I have more spying to do. More intel to gather on my sweetheart. I smile to myself, thinking how irritated the pet name made her and how I wish to see her blush again.
She’s got attitude. A spine. I like a woman who speaks her mind.
I want to know more about her.
But mostly I want her vow of silence.
I park and wait for my little sweetheart to leave work. Now I’m following her on foot, shadowing her every move, her none the wiser. Every so often she glances around as though she’s expecting me to pop out at any second like some sort of boogeyman.
That’s not my style. I don’t hurt women. I don’t go around randomly killing strangers who piss me off. Scratch that. I don’t kill every stranger who pisses me off.
Mitch had it coming. He put his hands on one of my girls from the club. I don’t tolerate that kind of disrespect. I make fish food out of anyone who crosses that line.
The women I employ are loyal because I take damn good care of them. I don’t let their Johns beat on them and I split everything down the middle. They get protection and I get paid.
The sex trade is the oldest profession.
There’s always a demand for pussy. I run a high-class establishment. A gentleman’s club. The girls have a right to say who, when, and how much. How I treat them and put fuckers in their place is why I am successful. It’s one of many streams of income. My neighborhood––my community counts on me andI fucking provide. Jobs, money, food, clothes…when there’s a need, the family takes care of it.
Everyone who serves me eats at my table, and we leave no scraps.
I have a lot riding on me. Too many depending on me. I can’t allow some cutesy bitch to ruin what my father built. What I’ve been working my ass off to hold on to, and yet I can’t bring myself to hurt her. Doesn’t mean I can’t scare her a little. A healthy dose of fear never hurt anyone.
My cell buzzes from my back pocket. My instinct is to ignore it, but I don’t have the luxury of ignoring texts and calls.
Cassie: Hey, baby. I know you’ve missed me. I’m back and can’t wait to see you.
I snort. This fucking cunt. I should have blocked her number. She can go fuck herself or fifty other dudes for all care. Bitch is dead to me. Not only did she fuck around on me, she was jealous of Francessca. Said I was too concerned with her. Implied that I’d never marry because no one would measure up. She’s sick in the head. I love my sister. We share a bond that will never be broken, but that doesn’t mean when I do take a wife that I won’t put my wife first. If I ever take one. My life isn’t for the weak-minded.
Cassie isn’t marriage material. She’s a party girl. The kind of slut you never fuck without a rubber. A good time. But she’ll never be the type of woman you take home to meet your mother.
I want to send her the fuck you emoji. She has some real tits to think I want anything to do with her after the bullshit she spewed out of that cum dumpster of a mouth she’s got on her. She doesn’t know I know about her fucking Mitch among others. I told her I needed space.
What I need is to break the contract my father negotiated with Claymore.
That’s tomorrow’s problem.
Theo: Talk soon.
Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I follow my sweetheart into one of the last places I want to enter. Finnigan’s Sub Shop. Too many pigs hang out here. I hang back and observe from across the street. She’s meeting with that fucker she was talking to earlier.
Fuck. I need to go in there and hear what she’s telling him. If she’s running her mouth about last night, then scaring her might not be enough. I wait until they’ve moved to the register to pay to enter.
This place is crawling with cops. I keep some on my payroll, but we don’t acknowledge each other in public. Unfortunately, this douche she’s here with isn’t one of them.
I order a sub and sit in the booth behind them. My back to hers, where I can hear every word.
“I’m really glad we’re doing this,” the asshat says.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” her voice comes out small and not confident like earlier.
“Me too.”
“I didn’t come here to talk about us. I need a favor.”
“You know I’ll do anything for you, Ruby. Name it.”
So her name is Ruby. Is she going to ask him to run a background check on me?
