Little Light of Mine (Club Decadence) (13 page)

She was numb when he finally left her alone.  She brushed a tear off her cheek.  Better that he think of her as a deceitful, lying bitch than know her secret.  But it wasn’t so much the secret; he couldn’t think less of her than he already did.   It was his reaction that she feared.  So, she would go on protecting him and her father.  In the meantime, she would do whatever she could to make Luis pay.   

Dex left in frustration when he couldn’t get anything more from her.  She went back on stage to finish her set, business as usual.  The next day they were back at Rossi for another team meeting.  Now that her training was completed, they were ready to move forward with the investigation.  Her job was to get closer to Luis by giving him the opportunity to bring her into his operation and inform on him.

Her first step was to visit her parents and see what information they had on Luis and his activities.  Where was he living, working, what was his schedule?  Sean had given her an invitation for an upcoming public event at The Club.  If she was able, she was supposed to let Luis or Eduardo find
it and spark their interest in The Club.  Dex was still not happy with the entire situation but seemed OK with it as long as she had 24/7 security.

During the team meeting, Lil T and Cap had questioned her about working with her brother and dealing drugs while Dex had sat quietly observing.  She swore it was a one-time deal and afterward she had immediately left for California.  When Cap asked what had made her turn to drugs, crime and her lowlife brother in the first place, she couldn’t look at Dex when she gave her one word answer. “Blackmail.”

This had sparked a barrage of questions from T and Cap, but she once again clammed up.  She answered questions about Luis and his thugs but when it came to her own personal involvement she refused.  At the end of the meeting, Dex had left in a foul temper, slamming the conference room door behind him.  Lil T and Cap were also frustrated, knowing their friends were tortured and miserable.  They needed to find out what Elena was hiding, for the case as well as their friend’s sanity.  Cap picked up the phone and asked Rick, Sean and Jonas to join them.   They needed to get to the bottom of this.

Dex spent the next month trying to exorcise thoughts of her from his tortured soul.  He couldn’t wrap his brain around what she could have done to be blackmailed.  This wasn’t the Elena he had fallen in love with.  But he questioned whether he had ever really known her at all.   Thoughts of her consumed him and he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on work both at Rossi and The Club.  Something had to give.

He buried himself in work and played in his spare time.  At work he eagerly accepted out of town assignments that took him away from San Antonio and Elena as often as possible.  At The Club he scened whenever he could, seeking out subs that looked like her, trying to purge her from his system, again.  But this was self-imposed torture.  He then switched to subs that were her total opposite; thinking maybe something different would overwrite the image in his mind.  This made it even more painful when his twisted mind morphed each one into her image, giving them a short, sassy black hair cut and tattoos. 

Nothing could shut out the haunting memories of Elena. He decided that the constant barrage of women was the problem, what he needed was a new D/s relationship where he could settle into a routine with consistency.  He had been floundering from woman to woman for too long.  That’s how he got involved with Shelby.

Shelby was a true submissive and found pleasure solely by pleasing him.  After topping her exclusively for a few weeks, he realized it wasn’t going to work.  There was no spark, no passion.  Even the sex was boring and monotonous after the newness wore off.  There was something to be said about controlling a strong, sassy woman and earning her submission.  He wanted a challenge both in and outside the bedroom.  Although Shelby was a beautiful woman, she wasn’t what he wanted.  She wasn’t Elena.

Frustrated, he knew he couldn’t continue topping her and giving her false hope wasn’t fair.  She wanted a contract, he knew because she had told him so up front.  He broke it off with her before Christmas.  But he didn’t go back to playing casually.  He was tired of the endless parade of women who just didn’t quite meet his standards.  Some were too aggressive for his taste, either too bratty or the
y were smart ass masochists, also known as SAM’s, who weren’t interested in submission and being controlled, but provoked solely to be punished.  They were the worst and he usually paired them up with a sadist to meet their needs instead.  On the other end of the spectrum were the clingy, cloying submissives who were looking for 24/7 owners and were simply too eager to please.  To him, there was such a thing as too submissive.  Lately, he found that he didn’t have the energy to dominate the former or the patience for the latter.  He wanted sass, spunk and personality with an equal amount of submission and obedience.  He wanted what he couldn’t have, Elena. 

Over the long winter months, Elena settled into a routine.  She played at The Club three nights a week and spent her off nights at home helping care for papa.  He was doing much better, his recovery slow but he was walking again with a cane.  His speech was not progressing and his inability to communicate frustrated him.

Elena was relieved that Luis seemed to have disappeared.  He didn’t come home over the holidays and had dropped out of sight for months after.  Elena and her band were staying busy with their regular club nights and had picked up a lot of extra gigs, especially weddings.  They had even played at Cap and Megan’s wedding in February.  With the arrival of spring and the wedding season, their calendar was filling up with special events many of which were referrals from Decadence, Megan’s bakery.  Megan had hired a wedding planner for their new catering line of business and Elena decided it was a good idea to stop in and meet her and express her thanks.  So with Lil T as her ever-present shadow, she went to her meeting bearing publicity shots and DVD’s of the band’s performances for the planner to show prospective clients.    

Lil T left her to her meeting with the new manager as he headed out on an errand.  The bakery and The Club were among the few places deemed safe for her to be without her bodyguard because of the surveillance.   By the time her meeting concluded, T had not returned so Elena decided to sample one of Megan’s signature chocolate éclairs.   As she relaxed in the cozy bakery with her pastry and coffee, she was startled by a familiar voice that sent chills running down her spine. 

“Well lookee here, it’s my sweet little sister.” He slid into the seat next to her and smiled at her with a slimy sneer that made her shudder.   She looked around for Lil T.  “Your boyfriend letsyou out alone
,
mi put
a
?”

He laughed at her startled expression.   “Yes bitch, I know you’ve got a 24-hour shadow.  I thought you broke up with your Master before you took off for California?”

“What do you want Luis?”

“I need your help again, little sister.  You made an excellent mule.  But let’s not talk here.  Let’s go back to the house and have a chat.”  He grabbed her upper arm and pulled her out of her chair.

Her skin crawled from his touch and she pulled away.  But this was the opportunity she had been waiting for.  She needed to go along with him, but not to the house.  She wouldn’t expose her parents to his dirty deals or place them at risk.  She floundered for an excuse.  “No, not there, Papa is having therapy and there won’t be any privacy.   We can talk here.”

Luis shook his head.  He spied Megan’s office.  “How about your friend’s office, she won’t mind I’m sure?”  Without waiting for an answer, he hauled her into the office, closing and
locking the door behind him.  Elena had tried to get the attention of one of the bakery workers, but the staff had all been busy with customers and she doubted anyone had noticed Luis’ rough handling.  She prayed that one of the Rossi men had noticed Luis enter the bakery.  Please Lord she prayed, let there be cameras in Megan’s private office.  She wanted a record of everything and hoped Luis would say something to incriminate himself.   Elena shuddered at the thought of being alone with him but was sure that Luis wouldn’t be stupid enough to do something to harm her right there in the bakery.

But she was wrong.  Once alone in the office he pressed her against the door and started rubbing against her.  A wave of nausea hit Elena and she pushed at his chest.  Never again, she vowed. 

“Get off me, Luis.  Your touch makes me sick.  I’d rather die than have your hands on me again.”

Across town at Rossi headquarters, Dex had been summoned to the surveillance room as soon as Luis walked in
to the bakery.  When he arrived he found Jack on duty.  He had a grim look on his face as he pointed to one of the bakery feeds.   Dex couldn’t believe the scene that was unfolding before his eyes.  What the hell?  Luis was all over Elena in the bakery office and in none too brotherly a fashion. 

“I’ve already contacted the team.  T is closest.  He’s five minutes out.”  It would take Dex at least twenty to get to the bakery at this time of day
, so he had no recourse but to watch helplessly.  He would have to trust T to get there in time.

“Put the audio on speaker, Jack.”  The sound of their voices was clear as both men watched the scene play out. 

Powerless, he watched Elena struggle to fight off Luis’ hands.  He grunted with pride as he saw her use some of the self-defense moves he had taught her.  She stomped on his instep as she jammed her thumbs into his throat and he immediately backed off, choking for air.  Dex’s slight smile faded at her words.

“You son of a bitch!  Never again will I allow your filthy hands on me.”  Elena’s husky voice shook with rage.  “You and your
disgusting friends have taken everything from me, but no more.”

Luis returned her glare with anger blazing in his eyes.  He reached down and slid a knife out of his boot.  “Does this change your mind
,
puta
?
  You’ll do what I say, when I say just like a good little slave.” Elena backed around the room putting distance between them.  He had a crazed look in his eyes.  She suspected that he was strung out on something, as usual.

He followed her as she moved around the desk.  “I think I want another taste of that sweet pussy.  You were the best fuck I’ve had in a long time.  Does Dex know I rode his sweet whore’s pussy and loved her long and hard?”

“That wasn’t love. It was rape.  And assaul
t
Crabró
n
!  I ended up in the hospital for ten days.”

Rage consumed him.  Dex couldn’t wait for Lil T anymore.  They had already alerted the police and all available Rossi men in the area were en route to the bakery.  He would kill the bastard for putting his hands on his woman.  “Jack, try to get T on the horn and give him an update.  Tell him the son of a bitch has a knife.  I’m on my way.”   He prayed for the first time in a very long time as he tore out of the parking garage.  Please God; let T get there in time.

Elena was panicked.  She backed into a bakery shelf and her eyes scanned quickly for a weapon.  Damn!  Where did they keep the knives?  Rolling pins, baking pans, cupcake tins, nothing on the shelves would do her any good.  

A hard banging on the door that rattled the hinges startled them.  Their eyes turned just as another bang sounded and the frame splintered.  Still the lock held firm.  Luis cursed and sprinted to the rear door that led to the back parking lot.  He fled just as T’s boot came through, slamming the door back against the wall, the handle embedding into the sheet rock.

His eyes scanned the room taking in the open door and then found Elena slumping to the floor as her shaking knees gave way.  She nodded and pointed to the door.  “I’m OK; get Luis.”  He was out the door in a second and she curled up on the floor as the tears overcame her.

Unsure of how long she lay there, she was roused by the sound of squealing tires followed by pounding boots on pavement.  As she raised her head, Dex ran through the back door, gun in hand just as Sean entered from the bakery side.  “Elena, my God!”  The next instant, Dex was on the floor beside her searching for injuries.  “Are you hurt?  Did he cut you?”

She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t speak but managed to shake her head no.  He gathered her into his arms, cradling her on his lap and rocking her, whispering soothing words against her hair.  He let her settle for a few moments before pressing for information.  “Baby, breathe.  Tell me what happened to Luis and T?”

“He… ran out the… back door … T… chasing him.”  She could barely get the words out and buried her face in his neck as she gripped his shirt in her fists, holding onto him like a lifeline.

“I’m on it Dex.”  Sean exited the back door leaving Dex to comfort a hysterical Elena. 

“How-,” she took a shuddering breath and tried again.  “How did you know?”

“Cameras.  We’ve had the bakery under surveillance for months.”  He waited to see if it would sink in.  He wouldn’t bring it up if she didn’t mention it, at least not now.  He didn’t have to wait however.

“You heard then?”

“Yeah
,
Chiquit
a
, I heard it all.”  He pressed his lips against her temple and held her tightly.  How she must have suffered.

“I couldn’t tell you, Dex.  I was afraid you would kill him.  Please don’t go after him.  Let T or Sean do it.  I couldn’t stand it if you went to prison because of me.  Promise me.”  She begged and cried inconsolably as she climbed his chest desperately needing to get closer