A few days later, Trina was sent back to Lucas’s condo. She was barely in the door before he was on top of her, slamming her against the wall and pressing his mouth against her neck, biting into her skin and making her moan out desperately. “Oh, shit,” she groaned, instinctively gripping at the back of Lucas’s head and encouraging him to bite her harder.

 

“Miss me?” Lucas said into her neck, licking a line up from her collarbone to the back of her ear. He bit down on her most sensitive spot, right under her earlobe, sending sparks of wonderfully sharp sensation up and down her spine.

 

“Oh, Jesus, yes,” Trina replied breathlessly. She ran her hand up and down his back, feeling his strong muscles through the thin fabric of his shirt. She sighed happily into the front of his shirt, biting through the fabric a little to get at his collarbone.

 

“Get your fucking legs up,” Lucas grunted. His hand traveled down to her waist, encouraging her to lift her legs up around his middle. Trina began to comply, but then she remembered the burden pressing down on her mind, preventing her from totally letting go and letting Lucas take care of her.

 

“Wait, wait,” Trina said, pressing her hand as firmly as she could on Lucas’s chest to push him further away from her body. She was a little nervous that she was going to piss Lucas off by pushing him away from her physically, but he just looked confused, his brow furrowing as he stared into Trina’s eyes, searching her face for an explanation.

 

“What is it?” Lucas whispered. His hand came up from her waist, tracing the outline of her torso until he found her neck again, cradling her face in his hand surprisingly gently. “What’s wrong?”

 

Trina cleared her throat, mentally preparing herself before answering his question. “Um… you might want to sit down,” she said. She gestured for them to go over to the couch in the adjoining room, but Lucas shook his head, pinning his arm to the wall next to Trina’s head, keeping her body in place next to the front door.

 

“Just tell me what’s wrong,” he said firmly, but he didn’t look upset, at the very least.

 

Trina nodded and blew her breath out all at once. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, but there must have been some part of her that was worried that Lucas truly loved Dana. Maybe he would be too defensive of his girlfriend to even listen to what Trina had to say.

 

Even still, she had no choice. She had to warn Lucas that Dana didn’t care about him. He needed to know that she was going behind his back to try to get her father—Lucas’s boss—to punish him on her behalf.

 

“Dana’s been complaining about you,” Trina said. She inwardly cringed a little at the way she phrased that. It made it seem so simple, so innocuous, like Dana was just complaining about her boyfriend to her friends or something like that. The real truth was much more concerning.

 

“Yeah, so what? She’s got a mouth on her, and she loves using it on whatever captive audience she’s got to work with,” Lucas said, smiling a little at her as his fingers began to rub over the skin of her neck, almost distracting her from the task at hand.

 

Trina kept her hand on Lucas’s chest, preventing him from touching her even more. “I’m serious,” she said. “I overheard her talking on the phone to her dad. She was trying to get him to fire you or hurt you or do something to make up for the fact that you pissed her off.”

 

Lucas grimaced then, rolling his eyes. But he didn’t look particularly surprised. “Yeah, well, that’s Dana for you,” he said, shaking his head and sighing a little.

 

“Aren’t you worried?” Trina asked, surprised that Lucas looked so unbothered about this.

 

Lucas shrugged. “Dana is Dana. I’m used to her bullshit by now. She’s a sheep in wolf’s clothing. She can’t do any real damage to me.”

 

Trina hesitated, biting down on the inside of her mouth as she debated sharing any more information with Lucas. If she told him that Dana got violent with her, would he believe her? Or would he get angry that some stupid silly prostitute thought she was worth nearly as much as his girlfriend, who was trophy-wife material?

 

Ah, fuck it, she thought. She had to tell him. She really had no other choice.

 

“She threw her phone across the room at me,” she said in a low soft voice. “It almost hit me in the head. I think she wanted to hurt me.”

 

“What the fuck?” Lucas whispered, stepping an inch or two away from Trina. She was immediately worried that she’d pissed him off, but the deed was done. She couldn’t exactly take the words back now.

 

“It’s true,” Trina said, forcing her voice to come out more confidently. “She’s not a good person, Lucas. And I don’t mean that in the ‘bitchy girlfriend’ way. She wants to hurt you. I just thought you should know.”

 

“Fucking bitch!” Lucas muttered under his breath. He scoffed, shaking his head furiously as he stepped away from Trina, leaving her feeling cold and alone against the wall.

 

“Sorry,” Trina said honestly. She felt a twinge of pain in her chest at being called a bitch, which was ridiculous, she knew. Clients had called her loads of worse stuff over the years, but she hated hearing it from Lucas. “I didn’t want to tell you, but… it’s just something you have to be aware of.”

 

“Did she hurt you at all?” Lucas stepped back in front of Trina, his eyes darting back and forth between each of hers worriedly.

 

“What?” Trina whispered in response, confused by his reaction. He… wasn’t mad at her? Instead, he seemed concerned. He wasn’t calling me a bitch, Trina realized, feeling a rush of relief wash over her. He meant Dana. Not me.

 

“Did she hurt you? Are you okay?” Lucas asked. His hands hovered over her hips, not touching her directly. Trina stepped forward until his fingertips brushed up against the bottom of her shirt and she could feel his skin against hers.

 

“I’m fine. I’m totally fine,” Trina said, nodding in what she hoped was a reassuring way. “Really, it’s okay. I was just worried about you.”

 

Lucas’s eyes softened, his hands traveling up to cradle her face again. “Thank you. That was really… nice of you.”

 

“You’re welcome,” Trina said. She felt oddly breathless, like she’d spent the last several minutes running a mile rather than standing perfectly still against the door. It was something about Lucas’s face, the way all his features had gone soft as he stared at her. Trina wasn’t sure anyone had ever looked at her like that her whole life.

 

Soon, however, the softness on his face melted away, replaced by the scowl from before. “That fucking bitch,” he muttered again, looking like he was about two seconds away from punching the wall in his frustration.

 

“Well, look on the bright side,” Trina said. She finally pried herself off the wall to follow Lucas into the adjoining den, even though she had to stay in one place rather than pace around like he was doing at the moment. “Caliperi turned her down. I heard him on the other end of the phone. He wants her to shut up and stop complaining. He basically told her to shut the fuck up, because he needs you so much.”

 

Lucas stopped pacing then and smirked bitterly, nodding in agreement. “Yeah. You’re right. That old bastard doesn’t know thing one about the drug business in this city anymore. The only thing he’s got going for him is his name, the legacy of what the Caliperi family used to stand for. But even that doesn’t mean so much anymore.”

 

“So you’re the one keeping the Caliperi on their feet, then?” Trina asked. She’d suspected as much, going off the two times she’d overheard Papa Caliperi yelling at his daughter, but it was still a little shocking to learn that the mob family she’d feared for so long didn’t have that much power anymore.

 

“Yeah,” Lucas replied. “But fucking barely. I can only do so much with that idiot in charge. Goddammit!” He collapsed onto the couch, sighing deeply and holding his head in his hands for a second before he looked up at Trina again. “Come here. Sit with me.”

 

Trina did as she was told, although she kept a safe distance of a couple of inches between their bodies. Somehow she knew that Lucas would be tempted to bury his frustration and anger into her body, and although most of the time Trina would be more than willing to comply with his desires, she knew that he needed to talk about his problems if they were ever going to be effectively addressed.

 

“If you’re so unhappy working for Caliperi, why don’t you find something else?” Trina suggested.

 

Lucas shook his head and reached over to wrap his hand around the bottom of Trina’s ankle. His touch was surprisingly gentle, his fingers skimming over the protruding bone until tingles erupted over the surface of her skin. “I can’t do that,” he replied. “I don’t have a supplier. I mean, I have everything else. I’ve got all the connections to the elite that Caliperi couldn’t even dream about touching, but it all means jack shit if I don’t have a way to get drugs into the country.”

 

Trina knew she should just keep her mouth shut. Don’t say it, she said to herself, biting down on her tongue. Don’t fucking say it.

 

But looking at the dejected expression on Lucas’s face, she just couldn’t hold herself back more than a few seconds. “I could help you with that,” she blurted out. Her heart pounded in her head, but she forced herself to meet Lucas’s curious gaze head on.

 

“What? How?” Lucas asked. He sounded totally dubious, but he still shifted in his seat to face Trina more fully. She clearly had his full attention now.

 

“I used to sling, back in the day,” Trina explained, feeling her cheeks burn a little with embarrassment. “Right when I first started working on the streets. I still have friends who are in the business. One of them is responsible for bringing heroin and weed and coke, all high-quality stuff, directly into the country from Mexico.”

 

“Holy shit,” Lucas said. His jaw literally dropped, his mouth hanging open as he stared silently at Trina in shock for several long seconds. “You’re fucking serious?”

 

“I am,” Trina said, straightening her spine to sit with more confidence. “I can help you. If you’re interested.”

 

“Jesus Christ,” Lucas huffed out before sputtering into laughter, turning to beam at Trina with a renewed light shining from within his eyes. “Holy fuck, you’re my savior!”

 

Trina shrugged, but she felt a surge of pride rise up within her chest. She could really help Lucas, and maybe he wouldn’t have to deal with Dana anymore. Maybe neither of us will have to, she thought, feeling hope bubble to life inside of her for the first time in years.

 

Without any further warning, Lucas scooped Trina all the way into his arms, forcing her to wrap her hands around his neck just to stay upright as he staggered to his feet and headed further into the condo, deeper than Trina had ever gone before.

 

“Come on,” he said into her ear before licking her lobe, sending shivers down her spine. “I’m going to fuck you in bed tonight. Do it right for once.”