The thin, high heels of my awesome sandals clicked on the floor as I wandered through the apartment. I did it smiling to myself because, it was turned low which might be a crime in some states, but I could hear Black Sabbath.
I turned the corner into the living room and saw Knight outside on the balcony, heels up on the railing, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette. I knew while I’d showered and got ready to face the day he’d probably moved to refresh his cup. Other than that, no.
It was one of the things I loved about him. Comfortable in his own company. He had very little downtime, what little he had he spent with me but if there were moments like this, he didn’t need to fill them with books or TV. Just music, coffee (or a beer or a vodka rocks), his smokes and himself.
Like everything about Knight, I thought it was hot.
His neck twisted and his eyes came to me when he heard my approach. His eyes to me, I watched him crush his cigarette in the ashtray.
I got close, his head went back, he moved his mug to his other hand so his hand closest to me could curl around my hip and I leaned in to touch my mouth to his.
I pulled back an inch and said softly, “Gonna check in at the spa.”
“Right,” he muttered.
“Can I ask you to think about something while I’m gone?” I requested.
“Anything,” he told me and I lifted a hand to his neck as I felt my face get soft.
“Think of something I can do to contribute to our home. I get you wanna look out for me but what you need to get is I need to do that. Groceries. Utilities. Paying the cleaners. Something. Until my spa becomes the whopping success I’m gonna make it be, I know with this place I can’t afford to go halfsies and you’ll never let me do that anyway. But I need to do something.”
I knew he was stuck on the beginning of what I said when his eyes drifted to my mouth and he whispered, “Our home.”
My fingers at his neck gave him a squeeze and I whispered back, “Honey.”
His eyes came to mine and he told me quietly, “We’ll talk about it tonight.”
My man. He loved me and he’d give me anything.
I smiled at him and replied, “Okay.”
His eyes dropped back to my mouth.
“Want that mouth again before you go.”
I gave it to him. His fingers drove into my hair, holding me to him and he plundered it.
Then, after throwing him a smile over my shoulder as I walked away, I went.
* * * * *
“See you later!” I called as I walked down the hall at the top level of my spa.
“Later!” one of the two dudes who were finishing up the steam room shouted back.
I grinned and wandered down the softly lit hall with its dark wood paneling.
Mahleena’s plant people were coming that day. Plants. That meant we were close to opening. Live bamboo, mostly. The feel was clean, rich, warm, expensive with a hint of Oriental. Very little color as Mahleena liked it with touches of warm reds at my demand. Mostly because they reminded me of Knight.
I wandered down the curving staircase and looked across the open area, it’s snug, paneled nail stations, pedicure lounges and open hair stations with the tall mirrors and lights dangling.
“Awesome,” I whispered, got to the bottom and wandered through to the high reception desk that was built out of thin panels of dark wood and set away from but at an angle to the front door.
I moved behind it. The phone had already been installed. The computer system was being installed the next day. If Mahleena or any of the workmen left me non-urgent notes, they put them there. I’d done a walkthrough when I arrived without going back there and had gotten caught up with talking to the boys so I was checking for notes before I left.
Then a trill shivered up my neck and it wasn’t the kind Knight gave me. Like they were guided by unseen forces, my head came up and my eyes moved out the huge, plate glass windows at the front of my place to the street and I sucked in breath.
Nick was walking down the street, looking over his shoulder at something not me but toward my spa. I didn’t like this. This wasn’t the coincidental scenario Knight threw out of me seeing Nick on the street. He was there for a reason. I knew it.
I shrugged my bag off my shoulder to the reception desk in order to grab my phone when the door to my spa opened. My back went straight and my eyes went to the door.
A heavyset man about an inch or two taller than me with a receding hairline, a deep tan and a gold chain tangling with the profuse amount of hair that grew up from his chest was walking in, eyes to me. I didn’t like the look of him. Not at all.
Seedy.
No, sleazy.
“Sorry,” I told him, “we’re not open yet.”
“Anya Gage?” he asked, not faltering a single step in walking to me.
Keeping my gaze on him, I opened the snap on my bag and dug in for my space age phone.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“I’m Drake Nair.”
I knew no Drake Nair and by the look of him, I knew I never wanted to.
I found the phone and pulled it out, lifting up my hand so he could see. His eyes dropped to it then came back to me when I spoke.
“And what can I do for you, Mr. Nair?”
He had stopped four feet away from the desk. “I’m Knight’s ex-partner.”
A surprise and not the good kind.
I held it together and didn’t even blink.
“Yes?” I prompted.
He studied me.
I informed him on a warning, “There are two men working upstairs, Mr. Nair.”
“Not surprised,” he muttered, still studying me and not talking about not being surprised about men working in my place.
“Mr. Nair, I have things to do,” I stated. “Would you like to tell me why you’re here?”
He focused more fully on me and replied, “You asked me to guess ten years ago, I would say you’re exactly what he wanted but I wouldn’t say you’re what he could get.”
I kept my back straight, my eyes on him and my hand curled on my phone. What I didn’t do was speak.
He did.
“Still. Boy was a magnet for pussy, fuck, they were all over him. You know, they wanted him to drive stock?”
“I assume you’re referring to Knight and since I don’t know you, I’d prefer not to discuss him with you.”
He ignored me. “Girl, stock, that’s the big time. He woulda owned it. Way he looks? He didn’t even have to win. Big time investors and endorsements would be creamin’ their jeans to have their logos on his car, his suit, his face in their magazine ads.”
“Mr. Nair –”
“Live quiet,” he whispered Knight’s words and I shut up. “Minute it started heatin’ up for him ‘cause ‘a the way he looked, the fact he won almost every fuckin’ race he was in, fuckin’ fearless, fuckin’ crazy, he bailed and went into business with me.”
“It would seem you’re determined to say what you have to say but it would be nice if you got down to saying it. Like I told you, I have things to do.”
“Took it all from me,” he said softly and that unhappy trill slid up my neck again. “Turned tail, went to Costa Rica. Does somethin’ to a man when another man makes a fool ‘a him. Not a fuckin’ dollar changed hands and he maneuvered it all right out from under me. Stole the whole fuckin’ thing. The club. The girls.”
My legs locked and my face must have changed because he smiled in a way I did not like.
“Oh yeah,” he said, still talking softly, “Nick guessed it.”
Oh God!
Nick!
Now that Sandrine had calmed her shit, he was going to be the death of me.
“Nick doesn’t know anything,” I snapped.
“Nick knows Knight sells pussy.”
I stopped breathing.
“Yeah,” he said, his tone eager, enjoying this and I knew I was giving it away. “You didn’t know. Good girl. Just lookin’ at you, I c
an see you’re sweet, honey. And have no clue your man sells pussy.”
Oh my God.
I didn’t move. I wanted to. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t.
Drake Nair wasn’t done.
“Took my club, took my stable. Those were,” he leaned in, lost it for a second and hissed, “my girls.” He leaned back, pulling himself together as he kept his eyes locked to me. Then, “Don’t know, have no fuckin’ clue how that boy’s mind works, but I figure he got into all that business with me knowin’ he was gonna steal my stable. He was always about the girls. So he took it all from me. You his woman, a sweet, classy, good girl, what I ‘spect he always wanted but never, knowin’ what that boy is, what he came from, who he’ll always be, would get. You gotta know, it makes me all kinds ‘a happy lookin’ at your face right now, knowin’ this struck deep, knowin’ you know you can get anybody so you don’t have to take a man who sells pussy.”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” I said softly, “I’d like you to leave.”
“Yeah, I bet you do. But I got one thing more to say.”
I opened my mouth but he walked swiftly to the desk and instead I took a step back, my fingers curling tight on my phone.
He put his hand on the desk and kept talking.
“You can get over that, I’ll give you this. He doesn’t only run pussy through my club, he runs drugs. You’re in bed with filth, Anya Gage. You don’t pull your shit together, like Knight Sebring was, is and always will be, that’s all you’ll ever be.”
And with that, he turned and walked out of my spa.
I stared at the door and did this a long time, my heart racing, my breath coming short.
Then I turned my head and looked out the windows where I last saw Nick.
He was there, standing looking through the windows, eyes on me.
Smiling.
He set that up. He set me up. He set his brother up.
Douchebag motherfucker.
I jerked my head away and walked as calmly as I could muster into one of the cordoned off nail stations and away from Nick Sebring’s eyes.
Then I deep breathed.
“Hold the fuck on.” I heard Vivica say in my head.
Okay, all right.
“You might hear fucked up shit about me from a variety of sources. But you talk to me before you react. I will confirm or deny, I will be honest and last, I will explain. If it’s shit I don’t want you to know yet, I’ll explain that too and you’ll wait until I’m ready. You feel you can’t, then, babe, you still fuckin’ talk… to… me before you leave me.”
Okay, all right.
Right.
Right.
I lifted my phone, activated the screen and called Knight.
He answered on ring two.
“Babe.”
“Drake Nair just left and he told me some things about you,” I whispered and I did it quickly, my voice breathy.
Silence. Total. Complete. A whirling void of terrifying nothing.
Then, softly, “I’m at the club. Come to me right now, baby.”
“Okay, Knight.”
“Right now, Anya, babe.”
“Okay,” I agreed quietly.
I disconnected, walked swiftly to the foot of the stairs and shouted loudly but still shakily, “I’m going, guys!”
“Later, Anya!”
“Later!”
I turned and walked quickly to the desk, shoved my phone in my purse, threw it on my shoulder and hustled out.
Then I hustled down the block to Slade. I’d been there during the day on occasion and it never failed to kind of freak me out. It was weird during the day.
I didn’t notice it then.
I just opened the door and walked into the cool, vast interior that seemed eerie not jammed with bodies, flashing with lights or drowned with music.
Almost instantly I saw Knight striding swiftly toward me.
I moved to him.
When we met, he didn’t say a word but grabbed my hand, changed directions and I hurried to keep up with him.
On the stairs up to his office, making my heart leap in my throat, my belly knot and drop, he surprised me by stopping, turning and lifting me up in his arms. I didn’t know if he was impatient with me having trouble keeping up or if he wanted me close.
I didn’t ask.
But I hesitated before my arms slid around his shoulders to hold on.
Knight noticed everything. He noticed my hesitation.
I knew it when, his voice terse, tight, pained, he whispered, “Fuck me.”
We got to the top, his torso dipped and he opened the door. He carried me into the office, the door closed behind us and he gently set me on my feet.
Quickly, I took three steps away.
My heart clenched because he let me.
“Do you sell pussy?” I whispered.
He closed his eyes slowly and my nose started stinging.
“Knight?” I prompted and his eyes opened.
“Got fifty-seven girls,” he stated immediately.
Oh God. God!
“And drugs?” I was still whispering, but it was around a clogged throat and sounded croaky.
His head jerked and he asked, “What?”
I lost it and my voice pitched high and loud when I snapped, “Do you sell drugs?”
“Fuck no,” he shot back.
I started breathing heavily.
Knight watched me do it.
Then I turned my head and looked to the window.
“Came home bleeding out the ass, from her pussy. Not sometimes, often.” I heard him say and my startled gaze cut back to him. He kept talking and I knew it was about his mother. “Face busted up, lip torn open, eyes swollen shut. I cleaned that shit up. I was six.”
Oh.
My.
God.
My body locked and Knight kept at me.
“Johns did that shit to her but not only them. Her man did too. Her pimp. He got rough and his rough was ugly. And he availed himself often. Only thing could get him to go limp was a four year old in the room. He forgot and didn’t lock the door or lock me in my room, I walked in and I did it as often as I could. Learned to pick my own lock and hers so I could get to her. See him on her. Get him to stop raping her. Be her shield. Pickin’ locks. At four.”
All my innards had seized and squeezed and the pain was excruciating.
“Knight –” I wheezed.
“I told you my life was shit Anya and it fuckin’ was. Hers was worse. Her man, worst kinda human being there is. Kept his girls in blow, in smack, in crack, anything to keep them hooked to him. That’s all he gave them and that was no fuckin’ gift. No protection. He took his cut and it was a big one, babe. He got off usin’ their bodies. He put them on the street, worked them hard. But they turned a bad trick, he didn’t do shit. Johns learn. They know. They get a bitch they can’t play with like they like ‘cause their man pays them a visit, they move on. So they knew which women to pick up. And my mother was one of them.”
I pressed my lips together and rolled them.
Knight continued.
“I had no control. My first fuckin’ memory in this life is walkin’ into my Mom’s bedroom seein’ her in bed bleeding from every orifice. Her slitted, swollen eyes came to me, she smiled a smile she had to force through pain, stupid and hopin’ she was foolin’ me, unable to move a muscle except her mouth and she whispered, “Sweetie.” Blocked out the rest. Know, after that, not once but a lot of fuckin’ times, I found that, I cleaned her up. She was so jacked, by the time I’m fuckin’ six, she’s lettin’ me.”
I swallowed the pain and hurt I felt for him, and it stuck in my gullet because it was a lot, and he kept talking.
“I had no control. None. I was a fuckin’ kid. I could do what I could do and that was all I could do. She was good to me, Anya, she loved me. Not just because I was her shield but because I was her boy. Only good thing she ever did, she told me, was make me. She thought the sun rose and set in me a
nd she still does. But I remembered that, as good as Carl gave it to her and me, I never fuckin’ forgot that feeling of being out-of-control, livin’ shit someone forced on me, and I became a man who never has to feel that shit again.”
“Okay, honey,” I whispered but Knight wasn’t finished explaining.
“Nair is an asshole. And yeah, I took his stable and I still got it. And I’m gonna keep it, Anya. He had a girl, she worked the drags,” he moved to the chest at the wall and ran a finger down the carved, female torso, “she made that for me. Fuck, unbelievable what she could create outta a chunk of wood. An artist. A hooker. A junkie. She was Nair’s. She led me to him. He thought I was a shit-for-brains racer hooked on speed. Thought he could play me. She OD’ed. All that talent,” he jerked a finger at the torso, “vanished. The beauty she could bring into the world, lost. I let him think he could play me and I got in it to look after his girls. He was not like my mother’s man but he wasn’t about protection. He was about pussy. Usin’ it to get rich. Usin’ it to get off. Made his girls service him, one, two, twenty. And I am not joking. Twenty bitches crawlin’ all over him. Insane. Made ‘em oil up and wrestle on his fuckin’ bed so he could watch and jack off. He did not keep them clean. And it was hit or miss, depending on how lazy he was feelin’, whether he’d send someone out to deliver a message, one of his girls got worked over. I spent a lotta time coverin’ a lotta asses which pissed him off. He wanted me not lookin’ after his pussy but bein’ the face of this club. We clashed. I made moves. Got him out. Then rebuilt and grew his empire, such as it was. Girls that weren’t clean, I got them clean. Girls who didn’t wanna be in the life, I let them go. He had forty-two girls. I have more because they come to me. And they don’t got track marks or habits, I take them on. I take their backs. They take clients they wanna fuck, Rhashan and Kathleen make arrangements, they do what they want, only what they want and a man tries for more, we make certain he knows we’re not down with that and that message is delivered crystal clear. That is our reputation, I made it that way so that shit does not happen often and my girls go out safe.”
“Rhashan?” I whispered.
“Yeah and if you’re worried about your girl, don’t be. She knows. He knows I don’t like attention and asked me if he could tell her. Your girl Viv, she is far from stupid so I agreed. He told her. She grew up in the ‘hood. So did he. They both get it.”