Nicholas

 

We emerged into the empty club. The stage was silent and bare, the seats empty of the foul men who had filled them earlier. They’d all gone home to wives and girlfriends who would never know what kind of sick fucks they let sleep in their beds. If those women only knew, they would run screaming and never come back.

 

I wondered if I was as bad as them. After all, I’d joined their ranks. I’d participated in the auction myself, and the prize I’d bought was walking next to me, dreary and exhausted. As we entered the elevator to go back upstairs, her head fell against my shoulder as she rested, already on the door of a deep sleep.

 

She stumbled as we crossed the threshold of the elevator back into the nightclub above. I picked her up easily in my arms, like a baby. I was surprised that she let me, but she did. Her arms found my neck and clung to me. Her eyes stayed closed.

 

A few hours ago, this girl had wanted to kill me. Now, she was hanging onto me like I was the last man in the world who mattered. It would have been amusing if I didn’t feel something powerful in return. But I couldn’t focus on that. There were too many other things demanding my attention.

 

Cosimo, for instance. I remembered the way his eyes had lit up when he’d told me I had to go fuck my purchase to claim her as my own. He relished the cruelty of it. He thought I was a man of similar constitution. He didn’t know I wasn’t anything like him, but I had to keep up the illusion. Let him think I was like that. It seemed to buy his trust.

 

I looked down at the girl in my arms. For her, though, my pretending to be a cruel master would be harsh. She’d submitted to the rough fucking and I knew part of her awakened during it. But the part of her that blossomed when I’d rubbed the ice down her burning body would hate me for what I was going to do to her. I felt a pang of guilt. But this was war. Some casualties were inevitable.

 

I hailed a cab, one of the first out in the early dawn. I gave him instructions to take us to the new apartment that Fists had arranged for me, and we slipped down the road, engine whirring.

 

When we pulled up out front, Natalia was soundly asleep. Her face was serene, not nearly as dark and troubled as it had been when I first entered the whip room. I wondered what Alessandra had said to her, why she had been in there in the first place. What the hell did she care about this girl? It didn’t make sense, but I was too tired to probe further. My body was a wreck in and of itself, courtesy of the monster who’d railed me with punch after punch in the fight club. The desire to take Natalia had washed that pain away, but in the aftermath, it came back with a vengeance. Every step sent the ache pulsing throughout my bones and muscles.

 

I carried Natalia’s limp body up the stairs. The apartment was sparsely furnished, but I barely looked at anything. I made my way straight to the bedroom. A bare mattress lay in the center of the room. It would do for now. I set Natalia down gently on one side, stripped off my shirt, and was asleep before my head hit the pillows.

 

# # #

 

“Ain’t that cute,” said a sour voice. I sat up with a jolt. Giovanni was standing over the bed, looking back and forth at me and Natalia lying asleep at my side. I was confused for a moment, then it all came rushing back.

 

The fight. The auction. The dungeon.

 

The full significance of yesterday’s events came slamming into me like a tidal wave. I instantly felt the ache of every bruise and cut, the highs and lows of the roller coaster of emotions I had experienced. I wanted to vomit, to fight, to run, to fuck. Everything at once.

 

Giovanni eyed me as I tried to settle the turbulence surging through my skull. I swallowed hard and tamped everything down. I’d have to deal with all that internal shit later. Right now, I needed to keep convincing him that I was trustworthy.

 

“What’re you doing here?” I asked.

 

He ignored the question. “That’s one hell of a bitch,” he remarked, pointing at Natalia.

 

I realized with a start that she was still naked. I’d draped my jacket over her when we were leaving the club, but she’d thrown it off in her sleep. Her breasts rose to snowy peaks above the comforter. Her chest sighed up and down with the slow, steady rhythm of her sleeping breath.

 

I looked at Giovanni warily and make a noncommittal grunt.

 

“If she were mine, I’d fuck her up good,” he said. He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips greedily. “Turn her into a proper little cum slut. Hell, I might do that anyway. I know that bastard, Alfonso, you outbid wouldn’t hesitate to take his shot at the bitch.”

 

Alfonso. My pulse pounded at the thought. He’d come careening back into my life so suddenly that I didn’t even have time to direct the proper bloodlust at him. If I’d been in the right state of mind, he wouldn’t have walked out of that club last night on his own two legs—he would have crawled, and only then if I was feeling generous enough to let him keep his miserable excuse of a life. I’d missed one chance, but I was sure I’d get another. When I did, I was going to take my time and work the motherfucker to a bloody pulp, bit by bit.

 

It wasn’t just for what he’d done to Smalls, either. There was a new element added to the equation. I looked over at Natalia. She’d rolled over, twisting her body into a frail little question mark figure, knees drawn in towards her chest. Her hair was splayed out across the pillow. It shined darkly in the light streaming in through the thin curtains draped over the window to my left.

 

If Alfonso touched her, I’d make his death take twice as long.

 

I was stunned to realize how fierce of a reaction I felt at the thought of Alfonso assaulting Natalia. I barely knew the girl. What did I care what happened to her? She was mixed up with some violent people. Shit happened. Lie with the dogs, get the fleas, all that kind of garbage. Suffice it to say that it wouldn’t be the first time a relatively innocent girl had come in harm’s way just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

But the feeling resisted logic. It was a powerful, instinctive reaction, nearly as strong as the desire I’d felt the night before when I threw her on the bed and pounded her until I burst everywhere.

 

I shook my head to make it go away. Not now, not now. It felt like everything was conspiring to distract me from the task at hand. I slapped at my temple. Focus, Nicholas. Focus.

 

My eyes returned to Giovanni. This was the moment for a display of force. Let him know who I was and what I was about. It didn’t hurt that the words I said came from a real feeling. “If any man tries to touch my property, I’ll gut him then and there,” I growled. “Any man. You, Alfonso, Cosimo—I don’t give a damn. Stay away from her, or it will end badly for you.”

 

Giovanni chuckled. “I admire your balls, buddy. But stupidity will get a man killed around here. So will affection. Don’t forget that.”

 

Natalia stirred next to me. She sat up groggily. Sleep still clouded her eyes. “Wha’s going on?” she mumbled through numb lips. She noticed Giovanni standing at the foot of the bed and spasmed, yanking the blankets to cover her exposed chest.

 

“Morning, princess.” Giovanni grinned. “Nice of you to join us. We were just talking about you.”

 

She cowered immediately at the sight of him, curling into a tight little ball and glancing around fearfully. “What’s happening?” she asked quietly.

 

Giovanni turned his attention back to me. He threw me a set of keys. They landed at my lap with a jangle. “Speaking of Cosimo,” he said, “the boss seems to have taken a liking to you. He requested that you serve as his new driver and personal security guard for today. Here are keys to his car. It’s parked out front.”

 

“What am I supposed to do?”

 

“Here,” Giovanni said, throwing me a cell phone that I plucked from the air. “You’ll get a text with the details of the next assignment as soon as he decides he needs you. But I’m warning you,” he added, wagging a finger like a scolding parent, “if you are even one minute late to that job, it will not be pretty.”

 

“I won’t be late,” I told him. “I’m never late.”

 

“You better not be, that’s all I’m saying. Welcome to the job, kiddo.” He turned and waddled towards the door. His bulk heaved in every direction. Despite the cool air conditioning filtering through the vents, I saw sweat crowning his forehead. He took a towel from his back pocket and wiped it off.

 

He exited, then stuck his head back in the doorway. Reaching one hand through, he wiggled his fingers in Natalia’s direction. “I’ll see you soon, darling,” he drawled.

 

I grimaced as he left.