Damned Sinner, page 2
part #1 of Jayne Series
“Make sure she doesn’t leave the casino,” I said, pointing toward Kelsey. “Her shift is over in thirty minutes. I want you to follow her up to the room, and if she leaves, call me.”
He nodded and walked away, probably as fed up with me as I was with him. I still wasn’t sure why Flynn kept the guy around, but there had to be some reason for it.
I gave another quick glance in Kelsey’s direction and smiled when I caught her staring. I hated upsetting her every time we saw each other, but I had to keep the relationship between us as professional and as distant as possible. It was as hard on me as it was on her, but making her understand that was a different story.
I walked toward the elevators, but stopped when I heard her call out my name. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around slowly to face her.
She jogged across the lobby, carefree and smiling. I groaned under my breath. Watching her was like watching prime porno in slow motion. Everything she did made me hard. Even in her modest uniform, she was a temptress. Those long legs, those tits bouncing, and that long blonde hair made her look like a wet dream in motion. I could feel myself swell in my pants, as was usual when I saw her. I shook out my leg and quickly adjusted myself as subtly as I could before she caught up to me.
“Vince, wait!”
She smiled and pushed her hair back behind her ears as she approached. I noticed right away that her cheeks were extra pink, probably from all the time she spent at the pool.
“What can I do for you?”
My mask was in place, the one I had to smack on every time she was anywhere near me. She made me nervous as hell, and I was sure she’d see right through me.
Her smile fell a bit, but she caught herself and grinned wider. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to a show with me. One of the guys from the junket that just flew out gave me two free tickets, and I’ve never been!”
The delight in her eyes hit me right in the chest, but I wasn’t that guy. I didn’t do magic shows or dates, and I certainly didn’t mess around with little girls who fucked up my life.
“No, Kelsey,” I said coldly. “I have work to do before I leave tomorrow. Have Marcy go with you or something. I’ll have a car for you. Marcy can arrange it.”
I walked away, my legs like lead and dragging me down with each step. She clucked her tongue in protest, the pouty brat that she was, and it went to my balls. I spun around, glaring.
“Don’t give me attitude, Kels.”
“Marcy’s like, forty years old and has a family to go home to. I thought we could hang out and talk a little bit before you leave. You’ve haven’t spent any time with me since you got here. It’s rude!”
She was push, push, pushing me again. My pinky twitched, my nostrils flared, and my heart thumped in my chest. She caused my nerves to flare up so easily... it was unnatural. There was no question about it. She was going to cause trouble, and I couldn’t deal with it. I had enough on my plate as it was.
I’d never had a woman look at me the way she did. The begging in her eyes and the yearning for things I didn’t possess broke something inside me. She wanted to trust me and count on me, but a girl like her would only be disappointed in what a man like me could give her. Her hopeful looks were beyond ridiculous. If she had any idea... one fucking clue what I thought about when I looked at her, she’d run in the other direction.
And never look back.
I turned on my heels, walking away from her before I did something I’d regret—like give in. Before I could get away, she grabbed my arm, so I stopped and took a deep breath.
“Besides,” she said softly. “You should take a break. You work too much.”
I swung around, grabbed her by the arm, and yanked her up against me. “What I need to do is to find someone to suck my dick, a bottle of single malt, and a good night’s sleep. What I don’t need is you bugging the shit out of me. I told you—you do your thing, and I’ll do mine.”
I shoved her away, more frustrated than I’d been all week, and stormed through the lobby toward the elevators. Once I was inside, I caught a glimpse of her standing there watching me. She smiled, waved, and blew me a kiss before turning and skipping off toward the front desk.
That was the thing with Kelsey—as young and innocent as she appeared, I had a feeling there was a tiger lurking underneath.
It was a motherfucker knowing that feeling was more than a feeling. I’d held her body pressed against mine, I’d had her hands on me and her lips on my mouth. I had experience with having her, even if it’d been a tiny morsel, and the memory was torture. Having such a tasty treat ready and pliable was great—having to deny us both was torture.
I wasn’t used to that. It was fucking with my head putting her off when she was so obviously down for whatever I had to give her. I’d always taken whatever I wanted—pussy, money, lives, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t a man that liked to be denied, and usually, I wasn’t.
She wasn’t a dumb girl. In fact, she was one of the brightest women I’d ever met, but she was naïve. She thought she knew me, but until she did—until she understood who I really was, I wasn’t taking anything.
I wasn’t handing anything over to her, either.
Besides, I had too much going on to allow a piece of ass to interfere. At that point, that’s all she was to me, even if it sounded foul to my own ears.
My mood had worsened by the time I made it to the suite, if that were even possible. I opened the door to find Cherise waiting on the lounge, her stupid dog in tow.
As swank as the suite was, I hated staying there. Sure, the perks were nice, but being there ate at me. Living at The Maguire, sleeping on Flynn’s bed in his sheets, eating out of his kitchen, and entertaining his mother was becoming too much to deal with. Once my job was done, I could move on, but until then I had to play puppet to the most obnoxious bitch on the planet.
“You’ve kept me waiting,” she drawled. “I thought you were standing me up.”
I headed straight to the bar, grabbed the decanter, and poured myself a double. “This isn’t a date—and I’m not late. You were supposed to be here forty-five minutes ago. I wait for no one.”
She laughed. “Do you have the good news for me?”
Straight shooter. Usually when people used that approach, I appreciated it. With Cherise, it made me want to jump off the top of the casino. I was putting life and limb on the line for this lady, and she never gave me a damn break.
“It’s being handled. I’m sure you’ll sleep better once you’re able to add a few more zeros to your balance sheet.”
“That’s not the point,” she snapped.
I sucked down the whiskey and slammed the glass on the counter. “Yeah, it is. You’re a greedy old bitch.”
I looked over and raised an eyebrow, daring her to deny it. She wanted to make sure her dynasty stayed intact—understandably—but with the casino being the cow it was, I didn’t see the point in continuing the illegal endeavors. Not only that, if Flynn found out I was helping his mother reestablish illegal connections, he’d string me up by my balls.
“It’s all cleaned up. The new operation is up and running—or will be by the end of the month.”
She sniffed with an uptight air of annoyance and lifted her wine glass to her lips. “Are you positive I can’t convince you to stay here and work for me?”
“Pretty damn positive,” I said dryly. “I’d rather shove my nuts in a meat grinder than be associated with that crap again. By tomorrow, I’m outta here.”
She made a small grunting sound and cleared her throat. She was still doubtful that I was serious, but I was serious. I was also tired. I’d been running games since I was a kid, and it had worn me down. I could only skirt death so many times—even cats croaked after their ninth life. I’d been close to a bad end too many times to count. I couldn’t do that to Jayne—number one—and number two; I was just fucking over it.
“I noticed that girl downstairs. Flynn hadn’t told me she’d returned. Is she going to be a problem like her sister?”
My hackles went up right away. It was a good thing Cherise adored Jayne because I would lay the old lady out if she kept it up.
“She’s fine. She’s doing a good job in concierge. Marcy’s glad to have her help.”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “She’s an awful pretty little thing, isn’t she? I was under the impression she had a crush on you.”
I shrugged, taking a seat across from her, and threw my feet up on the ottoman. “I can’t help that. It’s like a knight in shining armor fantasy she has. I kept her safe when she needed me, and I think she’s just under the impression it meant something more.”
She leaned forward. “Does it?”
I laughed, rolling my eyes at her and her ridiculous notions. “Romance isn’t contagious. Just because your son is a sucker doesn’t mean I am.”
She moved and sat across from me on the ottoman and began to run her fingers over my leg. I wasn’t sure where she was going with her little charade, but I wasn’t getting a real good feeling.
I leveled her with a deadly glare, and she smiled wryly, removing her hand slowly.
“I spoke to Evelyn Slater the other night at Rob Forman’s birthday party. Do you remember Evelyn?”
How could I forget Evelyn Slater? Just thinking about her brought back memories better left in the past. I had a feeling Cherise knew it, too.
“I do remember her.” I stretched out, looking up at the ceiling while I waited for her to continue. The whole conversation was taking a bad turn, but if I didn’t hear her out, I’d never hear the end of it.
“I hadn’t talked to her since she moved back to Nevada. In fact, I hadn’t even heard they were back until I saw her at the party. We used to be very close, way back when,” she said with a far off look in her eyes.
I almost felt sorry for her. In a way, she’d lost as much as we had, even if her marriage was a sham. At one time, it’d been real and she’d loved the bastard. They had a life together—friends, family, and a home. Yeah, she’d had to sacrifice a lot to help Jayne the way she did. For that reason alone, I held Cherise Maguire in pretty high regard.
“Well,” she said with a sigh. “We got to talking, and when I mentioned that Flynn was engaged to Jayne King, she became very interested.”
She raised an eyebrow at me and sat back, a small, sly smile lifting on her lips. “She remembered you worked with Sam and asked about you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Where is this going, Cherise? I have a lot of shit I need to do.”
“She’d like to reconnect with you,” she said. “I didn’t realize you were an old acquaintance of hers.”
I barked out a laugh. “Ha! Acquaintance? Is that what she said we were?”
She leaned forward, and her arm touched my shoulder. “No, not exactly. She told me a little bit about... your relationship.”
I gritted my teeth and pushed back the rage that bubbled up inside of my gut. I wasn’t sure what pissed me off more—the fact that Eve told Cherise about me, or that Cherise was bringing it up. Either way, I wasn’t falling for her crap.
“I’m not talking about this with you, Cherise.”
Her laugh was meant to be teasing, but she clearly thought she had some leverage on me. Those tactics never worked on me. She was out of her damn league trying to manipulate me.
“You were the talk of the party. It seems that you have quite a long history here in Nevada. I had no idea.”
I sat up abruptly and ran my hands over my face. I never thought it was a big secret—there was no way it could be. I’d never been discreet about anything—I’d never had reason to. Things were different now. I was the boss, and just feeling like someone was trying to pull my strings was enough to cause fury to burn through my veins.
“I don’t fuck old ladies for money anymore, Cherise. If that’s where you’re pointing with this conversation, you can forget it. Put that shit right out of your mind. I never had much interest for it, and I still don’t. I get paid for women to fuck old men. That’s my game now.”
She looked shocked, but there was no going back. The conversation had gone south, so insulting her was the least of my concerns. I was over it, and over her. I was ready to get rid of her and follow through with my original plan—find a willing partner, get off, and get drunk. I had Kelsey on the brain, and thinking about touching some stuck-up rich cunt made me sick.
“I wasn’t insinuating that, Vince,” she said. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of red, and she shook her head. “I think we have a nice, sturdy working relationship here. In a convoluted way, we are to be family. I know you are the only family Jayne has, and I wouldn’t do anything to tarnish that. Besides, I don’t have that taste,” she said with a wry chuckle.
I cleared my throat. All of a sudden it was a few hundred degrees too hot, and I was way too uncomfortable with the whole situation.
She put her hand on my arm—this time, in a very motherly fashion—and continued.
“I was just trying to tell you about the women,” she said softly. “There were several women that were—are—very interested in knowing what you are up to these days. You left quite an impression on them.”
I peeked at her through my fingers and snorted. “My cock left quite an impression, and it doesn’t want any part of that anymore. I don’t answer to anyone.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Even my son?”
I stood and walked across the room. I was feeling claustrophobic and needed to put some space between us, and fast.
“Especially your son. He’s not my boss, and he’s not my friend. I’m doing this for Jayne, and that’s it. As long as he treats her right and makes her happy, I’ll help them out. But don’t kid yourself into thinking I’m a good guy. I’m not. This is purely selfish. Jayne is the only thing that makes me happy. I’ll do anything for Janie.”
She was quiet for a beat, lost in her thoughts. I turned away and stared thoughtfully out the window at the street below me. Standing where I was, looking down at the grungy city below gave me a sense of dread. I never wanted to look down at where I came from. I wasn’t this guy—the king of some fucked up empire. I was the grunt, the muscle. It was a better place to be than I’d been before, but I prided myself in handling my own shit. I didn’t need anyone to pad my pockets or keep me in check. I was in charge of what happened—the villain and the Robin Hood. I was a contradiction to everything I’d been brought up to believe in.
“Do you love her?”
I let out a long, low sigh and nodded. “She’s in my soul. That kid is all I have.”
She came up behind me and laid a comforting hand on my back, or at least it was an attempt at comfort. She’d basically worsened an already bad mood, but at least she tried. Why, I had no idea.
“He loves her too, you know. He’ll always make sure she’s taken care of. I used to worry that he’d end up tainted by his childhood, but he’s a good man.”
I nodded, still staring into the distance. “If I didn’t believe that, he’d be a dead man.”
She patted my shoulder and moved around me to refill her glass of wine. “Tell me about the girl—Kristine’s sister, not Jayne.”
My head snapped to the side, and there was no mistaking the shock on my face.
“Who are you talking about?”
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand at me dismissively. “The girl downstairs in concierge. Don’t play dumb with me.”
“You’re delusional, Cherise,” I laughed. “You need to go home and take a nap.”
“Vince,” she sighed. “I spent many years with a man that didn’t love me. I know a thing or two about denial. You’re a young man, and she’s a bright, beautiful girl. She came back here without a soul to lean on, and that was because of you. I think you owe yourself a little sanctuary for that cold, dark heart of yours.”
Things were getting ridiculous. The woman was beating against walls faster than a ball with springs.
“The only one that needs sanctuary is her. Jayne should’ve kept her up there in cow town with them. She has no business here.”
I heard her sigh again and realized it wasn’t over. “You just keep that shield up and see where that gets you.”
I finally turned to her, ready to kick her out when I found her draining the wine in one gulp. Smacking her lips, she grinned, reached over and gathered her things, and walked toward the door.
“I must be off. I have a few things to take care of before I leave for the weekend. I’m heading up north to spend some time with Flynn and Jayne. Maybe there will be time for all of us to have dinner while I’m there.”
I laughed. “That should be fun. Are you going to talk about your lonely friends and their affection for my cock?”
She smiled. “Oh, I think I’ll hold that little tidbit right here,” she said, thumping a finger against her skull. “I’ll be too busy. I have some planning to do with my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.”
I cringed. God only knew what the two of them could stir up together.
“Well, have a safe trip then.”
She threw her coat over one shoulder and smiled. “If you change your mind about Eve, let me know. She’d love to get in touch with you, I’m sure. She asked me to pass along her number.”
I waved her toward the door. “I’m good, thanks. See you around, Cherise.”
Once the door shut behind her, I searched the room—the empty, epically frivolous room—and reached for my keys. It was time to follow through with my plan. I needed to get drunk and laid, and it didn’t matter what happened first.
Chapter Four
I could still hear the beats of the music rattling in my ears from the night before; could still taste the filthy film from the liquor on my tongue, and could still smell the stench of sex in the room. I hadn’t returned to the casino until well after three in the morning, but I was up with the sun at five.
