“Pricks,” she echoed his sentiment. They stopped at a curb and he looked around for a taxi.
“I want you to know, I had no idea this was going on. Ricky Blue Eyes back there, I knew he was part owner. He would stop by once in a while, never paid attention to me, of course. I noticed he was hanging around more, but I figured it was shop talk with boss man. I had no clue,” he said. She managed a chuckle.
“Ricky Blue Eyes.”
“Yeah, the creep with Edenhoff. Ricky.”
“His real name is Wulf,” she whispered.
“Shit, his name is wolf? Shoulda been your first clue, right there.”
She laughed with him and he patted her reassuringly on the arm. A taxi finally stopped, and Jan held the umbrella over the door till she was safely seated. She grabbed his hand before he could shut her in, though.
“Thank you. I mean it. I can't thank you enough,” she breathed.
“You stop it, or we'll all be bawling.”
“I don't want you to get in trouble with Liam.”
“You kidding? Boss man loves me, I'm fine. You worry about you, little girl, alright? Take care of yourself. Tell Ms. Bellows she's staying home tonight, and to not worry about it – it's leave with pay. Tell her Jan says so.”
Jan was not the type of person to be argued with, so Katya nodded her head. Thanked him again and let him shut the door. Waved goodbye as she started rolling through traffic.
About halfway home, she started crying again, and didn't stop till she was in her apartment. Tori was nowhere to be seen, the place was empty, so Katya went back into her room. Collapsed on her bed and cried and cried and cried.
One fake profile. Two men. Liam had found her profile, Wulf had seen it. Liam had asked her out, Wulf had encouraged him to do so. Liam had told all her sexy secrets, Wulf had taken advantage of them. Liam had stripped away her inhibitions one by one, and Wulf had basked in her new found freedom. They'd shared moments and compared notes and come up with new ideas. She'd been their play thing. A pretty doll on a shelf – pull the strings just right, and little Katya Tocci will do a dance for you! Jump up and down for you! Bend over and do anything you want for you!
It was ridiculous. If in the very beginning, they'd both said the truth – that they both knew her, both wanted to pursue relationships with her, she probably would've been okay with it. Hell, she'd obviously been dating Wulf while she'd been sleeping with Liam, so they had proof she would've been okay with it. She'd always been open and honest, with both of them.
But they'd kept it a secret, on purpose. To have fun with her. Manipulate her. Liam, sitting with his feet in the kiddie pool and drinking beers with her. Wulfric, sitting at the bar and burning her up with his eyes. Each one of them knowing so much more about her than she knew about them.
Wulf never would've asked me out if I hadn't had sex with Liam. If Liam hadn't told him all about the sex. Jesus, this is my fault. Mother was right – save it for someone you care about.
She was hugging a pillow and sobbing so hard it hurt when Tori finally came home. The other girl dropped her groceries in the hallway and came sprinting into Katya's room.
“What's wrong? Honey, talk to me! Are you hurt? Did Wulf do something? Did Wulf do this to you? What did he do!? I'm calling an ambulance!”
Katya clung to her friend's arm and wouldn't let her go. It was a couple minutes before she could calm down enough to talk, but eventually she was able to tell the whole story to Tori. And she meant the whole story. From beginning to end, every gory, kinky, sexy, awful detail. Every single thing between her and the two worst men she'd ever met in her life.
“So he would fuck you,” Tori spoke in her blunt way as they laid in Katya's bed. “And then he'd sit down with Wulf and tell him everything you guys did together. And then basically Wulf would be like that's hot, see what else you can get her to do, see if she'll deep throat or use a sex swing or whatever. And then Liam would, and he'd tell Wulf, and then you and Wulf would do those things?”
“This is all my fault,” Katya whispered.
“Don't you ever say that again.”
“No, it's true. If I hadn't slept with Liam, none of this would've happened. Maybe it's karma – I was kind of using Liam to become more sexually open. This is my punishment.”
“Katya, there's a big fucking difference between you having a casual, acknowledged, open relationship with a man, and a man lying to your fucking face while he shares all your most intimate details with another man, in the hopes that other man will have just as good a time with you. Holy shit, that is so fucked up.”
“That's what I said. I told them they need help.”
“They need to get their balls stepped on.”
“Liam might like that.”
“I'm quitting,” Tori suddenly jerked upright.
“What? No! You can't do that, you need that job. Jan said you don't have to come in tomorrow, to take the day off with pay,” Katya assured her, clinging tight to her arm.
“Are you kidding? I don't care if I have to suck dick to pay rent – at least then I'd know the money was coming from a better man than Liam Edenhoff,” Tori swore. Katya actually started laughing.
“Please,” she panted. “Please, don't quit. Just wait. Let's settle down.”
Tori stopped struggling with her and laid back down.
“You're right. I won't quit.”
“Good.”
“Because we need a mole on the inside.”
“That's good, I – wait, what?”
“I don't want either of them trying to run this scam on anyone else. I'm gonna stay there, as a spy,” Tori assured her.
“Oh. Uh … okay.”
Katya didn't really need a “mole on the inside”, but she did need Tori to pay her rent on time.
“I'm really, really sorry,” Tori whispered a couple hours later, smoothing Katya's hair out of her face. “I know you liked him.”
“I think I might have loved him,” Katya cried.
“I know you don't want to hear this, but I think … I believe Wulf cared about you, too. Maybe like how a sociopath would care about a cat, but comparatively speaking, that's a lot. You touched him, Katya. Through all the bullshit and game playing and crazy sex, I really believe you touched his heart,” Tori insisted.
“Pity it didn't help him.”
“No, it didn't.”
“No. All it did was break me.”
26
Katya woke up some time later in the middle of the night. It was disgustingly humid in the room, made hotter by Tori sharing the bed with her. Katya slid to the end of the mattress and stood up, stretching onto her toes.
She grabbed her phone and headed into the bathroom. There were multiple missed calls and messages. All but one were from Liam.
Only one text from Wulf. Sent about an hour before she'd woken up, at two-thirty in the morning.
You promised me.