I blinked. I knew nothing about weddings. “You seem to have it well in hand. Why don’t you pick out a style and a color?” I asked. I was starting to get antsy.
“The dress only needs minor alterations,” Cindy spoke up now, looking over the fit. “Will you have them done here or elsewhere?”
“We’ll have it sent to my tailor for alterations over in Georgetown as soon as possible,” Mae said as she spoke up. The wedding was set for two weeks from today. Jesus, only two weeks. A single month changed my entire life. “She’s been doing business with me for decades when I purchase clothing down in D.C. Girls, I’ll take care of the expenses why don’t you help her out of the dress and then we can head back home? I’ll bet Jo wants to get back to Greyson and tell him all about this beautiful dress. But remember, he can’t see it until the wedding day.” She was artificially sweet for the sake of Cindy, who winced when she saw the black card Mae pulled from her purse.
I had a feeling it was a status symbol of sorts, and I had to admit, a little squeal of triumph called out in my mind when I saw her attitude change.
I might not look like much, I deserved to be treated with dignity. By everyone. By strangers, my family. My uncle.
Greyson treated me with dignity, even though I was a pawn. But I still had some questions, and I needed answers.
Joanna
I was so glad to be out of that dress and on the street. I’d asked Mae to let me out of the car as soon as we hit the inner harbor. I told her I needed the walk home.
It wasn’t a lie. It was all just clouding my mind. I couldn’t really think about what was happening, and the fresh air was enough to make me feel just a little bit safer.
“Joanna?” I had heard him before I saw him, and I turned to see David standing there, smiling at me.
“David?” I gasped, just a little bit of air escaping from my lips, making me doubt this newfound freedom.
“I was walking by, and I thought it was you. I turned around, and I couldn’t just say nothing. How do you feel about going for coffee?” he asked, a charming smile on his face.
I wanted to say no, run to my apartment and call Greyson, but I couldn’t turn down that smile or those eyes.
They tore right through my soul just like Greyson’s. I hesitated.
“Coffee?” he asked. “It’s just a drink, it won’t kill you.”
“I can do coffee,” I said as I considered it. “I know a little place just around the corner.”
“Beans and Things? One of my favorites.” He started down the alley and across the street to the coffee house that was so small and obscure that it was easy to miss.
“I like it because it is so inconspicuous.” I walked in, the smell of coffee and chocolates from the baked goods filling my nostrils. It was delicious. Heavenly.
I stopped there every time I was in town, and now that I lived there it was more like a daily affair. I’d gotten to know all of the staff quickly.
I stepped up to the cash register and ordered my usual. The barista, Shelly, smiled and waved at me, then at David.
“Two regulars, do you know each other?” she asked as she handed over our coffees.
“We’re getting to know one another,” David said as he shoved a wad full of cash into the tip jar. “I like the table in the corner. It’s quiet. Nice.” He bent down and whispered it into my ear and I felt all the hairs on my head standing on end. I just nodded and followed him towards the back, a hot beverage in my hand.
“Have you made a decision on graduate school?” he asked as we sat down.
“I have, I’m going to send in that leave of absence. I need time no matter what the outcome is. It’s been a trying semester, already and with everything that has happened, I’m behind.” It was the truth. There was no way I could pass my classes with all the assignments and sessions I’d missed.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I remember how excited you were when we met that first time. The look in your eyes said it all.” He sipped his coffee then said, “My family has a way of taking the person you are and twisting it into something you couldn’t even imagine was real.”
It was a truth I felt in the very pit of my soul. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t physically attracted to him, I was. His muscled form and his deep grey-green eyes were enough to keep me interested, but they reminded me of someone else.
Greyson.
“So why are you walking around Inner Harbor?” I asked, happy to change the subject. “I got out of work a little early today, had some errands to run for my father. What about you?”
“Just got back from D.C..” We were both edging around the truth; I could feel it. It was one of those moments when two people try to make what they did sound slightly different than it was. More cheerful, less fear inducing.
“Did you enjoy DC?” he asked.
“It was overwhelming. I’ll be honest, I’m always going to be a Baltimore girl at heart,” I answered.
“Yeah, me too. Well, not a girl, obviously, but I’ll never move over that way. I love this city. It was where I was born and raised. And it’s where I hope to build a good life.” His eyes locked on me and I knew what he was trying to say, what he was trying to ask. He wanted to know if I was going to be a part of that life. If I was going to make my choice.
But he wasn’t pushing, and I could appreciate that. I felt like he was being genuine, and that mattered to me.
“Do you even know him?” David asked.
“What?” I asked as he pulled me out of my trance.
“Greyson. What do you know about him?”
“Astoundingly little, I’m afraid.”
“If you want I can fill you in on the basics.” He glanced at me then his phone which was sitting on the table.
“I dunno,” I said slowly. It was pretty damn tempting. “I don’t think that would be very fair. I haven’t asked him to tell me all about you.”
“It would probably be just as complementary,” he said, his mouth twisted up into a smirk. I had to agree there. “Just, don’t trust him. Or me. Any of us. This isn’t the world you want to get caught up in, Jo.”
“I appreciate your honesty, but I don’t think I have much of a choice,” I admitted. It was the truth, and he knew it. I was already caught up into this world. I’d been born into it. Nothing was going to change that.
“Shit, I’ve got to go. Duty calls,” he said as he looked down at his phone.
Duty. The family. Right.
I kept forgetting exactly what he was. Exactly who he was.
“Thanks for the coffee,” he said as he got up to leave. “I’ll see you around.”
I just nodded and took a sip of my own.
Peace at last.
Chapter Thirteen
Greyson
I stared down at the text on my phone. “I want to talk to you, Greyson. I have questions.” Joanna. She hadn’t send anything else, just that text. It was the only one I’d ever gotten from her.
What kind of questions did she have? What did she know? I bit my lip and put it to the back of my mind.
“Are you present?” my father asked.
I shoved the phone in my pocket and nodded. “I’m here.”
“Good. I need you for this.” Janson was to my right and his father just behind them. The four of us working together wasn’t new, but it hadn’t happened in almost a decade. I’d gone to my father told him I wanted more. That I wanted to be a part of all of the family business.
Fuck just working at the factory. Fuck staying out of it. I needed to show him that I could run the companies he wanted. That I could run the family too. No matter what it took.
“Yeah, I’m all here.” I said. I was, I was there. I just had to put her out of my mind. I’d deal with it later. My father’s little “field trip” with David led to some interesting news. A rat. A nasty one.
“Janson, do your thing,” Michael said to him and Janson just nodded then broke the door down. Mob bosses acting like fucking lower rung men, it was insane. But they fucking loved to do it. And to show up to these kinds of things. Kept the traitors on their toes. He’d been dealing with a lot of unrest lately and this latest backstabbing attempt sent him over the top.
The asshole was threatening to go to another family if he didn’t get an increase in his takeaway from the heroin trade, he was in negotiations with them according to the informant David put on ice. My dad promptly made plans to torture this douchebag to find out who was tempting him. And then, of course, kill him. That’s what I was doing there, salivating at the mouth to get to this piece of filth.
That’s right, salivating. I didn’t let this part of me out very often, but when I did, it was fucking heaven.
Torture that was my forte. It always had been. I was good at it. Too good.
What’s worse was that I liked it. I liked playful torture in the bedroom and real torture out there in the real world. I loved the ability to give and take away pain. It made me feel like a god. It felt good to sink a blade into someone’s flesh. To make them scream. I loved it when I made them tell me everything, and then took away the pain. It was sick, it was wrong.
But I was a monster after all.
Storming a house was nothing to the four of us. It didn’t matter that we had to knock out six junkies on the way in, we knew exactly who we were going for. The one at the very top, running the whole thing.