Eluded (17 page)

Kisses were placed in spots that
were supposed to make me feel good, but they caused me to feel
nothing but resentment. Between my thighs, across my stomach, in
the valley of my neck, and even on my eyelids. "I want you to know
how sorry I am, Lauren." He rolled over onto his back and lifted me
on top of him until I took him all in. "For scaring you earlier,"
he continued, then began to rock my hips with his, and we were
moving together. With each word, he was pulling out the evil inside
of me, and that was frightening. I hated Derrick and everything he
stood for, his cruelty, and all the lies he fed me. I didn't want
to pretend anymore, but I constantly reminded myself that he was a
venomous snake ready to strike.

There was something powerful in
knowing that I would kill him, and that fueled me. Derrick rolled
me over onto my stomach and fucked me from behind until I thought
my body couldn't take it anymore, then he filled me with himself. I
felt nothing but hate.

Derrick turned his head and looked
at me with the most genuine smile on his face. "You actually
enjoyed it. I could tell. It felt different," he said. His voice
almost sincere. The harshness that usually coated it was gone, and
I smiled, because maybe, just fucking maybe, I did have a chance at
winning this game.

"I think I'm falling in love with
you," I said.
Lie.
I wondered how many of them I could feed
him.

He opened his arms to pull me in
close and forced me to lay my head on his chest. His heartbeat was
steady and calm. I had told many lies. Many of them, built upon the
others, but the last one, he really did believe. Maybe that one
would be the one that became the death of me.

The morning arrived early, much
earlier than I expected. Derrick stood by the window shirtless.
Muscles flexed in his shoulders as he crossed his arms, and I hated
myself for admiring his body. He turned around and saw me staring.
That pleased him. As he sat on the edge of the bed, I pushed my
body upright, still naked, and he admired my breasts. I stayed
confidently exposed for him, all for the game.

He tucked my hair behind my ear.
"I ordered breakfast for you. Eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice.
It's on the table and still warm."

I pushed the blanket from me and
walked to the table naked. He followed behind me like a puppy.
Before I sat down, he grabbed my arm and spun me around, but said
nothing. Instead, he grabbed my face and kissed me. Lips on lips,
so intense, that I pulled away. His breathing increased and his
dick was hard . . . again. All he wanted to ever do was
fuck.

"I can't wait for you to eat. I
need you now. You'll have to wait until afterward. I don't know
what you've done to me, but I've been thinking about last night all
morning."

I would have protested if I had a
choice, but I knew my place. Though my body was starving for food,
his craved sex, and his decision was final.

He pulled a little baggy from his
pocket and placed it on the table. He grabbed a knife from the
kitchen and sliced a little slit in the side. White powder rolled
out of the sack. Then two white lines were stacked beside one
another. While holding one nostril closed, he snorted a line with
one swift movement, then looked at me with wide eyes and nodded his
head. My turn.

He waited. When I didn't move to
snort the line of cocaine that was intended for me, he grabbed me
by my hair, put his hand over my mouth, and slammed my face down on
the table. I was forced to take in the drugs. A burning sensation
filled my nose and then that famous drip that was most talked about
slid down my throat. Derrick's grip on my hair tightened then a
slightly euphoric feeling overtook my body, and I felt almost
invincible, like I could fly. For a moment, I realized why rock
stars took it, to feel like they owned the world, and to be
unstoppable.

As my heart raced, Derrick first
removed his tight grip, then removed his pants. He took me by the
hand and led me to the sliding doors of the balcony. The streets
were packed with people, and I knew we must have been close to
Oxford Street. Tons of people were on every street, but he didn't
care, and at that moment, I didn't either. Derrick opened the
balcony door and the sounds of the crowded streets instantly filled
my ears.

"I want you to moan as loud as you
did last night. I want the whole fucking world to know that you're
mine. That you love my dick and that you want it."

Then he moved me outside and
lifted my bare ass into the air until it was pressed against the
metal bars of the railing. I stared at him as he forced himself
inside of me. I wasn't wet, so the feeling was abrasive and
forceful. If my body wouldn't have been going numb in all different
places, I would have yelled out in pain. Fear and electricity
flooded my veins and I just wanted it to be over with.
Unfortunately, he had the stamina of a racehorse. He could fuck me
for hours if he wanted, and after the huge line of coke he had
snorted, I was sure he would.

"There's something about you that
I want, and I won't stop until it's mine," he whispered, as he
grabbed my breasts hard. Hard. Fast. Painful. I closed my eyes and
pretended to be somewhere else. It was easy, because I felt like I
was flying above my body. I tried to comprehend that I was being
fucked, outside, on one of the busiest streets in the world. As I
took myself away in the high, I imagined Derrick's dick was someone
else's, someone that I loved. But oddly enough, the last words he
said echoed through my mind. I had heard them before, and recently.
I tried to focus as the words seemed to echo over and over, and
over and over. Then blond hair and hazel eyes flashed in my mind,
Abbot.

"What did you say?" I was pulled
from my imagination when something frightening covered Derrick's
face. "What the fuck did you say?" He was angry with me.
Furious.

"Nothing. I didn't say
anything."

"Yes, you fucking did. I heard
what you said."

He wrapped his hand tightly around
my neck and began to squeeze. I tried to scream out for help, but
it seemed everyone on the street below just continued on about
their day, completely oblivious to the two naked people on the
third floor balcony.

"Abbot. And I will find out how
you know that bastard one way or another."

The cool metal railing pushed into
my back as Derrick used all of his strength to choke the life from
me. I knew that if I could stay calm, he would eventually let me
go. Panic rose inside of me from the wild look on his face. When my
muscles relaxed and my eyes gently closed, Derrick removed his hand
from my throat. I fell to the ground, where he left me until I
found the strength to stand.

If I could have run away, I would
have, but my only choices were to enter the hotel room or jump from
the balcony, and honestly, I wasn't ready to die yet.

When I entered, Derrick was
yelling at someone on the phone. "How did he get in there? I don't
care, fucking figure it out."

All I saw was the back of him,
black shirt and blue jeans. When the door shut, he turned and
stared at me while he continued with his harsh conversation. An
outfit sat on the bed and he pointed to it. I slipped on the pants
and shirt, then sat on the edge of the bed and waited for my next
direction. Too much energy surged through me and my head pounded,
as did the area around my neck where he had used every ounce of his
strength. The room wasn't extremely large, and I could see the door
from the bed. If I were fast enough to escape, I'd go for it while
he was preoccupied, but even though the coke was telling me I
could, I knew I wouldn't make it very far. So I waited while I
calculated my escape.

He hung up the phone and threw it
against the wall. To me, it was a typical reaction, considering his
anger problems, but the noise was so unexpected that I jumped. This
pleased him, showed him he had control over me as I sat and
waited.

"You know Abbot tried to kill me
once. He cuffed me and tied weights around my legs and threw me to
the bottom of the ocean."

I stood and stared at him, knowing
not to open my mouth.

"Because I kidnapped women and
enjoyed it. He didn't approve. Always, he always thought he could
fucking control me. So I killed his girlfriend after I fucked her
senseless." Derrick laughed. "He didn't realize that I had my own
men on his crew. Men who knew his plan and were waiting for me in
the water. Abbot is a fucking idiot. Too trusting. Too loyal. He
always tries to be so honorable even though he is a fucking monster
too. He will be dead by my hands before it's over. And you'll help
me."

With a strong grasp, he yanked me
by my wrist and led me to the door. I didn't fight it. A black car
waited at the hotel entrance.

"I really like you, Lauren, but I
don't trust you. You know Abbot, and you'll bring him to me." He
turned his head and looked at me as he handed me a picture. I
looked down at it and saw Lindsey tied with a blindfold. A wicked
smiled covered his face as he spoke. "She came to London. She came
looking for you. And I have her. You'll do what I say, or your
cousin will die and so will you."

ABBOT

Twenty-two

T
he handlebar mustache,
skinny jeans, and Ray Bans were the style choices of my chemist,
who called himself Neon. Apparently, Neon was his favorite element
from the periodic table. No one knew his real name, just that he
was Ivy League and had found his way to the land of the lost.

The look on his face told me
everything that I needed to know about the cocaine that we
confiscated from the abandoned building. Pure.

"Looks like your dealer got the
cut straight from Columbia. It's so damn beautiful and pure. Have
to be careful with this shit, though. It could send an
inexperienced user over the edge. One bump of this would be like
doing a line of the cut coke that was spread around a few weeks
ago."

He rolled the powder between his
fingers and the slight breeze blew it away like dust in the
wind.

"This is dangerous. It shouldn't
be given to weekend users. Highly addictive and dangerous," Neon
said.

"I understand," I said. There was
so much anger inside of me. Derrick turned addicts into super
users. They were nothing more than addicted zombies, users who were
being used.

Sickening. The whole situation was
disgusting, although not surprising. I had to do something,
anything, to stop the distribution of those drugs onto the streets.
Drugs were a part of this game. I had slung thousands of kilos at
the beginning. When I first took over, I did so many things
wrong.

Ahh
. . .
to be young
and stupid again.

"We've got to stop this," I
said.

"How?" Liam asked.

"It all seems to go back to the
root of the problem."

He nodded his head in agreement. I
pulled the set of keys from my pocket and headed for the door. "I'm
going to Vanity. Need to clear my head and come up with a plan.
Lauren is fucking haunting me."

No one followed me. I didn't
expect anyone to. Before walking out, I grabbed a helmet by the
door and took the leather jacket from the closet. The motorcycle
parked in the back bay called my name and begged me to take her.
With a hard pull, I opened the hangar door, then swung a leg over
the seat and kick started the bike. The deep roar of the engine,
combined with the reeling of my emotions, made me feel
alive.

Cool air seemed to rip through the
leather and my blue jeans. Freedom and power pushed me forward. As
I zoomed down the street, women stopped and stared. I smiled under
the helmet, because I knew that if I stopped and talked to any one
of them, they'd hop on the back of the bike in a heartbeat. Women
loved a bad boy who could sweep them off their feet. Bad boy . . .
I laughed. I was ten notches past that.

The parking lot in front of Vanity
was full, but the reserved places for motorcycles had plenty of
space. I placed my feet on the pavement and backed the bike in
beside another one, then removed the helmet and placed it under the
seat. My hands were cold, and I squeezed them into fists to help
bring feeling back into them. The vibrations from the road made my
fingers tingle. After unzipping the jacket, I walked to the
entrance and took a breath in before entering. I needed a drink,
and after I’d had a few, I would go home and think over our next
move.

LAUREN

Twenty-three

I
wasn’t sure where Derrick
would take me or what he would do, but to save my cousin, I would
do anything. She shouldn’t be punished because of me. Actually,
none of this should have happened to either of us. Derrick pulled
me from the car and I was shocked by where we were. Bras and
panties and bright lights filled the front windows. He grabbed me
with a tight grasp by the arm and brought me inside. A woman walked
up to us and asked if we needed any help, and Derrick turned on his
charm.

“
Something sexy but elegant for my
girlfriend. We are going on a trip, and she wants to look hot. A
full outfit, please. A dress maybe, and sexy lingerie underneath.
Right, baby?" He looked at me and smiled.