hand was on the shifter but wishing it were between her legs. She certainly was
testing my multitasking ability.
Jaden’s tongue swirled and stroked expertly, and when I finally had the chance,
my right hand gripped her tight little ass. The moan that vibrated in her throat
made my cock twitch, and I had to admit, she did make me forget which direction
were going for a moment or two. She had power over me at this moment—the only
time I ever allowed it—when she could nearly bring me to my knees with the way
she sucked me off, the things she could make me feel. She lived for that small
moment of power exchange, but she should know it was nothing but an illusion.
The suction from her greedy mouth had me coming in minutes, my load
shooting down her throat, which she swallowed without issue. After sucking every
last drop of cum, she cleaned her plate like a good little kitten and sat up to wipe
her mouth with the back of her hand, a wicked grin on her face. I tucked my cock
back into my pants, downshifted, and then took off, racing down the freeway. I
didn’t want the smile on Jaden’s face to fade, so I pressed the button for the
convertible top to lower and allowed the wind around us to flow through Jaden’s
beautiful red hair. The genuine laugh she released made my heart clench in my
chest. I fucking loved that sound. So I turned up Ludacris, and Jaden just laughed
aloud, not even hesitating to start rapping along with the song, all fucks out the
window. I’d never felt myself smile as big as I did when I watched her spit those
lyrics as if she didn’t have a care in the world. And I decided right then and there
that making her smile would become one of my top priorities.
I would see Jaden in a white dress, a baby in her arms, a smile on her face, and
blood on her hands if it was the last thing I ever did.
48
STANDSTILL
I lost count of the weeks that went by after the baby shower. I was hoping that
night would at least be somewhat useful, and it turned out that it was. I knew
something was up with that girl Darren’s brother had brought. I could feel it the
moment she looked at Darren, and it only happened once. I caught the fear in her
eyes immediately, recognized it like reading a fucking stop sign. She knew who
Darren was, and I had a feeling I knew exactly how she did.
When she had first spoken to me, she asked how I knew Darren. Her voice was
quiet, meek, and I didn’t like it. I could smell opportunity knocking, and I didn’t
want to scare it away, but I didn’t want to attract unwanted attention either. I kept
my eyes on the table as I addressed her, not wanting to give away the impression
that we were actually speaking.
“I have a feeling you already know the answer,” I quietly said to her.
She gulped so loud I could hear it.
“You were sold, too,” I stated, my eyes staring at the flower arrangement on the
table.
“Yes,” she whispered, fear coating that entire syllable. It made my heart
plummet into the pit of my stomach. It was so easy to forget sometimes that the
man I occasionally found slight amusement in was still selling girls as sex slaves. It
hurt so deep; I could feel it down to the marrow of my bones.
“How long ago?” I asked.
She was silent for a moment before she answered. “Fourteen months.”
“Jesus.”
“Are you … his?” she asked me, barely making eye contact.
I nodded.
“Oh, God,” she nearly whimpered, covering her trembling lips with her palm.
“I’m so sorry.”
I ignored her worry. I was more interested in where she came from and where
she currently was.
“And you’re Dominic’s?”
She sniffled back some tears and wiped her nose. “No. He just brought me here
to keep him company.”
“Brought you from where?”
“Las Vegas.”
I tried not to let my panic surface. Of course, Darren’s reaches extended to
fucking Vegas. That must be where his youngest brother runs his end of the
“Are there more of you?”
She nodded. “Many more of us. We work in the underground clubs.”
“Doing what?”
A single tear slipped down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away with the tips
of her fingers. “Whatever they tell us.”
I felt my teeth grate against each other. I knew exactly what that meant.
“If you were sold, how did you end up working in Vegas?”
She shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I just went where they took me and did
what I was told. I didn’t want to end up like the other girls.”
I lost the will to remain passive after that and looked directly at her. She was
pretty. Long dark brown hair, slight traces of Asian facial features, and beautiful
olive-toned skin.
“What happened to the other girls?”
“After they were beaten? I don’t know. Sometimes, we never saw them again.”
She suddenly shook her head and sighed. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this.”
Right. Silence equaled obedience.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Miss Dalia,” Owen had said, obviously interrupting us and moving closer.
“Please remove yourself from the table. Your conversation is over.”
Dalia gasped at the mention of her name and quickly shot up from her chair.
“I’m so sorry,” she said without looking at me. “Excuse me.” She hurried away
from the table and was gone within moments. I turned my head in annoyance only
to connect with the dark gaze of the man responsible for the interruption. I glared
at him something fierce, and all he did was shake his head in warning.
Anger rising in my gut, I couldn’t stop myself from slamming my hand down on
the table and shooting off from my seat. Fully intending to engross myself in
distraction, I found the band to be the only thing qualified. And it wasn’t fifteen
minutes later, an even better distraction engaged me.
Thinking back to my encounter with Regina, she was lucky I hadn’t busted her
already Botox injected lips. Her mouth was her most annoying feature, and I
thought that maybe if her lips were a little bit more swollen than they already were,
she’d be incapable of moving them. I had never met a more blissfully ignorant, vain
as hell, bimbo bitch in my entire life. The urge to reach across the table and slap the
stupid out of her was stronger than ever, but Darren’s influence over my self-
control was somehow stronger at that moment. I could tell he found my distaste for
her amusing.
When discussions of Darren’s unborn niece came up, I’d grown nervous, the pit
of my stomach twisting away with too much anxiety to bear. I refused to look at
Darren during those conversations, not wanting to give him the idea I was
interested in becoming something I was not ready for.
I did NOT want to have kids with him. I wanted kids eventually, but my
reproductive system was reserved for one man, and he was currently hiding away in
Germany, protecting the only family I had left. I had never been more grateful that
the birth control implant in my arm was still active. I hoped it remained there for a
&n
bsp; very long time. At least until I could figure a way out of my situation.
Aside from the rest of the painfully materialistic mafia bitches there, the only
exception was Katherine. She was a serious mystery to me. Something didn’t sit
right with her, and it had me on edge. She was quiet, meek, but the look in her eyes
was something I could only describe as haunted, especially when she looked at
Darren. I wanted to ask about her, but I didn’t want Darren to think I was snooping.
When he refused to elaborate on the fact that Katherine’s younger sister had
been referred to in the past tense, it gave light to something that had obviously
been kept in the dark; and it obviously brought misery for Katherine. Something
awful had happened to her sister and giving her daughter her sister’s middle name
in her honor was definitely something to note.
I had a new puzzle on the table before me, and eventually, I was going to put
those damn pieces together and discover the picture hiding behind it all. For all I
knew, it held the key to Darren’s destruction.
Besides Anchorage, the baby shower had been the only thing to interrupt my
routine, so now I was back to being bored again except for when Darren was around.
He had somehow finally become somewhat good company when he wasn't an
asshole. Camaro kept me company and made me smile, but I still longed for more. I
tried engaging in conversation with Clive and Owen simply for the purpose of
communicating with another human being, but they weren’t much for
conversation. I still teased them as often as I could, but they never reacted.
Bastards.
At least, I didn’t have to worry about them beyond the trees. Camaro loved going
out in the woods. She’d chase after the squirrels, bark at the birds, and play in the
stream when we went by it. She even loved the ocean but stayed out of the water
since it was still too cold to go swimming. I’d found the old bo I had hidden by the
tree so long ago and went back to practicing. Sometimes, I’d find a rock, and after
several attempts, I’d be able to hit it with the bo like a baseball bat. It quickly
became my precision exercise. I’d hit the rocks, and Camaro would run and fetch
them. Eventually, the rocks would get smaller, and I’d made sure they went into
the stream so Camaro wouldn’t accidentally swallow them. My bo skills were
improving immensely, and I welcomed the distraction, but my life still felt like it
was at a standstill.
While my ultimate goal was still to kill Darren, destroy his empire, and walk
away to find my family, I had nothing else to motivate me to live. Most of my life
was built on my education to get a great job and make something of myself, start a
family, and enjoy the fruits of my labor, but now that was all shot to shit. I was
nothing more than a trophy to Darren, and I felt my luster begin to dull. My days
rolled by one after the other, sometimes never coming into contact with anyone
besides Clive and Owen, and it made me feel like I was going nowhere. I was
nothing but a hamster bored of her running wheel, constantly running but never
gaining a fucking inch. Time was just passing me by with no regard for my wants or
desires.
All I ever did was wait. Wait for the next bit of useful information, wait for the
next domino to fall, wait for my moment to strike, wait for Darren to find and kill
my family, wait for him to fuck me … Everything was done on Darren’s time, at his
pace, his schedule, and I was just a passenger along for the ride. It was not what I
was used to at all.
When I was with Jason, I did what I wanted, when I wanted, wherever I wanted,
and he trusted me every step of the way. Darren sought to treat me like a child, and
the longer I waited for him to trust me, the harder it was to wait. I was tired of
waiting on him, waiting for him to make the next decision about my life, where I
went, what I wore, what I ate, who I talked to. It had been nearly two months since
I’d been back from the island, and I knew how hard it was going to be coming back
here, living in a shadow darker than the last, but it was becoming increasingly
difficult not to let it swallow me whole.
Once again, I needed more, and Darren was catching on.
“Camaro is trying to play with you,” Darren said, catching me off guard.
I looked down from my chair to find Camaro trying to pry her rope toy out of my
hand. I’d been sitting out on the patio, playing fetch with Camaro and watching the
waves of the ocean crash against the shore. I’d forgotten to throw the rope I was so
lost in thought. Lightly tugging on the rope, I told Camaro to let go, and with one
final tug, she did. I rewarded her with a long toss over the grass, and she eagerly
ran off in search of her toy. I went back to staring at the ocean.
“She’s getting bigger,” Darren commented as he watched Camaro snatch her
rope.
“Almost fifty pounds,” I added. She was getting bigger and stronger by the day.
“Good. She will be a good guard dog for you.”
I almost rolled my eyes. “They say dogs are a girl’s best friend,” I said with a
sigh. “My only friend …”
Darren returned my sigh with his own, but his was of irritation. I could see him
pinching the bridge of his nose as he sat down in the chair next to me.
“What is it now, Jaden?” he asked, his voice clipped with annoyance.
I had to answer him honestly. With the way my mood was, he would never
accept the typical “I’m fine, nothing’s wrong” answer. Honesty was his only policy,
and for the most part, I didn’t mind it, except for when it was likely to get me in
trouble. Like right now.
“I can’t think of the right word to describe it right now,” I said gently.
“Try.” His voice did not leave much room for patience.
I sighed, and rubbed my face with my hands. “I just feel like I’m at a standstill.
Like I’m always waiting. It’s a very hollow feeling inside, if that makes any sense.”
“It doesn’t,” he jabbed.
Of course, it doesn't.
I cleared my throat. “Let me ask you something.” And I couldn’t believe I was
actually going to ask him this. “Would you allow me female friendships if they were
from your inner circle?” I asked softly.
Darren’s brow furrowed, his face too serious for me to become optimistic.
“No.”
I felt my face heat with anger and surprise. “Why? You would know them!”
“That doesn’t matter. But I want to know where this little idea sparked from. Is
there someone in particular you’re interested in?” he asked.
I gulped back my response, hoping it would be received well. “What about
Katherine?”
“Absolutely not,” he said with zero hesitation, zero consideration.
“Why not?” I asked incredulously.
“Because I said so. That is all the explanation you need.”
I huffed and turned away from him. I should have known better than to bother.
But then, he suddenly started chuckling. “I could always set up a playdate for
you and Regina, though, if you’d like.”
And now, he was making fun of me. Asshole.
“Not unless you feel like cleaning her blood up off
the floor.”
He chuckled again. “At least you would be entertained for a while,” he
countered.
“Just forget it,” I said. “I don’t know why I thought you would care anyway.”
He sighed again as he leaned back into his chair. “It’s not that I don’t care,
princess. It’s for your safety as well as my peace of mind.”
I turned to him in confusion. “Peace of mind?”
“You know you haven’t earned my trust yet.”
I scoffed. “That’s why I said someone in your inner circle. Someone you could
trust with me.”
“You should know my trusted circle is very, very small. I don’t have a lot of room
for trust in my line of work. Or my life, for that matter.”
“Is that why you won’t even let Anya and Irina talk to me? Why you chose to kill
Holly instead of keeping her around for me?”
He nodded. “The less attachments, the better.”
“Maybe for you, but not for me. I’m still lonely, Darren.” He almost allowed a
reaction to surface on his face. “Look, I know this sounds stupid, but I’m still
starving for human interaction. I do the same thing every day with little deviation. I
speak to no one but you and occasionally Clive and Owen, and no offense, but none
of you are capable of holding enjoyable conversations with me. I can’t even talk to
you about the things I like talking about.”
“Things like what? What can’t you talk to me about?”
I almost laughed at him. “Maybe things like Barbies and periods,” I sneered.
He rolled his eyes. “You mean pointless conversations.”
“Sometimes those are the best kind.”
Darren’s eyes glared at me, the rest of his facial features remaining passive as he
studied me.
“And Camaro? Is she of such little significance to you?”
I scoffed, watching as Camaro began to dig up the grass where her toy had been.
I really did love having a dog. Camaro was a great companion, and she did make me
feel a little less lonely, but she still wasn’t human.
I shook my head and answered. “Camaro is just another utility to you. And she is
a Band-Aid for me.”
“You would consider her companionship unnecessary then?”
“I would consider her companionship a farce,” I said bitterly to him. “You
cannot replace human interaction with a dog and call it good.”