Page 30 of Sin

“You bought a girl at your own auction?”

Shaking my head, I admit to my best friend, “No. I took her out before anybody could bid on her.” He’s probably thinking I’m a goddamn hypocrite because I did what I wouldn’t do for him. I broke my own fucking rule. And the worst part is I don’t regret it.

Zade laughs obnoxiously and I really want to punch him in the face, which hasn’t been something I’ve wanted to do since we were teenagers.

“Okay, so what’s the problem?”

I don’t respond immediately, instead I pour myself another two fingers of scotch before saying, “I can’t get her out of my fucking head.”

He stops laughing as if he suddenly realizes this is serious. “One night and you're addicted? That’s unlike you, man.”

I take another swallow of my drink, which I know is a bad idea because we have an event tonight and I should keep a clear head. “No. It was a week.”

“Is she submissive?”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “She doesn’t have a fucking submissive bone in her body. Constantly tries to top from the bottom, drives me fucking crazy, still I want her. Everything I ever thought I’d want from a woman, she’s the completeopposite. And I can’t keep her. She’s too fucking young. And you know my attention span with women.”

He runs his hand along his stubble. “Age doesn’t matter.”

I laugh, “Yeah, well, excuse me for not agreeing with you. After all, you’re fucking your step-daughter.”

His stepdaughter came in the same night as Kierra and placed herself for sale. Zade refused to let another man have her the same way I did with Kierra and bought her himself. I can only assume he fucked her, since he isn’t correcting me.

He shrugs, “When it’s right, it’s right and you won’t be able to get her out of your system. Hard as you try, it’ll be impossible.”

I try to change the subject because nothing is going to change things between us, so I’d rather not keep discussing it. “Are you coming tonight? I think Bones is.”

Zade shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so. Although, I wouldn’t mind seeing him. It’s been a long time. College I think.”

The three of us grew up together in New York. We were thick as thieves, but Zade and Bones went in very different directions. When my best buddy started working for the prosecutor’s office back in the day, Bones couldn’t trust him, to say the least. Every time Zade asked a question, Bones thought he was being investigated. So they moved apart. Now Zade works for criminals as bad as Bones or close to it, but ‌they still haven’t reconnected. It’s a shame because all three of us used to be really close.

“I’ll get out of your hair. You have a lot of shit going on. I just came to get a few things Amira left.”

I nod. “If you need her locker opened, Belinda will get it for you.”

He rises from his chair. “The scotch won’t help you forget her. If she’s old enough to consent, there’s not a problem. And I know if she weren’t, she wouldn’t have been here.”

I sigh audibly, “Yeah, she’s twenty-one, but she deserves better. She deserves the entire fucking world. Not an asshole like me.”

He narrows his gaze at me. “You have your hands in some shady shit, Sin, but you’re not a bad guy. Or an asshole. We both know you’d take care of her.”

By shady shit, he means illegal shit. Not everything I do is above the law, but it’s who I am. If I’m honest, very few things I do are legal. Even this club, while I’ve never been busted, it’s not a legal operation. I get away with it because I provide a service that many higher ups in the police department as well as politicians want, desperately. They’d never turn me in because they’d lose the place where they get to explore their kinks. And if they did, I know without a doubt I’d have Zade on my side to help me legally, and if that failed, Bones would step in.

I donateseventy percent of my legal club business to a foundation I set up in my little sister's name. I was only four years old when she was born with Trisomy 18, also called Edward’s Syndrome. It’s a genetic condition where three cells attach to chromosome eighteen, which causes growth delays and can be life threatening. Incompatible with life, they call it. I’ve worked my entire adult life with A Wish for Hope trying to find a way to further research and help these children. It occurs in as many as one in five thousand to seven thousand live births. Our research has found it’s more likely to occur with women of advanced maternal age, but it can happen at any time. The risk is simply higher with women over thirty-five at conception. Mylittle sister, Hope, never stood a chance. She was born six weeks early with a multitude of birth defects, including issues with her heart. A heart transplant was never an option because she never would’ve made it through the surgery. My parents and I got to hold her once and then she was gone. She died in my arms. At four years old, I wasn’t prepared to handle it.

Tonight's Masks, and Lingerie event is about raising money for the charity. Plates are five thousand dollars a piece. Everyone is required to wear masks, the women will wear lingerie which isn’t that much of a stretch at Den of Sin. They don’t have to wear lingerie on a normal night, however, many choose to. Tonight, all women will wear white lingerie and we will make a lot of money for the foundation.

As I walk out of my office into the club, there are various women dancing on the stripper poles entertaining the men. I glance around and my gaze stops locked on something that can’t be possible.

She wouldn’t.Yet she is.

Kierra is sitting on Blake Hunter’s lap while he kisses the back of her neck. The black and gray mask on her face disguises nothing. I would know her body anywhere. Every conflicting emotion crashes into me. He has his fucking lips on her skin. Mine, my head screams but I know that’s not the case. I sent her away and the little fucking brat has gotten her payback. Taking a deep breath, I try to get control of myself before I do something someone will regret. I clench my hands into fists as I approach them, “Kierra,” I growl, “Get up. Now!”

She obeys quickly and rises to her feet as I scowl at Blake, “She’s off fucking limits to you, Hunter. To fucking everyone. Look at her again and I’ll revoke your fucking membership. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t be here when I come back downstairs.”

The fury I’m feeling right now travels through my body as I grab her arm and pull her upstairs.

“Where are we going?”

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