by Eden Rose
Elle grimaces. “I don’t know…”
I take a pull from the long neck beer. My eyes pinning her with my stare. I know she’s intoxicated by me. I know she wants me as much as I want her.
We have been doing this little song and dance for over a week. For over a week, she teases the fuck out of me and then sleeps next to me practically naked.
The difference now is, I actually got to have sex with her.
I can’t get it out of my head that she’s trying to use me for sex to get out of her own head.
I know she’s not ready for sex. Even if she says she’s ready, I know she’s not. She is trying to use sex as a way to validate herself and I’m not going to allow her to do that.
I’m not going to treat her like a damned prostitute like those fuckwads in the Cavalari Family.
Will I ever be able to take her as mine knowing the Family is out there waiting for me? I told her when I sunk into her body the first time, she was mine. I wanted her to know that. Now, I just have to wrap my own mind around it.
I want her in every sense of the word.
Why? Because I’m Prince and I get what I want no matter what. Elle is meant to be mine and I will take on anyone who gets in my way.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Chloe
“She identified Barry!” I yell as soon as we get into the car.
My fists are tightly wound and my knuckles are about to pop out of them. I’m so pissed off right now.
“How the fuck did she know Barry?” I demand Howard to answer me. I demand that he is straight with me but not too straight.
I don’t need to know the truth that much.
Even though we are all thinking it. We are all thinking about how Barry got involved in some messed up shit and he’s never going to be able to find his way out of it.
My brother is lost.
“Babe, come on. You knew he was into this shit,” Howard tries to reason with me as he pulls onto the freeway.
Leaving the MC, I feel a new weight on my shoulders. Barry has been in a lot of trouble over the past few years, but I didn’t think he would stoop to raping women.
Whatever happened to Emily? Whatever happened to the woman he saved when the ring went south? Did he keep her safe? Did he keep her at all?
“No! I knew he was into cocaine and some light sex trafficking…”
Howard chuckles that deep hearty one that makes me swoon. “You’ve got to be shittin’ me. You know he’s all in. Elle just confirmed it. Now, what are you going to do about it?”
I shake my head. “There’s not much I can do about it. He did this to himself. He’s the only one to blame for him fucking up.”
He pats my thigh. “Yes, he is. He did it. Not you. Stop blaming yourself for his faults. They are not your problems.”
“It certainly feels like it is,” I mumble.
That’s when my phone starts to ring through the whole car. I check the caller ID on the car dashboard and see it is an UNKNOWN caller. Which could only mean it’s either a bill collector or a scam.
Just for shits and giggles, I answer it. “Delacruz,” I say into the car.
“Chlo? Chlo? It’s me! It’s me Barry! I fucked up. Please, you have to help me!”
My heart beats faster in my chest. “Yeah, you fucked up! Where the fuck are you?” I growl into the speaker.
He makes a noise and then it cuts in and out. I hear the background noise to wherever he is and it is loud. “I can’t tell you unless you promise to not tell anyone.”
“Barry, I’m your sister. You have to tell me where you are!”
“I won’t tell you anything unless you promise.”
In the back of my head, I know what he means. He means I can’t tell the FBI where he is. I wonder if he knows I’m working with the MC now, too. He probably does.
“Barry. Please. Tell me where you are.”
That’s when I hear the click of the phone. The bastard hung up on me.
“Are you kidding?” I yell into the speaker.
Howard tsks under his breath and then pats my thigh again. “Check my phone. I hit record and we can isolate where he was at.”
I reach into his pocket to grab his phone. Sure enough, my man did record the whole conversation. “How did you know to do that?”
He smirks. “I’m an FBI agent. I learned something during the training. Didn’t you?”
I shake my head. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me unless we get something off of this. Don’t even think about thanking me. I don’t know if we will get a hit off of this until we run it through the lab.”
“Fuck! I don’t want the boss to find out about my brother.”
I rub the back of my head trying to soothe the headache that is brewing. God damn it! I don’t want other people to catch wind of what my brother has done and what he is probably doing right now. The last thing I want to do is explain to them what’s happening.
“How else are you going to find out?”
If we go through the Diablos, they will track my brother down and kill him for sure. I’m pretty positive that president guy has a thing for the girl. Just the way he was looking at her, had me all fuzzy.
“Let’s use the tracking software at work and see what we can find,” Howard suggests.
“I guess we can. I just don’t want people to find out.”
He squeezes my thigh again. “Babe, they already know. They were just waiting for you to tell them.”
I mock growl.
“So scary!”
I punch him in the gut making him howl.
So, it’s settled. I guess we are going to go see if we can find Barry before he winds up in a coffin somewhere.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Elle
“We have to do something,” Bella whines and circles around me as I sit at the desk in Prince’s office.
I shake my head. “I’m not going out there.”
I haven’t left the clubhouse in a week. The woman, Christy, came and dyed my hair brown, which is nice. I like that I don’t look like a whore anymore. It was also nice I didn’t have to leave. Beast getting shot was enough for me. The thought of leaving has my stomach in knots.
“But we have to…” She whiles and pouts like a two-year-old.
“You can go. But I’m not. I’m staying right here.”
Right here where the Cavalari Family can’t find me or get me. I think they know where I am. It isn’t rocket science where I would be after the Diablos rescued me. What I am worried about is the retaliation.
I move my feet a little to make the chair dance and I relish the fact I’m having a real conversation with my sister. Something I never thought I would experience.
Bella used to be just one of those things I thought of, but never really imagined. I never imagined I would have a sister. Or that we would be with brothers.
“Okay, fine! If I stay here in boredom, I want deets. What’s going on with you and the prez?” She wiggles her eyebrows from across me.
I shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine,” I mutter under my breath, but she heard me.
“You mean to tell me you haven’t…?”
Only if she knew how many men I slept with, she would have understood modesty went out the window a long time ago. I have no modesty. It is what it is when if comes to sex and the naked form.
The family loved it when I would walk around the houses of the made men wearing nothing but a pair of heels. They loved every single part of having a pretty young thing in their house.
Of course, I did it because I had to. If I didn’t do it, they would have killed me.
“Yeah, we have.”
She slaps her hand on the table. “What? You guys are totally into each other,” she answers for me.
“I don’t know if that’s the case.” I say with conviction.
She shrugs and takes a drink of her beer in front of her. I’m so surprised how relaxed she is in the clubhouse. I keep feeling as if I’m a stowed away mouse or something.
An outsider who doesn’t belong here and everyone can tell.
“Maybe he’s waiting for you to get better…”
I let out a laugh. “Is there any getting better? I’m always going to be that whore who fucked her way through mafia families.”
“Will you quit with that shit? I know it happened to you, and I’m sorry. However, one day you are going to have to realize you have a life to live.”
“Bella, look at you. Look at your life. Mine was taken from me and everything I did was chosen for me. I didn’t have the ability to choose anything in my life,” I sputter.
I feel my brain start to turn to mush and I know I’m getting a craving again. I’m craving the special cocktail that pushed everything out of my mind. Made me whole again.
With way too much feelings and resentment flowing through my body, I leave the conversation. I am noticing being sober isn’t all that is cracked up to be. I miss the way the drugs fogged my memory and my brain. How I was able to float away from everything that was happening around me. I won’t get that back unless I find drugs.
Chapter Thirty: Prince
I knew leaving Elle would be hard on me. I have spent every waking moment with her and getting to know her. I think the hardest part is how we are so close to being something. How I’m so close to getting everything I wanted but didn’t know I wanted it.
“I’m gettin’ fuckin’ pissed here!” I bark out and slam my fist into the wooden table. We are having church and discussing what we are going to do with the lack of information we have on Elle’s captors.
Beast speaks up with his lip curled. “Am I the only one who thinks talkin’ to the damn feds is a bad idea?”
Everyone grunts their agreement.
I put my hand up to shut them up. “Look, I hear ya. Bottom line, we need the immunity if we are gonna take care of the fuckin’ mob ourselves. We go in there and start droppin’ them, the feds are on our asses.”
I think about the guy the fed was all upset about. There is something about that man who had her all squirely. But what is it?
I rub the back of my head. “Yo, I have an idea. The fed got all squirmy wormy when Elle identified someone. We need to find out who that is. And we need to find out if he was one of them who violated my girl.”
The claim falls out of my mouth before I can stop it. Shit. I just laid claim on a woman who has no idea what we’re about. Much more than that, I just laid claim on a woman who was sex trafficked not too long ago.
“Prez, do you think that’s a good idea? She doesn’t know shit about shit. She’s been whored out to half the state!” Dragon exclaims.
Hearing about her past and knowing about her past are two different thinks. “From now on, anything concerning Elle gets cleared by me.”
“All right!” Six Pack states. “This is getting out of hand. Dozer wouldn’t want you second guessin’ his son and Prince is the fuckin’ president. We need to help formulate a plan to stop these assholes. If not for Elle’s sake, for the thousands of other girls who are being trafficked daily.”
My mouth drops. Normally Six Pack is really quiet during meetings. Ever since my dad got locked up, he’s stayed in the background more and doesn’t have too much to do with the daily politics. However, he can still fight like a rabid fuckin’ dog if crossed.
“Have we got any blowback from taking her?” Dragon asks dumbly.
He would know if we received blowback. He would have known right away and he’s being cute. That asshole.
Also, I’m waiting for the blowback of stealing her. It is only a matter of time before they try and get her back and I’m waiting for it. I’m almost daring them to come and get her.
Of course, I also haven’t let her out of the clubhouse either since the mall incident.
“We haven’t heard anything from the underground about the family making waves yet,” Six Pack states and puffs on his cigar. The man is on his own level. He smokes cigars as we smoke blunts.
Dragon speaks up next. “Yeah, we haven’t heard anything because maybe they are going to do a sneak attack on us?”
I shake my head. “Those assholes know we have her and they are gonna wait until we ride out tomorrow night for those guns.”
I know exactly what they are waiting for because it is something I would do. I would wait until the threat has left before striking. Fuck, if I wanted something bad enough, I wouldn’t care about the threat.
They are going to want Elle back soon. They are going to want her back because she’s a money maker and they consider her their property.
Beast is the next one to pipe in. “Look, I’m not sayin’ we should dangle the bait of Elle… but maybe we should. If they see her, maybe they will strike. When they do, we can demolish them.”
An older brother in the club who has been here since my dad prospected a million years ago, Moose, looks over at me with disdain. This is something he does a lot. He’s been around for so long and knows how to read the situation. His problem, he thinks everyone knows what he knows and thinks the same way.
“Have you looked through that dickhead’s phone? You young people put your whole life in your phones. I bet you he has some shit in there.”
I nod. “Yeah, we have been lookin’ through it but haven’t found anything incriminating.”
Moose chuckles. “Maybe because you’re not lookin’ for the right stuff. Do you think they are going to lay out all their shit for you to read? No. They are gonna put a code on it to make you work for it. We need to crack the code.”
He holds Two Face’s phone in his hand with a sly smile.
“What’s that smile for?” Beast questions nervously.
Moose’s eyes light up. “I already cracked some of the codes while you guys were getting your dick sucked by some randos.”
“Oh, my fuckin’ god. You’re kiddin’?” Dragon remarks with wonderment.
“Oh hell,” I mutter.
“That asshole had a lot of his drops on his phone disguised as goin’ to church. I don’t know what type of church requires you to buy and sell guns, though,” Moose informs us.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” I question him.
He purses his lips. “Because you’re with that girl you saved all the time.”
I shake my head. “What did you find?” I ask again. I’m eager to know what is in that phone. Plus, I want to solve what happened to Elle so we can move on. I want her to be with me at all times. No setbacks.
“Just your normal mafia shit. These assholes put everything in their phones.”
“Fuck!” Someone shouts from outside of the room.
We all gather our guns and we’re pointing at whoever is at the door. When no one says anything for about thirty seconds, I think they might have left.
That was until some asshole kicked my door open.
Chapter Thirty-One: Elle
Finding the drugs has never been a problem especially when an asshole leaves it outside of Prince’s window.
I have been detoxing for way too long and I can’t handle it anymore. I need the sweet relief I get only from getting high.
I take a magazine and lightly tap out the cocaine onto it. After finding a dollar on Prince’s nightstand, I roll it up and I’m almost good to go.
My brain is shooting off a whole bunch of signals all at the same time. One part is telling me not to do it and the other is telling me to go for it. I need this. I need to feel like I have some control again.
I have no control when it comes to Prince. He is always the one in control. He controls who I see and what I put into my body. And all I want is him. If he doesn’t want me because I’m used up, I might as well get high.
I grab a card from the bedside table and start to organize the lines. Once two lines have been formed, I lean over and rest the dollar over it. I line the dollar up to my nose and take a big sniff.
Lights flash before my eyes and I feel every bit of the cocaine flow through my system. I start to feel high and b
etter than before. Fuck being sober. Being sober involves too many feelings. I can’t have those types of feelings.
What is it about Prince that makes me feel things? There is something about him that makes me feel… alive. Makes me feel as if I do have a reason to be on this earth than to be used as a body for pleasure.
