“Where did Jason go then?” I asked.
Pierre eyed me up. “I’ve seen you around here before.” He cast Jayce a glance.
“Pierre,” Sapphira prompted, but this time the sugar was out of her voice, and he nodded, taking another drag. He blew out a long string of smoke.
“With me. He didn’t want to go back to his daddy’s house. He was, fuck, I think nineteen at the time. He wanted to spread his wings, but didn’t like havin’ a job, so one thing led to another.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” King asked, apparently nearing the end of his congeniality. I hoped this stayed nice because there were a lot of directions a furious King could take something like this, and one of them was his playroom. I shuddered.
Pierre shrugged, not seeming to realize how swiftly this could go south. “There’s a reason I like to come to the parties here sometimes and go to Triple X.”
“You like dick.” King shrugged. “But what does…. Oh, really?” King rolled his eyes.
“Gas, ass, or grass to ride on my bitch seat, or stay in my place.” Pierre tipped his hat at King without any sense of guilt, whatsoever, and took another puff on his cigarette.
My stomach twisted. Was this guy really any better than Xander had been? Hell, Jason, not Xander. Was he the reason Jason had started doing what he did? Sapphira seemed like her thoughts were running the same direction mine were because she eyed Pierre up like she’d happily stomp this dirtbag into the ground.
Pierre took things further than necessary and grabbed his crotch, laughing, before he finished his cigarette and stubbed it out on the bar top. King watched him make a new mark in the wood, a vein popping along his neck. I almost wanted to duck and cover.
“So you made him fuck you for a place to stay?” Sapphira’s tone was sweet enough, but her hands had gone tight around her beer.
Pierre shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Calm yourself down, woman.”
I raised a finger at Pierre, but Jayce smacked it down. “Let him talk.”
“All I got is a trailer with a leaky roof. He picked to stay with me. He could have left anytime. I didn’t force him. I don’t think he wanted to go home because he liked being able to smoke weed whenever he wanted, and in spite of what it sounded like, he enjoyed getting fucked on the regular.”
“You have no way of knowing that,” Sapphira said, but she raised a hand his direction and backed off.
“Okay, so that’s how you knew him. How did you get to be his reference at Triple X?” Jayce interjected quickly, derailing any further argument on the subject.
I rubbed my hands along my arms. The air in here was ice cold, and the conversation wasn’t helping after my night in Xander’s little house of horrors. Maybe I had been a tad more affected by being tied down and drugged than I’d wanted to admit. I was also reminded, strongly, of what had happened to Seb. Had Xander—no, Jason—simply passed along the shitty treatment he’d received? That was a dismal thought.
Pierre looked hopefully behind the bar at the shelves of alcohol, but King tapped the gun on the counter, and he shrugged. “Got sick of the slaughterhouse myself, for obvious reasons.”
Sapphira slammed down her beer bottle and I flinched. “We’re gonna come back to what you did to that kid.” She pointed at him.
“Fuck, don’t get your panties in a twist about it. He was old enough and he chose. I didn’t do anything to him. Fuck, King.” He turned imploring eyes toward the person I guessed he might have thought was an ally, but I knew King, and I knew a bit about how he’d grown up. He was the last place Pierre should be looking for help against Sapphira on this.
Jayce rubbed his forehead for a second. “Miss….”
He stared at Sapphira, and I almost swallowed my tongue. “McKinnon,” I hissed at him.
“Miss McKinnon, could you please? It would be ever so helpful if you’d allow me?” He’d hauled out his most suffering, Britishy tone and I wanted to groan.
Thankfully, she just nodded at him and contented herself with staring daggers at everyone—except me. I got a sympathetic smile that had me squirming. Made me wonder what King had told her when he called her.
“Pierre, if you like your life, you’ll not keep me here much longer.” She smiled like an angel, and Jayce sighed heavily.
“Fucking fine! You know Derek Uhlig, who runs the casino?”
I couldn’t stop myself from flinching, King laughed, and Sapphira groaned.
“What? What’d I miss?” Jayce asked.
“Suspect you’ll find out for yourself,” Sapphira muttered.
“Derek needed some men,” Pierre went on over our hubbub. “I worked security there for a while. Still do on the odd weekend.”
