The Runaway Viper (Viper #2) (15 page)

“Well apparently you do scrub up well,” Cassidy sneers, as even she’s unable to truly cuss me down. “The drivers are here, so at least you didn’t make us late.”

The attention disappears as she leads the herd of girls out of the salon and to the awaiting cars. Brianna and I just follow up behind them all and go for the last car. When I climb in, I’m satisfied to see Benson driving, and he gives me an approving nod. I relax back and allow the journey back to the venue fade away.

I don’t even realize I’m walking to the backroom of the building until I’m inside and the hubbub is overwhelming. I just get lost in the operation being run in this room, readying us girls into our order and it begins – the introductions of Clara
Delvine’s prestigious Viper Girls. It’s all happening so much faster than I remember, and I don’t have time to fully panic right now.

As the crowd of Viper Girl diminishes, I linger around and wait as Brianna leaves the room to make her entrance. I’m given the signal and make my way to the door. I run my hands over the dress, felling all the embroidery beneath my palms and take one final breath as I hear it.

"I'd like to reintroduce you to Joely Gilbert!"

Clara’s voice is boomingly loud and in its usual dominant manner. As I follow the sound of her introduction, I am met with a crowd far larger than any I have walked out on before. The number of members Clara has acquired has more than doubled since my last party, and it’s taken me getting this reintroduction to see it.

“I know a lot of you are surprised to see my former head Viper Girl here,” she begins to say as I approach her, but I slow as I’m confused by this part. “I managed to wrangle my runaway viper with a deal she just couldn’t deny – was too good to pass up. Right now, she’s my disgrace, but I know a lot of you would like a girl who’s not got a lot to lose. Hell, you’d like to work with the dog of the club just to help get her in my good graces.” She then claps her hands together. “Trust me, she needs all the help she can get. You knew her as the best, now you can get her at a considerably reduced rate.”

It started as one short chuckle at my own expense then the masses joined in. Everyone starts to howl in laughter at her insulting manner. I look around, feeling trapped by the chortling crowds and there are only a few who aren’t finding this hilarious. Everyone is staring at me, and I feel like I’m shrinking in size.

I don’t hang around. I run away from the room as fast as I possibly can. I don’t care about being in heels or a designer dress. I don’t care about the all the eyes on me. It all becomes real to me. I am the disgrace. The embarrassment. I am the outcast. The club’s dirty girl and now everyone knows it. The Boss made sure of that.

I am
The Runaway Viper
. It’s now official.

***

I’ve been unable to hold my head high since last night. I’ve been beaten by the ridicule I received all night. So much so I cut the evening short and left before I should have. I tolerated as many backhanded comments and inappropriate touches as I could before I bailed. Ever since, my confidence has taken a nosedive.

Now I’m standing in the club, by the bar, clientless and dressed in a sheer jumpsuit. It’s lacy and just about covers my nipples with a bit of modesty. Regardless of what she did, I’m still not prepared for what might happen after Clara approved of the outfit I chose from the pile she had given me. She hasn’t mentioned last night’s events, and it’s almost like she wiped the slate clean.

It does nothing for the nausea that washes over me again and now as she approaches me, she has that look in her eyes that only increases the uneasy feeling in me. The one so full of fire and malice. Her lips pout as she begins to speak, and she tells me I have a client. I nod and turn to go find him in booth six.

Except I don’t move.
When I clock him I don’t go toward him, seduction clocking me falsely. I flee. I turn and run because my flight and fight response are screaming one thing – RUN! RUN! RUN! It’s Sam who stops me. He’s like a wall of concrete persuasion separating me from some wanted warped sanctum and the nightmare behind me. I look up at him, my eyes trailing up his chest. It’s with every centimeter higher I go that my heart begins to rapidly race. I feel the pain increase in my chest as panic and anxiety start a frenzy throughout my body and I feel my legs turn to jelly. When I meet his gaze, it’s cold and stony. He’s bearing down; challenging my soul to take another step further out of line and all I do is gulp.

“I think the club’s back that way,” he whispers to me, pointing in the opposite direction over my shoulder. When I hesitate a moment too long, he forces me to turn around and when I do, I’m met with Clara, her face so full of thunder.

“Please, Clara,” I begin to beg her. The nausea I’ve been suppressing all day arises and I have to hold my breath for a second before continuing. “Don’t do this. Anything but this.”

“I think Clive is the least of your worries. You deserve optimal mistreatment for all you’ve caused this club,” Clara sneers, unhappily to me.

“I’ll pay any other way, but not him,” I speak, my voice disappearing into a slow whisper.

“Yes, him,” Clara states clearly, not backing down. “You’ll be his Viper Girl from now until I say so.”

“What was so bad I deserve this?” I ask, back chatting for a little help at understanding. “You’ve locked me up, chained me up, mentally blackmailed me and now this. What have I done to this club that’s so bad I don’t get to catch a break?”

She laughs in response. “You want to know what they’ve been
through?” I just nod, not sure I want to poke the snake and provoke it, but I need to know. “Get into my office now!”

She brushes past me, and I walk toward her office, Sam already holding the door opened. I’m barely within the room when the door shuts and Clara speaks up.

“I’ll let you know everything I changed as a result of you leaving,” she begins with and sits upon her desk. "Your little stunt running off with your beloved made me close ranks on the girls. I allowed men in I never would have before. Men with pasts, men with intent. Before I let only unhappy businessmen in because well, my husband was one, and I never managed to make him content in all our six years together. Now I let men in who need a real release. Those who need a physical one." She pauses as if the memory is still so horrified she's still living with it as a reminder. Finally, I see her weaken at the treatment us girls have to endure. "Luca was the first to get a man like that. He had so much anger, and he went too far. She wound up like you had once, Joely - hospitalized, battered, bruised." Clara offers another harrowing silence between us. "Except she came back a different woman. She knew the reason she was chosen by him was because she was docile and meek in comparison to the other girls. He wanted to break her." She laughs mirthlessly. "I suppose he did. She's been the most obediently perfect girl since. I only made Cassidy head girl to make her shut up. Stupid girl threatened to go to the officials."

My mind reels on the thought of anyone laying a hand on Luca. She will, even now, always be my first girl to free. I remember the passive, unassuming girl who sat at Clara’s desk, terrified and scared of what she had just done.

"Of course, the new turn of events only got us a lot more attention from wealthier men. The accounts thrived, I had the chance to up my game, and I did. This place might be darker than it was, but my clients are at their happiest now. There aren't any areas we neglect anymore, Joely. A man can make you into whatever the hell he wants, and I won't ever bat an eyelash. Just you see."

I want to beg with her again. I want to bargain with getting another client, but I know she won’t budge. Before she may have, but now, I stand no chance against The Boss. She is out to see me pay, and I thought I had, but apparently it was only the start.

“Do you need to know anything more or is that tiny insight enough?” she asks me so bitterly, and I dread to think what else has happened behind the doors of The Viper Rooms, so I turn away from it blindly and shake my head. “I thought not. Now I suggest you get out there and offer Clive Bennett the night of his life.” She flicks her hand in dismissal but doesn’t dismiss me completely. “Or you’ll be sleeping outside.”

With her final words I am ripped from the room, thrown back into a dangerous game of being an empty vessel for men who have more feeling than they should. I’m supposed to be the emotionless one in these relationships, but I can’t do it. I can’t switch myself off.

I realize that now as I walk as confidently back to the club as I possibly can.  When I enter, I see Clive propped up at the bar, drumming his thick fingers against the wood. He spots me, and as he beams at me, I take the slow death over to him.

“Evening, Mr Bennett,” I comment compliantly and politely.

“Ah, Joely Gilbert, you finally came back to me,” he comments, a small ounce of mirth suffocating his tone.

This is the beginning of my end. As his arms snake around me I remember our first meeting. It had been a long time ago since I last envisioned his face. I had been clouded by Jace and a blissful life. Now it was right in front of me, smiling with evil glee and staring at me with those menacingly intent-filled eyes.

This is why I ran. This is my body screaming at me not to stay here. I never wanted to feel his hands on me again. I never wanted to feel how violent one hold of his could be again. As his hand grasps onto my hip, he squeezes so hard I feel the pain go bone deep. I close my eyes and bite my lip as to not yelp out loud in pain.

"It's been a while," he speaks so lowly into my ear, the seduction palpates from him, and I'm physically disgusted. He goes to kiss me and I instinctively move away. Like all pain receptors my
body is screaming at me to move away from possible hurt, but Clara sets into mind, and I know I have no right to pull away. I have no right to deny Clive what he wants from me.

Even if it means I end up like I did before.

"I've got to say I have missed you," he continues, oozing with disputation all over again. "No other girl feels quite the same as you do when I dance with them at the parties."

His words send a hummingbird of panic through me. Each note thrumming upon parts of me that have lived for so long silent and abandoned. Clive awakens parts of me I never wanted to know, and I never wanted to hear the distant howl of fear so haunting and tortured, but
it's there, being released into the abyss of my unwilling behavior. I have to live with it’s beseeching torment.

I gaze over his shoulder, trying to steer my vision from Eli and find myself met with Josh and my brother. I weaken, even physically lose the ability to breathe for a minute, and I feel trapped. Eli and Josh know of Clive, know what he did to me, but Spencer doesn’t. I’m sure he will soon.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Eli interrupts Clive’s advances, and I break away from him. “Joely, you’re eight o’clock is here. Clara ordered you welcome all clients the moment they arrive.” He says so as he places a bottle of champagne upon a silver tray and three glasses. “It looks like you’re nine o’clock is there too. Clara won’t like you ignoring their entrance.”

“You’re right,” I say and grin. Clara never made that order this time, but I love Eli for implementing it to give me a moment of respite and an incentive to make it through the hour with Clive. I apologize to Clive and quickly take the drinks tray and head over to the table.

“Your drinks, Mr Phillips and Mr. Smith,” I play my part as Shads walks past.

“Why were you with that bastard?” Josh asks as I offer them a bottle of champagne. It was originally Clara’s orders for all of my clients to receive a welcome and a drink until I’m a fully initiated girl. “After he nearly killed you and you’re
schmoozing him?”

I see Spencer bridle at the sound of that, and I know he’s still pretty clueless to the events that led up to Jace literally having to kidnap me. I try to keep a brave face on and just grin. I won’t give anything away even if I want to break out in dread.

“I don’t get a choice,” I tell him with a watery gaze. “She’s given me my orders. He’s my client now.”

Josh leans in across the table. “You get a choice for your own safety, Joely!” Josh’s anger is only mounting, and I can see from the redness of his face, he’s only going to madden. “Jace will not stand for any of this.”

“Jace isn’t here,” I tell him, feeling like I just allowed myself to believe I will never be free. I’m bitter that Jace no longer gets a say, I’m twisted and tormented with resentment over this entire situation. “He doesn’t get a say anymore.”

“Sis,” Spencer speaks up, preventing me from leaving. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,” I vow, giving him the realest smile I can muster. “Don’t worry. I have to go back to my client. I’ll be back when it’s your time.”

I go back to the wolf
who waits for the pleasure of my company.

I've been spewing my guts for a solid ten minutes. My knees are numbing from the cold tiles of the club's ladies’ restroom. It's now I wish I had my own room because then this would be more private.

I slump onto butt, my head rolling back to rest upon the cubicle door. I feel exhausted and empty. I want nothing more than to crawl into a comfortable bed, snuggle up with the sheets, and pray for Jace to enter and care for me. I close my eyes and cast myself to that sort of life. It’s bliss, utter euphoric heaven. I wouldn’t leave, but my stomach rolls over, and I’m back hugging the toilet bowl. As I dry heave, my stomach clenching tight with each convulsion, I feel the overwhelming need to cry. I was always one to absolutely hate being sick. It’s always been a phobia of mine, and here I am living it.

When the retching silences, I’m left with a larger ache in my stomach and know I need to get back out to the club. I flush the toilet and use it to support my weight as I push up. I take a few deep breaths, and I stumble from the claustrophobic space and haphazardly make it to the row of porcelain basins.

“Feeling better?” Cassidy asks sanctimoniously as she stands leaning against the end sink.

I jump
back, unaware she had even entered the room. I immediately nod and step toward the sink, turning the tap on.  My heart picks up a faster pace at the fact she’s obviously been here a while. I don’t get to answer her as I turn back to gaze at myself in the huge mirror before me. I look entirely washed out and my eyes show how nauseous I still am. It’s been this way for a week now, and I’m starting to tire of it.

She calculates a few steps and takes them. “You do realize Clara will
kill
you if this is morning sickness.” I don’t answer, and Cassidy begins to laugh. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” she asks, her voice just falling short of a sneer. My answer again seems to feed her need for verification, and she takes my silence as an affirmative. When, in reality, it’s because I don’t know. “The Boss is going to love hearing this!” She pushes me slightly, almost out of mockery and giddiness to have something over me. “You are just one disappointment after another, Dog!”

As she leaves, I go to argue, to bargain my fate out of her hands, but my stomach roils, and I'm forced back into the small cubicle space to throw up what little I had in my stomach already. I fall down onto my knees and pull my hair out of the way just as I spew all over again. As the energy drains from me even more, it dawns on me that Cassidy might be right about something.

Instinctively, my hand goes to my stomach, and I fret about what this could mean for a baby being born into this lifestyle. The idea is quickly doused by the thought of me carrying a baby created out of love with Jace. It would be a true testimony to our love. We spoke multiple times about a big house with a handful of children. We dreamed of the happiness and love we would bring them up with. This just isn’t the start I thought my child would have.

Even though I have no clue if I am, the signs are there. The possibility is there with the amount of times Jace and I skipped using contraception in the throes of unadulterated lust. This will have been a baby created from love and no fear. Yet its potential future is smothered with uncertainty and fearsome realities.

When I’m sure my stomach has calmed again I finally decide to go back to work. I’m wracked with guilt over the potentiality of my predicament and for spending so long behind this door. I have Josh coming within the hour, Clive is back, and Clara is gunning to have me with other notoriously warped clients. The fear that now laces my blood is unlike before; I don’t want to put myself in harm’s way in case I’m carrying my husband’s child. What would life be like if I lose a baby before I even know I have it?

Swallowing hard on the thought, I turn the taps on, rinse my mouth out, and wash my hands. I then dry them quickly and flee the room, walking straight into Sam. I take a step back, ready to step around him, but he grabs me just above my elbow and drags me from the restrooms toward Clara’s large domineering office door. I’ve been in this room far too many times lately, and I hate it. The Boss loves to see us, but not hear from us. It’s how she works. We only go to her when a wrong doing has been committed. It’s all I seem to be able to do lately. Soon my punishment will escalate and, right now, my worries aren’t concerned with my wellbeing, but the child within me. I don’t know how, but I feel complete knowing I’m with child. I don’t even have proof, but I know what I feel is right.

When I’m thrown in, Clara doesn’t even look at first.

"What disobedient act have you committed now?" Clara asks as se stills the pen on her paper work. Clearly Cassidy hasn’t named my misdemeanour this time, but alerted The Boss to it. "I'm busy as it is, I don't need more of your problematic ways." I hesitate, not wanting to admit the possible truth. "Well?"
Clara demands, not looking happy at my lack of quickness to answer. "Spit it out!"

Her temper has been continually thinning on me even though I have be model Viper Girl.

"I-I might be pregnant," I utter, the words faint on my lips. I don't look at Clara, the anger radiating off her almost immediately is enough to keep me passive and withdrawn.  I stay staring at my own feet, especially as Sam’s hold on me tightens dramatically. I fell myself lifting slightly, trying to ease the pain he’s inflicting.

"Release her," Clara orders Sam and he obeys.

I fall flatter on my feet and wish I had his fierce grip to stop me from falling down. My legs are completely jelly, my stomach aches and my head is in a fierce command with my fight and flight response once more.

Clara stands, waving Sam to leave us. She’s staring at me and I now choose to look back at her. She looks
enamored with irritation, enflamed by a sudden life change I’m thrust into. Her heels click upon the floor as she walks from her side of the desk to mine.

“Pregnant?” she asks rhetorically. “Is this some joke?”

“No,” I answer immediately, my nostrils flare as my eyes water heavily.

“When did you have your suspicions?” she asks me tensely.

“Not until just now,” I reply honestly. “I’ve been feeling sick all week, but Cassidy made me think it.” A bolt of terror races through me, setting my entire body alight. I feel the sudden need to dig myself out of a hole. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Clara. I would never do this purposefully. I don’t have a life fit for a child.”

“If you’d never
ran, we wouldn’t be in this shitty predicament.” Her words are ground out, her jaws barely loosening as she speaks. “If you’d just obeyed me in the first place, none of this would be happening!” Her voice now levels up, hollering her governance at me. “I set those rules to stop things like this from happening. I set those so girls like you didn’t stray! I set those damn rules to keep you mine, Joely.” She finishes her sentence as she rushes toward me, grabbing my face fiercely. “You had one job to maintain for just six years, it wasn’t a lifetime! Yet you disappointed us all. You stink of utter failure.” She throws my head away from her. “Go, dismiss your clients, wait behind the bar. I’m calling the club’s doctor,” she commands, alerting me to the changes of the evening. “We’re clearing this mess up.”

I get no time to answer, I just leave. I bolt back to Eli and try to calm myself. If I have any idea, then Clara’s idea of clearing this mess up would involve me losing the baby. The thought of being forced to have an abortion would send me postal. I wouldn’t care for any consequence; I would fight my way out this place and not care about the consequences for me. I cannot believe how overwhelmingly protective I am of a child I don’t even know I’m carrying.

“Eli!” I cry as I rush up behind the bar to him. I pull him away from Jay and cling desperately. "I need you to get me a phone. I need to call Jace." My watering eyes finally allows the tears to pour down my cheek. “Please, you’ve got to help me.”

“What’s going on?” he asks as he pulls me back into the kitchen. We’re alone in here, but I don’t know if I should tell me. “Joely?”

“I think I’m pregnant. Clara wants to
sort
it out.”

“Use this now!” he demands, handing me his phone. “I’ll stand watch.”

I go into the kitchen and shakily type in Jace’s number.

“Eli!”
Jace’s voice bellows down at me. “How’s my girl? Please tell me she’s doing okay today.”

“She’s okay,” I whisper to him, the sobs finally taking me victim. I cry and strive for control. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too,” he replies, the pain is evident and it kills me to hear it. “It’s so good to hear your voice, baby.” I don’t answer verbally, just choke a sob. “I’m trying everything to get you out.” His voice sounds so fraught, so compelled with apologizes and disappointments, but none of it matters to me.

“Don’t worry about that right now. I’m not calling for that.” I try to calm him. “Jace, I thin-”

The phone is plucked from hand and before I can even tell him I think I’m pregnant. I turn around, ready to grab it back, but Clara stands before me, holding the iPhone up. I can hear Jace screaming for me, but Clara just ends the call. Her face begins to lighten up, the wickedness framing all over her, taking control.

“We’ll see what punishment I can give you later for that.”

***

"You had better pray hard that you were wrong about this," Clara hisses at me as she stands beside me in the doctor’s office.

I gawk at her, unsure if the wave of nausea is an impending life changer or the odor of pure evil stagnating from Clara.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask her, my retort pleasantly snappy. I enjoy watching her look at me - The Fallen Viper, the runaway Viper Girl - actually have the guts to stand up to her. My fight has waned a lot over the passing weeks, but occasionally she pipes up, and I applaud it when it shows face.

She laughs at me then. "Don't think because you're potentially pregnant means you get out of The Viper Rooms, Sweetheart. I own you which means I also own that spawn that's inside you." She leans in, her eyes shooting daggers straight into my heart. "Bring a baby into my world and you'll live to regret it. Mark my words."

I go to respond, but there’s a knock on the door and it consequently opens, showing me the doctor who was waiting for us when we arrived. She’s a long member of the staff Clara holds for us girls, but I know she doesn’t know what really happens back in The Viper Rooms. Gulping nervously, I hope she has the results of my blood work she drew, but she just gives me a small smile.

“Right, I just need for you to pop into the restroom over there and give me a sample.” I watch as she hands me a tiny cup and I shakily take it. “No need to panic. This should be an exciting time.”

Clara’s hand hits my back, and I flinch at her touch. “It really is. None of my girls have gotten pregnant while working for me. It’ll be a new change.”

Wanting away from her, I take the cup and disappear into the side room. I can hear the muffled talking between Clara and the doctor but can’t quite work it out. I hear something about the club, about how well it’s doing and another upcoming party, but nothing else. I don’t want them out there alone any longer than I have to. I don’t want her discussing my child’s life.

My child
. Jesus, I’m on the cusp of working out if I am actually pregnant, but I’m acting like I already am. I hope I am, then I can watch the smugness get slapped off Clara’s face, and she can forget inflicting any pain upon me. It’ll be my own form of leverage over her. Finishing I hurry myself to leave the small space and hand the cup over to the doctor. She instructs me to sit back on the exam table while she runs a quick pregnancy test.

She dips litmus paper into the sample and I grip my hands together. I want so much for her to say I'm pregnant, but a part me is begging that I'm not.  This isn’t the right time to find out this news. Not without my husband beside me.

The moment she turns to face me, I know the outcome. "Well the pregnancy test is negative." The doctor turns to face me, and I feel a hole blow directly in the center of my chest. I feel wounded and a part of me hollows out - my womb. There is no baby for Jace and me. There is no salvation in my life, only a harsh realizm that I'm in for it now. There’s a small part of relief that I won’t bring a baby into Clara’s world, but that’s eclipsed by a shot of longing.

I'm relieved I never told him I was pregnant. I'm even thankful Clara stopped me from doing so. At least now I don't have to tell him. I don't need to admit to him that I lied. Now I have nothing keeping us as one, nothing keeping him with me. I feel even more alone now than I did before.

"I'll get a rush on the bloods, but I'm not sure they'll be in until morning. It is quite late."

“What about the nausea and sickness?” I
ask, my voice becoming void of any emotional input. “Why am I so sick?”

“From the exam I see no obvious reason for it. Hopefully the blood work will show something.” She flicks through the flip chart before her, baffled for a moment. “You’ve got signs of dehydration, but I highly doubt that would cause such lengthy bouts of nausea and vomiting.” The doctor gives me a look, but I look away, unable to deal with being unaware of my own health. All the pointers had eluded a pregnancy, now that wasn’t the case. “I’d like to just run another few tests then you can leave.”