Dirty Money

by Michelle Love

  Steele couldn’t look away. It was like a train wreck. You know there will be total devastation, but you have to keep looking anyway.

  Paul pulled back with a smile.

  “Just wanted to let you know what kissing me felt like with a beard.” He let her go and walked away.

  Fontaine pressed her fingertips to her lips and turned back to look at Steele.

  “Wow! Just, wow!”

  Steele finally smiled. “He’s an amazing kisser, isn’t her?”

  The flush on the detective’s face let her know he was. The women found themselves giggling, and the detective sat back down. Steele began to feel a bit better about Paul getting together with the woman who had made no secret about her wanting a little roll in the hay with Arsen.

  Maybe with Paul to occupy her, she’d forget about flirting with Arsen.

  Fontaine leaned forward and whispered, “Do you know if he’s into the BDSM stuff too?”

  Steele shrugged.

  “Not sure. But I don’t think so. If he tries to spank you, give it a try before you stop him. The first couple of whacks are pretty damn exciting.”

  They broke into giggles again and both blushed. Fontaine’s cell phone rang, and she picked it up and answered, “Detective Fontaine.”

  Quickly she took a pen and pad of paper from her purse and wrote something down then got off the phone.

  “I have a name and address for you. But you aren’t going to like it. You sure you want it?” she asked Steele. “I mean I wouldn’t go there if I was you. It might lead to an altercation and that might end you up in jail. Going to a woman’s house and kicking her ass is a crime after all. No, I’m not giving this to you. You will definitely end up in jail.”

  Steele stood up and moved quickly and swiped the pad out of Fontaine’s hand. The name Beth Campbell was at the top and the address was right underneath.

  “Fuck!” Steele threw her hands up in the air and stomped her foot. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

  “Know her?” Fontaine asked with raised brows.

  “The name of the girl who was his first love was Beth. She’s Anne Sinclair’s daughter. This is most likely her.” Steele fell back on the sofa and put the pad of paper on the table.

  “Anne Sinclair was fucking her daughter’s old boyfriend?” Fontaine asked with shock and a lot of disgust on her face. “That’s sick!”

  Steele pulled out her cell phone and went to search the woman on social media. In no time at all she’d found her and when she pulled up her friends and family it was all there. Her mother was Anne Sinclair.

  Arsen had gone off with the one other female he’d ever loved and been gone a damn long time.

  “I’m sorry, Steele. I really am. All shit aside, the man’s a fool to let you go.” Fontaine went to sit by Steele and ran an arm around her shoulders. “This sucks. Everything might well be over with Arsen’s troubles and you two could be getting on to a life together then in one fell swoop, an old flame comes in and takes him away from you. Life sucks.”

  Paul came back in all smiles and a clean-shaven face with his hair pulled back neatly and a killer Armani suit on. He stopped and looked at the two women on the sofa.

  “What the hell? I thought you two hated each other.”

  Fontaine hugged Steele.

  “I don’t hate anyone. I’m just kind of bitch is all. We found out whose car that is and the fact Arsen’s been gone so long just hit her.”

  “Like a brick upside the head,” Steele added. “He’s with Beth. The Beth. The fucking Beth who let her father beat him nearly to death. The fucking Beth who left him the destroyed kid he became because of her. Then her mother swooped in and nearly finished him off. That fucking Beth.” Her eyes went to Paul.

  His mouth hung open and then he gulped.

  “We have to save him. What’s the address?”

  Steele laughed.

  “Save him? Ha! From what? Come on, Paul. Wake up. Smell the fucking shit. Read the writing on the wall! He’s with her, fucking her. Lying in a bed somewhere holding her and telling her he forgives her and wants her to marry him and have his babies. That’s what’s taking so long.”

  Paul’s head shook.

  “No, Steele. He wouldn’t do that. Something's not right. You have to trust him.”

  “That’s what he always tells me. Trust him. I have to trust him.” Steele’s body was shaking and Fontaine hugged her tighter. “I did trust him. I trusted him when he tied my hands up. I trusted him when he hung me up and smacked me with his belt until I cried. I trusted him so many times. One too many though it seems.”

  She began to cry and Fontaine let her bury her face against her neck.

  “Shh. It’s going to be okay, Steele. There are other fish in the sea.”

  Paul threw his hands in the air.

  “Stop crying, he’s not doing what you two think. I know the man. I know him like you two don’t. Steele, he loves your ass. Completely loves you. I’ve never seen him like this. You have nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

  “I need to be alone,” Steele said then pulled herself out of Fontaine’s arms and ran to the bedroom.

  Paul called out, “Steele, don’t do anything stupid. Promise me!”

  She slammed the door behind her. The man she loved was with his old girlfriend. The social media site had said she was married with three kids. Steele knew the woman would throw all that away to be with Arsen again.

  The billionaire who now was built like a brick house and gorgeous. Fuck yes, Beth would throw away her marriage and kids for the man and Steele knew it without a doubt.

  Steele was a shaking mess as she fell on the bed and cried her eyes out. Paul was just sticking up for his friend. Defending the Bro Code. Steele wasn’t stupid.

  It had all been too good to be true and now it was over. The end of it all. Arsen was off the hook, mostly anyway and he was done with Steele.

  That much was obvious.

  She pulled her clothes off and went to get in the deep jetted tub to try to blast away the sadness. Her body ached to feel his touch. Her heart ached so bad she felt it in her soul.

  Steele wasn’t sure she could take it. The pain was too great. Their nights and days had been filled with pleasure and it was over. She would die alone because he’d ruined her for any other man.

  No man would be able to ignite in her what he had. No other man would capture her attention the way he had. No other man was Arsen.

  Gorgeous, crazily lovable, Arsen.

  Steele lay her head back and let the tears flow as she thought about the way he touched her. The way he made her feel.

  His lips on her lips, their hips touching as he moved inside her. When he was behind her, the way his hip bones made contact with her ass. Everywhere his body touched hers sent little jolts of electricity throughout her body.

  And that is over!

  Her hands moved over her body, pretending they were Arsen’s. She cried as she touched her breasts and knew his hands would never squeeze them again. She ran her hands over her stomach. The place he told her only the night before he wanted to see filled with their child.

  That wasn’t going to happen. No. He’d have children with Beth. His first love. His true love.

  Steele might have been a little something to him, but the second Beth showed up, BOOM! He was hoping in the car with her and gone in a flash.

  He didn’t even tell Paul, his best friend, goodbye. He just got into her car and went away with her.

  Steele ran her hands down to where he made her the most happy. In between her legs Arsen had made her feel like no other ever had or ever would. His mouth brought her complete pleasure as did his large cock.

  Now he was most likely plunging it into Beth’s horrible pussy. Making her come over and over again. Sending her to another place where only the two of them existed.

  Steel went under water and stayed until her lungs burned with the need for oxygen. She wanted to drown. Let him find her dead in his bathtub for
all she cared. Then he would know what he’d done to her.

  Why did he have to wait that night outside that damn club for her? Stalk her? Make her his?

  He should’ve left her alone. She would’ve better off. Now she was broken. More broken than she ever knew she could be.

  With the flip of a switch she went from being the most in love she’d ever been to being at the lowest place in her entire life.

  Steele pushed her head up from underneath the water and gasped for air. She shook her head.

  What was she doing?

  Was she really going to give him up without a fight?

  Was she going to kill herself and let Beth have her man?

  “No, I am not!” she said out loud.

  “That bitch gave him up. She can’t have him again. She had her chance and she let him go. Fuck her!” Steele climbed out of the deep tub and grabbed a towel.

  “Bitch, better get ready!” She marched to the closet finding a nice set of yoga pants and a matching shirt. She was going to dress for this little encounter.

  Putting on clothes she could move in, she was preparing for the battle for her man. Arsen was damaged and Anne and Beth were people he had to be protected from.

  Steele had been sent to him. Not only to love him, but to help him be strong in the face of those who had hurt him so badly they nearly broke the man.

  If Arsen had fallen victim to Beth’s charms again then Steele would help him see why Beth was not good for him. It wasn’t as if that was a lie. The girl had watched her father beat him and yelled at him to get up and fight a man twice his age and size.

  Beth wasn’t good for him, no matter how much she may have changed, and Steele was, at the very least, going to fight for the man she loved more than life itself.

  After putting her hair in a braid to be sure her hair couldn’t become a target if Beth was going to fight back, she marched out to find Paul and Fontaine exchanging phone numbers as they sat so close to each other their legs were touching.

  “If you don’t mind my interrupting your little date, I’d like to go to this woman’s house. I’m going to fight for my man. I will not go down without a fight,” Steele informed them.

  “I can’t let you go and assault anyone, Steele,” Fontaine said with an exaggerated eye roll.

  “I’m going one way or another. I memorized the address, Fontaine.” Steele headed towards the elevator and Fontaine got up as Paul took her hand and pulled her up with him.

  “I have to take her. I told Arsen I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.” He pulled her along. “You can come with us if you want. I’ll let you ride up front with me. It’s a bench seat, so you can sit right next to me.”

  Steele looked back to see Fontaine grinning like a school girl.

  “I have to take my own car. I’m still on duty. I’ll lead the way and I’ll go talk to whoever it is that’s home there. Think you can keep her locked in the car until I get things figured out?”

  Paul smiled and kissed the tip of her nose.

  “Not a problem. I have the master control up front. I got your back, partner.”

  “Dear, Lord!” Steele said as they all stepped into the elevator. “This is going to be excruciating!”

  Paul laughed as the doors shut.

  “Now, now, princess. Others like to go to the ball too, you know.” He slipped his arm around the detective and pulled her in close to his side.

  “Whatever that means,” Steele said. “I just want to get to Arsen as quickly as I can. The wait is killing me.”

  The trip down the elevator from the penthouse to the ground floor seemed to be taking forever. Everything was taking forever in Steele’s mind. She couldn’t get to Arsen fast enough.

  She knew the chances of him being at that address were slim to none, but Beth’s husband might be and that was one step closer to her finding Arsen.

  If Arsen thought Anne was harsh, he’s going to have to come up with a new word for me!

  GWEN

  Inch by painful inch, she’d crawled through the tall grass until she finally came to the edge of the road. The sun was up and had been for a while. Morning dew was still covering the grass, and she was soaked from it.

  Her body shivered with the wet cold. She knew she had little time. Exposure, exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration were all combining to take her life away.

  She just kept praying and focusing on breathing each breath. The idea of saving Steele and Arsen kept her going. If she never did another thing in her life, she would’ve accomplished saving a couple of people from terrible fates.

  The sound of wheels smashing the gravel along the road made her look up, and she saw the headlights of a car coming towards her through the foggy morning. The person pulled to a stop and got out.

  She saw a tall, slender woman with blonde hair. She didn’t say a word as she was too weak and the woman didn’t speak either. She just picked her up and placed her in the back seat of her large sedan.

  Gwen was saved. She would make it. She could complete what had taken her nearly two days to work at. The swim, the shark, the long crawl.

  It had all come together and had worked for her. She would be able to save Arsen and Gwen now. She closed her eyes and just took in one breath after another and thanked the Lord above for the woman who had stopped and picked her up off the side of the road.

  Soon, she’d be hooked up to an I.V. of fluid which would fill her veins and bring her back to life. Food would be in her empty stomach and fresh clothes, be it a hospital gown which would surely be gaping in the back, letting her ass show, but it would be clean and dry covering her tender flesh.

  It was all about to be over. The pain, the agony, the near defeat. Allen White would be behind bars in hours. Anne Sinclair and her boy toy as well. All would be over and Gwen would be in a nice, safe, dry hospital bed, sipping on some refreshing beverage.

  The radio came on and played some old rock. A little old time rock-and-roll, Gwen thought to herself. Yeah, some good old rock and some food and water and fresh clothes. That was just what the doctor would order.

  And when Steele saw her and found out she had the words to bring her complete happiness, then she’d be a hero. She knew Arsen would insist on rewarding her, so life was about to get real fucking easy.

  And she’d let him do it too. She’d let him give her a reward, and she’d take some time off school and work and just lounge around for at least a month. Do nothing but sit by the pool and sip Champagne cocktails and eat fancy things she’d never eaten before.

  French foods she’d heard of but had never seen. Escargot, Vichyssoise, and other foods she’d never tasted. It occurred to her in all her twenty-one years of life she’d never had one bite of spinach.

  She was going to try every food on the planet. Every drink in the world. She was going to live, damn it!

  No more living like every day is a given. Gwen would live every day as if it were her last. Try everything. Find a good-looking guy and kiss the mother fucker on the mouth before he even got a chance to speak.

  Dance in the rain, watch an old movie where all the actors have died already and fall in love with the leading man. Crazy shit like that is what Gwen was going to do when she got well and got out of the hospital.

  Her eyes felt heavy and her body was beyond tired. Though she knew it was over, she was growing kind of worried. The woman wasn’t speaking at all. The car didn’t feel as if it were speeding to the nearest hospital.

  It seemed to be going slow, as a matter of fact. It took everything she had in her to pull her eyelids open. Her vision was blurry and that concerned her. She didn’t need to wear glasses so what was happening to her?

  Suddenly she realized she wasn’t taking breaths. She pulled in some air and her chest hurt really bad when she did.

  After all she’d made it through, was this it? Was she supposed to kick the old bucket now? Throw in the towel?

  The numbness was moving over her body in slow increments. Her toes
, then up her calves, over her thighs and now her stomach which had been in a constant state of pain was growing numb.

  Was her body completely shutting down now she was so close to being saved and saving her friend?

  If she died before telling anyone what she knew, she’d have done it all in vain. She took in slow breaths and closed her eyes. She was so tired, and it had seemed like it had gone on so long.

  The ride was taking forever. If the fucking broad could speed the fuck up she might fucking live.

  She wanted to scream at the woman to hurry the fuck up. She didn’t have much longer and people’s fucking lives depended on what she had to say.

  Her words came out quiet and scratchy. “Hurry, please.”

  She doubted the woman could even hear her over the radio she had so fucking loud for some damn reason.

  Who the fuck picks up a nearly dead person off the side of the road in a desolate area and places them in their car and turns fucking eighties rock up so loud? Who does that kind of thing?

  An idiot? A sadistic person? A narcissist who wants to hear what she wants to hear and fuck all the others, especially the dying chick in the back seat?

  This woman was a piece of work. The car stopped and the sound of buttons being pushed Gwen heard as the key pad made little clicking sounds. Then there was the sound of scraping of what she thought was a metal gate opening.

  Where the hell is this woman taking me?

  The car lurched forward, bumping over the rails which held the gate in place. Then she heard it close with a resounding bang. The car moved ahead slowly. One curve it went around then the car went in another direction around another curve.

  It was taking a while to get where they were going and Gwen knew it wasn’t any hospital. There were no gates keeping anyone from an emergency room parking lot. Not one.

  Something else was happening to her. Something awful. Something which would end not only her life but Steele’s and Arsen would go to prison.

  Why can’t things just work out? Why can’t things go right for just one minute? One break? One little break in the chain of crap she’d had to deal with since Allen White took her from her apartment?