ARAWN
I’m still wiping my lip as I reenter the room with the skinny woman.
“So, Bridget,” I say, making her look at me annoyed. “Want to share your story with me as well? Before I let them throw your entitled ass into the East River?”
She laughs, the drugs in her system blocking every function in her brain. “I have nothing to tell you.”
“Fine,” I say, taking the tablet Bernard is passing me.
She fidgets on her chair and bobs her leg nervously while I go through the security footage. I watch Nerthus coming into the club, and how she becomes the third wheel to her supposed friend and one of my soldiers.
I have to keep myself from smiling as I watch her sipping on her drink and dancing to the music with small movements while her friend is trying to buy drugs. The footage switches as they move to the catacombs, and I know the woman already well enough to see that she is not feeling comfortable being where her friend takes her.
My heart squeezes as I think how concerned she was about me thinking she took something.
I can’t blame her after what I said and did to her, but by now, I don’t even think I would be capable of letting her go even in such a moment.
And I surprise myself with the thought of going with her through another rehab appearing automatically in my head.
I officially must have lost my mind.
“What are you watching on that thing? Some dirty things?” Bridget giggles, but I ignore her.
I continue to watch the footage until I see Nerthus slipping a few small bags filled with cocaine from the table, and one of my soldiers in the room skyrockets out of his seat to confront the two women.
Locking the tablet with a groan, I hand it back to Bernard, who is grinning at me. “You have to stop being so amused by this.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he says, nearly bursting with laughter.
Bridget draws her eyebrows together at our interaction, kicking her leg repeatedly. “So, what will happen to my friend? She is the one who stole.”
“Nothing,” Bernard mocks her, making her look at us wide-eyed. “Nothing will happen to her, Bridget. Because you can’t trial royalty on our territory.”
I chuckle as he takes up our little insider, I told him about. “Also, would be strange to punish someone for stealing something that belongs to her anyway.”
“What?” Bridget sits up, putting her leg down to the floor as if she needed to feel the ground beneath her feet.
“As you are her acquaintance, we will be letting you go,” I grumble. “But you will be banned from seeing her and will have restrictions regarding my clubs. As long as you follow the rules, I will put up your swim course with the East River fish population.”
She looks between us both before the gears turning in her head stop, and laughter bubbles out of her. “I knew that she had made some kind of career. But I didn’t imagine that she could manipulate her way up to this extent.”
“That will be enough, Bernie. Get her escorted out of the building,” I growl as I turn around to walk out of the room.
I’m about to pull the door open as she stops me with her screechy voice. “Don’t you want to know what I’m talking about?”
“I wouldn’t know what you can tell me that would make me trust you more than the woman at my side.” Putting my hands back into my pockets, I turn around annoyed.
She inhales taken aback before she whispers. “Oh my God. You are the cognac guy.”
“Beg your pardon?” I ask her, lifting a brow.
“The Cognac. The Henry. You were the guy she used her favor up for.” Her high-pitched voice reaches a new high as she cracks up once again.
I clench my teeth, thinking about how I’m keeping my calm just for Nerthus.
But actually, now that I think of it, she wouldn’t know if I were to make her disappear.
“Do you want money for it, or what?” I ask her, my thoughts circling around how I couldn’t lie about the fact if Nerthus were to ask me.
“No,” She replies complacently. “I was just surprised. But that is just how she is. She would sell her soul for money. And do even worse for some extra things. Ah, if you knew what we have been through. She always got what she wanted.”
Bridget leans back, licking her teeth. “But who could blame her? With the way she is built, she can have it all.”
“You should stop doing drugs,” I tell her, crossing my arms. “You don’t appear to have many brain cells left to fry.”
“Oh, how nice of you that you are preoccupied for my health. But you men are all the same. So easy to fool.” Her trip must be fabulous as she glows.
I sigh, taking a step back into the room to stand in front of her. “Okay, let’s play your game. What do you mean?”
“I knew you were going to be interested.” Her grin makes me want to put a bullet between her eyes, but I keep myself from taking my gun.
“Just say what you have to say,” I groan.
“She was trained perfectly by her pimp. All you think she is for you is null and void as she lives for Francis. When we were together it was always him deciding everything, and she was thriving for him. Lived to make him happy. It was always Francis here and Francis there.” She giggles as she shakes her head. “I was so surprised about their strange and awkward relationship because she isn’t into men.”
“Come again?” I ask, the doubt that I didn’t want to let creep upon me, expanding in my chest.
“Oh, she came here because he organized her a place to work as she wanted to leave her stuck-up city in the countryside, and she was gushing about how he got her the perfect place for her to strive.”
“I thought she ran away from her family.”
“Oh, that’s what she tells everyone.” She leans forward entangling her legs and whispers. “But she told me the truth. They put it up together. Everything she does is for Francis. He is her God.”
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes shortly keeping me from slamming her skinny skull against the wall. “Anyway, I meant the last thing you said.”
“Oh, she is not into men. Sorry to burst your romantic bubble.”
Bernard shifts behind me, and I scoff. “I know that she hates men, but you seem to mean something else.”
“Oh, honey!” She shouts, throwing her head into her neck. “She doesn’t simply hate men. She is not into them. At all.”
She shifts in her seat, turning her torso from one side to another as she grins. “She is a lesbian. So typical for a big and strong man like you not to be grasping that.”
I know that she is obviously lying, but something forms a knot around my throat anyway as she continues to spit venom. “Hasn’t she ever told you that she is just doing her job? That was her sentence to go to keep the creeps falling for her.”
She rolls her eyes as she sighs theatrically. “They always fell for her. Like flies flying into the bright light.”
A smirk grows on my lips as I gesture to Bernard to open the door. “Remember what I told you after you get the fuck out of here.”
I killed my right hand because he was disrespecting her, and I definitely won’t make the same mistake again believing some wasted woman. If this is true, Nerthus will tell me herself.
She gets up with all the entitlement she has in her and struts past me as if she were on one of her stupid catwalks. Just as she is next to me, I grab her skinny arm, pulling her close. “And stop using her real name. If I hear you talking about Nerthus again, I’ll have your head.”
Forcing up a smile, she nods before she walks her shaking frame out of the door.
“See you, babe! Love you!” She shouts and turns the corner, giggling happily about the scene she is pulling off.