Cocky Roomie_ A Bad Boy Romance Novel(55)

I yank my arm away. “Bernie, what the hell?” Her eyes are tweaking, her nose is red-tipped and her nostrils still have white powder around the edges.

And she looks terrified. That smile is an act.

Oh shit.

Bernie’s a hooker and I didn’t know it until now.

“Umm…I have to go.”

“You’re not leaving,” one of the men says.

I smile as flirtatiously as I can and correct him, “Change! I have to go change! I thought the party was at ten. Bernie said she’d loan me her black Valentino. Right Bern?”

“Yes!” she painfully grins then says to the brute, “She looks GORGEOUS in that dress. You’ll love it.”

The two men walk closer to us. The one with the big nose, lifts up my hair and smells it. Sickling goosebumps of fear race up that side.

“She smells like cologne.”

Oh hell.

I smell like Jake.

Of course I do.

“Sorry, last customer. I’ll just go freshen up.”

He doesn’t argue with this. No man paying wants another man’s smell on you, I guess. Bernie tries to follow me, but they stop her.

“Ah ah ah. You’re staying here.”

“Well, where else would I want to be?” she coos.

I disappear into her room and scramble for my phone, texting Jake. I’m too scared those guys would hear my voice if I called. And I can’t trust Bernie if I called 911. She might act like nothing is going on just to save herself from being arrested.

How did I not know this is what was happening all those nights she had so many men over? I just thought she was a little slutty, and I blamed it on the coke.

Jason telling me, “All those men,” in that weird way, was him testing to see if I even knew she was a prostitute.

And I was living here when she was doing it!

I feel nauseous.

Jake. I’m in trouble. I’m at Bernie’s. There are two bad men here.

My thumbs hover over the keys, and I decide not to mention these guys think I’m a hooker. Instead, I hurriedly type,

Please save me.

Copying it, I paste it into a new text, sending the same thing to him three times, that way hopefully he’ll hear me. Then I dial him and set the phone down.

“Drew!? Hurry up!”

“Sorry, just a minute!” Shaking, I quietly lock her bedroom door and pace. I hate leaving her out there, but hopefully they’ll wait until I get back before they do anything sexual.

Stalling is the best chance I have to save us both.

She was hoping I could.

I know that now. I saw it in her eyes. She’s scared out of her mind.

My phone lights up. He must have picked up, hung up, then called me back. I rush over and hang up to text:

I can’t risk them hearing me call you.

I wait for his reply.

I’m coming! Does she still live cross from Ansley Mall?

Relieved, I type back that she does as banging sounds on my door.

“We’re waiting!!”

I call back with a forced smile, “I’m glad you’re so eager. Hold onto that, big boy!”

I wince at my cheesiness. How does a whore talk to her trick? I have no idea.

Running to Bernie’s bathroom, I turn on the shower and shout, “Be just a few minutes!”

“Drew!” Bernie’s voice is shaking. “Don’t wash your hair or anything crazy.”

No, we wouldn’t want to do anything crazy, Bernie, would we.

For fifteen minutes, I sit on the bed with the shower running and them yelling through the door. Bernie laughs it off over and over, and keeps offering them more vodka. When she asks them for more coke — “I just need a little bump” — I put my head in my hands and start to cry, just like Jason did when he remembered how hard it was to let someone you love, go.

Harsh yelling on the other side of the door makes me sit up straight. Bernie’s trying to placate those guys has come to an end, because they’re over it. I leap back on the bed as the door comes crashing in. The guy with the big nose kicked it down and now he’s seeing me still dry and in the clothes I came in wearing.

“What the fuck!” He sees my phone. “She called the cops!” he bellows to the other beast. I scramble toward the headboard as he runs at me, leaping onto the bed to tackle me.

“I didn’t call the cops! I promise!” I try to dodge him by rolling off the side, but he gets ahold of my shirt and the fabric pulls me to him. Bernie comes running in.

“STOP! DON’T TOUCH HER!” she screams. The other guy punches her in the back of the head so hard that her eyes roll back. She grunts and falls to the ground, blonde hair flying.

I scream, “BERNIE!!!”

“I’m getting what I came here for,” Big Nose hisses, pulling me onto the bed and yanking the button off my jeans.