Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Jay blinked. Something moved on his face that looked like shock. Fear, perhaps.
But then it was gone. The menace returned. “What makes you think you have a choice?” he whispered.
Fear crept over my skin, but I refused to let it show, refused to give Jay that satisfaction. “What are you going to do? Keep me locked up here against my will just so you can keep fucking me?” I spat.
“I don’t need to keep you locked up,” he returned. “You won’t leave me. You can’t leave me.”
I hated him in that moment. For knowing me so fucking well. For being this ugly, evil, uncaring man.
“I can and will leave you if I don’t get an explanation,” I hissed. “Because you’re right. You have a hold on me that I can’t understand. That lets you treat me in certain kinds of ways. Talk to me in a certain kind of way. But that girl in there?” I pointed to the direction of the kitchen, though I could barely lift my arm. “What she went through? What I had to witness? Even what I feel for you isn’t enough to keep me tangled in this.” I paused to take a breath, hoping my words would permeate his walls. “Not unless you tell me what the fuck it is you do that has you caught up in shit like that. And I don’t care about your fucking rules for this arrangement. I don’t care about the no questions, no information edict. You need to decide. Right fucking now, if you’re going to tell me what I need to know about you, or if you’re going to let me walk out the door.”
“I don’t do well with ultimatums, Stella,” Jay said quietly, the tendons in his neck flexing.
“I don’t condone violence against women, Jay,” I rebuked, venom in my voice.
Silence hung between us.
Jay was weighing his options, likely weighing my sincerity.
He had been right about my tie to him. About my unnatural need for him. But I’d also been right about this being a deal breaker. This horrible night being a turning point for our relationship.
“If I give you the truth, you may leave anyway,” Jay said finally.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
He stared at me, his eyes running over my face as if he were imprinting it to memory.
Then he stepped back.
The loss of him was immediate.
I should’ve been repulsed by him. Should’ve been repulsed by myself for wanting him, even now. But all I wanted was Jay back. His hands on me.
“I do well in the regular world, Stella,” he began. “I’m good at acting. Good at slipping in to the role that is required of me. In the regular world, I’m a very rich man. I’m a ruthless businessman, and I donate to charity for tax breaks. But I cannot exist in that world alone. I am involved in other businesses. Diane was an employee of one of my more lucrative businesses. Sex.”
“Sex?” I restated.
He nodded.
I digested this information. “You’re some kind of pimp?”
“Not in the conventional sense,” Jay said. “I do not lay a hand on a single girl, nor do I take an unfair percentage. I screen their client lists. I provide security. Healthcare. Make sure no one is trying to move in on them. More specifically, I make sure no one is trying to traffic them.”
All of this might have sounded noble if it hadn’t been for this evening. “What happened with Diane?” I demanded. The fact that Jay operated some kind of prostitution ring was shocking but not my main concern right now.
Jay sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “A fuck up. A massive fuck up. Her client wasn’t screened correctly. It was someone from a ... a competitor of mine trying to send a message.”
I stared at him. “So in your business, a competitor sends a message by raping and beating a nineteen-year old girl?” I tried to suppress my disgust. “The nineteen-year-old sex worker who you have, up until tonight, had in your employ.”
“I cannot control the choices that young women make,” Jay returned. “Diane is legally an adult. What I can do is make sure she is taken care of. That the man who did this to her is dealt with.”
“Killed,” I interpreted his words, praying I was wrong but knowing I wasn’t. “You mean you’re going to have him killed.”
Jay did not pause, did not wait to consider whether he should shield me from this. No, I’d asked for this, and he was giving it to me.
“Yes,” he replied.
Yes he was going to have a man killed. A rapist. Someone who beat up women. Girls.
“Your competitors,” I continued. “They want the women?”
“They want my territory,” he clarified.
I swallowed, trying to fathom the fact that we were actually having this conversation. “Territory?” I repeated.
Jay paused for another beat, presumably trying to figure out whether it was worth telling me this or not. Whether I was worth disclosing so much. “Some business partners and I control the majority of L.A. and the business transactions being handled throughout the city. It’s lucrative. It’s dangerous. And oftentimes, women like Diane get caught in the crossfire.”