Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Maddox doesn’t know about the hearts we found. Only Alissa does.
I don’t want to tell him about them now. He’ll just get worked up again, and he needs more recovery time than Alissa.
But I imagine the goblet of blood she offered to Maddox is related to the hearts. Maybe Rouge drains the blood of her victims…and then consumes it.
What kind of Vlad-the-Impaler-ass banshee is she?
“We know what we’re dealing with,” I tell Maddox. “We’re going to be careful. And then the four of us will live happily ever after. You can take that to the fucking bank.”
“Thanks, Harrison. I had no idea how lucky I was that day I met you. When I fell into the ravine.” He chuckles. “I bet you’re wishing you’d have just let me drown right about now.”
“Not in the slightest.” I punch his shoulder. “And hey, I saved your life that day. It can’t be that hard to do it again.”
13
BIANCA
I’ve enjoyed hanging out with Jack. His English has gotten a lot better the last few months, and he credits our time together watching movies and playing board games when we’re off from Aces for his quick progress.
He’s really smart. Way too smart to be working at Aces, but he promised five years of service to Rouge in exchange for her bringing him over to the States and handling all his immigration documents. I guess it’s a fair trade. He grew up in a small village in a very poor region of Russia and could barely read or write when he met Rouge. She explained to him—in perfect Russian, he tells me—what she could offer him in the States. He jumped at the opportunity.
Of course, he didn’t know the grislier details—namely, that he would be expected to sell his body to club patrons on the side. The male waitstaff don’t get nearly as much attention as the women, but he still ends up taking two or three clients to the private area behind the velvet curtains most weekends.
“It is entirely optional,” he says. “Rouge made that very clear.”
“Is it, though? Your regular wages can’t be nearly enough to live off.”
We’re in the middle of a game of Settlers of Catan. It’s been our game of choice the last month. I’m getting pretty good at it. Today, though, I’m not paying much attention.
“The extra money is nice. But we don’t need to do it,” Jack counters. “We’re not paying rent, after all. Our meals are comped as well. So this is just extra cash to sock away for when we go off on our own. By the way, I’m building another settlement.”
“Damn it!” I haven’t been watching Jack, and he’s gathered the necessary resources to bring him only a few points from winning the game. I hand him one of the orange-colored settlement tokens from the game box, which he sets up on a prime spot.
He grins. “Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.”
I roll my eyes. “I can hate you both.” I look over my own resource cards, but they might as well be written in Swedish, because my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders right now. “Sorry. I can’t seem to focus tonight.”
He eyes my half-full glass of Sauvignon Blanc. “Have you had a lot to drink?”
I chuckle. “Half a glass of white wine isn’t enough to get me wasted. It’s just…” I sigh, placing the cards back down on the table. “Rouge has been pressuring me to…‘entertain’ as well.”
Jack cocks his head. “Really?”
I nod. “Some of the patrons have been offering three or four thousand bucks an hour.”
His eyebrows nearly fly off his head. “You’re joking. The most I’ve ever made is seven fifty.”
I smirk. “You should raise your price then.”
Indeed he should. Jack is gorgeous, with his wavy sandy-blond hair that covers his ears. He’s got a slim build, but his pecs and biceps are magnificent, barely constrained by the tight black T-shirt he’s wearing tonight. He’s cleanshaven with a good jaw and enchanting hazel eyes. If he weren’t exclusively into guys, I’d have asked him out myself by now.
He scratches his chin. “It sounds like you’re thinking about it.”
I scoff. “Of course I’m thinking about it. That kind of money is serious stuff.” I glance around my modest two-bedroom apartment. “If I were taking a few clients every weekend at that rate, I could get a luxury apartment in a high-rise in the Loop. Be right in the middle of everything.”
“Plus you could invite your best friend to hang out there,” Jack says with a grin.
I swallow. “But… I mean, you get this. Once you sell your body, you can’t…unsell it.”
He exhales sharply. “Seller’s remorse is definitely a thing you’ll deal with.”
I cross my arms. “Be honest. How bad is it?”
He shrugs gently. “I mean… It’s not always pleasant. But you learn to… What’s the word? When you remove yourself mentally from what you’re doing physically?”