by Ruby Vincent
I lifted up in time to see Brutal rip open the glove box, snatch a pack of tissues, and dive where I couldn’t see. His face buried in my thigh as the most delicious sound he could make peeled out of him. I felt pleasure I couldn’t convey at being the woman Brutal made a mess for.
“You’re the first person I’ve told that story.” I got another tissue and gently cleaned him. “I wouldn’t have been so scared to if I’d known I’d get that reaction.”
“It’s not you who should be scared.”
I lowered my eyes, jaw tightening. “Those men are dead, Brutal. Addicts/dealers have a high mortality rate. What matters now is stopping the others.”
That statement brought us both back to reality. We fixed ourselves and eventually got on the road. I snuck glances at him throughout the ride. Brutal had reformed into his perfect self, but flashes of the tousled man bobbing between my legs tormented me to distraction.
“Can I say something else?” I ventured. “For a guy who doesn’t use it very often, you know what you’re doing with that tongue.”
His chuckles washed over me.
It helped to joke. I shared a secret from my past that ravaged me to this day. I sensed it at the edge of my soul, attacking the armor for a weakness. Brutal would lock my confession away in the depthless place he kept his secrets, truths, and past. Knowing it was there connected me to him. Made me feel I knew a part of him, if that made any sense.
Why does it have to?
Sobering, I asked, “Is this going to cause problems between you guys? Sinjin mentioned a rather premature agreement to share me if I got involved with all of you. Does it still stand?”
He nodded.
“Good.” I traced the shell of his ear. “It turns out you guys are warming on me.”
BRUTAL AND I SIPPED our drinks and tried to look casual. The effort for him was pulling off easily. I kept tapping my phone awake to check the time. Brutal caught my hand on the last check and laced our fingers together. It helped to settle me for all of ten minutes.
Our dusky corner of the bar attracted little attention from the few patrons. They watched a game on the television overhead, and made idle conversation with the people nearest them. None of them aware of the events about to rock their street.
The clock ticked twelve fifty-five. Brutal and I rose at the same time.
Outside, the Sunday night partiers raged into the street. The crowd had thinned to a fraction of what it was the week prior. That didn’t stop couples dancing and grinding on each other in the line.
I wondered if I was ever that carefree. Growing up with the mother I did meant I was cautious just stepping inside my home. My life with Dad, I was safe from harm but not from struggle. I killed myself working and keeping my grades up. Then it was a crappy apartment and a grueling climb up the kitchen ladder.
Looking back, the only time I ever felt free to do and be what I wanted, was when four men kidnapped me.
I withdrew from my musings, focusing on the guys lounging on the wall. They looked chill to the random passerby—one bobbing his blue-beanie head to the music and the other on his phone. If it wasn’t for the bulge under their coats and the fact they didn’t walk outside a four-foot radius around that door.
Brutal pulled his gloves on.
“Yo,” one of them called. “The entrance is that way.”
“I’m walking toward the entrance,” I replied. “And you’re going to let me in. Tell Corbin Serenity is here to see him.”
The reaction was immediate. They whipped their guns out, training them between our eyes uncaring of the witnesses.
“Serenity, huh? You’re the whore who beat the shit out of Felix,” said Blue Beanie. “Who’s this guy?! You’ve got one hell of a death wish coming back here.”
“What I’ve got are a couple of special somethings I bet Corbin is eager to get his hands on. I’m not here to embarrass another one of you in your own house. I just want to talk.” I flapped a hand and the safeties went off. “Call Corbin. Ask him if he’s interested. If not, I can always try Angelo.”
The guys shared a look.
Anger, confusion, frustration, and a trace of fear flashed on their faces. Ours were blank. I knew the plan backward and forward. This had to work. There was no other option.
Blue Beanie jerked the gun at me. “We’re not letting you in. You got something for Corbin, give it up now or get shot.”
I blinked lazily. “Either you don’t know what the ‘special items’ are and you’re about to make a huge mistake that costs your boss a lot of money. Or you do know what I’m talking about and you’re a fucking idiot.” I patted my pockets. “I don’t have them in here. How am I going to hand them over?”
“Tell us where they are.”
“I’ll tell Corbin where they are. In addition to outlining our new business arrangement going forward.”
“You—”
“Enough of this, Loch,” said his friend. “We both know Corbin’s gonna want to talk to her.” He made no secret of his smirk. “You want in, fine. Give me a minute.”
He got on his phone, keeping up his grin as it dialed. “Yeah. It’s Sonny. We’re outside with a girl named Serenity. She’s offering to return what she stole.” He laughed. “I’m not kidding. Yep. Yeah. One guy with her. Alright.”
Sonny hung up. “Corbin would love to chat with you. Your friend stays here.”
I shrugged. “Fine with me.”
“Up against the wall.”
I did as he said—propping my hands on the wall and enduring the pat down.
“Move,” he ordered. One hand held open the door and the other jammed a muzzle between my ribs. “Hands up. Don’t try anything. If you even sneeze, I’ll put a hole through your lungs.”
“I must’ve done a number on this Felix guy if I’ve got you this jumpy.”
“Your handiwork against Acker while his armed security stood around with their dicks in their hands impressed too. We’re not taking chances.” Sonny prodded me inside. “Show her friend to his car,” he told Loch.
The scant light from outside winked out. I found my way, silently going through the next steps in the—
A shot rang out clear over the music. I whipped around and was hauled back.
“Whoops,” Sonny taunted. “I guess your friend will need to be carried to his car.”
He shoved me on. I stumbled, righted myself, and was shoved again.
“I up my asking price ten grand for each time you put your hands on me.”
Sonny clamped my shoulder. “Shut—”
His hand flew off me.
Brutal got him by the arm and slammed Sonny headfirst into the wall. Brutal shoved his gun arm unnaturally up his back. His scream wasn’t heard over the club’s music.
I knew from experience how easy it was to sneak up on someone in this loud, pitch-black hallway. I now also knew, two men with guns were no match for Brutal.
He hooked the man around the neck, securing his hold.
“No!” Sonny flailed against Brutal. “No!”
Brutal gave one hard twist, ending Sonny’s cries.
He let the body slump to the floor.
Brutal looked to me, eyes seeming to ask, “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” I said. I looked anywhere but the body. “Send them in.”
Brutal stuck out the door and signaled to Cash. He returned wearing a mask.
One after the other, my troop of masked men filed into the hallway. Cash identified himself merely with his eyes. They shone with that unsettling intensity as he indicated for me to go ahead.
I stepped into the squalid room, memories tumbling in my head in a dizzying array. The girls walking in their straight, silent line. Felix’s bullet shattering the ceramic tile inches from my head. My desperate ramming on the exit. And Corbin down the hall the entire time, tucked away in that room.
He’s right in there. I swept over the space. Not much in my way.
Eight poker tables and three were f
ull. The men stopped what they were doing at my arrival. The bills fell on their stacks, rising into towers of green that reached chest-high. Three tables. Fifteen men. All counting out stacks of money.
Money they made off the tears of little girls.
Behind my back, I held up three fingers.
“How’d you get in here?” A man with a crown on his shoulder and a scar cutting through his hairline stepped out of the pack. “What do you want?”
“I’m here to talk with Corbin,” I said. “Loch also told me to tell you to hurry up and relieve him of door duty, so he can get home and fuck your mom.” I made a face. “I said I didn’t feel comfortable saying that, but he insisted.”
The men howled.
Scowling, my interrogator took his hand off his gun. “Fucking prick,” he muttered. “Corbin’s in his office.”
They turned their attention off me and resumed their counting.
I moved quickly to the side, ducking in the hallway.
The Merchants streamed in. They fanned out along the wall—weapons drawn and aimed.
A shout. Then the first gun went off.
The line surged forward. Bullets rained in a symphony of gunpowder, flashes, and screams. I couldn’t carry a weapon being the lure that got the Merchants inside. As such, Cash’s explicit orders were that I stay the hell out of the way.
I ran in the opposite direction. I’d keep back, because I had to scour the place. There was a back door. No one was escaping through it.
Sticking my head in the bathroom, I discovered the traces of my fight with Felix. Bullet hole in the wall and a cracked toilet seat. Otherwise, empty.
I went inside the auction room. Rounding the partition, I met half a dozen rows of upholstered seats and no one sitting in them.
Six rows. Ten chairs in each.
That’s how much they expected on a given night. Sixty people to buy a child, or sit silently while their seatmate engaged in the bidding war.
Corbin will know who they are. He will tell us.
I turned to leave.
Felix blocked my path.
“Serenity.”
The too-big-on-top, needle-legs gangster didn’t seem so menacing when he was pushing around little girls. The bandages and black, blue, and purple bruises covering every inch of him changed his profile—as did the gun.
“I’ve been looking for you, bitch,” he hissed. “And look at that, you came to me. Did you bring the welcoming party outside?”
I fixed on the weapon. “Yes. We’ve come to ask a few questions about the Kings’ setting up stake in the sex-trafficking business. Any thoughts?”
He laughed—a harsh terrible sound. “Corbin kicked the shit out of me for losing those girls. I’ve been ordered to bring them back and kill you. So my thoughts are: you’ve got to be the stupidest whore in Cinco. Second, fuck those brats. I’m killing you now.”
Felix launched at me, tackling me over the seats.
Bang.
We crashed onto the chairs and bounced off, falling to the floor in a heap. I scrambled off the dead body.
“Don’t wander off, Bunny.” Mask or no, I knew that Merchant.
He stood from the partition, gun in hand.
“Come on,” he said. “Corbin’s waiting for you in his office.”
The poker room was a nightmare, and nightmares were my specialty. Bodies littered the floor. The stories of their death sprayed the walls and leaked from their wounds in ever-growing pools. Two Merchants were among the carnage. The rest stuffed the money in duffel bags. Another result of keeping the men from interacting. They didn’t weep and wail over their fallen comrades.
But I would if it was my guys, and that thought hit me hard. Attachments were being formed in spite of the rules. There was a reason they thought it too dangerous. Reasons that would make themselves clear to me when it was far too late.
Sinjin placed my mask in my hand.
It’s already too late.
Corbin was waiting for me as Sinjin promised. Ten guns trained on him, and one gloved figure stood at his back. Surrounded by his impending death, and Corbin didn’t bother to look up. The scritchings of his pen was unnaturally loud—amplified by mocking.
He copied a line in his notebook, licked a finger, flipped the page, and continued scribbling.
“It’s your show,” Sinjin said, stepping to the side.
I looked from him to Corbin, then I gave my back to both of them, observing the office. This office was night and day the pigpen we smashed through to get in.
A complete remodel was done in here. Plush carpeting on the concrete floors. Drywall and cream paint for the cinderblock prison. Photos of him with the VIPs of Cinco society blanketed the space, and his large, ornate desk dwarfed the room. It was too large—as though someone told him the bigger the desk, the bigger the man, and he took it to heart.
I studied him, picture beginning to form. His suit was expensive. I’d bet the cost that the price tag would shock me. Light brown hair was swept back in a swirly, bordering-on-boy-band style. If I was honest, he had the classic good looks to make it work.
I bobbed my head. I know this man.
“Corbin,” I began.
“Just a sec, love.” He didn’t glance up. “Let me finish this thought.”
“You’re a dishwasher.”
He stopped in the middle of flipping his page. “Excuse me?”
“You’re a dishwasher,” I repeated. “In the grand kitchen of life, you’ve always received the scraps. You stood off to the sidelines while others basked in the spotlight. They got the praise.”
He slowly raised his head.
“Of course, there is nothing wrong with being a dishwasher. It’s an important position in the kitchen, but you didn’t see it that way. You thought you deserved better than your station in life, and when the first chance came to move up, you seized it.” I gestured around me. “All of this is to remind you and everyone else that you’ve fought your way to the top. And the disgusting, foul, evil things you’ve done to stay there.”
Corbin closed the notebook and folded his hands on top. “Serenity, isn’t it?”
“Sure.”
“I was rude to keep working while you stood there waiting, so you’re being rude in return. Let’s start over.”
This guy was unbelievable lounging like we were about to sit for tea and crumpets while his men lay dead outside.
“Please, sit,” he said, motioning to a chair. “I believe you have a proposition for me.”
I sat.
“Would it be too much to ask for the mask to come off?”
“Not at all.” I peeled it off. “Can’t breathe in this thing anyway.”
Brows narrowing, he scanned me up and down.
“As I suspected, we’ve never met,” he said, “so what the fuck do you want, bitch?!” He slammed on the table, shooting to his feet. “You steal from me, cost me thousands, drive away a client, break into my club, and kill my men! I better have killed your whole fucking family and butt-fucked their corpses, because if I haven’t, I will!”
I whistled. “Wow. There’s that insecure dishwasher complex.”
“Argh!” He jumped over the desk and was swiftly wrestled into his seat. “What do you want?! Is this about the hit Angelo put out on the Merchants? You’re on some mission to take us all out now? Well, I can settle this for you. You can’t win.
“The Kings have four times the money. Four times the men. Four times the territory. And twelve times the firepower.” He leaned as far forward as Brutal would let him. “And now they know who you are. You’ll enjoy my death for a week. Max.”
I listened to his speech patiently. “I’m not here to kill you, Corbin. This isn’t about the Merchant/King beef. It’s between you and me.”
He pulled a face, scowling. “I don’t know you.”
“No, but you do know Shelby, Elle, and Adriana.”
His face shuttered closed.
“They were the girls you sold
last week. I want to know where they are, who bought them, and where the others are. I’ll also take the names and info on all of your bidders.”
“You’re insane, bitch. Kill me or get the fuck out of here.”
I sighed. “I don’t appreciate being called a bitch by a— Goodness. You’re so beneath contempt, I can’t be bothered to waste descriptors on you.” I got to my feet. “Bring the dishwasher with us. I have a feeling he’ll open up after spending some time in our accommodations.”
My march out would’ve been badass if Sinjin hadn’t gotten his hands on me.
He snapped me to him, hooking my leg around his waist and lifting me. I was shoved up against the wall.
Gunmetal grays reflected my parted lips and flushed cheeks. “You have no idea how fucking sexy you are right now.” He ground his erection in my middle to prove it.
“You heard her,” he barked. “Tie, gag, and put him in the trunk.”
For me, “I’m going to fuck you into a wheelchair. We’re breaking every damn bed in the house.”
My face was flaming and why wouldn’t it? Sinjin did not lower his voice.
I cleared my throat. “I would be very interested in discussing the details further after we get an evil man to talk and rescue those girls.”
“I’m a multitasker, Bunny. I can do both.”
With difficulty, I broke free of his spell and followed his—our—men out with our prize.
“Bag,” Cash ordered. One of the men tossed him a duffel packed with money. “The rest is yours.”
They celebrated in the midst of corpses.
Carrying a grown, bound man past dozens of witnesses was easier than it should have been. We tossed him in Cash’s car and left the extra hands behind. It was down to the five of us now to get him to talk. I understood what that meant when I suggested it. I knew what this car was speeding to.
I told them I was in. I said I’d do whatever it takes.
My commitment would be tested like no other.
