Page 131 of Marked By the Pack
I barley slept at all. The excitement about pulling a bank job today was completely outweighed by the fact that Titan was blackmailing me.
I bit the inside of my lip, thinking about the way he’d stared at me while his friends fucked me.
Gah.
Why did arrogant, hot-headed, domineering assholes always have to be so devastatingly handsome?
This wasn’t the first time I’d been blackmailed though. And in my line of work, it probably wouldn’t be the last. I hated the fact that he had a tape of me though. Just thinking about it made me feel a little panicky.
When my sex tape got leaked back in college, I’d gotten a few private messages that weren’t from pervs. People threatening to reveal my identity if I didn’t pay them some exorbitant amount of money. At the time, I didn’t have the money. If I did, I probably would have been naïve enough to pay it. But it was good that I didn’t, because my name was already starting to circulate since crooks weren’t the only ones interested in me.
The lesson I learned? Ignore the blackmail.
But…it was different now. This wasn’t just about me. I cared about Otto, Bennett, Ace, and Huxley. I really liked them. I liked our arrangement. I liked the way they made me feel. And I didn’t want to have to walk away.
I bit into my éclair, knowing full well that I’d ordered it because it reminded me of Bennett. Emma would be meeting up with me at the coffee shop any minute. And I really needed her advice.
Maybe Titan was bluffing.
Or…maybe he just wanted something from me. He was one of hundreds of thousands of followers. Presumably he liked what he saw. But I’d given him what he wanted last night and he still blackmailed me.
Maybe Titan didn’t even matter in this equation. I needed to tell my boyfriends about my camming anyway. Better now than later.
No, better sometime after I broke into their bank and cured them.
God, the secrets I was keeping from them just kept piling up.
“Stress eating?” Emma asked and sat down across from me.
I wiped the side of my face with a napkin. “Yeah.” I put the éclair down on my plate.
“Me too.” She picked it up and took a bite.
“Wait, why are you stressed?”
“I just figured out a major flaw in our plan now that I’m not drunk. How do we know the guys aren’t going to be at the bank tonight? They were there with you last night after hours.”
“I thought about that exact same thing this morning.” When I wasn’t obsessing over Titan being a jerk. “I texted Otto and there’s a football game on tonight that they’re all excited about. He asked me to come overbut I told him I was busy hanging out with you tonight. Which is true. I didn’t even have to lie. I can’t believe we almost forgot to make sure the coast was clear.”
Emma laughed. “It’s a key point.”
“Almost as important as the key to the bank itself.” I wondered if Ace had noticed his missing keychain yet. Hopefully not. The last thing I needed was for him to change the locks to the bank. I kept glancing at my phone. Waiting for a rude message from Titan or a message from Ace asking where his keys were.
“Okay, so we’re good.” Emma nodded. “Why do you still look stressed?”
“So get this. It turns out Titan is one of my subscribers on MyFanatics. He requested a private session last night while wearing a mask, recorded the whole thing, and then revealed his true identity. And now he’s blackmailing me.”
Emma opened her mouth and then closed it again. “What the fuck? What does he want? Is it a money thing? Should we report him to Officer Davis?”
“I wish it was just a money thing. And I can’t take this shit to Officer Davis. He’ll never look at me the same.” God, what if Titan leaked the video to everyone in Crooked Point? I loved this town. I didn’t want to have to leave.
Emma just stared at me. “So what does he want?”
“Titan says I have until midnight tonight to tell the guys what I do for a living. Or he’ll show them the video. I was planning on telling them, Emma. I just thought I’d have more time. You know how much I love what I do.”
“Yeah. It’s your photography.” She nodded to the camera around her neck.
“Exactly. But it took you a while to understand and you know me so well. I’m worried that they’re just not going to get why I do it.”
