January Whitehall
The safehouse isn’t what I expected. I’d pictured a creepy motel room in the middle of nowhere with wooden boards over the windows. Instead, it’s a super fancy apartment on the gazillionth floor of a super fancy building. The kind of place a businessman in a movie would live.
Harvey lets us in and leads us to the massive living room, grinning from ear to ear. “So, contract’s signed? I can’t believe it! And that’s a knockout dress, Miss Whitehall!”
I try to say ‘thank you’ but I’m too nervous to speak. I stand on my tiptoes to see if Margot is behind him.
Harvey tugs the end of his long, white beard. “You know, I never thought we’d see a peaceful resolution to the situation with Parker, but—”
“Get out of the way, H,” Doc calls from behind me. “She wants to see her sister.”
“Of course. Sorry.” Harvey steps aside to reveal the lush apartment. There’s no sign of Margot at the glass dining table or on the white leather sofa. I turn to ask the guys where she is and familiar arms close around me.
“JJ! You’re here!”
For a second, it’s staggering. So many things about my life have changed, but not Margot’s smell or the feel of her hair as it sweeps over my shoulders. Tears burst in my eyes like sunspots. “Margot! It’s so good to see you again.”
“You too, I thought you were dead! And then I thought you’d been taken away!” She pulls back, looking into my eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
Bobby clears his throat. “JJ, the four of us are gonna hang out in the entertainment room. Give you guys some privacy.”
“Okay.” I have no idea where the entertainment room is, but I’m glad they’re not leaving.
Eli, Bobby, Doc, and Adriano slip away with Harvey, as Margot pulls me into another furious hug.
“Good, they’re gone.” Margot takes my hand and leads me to the kitchen. A bottle of red wine is open on the marble counter next to a half-full glass. Margot takes another wineglass from the shelf and pours me a drink. As she offers it to me, she seems to realize what I’m wearing for the first time. Her green eyes expand. “Holy shit, January. What is that dress!?”
I hunch my shoulders. “It’s nothing. It’s new.”
“It’s tasteless!”
A voice in my ear talks. Not Zia Teresa, someone else. Screw her, it says with enough venom to scare me.
This is my sister. I’ve missed her, I want everything to be good between us. I take a deep breath. “You don’t think I can pull this dress off?”
“I mean… of course you can. But… what’s happened to you?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ve grown into myself.”
Margot looks at me like I’m wearing an eyepatch and a peg leg. “Sure.”
I frown. “You’ve worn stuff like this. Remember your masquerade dress that almost showed your nipples?”
“So? I don’t have huge Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader titties!”
“That doesn’t matter! Mom still almost made you go home and change!”
Margot flinches at the mention of our stepmom. “Okay, so maybe I’ve almost showed some skin, but you’re all shy and now you’re like…” She casts a glance at the doorway. “…Are these kidnapper guys making you dress like this?”
It’s hard to hear Margot talk about the men I care for, the men who rescued me from Mr. Parker, as ‘kidnapper guys.’ But that is what they are. It’s not all they are, but it’s where our history starts. Now that I’m free of Mr. Parker, free to do whatever I like, I can appreciate how tricky it’ll be to bring my sister and friends to our side. To show them Velvet House is where I want to be. I smile. “Yes and no. Eli bought me this dress, but I wanted to wear it.”
“But they did kidnap you?”
“Yes, but now I’m free to do whatever I want, and I want to be with them.”
Margot picks up her glass and takes a long slug of wine. “I think you need to tell me what happened.”
“The guys said we only have an hour here before we have to leave…”
“So, talk fast.”
We sit side by side at the kitchen counter as I try to explain what happened after I was taken on my wedding day. It’s a hard story to tell. I condense some of the scarier things and leave out others. I don’t mention Orchard or bribing Adriano with my virginity or the Baskerville twins. That makes it sound like I ran away from Mr. Parker’s limo all by myself, but I can’t risk blowing their cover.
As I talk, Margot looks more and more horrified. But she’s not freaked out by my escape or that Mr. Parker is a monster or even that I was held in a cage. She’s freaked out that I’ve lost my virginity in bits and pieces to four different guys.
“Are you serious?” She keeps saying. “You’re sleeping with Elliot Morelli and that blond guy and that giant guy and that cute muscly one? And they all know about it? And they’re okay with it?”
“Um, I think so,” I say and try to return to my story. But Margot keeps dragging me back. “You slept with them because you were scared of them, right?”
“No, I didn’t want to sleep with them when I was scared of them.”
“So then how…?”
“We got to know each other more and I… wanted to.”
“You wanted to have a bunch of threesomes with criminals?”
“I mean… it’s not a threesome if there are five people, is it?”
That makes Margot scream.
I try to explain how things at Velvet House feel normal and make sense to me, but the more I talk, the more Margot gets suspicious and freaked out. I give up and jump to explaining the negotiation and how Mr. Parker can’t come near me anymore.
“…so, I’m free,” I tell Margot. “Our whole family is. Mr. Parker has to go marry someone else and leave us all alone. And once the air has cleared, Bobby says I might be able to meet with Zia Teresa’s daughters and explain what happened, so they have closure.”
“Right.” Margot pours herself another huge glass of wine. “Are you sure Mr. Parker killed Teresa? It wasn’t an accident?”
I think back to that afternoon in the hospital, the dimly lit room, the man putting his hands around Zia’s neck, and I want to slap my sister. “Of course it wasn’t an accident. Mr. Parker ordered his men to kill Zia. He didn’t have to, but he wanted revenge.”
“For what? You didn’t kidnap yourself!”
“Because he didn’t get to marry me. And he wasn’t the first man to touch me. And now that I’m not a virgin, he hates me. He said he always hated Zia, too.”
Margot lifts her wine and drinks deeply. I lay a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t believe Teresa is gone.”
My heart aches for her. She and Zia were never close, but it’s awful to know someone was murdered.
“It’s okay. I mean it’s never going to be okay, but Zia was asleep and on medication. She didn’t feel anything. And Adriano gave her daughters a lot of money which I know doesn’t make up for it, but at least they’ve been looked after.”
Margot casts another look at the door. “Adriano… He’s the big scary one with the face scar?”
Again, I want to correct her, say he’s so much more than that, but I bite my tongue. “Yeah.”
“And are you going to keep living with them now you’re free?”
I feel my face heat. “Um, yes?”
“JJ, you can’t do that.”
“Why? You’re the one who says women should play the field and explore.”
“That means being with different guys one after another, not living with four of them and banging them all at the same time!”
She sounds so disgusted, it’s hard to hold her gaze. “Maybe that’s what ‘exploring’ means for me.”
Margot sighs. “God, you’ve been sheltered for way too long.”
Unexpected anger flares in me. “Yeah, I have been sheltered. More than you. More than anyone, and you know why? Because our stepmom sold me to Mr. Parker when I was a baby and tried to keep me as innocent as possible for him.”
Margot flinches. “Don’t say that!”
“Why? It’s true! And you know it’s true. That’s why you were getting drunk at the wedding and saying you wished daddy was there. It’s why you hated Mr. Parker so much. You knew.”
Margot looks away. “At least you’re not acting like she’s our real mom anymore.”
Margot’s voice has none of her old angst. All at once, she looks a hundred years older. I take the wineglass from her hands and put it on the counter, then thread my fingers through hers. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you. I blame her. And now I’m free! I don’t have to marry Mr. Parker because of Velvet House.”
Margot pulls her hands from mine and reclaims her wineglass. “So, you’re not coming home?”
It never occurred to me that Margot might think I was. Then again, she doesn’t know about our stepmother emptying out my bank account or giving Mr. Parker my passport. “I’m not coming home, but we can still be close. Now that the contract’s signed, we can text and meet up in the city and hang out.”
“What?! January, you have to come home!”
“No, I don’t. I’m going to live at Velvet House and work in a bar. Or a café.”
“But…” Margot looks around the room as though it’ll give her ideas… “What about Fine Arts at Columbia?”
“I don’t want to go to college, that was mom and Mr. Parker’s idea. I want to get a proper job and… I don’t know… hang out.” I give a little laugh at how ridiculous I sound. Margot doesn’t join in. She doesn’t look well. She’s so pretty and I was so excited to see her, I didn’t notice the lines around her mouth and shadows under her eyes. “Are you okay? Have you been sleeping?”
“No, but that doesn’t matter.” Margot grips my hand. “We need you to come home. Me and Harris and Lachlan. We need you, okay?”
A cold stone forms in the pit of my stomach. “What are you talking about?”
Margot’s gaze slides sideways. “Just, like, we miss you.”
She’s lying, I can read it in every inch of her face. But I don’t know why. I remember Adriano staring at me through the bars of my cage. How his silence made me feel like I needed to talk. I don’t answer, instead I wait for Margot to explain why it’s so important to her and my brothers that I go back to our big, chilly Park Avenue mansion.
“January,” Margot finally pleads. “Say something.”
Her fringe is growing out. I don’t think she’s had a haircut since my wedding and her nails aren’t done either. My heart shifts painfully in my chest. I think I know what the problem is, but I can’t bring myself to say it. It’s too scary.
Margot presses her palms into her eyes. “Okay, you can’t tell Mom I told you but if I don’t get you to come home, she won’t unlock my trust fund.”
There it is. The truth. The weight of it strikes me like a hammer. “You don’t have any money?”
“No. She’s cut me off. Not just me, Lachlan and Harris too, that’s why you need to come home. She said she’ll make everything right again if you come home.”
I pull away, horrified.
“Don’t,” she cries. “It’s not about going shopping or cars or whatever. If I can’t make my college payments, I’ll have to drop out! And Lachlan’s going to lose his house and Harris and Penny just had Lila! Everything’s a mess, JJ, we need you.”
I stare at my sister, trying to process what she’s saying. “Why does mom have control of your money? I thought your trust fund came from Daddy?”
“That money’s been gone for ages. All we have now is her payments.”
Which means Mr. Parker’s payments.
I slump onto the marble counter. Does my family have anything that wasn’t paid for on the promise of my body?
“JJ, I’m so sorry,” Margot says. “I know you didn’t want to marry Mr. Parker, but I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay,” I mumble into my forearms. A dull anger pounds in my chest, but it would be wrong to take it out on Margot. She’s not the one who sold me. My stepmom, Corinne, is. From this point onward I vow to call her by her name. She’s no mother of mine, step or otherwise.
“You need to come home, JJ.” Margot’s voice is tight. “You have to.”
I lift my head. “I told you, I couldn’t marry Mr. Parker even if I wanted to. And I’m not a virgin anymore, so I can’t be sold to anyone else.”
“But it’s what she wants!” Margot says, her eyes filling with tears. “If we don’t give her what she wants, she’s going to sell all the houses and cars! She’s going to sell Mama’s jewelry.”
Mama. The word still takes my breath away. I never knew her, but Margot, Lachlan, and Harris did. They told me she was an angel with long black hair, red lips and blue eyes. The sweetest woman in the world. I wish she was here to solve all of this. To pay Margot’s college fees and get rid of Corinne and approve of my relationships because they make me happy…
Zia Teresa’s voice comes to me. ‘What do we say about wishes, bella?’
“They’re for fools,” I mutter.
“What?” Margot demands. “Did you just call me a fool?”
I look at my sister, tears glittering on her cheekbones. I love her. I don’t want her to be in pain, but I can’t heal her by going home. I’ll have to try and fix things myself with what I have now.
I draw a shaky breath. “Margot, I was in the contract negotiation meeting. Do you know Mr. Parker gave Corinne thirty million dollars.”
Margot’s mouth falls open. “What?”
“Thirty million dollars. That’s what Velvet House has to repay Mr. Parker to get me out of our engagement. So, Corinne can’t be broke. She just can’t be. She’s threatening to sell our stuff out of spite and if I go home just because she wants me to, she’ll own me forever.”
Margot sits back in her chair. “But what about my trust fund? Since mom cut me off… you have no idea what it’s like. I can’t buy lunch on campus or put gas in my car, all my friends are getting weird around me and asking all these questions…”
She sounds so spoiled, but I know she’s not faking how scared she is. I think of a documentary I once saw about pandas. How it took zookeepers and researchers years to teach a domesticated panda to fend for itself in the wild. Margot is like those squishy, hand-fed pandas. Someone needs to teach her how to live without Corinne’s money and it might have to be me.
I put my hand on hers. “Why don’t you come and stay at Velvet House? You can have your own room and we can look at getting jobs and applying for scholarships together?”
Margot pulls her hand from mine. “I’m not living with you in some freak house in Albany.”
Her words strike at me like a whip. I try to keep my breathing steady.
“Sorry,” she says. “I just… I want my life. I don’t want things to change.”
They already have. “Then why don’t I find somewhere else for you to stay? I can speak to Eli about getting a lawyer and seeing what we can do about Daddy’s money?”
“That won’t work! I already spoke to my friend Timothy, he’s a junior lawyer with Monaghan & Shepard, and he said unless Daddy left us specific things in the will, everything would have gone to Mom when he died. Lachlan checked and we’re not entitled to anything.”
“Oh.”
“JJ, just come home and talk to Mom…?”
“No! She’s not my mom and that isn’t my home!” I say it with more force than I intended.
Margot stares at me like I’m a stranger. “Okay, fine.”
We sit in silence for a long time. I want to talk, but I won’t apologize, and I won’t act like I’m going to come home. That doesn’t leave me with a lot to say.
Margot picks up her wine and drains the glass. “So, you belong to Velvet House now? They paid for you to leave Mr. Parker, so now they own you?”
“No. If I went to Eli or Doc or any of them and asked to leave, they would let me.”
“Are you sure?”
Something shifts inside me, opening until I feel as wide as a summer sky. “I don’t know, but I’m happy to take the risk. I want things to change.”
There’s a polite knock on the door. Harvey sticks his white-bearded head inside the room. “Sorry to interrupt, ladies, but Miss Margot asked me to tell her when she could go home…?”
Margot gets to her feet. “I’m leaving.”
“Wait!” I say, totally shocked. “It hasn’t been an hour!”
She grabs the bottle of wine. “I don’t care. I’m out of here. Have fun with your men, I’ll deal with Mom on my own.”
“Can I text you?”
“I… Okay.” She bites her lower lip. “For the record, I am glad you don’t have to marry Parker.”
I stand, wrapping my sister in a big hug. Margot’s tense, but after a few seconds, she hugs me back, the wine bottle poking into my side.
“Bye,” she says, her voice full of tears. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
“You too. You have options.”
“Sure.”
I watch her collect her Fendi bag before Harvey escorts her to the pretty blue door. It closes with a neat snap behind her. I hug my arms around my middle and try not to cry. I know this isn’t the end. Margot is a good person. Eventually she’ll see that there’s a life beyond Corinne, but right now she feels totally alone. I understand that better than anyone because that was how Corinne made me feel.
I hear the low rumble of male voices from another room and smile. I’m not alone. Not anymore.
The guys are piled into rows of movie seats. Adriano is examining his gun, Doc has his feet on the chair in front of him, Eli is on his laptop, and Bobby is tossing a purple ball into the air. I burst into tears and all four of them leap to their feet.
“Pryntsesa!”
“What’s wrong, Tits?”
“Are you okay, JJ?”
“Bella, what happened?”
“I’m fine,” I sob, teetering backward on my heels. “That was just really hard.”
Bobby gets to me first, wrapping his arms around me. “C’mere. It’s all okay.”
I draw back. “It isn’t okay! My sister hates me.”
“She doesn’t,” Bobby says gently.
“And if she does, she’s a fucking idiot.” Doc shoves Bobby out of the way and pulls me into his arms. “Sorry, Tesorina. Family sucks.”
It’s weird to be hugged by Doc but I let my head rest on his chest.
“Did Margot try to get you to go home?” Eli asks, his voice tight.
“Yeah, she said Corinne, my stepmom, wants me there. She’s frozen Margot and my brothers’ trust funds until I go back.”
Eli and Adriano exchange looks.
“You should know that we think your stepmother is still in contact with Parker,” Eli says. “She was due to gain fifty million after you were married and it seems as though she’s still pursuing the money, claiming she had no control over your abduction.”
I shudder.
“There’s more,” Eli says, and his sharp tone is betrayed by the concern in his eyes. “There’s a possibility your siblings were going to get a cut and they might feel… entitled to tell you to come home.”
I wait for the sting, but nothing happens. I don’t know that there’s anything about my family that could surprise me anymore. “Okay. Well, there’s no way they can get that money now, is there?”
“No,” Adriano says flatly.
“Your brothers can get fucked,” Doc fumes. “Trying to drag their kid sister into a snake pit for a few nickels.”
“Lachlan and Harris don’t know how to exist without my parent’s money. From their perspective, I’m sure they don’t have a choice.”
Doc looks like he wants to be mean, but he hugs me tighter instead. “You’re a better person than us, Tits. But I guess we already knew that.”
I smile into his chest. “I think you’re all good men.”
“That’s because we bent you to our will with mind tricks and hardcore fucking.”
I giggle harder than the comment requires. It just feels so good to smile. Then I catch the look on Adriano’s face. The brutal focus I recognize from the times he’s truly terrified me.
“No! Adriano, you can’t.”
His head jerks up. “Pryntsesa?”
“You’re not gonna kill my stepmom!”
Adriano glances to Eli who smooths his jacket lapels. “She’ll be dealt with in due time, bella.”
“But you’re not going to kill her?”
“No.” Adriano says.
“Definitely not,” Eli adds.
“Good.” I sway in Doc’s strong arms. “I’ve had enough drama for at least like… three years.”
“Make it twenty and that’s how I feel,” Bobby says, giving me his easy, open smile. Suddenly all I want is to be in bed with Doc on one side and Bobby on the other, watching videos on my phone as we fall asleep, knowing tomorrow I’ll see Eli and Adriano. I fight back a yawn.
“You’re taking this well,” Eli says. “Or are you in shock?”
Doc shoves two fingers against my neck.
I tap his hand away. “I’m fine. I’m okay with where I am.”
Judging from the guys’ skeptical faces, they don’t understand. But they don’t have to. I’m still crushed about Margot and my brothers, still mad at Corinne and worried about the look Mr. Parker gave me as he left the conference room, but I can accept it. And not in a stiff, angry way. The feeling inside me is softer than that. It reminds me of a word I’ve always liked, ‘yielding.’ You could see yielding as giving up, but to me it sounds more like giving way. Relaxing into what is instead of fighting the unknown and hurting yourself worse for no reason. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but like I told Margot, I’m willing to wait and see.
“Can we get out of here?” I ask. “I want to go home.”
That makes them all smile. Or Doc, Eli, and Bobby smile and Adriano just crinkles the corners of his eyes a bit.
“In a minute, Tits,” Doc says. “I’ve got a contract signing surprise for you.”
I look at his hands.
“Nothing you can touch, although…”
“Get to the point,” Eli growls.
“It’s a job. One night a week at Dreams.”
I stare at him.
“As a bartender,” he says firmly. “One shift a week behind the bar. The rest of the time, you’re at Velvet House sucking our dicks.”
“But you can keep all your tips,” Bobby says drily.
My insides vibrate with happiness and I clap my hands. “A job? I’ll have a job? I’ll work in a bar?”
“One day a week,” Eli says loudly. “Betty will keep an eye on you and if I find out anyone’s harassing you or trying to buy dances—”
“Give it a rest, Morelli,” Doc says. “Let the girl have her fun… That being said, I will gut anyone who lays a hand on you.”
I laugh, my heart lighter than it’s been in weeks, months, years. Maybe my whole life.
“Look at her,” Eli says, amused. “When we stole her, it was to make her hate us beyond words.”
Adriano gives an affirming grunt.
I might love all of you instead.
I don’t say it. Now isn’t the right time. Instead, I go around and kiss all of them on the cheek.
Bobby grabs my hips and pulls me closer. “I haven’t had you since Parker laid eyes on you. That feels wrong.”
“It does,” Doc agrees. “We should baptize her in our cum. Make sure she knows who she belongs to.”
Suddenly the chains of my dress feel much heavier along my skin.
“Sorry,” Eli says lazily. “But you’ll have to control yourselves. There’s a jet waiting at Thompson Airfield. We need to be there in forty minutes.”
Doc, Bobby, and Adriano turn on him.
“What the fuck?” Doc demands. “Work? Now?”
“I suppose it depends what you mean by work,” Eli says, but he can’t hold back his smile. “I’ve restocked the villa in Maui. I thought that after everything we’d gone through, we might want a vacation.”
“A vacation?” Doc repeats.
“Yes. A week of sunshine and swimming and fucking our little jewel senseless. Unless you’d prefer to stand around with your thumb up your ass, which you’re entitled to do.” Eli holds out a hand to me. “Coming, bella?”
I picture crystal water and lush forests. Canopy beds as big as whole rooms and drinks with chunks of pineapple in them. Twosomes that become threesomes and foursomes. Hours that run like honey, slow and sweet. I grab Eli’s hand. “Please take me to Hawaii, Mr. Morelli.”
“It would be my pleasure.”
“Fuck off, we’re coming, too,” Doc says. “There better be booze on the jet.”
We head for the pretty blue door, and I hear Adriano’s boots, Bobby’s dress shoes, and Doc’s sneakers fall into step behind my heels and Eli’s wingtips.
I don’t have all the answers, or any of them, but the contract with Mr. Parker is signed, my stepmom is gone from my life, and I’m the queen of Velvet House. How could this not be the start of a golden age? What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen?