"What's wrong with that?" Yavin asked, looking blissfully ignorant about the way women worked. If Aoife was half as starved for independence as I suspected she was, he'd have a rough go of it with the mindset he had. A soft knock came at the door, one of the girls poking her blond head in to smile at Yavin seductively.
"The new girl's going on. We thought you might want to watch," she purred.
"James is out there, right? He knows what to look for." Yavin dismissed her with a friendly, but overly polite smile that instantly made her seductive smile fade to return to business mode before she ducked out.
"Smart man. I take it you stopped sleeping with your girls?"
"What makes you think I ever slept with them?" he asked, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.
"Dude, I would sleep with them." He roared with laughter, shaking his head.
"Samara would kill me if I slept around while I'm engaged to Aoife. It may be an arranged marriage, but it's one I chose. I'll honor my vows, even if I haven't made them yet. It would be smart for the more familiar girls to have time to realize that playtime is over where I'm concerned."
"It is smart. The other smart thing is to ask her what she wants and make that happen if she asks for help. Otherwise, let her be her own person and accept that her business has nothing to do with you. She'll want to stand on her own two feet in one part of her life. It's your job to let her."
"Even if I have the resources to make her successful?"
"Even if you have the resources to make her the best graphic designer on the planet." I nodded my head in agreement. "It will mean one hundred times more to her if she does it on her own than it will if you give it to her.”
"You know I'm going to bug you constantly when I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, right?"
"Happy to help, Lover Boy. Now can we go out to the floor? You might not want to see the new girl dance, but I sure as shit do."
18 Enzo
Music pulsed through me as I walked into the private room where Bryan waited for me. The girl on stage winked at me as I entered, undulating her hips against the pole as she gripped it above her head and dropped down slowly.
Yavin paid her extra to tell grand stories to the other girls of what happened during her private performances for Bryan, keeping her mouth shut about what really went down when nobody was looking, and I slipped into the room unnoticed by patrons of the club. "How much this week?" I asked, studying the bags at his feet.
"Hello to you too, Sweetheart. What's put you in such a fine mood?" he teased, becoming more and more comfortable with me despite the fact that my near hatred of him grew every day. It didn't matter that he'd been grateful not to have to put up with Sadie. Nothing could appease the beast that roared through my veins anytime there was even a hint of another man breathing her air.
It certainly didn't help that she worked in a gym full of men who'd love nothing more than to pin her to the wall and taste her sinful mouth. That they'd want to discover just how stunning she looked when she came.
"Sadie is with Yavin," I said shortly, bending down to peek inside the bags full of cash. Nodding, I had to admit that the bags felt heavier than normal. "This is a shit ton of cash."
"Rafael and Calix brought an entire army with them. Where do you think those guys are going to get their fix while they’re here? My buddy at one of the stables said the girls are all walking funny after yesterday," he chuckled. Gritting my teeth against the reminder of just what kind of men these were, I tried not to let it bother me. None of the others seemed remotely fazed by the whores. The drugs. The guns.
I'd known what I was getting myself into when I’d agreed to work for Matteo. It didn't mean I liked to think about the potential lives harmed by his businesses. At least all the women were involved of their own volition, not coerced into stripping or hooking or sold to the highest bidder by egotistical and pushy pimps who had no business living.
If they didn't do it for Matteo, they'd probably do it for someone who treated them poorly. The devil you know and all that; at least he made sure they were safe and cared for. It was all I had to hang on to when the morals I'd been raised with tried to rear their judgmental heads.
Rafael poked his head into the room. All I felt was satisfaction that at least the demented fuck wasn't harassing Yavin. I dealt with psycho daily. Shit. I even liked Ryker.
But something about Rafe set my nerves on edge, a darkness within his soul that felt like a whole different level. Ryker had boundaries and limits, despite his enjoyment of causing people pain.
Somehow I knew Rafe was different, that he'd stop at nothing to get what he wanted once he set his mind to it. Enough to make the psychos I knew look like child's play.
"Well, I guess at least they paid well," I agreed, zipping up our portion of the cash from the more illegal aspects of business at Tease. Yav couldn't exactly mark down blow and sex on the itemized tax forms, so a portion stayed behind for him to launder while the rest went to offshore accounts.
Rafael’s steps were slow and casual, unhurried as he observed his surroundings and made his way
