Later that night, after Trina had cleaned up and changed her clothes, she received a text from Kittie informing her that there was a car outside Lucas’s condo, ready to take her back home. On the limo ride back to Dana’s brothel, Trina couldn’t even think coherently. Her brain felt like it was wrapped in fuzzy static, protecting her from any and all worries or anxieties or fears. Trina figured it must have been a side effect of all the sex endorphins that were pumping through her blood. In any case, by the time she arrived back at Dana’s lair, the sweet gentle nothingness in her head had faded away, replaced by one persistently pestering thought. Am I in trouble with Dana now? Trina wondered as she entered the old Gothic building and headed for the parlor. She had been a little tempted to run up to her room to hide away from Dana as long as possible, but it was just putting off the inevitable. Better to rip the bandage off now and face the consequences, Trina thought to herself as she entered the parlor, finding Dana waiting for her on a regal seat in the middle of the room.
Straight away, she could tell that her madam wasn’t happy. She was tapping her perfect red nails on the side of her chair impatiently, crossing and uncrossing her legs several times in the space of thirty seconds. “Well?” she finally asked after staring at Trina for a long tense moment. Trina inhaled deeply and braced herself for an angry outburst of some kind.
“Um, I just got back and figured you’d want me to report back to you,” Trina said. She felt a small burst of pride at the fact that she was able to keep her voice steady and calm, despite the nerves raging underneath her skin.
“Yes, that much is obvious,” Dana snapped at her before reaching into her pocketbook to get a cigarette. “How did it go with Lucas?”
Trina gave a noncommittal half shrug, trying to look nonchalant and unbothered even though she still felt a little light-headed after the furious fuck that Lucas had given her.
Dana clicked her tongue from behind her teeth, her eyes narrowing to sharp slits as she got up from her chair and slowly approached Trina. “Don’t give me that shit,” she said, blowing a puff of smoke right into Trina’s face. “How. Was. It?”
“It was fine,” Trina said. “Very basic. Nothing out of the ordinary.” It was a lie, at least by omission. Trina barely ever reached orgasm with her clients, but she’d definitely come her brains out this time around. Dana doesn’t need to know that, Trina thought, forcing herself to keep her gaze solidly fixed on Dana’s intimidatingly beautiful face.
“Hmm,” Dana said, crossing her arms across her chest and stepping back a pace so that there was more space between them. “Good.” She turned around and began walking back toward the chair in the center of the room, casting a final glance at Trina over her shoulder. “You should prepare to be available at any time to be Lucas’s little toy, no matter what else you’ve got going on. That’s all.”
It took Trina a few moments to realize that was her cue to leave. She turned and headed for the door, but before she could exit the parlor Dana cleared her throat again, saying, “Don’t let your head get too big. It doesn’t mean anything. Go on. Get out of here.”
Trina bolted from the room and rushed for the stairs, heading toward Kittie’s room rather than her own. She had to tell somebody what was going on, even if she didn’t quite know how to feel about it herself.
“Kittie!” Trina half shouted from outside her best friend’s door, banging on the wood persistently. “Kittie, let me in!”
“Jesus, it’s like one in the morning,” Kittie said. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stepped aside to let Trina into her room. “How’d it go?”
“Uh…” Trina wasn’t sure exactly how to phrase it. “It went well, I guess.”
Trina expected Kittie to immediately launch into a thousand questions, interrogating her on every last detail of the trick so she could live vicariously through Trina’s experiences, but instead Kittie frowned deeply as she shut and locked the door after Trina.
“What does that mean?” Kittie asked, her brow furrowing up as she gestured for Trina to sit with her on her bed.
“I mean, he seemed to enjoy himself,” Trina said.
“Hmm,” Kittie murmured, her gaze going foggy and unfocused, like she was trying to see something far beyond Trina’s head.
“What’s wrong?” Trina asked.
“It’s just…” Kittie sighed and shook her head, finally focusing her eyes back on Trina’s. “I hope that was the last of it. It’ll be better for you if Lucas’s already bored of you and moves on to somebody else.”
For some reason that made Trina sit up straighter, her spine almost aching with the effort after such a long eventful day. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Kittie sighed again, deeper this time, the sound coming from deep inside of her. She held her head in her hands for a minute, not looking at Trina while she gathered her thoughts together. “Dana isn’t someone you want to piss off. You know what I mean?”
Trina shifted uncomfortably on Kittie’s bed, closing and unclosing her legs several times before finally giving up on the idea of feeling comfortable. “But I haven’t pissed her off. I just did what she said. She insisted that I sleep with Lucas.”
Kittie nodded, but the expression of worry didn’t slip even a centimeter from her face. “I know, I know. There wasn’t much else you could do, but Trina… I’m worried about you. It would have been better if Lucas hadn’t picked you at all.”
“Why?” Trina asked.
“Because,” Kittie said, sounding entirely unlike herself, her voice chock-full of concern, “Because Dana might pretend to be all right with it, but there’s no way she’s not pissed at Lucas. And she’s probably pissed at you just by association, even though it’s not your fault. I just… I just think this is bad for you, Trina.”
Trina was quiet a moment, mulling over Kittie’s thoughts. “I mean, what else am I supposed to do?” she finally said in a low murmur, thinking out loud. “I can’t disobey Dana. She’s got the full firepower of the Caliperi family on her side. I don’t want to get on the wrong side of the mob.”
Kittie bit down on her lower lip, staring up at Trina through her eyelashes for several moments before she finally spoke again. “I’ve got a lot of clients who work for the Caliperis,” she murmured and then fell silent again, her gaze dropping down to her lap.
Trina nodded at her to continue, feeling like she was suspended on pins and needles.
Kittie frowned even deeper, her eyes full of worry as she glanced back up at Trina. “The Caliperi family isn’t what it used to be. At least, that’s what the last couple tricks I’ve bedded have told me after they got off. They don’t have the power they used to. That’s what I’ve heard, at least.”
For several moments, Kittie’s words revolved around inside of Trina’s head, repeating on a loop while she tried to comprehend their full meaning. “The Caliperis … they’re not powerful anymore?”
“That’s just what I heard,” Kittie said quickly, sliding off the bed and crossing the room to stare at herself in the mirror. “Don’t tell anyone else I said that, okay? I don’t want it getting back to Dana.”
“I won’t,” Trina said quickly. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Sure thing,” Kittie said, picking at her eyebrows and frowning at her own reflection. “Just… be careful, okay? I don’t want to see you hurt. You’re about the only good thing left in my life, Trina.”
Trina was silent for a moment, a little bowled over by the weight of Kittie’s statement. She swallowed several times to clear her clogged throat before answering. “I will be. I promise.”
But despite what she said, Trina knew she was stuck. There wasn’t anything she could do to get out of fucking Lucas—even though if she was honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she didn’t even want to stop, given how hard he’d made her come. But that was beside the point. She had to be smart. She had to be careful. She had to watch her own back. There was nobody who could watch it for her. She was stuck in a love triangle she hadn’t meant to stumble into, and there was no getting out now.