Where She Belongs (The Forever Collection Book 1) (9 page)

“Okay. I’ll find her.”

I’m not four steps away when Tonya comes up from the side.

“I heard more.” Tonya’s about thirty. She’s been part of my clubs for five years or so now, and I trust her as much as I trust anyone. Former prostitute. Now she’s getting her Master’s in elementary education and still keeping five shifts a week here. “That one, you know, his name is Victor.” She tips her head as Allister is busy escorting them to the door. “Him and one of those others . . . I’ve never seen him before . . . they were talking about Victor getting married. Then they stopped when I put their drinks down. But I was behind the curtain and I heard Victor telling him as soon as he gets her knocked up and she’s had a baby, to ‘take care of it.’ He said to make it look like an accident. Said to slam her head on the concrete then throw her into the pool. She’d get trapped in the pool cover and never be able to get out, and no one would question it.” She takes a deep breath and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

“Thanks.” I’m not sure if I’ll take this to the cops or not. Anything I tell them is just hearsay, so there’s no telling if they’ll do anything about it. And then I’ve played my cards. So maybe I’ll just keep it to myself for now.

“Oh and one more thing.” Tonya touches my arm to get my attention, then quickly removes it when I dart my eyes to hers.

Anyone that works here knows not to touch me. It’s just a thing with me. I don’t like to be touched. I let Allister touch me occasionally, I’m used to him. But he’s the only one, everyone else knows my quirk. But Tonya’s excited and I let it go. It’s nothing more than that, not with Tonya.

“Sorry. What else?” I see the last of the group move out the front door with a line of my heavyweights behind them. “They said her name.” Tonya licks her lips and pulls at her hands. “The girl or whoever he’s supposed to marry.”

“Yeah?” I’m distracted, because I need to figure out how to find May.

“They said her name was Maribelle.”

I just lost my mind.

May

L
eah was waiting up for me when I climbed back in through the balcony doors.

I gave her a rundown of the evening, leaving out huge chunks of information because I’m pretending some if it didn’t happen.

Now it’s nearly 5 a.m. and sleep will not come. I took a bath, counted sheep, but it’s useless. Laying here in my ivory tower, I’m thinking that maybe my plan is stupid and ridiculous. Maybe I’m stupid and ridiculous. I mean, what does it matter even if I do save enough to get an apartment and go to culinary school?

Either way I’m just going to end up right back here in a few months with Victor. I guess in my little fantasy world, if I got out, maybe they would delay the wedding, give me a year to live on my own. A year to be free and have fun, and not screw up all the weird demands and requirements of my parents’ will.

I loved my dad, and he loved me and Leah. But he had some backward ideas about women, that’s for sure. And in his world I guess he figured he was doing what was best for us.

Get married, make a baby, and then everyone is bound together for life. Safe and sound, all squared away. So when those things fall into place, that’s when my inheritance passes out of Simon’s hands.

But it doesn’t go to me. It goes to my husband, who is supposed to take care of me. If we ever get divorced he doesn’t have any rights to the money though, so when Victor and I do tie the knot, it’s until death us do part for real. Proper old school stuff.

And, I have to produce an heir. I have to be pregnant and married for the terms of the trust to be fulfilled. Otherwise it stays in the conservatorship, which has limited power.

I still shake my head at my dad. He loved us so much but he was so old fashioned. Didn’t realize we may have a different version of our lives in mind.

I shiver under the blankets as the grandfather clock chimes in the downstairs parlor. I count the number of chimes. Six o’clock. I haven’t slept a wink and I don’t see that changing until I fall over, exhausted, tonight.

Tonight.

It dawns on me that Deck hired me and I have a job.

I think of all the reasons it doesn’t matter and I’ve already decided I won’t go back. Leah was right. I need to grow up and stop with my crazy schemes.

Besides, what happened with Deck can never happen again. It felt too good. Too right. And I know if I ever see him again, I will never want to come back here. I’ll never be able to marry Victor, let alone think of him doing the same things that Deck did to me. Just thinking about Victor touching me like that sends a very different kind of shiver through my body.

You would think that of the two of them, I would be more attracted to Victor. After all, he’s closer to my age. And he looks like a slick advertisement in GQ. His helmet of dark hair, never a strand out of place. His cold, dark eyes feel as real as a model in the pages of a magazine.

I should feel lucky. Lucky that someone with those looks would even want to marry someone that looks like me. But I don’t. I don’t feel lucky at all. I feel sick and I have to shake away thoughts of Deck’s mouth. His fingers. The taste of my orgasm on his kiss.

As I curl into a ball, trying to shake the chill, I think of how other parts of Deck would have tasted if my mouth would have given him the same pleasure he gave me. And the tears seep out of the corners of my eyes, because I’ll never know.

Decker

“W
ell, fucking find a way!” I slam the phone down, then lift the receiver and slam it again, a couple more times before I finally put my head between my hands.

It’s been almost forty-eight hours. Thoughts of where she is, and if she’s okay, are pushing me to the edge of madness.

I called in a few favors with some cops that come in here, trying to figure out who that slick fuck was, the one who was sitting there the other night, talking about killing May. But their lack of urgency isn’t making things easy.

I still don’t believe it. I know deep down that it can’t be true because who could think of killing someone as kind and pure as May? But I’m not taking a fucking chance here. I have to know for sure.

The phone I gave her has a tracker in it. Okay, I lied, I don’t usually give them out to all my employees. But I had that one in my pocket so I gave it to her. I have a few special phones I give the girls if they are in trouble. Some of them have angry boyfriends. Pimps sometimes.

Over the years I’ve taken on a paternal role with some of them so I keep track of their movements if I think they’re in danger. I think somewhere deep inside, I figured I would never have a family of my own. After watching the shit my mom put up staying with my dad, coupled with my own awkwardness when it came to dating, I just threw myself into helping out the girls here, sort of a replacement for the family I would never have.

But I didn’t think May was in danger when I handed it to her. I just needed to know exactly where she was, if she were ever out of my sight.

Only problem is the phone was dead when I gave it to her. And apparently she hasn’t followed my directions and charged it.

“Goddamn it.” I slam my fists down on my desk just as the door to my office opens and Allister gingerly steps inside. Probably doesn’t know what to expect any more.

“Boss.” His face is gray. He’s been up with me since the fire, trying to piece together this puzzle and help me find my May, so I can get her to safety.

I measure my tone, but I can’t muster any enthusiasm. “What?” He’s been downtown, chatting it up with some of our friendly bureaucrats and judges. Owning a club puts you in a position where you come across certain information. Information that some husbands may not want their wives to know. And it comes in handy from time to time, when we need a favor or some intel of our own.

“I found him.” Allister sits down in the chair in front of my desk. “Victor Galletti. Son of Simon Galletti. They own a couple Ferrari dealerships. Some other small time real estate investments.” He waves a dismissive hand. “But they’ve been managing the Morgan estate since the matriarch died in a car accident years ago. That’s where their real money comes from, and I’d place my bet on one of the Morgan’s two daughters being your girl there. One of them is named Maribelle.”

My skin ripples and I want to skin that fucker alive.

“You have an address?”

Allister nods.

“Let’s go.
Now
.”

May

I
feel nothing.

Simon is scribbling on a pad of paper and Victor is texting someone. As usual.

This office was where my father worked. The walls are made warm with walnut panels and bookcases stuffed with hard backs. Everything from Plato to Jane Austen. He instilled in us a love of books from the earliest time I can remember, but now this room feels foreign, cold. And I just want out.

“It’s settled. It may not be the fairy tale wedding of your dreams, but it’s the way it needs to be.” Simon finishes whatever he is writing and looks over the desk with eyes filled with as much life as a shark’s.

“Tomorrow, the judge will come here. We will have a civil ceremony, and if you like, we can have a toast or a celebratory dinner, whatever, before you head to the airport.”

I hear Victor grunt next to me. It’s not really a response, and even I know it’s not a sound that a groom should be making on the day before his wedding. Resignation or disgust? I have no idea. I just want to scream.

“As soon as you produce an heir, your half of the estate is freed. Your half will be in the hands of your husband.” Simon winks at me and I want to punch him in his fat nose.

Somehow, Simon figured out I’d snuck out. Probably has a camera outside our room. I thought I had it planned perfectly: I snuck down the stairs off the back terrace and through a gate near the service garage which isn’t monitored.

So now he’s decided the wedding needs to happen right now. He asked me a whole bunch of weird questions about where I went and what I did. He even threatened to have a doctor come and look at me. It was weird and disgusting. I felt violated. The way he talked about it, there was something sick in his voice.

Now I understand. I understand everything. Everything they’ve done, all the ways they’ve kept us here under guard. If one of us gets pregnant, produces an heir and gets married, Simon will no longer be hindered by the terms of the conservatorship. One half of the inheritance will be released, but not to that sister. No. It goes straight to that sister’s husband.

Apparently, my going out has them in a panic. That maybe I’ve managed to get a baby in my belly in that one night. What they don’t know is that the very thought of it has my girl parts tingling. Imagining Deck’s enormous erection aimed right at me. Ready, willing and able to serve.

The irony is, I probably could have done just that, if only Deck and I had had more time. But that would never work because Simon has made it very clear. If I don’t marry Victor, I will never see my sister again. I don’t know what he meant by that, but I believe him. So here we are.

“Are we done? Because you two are just wearing me out with all this frivolous celebration.” I tap my toes together as Victor grunts again and I snap my head around. “Do you know any actual words?”