover it all up.
I watch her walk down the street toward my Lincoln where I wait for her in the backseat. With each step she draws nearer, my anger spikes. She walks with a confidence in her gate that she shouldn’t have, and with a closer look it appears forced. Her shoulders are square, but her steps are uneven, quaky. If I could see her eyes I’d guess they’d be darting over her surroundings, unaware she’s walking right into a lion’s den. Still, I expected tears. Slumped shoulders at the very least.
She was just fired from Neon Nights. I know because the manager of the seedy little night club sent me a text twenty minutes ago letting me know it was done. The fact that she isn’t in pieces from losing her primary source of income—on paper—only makes me more sure that she’s been paid by someone to fuck me over.
She nears the car, and Oliver, my lead on security detail and the closest thing I have to a best friend, steps out of the front seat. Abi comes to an abrupt halt, and I watch curiously at her reaction. Her eyes widen, and her hand slips into her coat pocket. With the way her fist bulges, it looks like she grabs something.
Oliver’s voice is muffled inside the car, and I don’t make out what he says, but it must be unsettling for her because she whips out the can of pepper spray. She holds it in a shaky hand in front of her and slowly backs away.
Oliver strides toward her, and when she turns to run, he lunges for her and slams a hand over her mouth. Her hands rear back, and he shouts and covers his eyes with one hand while gripping her with the other.
With her mouth uncovered, she screams for help. My lips tug at the corners, and a chuckle crawls up my throat.
In a nicer part of town, I’d care about someone seeing a woman screaming for help being dragged to my car, but here? Here no one would look out their window. Even if they did, all it would take is a glance at the gold family crest plated at the front of the Lincoln to make them look the other way. It’s too dangerous for her to be walking home alone here. Stupid, stupid girl.
The backdoor opens, and Oliver’s muttered string of curse words floats into the car as he shoves the woman inside. As soon as he slams the door, she’s yanking at the handle as if we hadn’t thought to flip on the childproof locks.
My driver raises the partition just as Oliver gets into the front, and Abi turns to me. Her eyes are bloodshot and running from the pepper spray as well, but unlike Oliver’s, hers are wild with fear. She presses her back against the door and grinds her teeth together.
“You.” She spews the word like it’s bitter. As if I’m the foul one here.
“Me?” I ask, my eyebrow raising.
“You can’t just—” She takes a breath, and her eyes dart around the back seat. “What are you doing? What is this?”
She yanks the door handle again and then starts banging on the window. “Help! Somebody please, help me!”
“Calm down!” I yank her from the window and spin her to face me. She stiffens in my arms, and her eyes seem to freeze over. It feels a bit… odd. I don’t have a lot of experience with forcing women into my car. Any experience, actually. That life hasn’t quite touched me, even with my last name. But even with limited knowledge, I don’t expect her to freeze up, and it takes me a moment to adjust to the sudden change in composure.
“No one in their right mind gives a shit about what happens to you right now. You can scream if you’d like, but all you’ll accomplish is giving me a headache. Is it really worth it?”
“Let me go,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. It’s a command, which automatically makes me want to deny her, but there isn’t any bite to her tone. She’s… I don’t know. Irritation flares when it registers that she once again has me perplexed, and it isn’t until she whimpers that I realize I’m squeezing.
I force my hands to unclench, and I slide a few inches away from her. “I want to ask you a few questions, and then you can go. Let me be perfectly clear. Whatever consequences you think will come from telling me the truth won’t be anything compared to what will happen if you lie to me. Your job is nothing to me. I could take your whole life if I—”
“I’ll give you back the money,” she says, her voice shaking. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Money?” For a moment I think maybe she actually did steal from me and what I told Neon Night’s manager hadn’t been a lie. Then I remember the money I gave her for her ‘services’ last night. Blood surges to my cock from the memory, and I blink to clear my thoughts. “You think I care about money?”
She says nothing, but her eyes squint like she’s confused.
“I want you to tell me who sent you up to my room last night and what you told them. Remember what I told you about lying.”
“What?” she asks. The ropes of tension pulling at her shoulders loosens, and they sag with a breath she lets out. “No one sent me. This,” she lifts her hands and lets out a chuckle that’s either from nervousness or relief, “this is one big misunderstanding. Seriously, no one sent me up to your room last night. I got… sick downstairs, and I was just looking for a bathroom, and—”
“And you found your way up a flight of stairs, down two hallways, and happened to land at my bedroom door.” My jaw tics, and I take a breath to reign in the building anger. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a politician, it’s how to hide emotion, but right now, I’m struggling.
“Maybe it sounds unlikely, but—”
“You have a son. Zeke. Isn’t that right?” Her face falls, and her lips part. I check my watch and note the time. “Zeke is in bed right now. He probably fell asleep watching reruns of tonight’s shitty soap opera with the older woman next door. She seems like a nice old lady, watching your kid while you dress up like a fuck toy and hand out booze to strangers. But do you think she’d be nice enough to keep him out of foster care? Do you think she’d be able to?”
“Don’t talk about my son.”
