AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hours pass. As I work and drink my mind to fatigue, I know it’s time to work my next angle. I need to close this down as soon as possible. I want to kill the prick, yes, but the longer I’m with Scarlett, the more she creeps under my skin, and that’s fucking dangerous as all hell.
To me.
Finally, I drift off, and she’s there, in my head and in my dreams, doing all the filthy, dirty things I could ever want.
“Did I mention,” Scarlett says as she scans the basement room we just entered, “that you take me to the nicest places?”
“Did I mention that sarcasm gets me hot and makes me want to do the most depraved things to you?”
Her expression is sweet and guarded. Absolute perfection. She’s rattled, and she’s got a right to be because this is another underground poker game. But she has no idea what the stakes are tonight.
I think I have a lead on who’s threatening the cousin. We got our hands on some security footage from outside their house, and it looks like a hire the Knights are familiar with. The hire’s just someone paid to threaten, to do dirty jobs. It’s who hired him I want to talk to.
Bishop.
And he’s supposed to be here tonight.
If not… then that’ll be useful, too.
Because a high-powered game like this isn’t about the poker. Or the wagers. It’s about the conversation. What’s said among the who’s who of the dark and twisted world we live in.
Leather and smoke and sex are in the air. But the girls down here, in the depths of the edges of Hell’s Kitchen, below the gay bars and trendy eateries near the water, are the kind that cost a sweet fortune.
Scarlett shoots me a glare, and aware I’m being watched, studied, I take her by the chin and draw her in for a deep, carnal kiss, one that drips in sex and promise. Then I whisper the truth. “Not one of these girls can hold a candle to you.”
She clings to me, her hand fisting my lapel. “Are they the type you usually go for?”
“Do you really want to know?” That would be a yes for JM, but a no for me. These girls do what you want, and they’re hired especially for the event.
The other men—crime lords, mafia, high rollers—they all have wives and lovers at home so they’re free to indulge.
But tonight, I brought my fiancée. And they’re all looking at her with a lust that comes from people who want what they don’t have, just to win the prize and get their hands on it.
Do they traffic? I don’t know. Yet. But I will soon enough.
“My girl here,” I say to Alfonso Mariachi, a rich fuck who dabbles in crime, “is a little nervous. This is her first big adventure.”
She starts to hiss at me as he lights up a cigar and laughs. But then she surprises me by turning to him.
“Forgive me if I get nervous. Malone, when he takes me places, is full of surprises.”
“You don’t look like his usual,” Alfonso says, his eyes on her tits.
My fists itch to punch the asshole out.
“She’s high-class, Mariachi, not what you’re used to.”
“Got myself one of those at home. High-class, bought for her pedigree. Boring as fuck in bed.”
“Maybe you don’t know how to treat her,” Scarlett says a little too loud.
Because he catches it, and the nasty little smile that accompanies the fat prick’s narrow-eyed look at her, I immediately rule him out as someone I need to watch.
He doesn’t know who she is. He just thinks she’s some bought and paid for high-class girl. But he is a dangerous man. All that money and power. Good thing his business is illegal gambling.
“In that case, I hope he loses this fucking game, girl,” he says. “So I can take you for a test drive.”
She spins to face me, her mouth hanging open as I take her to the bar to get a drink. I hold her close.
