by Lacey Silks
“Zoey?”
I looked up into his encouraging eyes.
“They would have killed her or sold her or done whatever that last paragraph in the contract said about her being owned for the rest of her life. All because she broke their rules.” I paused at the memory of reading it all. It was the same contract I had signed, fully aware that my life was over. Of course, there was an additional clause which removed any ties Julia had to Infinity, and that made the rest of the stuff not so bad. “I made a deal with them. Me for her; except that I told Jules I paid them off with my inheritance, which I used as leverage to bribe them to agree.”
“Shit. Zoey, I had no idea.”
“They showed up at the hospital when Jules was recovering. She was in an induced coma, so she doesn’t even know what went on behind her back. I had her friend Chris fabricate medical records, which gave them the impression that she could die. If my sister could ever have a chance to recover from her addiction, there was no way she could do it while working for Infinity. So I made a deal. Me for her, plus most of my inheritance. Except Jules doesn’t know about the me for her part. She thinks I was able to pay them off. End of story.”
“You sacrificed yourself.”
“I did what anyone would have.”
“That’s not true, Zoey. You had a future in dancing. Your whole life... you gave up everything for her.”
He was looking at me as if I had saved the world. Seriously? Wouldn’t Ace do the same for his brother? I bet he wouldn’t even hesitate.
“I would do it again if I had to. They closed down the downstairs studio where I worked. The neighborhood we lived in doesn’t exactly cater to rich families who can pay for dance classes. I bought it out. I was going to renovate it and do fundraisers to get enough money to sustain it for less fortunate kids, but then Jules was attacked, and my life sort of changed.”
“You know that contract is not legal, right?”
“Yeah, but does it matter?” I shrugged.
He shook his head.
For the next couple of minutes, we sat in silence, Ace looking at me in disbelief. “You’re even more amazing than I thought.”
“I didn’t know how else to help her. It was the only option left.”
“Which makes you unbelievable. Jesus, Zoey. How did everything get so fucked up?” He pulled his fingers through his hair before looking into my eyes. “You have to believe that I didn’t want to leave that day at the hospital. I should have stayed with you. You wouldn’t be where you are right now.”
“And if you had, then you wouldn’t have gotten a chance to straighten your life out. I would never want to take that away from you. This is not your fault.” I felt my throat tighten. Why was he taking my mistakes onto himself?
“If I had known, I’d never taken on the job. I’m not proud of my past, but I never meant for someone like you to pay for my mistakes. My father… he owned a share in Infinity.”
“What?”
“He was under so much crap and had blackmail over his head. His priority was our safety, no matter what we had to do to remain that way. He played out the role of a ruthless man perfectly, and it was all to protect us. Infinity was part of his cover. He told me so himself. He encouraged me to take the job because he knew firsthand that some girls, although a few, were willing to talk. He was the reason Emma Cross called me in the first place. They needed an in, and I was the perfect bait. Infinity would never suspect that a Wagner, a longtime member, would work for years to infiltrate them and put them out of business.”
“Years?”
“Pretty much since I left you at the hospital. Our biggest problem was cutting off the head of the snake. Specifically, Craig’s head. I have to get to him before more women are used and sold.”
“Craig Harper?” I asked.
“Yes.” He looked at me in that funny way before asking, “Wait a minute… you’ve met him?”
“Yes. I’m not sure why, but he came to the hospital that day.”
Ace had a look of confusion on his face, as if that was an odd thing for Craig to do.
“He doesn’t come out of his cave often.”
Could I tell him about the offer Craig had made me, the one I’d refused? That he’d wanted me to join him at his private residence, to be imprisoned there and enslaved as his bitch? Maybe that would have been better. It would have meant I didn’t have to sleep with different men, only Craig, giving into his countless sick fantasies. But at the time, I wasn’t willing to lose the last ounce of life I had – my apartment, my sister, and my mom. I couldn’t imagine never seeing them again. I could have lied about traveling the world or moving to the other side of the country, but even then, they would want to see me at some point. And so I’d rejected Craig. He of course had laughed, saying I’d regret it. And some of the sick jobs that came my way I was sure were his way of payback.
You’ll change your mind one day. The confidence in his voice had scared me. There was not an ounce of doubt when Craig Harper spoke, and over the past few months, it had felt like he was pushing me toward the edge of regret and giving up. I wondered more often, how long I could keep the work up both physically and emotionally. Most of the time I was able to check out when I did my job, but it wasn’t easy. Pills didn’t come cheap either, and posed a danger of leaving me too sedated to perform.
Was that why I had been summoned, without a choice, to do the nastiest jobs and fulfill the grossest fantasies? Infinity affiliates thought the girl always had a choice; that screwing the members was as rewarding for her as the pleasure they got. Well, they were wrong. I was never given the privilege of choice, nor did I enjoy their requests. I was convinced that Harper had it in for me.
If I told Ace the truth about the kind of man Infinity’s owner was, it would only upset him. Besides, it wouldn’t have surprised me if Ace already knew it. And the way the hairs stood up on his arms at the mention of Craig’s name, this discussion was better left for another time.
Ace was lost in his thoughts, and I wondered what was running through that pretty head of his. No, pretty was the wrong word. He looked much wiser than he had six years ago, with a few additional crease lines under his eyes. His jaw was sharper and his eyes sparkled a brighter shade of brown, as if he had a purpose. But there was a new worry, which stole his free spirit. Was it possible I could help him?
With a heavy sigh, I looked around the chic room. “Where are we, anyway? This can’t be your place.”
“It’s not. This is my parent’s guest house. I was going to take you to my place, but I couldn’t take the chance of anyone seeing us. We cannot be connected.”
“What do you mean?”
“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t at that hotel for a night of fucking. You have to believe me. All our appointments have one objective: information.” He pulled his hand through his hair again, somewhat frustrated. “Look. Let’s not talk about Infinity. Take the time to settle in. I’ll make dinner and—”
“—I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?”
“Because, you’re... you’re Ace.”
“So?”
“They know where I live. I need to go home. They’ll come looking for me if the tracker is broken.”
“It’s not broken.”
“You removed it.”
“I know. And like I said, you’re free to go anywhere without being tracked. We’ve hooked it up to a computer, and it’s giving away a signal based on your past history. So Infinity has no clue you’re not where they think you are.”
“What if they check up on me?”
“We’ll get a signal when they’re on your profile.”
“So, you’re telling me that I don’t need to look over my shoulder, wondering whether the man in a black trench coat works for them?”
“Jesus, is that what you’ve been doing?”
“What else did you expect?”
“I guess I can’t really put myself in your shoes, but yes, that’s what I’m tel
ling you.”
“So I’m free to go home?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t keep you imprisoned, Zoey. But I hope you choose to stay. I hope you choose me.”
What did he mean by that? Choose him?
“We still have a lot to talk about, and I really want to catch up on the last six years I missed with you.”
I felt my heart palpitate.
Chapter 6
Ace
It had been a day of doing nothing and everything. We stayed at the guest house until dusk. When I mentioned swimming at my parents’ place, Zoey did that funny thing again, where she pulled her knees up to her chest and shrank into a human ball. She morphed from a strong woman to a weak fledgling within seconds. In the back of my mind, the idea of me being an Infinity member scaring Zoey to death had not escaped me. I was treading deep water, and if I approached her too quickly about what this reunion of ours really meant, I was afraid I’d drown and pull her down with me. Whatever tortures Infinity had put her through, I promised myself they would pay. I wouldn’t stop pursuing their demise until the last breath left my lungs.
“This is a secure property,” I told her. “And you can use the indoor pool if it makes you feel better.”
“I think I’d rather stay here,” she replied. Zoey appeared lost in thought each time I looked at her, and while I tried to distract her with movies and telling her about my five-year-old nephew, Trevor, explaining how he pronounced my name as ‘ass,’ nothing worked. Every few minutes she examined her forearm and smoothed her finger over the faint cut.
I pulled out the cream I’d applied to the lesion the night before and smoothed some over her skin. She froze the moment my finger connected with her skin, looking at me wide-eyed.
“It will help you heal.”
“Will there be a scar?” she asked.
“Probably a faint one.”
She coiled in on herself again. “They’ll see it and they’ll know I don’t have a tracker, or that I tried to tamper with it.”
“Zoey, it doesn’t matter. You’re not going to see them.” That was a lie, of course, and it stung like hell. How would I break it to her that she would have to be used as bait to lure Craig? If she agreed, that was. I had filled Emma Cross in on what happened the night before while Zoey slept. She told me to be gentle or Zoey could go rogue. There was no mistaking the fact that she could turn around and run away to the furthest corner of the world and never be seen again. Part of me wished that for her. Maybe I should have done that myself—taken her somewhere safe and left this life behind. Then so many other women would suffer. And her family… no, Zoey would never leave her sister. If I told her the truth now, she wouldn’t agree, and I wouldn’t expect her to. I’d have to wait. So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours, even I had trouble compartmentalizing what I now knew. That was why I lied, and that was why I wasn’t asking her for help just yet. First, I had to come up with a solid plan, one that offered no chance of me finding Zoey’s limp body in an alley or floating down the river.
“What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t gotten that call?” she asked out of nowhere.
Call? My memories drifted to that night when I left her with her panties around her ankles in the hospital storage room.
“In Colorado? After I finished licking you?”
She nodded. Her cheeks flushed pink, and my cock responded. The son of a bitch had definitely been deprived and was in serious need of some TLC. Hopefully, this Infinity shit would be over soon, and I could finally let him snuggle inside Zoey’s pussy.
“I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to make you come, and make you understand that my mouth was good for way more than kissing your mother.” I scooted closer to her, our thighs touching one another. I should have worn shorts instead of my track pants so that I could feel her skin to skin. Our arms brushed, the tender contact heating me. I reached for her legs and swiveled her sideways so she could lean against the armrest, and then pressed my thumbs into her soles. She moaned in appreciation. Getting Zoey in a more relaxed state had been my goal, and seeing her slouch against the pillow as I kneaded her feet felt rewarding. Could she handle the truth I wanted to give her? Would she even believe me?
“If that phone call had never come through, I would have slid back up your body, lifted you onto one of those shelves, spread your legs wide open, and fucked you until you had no strength to object to kissing me. I was so desperate for that kiss.” I shook my head. I’d been thinking about her lips for so long now, I felt like I had their image imprinted in my brain. “When I finally got it yesterday, I swear it was the best of my life.”
Her mouth opened a tad, and my urge to savor those lips again grew.
“Don’t do that.” My voice lowered and my chest vibrated. Zoey’s eyes and lips could have replaced a mermaid’s hypnotizing voice.
“Do what?”
“Look at me like I’m telling you that aliens have landed.” I stopped moving my fingers and just held my hands around her toes.
“It’s just hard to believe.”
“Did you not like the kiss yesterday?”
Please say no, so that I can have a reason to prove you wrong right now.
“Ahm, I did, but I shouldn’t have.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head. “Because a kiss is never just a kiss. It’s intimate… and much more than I can offer anyone. You shouldn’t have kissed me like that.”
“I agree.”
“You what?”
“I said I agree. A kiss is not just a kiss. It’s much more. It betrays your heart. It opens up the window to your soul. It shows what the person you’re kissing wants and feels.”
That sweet scent of her slammed into me, and I fought not to cross that line she wasn’t ready to.
“Are you some sort of a kissing fortune teller?” she asked.
“No. But I wouldn’t object to be called an expert. I just know women’s lips. Each seam and ridge tells a different story.”
“What do you think I want? What is my story?”
She leaned in dangerously close, and so did I. It felt right. I could feel her breath on my face, taste its sweetness in my mouth. I was getting harder with each inch we closed. Why had I wasted the past six years staying away from her? The more time I spent with Zoey, the more difficult it became to justify my reasoning, even if it meant I was trying to pay for my past mistakes and climb the steep ladder out of hell. Bringing down Infinity was my way out, yet each time I failed, it felt like a rung had burned underneath my foot. That’s why I knew exactly what Zoey’s story was: I’d seen it over and over again in the eyes of all the women I tried to save the past six years.
“You feel like you’re stuck and there’s no way out. Sometimes you fear that what’s happening isn’t real. It’s all a nightmare. You still feel like you don’t have a life you can control. But you do, Zoey. You’re free now. I want to show you there’s always a way out. I also think you’d like to turn back the clock. You have regrets for not helping your sister sooner, so that she wouldn’t have fallen prey to Infinity. It would mean you wouldn’t have had to sign those papers. You love her, and you hate her.”
“I don’t hate her.”
“Maybe that was a poor choice of words. You love her, but you hate what addiction drove her to and how it ultimately forced your hand to join the group.”
“I guess that’s true.” She looked ahead at the wall, staring at some mesmerizing point. “I feel like I’m on the edge of a cliff. Still safe because I didn’t fall, but so close to danger that one false step, or a strong gust of wind, and I’m gone. While I can control my steps, I can’t control Mother Nature or outside forces. What scares me even more is that the leap over the cliff is looking less daunting each day.”
“Let me take care of those outside forces then. Let me lead you away from that ledge.”
“You really think you can do this?” That first spark of hope in her eyes I’d seen since this morn
ing fuelled my conviction.
“It’s what I’ve been working toward for six years, so yes, I know what I’m doing.” I had to make her relax, though. If Zoey got a taste of the real life she could have, the one I could show her, maybe she’d gain back the strength she needed to conquer Infinity with me. “Now you tell me what’s hard to believe about our kiss being the best one of my life.”
She smiled as her attention finally returned from the wall to me.
“You’re rough and tough. I would have never pictured you as someone who savors all the kisses.”
“Not all of them, Zoey. Only yours.”
The room was getting hotter and smaller. It was now just the two of us, sitting beside each other, holding our gazes steady. You could have heard a pin drop.
“Tell me about your family,” she said.
Her cheeks turned a healthier shade, as if talking about us and forgetting real life was the best medicine.
“Where do I even start? Father raised us for the most part, because mother didn’t agree with his ways. She tried to intervene, and I guess her persistence paid off because each of us, at different times in our lives, eventually saw how his work had only pushed us apart instead of bringing us closer together. It took a while for me and for my brothers to understand Father’s outside dealings made his choices for him. He followed the mafia to protect his family, and my oldest brother, Cash, worked hard to get Father out of illegal dealings. He’s the only one of us who remained a lawyer and still practices.”
“Sounds like you all had a busy life.”
“That’s an understatement. We even kidnapped our youngest sister.”
“What?”
