Something had Remo excited. I checked his face occasionally, knowing things that excited Remo usually involved blood and destruction.
Soto came in, dragging a woman in by her arm.
I stifled a sigh. Women weren’t my field of work. Remo knew I preferred to handle men, and in the last couple of years, he’d allowed me that leniency. I doubted he understood, nor approved of my reluctance to deal with women, but hurting them had never given me the thrill punishing men did. Soto on the other end got off on degrading the weaker sex in more than just the literal sense.
Degrading. Leona’s expression when I’d asked her to give me a blow job flashed in my mind, but I banished any thought of her.
I threw Remo a questioning look. Why was I supposed to watch him dish out punishment to some run-down crack-whore?
Soto shoved the woman in our direction. She teetered on her too high, red patent leather shoes, and eventually tumbled to her knees. She got back up, revealing ripped fishnet stockings, and a tight red patent leather dress that hung off her emaciated body. When she lifted her face to stare fearfully at us, a jolt of recognition went through me. I masked my shock before Remo could pick up on it. He had been eyeing me closely in the last few days since I’d asked him for help.
Dazed eyes, cornflower blue like Leona’s, peered from me to Remo to Soto. There was a distant resemblance. Perhaps in younger years Leona’s mother had looked even more like her daughter. Before the drugs and the alcohol and the constant beatings from johns.
She wobbled on her high heels. Her fingers were trembling and there was a fine sheen of sweat on her worn-out skin. She needed her next shot.
“Found her,” Remo said, an excited gleam in his eyes that told me this was about more than just helping me. More than once I’d regretted my decision of approaching him. Leona was no longer one among many to him. She was someone with a name and a face, someone to be wary of.
“Had to hand over a few thousand in cash to the President of the fucking MC for the worthless whore because she worked his streets. I wonder what part of her is supposed to be worth five thousand dollars. Look at her.”
I didn’t have to. She wasn’t worth that much money.
Five thousand dollars.
Fuck.
The MC Tartarus had ripped us off. And Remo had let them. Not good.
“What do you say whore? Are you worth that much money?” His voice was dangerously pleasant. People who didn’t know him might have mistaken it for a good sign.
She quickly shook her head. She knew how to handle dangerous men. With a past like hers, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. “Wh-where am I?”
“Las Vegas, my property, and now you are too.”
She nodded slowly, dazedly, then her expression shifted. “My daughter Leona is here.”
Shut the fuck up. I didn’t want Leona’s name in this room. I needed to figure out a way to get her out of Remo’s head.
“That she is,” Remo said, eyes slithering to me, lips tightening. “Now back to those five thousand dollars you owe me.”
Damn it. It would have been easy for me to pay the money, but I wasn’t out of my mind.
She smiled crookedly. “I earn good money. I know what men want.”
Remo’s dark eyes traveled over her body. “I doubt any man would want to get his cock dirty like that.”
She didn’t even flinch at his words. She’d heard worse. Whatever pride she’d once had, it was gone. She had no honor, she had nothing. That was why Leona clung to her virginity like it was her only salvation. And even knowing that, I still wanted to take it from her.
Remo pulled a small see-through bag with two meth cubes from his pocket and let it dangle from his fingertips. Leona’s mother sucked in her breath, a sharp, raspy sound. Her body became taut, eyes keen and eager. For him it was nothing. Our storage was full of meth and heroine and ecstasy, full of money too.
She took a step toward him, licked her cracked lips.
“You want this, hm?” he asked in a low voice. She gave a jerky nod.
“What would you do to get it?”
“Anything,” she said quickly. “I’ll suck your cock and you can have my ass. No condom.”
As if Remo would have to settle for someone like her. He was Las Vegas. He could have anyone. Remo’s mouth tightened with disgust. “There isn’t enough detergent in the world to clean you.”
“Then perhaps him?” she nodded towards me.
Remo’s eyes turned to me. “I think he prefers a younger version of you. Less used up.”
Leona wasn’t used up in any way. She was pure and innocent. She was mine.
Leona’s mother looked at Soto at last. Even Soto didn’t look anything close to being excited about the prospect of fucking her. He usually wasn’t choosy where he put his ugly cock but that woman was too wasted even for him.
“I’m good, Boss,” he said, waving her off like a bothersome fly.
Remo closed his fingers around the bag. “Perhaps you have something else you can offer us. Or perhaps someone else?” He tilted his head with a dangerous smile. “Perhaps that daughter of yours will take it up her ass in your stead. She might even be worth five thousand dollars.”
My fingers twitched for my gun but I stilled. This was crazy. I’d sworn loyalty to Remo and the Camorra. This wasn’t about that woman in front of us. Remo was testing me, and that he felt the need to do so unsettled me. Leona was a distraction. She wasn’t a threat to the Camorra in any way.
“She’s not like that. Do not touch her,” Leona’s mother said fiercely. I regarded her anew. Little was left of her. She had no pride, no honor, nothing, but despite her need for the crack in Remo’s hands the part of her that cared for her daughter, no matter how little was left of it, won out. That was more than one could say about Leona’s father.
Remo threw the bag on the ground. “You’re not worth my time.”
She scrambled forward and took the bag, cradling it like a child. “You are my property as long you owe me money. Hit the streets. You’re too shabby for our whorehouses.” She wasn’t listening. She was rummaging in her purse. Eventually her hand emerged with a syringe crusted with old blood.
Remo’s face contorted with rage. “Not here!”
She shied back. I moved over to her, gripped her upper arm and hoisted her to her feet. I dragged her out, Remo’s eyes burning my back as I did. “Five thousand plus interest, Fabiano. Tell Leona too.”
I shoved Leona’s mother onto the backseat of my Mercedes, then got behind the wheel. “Don’t even think about shooting up in my car,” I snarled. Angry at her, at Leona, and most of all myself.
Leona’s mother cowered against the seat. She didn’t move the entire ride, except for her eyes that watched me like I would pounce on her. She was already broken.
I sighed and left her in the car as I set out toward Roger’s Arena.
The moment Leona saw me, she dropped everything and rushed toward me.
“I found her. She’s in my car.”
Leona’s eyes widened and she hugged me. Fucking hugged me in the middle of Roger’s Arena, under the eyes of dozens of customers. I gripped her arms and pushed her away.
Leona
I dropped my arms, realizing what I’d done. Fabiano looked pissed. And I got it. Not only did he have to keep up appearances but people weren’t supposed to know about us.
“How is she?” I asked as I followed him outside. I could barely keep up with his pace. He seemed desperate to get away.
He yanked open the door and Mom stumbled out. She looked a mess, as if she’d been found with a john and didn’t have time to clean herself properly. I’d seen her in a worse state, so I moved forward and wrapped my arms around her. She hugged me back briefly, then dropped her arms, trembling. When I saw the syringe and plastic bag in her left hand, I knew why. “I need…” she whispered.
I nodded. I knew she needed a shot. I stepped back and she fell to her knees, nervously fumbling with the plastic bag.
Fabiano stood close behind me. I could feel his presence like a disapproving shadow. The smell of melting crystal filled my nose as Mom held the spoon over her lighter. She let out a small moan when finally the needle pierced her bruised skin.
I cast a glance over my shoulder. Fabiano’s expression was stone. Hard, unrelenting, cold. “Thank you.”
Blue eyes narrowed a fraction. “Five thousand, that’s what Remo had to pay for her. Until she can pay it off, she belongs to the Camorra.”
“That’s too much money. She’ll never be able to pay it off. She was barely able to pay for meth and food before.”
He looked away and headed for the driver’s side. “She’s sold her body for years, she’ll have to keep doing so. We’ll send her the johns who don’t have money for the whorehouses and she’ll give them what they want.”
I stared at his back because he wouldn’t show me his face. “But those men are always the worst. They like to beat and humiliate.”
With his hand on the car door he stopped. His shoulders heaved. His eyes were cold as a glacial lake as he turned his head. “I can’t do anything. I did too much already. You don’t know how much I’m risking for you. Your mother is lost, Leona. She has been for a long time. Save yourself and let her handle her shit alone.”
“I can’t,” I told him. He got into the car and drove off without another word.
You don’t know how much I’m risking for you.
Why? Why are you risking so much, I wanted to ask him but he was gone, and he wouldn’t reply anyway.
Mom was curled into herself, expression blissful.
“Who’s that?” Cheryl’s voice made me jump. She appeared beside me.
“My mother,” I admitted.
Cheryl didn’t say anything as we both watched my mother being lost in her drug haze. “She can’t stay here. Roger will lose his shit if he sees a junky in his parking lot.”
“I know,” I said. “But I don’t have a car, and there’s no way a cab will give us a ride like that.”
Cheryl sighed. “I hate to say it, Chick, but you are more trouble than you look.” She pulled car keys from her back pocket, then pointed at an old, rusty Toyota. “Get in. I’ll give you a quick ride. Mel can handle the bar.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. She waved me off, then helped me carry my mother to her car and position her on the backseat. She also helped me get my mother into the apartment, even as my father raged around us. I had paid for food and had given him more than enough money in the last few weeks. He would have to deal with Mom sleeping on the couch for now.
“You will end like her!” he shouted as he stormed out. Cheryl was already gone.
I perched on the edge of the couch beside my mother who was mumbling in her haze. Mom being in Vegas meant more trouble for me. I didn’t want her to work the streets again, but I didn’t have nearly enough money to pay off her debt to the Camorra.
My mobile beeped. I removed it from my backpack.
It was a message from Fabiano.
Do you need me to pick you up from work tonight?
Even though he was pissed about the situation, he honored his promise to protect me. I smiled down at my phone.
No. I’m home with my mother. Thank you.
“That look,” Mom croaked, startling me. “Who is he?”
“No one. There’s no one, Mom. Sleep.”
She could barely keep her eyes open, the drug haze beckoning to her. “I hope he’s good to you.”
“He’s good to me,” I said. Good for me, that was a different matter.
“Does he love you like you him?”
My throat closed. “Sleep, Mom.” And finally her eyes closed.
Love broke people. It had broken Mom before the drugs had done the rest.
I didn’t love Fabiano. I…I was falling for him. Falling deeper and deeper every day. Into his darkness, and what lay beneath it.
Fabiano didn’t want love. He didn’t believe in it.
I couldn’t love him.
