Invidious Betrayal (6 page)

God, she’d secretly hated Aria for so damn long she had wondered if she’d ever have the opportunity to stick it to her. Gail had tried so many times to crack that constant sickening smile on the perky princess’s face without reward. She’d even gone after the one boy that had Aria’s attention and even then Aria had stayed completely and stupidly loyal.

Bucky
was
gorgeous, Gail would give him that but he was a country hick. Gail hadn’t thought of him as a prize; she thought he was a fool for not wanting to give her the time of day. She’d tried everything to get him in her bed, practically throwing her pussy on a platter for the dumb fuck. But did he take what was offered? No!
That son of a bitch doesn’t know what he gave up
, Gail thought with a smirk.

She’d even gone as far as kissing the idiot in front of Aria. Did he give in? No! He pushed her away, telling her that she wasn’t his type. Gail laughed at that. She was every man’s type. But things had still worked out, even if it wasn’t what she’d hoped for. Aria had seen the kiss but had turned away before she saw Bucky reject her. He was apparently holding out for the Princess but Gail had hoped to wear him down. It would have been nice to flaunt him in front of Aria for a few months. See if that dumbass bitch would have been so nice after that.
But hey
...Gail shrugged as she thought,
this plan worked out so much better.

It was pure coincidence how the plan had come together. Gail remembered it clearly.

As Gail lay on the bed waiting for her high roller trick to finish with his phone call, she felt sleep pulling her under and was about to doze off when she heard him mention getting a girl for a party Friday night—at a mansion. Gail sat up, listening intently, but he was apparently finished with his conversation. As he returned from the bathroom, she coyly mentioned that she had been hired for a party Friday night at a mansion in Montgomery County. He’d flashed a knowing grin. He must have known she’d been listening. Or hoped she had been. Men often tried to speak business in front of her in an attempt to impress. But what she didn’t understand was why his face turned serious.

“If I were you I’d pay someone to take your place on that gig,” he said in his husky voice. “We’ve got rough plans for the girl and I don’t want to see you hurt. Get someone young and beautiful, like yourself, but someone who you wouldn’t mind being roughed up.”

Gail broke into a sincere smile because right then she had someone perfect in mind. Someone who was barely legal, just the way he liked them. Sal laid out the plan, and Gail gave her input, tweaking it where her victim was concerned. Afterwards they’d fucked—their version of a gentleman’s handshake. Sal was going to get what he wanted and she would get what she’d desired for so damn long—a reality check for the Princess Aria.

That night, as Sal fucked her, Gail thought of little Miss Purity finally getting hers. And how perfect was it that the bitch’s birthday was the same day? It was as if fate had lined everything up just for Gail’s pleasure.

After leaving Aria in Sal’s “capable” hands, Gail had decided to make some more money. A few clients later and more money in her pocket than she’d ever had at one time, Gail pulled into the parking lot at the diner a few blocks from her apartment. She glanced at her dashboard clock and noted the time. It was just about 6am—
breakfast it is
. Gail checked her makeup then went inside with a bounce in her step. She was starving and there was no point in running to the market. Besides, she hated cooking.

It never took long for a waitress to come to her usual table but Gail suspected the women that worked in this diner didn’t like her much. Most of the women she knew, the average looking ones mostly, shot invisible daggers at her face all the time. The hens that worked here weren’t any different.

An aging blonde with split ends and unflattering makeup practically threw the menu at Gail then asked her for her order.

Maybe they are a little different
. Gail thought with a giggle,
they might possibly hate me more
.

Gail tossed her hair over her shoulder and ordered her usual with a grin. She’d learned a long time ago to ignore the haters. Plus it really pissed them off when she didn’t fall into their trap of getting a rise out of her. When the waitress sauntered away, her fat ass jiggling, Gail reached into her handbag for her cell phone. Her fingers grazed the crisp new hundred dollar bills she’d just acquired, causing her body to involuntarily shiver with delight. Money did to her what no man could. Money owned Gail and she was perfectly happy being its whore. It definitely beat working for hours on her feet asking people for their orders.

Shaking off her defensiveness over the waitress’ attitude, Gail took out her prepaid cell phone. She had nothing to do for the rest of the day and there was no sense wasting an opportunity to make a little more money. She definitely didn’t want to end up here. Her plan to find and seduce a high roller to set her up or maybe even marry her was vital now more than ever.

Gail started dialing Elle’s number to see if her boss had any available clients but her phone vibrated before she could finish entering the numbers. Riding high and satisfied with the treacherous act that had thickly lined her G-string, Gail answered the call with an exaggerated sweet hello.

“Lace?”

Yup, Gail’s unusually sweet mood had confused one of the only people she would ever consider referring to as a friend.

“Yeah Shilo, it’s me. What you up to Chickie?”

“Where the hell are you?” Shilo sounded genuinely concerned. Then she whispered, “It’s some shit going down here at the Club.”

“What’s wrong?” Gail pressed her cell phone to her ear in an attempt to hear her friend better. Between the music inside the club on Shilo’s end and the diner noise it was hard to hear.

“I don’t know really but some men were here asking about you. They were in Elle’s office for a while and now no one can get a hold of her.” Shilo took a deep breath. “And Lace, they didn’t look like the nice sort, if you get my meaning. What the hell have you gotten yourself into Lace?”

Shit!
“I…I have to go.” Gail disconnected the call and stood shakily. She didn’t have to wonder who was looking for her. She absently touched her belly, her hunger and her bravado chased away by her fear. She grabbed her handbag, threw her cell inside of it, then rushed through the diner toward the door.

“Hey!”

Gail pushed her waitress out of the way as she flew by and out the door. She threw up her middle finger in response to the waitress’s exclamation. Gail jumped in her car and sped out of the parking lot. Wrapped up in her thoughts, she drove without really paying attention to her surroundings as she made her way to her apartment. She hoped that her boss had done something, that Elle’s actions had brought those men to The Club; that it had nothing to do with her. Elle was an Erica Kane—from an old daytime soap opera—lookalike, and was just as shrewd as the fictional businesswoman.

She must have pissed off a few people along the way
.
This has nothing to do with me and Sal
.

But Gail knew in the pit of her stomach that this was about her. Trouble, that’s what Sal and his men were.
God, if he fucked me over.
She imagined holding Sal’s throat as she squeezed the steering wheel, knowing it was an empty threat. She had a good idea what Sal was capable of. Yet, she had thought that he liked her. Gail wanted to believe that they were partners.

“Fool,” she said with a curse. She was a damn fool.

It wasn’t long before Gail pulled her car into a parallel parking space across the street from her less than cozy apartment. The two-day window that Aria had unknowingly granted her by telling her parents she was staying a few nights was forfeit now that Gail was on someone’s radar.
Fucking gangsters are asking about me.
Self-preservation prompted Gail to implement her disappearance plan early.

Frustrated, Gail placed her hand on her car door handle and angled her shoulder to give the rusty door a push. She needed to relax so she could think better. She needed the comfort of her place to do that. Her city apartment wasn’t the best but it was hers and she’d furnished it better than her trailer back home.

Gail sighed as she looked out of her driver’s side window and focused on the people outside and took in her surroundings. This was the seedy underside of town: the dirty twin of the nicer, cleaner side where Elle’s club was located. This street wasn’t frequented by high rollers and corporate bigwigs. Instead there was a steady flow of the homeless, prostitutes, and drug addicts.

She sucked in a breath.

Maybe that was why the two men she saw walk into her building stuck out. Their clothing and the way they carried themselves wasn’t in character with the scum she was used to seeing around here. She leaned forward to get a better look at them before the men continued inside; the one in the rear glanced around before closing the door behind him. She didn’t recognize them. Gail’s upper lip curled as she entertained the thought that she was just being paranoid. That was until she saw the light inside her apartment flash on.

Her eyes widened in fear and her jaw dropped as she sank back in her seat. She didn’t need to see anything else to confirm that those men she’d seen going into her building were after her. No one other than Elle knew where her city apartment was located. Not even her bitch of a mother was privy to that information.

Gail’s had two identities; in Land’s End she was the daughter of a bible toting Christian who lived in a trailer a few units away from her mother’s, and also took a few courses at the Community College three days a week to become a nurse. In the big City, she was Lace; one of Elle’s sexy sought after escorts. At home she was Gail, no one there knew she was Lace, and no one here in the city knew that her real name was Gail.

As Lace, Gail thought she’d been smart, only allowing one person to know where she laid her head at night. Apparently she hadn’t been smart enough. Gail glanced up again at her shit apartment window just in time to see one of the men push the curtain aside and look out over the street. She ducked down in her seat until he moved away from the window. When she saw that the coast was clear, she started her car and pulled into traffic. Gail hoped like hell he hadn’t seen her as she drove away. She’d seen him, though. Gail again rustled her cell phone from her handbag in the passenger seat and dialed. She remembered seeing the one that peered out of her window before.

Eric Sal made his way down the hall, leaving the empty, darkened room he’d been in. The mansion was quiet now; the party must be over, and all the guests gone. He’d gone into one of the spare rooms to calm himself down. After his last round with Golden Boy’s gift, he’d starting thinking crazy—like considering keeping the little cock-tease for himself and finding another girl for the Boss’s plan.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he opened the bathroom door at the end of the hallway. He ignored his ringing cell phone as he used the facilities, washed his hands, then gave himself a once-over. His shit-eating grin was a sight to see, and he planned to wear it a while longer.

Eric had a taste for barely legal cunt, but today he’d discovered his lust to punish and abuse as he took his pleasure; and because she’d been pure and innocent, his experience had been that much sweeter. And to think, he would never have found his new play thing or his new fetish if that stupid bitch, Lace, hadn’t fucked up and brought him that girl.

A damn virgin
.

“Damn.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. The ringing of the small electronic was endless. “What?” he asked as he ignored the caller ID, but eyed the time. “It’s 6:30 in the goddamn morning. What can I fucking do for you?”

“It’s about goddamn time. I’ve been calling for forever. What the hell have you been doing? You know what, whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Lace breathed. “Your men are in my apartment. Did you send your goons after me? Why are they at my apartment, Sal?”

Sal thought through everything his—as recently as today—former favorite piece of ass just told him. Who would have sent someone to her apartment? As the thought came to him, a shiver of fear suddenly tore through
his
body.
Why would my boss have sent someone to Lace’s house
? Sal was the point man, the closer. If anyone should be taking care of loose ends it should be him.

“I don’t know who’s at your place, sweetheart. I don’t even know where you live, but if I were you, I’d disappear. Keep your fucking mouth shut and don’t call me again. I can’t help you,” he said, hanging up quickly.

Sal placed his hand on his head as he sank down on the hall bench and tried to think of what might have gone wrong. Lace had brought in the sacrifice, he’d told her to beat feet, and then he took the lamb to slaughter. No one knew that the bitch in the room wasn’t a whore but him and the kid. And no one knew he’d gotten his hands on some intense shit, a kickass new drug from his boss’s lab either.

Shit…he’d given that shit to the kid. Sal rubbed his head as he tried to think.
I can take care of this
, he told himself. Once the kid shook off the effects of the drug, Sal would explain to him that he’d just given him a sedative and that the girl was an addict and wasn’t feeling well, so he had taken her to the hospital.