Page 12 of Jace
Smiling nervously at this kinky conundrum, she chews her lips like she’s afraid she’ll lose her beloved job. Afraid she’ll be accused of something she didn’t do.
“It wasn’t me,” Blair, Vale’s identical twin and our salesperson, pipes up, laughing. “Though I’m damn impressed with whoever did it.”
“Well, it wasn’t me either,” Grant adds. “I was at the club last night.”
Fucker, that’s a half-truth.
Grant and his wife, Delphine, one of our queens, were here for Vale’s erotic test last night. They were so aroused by it that theythenwent to the club, where I’m sure they put on a show.
“The club” is Elysium, the sex club our mother owns. It rakes in the millions we use to fund our vigilante missions, going after sex traffickers like the ones who sold our mother to our father when she was fourteen.
No one knows that Nadine Faye, Elysium’s owner, is our mother. No one knows she’s really Nadia Kholodov, a descendant of the Russian Czar and the escaped wife of one of the most evil men in the world. There’s a price on our heads. Our father is literally killing to find us.
I cough. “Wasn’t me, either.”
But I’m shit at lying.
I’ve had enough of it. My brothers and I have to hide who we really are and what we really do, so yeah, I’ve met my quota for a lifetime.
I’ll cough up a lie like a hairball.
Everyone can hear it.
Going back and forth, Vale and her twin bicker as Stacey and her husbands kindly grill us. Surprised why anyone would hide anything in our tight-knit group.
While all I can do is keep glancing at Vivian, wondering…
What’s wrong?
It seems like she’s drifting a million miserable miles away, and I’d swim any ocean to bring her back.
Vivian and I talk every day. All polite and professional. Try it in a sex shop. It’s not easy, but that’s the amazing thing—we are.
Easy acquaintances. Easily interested in each other. Easily finding a hundred things to talk about.
All the while, I’ve been getting one very deep feeling in my heart for her.
No matter the drama surrounding us.
“Fine!” Vale throws her hands up. “It was me! Okay! I fucked in the swing last night, and I guess after all the sexobatics performed in that thing over the months, it finally came down.”
Her twin laughs, adding it up. “But you didn’t do it alone. Who were you fucking?”
“Yeah.” Grant goads. “You’re too damn tiny to bring that down. Who was it?”
Grant’s right. There’s only so much we can hide, and Vale loving Nash, one of our kings, isn’t one of them.
“Iknow,” I tease.
“No, you don’t!” Vale can’t hate me. She loves me too much. “Just drop it, y’all.”
Oh, come on. Vale needs to fess up, and I’m happy to help. Especially if it frees her and protects Vivian.
I taunt Vale. “Maybe you should go downstairs and use that accounting software you’ve beenlovingfor the past month and add up how expensive your sexploits are?”
Nash is Delta’s accountant, sitting downstairs as we speak, and he’s our forensic money man. He can find our evil trafficking targets because most do it for money. It’s their downfall every time.
“What?” Blair figures it out. “You’ve been fucking Mr. Allen! What the hell, Vale? He’s your best friend’s father!”
