Even if “what are you?” wasn’t one of the most loaded things you could say to a biracial person, I wouldn’t have bothered to answer his question.
I wasn’t there to chitchat, and I was very aware of the rival Suit Gang still standing there, like a Saints Row video game on pause. I did not want to extend the time I had to spend here with a beside-the-point Q&A.
Unfortunately, K Diamond’s slimy gaze stayed on me. “You a dime piece, ain’t you? You got a man?”
I clamped my lips. At this point, I couldn’t trust myself to so much as open my mouth without cussing this dude straight out.
Unfortunately, K Diamond took my lack of answer as an invitation to keep asking me questions. “Where are you working? One of the hotels? Bet you would make more here.”
He stepped forward. So close, I could taste the overbearing bro scent of whatever cologne he was wearing. Then he grabbed my face and looked me over like I was some kind of product he was thinking of buying. “Yeah, put you in some makeup and heels, and you could rake in that good-good kala.”
He was all up in my face and touching me. Revulsion turned my stomach. All I wanted to do was shove him away. But…
He's dangerous, I reminded myself. Probably carrying a gun.
So I forced myself to stand there. To tolerate his touch.
But I couldn’t keep the strain out of my voice as I asked, “Is he done counting the money yet?”
K Diamond threw me an irritated look—guess he didn’t like that I refused to answer any of his questions. But he released my face to ask the guy counting my money at the bar, “Is it all there?”
“Yeah,” the guy answered, filling me up with relief. But then he added, “Everything except the interest.”
My stomach dropped. “What interest?”
“Five percent starting the first of the month after payment’s due,” K Diamond answered with a shit-eating grin. “Your dad didn’t tell you that before he sent you out here to me?”
No, of course, he hadn’t because my dad didn’t send me. He didn’t even know I was here. As proud as he is, I doubted he would have told me what happened if I hadn’t walked in on the aftermath of his beatdown.
I inwardly cursed. That playoff game was back in June, and now it was August.
“Five percent a month?” I raised my eyes to do the math.
But K Diamond cut off my efforts with, “Five percent a day.”
A day? My stomach dropped with a sickening thud.
I once again tried to do the math, and this time K Diamond let me do it without any interruption, as the Future, J. Balvin remix of MC Fioti’s “Bum Bum Tam Tam” played overhead. The song wasn’t the only thing issuing booms. My head just about exploded when I realized the interest basically doubled the amount I just paid him.
The world swirled around me, and my breath shallowed.
These assholes! I shook my head. “That's not fair. We don't have that kind of money.”
“Not my fault your dad made that bet knowing he didn’t have enough money to pay up.” K Diamond cackled like the troll he was underneath that stupid tracksuit. “But tell you what, baby. Don’t you worry, I’m going to show you how to pay me back.”
Horror clogged my throat like a huge gulp of salty ocean water. Was he…? Was he insinuating that I’d have to pay him back with sex? Like a hooker?
Not just insinuating.
As if to answer my unspoken question, K Diamond leered at me and grabbed me again. But this time, his hands landed on my ass. He pulled my crotch into his and humped his hips against me while cackling over his shoulder at his guys.
They all laughed and called out encouragement to him in Chinese and English.
Disgust erupted in my belly so fast, I couldn’t control my reaction. All the laughter abruptly came to an end when I slammed my fist into the side of K Diamond’s face.
That got his hands off my ass.
“Fucking bitch!” K Diamond screeched, stumbling sideways.
He glared at me, his muddy brown eyes outraged and petulant—right before he delivered a sharp punch to my chest.
I’d made him stumble. But his hit sent me flying back to land on my butt.
I’d rather have the floor on my ass than K diamond’s hands, but man, the fall hurt. My tailbone stung, and when I tried to catch my breath, it felt like my chest was on fire.
For some inexplicable reason, I looked toward the Fae disguised as a gang leader. He just stared back at me, his expression icy and completely unmoved. Maybe he really was a Fae King, cold and uncaring about the lives of us regular humans.
It didn’t matter. Nothing was broken, so I had to get up. I could hear my former drill sergeant father’s voice in my head telling me that broken bones were the only excuse for staying down when I fell. So I climbed to my feet, but it wasn’t much of a victory.
K Diamond had hurt me a lot worse than I hurt him. And no matter how satisfying the hit had felt in the moment, it changed nothing. I still owed him more money than I could possibly get in such a short time.
And K Diamond knew it. “Be happy I didn’t fuck up your face. Now let’s talk about this money you still owe me.”
He paused, waiting for me to protest again. But this time, I was smart enough to keep my mouth closed. I just stood there on trembling legs.
And K Diamond rewarded me with an approving grin. “Tell you what, you can come work for me. We’ll start you out on one of the side stages. See how you do there. Then, if you act nice, I’ll let you do some shifts in the champagne rooms—that’s where the real money gets made. You could earn back what your father owes in a few months. But first, I’m gonna need you to apologize.”
A few months…
Getting rid of this unexpected debt in a few short months did sound appealing. But I hated the thought of dancing on that stage, of putting my body on display for men like K Diamond. Of having to “act nice” when they grabbed me without permission.
And just the idea of apologizing to the bookie who’d taken my life savings without blinking an eye filled my mouth with invisible dirt.
But my parents couldn’t sell the house. They took out a second mortgage on it earlier in the summer to pay the high cost of an uncovered but completely needed experimental drug treatment for my father. And my sister had already donated her entire paycheck to keep their heads above water while we waited for dad’s insurance to agree to pay for his treatments.
What I’d taken out of the bank was all the money I had in the world. And sure, I could maybe get a job at one of the other gentlemen clubs in Oahu, but there was no guarantee I’d make the same kind of money.
Everyone knew Aloha Ballers was the most popular strip joints on the island, the place where both rappers and CEOS came through, along with higher-end tourists who could afford to make it rain at the club. And with my lack of dance experience, who knew if other clubs would even be willing to hire me?
It took everything inside of me not to panic and run. But then, what good would that do? They’d just come after my dad again, and the debt would keep accruing. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t think of another way out.
What other choice do you have? I swallowed down a huge lump of pride and opened my mouth to agree to his terms—
But then the Fae King in disguise said something in Chinese.
Something K Diamond didn’t like.
He whipped around and said something I couldn’t understand to the Fae King. His expression was threaded through with anger, and he shouted in a whiny tone like a child denied ice cream.
The Fae King’s voice, in contrast, remained mild and even. His expression barely changed as he calmly answered whatever questions K Diamond had shouted at him.
They went back and forth like this for a couple of rounds, K Diamond all but screeching, and the Fae King looking largely unbothered. It was like they were having two different conversations. And unfortunately, whatever they were saying went way beyond the few sentences of Mandarin I kept in
my back pocket to teach tourists from China.
In the end, K Diamond turned to glare at me…then he stepped aside.
That was all the warning I got before the Fae King stepped forward and told me in mildly accented English, “I paid your debt. This means you belong to me now.”
3
HAN
“You paid my debt? Why?” The woman Han had just paid a substantial sum of money to “purchase” blinked at him. “Why would you do that?”
Taking time to answer that question would be unwise. Han didn’t know why he’d felt compelled to step in himself. Yes, he knew where the deal Kuang Jr. was about to make with her would lead, but it wasn’t as if he’d made a habit of protecting women from this fate. So he was just as baffled by his intervention as her.
But none of their questions mattered right now. He could feel Kuang Jr.’s glare on his back, waiting for any excuse to renege on the terms they’d set. Their deal was done, but it wasn’t finished. Not yet. Which is why Han needed her to cooperate.
Han kept his expression neutral as he held out his hand to her. “Come. We will talk in the VIP Champagne Room.”
She’d looked interested in him earlier, scanning him as Han scanned her. Checking him out, as he once learned to say in the dating chapter of a textbook for one of his ESL classes. Han could tell she would’ve found him appealing as most women did if they had met under different circumstances. So perhaps she would come with him quietly, then Han could—
“You must be out of your mind if you think I’m going anywhere with you. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me.”
This woman appeared to have what his fellow Dragon Phantom called too much personality when he really meant a perspective bed partner was too crazy to bother with for a one-night stand.
Behind him, Kuang Jr. and his crew fell out laughing. “Hope she was worth the money!” the snakehead called to Han in Cantonese.
Han gritted his jaw. For the second time that night, he was in severe danger of losing face.
He would not allow that to happen, so new plan.
He gave up reasoning with her and simply picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, banging her fists into his back.
As small as she appeared, she was surprisingly heavy. And her round bottom was packed tight with muscle, not plastic surgery as Han might have assumed before he pressed the hand against it to anchor her to his shoulder.
Han could see now how she’d sent Kuang Jr. stumbling, and he imagined if she weren’t hanging upside down, her fist would pack quite a punch.
She cursed at him all the way to the VIP Champagne room, which was located down two hallways at the far back of the club. It was well-outfitted with a wraparound vinyl couch, a large flat screen tv on one wall, and a dance floor in the middle of the room with a couple of stripper poles on each side of it.
His purchase didn’t waste any time looking around, though. She charged at him like a hellcat as soon as he set her on her feet.
Han grabbed her by both wrists and pulled them to his chest before she could carry through with her attempt to scratch off his face.
“Calm down,” Han growled at her.
“If you think you can force me to have sex without a fight—”
Her words enraged him more than her futile attacks ever could. “I would never force you or any other woman!”
She blinked at his burst of anger but quickly reset. “Why would I believe you? I don’t know you from Adam!”
“I don’t know who this Adam is,” Han answered. “And maybe you do not know me, but I know bosses like K Diamond. His tactics are ones used in clubs the world over. Boss creates a debt—in this case, the interest your father owes. Girl agrees to pay it on his terms. Then boss does anything to keep girl under his thumb—offers her drugs, beats her, whatever it takes. Eventually, after a few months of mind games and cultivation, girl doesn’t know which way is up or down, and guy can do whatever he wants with her—use her however he wants.”
She was no longer struggling to free her wrists by the time Han got to this point. Instead, her eyes widened, and her full lips fell open in an “o” of shock.
But Han didn’t end the story there. No, he made it hers so that she could fully understand. “And when the boss tires of you, he’ll sell you into another club—somewhere far away from your family or anyone else who could help you. You would overdose in some country where you didn’t know the language, unable to say for sure how you got there.”
“You’re lucky,” Han informed her. “Lucky I saved you from that fate.”
Several beats of shocked silence passed, but then she rallied again with a prideful, “I would never have allowed that to happen. And how do I know that you’re any better if you’re working for a guy like K Diamond?”
Han still had her wrists in a tight vice grip, but that accusation was a punch across his face. “I said he was a boss. I did not say he was the boss of me. I am a Dragon.”
“A Dragon,” she repeated, her lovely brown eyes flashing. “Then why are you here if you’re not cut from the same asshole cloth as him?”
Yet another question Han couldn’t easily answer. So he didn’t. “We don’t have time for this,” he told her, scanning the room.
The one good thing Kuang had told him about his son was that he’d managed to get an extortion side hustle going here at Aloha Ballers. Basically, he taped married politicians and businessmen who decided to take him up on his free offer of a few hours in the VIP Champagne room with one of his “best girls.” So there had to be a camera hidden somewhere inside here.
Han stopped his scan at the TV and the small blinking red light above it. He bet that was it. And he bet Kuang Jr. was watching them right now as they argued. Han positioned the woman so that her back was to the TV, then he said, “Strip down to your underwear.”
Her eyes once again flashed with that hot anger. Han was beginning to suspect it always lurked close to her surface. “What is the problem? You were about to agree to take off your clothes for Aloha Ballers anyway.”
“Yeah, like, tomorrow, up on a stage, after drinking down some liquid courage and smoking a joint. There’s no way in hell I’m—” she began to say, tugging at her wrists.
He cut her off right there. “K Diamond is not my boss. But we are on his territory. If he thinks I am not completely serious about wanting you for myself, then he and his men will take you from me and do whatever they wish with you.”
She once again stopped struggling. Han could tell she was finally beginning to understand what kind of predatory world she’d stumbled into like an unknowing deer. And what would happen if she didn’t play along.
However, guilt rolled his stomach when the angry fire blinked out of her eyes and was replaced by fear.
She finally understood the stakes, but Han didn’t like this. He hated that they’d met under these circumstances instead of in some legitimate nightspot where Han could make a game of seducing her into his bed. Nonetheless…
“We need to put on a show,” he said, leaning down to murmur in her ear because Han knew it would look like he was seducing her on camera. “We need to make him think I want you so bad that I brought you straight back here to play with you. Otherwise, he’s not going to accept the deal. So it’s up to you….”
Han let go of her wrists then so that she knew the next choice was all hers. “Play in here with me. Or take your chances with K Diamond.”
4
JAZZ
Play in here with me. Or take your chances with K Diamond.
The thing was, I used to be good at running. I’d turned down several track scholarships and skipped college to pursue my pro surfing career. That had been in all my promotional materials when I was on the circuit, how I’d been particularly great at catching up to my opponents and overtaking them at the end of a race.
However, I didn’t feel fast right now. My mind scrambled an
d scrambled, but it couldn’t catch up.
I guess he took my lack of movement as me making my choice.
He wrapped his arms around me, gathering me in close. So close, my skin prickled with goosebumps. Whatever cologne he was wearing didn’t make me want to hurl inside my mouth. It was cool and brisk, a winter day paying a visit to Hawaii.
“I must claim you,” he murmured in my ear, stroking my back. “That is how this world works. Do you understand?”
My heart dropped to my belly. What? He had to claim me? Claim me like a car from the valet at the Tourmaline Waikiki, the luxury hotel I worked at back in high school?
I gritted my teeth, memories of Brad coming over to string an arm around my shoulders during interviews swirling in the back of my mind. “Nobody…nobody claims me. Nobody treats me like I’m property.”
The stroking hand abruptly stopped. “The alternative is working for Kuang Jr. to pay back your father’s debt.”
“Kuang Jr.?” I asked with a shake of my head.
“That’s what I call K Diamond behind his back. He will not be nearly as nice as me—especially after you punched him. You might have wanted to wait until tomorrow to begin working for him, but he wouldn’t have given you that courtesy. If you want us to walk out of this club without him stopping you, you’ll need to do as I tell you.”
He spoke to me the same way he had to K Diamond, his tone somehow calm and ruthless at the same time. And I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell him to go to hell since technically, he’d already paid my debt, and I should be free to go.
But the thing was, I believed him. I believed every word he’d told me about how much possible danger I could be in if K Diamond didn’t buy that this Fae King dude had actually bought me. And I trembled with the realization that I either had to perform his way or K Diamond’s.
“Enough talk,” the cool Fae King said. “Strip or leave.”
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake: 50 Loving States, Delaware (Ruthless Triad Book 4) Page 2
