“I can tell you had it rough, girl, but this is your family now. This is your home.”
I blink rapidly at the care he displays. I’m not sure what to make of it. This stranger, this man I know nothing about, has more care for my wellbeing than people I’ve known for years. There’s something unsettling about that.
“Mick has you now, baby girl.” He places his cigar between his teeth and pats my cheek. “I’ll get the address to your place from Rarity.” He turns to leave, smoke following him. “Go home and clean up. You did good tonight.”
After Mick leaves, the smell of cigar prominent in the room, I expel the breath I was holding when he touched me. I can’t help the satisfaction forming in my chest from pleasing him, shocking him. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything right in my life. I shake my head, confused why I care so much.
ELEVEN
LANDON
“Where’s Claudia?” I question my brother Roman as I look over the charts of the girls’ earnings. Claudia hasn’t had any clients for days now. It’s unacceptable.
“I told you, she went missing a few days ago, bro. None of the girls can reach her,” he explains, sprawling out along the wing-backed chair in front of my desk, a tumbler of scotch in hand. His dark hair is messy and uncombed, his gray shirt wrinkled and untucked from his jeans. Roman never was one to be organized, and it hasn’t changed with getting older, either. Being the youngest, he gets away with it. But even at the age of twenty-five, I still have our father breathing over my shoulder at my every move.
“So, we know nothing. One of our girls up and disappears and nobody knows anything?” I scorn, tugging on my blue tie in frustration. Turning this place around is becoming a hopeless battle.
“I didn’t say that,” Roman remarks, tilting his head to the side arrogantly.
“Would you tell me what’s going on already?” I roar.
“Veronica said she thought she saw her down by that shitty little café you hang out at from time to time. So, I’m guessing if she was around that side of town, she probably went to Mick.”
Veronica is our step-sister, a bitchy twenty-year-old. I can’t stand her. She’d do anything to have a position at this estate. It’s pathetic most of the time.
“DAMN IT!” I slam my fist on the desk. Mick has been taking our girls from under our nose for over a decade now. He’s not the only sleazy pimp who targets our girls. Since I’ve been appointed head of the estate, I’ve done what I can to stop it, but it’s not enough apparently. I need to make a bold statement, something to show the wannabe pimps and our girls that things are changing.
“Someone’s slacking,” Roman sneers, making me grit my teeth. I know this game better than most. Read the girl, find her weakness and use it against her. You have to make her feel like she can’t live without you. I can reach all aspects of a damaged woman — greedy women wanting money, girls hiding out from authorities, or the ones who need the comfort from another. There’s no woman whose emotions I can’t play against her. But I can’t reach Claudia because she has a drug addiction, and that’s not something I tolerate here at the Blackwell Estate. My father may have let it slide when he was in power, but I won’t have it. A woman with an addiction is dangerous and weak.
“Or has that girl you met at the café tainted your pimp hand?” Roman laughs. I glare at him from under my lashes, annoyed with his flippant tone.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve clearly had too much to drink,” I sneer, my jaw clenched.
“Right.” Roman chuckles.
“Father had me followed,” I state rather than question. I rest my elbows on my desk and steeple my hands in irritation. It’s just like my father to have me followed. He can’t seem to keep his nose in his own affairs.
“What did you expect? You were gone every day for hours. Of course he had one of our men figure out where you were going, only to find you at that café. Learning you took a girl to a hotel room was just a bonus,” Roman chuckles. I narrow my eyes at him, warning him he’s about to step over the line.
He takes a sip of his scotch, his brows furrowed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that woman has gotten under your skin, and now you’re screwing up.” He ticks his tongue against his teeth and shakes his head. I curl my lip. Charlie was different, I give her that. But saying she has me off my game is a laughable concept.
“That girl is not a problem, I assure you,” I convince Roman, sitting back in my chair.
CHARLIE