“I have something to tell you,” he said, looking up at her.
“What is it?”
“I'm seeing someone...well, it's more like we're mates. It's new, and I asked him to keep it a secret, but I promised to tell you, and even though I'm revealing all of this, I'm not ready to say who it is yet. So no, he won’t be my date for the Crimson Nexus premiere.”
“Damn, you're being awfully secretive. Okay, but answer me one question.”
Star nodded.
“Is it a famous director and actor who walks around like he's the gods' gift to everyone?”
Star was flabbergasted at how easily she had come to that conclusion. But her description of Anubis made him snicker.
“All right, you don't need to say his name. I can fill in the rest for myself.” She smiled. “Was he the one you were with the night we went to Hook & Collar?”
He was surprised again at how correctly she guessed. “Is it your witchy senses working again?” Star discovered that Vivienne was a powerful witch and came from a long line of mixed African, French, and Caribbean bloodline whose ancestors practiced vodun, Shango, Santeria, Ju-Ju, and Obeah.
“No, it's the damn big-ass love bite he left on your neck.” She chuckled. “Plus, I heard it through the sub-mill how jealous a few submissives were that someone had stolen the proud master's attention, so much that he hasn't visited them in months, even though the club is under construction.”
Star touched the side of his neck, then fixed his collar.
“You don't need to worry so much,” Vivienne told him. “I'm happy to hear you have someone like him protecting you.”
“If that's the case, then I know why Sundi got fired.”
“Why?”
“I know Thornton Miller.”
Viveinne's eyes widened. “Okay, spill the fucking tea.”
Before Star could speak, his phone rang, and he looked at the screen, hoping to see Anubis's number, but he grunted, feeling a headache coming on. He felt nauseous, knowing it was that annoying ass Thornton again.But why the fuck is he calling from an unknown number when I already know he has been doing it for months?
Turning to look at the restaurant entrance, he didn't see Thornton, only Sundi, who was still arguing with the hostess. Turning back around, Star shut off the phone and looked at his manager.
“Aren't you going to get that?”
“It's the wrong number. The person keeps calling and asking for some guy I never heard of,” Star lied, but the truth was he had nothing to say to Thornton; their past was just that, the past. A thought came to him. “The calls are becoming annoying, really. So can you get me a new phone and number? This one has seen better days.”
“Sure, that's easy to do. But wouldn't it be easier to report it to the cops?”
“Nah, it might be nothing, and I'm probably overreacting.”
“In either case, give me the number, and I'll have it checked out. It's better to be safe than sorry. Especially since there’ve been a lot of strange things happening lately. A few months back, a guy got beaten to death. He was unrecognizable. Then there was the girl who was stabbed in the neck, and before she died, she was trying to spell out the name of her killer, but the person found out and cut her fingers off. On the news they were calling him the hit-and-run killer.”
“All right, stop,” Star said, holding up his hand. He couldn’t take listening to her talking about the murders anymore. After being in prison, Star promised never to listen to anything that would trigger his post-traumatic stress disorder. Acting out that one scene for Anubis was enough for more than one lifetime. “Listen, keep this between you and me. I don’t want An…” He cleared his throat, stopping himself from saying Anubis’s name publicly.
Vivienne smiled as if reading his mind. “I won’t say a word to him. But now I know what kind of dominant he is, so if he found out that his sub was keeping something from him, I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week.”
Star chuckled and waggled his eyebrows.
She shook her head. “I knew you were a troublemaker.”
“Takes one to know one.”
They laughed at that. “All right, I’ll get your new phone. I know a guy who can hook us up.” She took his old phone and was about to put it away, then paused. “Wait, there aren't any kinky pictures of you and you-know-who on it, right? I don't want to invade your privacy.”
Star chuckled. “No, but never look at his phone.”
