Hold Me (15 page)

“Exam?” Alessandra stops and frowns at me. “You fucking kidding me, girl? You’d miss this ‘cause of an exam? What’s wrong with you?”

“I’ll think about it. Come on. You’re drunk.” As I drag her to the car, I look back at the hotel. There won’t be another party. I’ll make sure of it.

As soon as Raphael lets go of him, Caleb rolls over to the other side of the bed. As Raphael releases a content sigh, Caleb closes his eyes and hopes Raphael will tell him to leave. He fights the urge to pull the sheets over himself because he can’t stand the man’s touch or eyes on him.

“You were amazing,” Raphael says, and Caleb rolls his eyes, glad that Raphael can’t see his face. His jaw clenches and he has to take a deep breath to stop himself from fidgeting. His whole body itches as if his skin were too tight, and he wants to rub at it until Raphael’s scent is gone forever.

When Raphael places his hand on Caleb’s waist, Caleb barely manages to suppress a flinch. Raphael has touched him so many times that he’s used to it, but today it’s different. His thoughts fly back to Lilith. She finally saw him for what he really is. Why did he even dare to hope that he could have at least a few moments when he could be someone else? Someone who isn’t just a toy to be used. Now there’s no chance Lilith will ever see him as anything other than a whore.

“Caleb?” Raphael says softly, his heavy, warm hand tracing circles across Caleb’s back. “Look at me.”

Caleb bites down on his lip, and reluctantly turns around to face Raphael. He wipes all emotion off his face when he looks up into the worried blue eyes. A wave of nausea rises inside him. He hates that look in Raphael’s eyes and his gentle touch, as if the man cared one tiny bit about him. Sometimes Caleb likes to pretend that Raphael truly cares, but today he can’t. Not after what Raphael has just done to him.

“What’s wrong?” Raphael asks, placing his hand on Caleb’s cheek.

“Nothing,” Caleb quickly says, but Raphael’s eyebrows rise up and his touch turns from gentle to painful as his nails jab into Caleb’s skin.

“Don’t lie to me. You know I hate when you do that.” Raphael grips Caleb’s chin.

Caleb swallows, his heartbeat increasing. If he doesn’t say anything, he or Jade or Isaac will get punished for it. And if he lies again, Raphael will know, which will only make the punishment worse.

“You’ve been acting strange lately,” Raphael adds, letting go of him, but his eyes are still intent on Caleb’s. “Is it because of that client? That woman you offended last night?” Anger flashes in Raphael’s eyes and Caleb goes perfectly still.

If Raphael finds out what exactly Lilith told him yesterday, things could go terribly wrong for both Lilith and him, or maybe not. For all he knows, Lilith will lose interest in him eventually. He’ll never see her again, except maybe at some party. And for some reason, that thought hurts so much that his chest tightens and it’s hard to breathe. He wishes more than anything that he could turn back time and just make sure Lilith never sees him.

Caleb blinks, hoping Raphael won’t see through the lie. “I’m sorry. I was... It wasn’t about her.”

“Then what was it about?” Raphael cocks his head to the side.

Caleb can see in Raphael’s eyes that the man doesn’t quite believe him, and Caleb’s never acted like that around a client before... Well, at least not after his training... not after he learned the high price of his mistakes. He hesitates and sees Raphael’s mouth twitch. If he doesn’t tell the truth, Raphael will lose his patience.

“I... I haven’t been taking my pills,” he says and looks away. It’s the truth, but Raphael doesn’t need to know the real reason. He will probably still get punished for it, but anything’s better than admitting that he’s been thinking about Lilith. “They’re in my room.”

“I see.” Raphael’s face is expressionless. “What did you plan to do with them?”

“Nothing, I swear.” Caleb’s eyes widen in panic. “I just wanted to see if I could do without them, and... I can’t.”

For a moment, Raphael is quiet and Caleb braces himself for his reaction.

“You’ll give the pills back to me,” Raphael finally says. “And you’ll take the ones I give you. You see how going without them makes you. You don’t want to anger me, do you?”

“No, sir,” Caleb says quietly, a bit of the tension seeping out of his shoulders.

“Good.” Raphael rises to his feet, and Caleb starts to get up too until Raphael shakes his head. “No, stay here.”

Caleb nods briefly and lowers himself back onto the bed. As Raphael strides off to the bathroom, Caleb places his arm over his eyes, worried about what Raphael has in mind for later. The room is quiet and all Caleb can do is stare at the white ceiling. His nerves jittery, thinks about Lilith again.

What is she doing now? Is she horrified by what she saw? Does she hate herself for ever laying a finger on him, for letting him touch her, for taking her virginity? He sits up, fighting a wave of nausea. Maybe it’s really the pills. Maybe he’s losing his mind. Why would Lilith care about him? She got what she paid for. He’s nothing more than a toy to her, just like to everyone else.

She’s not like Heather. She can’t be. He doesn’t know what she meant when she said she wanted to help him, but he doubts it’s anything good. Roughly running both hands through his hair, he nearly tugs out a couple of strands. If he could just forget about her... but her blue eyes haunt him. As he sinks back to the bed, he hopes he’ll never see her again.

Time can’t pass fast enough, and when I call Lloyd and ask him if I can come see him at the station, I’m so terrified that I don’t know what to do. I’ve left an anonymous tip-off about the party a couple of hours before it was supposed to begin yesterday, and I’m dying to find out what happened.

As Lloyd comes toward me with a smile on his face, I’m surprised that the station looks calm as usual.

“Hey, Lil. Wanna go grab something to eat?” he says. “My shift is just over.”

“Sure.” I follow him toward the door. As we walk down the street, I meet his dark eyes. “So... has anything interesting happened?”

He shrugs. “Not much. We raided a fancy hotel last night. I suppose that would qualify as interesting.”

“Oh?” I can barely breathe as I wait for him to tell me more.

“Yeah, we received a tip-off that someone was having illegal parties, so we went to check it out. Arrested a few elite prostitutes. Had to let go two very rich guys because they’re rich, obviously, and they claim they knew nothing about the prostitutes and that they weren’t paying anything.” He gives me a deadpan look.

“Wait, what do you mean two guys? There were only two guys there? Who are they?”

“I can’t tell you that.” His expression is pinched with annoyance. “But at least we busted their party. It’s something.”

“And the prostitutes? Did they tell you anything?” I wonder if Caleb is among them, although I’m suspicious about such a low number of guests.

“Nah.” He shakes his head. “We think there were more of them at that party, but either everyone vanished into thin air or they had another exit and were alerted of our arrival.”

“Will you investigate?” I ask hopefully.

“There’s not much to investigate, really. Those we didn’t get will pop up some other time somewhere. They always do.”

I chew on the insides of my cheek. Raphael must have known the raid would be coming, so he probably let someone stay to cover up for him. I’m almost sure not a single one of the real sex slaves is at the station, or even if they are, Raphael must have made sure they never talk. Shit. “Listen, I have to tell you something, but you can’t let anyone know you heard it from me.”

He stops to look at me. The street is mostly empty, and I’m glad no one is there to overhear us. “All right,” he says, his eyebrows shooting up.

“I found out about a ring of elite prostitution, tied to what you discovered yesterday, but with actual sex slaves,” I say. “Can you do something about it? Their leader goes under the name of Raphael. He’s a tall, lean, dark-haired guy with blue eyes. Maybe one of the people you arrested will know him. His slaves have a distinct tattoo on their hips.”

“And you found that out how exactly?” His face is serious.

“From a friend. She’s kind of involved with them, so she won’t call the cops or anything. She’s afraid for her life.”

His eyebrows draw together. “And she goes around telling people that?”

I grimace. “She told just me. We’ve been friends for a long time and she needed to tell someone. That’s why you mustn’t tell anyone that I told you, but can you at least interrogate those you arrested or try to find something? I’m sure there’s more to this. We could...”

Lloyd raises his hand. “Stop. What you’re saying is a serious matter and I’ll look into it, I promise. But I can’t do anything without evidence. You know that. I can’t chase unknown men based on something you heard.”

“I know, but please be careful. My friend told me some cops are working with Raphael too.”

He presses his lips into a tight line, then sighs. “I’ll see what I can do, but if I don’t find anything and your friend doesn’t step forward with some information, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much. You should really talk to your friend.”

“I know. Thank you.” I offer him a smile. Evidence. Where could I get some evidence? Damn it. I could ask Katherine for more info, but I don’t want to put her through traumatic memories, so I hope Lloyd will find something; a clue, no matter how small, could lead to Raphael.

I lean my head against the wall, my phone clutched in my hand. Lloyd has just told me there’s nothing he can do, and I’m not sure what to do next.

“You didn’t actually expect your plan to work, did you?” Katherine asks. I turn around to face her. She’s sitting on the sofa, her legs crossed.

“I don’t know. I expected at least something to happen. Lloyd arrested a few people, but everyone claims they were working alone and they denied that they know Raphael. One of them has Raphael’s mark, but she claims it’s just a tattoo. And of course, they didn’t let Lloyd interrogate anyone because that’s not exactly his job, and he couldn’t complain and accuse his coworkers of working for some mysterious man without proof.” I sigh and tuck the phone back into my purse, which I dump onto the couch. “I need a better plan.”

“And all of that because of Caleb? You’re going to lose your life because of him. Is it worth it?” She eyes me carefully. “He could be Raphael’s accomplice or just some drug addict.”

I shake my head. “I saw the look in his eyes when...” The images of that night flash through my head and I feel sick to my stomach. Nothing will ever erase that from my mind. “I can’t just do nothing. I know he didn’t want that. And Raphael... hit him for talking to me the wrong way. Is that how Raphael would treat a free man? You should have heard the tremor in Caleb’s voice... If he were just working for Raphael, I’m sure he wouldn’t let Raphael treat him like that.”

Katherine shrugs. “I wouldn’t know.”

“I saw other people who were enjoying themselves and the looks on their faces were completely different.”

“What are you going to do?”

I scratch my head as I pace up and down the room. Finally, I stop and look at Katherine. “I’m going to talk to Caleb. I already arranged a meeting.”

She laughs. “Yeah, as if that’s going to help.”

“He’s the only one who can help me and give me some information about Raphael.”

Katherine runs her hand over her face. “He won’t. He’s not that stupid.”

“I have to try. I don’t know what else to do.”

“Good luck with that. Just pray he likes you enough that he doesn’t tell everything to Raphael or you’re a dead woman.”

“I’ll offer him my help with whatever Raphael holds over him. Caleb knows I’m rich and from an influential family. If he has a debt to pay off or he needs money to buy some special drug... I can get it all.”

“Like I said, good luck. You’re out of your mind.” Katherine gets to her feet and starts toward the door. “I’m out of here. Can’t stand your delusional yapping anymore.”