My mouth does not gape open like an idiot’s, but he’s stunned me. Me. The Prince of Public Porn has been stunned by a middle-aged man pretending to be a priest.
I don’t react at all. I don’t flinch or lean back in my chair to show my revulsion. I don’t even smile and shake my head and play this one off as I plot a quick escape. I just sit there and take it all in.
Because something is very wrong with this man. Something I really do not want any part of.
“Mr. Ark?”
“Father Gabriel,” I say back, buying myself another moment to collect my thoughts.
“Are you interested?”
I stare at him. His eyes are light brown. His hair is thin and mostly gray. His body is lean, his face long, his arms spindly. If there was a picture in the Urban Dictionary for ‘dirty old man,’ then Father Gabriel is the spitting image.
I shudder. “My answer is no, Gabriel. Like I told Ray, I’m not interested. I don’t need the money. I don’t need the beautiful girl. I don’t need anything, to be honest. And I’m sorry to cut this short, but I need to get back to my partner.”
I stand up and give him a nod, and then turn my back and walk to the stairwell we came up.
“Mr. Ark,” he calls out.
I stop but don’t turn.
“I can understand how you’d think you have it all. And I can understand how you’d think there’s nothing I can offer you that would make you change your mind. But I actually do have things you require. I have information you might be interested in.”
I look at him over my shoulder. I get a feeling in my gut. A feeling that says keep going. Just walk the fuck out of here. But I know what he’s going to say. Somehow, some way, I know what he’s going to say.
And I need to hear it.
“Not specifically pertaining to you, of course. Since you’re an enigma. You’re the man who has no past. You’re the guy who steps off a bus, finds a business partner, and starts a porn empire under the protection of the reigning king, all in the span of a few months. You’re the untouchable one. So you’re right. I don’t have anything you need.”
I turn to face him now.
“But JD is an entirely different story.”
My jaw clenches and my hands are making fists before I can stop the reaction.
Father Sister-wives belts out a smug laugh. “He’s your Achilles’ heel, do you realize that? He’s the only one who can bring it all crashing down. And not because he has dirt on you. I really don’t think he does. No. He has this power over you because you give it to him. Because you love him, don’t you, Ark?”
“Say what you’ve got to say.”
“Your business partner”—Gabriel chuckles, like that’s funny—“has a big mouth. He’s been around asking lots of questions. Questions he shouldn’t even know to ask.”
My mind races with the questions. Blue? Did he mention Blue?
“We both know it’s better that he keep silent.”
Not Blue. “He lost someone and he wants her back.”
“He can’t undo the past.”
“He just wants to set it right.”
Gabriel laughs. “I think that’s a tall order. But perhaps…” His smile lingers, then falls. “Perhaps we could help each other out? Hmmm? Perhaps we could do a trade?”
My eyes squint down at him.
“I know where JD’s daughter is.”
I don’t know what to say.
Creepy smile all over again. “And I can deliver her. I can fix his heart. I can make him a new man. I can erase that year and make it all better.”
“It was two years, asshole. Two years of hell for him. Two years of drug addiction and—” I stop before I let that last secret out. This guy doesn’t deserve to know JD’s shame. “It doesn’t matter,” I say, recovering. “Your offer makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense, Mr. Ark. Because so many couples have asked for you now, I can no longer refuse them.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Children, Ark.” He says it like I’m one of them. “I’m a matchmaker for families who want to have a child, but are not able to conceive.” He waves both hands down his front as if the fake clerical clothing and white collar legitimize his role as cult leader, polygamist, and baby-seller.
“You want me to get your sister-wives pregnant?” I’m stunned. So stunned I laugh. “And in exchange you’ll tell me which family you sold my best friend’s kid to four years ago?” I cross the room and grab him by the throat, pushing him back and slamming him up against the thick glass that separates us from the club below.
His hands claw at his neck as I choke the breath out of him. The thumping of the bass against the window is the same as my thumping heart. “I’m gonna forget you just said that. I’m gonna forget you just asked me to fuck your whores so you can sell my children. I’m gonna forget that you exist, you piece-of-shit pervert. And I suggest you do the same. Stay out of my business. Stay away from JD. And stay away from me. Because the next time I see your face, I’m gonna blow it off your goddamned head.”
I squeeze his pulsing jugular until his eyes bulge and he goes unconscious. And then I let him slump to the floor.
“Fuck you,” I say. And then I spit on him, turn, and walk back down the stairs. No one pays any attention to me as I make my way back down to the dance floor. It takes me a few minutes to find JD, and that’s long enough for Gabriel to wake up from his very non-erotic asphyxiation, but no warning alarms go off. The music still bumps, the dancers continue their routines, the drinks never stop flowing.
“JD,” I call out at the top of my voice. But it’s so loud he doesn’t hear me until I’m practically right on top of him. “Dude, we’re out of here. If cyber girl here wants to play, we’re gonna do it outside.”
I roll the conversation upstairs in my head as JD explains the turn of events to whats-her-face. Do I tell JD? Do I tell JD that this freak said his kid might be alive and all I have to do is get some girls pregnant and he can have that information?