And he was going to die if we couldn’t come up with thirty-thousand dollars.
Panic threatened to choke me, but I had to push it off. I couldn’t afford to break down. I couldn’t afford to have a meltdown. If Keith were capable of getting himself out of this situation, he never would have been in it to begin with.
“Do you have any money at all?” I asked, knowing the answer. Keith’s demons included gambling.
He shook his head. “No.”
My head swiveled around until it landed on the Harry Potter clock Keith had hung in his kitchen. It was only one in the afternoon. That gave me plenty of time to visit a couple of banks and see what I could do. I also had all weekend to apply to all those online lenders I always see commercials about.
“Okay,” I said, trying to gather my wits about me. “Just…rest for right now, and…and I’ll be back tomorrow or Sunday, and we…we can regroup. Okay?”
“Devi, I’m not going to let you-”
“Don’t, Keith,” I hissed. “Just don’t. This is serious, and your attempt at chivalry is not going to solve this for us.” He had enough shame to shut up. “Just…trust me, okay?”
He nodded. “For what it’s worth, Devi, I really am sorry,” he muttered, and I hated how I knew he meant every word. He just didn’t mean them enough to get help for his unhappiness.
“Let’s just focus on what we can do, Keith. Alright?” I said, knowing there was little we could do.
Thirty-thousand fucking dollars.
Chapter 5
Cassius~
As much as I tried to keep the legitimate side of my life separate from my other activities, there was real value in Xavier’s comment about the good, old days when you could just beat the fuck out of someone, and they’d learn their lesson.
Though I pretty much had something going on every day of the week, I hadn’t planned on spending my Saturday going over official statements from most of my employees at The Opera, claiming that Hugh Hamel was a pervert of the highest order.
Xavier had been handling things, but I had gotten a text around noon that almost every employee they’d spoken to had either witnessed or had been a part of Hugh’s advances. And since we still had the employees who were on their days off to interview, Xavier had thought it was a good idea for me to get my ass over to The Opera.
The bitch of it all?
He had texted while I’d had my dick down the throat of a curvy redhead who’d been sent over by the agency at my request. It’s been a hell of a week, and I had needed something to take off the edge, and my sticks hadn’t been cutting it. I’d been trying to cut down on my smoking, but it’s been a struggle ever since Kelsey had notified me yesterday that Kimberly Alba’s complaint had been one of a sexual harassment nature.
When I had mentioned I was looking for a stress-reliever, the agency had sent over a hot redhead with no gag reflex, but I probably should have been more specific in my request. There was a lot of built-up aggression in my body, and a woman with no gag reflex hadn’t been enough to soothe my demons. While most men dream of a woman with no gag reflex, I had a nine-inch cock, and what good did it do to ram my cock down a woman’s throat if there were no choking sounds to accompany the sensation? I wanted to hear a woman do her best to swallow my length and width. I wanted to see the tears streaming down her face and the strings of her saliva connecting us when I pulled out long enough for her to catch her breath. I wanted to control and command the woman kneeling at my feet.
Hell, I wanted to control and command period.
So, after receiving Xavier’s text, I had let the redhead finish me off, gave her a thousand-dollar bonus since she’d have to leave unsatisfied, and left the hotel room to shower and change at my place.
I lived in a secluded house in The Hills. Like most cities, Rockford was divided by income and only the residents who had money lived on the North Side, the rolling hills making neighbors far-reaching. However, I had state-of-the-art security and a block fence surrounding the property. It matched the same block my home was built out of, and while I wouldn’t exactly call my house a mansion, it was close.
Xavier had his own condo in town, and Atticus lived two houses over from my property. Xavier could easily afford to live in The Hills, but he said fancy didn’t always mean comfortable. Honestly, I think the seclusion reminded him of his lonely days. But that was just my opinion.
After showering and changing and getting one cigarette in, I had headed to The Opera, and I’ve been here ever since.
The statements, so far, haven’t been legally or morally horrible, but they were bad enough. And they were detailed enough that Hugh was going to have a hard time denying all the allegations. And when I got to the part where Kelsey had asked them why had they not reported anything sooner, their answers were all the same.
No one had wanted to lose their job.
One thing I made sure of when I had opened my legitimate businesses was to make sure we paid our employee well. I didn’t want my employees scraping by. I didn’t want them to have to choose between the gas bill and the electricity bill. I wanted my employees to be happy working for The Vaudeville Corporation, and that meant paying them well. So, I understood them not wanting to lose their jobs, but we must be doing something wrong if they thought reporting sexual harassment would have cost them their jobs. I was going to have to look into that some more.
Xavier walked into my office and placed another pile of interviews on my desk. I had an office at each location of my restaurants and clubs, and the back entrances made it so I could sneak in and out with no one being the wiser. A lot of people thought Xavier was the boss because he was the one they usually saw, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t have to whip out my dick to prove how big it was. That shit was for fuckers who felt insecure about what they had.
I didn’t.
I looked up from my desk. “More of the same?”
