Page 28 of Bully

I could demand that she return to work. Though knowing her, she’d refuse.

I could blacklist her, creating lies about her, so she’d be unemployable at any other establishment. But that would only work for other bosses unless they laid eyes on her, because as soon as they saw her in person, they’d hire her on the spot.

And the mere thought of her working somewhere else, for someone else, made me twitchy. Believe me when I say there’s nothing worse than a twitchy maniac. We made terrible decisions.

Mashing my thumb against her contact card in my phone, I pressed send. It wasn’t as if I had a grand plan of what I’d say to her, to entice her to show up, but I was running on pure need.

Carnal need.

The need to prove to Sloane she couldn’t just walk away from me. That I wasn’t disposable.

But the line never even rang before I got an automated message about her number not being in service at that time, and to try my call again.

“Bloody hell.” I hissed, punching out a scathing text message and hitting send, only to have it bounce back as undeliverable. “Oh, Rainbow.” I cracked my neck as I pulled up the social media apps I downloaded simply to stalk her on, but her profile was gone. “Oh, my pretty little Rainbow is playing with fire.”

As I closed out of app after app, only one remained unchecked. Before I even clicked on it, I knew her name would pop up, but seeing her face again finally made the game of cat and mouse that she was playing even hotter.

Last night, I had paid her electronically for the wine she bought at the restaurant and tonight, that seemed to be my only form of communication with her. Any other man might have balked at the idea of paying a woman to pay attention to him. But I was in the business of employing women to do just that, and I wasn’t above it.

Typing out a message to her, I watched as it went through with the transaction.

Blocking me in the name of spite only turns me on. + $200.00

A small red heart icon appeared on the transaction, telling me she fucking saw it, and was toying with me in response. I waited, daring her mentally to respond to me. Yet nothing.

I gritted my teeth and marched into the room where the OG girls were practicing some pole dancing skills that most of them perfected years before they ever slept with their first clients while the new girls we recruited from the strip club watched.

Forgoing greetings, I got right to the point of my visit. “Who here has talked to Ember today?”

The girls paused before Mya, the tattooed girl from the strip club that gave Sloane a lap dance, raised her hand. “I talked to her earlier. We have plans to meet up tonight. Is everything okay?”

“Call her.” I nodded to her phone as she absently picked it up from a chair. “I need to speak with her.”

Her dark eyebrows creased slightly before she shrugged and swiped her screen to dial Sloane’s number.

“Wait a second.” Valentina stepped in, putting her hand on Mya’s arm. “Why can’t you just call her yourself?”

I stared down at the blonde I had come to actually tolerate better than most of the people I interacted with. Expecting her to wither under my menacing glare, she simply raised her eyebrows at me and silently challenged me to make her.

“Because she’s avoiding me.” I replied honestly, feeling every pair of female eyes in the room judging me. “I was a prick.”

“Shocker.” Valentina winked and then let go of Mya’s arm. “But she’s busy getting ready for a gig tonight. The three of us are working it together.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose as the bubbly blonde watched me closely, as if she expected me to have a reaction to that tidbit of juicy information. “She’s working somewhere else instead of working here, at her actual job?” I snapped.

Still, Valentina watched me closely. “I’m not sure of the logistics.” She shrugged and turned away, “But glory holes are kind of her kink.”

Twitchy.

I was very bloody twitchy as I stood in a room full of women who were supposed to fear me simply because I was their asshole boss. Instead, they toyed with my nonexistent morals as I imagined the color of Valentina’s blood across the new white marble flooring.

“Where?”

“I’m not sure of the logistics.” She repeated, taking her place back at one of the poles with a smirk on her lips. “But from what I hear, Ember is the star attraction for the evening. She’s going to make a lot of money tonight.”

I clenched my teeth so hard, my molars cracked as I walked away, barking out over my shoulder. “Go the fuck home. We’re done for today.”

I sent another payment through my phone to the infuriating woman, desperate to reach her before I lost my grip on reality.

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