Diego.

My heart sank as I answered.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“That’s not the kind of greeting I was hoping for,” Diego said on the other end.

“Sorry, I thought maybe you would be Jett.”

“Are you expecting a call from him?” Diego asked, using a curious voice.

“No, not really. I mean, it would be nice to hear from him, but I guess we didn’t have a scheduled call or anything.”

“Goldie, you left him. Did you really expect him to call you?”

“I didn’t leave him,” I snapped. “I told him I would be back. I’m trying to work some things out; I’m trying to make things better for us.”

Diego was silent for a second before he responded, “And how are you doing with that?”

“Not very well,” I admitted. “I’m not doing well at all, Diego. I thought this was going to be easy, that I was just going to waltz into Rex’s life and grab what I needed so I could ride off into the sunset with Jett, but right now, I feel like there is no way I will be able to ever solve this.”

“What are you trying to do exactly?”

“I want to bring Rex and Leo down. I want to release myself from the shackles they have me strapped down in. With them still around, they’re going to keep dragging me and Jett through their negative lives. They’re going to continue bringing us down, and I don’t want to live like that anymore. I don’t want to be in hiding; I don’t want to have to watch my back or hide behind the closed doors of the Lafayette Club. I want Jett to claim me, for everyone to see. I want him to take me on dates, for him to be proud to have me on his arm.”

“You know he is proud to have you on his arm already, Goldie.”

“I like to think so, but now I don’t know. I think he’s moved on.”

“What gives you that impression?”

I sighed and flipped onto my stomach so I could prop my legs up and talk on the phone like I was a teenager in some fifties sitcom.

“I don’t know, I mean, I haven’t even…”

“Who are you talking to?” Rex asked, as he barged through my door without even knocking.

“Rex,” I said in shock, dropping my phone.

Rex eyed it on the ground and quickly picked it up before I could grab it off the ground. He held the phone up to his ear with a look in his eyes that said he was about to explode in seconds. I’ve never seen the man so mad before in my life.

“Who is this?” he spat into the phone. “Why are you talking to Goldie?” Rex asked after a brief pause. Turning toward me, Rex eyed me suspiciously and said, “Don’t call her again,” and then he hung up and pocketed my phone. “Why did you answer your phone?”

The way Rex was breathing heavily and searching me like he was crazed, set my warning bells off. Maybe the meeting didn’t end well.

“I’m not sure,” I responded, starting to fear what he was going to do.

“Don’t talk to anyone. I don’t trust you,” he eyed me up and down.

“Wh-why?” I asked, stuttering from the way he was closing in on me.

“Because, until you fully give yourself over to me, I won’t trust you. I will always think you’re still interested in Jett. You don’t even come near me…you barely look at me,” Rex stated.

Oh, shit. I, apparently, wasn’t doing a good enough job in fooling the man. But how was I supposed to show him I wanted to “be with him” if I didn’t want to have sex with him, let alone touch him? Rex was a very physical man, and the way you proved your loyalty to him was by showing him how physical you could be. Right now, my physical level was at zero and slowly declining into the negatives with each passing day I was near him.

“I want to, Rex. I want to be with you,” I pleaded, as he pushed me back on the bed and surrounded me with his strong body. Sweat started to trickle down my back from the strength he was forcing on me and the proximity of his body. “I just can’t,” I gulped. “I don’t want to be used anymore.”

“Do you think I like to be used?” he asked with venom in his voice.

“No,” I shook my head.

“Because, right about now, it seems like you’re the one who is using me.”

Where was this coming from? Why was he all of a sudden attacking me? What the hell went wrong in the last twenty minutes that set him on fire?

“Then, I’ll leave. I don’t want you to feel like I’m using you. I’ll go somewhere else, but I would still like to see you,” I bluffed.

His face softened for a second, right before he pulled away and ran his hand through his hair while pacing the length of my room.

“Don’t leave,” he gritted out. “But don’t fuck with me, Goldie. I swear, if I find out you’re fucking with me, I will destroy you. Do you hear me?”

Swallowing hard, I nodded my head and let him walk out of my room with my phone, taking my last connection to the real world.

He slammed my door shut, leaving me completely perplexed as to what had just happened.

Fucking weirdo and his mood swings.

Sinking into my stiff-as-a-board bed, I bid Thomas Jefferson a good night and tried to get some shut eye. I still had a lot of work to do at the club, especially since I had no way of proving what Rex and Leo were doing.

I shut my eyes, but was disturbed when Rex flew through my door again. His shadow was booming through my room with the hallway light backing him.

He spoke firmly and said, “Saturday night, I have some business to attend at the club before the gala. I will meet you at the house. My driver will bring me back here to pick you up before the event.”

“You don’t want me to go to the club with you? It’s the girl’s first…”

“No, I don’t want you there. Just make sure you’re ready for the gala. Be sure to look pristine; I’m counting on showing you off to everyone.” With that, he slammed my door shut.

When he said he wanted to show me off to everyone, I knew he was bullshitting me, because there was only one person he wanted to show me off to…and that was Jett.

12

“Upside”

Rex

The sweet taste of my cigar drifted out of my mouth as I puffed the thick smoke into the air. My temper got the best of me after I got off the phone with Leo the other night, the controlling fuck.

After Zane Black presented me with his business merger, I couldn’t be happier about the prospect of securing Lot 17 and tarnishing Jett Colby at the same time. It was a win-win for me. Granted, I had to relinquish some of the rights to my club, but Zane was a good business man; I trusted him to bring in more members than I could imagine, especially since most of the men he raced with were from foreign countries.

Overall, it was a smart business move, but unfortunately, I was the only one who believed so. After I saw Zane to the door, I called Leo to tell him the news, but he was less than thrilled. He said he didn’t trust the man, and wouldn’t put it past Jett to set up the whole deal.

The man was paranoid. Jett wasn’t smart enough to set up such a deal, and what would he get out of it in the first place? There was no point.

I wound up arguing on the phone with Leo until I hung up on him. When I walked upstairs, I heard Goldie talking, and that’s when I lost it. After hearing Leo talk about Goldie being an insider for Jett and this whole Zane thing, I saw red. I started connecting the dots, and that’s when I went ape shit on her.

When I grabbed her phone, I was expecting to hear Jett’s voice, see his name on the screen, but instead, it was Diego, a harmless piece of trash on Bourbon Street that happened to put on a suit and tie occasionally. The man was trying to be competition with our club, but fell short, with his less than elegant reputation. It didn’t surprise me Goldie would talk to him; they came from the same gutter.

Even though she wasn’t talking to Jett, I still took her phone, because frankly, I really didn’t trust her. I had my own agenda, but sometimes, there was a look in her eyes that led me to believe she had her own agenda as well, and that’s what scared me.