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I watched him as he sauntered across the club, then exited through a door. I had no idea where he was going, and even though part of me wanted to follow him and find out, I knew I couldn’t. He had this place on lockdown, which meant I couldn’t take a single step without him knowing about it.
Moving my attention to the guard, I raised a brow at him. He stared right back at me, waiting for me to stand. I knew there was no way I could deny going to this room and seeing what was there waiting for me—no doubt another woman—but what Gio didn’t know was that I wouldn’t touch a single soul in this place ever again.
I’d always been a hard man—a brutal one—but what I’d done to Bailey had crossed the line. I’d killed men for doing way less to women, and yet, there I was, doing the worst thing possible. If it wasn’t for the fact that Bailey was trapped here and we still didn’t have everything in place to take Gio down without him disbanding and building somewhere else, then I wouldn’t be in this fuckin’ place. And neither would she.
I sighed, knowing it was now or never. The quicker I went to this room, the better.
So I stood, waving my hand in the air in a gesture telling him to lead the way.
He led me across the room and toward the door that Gio had entered through, but he veered me to the left, opening a concealed door that I hadn’t known was there.
We entered a dimly lit hallway, soft music playing, alluring and sexy. It was clearly a reserved space, and it wasn’t until we were standing outside of a black-painted door that I realized this was for privacy.
What were they doing in here that was worse than outside in the open?
My stomach dropped as a female scream burst from two doors down—the type of scream that signaled horrendous pain. Everything in me wanted to rush over there and burst through the door to help. But I couldn’t. I had to see my mission through, no matter how much I hated it. I kept the memory of it stored away though, knowing I would use it when the time came to show Gio exactlywhoI was.
The man opened the door and stepped aside without a word. I didn’t hesitate, knowing that it would have been a mark against me. As soon as I was fully inside, he closed the door behind me.
My eyes adjusted to the room which was only a little brighter than the hallway. A bed was sitting in the middle along with a chair in the corner. Each of my sneakers thudded on the wooden floor as I stepped farther inside.
I could sense that someone else was in there—behind me—but I didn’t make to turn around as they padded forward, each footstep clearly telling me that they were barefoot.
A hand touched my shoulder, the shaky fingers tentative as they moved over my chest. I turned to look at the small hand where it stopped on my pec, but she didn’t make a move to come around me, instead, she just stood behind me, frozen to the spot.
Neither of us moved for what felt like hours as her chest hit my back with each of her breaths. I wasn’t doing this again, not with another woman, so I opened my mouth and spun around to tell her, but the words got stuck in my throat as I stared down ather.
“Bailey,” I whispered, narrowing my eyes on her. I took a step back, needing to put some distance between us. She was naked yet again, and it took every ounce of my strength not to dip my gaze lower to take her all in.
I hadn’t even noticed that she wasn’t kneeling on the floor out in the main area. She was inhere.
“Hi,” she croaked out, her gaze snapping to the door, then to the wall on the opposite side. She frowned. “I’ve been sent here to…” She bit down on her bottom lip, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. “To please you.”
She couldn’t disguise the look on her face. She didn’t want to be in here. She didn’t want to be doing it. But just like me, she didn’t have a choice.
“No,” I growled. I’d promised myself that from this point on, I would never touch her again, not unless I needed to carry her out of this fuckin’ hellhole.
Her breath caught in her throat, her gaze batting around the room. She was panicking, her chest heaving, but it didn’t matter how much she clutched at her neck and chest, she was only getting worse.
I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate, I just reached for her wrist and pulled her over to the armchair in the corner of the room. “Take a breath,” I told her, stating the obvious. “In and out.” I showed her, doing it myself. “That’s it, keep going.”
Our gazes clashed, the air swirling around us, and it was only then that I realized I was holding her hand in mine and crouching between her legs. I hadn’t meant to put us in this position. Only seconds ago, I’d been firm in not touching her again, yet all it took was her obvious panic and I wanted to fix it. I shouldn’t have, so I went to shuffle backwards, but at my movement, she grabbed my shoulder.
“Please,” she whispered, diving forward. Her one arm wrapped around my neck as she pressed the side of her face to the side of mine. But I didn’t miss the way she was holding her other arm to her, almost as if she was too scared to move it.
“They’re watching us,” Bailey whispered in my ear. Her lips grazed the soft flesh, her breath tickling my neck, andfuckif it wasn’t a turn-on.
No. I couldn’t let it.
“I don’t care,” I whispered back, wishing that I could see her, but she was holding me so tight, almost as if she was afraid to let go. “I shouldn’t have done what I did to you.” I swallowed, feeling her tense against me. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry, Bailey.” I choked her name out, hating that I was showing weakness, but there was something about her that let me show that side of myself—that allowed me to be the man I truly was deep down inside, the one that my father had made me bury as soon as he found out about it.
“Don’t,” she gasped. “I…I can’t think about it.” I felt her breath against my ear again. “He sent me to spy on you.” She pulled back, just enough to look me in the eyes. “He’s watching us.” She glanced to the side as if he were standing right there, but there was no one else in the room apart from the two of us. “He’s probably listening too.”
It was then that I looked at her, like really fuckin’ looked at her. I was hearing what she was saying, and even though it was sinking in, I couldn’t comprehend anything but the bruises marring her skin. A purple bruise on her head, one on her cheek, and as I trailed my attention down to her shoulder, there was a giant one there too and…
“Your shoulder is out of its socket.” My voice was back to normal, hard and brash, but it wasn’t aimed at her. “Who did this?” I growled, reaching for her shoulder.
I’d said I wouldn’t touch her again, but that was before—before I’d seen the bruises, before I’d apologized to her, before I realized that Gio was using her to get to me. The problem was, he had no idea what I wanted to do to Bailey. No idea who she was.
