Lex stepped up again. “You can if it’s about Dixie. I know you guys are tight, but everyone’s saying she left. I call bullshit.”
Tyler’s tone stayed cool. “Back off.”
“I can’t get hold of her, so pass on a message, will you? She was interested in working with me again, you heard her say so. I’ve got a show tonight with Liliana. Dixie loves that chick. A threesome would kill it.”
I did love Liliana, but because she was sweet and funny. Writhing against her for money? “Hell no,” I whispered.
“The answer is no,” Tyler told him.
A shout came from elsewhere in the nightclub.
The music ceased, and I caught a glimpse of people peering over the railings, Mila and Wallace’s conversation stopped.
“Attention, please,” Shade called out. “It’s early in the evening, folks, but there’s enough of ye here to play witness. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Buck. This piece of shit forgot his job description and his responsibility to guard those under his care. He needs a lesson in what happens to men cursed with toxic masculinity and who think they’re more valuable than the fairer sex.”
A smack ricochetted out, then a moan of pain, faces wincing at whatever they could see down on the floor.
Lex’s voice returned, louder. “Wait. Is Buck being punished because of something to do with Dixie? I heard a rumour.”
Tyler snapped. “Don’t say her name again.”
“Fuck off,” Lex snapped back. “What are you, her keeper now?”
Tyler didn’t answer, but his muscles tensed, like he was poised to do something.
Lex didn’t know when to quit. “She’s a sex worker, man. A mattress actress. A whore. I don’t mean that to be derogatory—that’s our job. We fuck for money. Quit acting like her pussy is solid gold and let me at her. If Buck hurt her, he’s getting his punishment. I’ll get Dixie back in the game where she belongs.”
In a flurry of movement, Lex was sprawled on a table, Tyler’s hand at his throat.
I winced. “Don’t kill him, but please stop him talking.”
Tyler snarled something then pulled Lex up and propelled him towards the stairs out of the VIP lounge. His action gave me clear sight of Wallace, out of the booth and far closer than I’d imagined.
“As fun as this has been, I’m leaving,” our uncle called back to Mila.
She didn’t reply.
Her expression haunted me. It took me back to his statement at the start. They were declaring me dead.
I’d done the same, turning my back on Darcy Marchant. But never in any legal way as that was still the name on my ID, even if every bill paid was under a fake name. Without that, I didn’t exist.
I wasn’t her, and I wasn’t the whore Lex wanted either.
For all I’d wanted to hide away, everything since my return had been about me making decisions. When I would see people again. Where I wanted to be and who with. I’d be damned down to my sparkly toes if I let them take that choice away from me.
“Let him go,” I said clearly into the mic. “And meet me upstairs. I’m done with sitting this out.”
Chapter 36
Tyler
Dixie paced the floor, her heels clicking with each pass. She eyed her sister. “Tomorrow morning, we’re going to call the solicitor.”
Mila’s hand gripped Convict’s who stood behind her, statue-like. “What would you like me to say?”
“That you found me and I’m alive.”
My heart thumped. I kept my mouth shut. Whatever she decided, I’d back her. Even if it meant standing in the line of fire and daring the world to try me. But fucking hell did it terrify me to compromise her safety.
