The Cardinal (The Holy Trinity Duet Book 2)

by M. E. Clayton

  I almost groaned. I had no desire to go to the strip club where she worked but she sounded scared and worried. I glanced at the clock on the wall and seven wasn’t too late in the evening. My bus stop was only two blocks away, so that wasn’t too bad.

  “Okay, I can be at Sugar-”

  “No, I don’t work there anymore,” she said, interrupting me. “I kind of got a new job.”

  My heart soared a little. “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah, I’m…trying out for a new club.”

  My heart immediately sank. “Oh.”

  “Yeah, so can you come to The Eagle on Capitol?”

  My stomach clenched. I’ve lived in Morgan City long enough to be familiar with the reputation of Capitol Street. It wasn’t exactly in the best of neighborhoods and a person had to be on their guard around there.

  But she was my sister.

  “Yeah, I…I can be there…in twenty minutes, maybe?”

  “Thank you, Blake,” she said. “I’ll be waiting.”

  “Okay, Caitlin, I’ll see you soon.”

  “Okay,” she said before hanging up.

  I gathered my purse, making sure to have my pepper spray with me, and made sure my phone had enough charge to it. Satisfied that I had everything, I locked up and headed towards the bus stop, hoping Caitlin wasn’t in trouble again.

  When I rounded the corner, I saw the bus pulling up to the curb and I quickly started running. Though there were a few people waiting, I didn’t want to take any chances missing it. When I reached the bus, one of the men standing in line had kindly stepped aside and let me cut in front of him.

  I let out a grateful breath. “Thank you, so much.”

  He smiled. “You’re welcome.” And when he made no other overtures, it was a nice reminder that there really were good, decent people in the world still.

  The ride to Capitol Street was uneventful with only two stops on the way, and soon, I was getting off the bus kind of disappointed that the nice man from earlier had remained on the bus. I wasn’t one to go all damsel-in-distress, but I wasn’t stupid, either. I knew what neighborhood I was in.

  Walking the block towards The Eagle, I rounded the corner and was kind of surprised by the club’s appearance. It looked…clean. It looked nothing like the last place Caitlin worked at and I suppose that was a good thing. Of course, the inside could look sleazy and tacky, but the outside looked nice.

  I laughed at associating the word ‘nice’ with a strip club. But then there were a million ‘nice’ strip clubs all over the planet, only those were called gentlemen clubs, even though the same exact things happened in both. However, money forgave a lot. Appearances were important, no matter how many times we tried to convince ourselves they weren’t.

  As I approached the club, I felt those anxious flutters in the pit of my stomach. Even though Cailin said she was fine, I still didn’t know what awaited me inside the club. However, with it being fairly early on a Monday, I doubted the place was packed.

  I shot Caitlin a text letting her know I was heading inside the club. My phone chimed back with a quick reply.

  Cait: Im at the bar.

  Taking a deep breath, I opened the front doors and walked into a pit of darkness. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjusted to the dim lighting, but once they did, I saw Caitlin waving at me from the bar that lined the entire left side of the room.

  I headed towards the bar, and sitting down, I didn’t even have to ask for a drink. Caitlin pushed a tumbler towards me, a nervous smile on her face. “I got you a drink already.”

  There was no way I was going to drink it, but not because I didn’t trust her, but because I didn’t know the bartender. I’d already made my first unwise decision by agreeing to meet Caitlin here, I wasn’t going to compound my stupidity by drinking something I didn’t see get poured myself, and I just didn’t have faith that Caitlin would be that vigilant when she ordered my drink.

  Twirling the glass in my hands, I said, “Thanks.”

  She smiled, nodding at me. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course,” I automatically replied. “Now, tell me what’s going on.”

  “I need to borrow some money,” she said, getting straight to the point.

  “How much?” There was no point in asking the whys of the situation. I learned long ago that it was pointless to ask her questions or berate her decisions. If I had the money, I’d loan it to her. If not, we’d figure something out.

  “Three-thousand-”

  “Three-thousand dollars?!” I whisper-yelled. “Are you serious, Cait?”

  She rolled her eyes as if it were no big deal. “I’m in a bind, okay?”

  My head reared back in disbelief at her dismissive attitude. “That’s more than a bind, Cait.”

  “Do you have it or not, Blake?”

  “Of course, I don’t fucking have it,” I hissed. “Why would you think I’d have that kind of money?”

  “What about your job?” she asked as if I were a doctor or lawyer.

  “My job pays me enough to support myself, Caitlin,” I snapped. “It doesn’t pay me enough to have thousands on standby.”

  Her blue eyes darted around the bar before settling back on my face. “It’s bad, Blake,” she whispered. “I need the money.”

  “What about your job?” I asked. “This place looks…profitable. Surely, you can make that much in no time.”

  “I told you, I’m just starting out here.” She shrugged. “Sort of…auditioning.”

  “Caitlin, I have maybe three-hundred dollars in sav-”

  “I owe, Blake.” And her words were like a bullet to the chest.

  She owed.

  Caitlin owed and everyone knew what that meant. Even if you lived in the suburbs, you’d know what that meant.

  “Jesus Christ, Cait.”

  “I need help, Blake,” she replied. “Are you going to help me or not?”

  I had to take a couple of deep breaths. How in the fuck was I supposed to help her with money I didn’t have? I didn’t even have a car I could sell or anything.

  “We’ll figure it out, okay?” I lied.

  She smiled. “I knew I could count on you.”

  And maybe that was the problem.

  Lowering my voice more, I asked, “Who do you owe, Cait?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Hell yeah, it matters,” I hissed.

  She didn’t say anything for a long while before finally admitting, “The Benettis.”

  I tossed the tumbler back and it was all gone in one swallow.

  Chapter 5

  Salvatore~

  Lucky for me, dirty bitches could be found everywhere. And if they weren’t dirty before I got a hold of them, they were eager to experiment once they knew who I was.

  The thing with me? I liked a good, hard, merciless fuck after I’ve tortured someone for days. A simple kill, not so much. Still, when my demons were hungry, they were insatiable bastards and sometimes I couldn’t expel all the bloodlust.

  So, I satisfied it in other ways.

  Tightening her red hair in my fist, I pushed her head deeper into the clean, plush, expensive pillow. It was always expensive hotels and always the most expensive suites, and Carlo was always standing guard in the sitting room.

  Her cries were muffled by the pillow and it was like music to my ears. A sick combination of sex and sweet torture. Muffled screams were the perfect kind of satisfaction in the right situations, and this was one of those perfect situations.

  Perfectly manicured nails dug into the mattress as I pounded her pussy from behind. When Leslie first walked into the suite, there’d been no kissing as I never kissed the women I was with. Kissing was a form of affection and I held no affection for the women I fucked. There was a mutual understanding happening but that was about it. I haven’t kissed a female since I was in high school.

  So, when Leslie had walked into the suite, being the repeat that she was, she had immediately lowered to her knees and had l
et me fuck her face. Then the beautiful whore let me unload all over it. That was the thing about Leslie and why she was a repeat. There wasn’t anything the woman said no to. She was always game for whatever sick shit I wanted to do to her, and she knew how to keep her fucking mouth shut unless my dick was in it.

  Of course, we weren’t exclusive, so my dick wasn’t the only one occupying her mouth, but I didn’t give a shit about that. I always used condoms and I got blood tested regularly, and not because I fucked around a lot. I got tested because I got covered in blood almost once a week and you just never knew about people. So, I took care of myself and always fucked with a condom.

  Leslie’s screams got louder, and when she clamped down on my cock, I pushed in every fucking inch of my hardness, forcing her to take it, no mercy on her spasming body.

  Letting go of the hold I had on her fire-red hair, I slapped my hands on her ass cheeks, spread them wide, and watched her wet cunt convulse around my thickness. When her shoulders collapsed on the bed in submission, I pulled my dick out and worked the head inside her ass. That was another thing about Leslie that I could appreciate. Most women needed a workup to anal if they let you in there at all. However, Leslie took cock in her ass like a champ. She liked the pain, so it was a win-win for the both of us.

  “You like that, sweetheart,” I grunted, not really expecting an answer. I mean, her face was in the pillow after all.

  Leslie turned her head long enough to beg, “Harder.”

  My hands dug into her hips and I started thrusting into her tight ass harder. “And that’s why you’re one of my best fucks, sweetheart,” I smirked. “You like taking a hard ass fucking just as much as I like giving it to you.” I watched my cock stretch her open and it was a good thing she had just soaked my cock or else there might have been some tearing.

  Leslie threw her head back. “Oh, God…Sal…”

  “Such a good little slut,” I praised her. “So eager to be fucked.”

  “Yes,” she cried out. “Call me a slut. Call me a whore.”

  And that was also another thing I could appreciate about Leslie. She didn’t pretend to be anything other than what she was. Leslie owned her sexual liberation, and she didn’t care who knew it. She didn’t get shy afterwards or pretend like she didn’t know Carlo could hear everything in the next room. Hell, if I were into more than one dick in close quarters, I was positive I’d have double-teamed Leslie a long ass time ago. She was exactly the kind of woman who would take two dicks at the same time. Probably in the same fucking orifice.

  “You like being fucked like a dirty whore?” I growled, granting her request. I reached over and yanked her head back by her hair. “Beg me to cum in your ass.”

  “Please,” she cried prettily. “Cum in my ass.”

  That was probably going to be the only benefit to being married one day. I would finally be able to do away with the condoms and cover my wife with my seed.

  “Play with your pussy, sweetheart,” I told her. “Play with that little kitty.” She reached between her legs and I could feel her clench around me as she manipulated her clit, my hands too busy forcing her to take my cock to help.

  “Oh, God…Sal…”

  “Cum all over your fingers,” I grunted, ready to shoot my nut inside the condom. Leslie’s been here for two hours, taking it however I wanted to give it to her, and I was ready to see the back of her head walking out the door.

  “Oh…I’m…I’m cum…” My thrusts became harder, deeper, and more painful, and soon, she was squeezing the life out of my cock. “Sal!”

  “That’s right, squeeze my cock,” I growled, my dick shooting another load into the hot bitch. “Squeeze that tight ass around my cock.”

  “I’m cumm…ing…”

  I rode us both through our orgasms and pulled out as soon as my dick started softening. Getting off the bed, I went to the bathroom and got rid of the condom. I washed my hands, splashed water on my face, and walked back out to find Leslie stretched out on the bed.

  She shot a seductive grin my way. “Are we done?”

  And another thing on that Leslie list I had?

  The slut was insatiable.

  “I am,” I told her. “I’ve already given you two hours of my time, sweetheart. I got shit to do.”

  She stretched like a cat in heat. “How about a shower together?”

  I shook my head. “I’m showering but I’m showering alone.” I jerked my head towards the suite’s bedroom door. “But if you want, you can hit Carlo up. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind sticking his dick in your mouth.” I winked at her. “Tell him I said he could take a break.”

  Leslie sat up, her fake tits not moving an inch, and looked up at me from underneath her lashes. “Are you serious?”

  “Carlo!”

  Within seconds, he was opening the door to the room. “Yeah, Sal?”

  I jerked my head towards Leslie. “I’m done here,” I told him. “I got to take a shower and answer some emails, but Leslie needs a parting gift.” I smirked. “She needs a dick in her mouth, so if you want to take a break, I’ll give you a half-hour.”

  Carlo glanced at the red-headed beauty. “You need more cock?”

  Leslie let out a flirty moan. “Hmm.”

  Carlo jerked his head to the carpet space in front of him. “Then get over here.”

  I laughed. “I’m going to shower,” I remarked, knowing neither of them cared. Well, Carlo might care since it was his job to care about everything I did, but I knew Leslie was already viewing me as an afterthought.

  Once I got into the shower, I scrubbed myself clean. I even made sure to get underneath my nails. Another thing that made Leslie one of my top five choices? The bitch didn’t care if I got blood on her. It didn’t happen often, but there have been a couple of times when I’ve had her come to me, blood and DNA still on my hands or body from handling some shit, and she hadn’t balked.

  And I supposed that was at the heart of why I wasn’t in such a rush to get married. Not that Luca or Leo had gone looking for it, but they had managed to find a love uniquely designed for them and it was working for them. I just wasn’t sure I’d ever find a woman who could be enough for me.

  While it was widely accepted that you could have both a wife and a mistress, I wasn’t sold on cheating on my wife. Gio keeping a fucking cop as a mistress had left a bad taste in my mouth and I viewed keeping a mistress in a different light these days.

  There was also growing up watching Ma openly accept Gio’s philandering as long as he was discrete, and I had always viewed that as a sign of a weak backbone. Accepting your husband’s mistress was like announcing to the world that you were in a business arrangement instead of a marriage. And if that weren’t the case, if you really did love your husband and would rather accept his mistresses than lose him, well that boasted of a dependency that was harmful to all involved. It’s what made a wife finally stab her husband to death one day and I wasn’t looking for that kind of excitement in my marriage.

  I wanted a woman strong enough not to judge the shit that went on in my mind. I wanted a woman who wasn’t going to try to change me once we got married. I wanted a woman who wasn’t going to curl up into a ball of hysterics every time she saw blood splatter on my clothes.

  I wanted a goddamn unicorn, and we all knew those things didn’t exist.

  Chapter 6

  Blake~

  Paolo Marino looked like a decent guy, but he wasn’t. The Good Lord gave us instincts for a reason, and they were to warn you of danger, and Paolo Marino was dangerous in the way that some animals refused to share their kill.

  That was Paolo Marino.

  After I had met with Caitlin the other day, I had explored every option I could until I had finally been forced to go to a bank and submit a loan application for the three-thousand dollars. The interest was a little higher than I would have preferred, but if I had to eat crackers for the next three months to make it work, then I would. I could. The problem was that I did
n’t have an established credit history because I didn’t own anything. However, I had gotten the money and that was all that matter.

  I also wasn’t stupid enough to give my sister the money, either. When we had gone over our options the other night, she had mentioned that she owed the Benettis, but that Paolo Marino was her…I don’t know. Her handler? Her point-man? Whatever, he was the one that she had to pay the money to.

  As I had asked her questions, I’d been able to find out that Paolo managed The Eagle, but she knew him from where she had worked before. When he’d been given the opportunity to manage the newly renovated club, he had promised to bring Caitlin onboard with him. The Eagle was supposed to be a classier place, guaranteeing her more money.

  I’d also found out that it’d barely opened this week. This weekend was its first run under new management. Caitlin was supposed to work it, but Paolo had insisted that she clean up her debt first and that’s why she had called me. He’d been carrying her for too long and he wasn’t going to do it anymore.

  So, knowing I couldn’t trust Caitlin with the money to pay Paolo, I had come back to The Eagle after I’d gotten off work and asked to speak to him. However, I never would have imagined that the conversation would have gone the way it had.

  “I’m sorry, excuse me?”

  The white, nondescript envelope with three-thousand dollars remained untouched in the center of his desk as he repeated the words threatening to drop me to the floor had I not been sitting in one of the plush chairs in his office. “Caitlin Turner owes me five-thousand dollars, love,” he said. “Not three.”

  “Sh…she said she owed three,” I replied like an idiot.

  Paolo’s grin and words were cold, but not surprising. “Because junkies are known for their honesty?” I flushed. “A word of advice, sweet thing, quit viewing her as the sister you used to play Barbies with and start recognizing her for the junkie that she is.”

  “Then why are you going to employ her here?” I asked, treading dangerously. “If she’s so untrustworthy, why bother with her?”

  He answered and I wished I had never asked. “Because she’ll take three cocks at the same time if I ask her to just to get her fix,” he replied scathingly. “She’s good for business.” He shrugged a shoulder and leaned back in his chair. “Too bad she’s a whore with a coke habit or else she could be meant for so much more.”