Reno released a long exhale, then he smacked my ass hard. “All right. Get your ass up and get my drink. Send me a girl who looks like you but doesn’t think she’s too good to shove her tits in my face.”
With an aching butt cheek, I walked away from Reno. I was furious at my mother and relieved the asshole gangster who’d just been groping me hadn’t allowed her to turn my hole into a grave. Then I was pissed all over again that my mom had made me feel gratitude toward Reno.
As I passed him on the way to the bar, Amir grabbed my wrist, bringing me to a stop. Carina was grinding her ass on his crotch, swiveling her hips like the absolute pro she was.
“Yo, Helen.” Amir sounded casual, like he wasn’t a few scraps of fabric away from fucking the pretty girl in his lap. “You still with that guy?”
“Why?” There was only one guy he could be talking about, and I wasn’t about to give anything up to Amir before he gave something up to me.
His mouth curved into a smirk. “Does he ever go off on a roid rage? You have to be careful. I wouldn’t want to see you hurt.”
I canted my head, letting my hair tumble over my shoulder. “What does that mean, dude?”
His thumb stroked the inside of my wrist. The gentleness of the gesture contrasted so starkly with our surroundings and the debauchery going on around us, I nearly laughed. But there wasn’t really anything funny, so I didn’t.
“Your boy’s a juicer, Hells.”
“What are you talking about?”
Amir tapped Carina’s hips, getting her to move off him, then he rose from his seat, adjusting the bulge in his pants while he held my gaze.
“Walk with me.” He took me by the waist, stroking my bare belly with his fingertips. We left the Blue Room like that, making our way across the floor to the bar in tandem. He waited for me to place my drink orders with the bartender, all while holding on to me and pressing into my side.
“You know I’ve always liked you,” he said close to my ear.
I turned my head, but that was a mistake, since it brought my cheek to his lips. “You have?”
“Mmm. Shoulda made my move in high school.”
“I didn’t think you knew I existed.”
He bit his bottom lip. “Oh, I knew.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
Amir cocked a sexy, amused smile. “Yeah, oh. And I hate to see you getting mixed up with a guy like Theo Whitlock.” His back was to the bar, one elbow resting on top, the other arm hooked around me. “That stuff messes with your head.”
“What stuff?”
He leaned down, studying me. “You really don’t know, do you?”
I sighed, struggling between ripping away from him and settling into his warm hold. I did neither, standing straight, but allowing him to keep his hand on my middle.
“I don’t know, no.”
“I’ve been selling your boy dope for over a year.”
“Wait, Theo takes H?”
Amir chuckled. “No, no. Your boy Theo juices up with some fancy-ass anabolic steroids. I supply to a couple athletes, but up until a few months ago, he was one of my best customers.”
“How...what? Don’t they test for that?”
He tapped my nose. “How are you so naive when you come from The Palisades? It’s kinda sweet, not gonna lie.”
“Amir,” I growled. “If you’re not going to tell me, then why bring it up?”
His amusement fled, replaced by a dangerous glint. “I told you, Helen, I’ve always liked you. I see you with a rich boy who uses Daddy’s money to cheat the system, I become concerned. Now, tell me, are you still with him?”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”
His mouth twitched. “It sounded like that.”
“It was sex.”
“That isn’t a no.”
“It is a no. I’m not with him.”
“Then you don’t give a shit about what I’m telling you.”
I placed the drinks going to the Blue Room on my tray, then flicked my eyes to Amir. “It feels good to have the moral high ground for once.”
Amir’s chuckle sent shivers down my spine, then he moved fast, shoving my hair aside, his lips on my ear. “I understand that more than you can know, Hells Belles.”
Then, he walked me back to the Blue Room, reclaimed his seat, and placed Carina back on his dick, like he hadn’t just whispered that he’d always liked me and regretted not moving on me back in the day. I wasn’t surprised. Amir was a bad guy, and when he did bad-guy things, he was just being himself. It was the truth about Theo, the good guy doing really bad things, that threw me for a loop.
And strangely, I was disappointed in him. I didn’t know what to do with that, so I shoved it aside and got back to work, avoiding grabby hands and plastering on my brightest, red-lipped smile.
* * *
My life was a study in contrasts, but none more so than tonight.
Saturday night, I’d been in fishnets and booty shorts. Now, only two days later, I was wearing one of Madeline’s elegant dresses. It made sense for me to wear it, since I was attending a banquet in honor of her, but I felt more like I was wearing a costume now than I had been slinging drinks at Savage Beauties.
“You look stunning,” Zadie said softly.
I spun to face her, smoothing my hands down the front of my fitted dress. “Are you sure I don’t look like I’m playing dress-up?”
She shook her head. “I know that was Madeline’s dress, but it looks like it was made for you.”
Madeline McGarvey was a classic. Her clothes had been simple and expensive. Even when she got too weak to leave the house, she was always dressed to the nines. Her pajamas had been made of silk and always had to be matching sets. And when she changed her will to include me, she bequeathed me her entire wardrobe.
Most of it wasn’t me, but I saved all of it, because one day, it might be. This dress was my favorite out of everything. Floor length and long sleeved, with structured shoulders, it wrapped around my middle, cinching in my waist, and flowed loose around my hips. The emerald green wasn’t a color I would have chosen, but I liked it so very much.
“I wish I could tuck you in my pocket and take you with me tonight,” I said.
Zadie’s eyes brightened. “Does that dress have pockets?”
“Yeah, it does.” Jutting a hip out, I slipped my hands in my pockets and posed for her. This was a really good dress.
I slathered on another layer of lipstick, smoothed my hair, then fluffed it, and Zadie and I walked out to the living room, where I grabbed my phone and tucked it into the tiny evening bag I was carrying.
The door swung open, and Elena came marching in. She threw her backpack on the ground and kicked off her shoes before noticing Zadie and I in the room.
“Hey.” Her eyes landed on me. “Oh shit.”
Since my breakdown a week and a half ago, Elena hadn’t magically become an entirely different person. She was still a caustic, catty bitch, it was just most of that energy was aimed at those outside this suite. Not that we spent time braiding each other’s hair, and we definitely hadn’t done any more snuggling, but we’d maintained a fragile peace that seemed to become less fragile as the days ticked by.