Chapter 5
Georgie
It’s Saturday and I feel like I could vomit. I’m at the end of my shift and tonight’s the night. The deals been made. I have to psych myself up and keep reminding myself why I’m doing all of this. To keep me and Victor safe. I’d be doing a lot better if the bar were busier right now. Being busy would be a huge plus to keeping my mind off everything.
I look around and see Jayden walk through the door. Great, he’s sure to keep me occupied and my mind away from all the dark thoughts that have consumed it. He hasn’t tried to pick up anyone else in front of me since that bimbo was on his lap a few days ago. Just remembering the image in my head has me feeling ragey.
“Hey Sunshine.” He calls out before sitting in front of me.
“Jayden.”
“Come on now, you have to give me more than that. We are best friends after all.”
“Besties.” I say sarcastically.
“I’m glad you agree. Having a one-sided friendship is hard as shit.”
I try not to chuckle but it happens. “I’m starting to think you have a drinking problem buddy. You’ve been in here almost every day, you’re gonna start getting a beer gut.”
I should know better than to criticize his physique.
Jayden stands up and lifts his shirt upwards giving me an unbridled view of his rock-hard abs. Damn, could he be any more perfect? I’m finding it hard to swallow when he puts his shirt back in place and once again takes a seat.
“Still worried I’m letting myself go?”
“One beer, coming right up.” I mumble.
After I pour it and turn around I see an anxious looking Victor sitting next to Jayden. I put the biggest smile I can on my face and deliver Jayden his beer. What the hell is he doing here? If it’s to try and convince me once again not to give up my precious flower he’s mistaken. If he couldn’t talk me out of it already it’s not going to happen.
“Hey Vic, I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”
“Oh you know, just stopping in to see if you were up for seeing a movie?” He narrows his eyes at me.
What’s his angle?
“Nope, busy tonight sorry.” I turn around and busy myself with tidying up the liquor bottles.
“Busy doing what?” I hear Jayden question.
“Maybe you can help me convince her to change her mind...”
I whirl around. “I’m going out with Ash and Savvy tonight. Girls night!” I raise my arms in enthusiasm.
“Why would you have to change her mind dude? Sure, the girls can be unpredictable, but with Savvy seconds away from motherhood, how freaky can they get?” Jayden looks confused, or it could be suspicious.
Glancing at the clock I realize its 8pm and my shift is up. Looking over I see Caesar making his way to the bar. Hopefully while Victor’s gawking he’ll be so distracted and won’t notice my stealth exit?
“I have to run to the bathroom gentleman. I’ll be right back.” I walk towards the lady’s room not waiting for a reply. At the last minute, I turn to make sure they aren’t looking before heading into the kitchen for the back exit. I need to get out of here before Victor gets desperate and opens his mouth. There’s no turning back now. I made a deal with the devil and there’s no crossing Satan.
I grab my purse and jacket before exiting into the parking lot. When I make it to my car the breath I’ve been holding expels from my mouth in relief that they didn’t follow me. Although something inside of me wishes they did stop me, so that I didn’t have to deal with what’s about to happen.
As I make my drive a few towns over, the panic overwhelms me.
Can I really do this?
***
Jayden
“God damn it!” Victor jumps up and runs around the bar. He arrives back a few minutes later with a look of defeat on his face.
“What’s the matter Vic?” I hear Caesar question.
“She’s fucking gone. I was going to try and stop her but it’s too late, she snuck out the back.”
He’s starting to worry me. “What do you mean try and stop her? She’s just going to see Sav and Ash. No reason to get your panties in a twist dude.”
“What you don’t know dude, is that Georgie is on her way to do something right now. Something not good.”
That’s got my attention. “Define not good.”
He sighs heavily. “A month or so ago we got into some trouble. I can’t get into that right now because we don’t have the time. But Georgie is on her way right now to meet up with a really bad guy… a scary guy. And to fix our problem she made a deal to give him her virginity if he wipes the slate clean for us.”
“Where is she?” He jumps at the tone of my voice.
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me where they were meeting up, at a party I think.”
“What’s his name Vic? You have to give me something to go on here.” I’m starting to panic, time is not on our side if she’s already on her way.
“I don’t know his real name. He’s known around as Skid.”
“You’re telling me that Georgie is about to lose her virginity to a guy that’s known as Skid? A fucking guy who’s nickname means shit in your draws. Vic, we’ll be having a long drawn out conversation when I’m done with this white knight shit.” I get up and head for the exit with my keys already in hand.
When I get outside I try to think of what to do. There’s one person around here that knows everything about everyone. I pull out my phone and press his contact.
“Jayden, do you have any idea what time it is son? Some of us are with our women folk, maybe you should try it.”
“Hey Jack sorry, I’m working on it. I need to know about Skid.”
“How the hell did you get mixed up with that low life? You know what, I don’t want to know. He runs drugs and moonlights in gambling. He’s a bottom feeder in the Irish mafia. But don’t think less of him, he’s still not someone to mess with.”
“Shit. Do you know anything about where he hangs out? Party spots?”
“He owns a club called ROW a few towns over.” Now I get it, skid row. What an idiot.
I hang up because I know exactly where it is, and if I had to bet money that’s where Georgie’s heading. My phone starts ringing when I start up my car and head to the seedy club a few towns over. I ignore it needing to concentrate on getting there now. Yes, I’ve been there before. Glad as shit I have now.
Twenty minutes later I pull into the dark parking lot across the street from the club. How did I ever think this would be a great place to pick up chicks? Looking around it’s like I’m seeing it through new eyes. The outside of the building has seen better days and the R in the sign is out so it reads OW. Ow is right if I don’t find Georgie.
When I get to the front door, no line mind you, a big ass dude asks for my ID. I hand it over as he gives me a once over. He wants me, but I don’t have time for this. I stick my hand out so he knows I’m in a hurry and head through the door when he places it in my hand. And don’t think I didn’t notice the lingering graze of his fingers.
When I reach the main part of the club it’s like a hit to my senses. Bright strobe lights make it hard to see the gyrating bodies all over the dance floor. Unless this Skid is into some kinky shit he won’t be on the dance floor with my girl. I laugh to myself thinking that’s my type of kinky shit.
I walk up to the bar trying to survey the scene. If I come in here asking a bunch of questions someone will start getting suspicious and that’s how bodies are found in the river.
I order a water and park my ass on a bar stool. A game plan, I definitely need one of those. Subtly looking around my eyes find some sketchy motherfuckers. Problem is, everyone looks sketchy as shit.
“Did you see that hot piece of ass with Skid?”
My ears perk up and my spidey senses start to tingle.
“Dude, that chick was DTF. He said when he was done I could get a test drive. I can’t fucking wait, you just know she has prime pussy. Plus being a virgin she’ll be tight as shit.”
I grit my teeth and try to suppress the urge to knock these guys the fuck out. And also make a mental note to myself to never use the word dude again. Do I sound as douchey as this guy when I say it?
“Did he take her back to his place?”
“Fuck that, his wife’s there. They’re upstairs in his private room.”
And I’m off. Where? I have no fucking clue but I’m bound to come upon a staircase somewhere. Bathrooms, that’s where I’d put some stairs.
And that’s why I’m not an architect. No stairs near the bathrooms. Hmmm, they didn’t just teleport upstairs. That’s when I see a door off to the left of the bar and I’d bet my left nut I’ll find the stairs in that location. I charge through the doorway and find a set of stairs. I head straight up until I’m met with a shut door.
I hope I’m not too late.
***
Georgie
When I pull up outside of ROW, I start to sweat profusely. I need to gather my composure and get this done. In and out really quick. Surely it can’t take that long, right?
When I step out of my car and my make my way to the front entrance, I give my name to the bouncer. He gives me a knowing smirk and pulls out a walkie-talkie.
“Boss she’s here.” He says all while giving my body a once over.
A few minutes later some creepo comes to the door and tells me he’s my escort inside. I follow him through the club as people stare at me. They might not be, but I’m paranoid. In my mind, everyone for sure knows what I’m here for.
Crap, I can’t do this. I go to turn around and I run into something. Not something, some one.
“Everything alright Cherry?” This massive guy asks me and I’m finding it hard to swallow.
“I forgot something in my car.”
“Anything you need the boss will have. Let’s go, he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
I guess there’s really no turning back. We get to a door off the side of the bar and go upstairs. There’s dim lighting and this is the making of a slasher film. Who am I kidding? This is a horror movie.
We all enter the room at the top of the stairs and the low thumping of some rap song I’ve never heard before hits my ears. I quickly try to catch a glimpse of my surroundings. It’s a decent sized room with blood red walls. The floor is black, I don’t know if its tile or hardwood. I see a stripper pole off to the side and that’s when I see it. A giant bed in the corner. Who the hell keeps a bed in their club, don’t they go home?
“Come here.” A voice demands as a shiver slithers its way up my spine.
The guy behind me gives me a small push in the direction of the man that will surely haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. Skid.
When I reach him, he pats the seat next to him. He’s occupying a couch and there’s barely any room in the spot he just told me to sit. I’d be in his lap! I make a move to go to the other side but in a quick motion I end up in his lap and that’s when fear takes over.
“Get out of here.” He barks at his men.
“Have fun boss.” The behemoth yells before exiting the room.
We’re alone for the first time. Even when I made this deal his boys were always present.
My hair is tugged and before I know what’s up his mouth descends on me, his tongue invading my mouth. All I can taste is alcohol, maybe whiskey, and stale cigar. It makes me want to vomit. I push on his chest to tell him to stop but he doesn’t. The torturous kiss continues and I just sit there, letting him take advantage of my mouth.
I’ll never get through this unless I turn off my emotions. I need to give my brain a vacation so I’m present without being in the moment. He can have my body like I bargained, but that’s it.
He mustn’t be happy with my lack of participation because he pulls back and releases a deep sigh.
“Sweetheart, this can be easy or… or I can make this the worst night of your life. It’s up to you.” The bite in his words makes me want to run and never come back.
“Can I just have a minute? Please.”
He allows me to get up off of his lap and walk to the windows that overlook the club. What I wouldn’t give to be one of them right now. Care free on the dance floor. My only worry trying to get the disgusting man grinding on me to stop.
I must have been in my thoughts too long because I feel Skid press his body along mine. His hands work their way up my body from my hips as he palms my breasts. A sob breaks from my throat and it seems to spur him on.
“I’ll take good care of you, really good. No other man will compare to me.”
“I don’t think I can do this.” I whisper through my tears.
“It’s too late for that, now let’s get this party started.”
He gestures towards the bed expecting me to go, but I don’t budge. I can’t. It’s like my legs are betraying me, I know I need to move, but I’m physically incapable. My fear rendering me completely immobile.
“Alright, so your choosing the hard way. That works for me too.”
Skid roughly grabs my arm and drags me across the room to the bed and throws me down. I scream for a second before he’s on me, clawing at my clothes trying to get them off. I hear a tear as he rips my shirt in two leaving me naked up top except for my bra.
I try to scream again but his mouth swallows the noise. With how forceful his lips are on me I know they’ll bruise. I’m sure this won’t be the only place that’ll be marked before the night is through.
His hand roughly grabs my knee, pulling it up around his hip and allowing him to grind himself against my center. I don’t like it. This isn’t how it was supposed to be. I feel his fingers slowly working their way up my leg higher and higher. When they get to the apex of my thigh I hear a crash.
“What the fuck?” Is roared from the other side of the room.
That voice is the answer to all my prayers right now. Skid jumps off me, clearly angry as he marches towards my savior.
“Who the fuck are you? You know what? Walk away pal, you don’t want to interfere right now.”
“I’ll be leaving… with Georgie. Let’s go Sunshine.”
I get up off the bed and Skid yells at me not to move while pointing his finger at me. “She goes nowhere. This is business.”
Jay gets up in Skids face, not backing down. “This doesn’t look like a fucking board room.”
“She entered into this willingly. Now. Leave.”
“What the fuck does she owe you that she’d bargain her V card for? There has to be another way.”
Skid looks back at me with a clever smile on his face. “You don’t know what Georgie and her little friend did? Let me enlighten you. They started gambling and were having a great run, until it ended. Your girl here owes me $120,000.”
Jayden’s eyes widen, but he quickly changes back to fierce protector in the blink of an eye.
“Done. I can write you a check right now.”
“No can do. We traded her body for the money. By no means equal in value, but I do love a good virginal fuck.” He looks over to me and I shrink into myself.
“I’m telling you it’s not happening. Take the fucking money.”
“Alright, I’ll let her leave with you tonight.”
“Okay… so I’ll get you the money.”
“I don’t want your money.”
He walks away from Jayden back to the couch he was at when I first came in the room. He lights up a fat cigar and takes a long inhale before blowing the smoke out. “You.”
“I hate to burst your bubble buddy, but that ship has sailed a long time ago.”
Skid chuckles. “No, you’ll fight for me. You’re a Cage, am I correct?”
“Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?”
“I have a hand in fighting, not exactly of the legal variety. The good stuff, not for the weak or faint of heart. There are no rules like that pussy ass MMA your brothers do. Grown men get fucked up, and I want you to fight for me. Having a Cage will be a main attraction, a huge money maker for me. I’m a business man after all.” He steeples his fingers together with a sinister smile on his face.
“No way, Jayden leave and let me finish-”
“Done.” Jayden agrees.
“Fantastic. I’ll call you the day of your fight to let you know the location. Do not cross me or fail to show up. Next time I won’t be so nice to your… Sunshine. Or her little friend.”
With that Jayden grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room. At the top of the stairs he takes off his shirt and throws it over my head. He holds my hand all the way to his car and opens the door motioning for me to get in.
“I have my car.”
“And we’ll get it later.”
I slide inside because he left no room for argument. Not that I have a leg to stand on here. He just saved me from something that could have broken me.
The drive back to my house is in silence. Not one word, no music, nothing. It’s worse than him yelling at me, I wish he’d just scream already. Surely, he’s mad at me. Look at the situation I’ve got him into.
When he puts his car in park after pulling down my driveway, I unbuckle and exit the car. I don’t expect him to follow me, but he does. When we get inside the house he paces the living room.
“Thank god you’re home!” Victor runs out to me and pulls me into a bear hug.
“I’ve been worried sick about you.”
Tears form behind my eyes as I try not to cry. I hear a noise and see Caesar hiding in the shadows of the hallway.
“So concerned I’m sure.” I’d crack more of a joke if we weren’t in this horrible situation.
“Don’t do that Georgie. He was a wreck at the bar so I brought him home.”
I nod my head in understanding. “Can you guys give us a minute?”
“No, they stay. I need some answers.” Jayden yells.
My body jumps when his voice startles me and I see the anger fall from his face a bit. Just a bit. I go to tell the story, but Victor jumps in.
“We were at a bar a month or so ago. Some football game was on and a guy next to us was explaining how he bet some money on it. When the game was over he was so excited he won a couple grand. We thought it was cool, so we looked into it and started betting. Small bets. $50 here and there. After two weeks, we won ten grand! We figured if we kept this up, we wouldn’t have to work anymore. That lasted all of two seconds before we bet all of it and lost. We thought we knew what we were doing at this point so we knew how to get the money back. That’s when Skid came along offering us a personal loan with him. We borrowed twenty grand and kept betting… and we kept losing. Before we knew it, we lost our bet on the Super Bowl and found ourselves in the hole for way more than we could ever pay back.”
“And when did your fucking virginity come into the equation?” He looks over towards me.
“I went and met up with Skid about a week ago to see if we could have some more time to come up with the money. Or to see if there was any other way. That’s when he put the offer on the table. My virginity to wipe the slate clean and get Victor off the hook.” I look down at the ground ashamed.
“What? Wait you never said that!” Victor says in outrage. “Georgie, I didn’t want you going in the first place, let alone to get all the focus on you. Do you know what that would have done to me had this all gone according to plan?” The pain in his face nearly brings me to my knees.
“You could have gotten the money Georgie. Why didn’t you ask Ashlyn?” Jay asks.
“I just couldn’t! I’m her weird sister from the cult. Poor Georgie. I needed to figure out how to get out of this on my own. I’m such an idiot.” At this point tears are cascading down my face uncontrollably.
“You’re not an idiot.”
“Well I’m fucking naïve as hell, Jayden.” I yell.
“Come here.” Jayden commands.
Vic and Caesar take this as their cue to leave.
“Vic, we have a long conversation coming buddy.” Jayden says to his retreating form.
“Don’t I know it.” Vic replies.
I walk over to Jayden not sure what he wants from me. He sits on the couch. Shirtless in all his glory and pats his lap for me to sit. No freaking way. I sit at the furthest end of the couch.
“You could have come to me, any of us. No one thinks that of you. You don’t need to carry everything by yourself, you have family now. People that care. Me.” He slides closer.
“You don’t know what it was like growing up where I did. I’m late to the game. I didn’t even know what gambling was until I was talking to that guy in the bar. It was fun and exciting. And please don’t blame Vic. I was just as much a part of it as he was. He’s been through a lot in his life and I will always protect him. Always. I don’t regret the decision I made because it was meant to keep him safe. I can say up and down how hard it was for me growing up, but it was a hundred times worse for him. He couldn’t admit what he truly was for fear of punishment… or worse.”
I don’t realize how close he is to me until he wraps his arm around my shoulders.
“I’m really sorry I pulled you into this Jayden. I’ll find some other way. You can’t do this, what if you get hurt?” I whisper.
“Aw, you do care. But I can handle myself. And in case you haven’t noticed, my brothers are star fighters. I know a thing or two.”
“You aren’t nervous?” I question.
“I’m not going to lie, I am. But I’m gonna be prepared and train my ass off to ensure nothing bad happens. Don’t worry about me.”
“Thank you.” I whisper.
“There’s one thing I ask for in return for my heroic duties.”
I laugh while wiping my eyes. “What’s that?”
“Go on a date with me.”
I’m stunned. How could he want anything to do with me after all of this?
“Jayden Cage doesn’t date.” I state matter-of-fact.
“Jayden Cage also isn’t an illegal fighter, but that all changed today. Let’s add this to my repertoire too. Go out with me.” He turns me so I’m staring into his eyes. All I can see is sincerity and it makes my decision easy.
“Oh alright. We can go on a date.” I say nonchalantly as a huge smile lights up my face that I can’t hide. I don’t even try.
This night definitely turned out differently than I thought. I’m so thankful it did.