Pretty Dirty (Dirty Bad Things Book 2)(5)

“Oh, fuck, I—” I start to scramble from the bed

“You fucking answer my goddamn fucking calls you fucking skank!”

The color drains from my face. Okay, this isn’t just usual mad Joey. This is really mad Joey

“Lewis, I have to go—”

“You little fucking bitch!”

I scream as the bedroom door kicks in, and Joey comes storming towards me. The camera knocks to the side as he grabs me and shakes me hard.

“Goddamnit! Fuckin’ whore!”

“I’m on camera!”

Joey grabs me, and I scream as he shakes me and shoves me back across the bed.

“I don’t give a fuck if you’re on camera, you fucking bitch.”

He grabs me again, and I cry out, my cheek stinging from the slap of his hand. The world spins as he shakes me again, like my whole brain is turning to jello inside my head. Suddenly, he shoves me again, and this time, I go crashing into the nightstand. There’s a dull thudding sound as my head hits the wall, the lamp crashing to the ground and shattering.

“I don’t give a shit about some asshole jerking off, you fucking bitch!”

My head’s still throbbing, and I can see stars as Joey advances on me, crumpled on the ground. He reeks of booze, and he’s got a fury in his eyes I’ve never seen before.

“Fuckin bitch,” he mutters again. “Wasting my fuckin’ time!”

He hits me again, and I groan. I glance up with wincing eyes and see that the camera is still pointed right at me. I wonder if Lewis is watching me.

I wonder if he cares. I hope he does.

Joey’s fist hits me again, and I cry out as I slump to the ground.

“The money, it’s on the kitchen counter!”

“Tomorrow,” he hisses. “I’m not dragging a crying bitch out to cash a check. So get your shit together, and tomorrow we do this,” he sneers. He rears back like he’s going to hit me again, and when I flinch, he just laughs.

“Tomorrow, Zoe. Don’t ever waste my fucking time again.”

He kicks at some of the broken glass of my bedside table-lamp before he turns and steps from the room. I listen to the sound of him moving back through the apartment before I close my eyes and exhale.

And then I hear footsteps.

I cringe, curling into a ball and squeezing my eyes shut as they get closer and closer, until I can hear them at the doorway.

“Please,” I choke out, throwing an arm up as if it might block another hit. “Please don’t—”

“Don’t cry.”

The voice is deep and resonating, a velvety baritone that wraps around me like a blanket. But then, there is a blanket wrapping around me, pulled tight across my shoulders by strong, warm hands. It’s not Joey, obviously. I don’t know who it is, but when those warm, comforting hands rub my arms through the blanket.

“Don’t cry, Alice,” he says quietly.

I freeze. A lump forms in my throat, and as I swallow it back, I slowly raise my head and drag my eyes up. I see dark, smoky and intense eyes. Dark hair, a chiseled, handsome jawline. I see an insanely attractive man looking right at me with more concern in his eyes than I’m sure anyone has ever looked at me with.

He called me Alice.

It can’t be. There’s no fucking way this is…

“I’ve got you, Alice,” he says quietly, and before I know it, he’s wrapping me in the blanket and effortlessly lifting me off the floor and into his arms.

“Lewis?” I say it quietly, like I’m not sure this is real. But his eyes pierce right into me, holding my incredulous gaze as tears come to my eyes.

“What…how?”

“Let’s go, beautiful,” he murmurs, stepping over the wreckage in the bedroom and then through the apartment.

“Where— where are we going?”

“You’re coming with me, to my place.”

His eyes dip down to mine, and there’s a fire there when they lock onto mine.

“I’ve got you now. I’m taking care of you. And no one is going to hurt you.”





4





Gray




Well shit.

This isn’t how I expected this night to go. Not in the fucking slightest.

She’s light as a feather in my arms, and as we step into the hallway, I turn and shut the door to her place. For a second, I wonder how in the hell a girl stripping on a webcam affords a place like this. I mean, it’s much smaller than my place, but this building is a far cry from “cheap.” But, I put it out of mind.

I’ve got more important things to worry about. Things like Joey.

Joey Luco, a lieutenant in the Moretti crime family. The very same Moretti crime family that I actually work for. Yeah, that whole thing about ignoring work and how it’s dangerous? Well, I’m not worried about a quarter evaluation, or a goddamn HR department. I’m worried about a guy in a ski mask shattering my kneecap in an ally, or putting a bullet through my eye.

I recognized Joey the second I saw his face on that camera. And I had no idea what the fuck I was doing storming down here, but I’m pretty sure I moved on autopilot. I mean, I’m built — from years in the Marines and then years taking care of myself afterwards. But I’m not entirely sure how things would go in a fight with a steroid-popping gorilla like Joey Luco. Not to mention, I’m sure he’s packing heat. I think I came crashing through her front door half expecting not to walk out of there alive, but Joey was already gone by the time I did.