“Yeah?” He steps towards me and I step back. He grins like it’s funny, like he knows that he’s scaring me. “Why? Do you have another client after this? Or is it Ferro again?” Henry steps forward and I step back. He advances on me until my back hits the wall.
“I want what I paid for, skank.” Henry places his hands on my shoulders and leans, forcing all his weight onto me. My knees buckle and I kneel between him and the wall. I don’t wait for him to whip it out, I act. With all the force I can muster, I draw back my fist and slam it into his junk, while his hands are occupied by his zipper. Henry gasps and doubles over.
I jump out of the way before he can catch me, but I’m too close the wall. His hand grabs the back of my neck as I race past him. His other hand is there in a flash, strangling me. Rapidly, I step backward, trying to pry his fingers off my neck. I’m screaming at him, but my voice is being choked into silence.
My knees hit the back of the bed and he pushes me down. The crazed look in his eyes tells me that he’s going to do more than f**k me. He has every intention of hurting me as much as he can. I can sense it even though he never says a word. The silence is thick, suffocating me. I watch in terror as Henry chokes me. A bead of sweat rolls down my temple. His eyes track it as his hands grab at my thighs and shoves my hem out of the way. The beautiful panty is ripped away. When Henry goes to crawl on top of me, something crunches on the floor under his foot. I hear it, but the sound doesn’t register. My heartbeat is a million times louder.
Henry straddles me. His pants are still on, half undone, and his hands reach for my face. He leans in close, pinning me to the bed. Resting a hand on either side of my face, he strokes me over and over again—slow and creepy. The whites around his eyes are exposed as he stares at my neck without blinking. His hands drift there to the soft spot at the hollow of my throat. His thumb strokes the vulnerable place softly, like he knows that pressing into it will crush my windpipe.
I’m going to die. My death wish is finally coming true, and it’s not until this moment that I realize how much I want to live. This can’t be the end, it can’t be. I worked too hard and came too damn far on my own to be killed by this man, but there’s nothing I can do. I can’t bite, kick, or claw my way out of this. It’s not until that instant that the tears start cascading down my cheeks.
Henry closes his hand into a fist and positions his thumb on top of the soft skin on my neck, staring, like he’s mesmerized. He savors the moment, slowly twisting his wrist and feeling me gasping for air as the pressure increases, bit by bit. Before Henry pushes all the way down and buries his thumb in my neck, the door is kicked open. Wood shards fly across the room as the doorjamb breaks apart. Henry looks up just in time to see Gabe coming at him. One of the old guy’s beefy hands collides with Henry’s side.
As Gabe lands the punch, he says, “Ride’s over, a**hole.” Henry is launched off the bed and hits the floor like a rag doll. Gabe walks around and says, “This is from me, personally.” Gabe’s leg swings, and wheezing sounds of pain come from Henry.
Jumping off the bed, I run over and grab Gabe’s arm before he can kick Henry again. “Don’t,” I plead and tug on his arm. “Just get me out of here. Please.”
Gabe stops and turns back to look at me. “Gather your things, Miss Stanz, and meet me in the hallway. There are consequences for messing with Miss Black’s girls. I need to make sure the message is received.”
I’m shaking. I don’t notice it until I try to nod and can’t. Taking my purse, I turn my back on them both and walk out the door.
CHAPTER 8
“Avery, you all right?” Mel asks as she skewers a hotcake and pops it into her mouth. I couldn’t manage to tell her what happened with Henry. I covered the slight black and blue on my cheek and smile a lot, hoping that she won’t ask questions.
As it was, Black asked a million questions and wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault until Gabe spoke. The only bright side to today was the huge check. Apparently when a client tries to kill one of Black’s girls, we get compensated.
The money is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to get rid of it, but I can’t. I know that would be stupid, but it feels tainted. I nearly died earning that bit of cash.
“Yeah, you’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.” Marty picks up a sausage and makes an obscene gesture.
Mel sneers at him. “Cut it out, dickwad. You don’t have to pretend to be bi or homo or whatever the hell you were doing before. And I think Avery forgave you way too fast for pulling shit like that, so don’t piss me off or I will stab you with my fork. Then, my pancakes will get bloody and I’ll have to kill you with my spoon.”
Marty blinks at her. The shock is short lived. He grins. “I bet you’ve done lots of things with a spoon.” He winks at Mel and then stabs a sausage and hands it to her. “It’s demonstration time.”
Mel’s amber eyes widen as her mouth falls open. “Holy shit. You did not just say that to me. Did he really just say that, Avery?”
I’m lost in thought, wondering about everything and nothing. My mind skips between things that seemed pointless at the time, but now mean something. If that light at Prairie Drive didn’t take so damn long, I would have never met Sean. There are little things like that flooding my mind, and I can’t stop them.
Mel bumps my shoulder. “Hello? What’s with you? He told me to suck off a sausage in the middle of IHOP.”
I shrug. “So, do it.”
Marty tries to hide his laughter under a napkin as Mel gives me a WTF face. She blinks and a second later, she grabs the fork and is doing sexy things to the sausage. I’m leaning on my hand, staring blankly, but I’m aware enough to know Marty is transfixed by whatever Mel is doing—and so are the guys in the next booth. They’d been talking about some game way too loudly and now all three of them are silently watching Mel give her breakfast a blowjob.
I glance at her out of the corner of my eye, like I’m bored. “I wouldn’t swallow if I were you. I’m pretty it’ll be all grease. You’ll gain ten pounds in one gulp.”
Mel nearly chokes and puts the thing on her plate. The three guys are now staring at me, as well. Mel start laughing, but she has a strange smile on her face. “You’re talking a bit too loud there, Avery.”
“You’re blowing your breakfast, Mel. I don’t think it matters much.” I glance up at her, after folding my napkin into a swan. My mom taught me how to fold napkins before she died. It was her latest hobby.
One of the guys across from us stands and walks over to our table. He gives Marty the guy nod and says to me and Mel, “There are very few women who demand attention the way you do.”
Mel laughs, “Which one of us are you talking to there, Slick?”
The guy smiles. He’s attractive, with sandy blonde hair that’s not too long or too short. Coupled with a firm body and blazing blue eyes, he’s a hottie. “What makes you think I was only talking to one of you?” He leans forward and places his hands on the table. There’s a silver ring at the base of his thumb. I stare at it for a second too long. He says to me, “Cock ring. Comes in handy, so I just carry it with me.”
“It’s kind of small.” I flick my eyes up to his. I don’t feel like fending him off right now. It was the quickest shortcut to getting rid of him.
He grins and looks at me. “There’s nothing small about me, baby.” Mel’s eyes flick between me and the guy. She’d normally cut off his balls, but today she isn’t.
“Prove it,” Mel blurts out. “Whip that sucker out right now and show us the miraculous marvel that is tucked into those tight jeans.” Mel sweeps her eyes to his waist and then dips her gaze lower. When the guy doesn’t move, she glances up. “Well, come on. I don’t have all day. Besides, me and my friend here will only do a three way if the guy has a really big dick.”
The guy swallows hard. “A three way?”
“You walked over to the right table. In fact, my friend here is sometimes gay, so if you play your cards right, you might get a four way.” Mel laugh-smirks as she inclines her head toward Marty, who, in turn, wiggles the tips of his fingers at the guy. “So, whip it out and show us. If it’s big enough, we’ll make your wettest dreams come true.”
The guy stands there like he doesn’t know what to do. His friends are laughing, egging him on. A waitress brushes past him and the guy nearly jumps out of his skin. “You’re just shittin’ with me.” The guy smiles and turns to walk back to his table.
Mel shrugs. “Well, now you’ll never know.” When he looks back at her, Mel winks at him.
He laughs like she’s kidding and slips into his booth. Their conversation continues in hushed whispers. They keep looking over at us.
“You’re evil. You know that?” I say, and shake my head. “Let’s get out of here before this turns into an urban legend.”
Mel slips out of the booth. “Oooh! I like that! If you see a girl sucking off a sausage at the IHOP on Sunrise Highway, then you’ll be invited to have a three way with her and her hot friend. Totally the stuff legends are made of. Damn, I love breakfast!” Mel glances at the table of guys and licks her finger seductively. Then, she points at the guy we were talking to. “Could have been you.”
“You were joking. It wasn’t a real offer.” The guy is smiling, and it sounds like he’s trying to convince himself. His friends are smiling hard, watching him.
Marty says, “That’s what you think. Why do you think they let me hang out with them?” He mouths huge dick and waggles his eyebrows. As we walk out, the guy’s friends start teasing him for passing up two hot chicks.
“Well, you totally screwed with that guy, and I helped make the legend of the Long Island sluts into a real thing. I bet it’s floating around Facebook by morning.” Marty walks next to me, smirking triumphantly. Mel is ahead of us, speed walking to the car.
I fold my arms across my chest and walk. There hasn’t been much of a smile on my face tonight and Marty knows me too well. “So, what happened?”
My eyes cut to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“At work, something happened. What was it? You seem spooked.” He touches my forearm lightly, stopping me. We’re standing in the middle of the parking lot. I look up at him, wanting to tell him, but afraid of what he’ll say. “Just tell me. I think I already know. The a**hole messed with you, right?”
“How’d you know that?”
“It’s all over your face. Are you okay? Do I need to break his neck?”
I shake my head. “No, Gabe took care of him and got me out before he really had a chance to hurt me. Somehow his crazy got past Black. She didn’t know he was jealous or nuts.”
“Jealous? Who would order a call girl and then be jealous?”
“A crazy person. He hates Sean and when he realized I was with Sean this weekend, he went nuts. He would have killed me if Gabe didn’t show up. I’m kind of out of it, that’s all.” I start walking again. Mel has started the car. The sky is that dingy gray, like it’s going to snow again.