To Die For (Joker's Sin Book 2)

by Davidson King

  “So, Sparkles coming in here asking me to release Dorian Birch of the ban I have on him to this place was a little unexpected.”

  I sat, speechless for a moment. It felt like a ball of lead plummeted to the pits of my stomach. “What?”

  “I knew something was up. I mean you saw him, Max, he looked…well, not like himself. I made small talk, asked if he was okay, and then he went on this really long, sometimes hard to follow, speech.”

  “Can you summarize it for me?”

  Atlas sighed. “I shouldn’t. He asked for anonymity on this in case anyone asked why Dorian Birch was allowed to return to my club. But I’m hoping that if something is going on, you can help him. Reach him.”

  “Tell me.”

  He gave me a curt nod. “Dorian is the landlord of both his apartment complex and his dance studio. Since he was banned from here, it looks like Dorian has been giving him a hard time. He asked if I’d release the ban, and he hopes it’ll get Dorian to leave him be.”

  I knew a lot of this, and suspected the harassment, but for Sparkles to fold even a little, it had to be worse than I thought. “What did you say?”

  “I told him I was having a hard time with this. I said what Dorian did would never stand for anyone, and if I lifted the ban it might give off the wrong message.”

  That sounded like the Atlas I knew. “How’d he take it?”

  “Not well. He begged me, Max. Said I had to, that it wasn’t just about him, and if I didn’t do it he was worried about people close to him.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And?”

  “Max, I don’t know what’s going on, but I told Sparkles I’d lift it but that if the guy caused any other issues, it would never be removed again.”

  “You broke your own rules?”

  “Max,” he sighed, folded his hands over the top of his desk and regarded me. “You need to go talk to him. Sparkles is like family here, and something is going on with him. I don’t think he’ll tell me, and I suspect he told me more than he even wanted to. So, go to him.”

  “Now?”

  “Yeah, now. I suspect he’s dealing with a lot. So much, it’s coming at him from all directions. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring for him.” He stood. “We got the bar covered tonight. Go on.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  I went out and told Shane I had to go; he didn’t ask, and I knew he understood it was Sparkles related. I grabbed my jacket and left. It was such a cold night that even with my jacket, helmet, and gloves, I felt it biting through the material.

  By the time I pulled up to Sparkles’s apartment building, my skin wasn’t feeling the chill—no, it was on fire. I wasn’t leaving without answers.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Lane

  I was curled up on my couch, Tank nuzzled beside me, with a bowl of ice cream and the movie Sweet Home Alabama playing, when the buzzer went off.

  “Ugh!” I reached for my cell phone, which was connected to the intercom system. “Yeah?”

  “Sparkles, it’s me Max. Let me up.”

  Fucking hell. You needed a code to get into the building or someone to let you up, which was one thing I loved about this place. Max probably had the code Kirt gave him that night, but he was also too much of a gentleman to just use it. However, I had a feeling if I didn’t let him up, he’d have no problem utilizing it.

  “Fine.” I buzzed him in and then waited. I ate my ice cream, watched Reese Witherspoon being fabulous, and in a matter of minutes, there was a pounding on my door. Tank lifted his head.

  “It’s Max,” I said to him as I placed my bowl on the table, scooped him in my arms, and went to answer the door.

  The door wasn’t even open halfway when he was storming in, his eyes scanning the place—looking for what, I had no idea. He turned on me, and the expression on his face was a mixture of relief, anger, worry, and need.

  “Are you alone?” he asked, and I nodded. “We need to talk.”

  I knew when I left Atlas’s office that there was no way he wasn’t going to speak to Max. I did, however, hope I’d have until the next day before being confronted.

  “Fine.” I walked past him and flopped onto the couch, Tank cuddled on my lap. “Have a seat, and say what you came here to say.”

  “What part of ‘We need to talk’ indicated that I came here to lecture you?” He wasn’t sitting, just brooding a few feet from my couch.

  “Well, if you’ll begin, I’ll know why you’ve intruded on my peaceful alone time.”

  He looked over at my table, the TV, and then over to me. “You aren’t sleeping and is that…” he lifted the spoon and sniffed. “Chocolate ice cream?”

  “You have something against chocolate? Because if you do, this—whatever it is between us—is over.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a shit about you eating chocolate, but I’d bet money that it’s all you’ve eaten today.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I pointed at him angrily. “Don’t you dare tell me how I can adult.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Sparkles, I’m not…” He ran his hand over his close-cut hair. “You know I’m not doing that. Okay…” He sat on the couch beside me. “Why’d you really ask Atlas to lift the ban on Dorian?”

  I knew that was why he was here, so I didn’t bother acting surprised. “What did Atlas tell you?”

  “I’m not going to sit here and believe that was all of it. I have a feeling it was only the tip of the iceberg as to why.”

  I rubbed Tank’s head when he whined, not liking the tension in the room. “Dorian isn’t the man you think he is. He’s far worse, and he’s in Haven Hart because of me. When he got banned it made my life worse, so I needed Atlas to help me out.”

  “Sparkles.” He took my hand and gently stroked my fingers. “We live in a town filled with some of the worst, most dangerous people out there. Oddly, there’s this balance and understanding between them, and it’s why we don’t have drive-bys and gang wars in the streets. If this guy came here to make ripples, it won’t be received well.”

  “Max, none of those big names, or whatever, give a shit about me and my studio. Don’t make me sound more important than I am.” There was a sharpness in my tone, not aimed at Max but at the knowledge that in the grand scheme of things, I didn’t matter.

  “First off, you’re wrong. You do matter to a lot of people. Second, if you had no power at all, Dorian wouldn’t have asked you to get the ban lifted. He knew Atlas would do it for you. He couldn’t afford it getting around that he wasn’t allowed into Joker’s Sin, am I right?” I nodded. “So, don’t shit on your worth.”

  “Max—”

  “Before you go on to say something sarcastic or stupid, you need to hear one more thing. I get that whatever it is you’re not telling me is probably bad in your eyes. Hell, it may even be the worst thing I’ve ever heard. But whatever it is that has held you in chains all these years doesn’t change who you are now. You need to trust someone, Sparkles, and I really wish it would be me you choose.”

  “I just—”

  “And don’t tell me that I’ll look at you differently or whatever dumb thing you’re thinking either.”

  I had to chuckle now because as much as he wanted me to talk, he kept interrupting me. “Are you going to let me speak, or is this some sort of fucked-up joke?”

  “Right. Sorry.” He went to sit back, but I gripped his hand.

  “Just hold on, okay, don’t let go yet. I know after I’m done here, you may never want to touch me again, so let me just pretend you aren’t repulsed by me yet.”

  Max opened his mouth, but something in my expression must’ve stopped him from whatever he was going to say, because he nodded and squeezed my hand a little tighter.

  “My life wasn’t one that had a home like yours. I had no siblings, and it was a cramped apartment. My mom worked all the time and, well, you know all about her.” He nodded and I was glad I at least didn’t have to repeat all that again.

>   “When she couldn’t work, it didn’t stop the bills from coming. She got disability, but it was never enough. I got a job that was under the table, but it still didn’t help. When winter came, our heat got cut off. There wasn’t a plan in place to help families in need at that time, so there were a lot of cold nights. Hungry nights.” When I paused and took a breath, Tank licked my arm in a sign of support.

  “One night, there was this older guy. I was sixteen, and he said he’d give me a hundred bucks if I’d blow him. All I thought at that moment was how a hundred bucks would feed us for like a week, so I said yes. I spent the next few months swindling men out of money. Whether blowjobs or pickpocketing. The power was on, we weren’t hungry, and we were warm. My mom was, at this point, in a state facility to help her, and when I would visit her she was dirty, had bed sores. One time they restrained her, and when I asked why, they just shrugged. I knew I needed to get her out of there.”

  Max scooted closer, and his warmth felt nice.

  “I’d just turned seventeen the day before when Dorian approached me. He said all the right things and made me feel adored…at first. He wanted to rescue me and help me and my mother. He seduced me into moving in with him and promised he’d find a better place for my mom. But it wasn’t long until I saw his true colors and how he had no intention of helping her.”

  “Sparkles—”

  “No, Max, let me just get this out.”

  He had my hand in both of his, like he wanted to convince me he wasn’t leaving, but it was the next part of the story that I had a feeling would make him think otherwise.

  “I turned into entertainment for Dorian. He would make me wear next to nothing around the house. When there was company, he’d use me as a party favor. If I spoke out of turn, said no when I should’ve said yes, looked left when I should’ve looked right, he’d hit me. Sometimes he’d lock me in a room and forget about me for a day. Then he’d apologize, give me things, and tell me he loved me so much, it hurt to see me be defiant.”

  I placed Tank on the floor when he tried to jump and watched as he went to his water bowl.

  “Dorian thought I was an idiot. I knew I had to get out of there, so I spent months being observant. I saw the code to his safe one day and for weeks repeated it over and over in my head. When he went on a business trip, he left me at the house. There were only a couple of guys there, and I’d never tried to run, so no one thought to give me even a second glance. One night I went into his office, opened the safe, and took all his money. He had something like seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I knew I couldn’t carry all that, so I grabbed a few rolling suitcases. Filling them took hours, but I got them into one of the many cars he had in the driveway.”

  “Jesus,” Max whispered.

  “The following morning I told one of the guys I needed a car to go to the store and get a welcome home present for Dorian. God, they all thought me so innocent. They just let me go. And I never stepped foot in that place again.”

  “And now Dorian wants his money back?” Max asked.

  “No. Now he wants to bury me. I don’t have it anymore. All I had went into getting my mom into the place she’s in now, my place, business—all of it. I have enough to live on for a while, and anything extra goes to keeping her in that facility.”

  “So he’s what, going to just make your life hell?”

  “Pretty much.” I chuckled darkly.

  “Over my dead body,” Max growled.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Max

  The thought of Sparkles dealing with daily harassment from some asshole didn’t sit well with me at all. When I thought of all he went through, I felt anger surge through my veins. The fact that Dorian was here in Haven Hart, tormenting him again? I was barely holding it together.

  “Max, it’s not like I can call the police and say the guy I stole a shit-ton of money from is mad at me and making my life hell. At the end of the day I took his money, which I’m sure he can prove. I have no leg to stand on here.” Sparkles looked so helpless, and I wanted to wipe that expression away.

  “So what’s your grand plan, to just take the hits until there’s nothing left of you?”

  He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I never thought he’d find me, and I guess after all these years, I thought I was in the clear and I let my guard down.”

  I had this urge, this need, to wrap Sparkles up and never let him go. To protect him from the assholes of the world and for him to know he wasn’t going to be dealing with this on his own. Of course, I had a feeling if I tried to lock Sparkles away, he’d kill me. The thought made me chuckle.

  “What on earth do you find so funny about any of this?” he asked with wide eyes.

  “Oh, no, no, nothing. I was thinking about hiding you away forever; then I thought how you’d kill me.”

  He chuckled but the smile died, and ever so slowly, he got off the couch. At first he just stood in front of where I sat beside him, a small smile playing on his lips.

  “What are you doing?”

  He didn’t speak; he put one knee on each side of my legs and straddled me. He wrapped his arms around my neck and for a moment I forgot about all the shit going on. It felt like the most perfect moment.

  “If you locked me away from the world where no one would get to me, would you at least be staying with me?” He spoke so softly, his breath fanning over my face.

  “Yes,” I said, and it was like a switch was flipped.

  Sparkles pressed his lips to mine, his fingers brushed against my neck, and I pulled him infinitely closer to me, crushing his body to mine.

  “Do you want me, Max?” He pressed kisses against my face as he asked.

  “God, yes.”

  He pulled back, and lust-filled eyes met mine. “Even after all I told you?”

  “As much as I want to explain to you how everything you told me only made me want you more, I also really, really want you. So, if you’re open to the idea, I’d love to carry you to your bedroom, pretty much worship your body, and then, if you’d like, we can form words.”

  He laughed so hard, the sound was musical and when he nodded, I stood up, carrying him with me and moved in the direction he pointed.

  When Sparkles tucked his face into my neck so I could see where I was walking, I wanted to stop and just be in the moment. He was completely wrapped around me, and in all the months I’d thought about being with him, never did I realize how just feeling him would be everything to me.

  It was dark as we entered his room, but a second later I felt Sparkles move one of his arms and hit a switch. It was a dim light, and I took a brief moment to check out his room. He had a black bedspread that shimmered, and his walls were purple. That was all I got to see before he was kissing me again, and we were falling onto his bed.

  “You feel so good,” I said as Sparkles kissed over my flesh, lifting my shirt as he went. His fingers fluttering over my nipples made my cock harden uncomfortably behind the zipper of my pants.

  “Mmm,” he hummed, and he licked all the way down my chest, toward my stomach.

  “Holy shit, Sparkles, if we don’t get naked soon, I’ll come in my pants.”

  He chuckled. “Like how I came in my pants in your childhood bedroom?” His eyes glittered and damn, he was fucking sexy.

  “Please.”

  There were no words after that, just the sound of rustling as we divested ourselves of our clothes. Once we were both naked, I took a moment to take him all in. He had the body of a dancer—if I didn’t already know that was what he did, his body told the story for me. His perfectly hard cock leaked, and blond hairs neatly curled around it.

  “So, you’re a blond,” I said, earning me a slap on the leg. “Come here.” I opened my arms, and he fell into me.

  I flipped us so I could cradle him below me, kissing his face, lips, neck. “Do you have a condom? Please say you do?” My voice was muffled against his flesh, and he chuckled.

  “I’m shocked you don’t
have one in your pants,” he joked but it stopped me, and I lifted to look at him.

  “You still think I want to just fuck you, Sparkles?” He didn’t say anything, but I saw the doubt there, that his words hurt me, and he didn’t really mean them. “Dorian did a number on you. All those men did. I’m not like them. Yeah, I want to fuck you into next week and maybe at one point, it was all I wanted. But not anymore. You’re more than that. You’re worth more than that. Please tell me you believe me.”

  He released a breath, and a smile adorned his face. “I do, Max.”

  It was all I needed to hear. I kissed him then, my tongue dipping into his mouth, tangling, needing. He scooted up as we kissed, and I heard a drawer open.

  “Condom, lube, in there,” he said as he panted. I reached in, pulling them both out, trying not to untangle myself from Sparkles.

  I kissed along his body until his cock pressed against my lips, loving how he shivered and mewed as I licked the precome there. I knew he was as close as I was, so I took him down my throat, ignoring as he arched and his cock pushed even deeper. I loved sucking cock, and his was like a delicacy.

  “Max,” he begged, and I slid off.

  “I know.”

  I poured the lube on my fingers and worked him open. I watched as he bit his lip, wiggled, and came apart right before my eyes.

  “Damn you’re gorgeous,” I said as I slipped the condom on and leaned over him. “Spread those legs for me.” He did and damn, he was flexible.

  I loved how he smiled as I pushed in, how his eyes fluttered closed and he exposed his neck as he let the feelings take over. I was surrounded by him. His hole gripped me, his arms hugged, and his breath was like oxygen. It was like being in a bubble where only he and I existed.

  “Harder, please,” Sparkles said as he met my thrusts.

  I wrapped my arms under him and held him as I pounded into him at a punishing pace. The sounds of his “yesses” and “mores” drove us to orgasm, and as he shouted his release I was quiet. As if my words would shatter this perfect moment.