Page 50 of Forever Filthy

His tone has me feeling nervous. “Yeah.”

“Are you planning on turning me over to the feds when you take down the Saints?” My mouth pops open and I gape at my right-hand man in equal parts shock and terror. “I may be old, Vivian, but I am not stupid. I have had the past twelve months to get to know you. Believe it or not, in that time I would like to think that I have gotten to know you very well.”

“David… I-I… we can’t discuss this,” I mutter. I don’t know if my house is bugged and I can’t risk it. What he has just suggested could get us both killed. My status in The Brotherhood won’t save me if I am caught betraying the cause.

“Very well,” is all he says and returns to his task while I am left standing here reeling. Maybe I’m not as smart as I thought. If David has suspicions, then that means the rest of the Saints do as well and that makes holding off until The Night Of The Saints ten times fucking harder.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Vivian

One week later…

Have you ever felt so in over your head that you can’t even think straight? Yeah, that’s me right now. My days are filled with digging through records and trying to catch up on my college classes while making sure Nova eats, showers and gets out of bed. I won’t lie, I am fucking nervous and worried about her which is why I have forced her to accompany me tonight to Lividica’s first ever masquerade night. All the girls and staff are decked out in masks, they range from sexy, scary, morbid and downright fear inducing but tonight we have merged the women’s den with the men’s and allowed everyone to interact as one.

Tonight is a huge test to see if we can combine the two areas every once in a while. We have had numerous requests from both sides to merge so that couples can finally have the threesome or foursome they have been dreaming about with their significant other. I have to admit though, I think the only reason I agreed to this is because I miss my own guys and how the time we spent as a foursome has ruined me for any other.

Security has been doubled here since the death of two of my girls—two days after Kim’s head was delivered to my house another one arrived. Since then, I have moved all my girls, Tate, Andre and the men into the hotel. Security escorts them to their rooms after shift. Tate still has no idea about what is really going on and I can tell she knows I am hiding something which has put a slight divide between us.

“Vivian?” I turn away from the crowd of people and face David. My brows raise in surprise, he’s dressed in an all-white suit with a red tie. The mask he wears is one of those fancy rich people ones on a stick.

“You look good.”

He waves off my compliment. “I have brought in extra men tonight to help with security in case something happens.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve also instructed them to escort each guest out and to make sure they leave here safely. The last thing we need is for something to happen tonight and dampen the success of this venture.” I smile at that. I promised myself if tonight went off without a hitch I would consider David’s proposal to open another hotel like this near CHU where he is trying to push me to go. I also have plans to open a few more of these hotels in New York, Miami, Chicago and Texas.

“I found three other prospective birds.” David’s face morphs into one of pure malice.

“Send me their names, I’ll have the men take a closer look.” I nod and pull out my new phone and text him the names. When David had my house swept we found eleven bugs, none of them recorded audio thankfully but the fact the sick bastard has been watching me had my skin crawling. David and Nova tried to urge me to leave and stay at the hotel but I refused. I won’t let this bastard scare me out of my own home. I tossed my old phone, not trusting it to not be bugged and had David collect me a new one. I’ve had my home fitted with motion sensors, spotlights, state of the art security system, new locks and I’m currently having a fence built around the property. These are all measures I should have taken earlier but I thought I was smarter than my stalking bird.

“We have three weeks, David.”

He nods stiffly. “I know, do you think yourfriendscould help out with tracking this person down?” I shake my head. After the bugs were found, I confessed all my secrets to David fully prepared for him to out me and have my head on the chopping block, but he floored me when he offered to help me achieve my goal.

“My friends won’t lift a finger until I turn over the documents. I can’t do that until we finish the last part.” David sighs tiredly and nods. “You know what they are like, I have to give something to get something.”

“On that note, I have things to attend to but there is someone at the bar requesting an audience with you.” I frown and turn to peer around the crowd to see who it is but I can’t see. “Go, I’ll keep an eye on Nova.” I smile thanks to David and tell Nova I’ll be back in a minute. She doesn’t say anything. I feel like a horrible person for making her come here, I thought getting her out of the house would help but I think all I have done is made it worse. She barely speaks and I don’t know what else to do.

“We’ll leave as soon as I get back,” I promise. She flicks her eyes to me and it fucking shreds me inside to see blame in her green eyes. I can’t fault her for being angry at me and blaming me for the death of her mother. When I refused to allow her to see her mother’s head, she went nuts and started throwing anything she could get her hands on, I just narrowly missed getting a saucepan to the head.

I leave her with David and head to the bar. When I finally break through the crowd I don’t see anyone waiting for me. I lean over the bar and call out to Tate who is run off her feet with the amount of people here tonight. She has three other’s helping her but Tate is the type of woman who likes to do everything herself and refuses to ask for help. She shoots me an annoyed look so I raise my hands and wait for her to finish serving her customer.

“What do you need?” Her tone is curt but I get the sense her sour mood isn’t because of me or work so I ask.

“Are you okay?”

She sighs and rubs her face in frustration before looking back at me. “Sorry. I just… I was supposed to meet my dad tonight?—”

“Oh, shit, leave and I’ll get someone to cover you?—”

“No, Vivian. I mean I was supposed tomeethim tonight for the first time and he never showed up.”

“Oh,” I breathe out unsure of what else to say.

“Yeah.” Her tone is sarcastic. “For months he has been messaging me like fifty times a day and now when the time finally comes for him to meet in person, he blows me off.” Anger thrums inside me for my friend.

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