“Good enough to spend six figures every three months at House of Angels?” Luca’s whispered words cracked into a low chuckle.
“The fuck you on?” Roy glanced over at Luca with a pointed stare.
“I went through Lucille’s books.” Luca shrugged like it was nothing. “You were her top paying customer, most of your payments went to Serenity.” Luca concurred.
“I was curious about why she wanted to match me with her… My answer was crystal clear. Lucille saw how infatuated you was with the girl and thought I’d be the same way.”
Roy emitted a crack of laughter that Luca lightly joined in on.
“Man, LuLu something else. Got to love her fake matchmaking ass. She must don’t know that her son doesn’t go below two hundred and fifty pounds when it comes to his women.”
Just as Luca was getting ready to respond, Roy’s phone sounded off.
“What’s the issue?” Roy already suspected some bullshit before the caller could utter a word into his burner phone.
Luca steadied his gaze on Roy as he watched his face contort into a glower. His stomach twisted and in second Roy had the car accelerating faster.
“Have everybody stay in position. That’s some inside shit that we have nothing to do with.” Roy declared into the phone before hanging up.
“Shit went left.” Luca sneered.
“It’s a lot of motion outside of Lennox’s underground casino. Looks like he got a war with somebody else,” Roy remarked with a flick of his hand.
“We came at the right time,” Luca reckoned.
Both men’s eyes fixated on the bright neon lights miles ahead of them. They were about to enter Vegas in less than twenty minutes. Luca’s mind went into terminator mode. The men that him and Roy had in place wouldn’t make any moves until one of them directed to do so.
Luca’s only wish was that nobody took Lennox out before he could get to him.
Chapter 21
Conditioning…
La’Nova twisted the shower knob all the way to cold before stepping under it without hesitation. Shock immediately swarmed through her mind and body, stealing her breath away and making her bones ache. The water was ice cold; she shut her eyes as her breath stuttered.
“Calm isn’t something you wait for; it’s something you have to choose over and over.” Luca lifted the remote slightly so she could see it. “Throughout today, when things tighten, when your nerves jump and you feel on edge… I expect you to remember this feeling. I expect you to remain grounded, follow my lead so you won’t lose yourself to whatever negative emotions you feel,” he warned her.
Luca’s rugged whisper floated through her head. She closed her eyes and heard the same voice that forced her under freezing water weeks ago.Pain can be trained.She told herself over and over.
The lesson he taught was loud and clear now. It not only taught her how to control her emotions when thrown out of comfort zone. But to accept any situation for what it was and pushthrough. A lone tear crept down her round cheek as the water ran down her scalp, flattening her thick hair to her head then slid along the deep scar that split her face open like a fault line. She embraced the coldness and tried to become one with it. Her nipples tightened painfully, skin prickling, teeth chattering as the shock settled into a deep steady ache of acceptance.
She had been in Lennox’s abyss for seven long torturous days. Her eyes slid shut as she willed herself not to see the images that forced its way into her mind since being there.
Lucille’s beautiful face was the first to appear. Lennox had her locked in a cage beneath the casino. That was the first part of the tour he took La’Nova on. The iron bars were so thick down there that a person couldn’t squeeze a finger through them.
He had chains biting into Lucille’s flawless skin like the set of pearls and diamonds she wore on a day-to-day basis. Even in captivity, Lucille’s chin lifted, pride bled through the visible exhaustion and depravation. Lennox never could break Lucille. It’s what he loved the most about her.
Although La’Nova didn’t like seeing Lucille reduced to humiliation, she had to conceal her feelings and stick to her own master plan. What almost made La’Nova crack was the girls that she witnessed the following days around the casino.
They all looked too young to be there. Their bodies were barely developed, wrapped in expensive fabrics meant to seduce sick rich men. Lennox had them petrified. You could see it in their sad eyes that were trained to smile on command. Their lip gloss didn’t conceal their trembling lips as La’Nova observed men with tailored suits and dead eyes moving through them like merchandise.
Lennox even made her sit through an auction. Men placed house payments on young innocent women. She had to listen to the sick bastards brag about flying their new pieces of merchandise overseas to hide and slave around. La’Nova had each sick man tattooed in her brain because if she ever crossed them again, she’d kill all of them if she had the chance.
La’Nova discovered once again that the world was a sick place. She couldn’t possibly conquer all the demented demons that walked the earth. Lennox was just one of many, even after him there would be more. The deeper she thought about it, the more it made her want to throw up.
Most of the men that greased Lennox’s pockets were judges, politicians, CEOs, and men with wedding rings and supposed clean reputations. Night after night, she came back into her beautiful prison and scrubbed her skin until it felt raw. Lennox walked her through his underground casino, arm hooked through her arm like he was the prize.
He proudly spoke about logistics, routes, prices, and even age ranges of the girls he trafficked like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
