Page 1 of Five Days

Prologue - Zack

“I didn’t do that,” I stated, my guts in knots and forehead dented with a deep frown. Leaning forward in my chair, I picked up one of the pictures Elite’s gay branch manager, Sean Fox, had indicated atop his desk between us.

Being falsely accused of sexual assault as a teenager had gotten me kicked out of my foster home, and now having it happen while on the job as an escort riled shit back up. My stomach clenched to the point of nausea.

I remembered the night in the images from a few weeks earlier as clear as though it’d been yesterday. The guy had asked me to make it appear as though I was rough with him. Push him against the wall with faked intent to hurt him. Pretend to choke him out. He’d claimed he had a role-playing kink, and as an EEMM employee, I aimed to fulfill his fantasies in a safe environment.

Causing pain wasn’t my thing—but there was one little asshole I wouldn’t mind choking out until he begged me to let him live.

Whenever I thought of what happened fifteen years ago with him, my blood sizzled from righteous anger and lust alike. He deserved my rage in spades. But physical hunger? I hated that I still wanted him and that he still wouldn’t leave me alone, no matter how many times I’d attempted to block him.

Well, fuck the asshole from my past, and fuck my one-time client Jackson Zerig, who was now going to throw me under the bus.

Teeth clenched, I looked at the second image of Jackson that showed a close-up of his neck where I’d supposedly marked him. Bruising appeared on his skin, but there was no way those were my fingerprints. He’d specifically asked me to not hold him too tightly.

So I hadn’t.

Please the client—those were words we Elite Escorts lived by, and I tried to always keep the peace and stay out of drama.

“He’s demanding two million in cash, or he’ll leak these to the press,” Sean stated, his voice shaken.

Blood drained from my face, and I jerked my focus off the images to meet my manager’s troubled expression. “But I didn’t do this! I barely put any pressure on his neck!”

Sean swallowed before assuring me he believed me. Promised I had nothing to worry about.

“Tell me what happened—every detail and word you can remember,” Sean said, so same as always, I did as requested. In my book, honesty was the best policy.

Reliving that night twice aloud to make sure I didn’t remember something wrong only caused my twisted stomach to worsen.

We went over the contract Jackson had signed along with his listed limits. He’d wanted to be wined and dined—his exact words—and seeing as how I was Elite’s best at setting clients at ease, Sean had assigned me to him for the evening.

The fucker had set me up. Used me in the hopes of swindling money out of Elite.

“You’re booked tonight then again on Friday, right?” Sean asked as I finally got up to leave.

“Yeah.” I pulled my car keys from my pocket, half expecting him to suggest I take a few days off until shit got straightened out.

“Are they new or returning clients?”

“Returning.”

Lips pursed, he nodded while gathering up the falsified yet damning pictures still strewn over his desk. “I know I don’t have to tell you to be careful. Along with Drake, you’re one of the best escorts we have. Rave reviews. Weekly requests. You’ve made quite a name for yourself, so fingers crossed this shit will only end up being a bump in the road.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded. How long had it been since someone had my back?

My afternoon had been ruined, and my thoughts jumbled like a riotous mess that wouldn’t allow me to consider much else as I exited the building.

Ever since I’d been forced to go off on my own at eighteen, I’d been living by the rules as much as possible. Doing whatever work I could find to keep my head above water. And now, some asshole hoping to make a quick buck had to go and drag me into unwanted drama.

I’d always feared being accused of something else. It was why I didn’t trust people and had chosen to only look out for myself.

When the senator’s son had done this to me while we’d been teens, I’d moved to another state and started over, heartbroken and aimlessly wandering. I’d recognized I had no one to rely on but myself. No family. No close friends.

But now?

Jaw clenched, I turned my car back toward Boston, the place I’d come to love. The rich suburbs were beautiful and all, but the city was my home. I’d found a quasi-family in EEMM, bound by our work that straddled legal lines. Before I’d left, Sean said he and his brother, who owned Elite Escorts, would take care of the attempts at extortion. I had no choice but to believe him, as neither man had let me down yet.

At least I had no record staining my past should the event end up going to trial. It’d been my foster brother who’d initiated the affair by stripping down and climbing on top of me, dragging me from sleep. He’d intended to gift me his virgin ass as a present for my eighteenth birthday.

---