Page 41 of Sin and Salvation

The sick swoop of my stomach made me wonder if my breakfast was going to come up all over him.

“No hands.” I rose so we were no longer touching, slapping his hands away gently—I was afraid to lose all that cash, a fear I couldn’t fight.

But the fear was also of him. We were all alone behind the curtain…

“How about I get what I paid for?” He was no longer smiling, and hooked a finger under my panties, pulling them away.

I couldn’t get up now, not without him tearing them right off me. I opened my mouth, ready to tell him off, when his fingers tried to go further. Shock ripped through me, and I braced a hand on his chest, ready to slam him away from me.

“Come on, princess. I’ve paid enough for this, don’t you think?”

No, I mouthed, the shock of being molested stealing my voice away. You’d think I’d be used to this, after Maxime. But somehow, in the club where I felt so unusually secure, having someone try to grope me still came as a punch to the gut.

Before I could yell for Brody, the curtains were ripped open. Light and music blasted into the room.

Crow stood there, his face twisted in a scowl, dark eyes gleaming with inner fire. His eyes landed on me, my hands trying to push the client away, the demon’s hands on me. The way his fingers were so close to my pussy, and the look on my face.

In two steps he’d crossed to us, and gripped the arm the demon had hooked in my panties.

There was tearing fabric. A ripping sound like a water balloon being thrown against a concrete wall.

Heat splashed over my face, breasts, and stomach. It dripped red over the walls, over Crow’s hands.

Out of the disembodied arm he held.

Beneath me, the demon arched, his body as stiff as a plank of wood. His mouth was stretched in a silent scream.

I stood up woodenly, looking down at the vivid crimson drops that covered me from head to toe. How much blood did a demon hold? I felt like I was moving through syrup, the passage of time slowed to a halt.

“You don’t touch the girls,” Crow growled. “Especially notthisone.”

He dropped the arm. The demon was already bleeding out, as pale as a sheet of paper. Still feeling like I was moving like a marionette, I found Brody at the curtain, looking in at the gory mess with a completely impassive expression.

Was this a usual thing for him? Walking into the VIP rooms and finding dismembered bodies?

“Brody. Get the boys to clean this up. I’ve got business upstairs.”

ChapterTwenty

Iwas still silent as Crow took my shoulder, leading me away.

I hadn’t even noticed that the music had died. In its absence, the club suddenly felt emptier. Whispers grew, bouncing off the metal walls, growing louder as the scene left behind in the VIP room became clear. Kylaea was frozen in place, half-wrapped around her pole.

Crow seemed to realize he was still holding a disembodied arm at the same time I did. Without batting an eye, he tossed it in a trash can on the way through the back entrance.

I blinked in the bright lights of the hall, hearing voices erupt behind us that grew muted as the door swung closed. Crow jabbed a finger at the elevator buttons, leaving a bloody smear behind.

“What did he do.” His voice was so flat, there was no inflection in his question at all.

It took me a minute to find my voice again. “He… he tried to grope me. I told him no, but…”

I trailed off. I didn’t need to explain myself to Crow, and oddly enough, I had the feeling he didn’t blame me at all. Though their rules had made it seem like the girls weren’t to allow any physical contact, he didn’t seem upset at me.

“Bastards know better.” He scowled at the closed doors. “We’ve got a one-strike system. Depending how far they go, they don’t live to come in and fuck up again.”

I nodded, looking down at myself once more. The blood streaked across me was already drying, red and brown smeared all over my pale skin.

The elevator doors finally opened, and Crow hustled me in.

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