“Watch it,” I said, as I stood a couple paces away from him.
Kace paced the floor of the third floor landing as he said, “Do you know what you are doing to her? Do you realize you are pushing her completely away, to the point that she is going to leave the club to go back to her old life? Is that what you really want?”
“She told you that?”
“She said she didn’t know if she could stay. Where else would she go if she didn’t have the club? She doesn’t have parents to lean on and her only friend is the one from Kitten’s Castle. You are driving her back to her old life, the complete opposite of your goal here.”
I blew out an exasperated breath as I headed to my office to grab a drink. Once I had a handle on some bourbon, I whirled on Kace and said, “What the hell am I supposed to do? She is…she’s too much for me.”
“Shocker. I fucking told you she wasn’t the girl for this club. Now, not only have you hurt her, but she is probably going to be worse off because she won’t be able to get her old job back after the way you told off her old boss. You have made her life a living hell.”
“I’ll give her as much money as she wants.”
“You really think she is going to take your money? You are more delusional than I thought.”
“What?” I shrugged my shoulders, “She took Rex’s money.” The minute the words escaped my mouth, I regretted them instantly. She was right, I did treat her like a whore. I was about to take a drink of my bourbon to sooth the aching burn in my chest when I was pinned against the wall. Kace’s forearm cut off my throat as his other hand pushed against my shoulders. I dropped my glass and upper-cutted my fist into his stomach, making him buckle over.
“Fuck you, you don’t deserve the way she looks at you,” Kace said, as he was bent over, but then quickly stood up. The man was a machine. “You don’t deserve her.”
“And what? You do? Is this what this is about? Your infatuation with a girl you can never have?”
“You treat her like crap…”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve given her everything I have except myself; that is just something I can’t hand over and I know it’s the one thing she wants. I might have pulled away from her the past couple of days, but it was for her own good. She was becoming too attached and I had to put her in her place.”
“Well, by you putting her in her place, you only ended up driving her away instead…into another man’s arms.”
I stilled at Kace’s words. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Where do you think she is right now? She sure as hell isn’t pining after you in her room. No, she is at a café meeting up with Rex Titan as we speak.”
Pure and jealous rage ran through my body as I thought back to Rex’s text. Son of a bitch!
“Why the fuck didn’t you stop her? Is this because you want her? You think that by her talking to Rex she is going to find out everything about me and not think that I’m man enough to take care of her?”
Flashes of Natasha leaving me for Rex ran through my head as I spoke. Her ring left on my dresser with a note saying she wanted more, more than I could give her, reminded me of what a sorry excuse for a man I was. Her words still rang through my mind to this day. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t rich enough, and I wasn’t strong enough for her. She needed a man who was established, she needed a man who didn’t lean on his daddy—which I didn’t—and she needed a man who could give her what she wanted physically, which I did, lying bitch. I was nineteen then, with four buildings under my belt and a growing business, but that wasn’t good enough for her; I would never be good enough.
Rex’s maniacal laugh passed through my ears in the far distance as I remembered him talking to me about his new wife at a business meeting. How she had the longest legs, a perfect head of blonde hair and the most beautiful steel eyes he had ever seen. The minute he described his wife, I knew it was Natasha and the sardonic look on his face confirmed it. She told him everything she had told me when she broke things off, which broke me as a man. It was all a game to Rex, but to me, it was my life. From that moment, I swore to never get involved with another woman because, even though I wanted to help the lost souls of the women on Bourbon Street, I couldn’t trust them, any of them.
“Frankly, I didn’t feel like stopping her,” Kace said, breaking me from my thoughts.
“What the hell am I paying you for then?” I asked, as I slammed my fist on my desk.
“Not sure, but I’m out. I can’t take this bullshit anymore. I’m sick of you playing around with her heart only to break her, just like Natasha broke you.”
“Fuck you, you know nothing about that.”
“Don’t I, though? I was there, man. I know what happened to you…”
“Really? Because I remember you were out trying to make a name for yourself, a lot of good that did.”
“How many times are you going to throw that in my face?”
“You killed an innocent human!” I raged. “You killed a man with a family, a daughter, because you were drunk off your ass and had a temper that was uncontrollable. You could be in jail if it wasn’t for me.”
“You think I don’t fucking know that? Jesus fucking Christ, you practically remind me every damn day of my life about what I did. I feel guilty enough as it is, I don’t need your dickhead of a mouth running off at me and reminding me of my greatest sin.”
We stood there staring at each other as we aired our demons. We were the only ones who knew of them and we kept it that way. Even though, most of the time, we fought until we were either blue in the face or we were in a fistfight, we still kept our demons to ourselves. It was a basic understanding in our friendship.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I said, as I ran my hand through my hair. “I just…I just don’t know what to fucking do. She makes me lose everything I ever believed in. She makes me think that there is a possibility of a future. She brings up feelings that I never wanted to explore again and didn’t ever plan on exploring again.”
Kace walked toward the door and turned around to face me. “I think it’s time you shuck the vagina and pull your balls off the shelf. If anything, you just need to make it right with the girl because, how you’re treating her now is pushing her in the wrong direction. You’re about saving these girls, so fucking save her, Jett. Offer her a set, she deserves it and needs it more than anyone.”
Kace was referring to the lingerie set I gave every Jett Girl once they became official. I normally didn’t have their set made until I actually thought they were ready, but the minute I invited Goldie to become a Jett Girl, I had her set made. I knew, deep in my gut, that she was going to be a Jett Girl and now that I had her in my club, I had a choice to make. Do I keep her in the club and have her annihilate me one slow kiss at a time or do I push her away, save myself, and send her into the arms of Rex Titan?
Fuck…
Chapter Forty
“Love the Way You Lie”
Goldie/Lo
There he was, sitting at a table in the corner of the café in a finely tailored suit, one leg crossed over his knee and his arm draped across the back of his chair. He commanded the attention of every woman in the room and there was a reason why, he was sinfully sexy in every way. His dark olive skin, chestnut hair and almost-black eyes made him look practically sinister, but I knew better; I knew he had a heart inside.
The minute he spotted me walking toward him, he sat up straighter as the corner of his mouth twitched with excitement. It was the main difference between Rex and Jett, Rex didn’t mind showing his facial expressions, whereas Jett hid them very well, unless there was a lapse in his control and he showed a meager ounce of emotion.