Lake raised her eyebrow at him. “It’s also to make sure I don’t run away again, isn’t it?”
“Of course not.” Vincent leaned down and gave her a kiss, swiping his tongue over her bottom lip and making Lake weak in the knees. “Elle, call me if she even thinks about fucking leaving,” he said, leaning up.
Elle broke hers and Nero’s own kiss, blushing. “I swear.”
“Hey!” Lake pushed at his chest.
Vincent laughed before he stole another kiss from her then pushed her into Nero’s apartment. “Bye.”
Lake crossed her arms and scrunched her nose at him before Nero shut the door. She was still upset he was going to work in the casino and that he thought she needed a babysitter.
“How do you do it? Vincent drives me crazy,” she said, turning to Elle. The two looked so happy together.
Elle giggled. “You haven’t figured out the secret, have you?”
Lake shook her head, wondering what the secret to all made men was.
Elle’s cheeks grew pink again. “You have to let him dominate you.”
Excuse me? “Excuse me?”
“They are um … very aggressive, and you have to accept him.” Elle’s tone changed. “All of him.”
“You do know Vincent’s a psycho, right? He has a very, very bad side, which frankly scares the shit out of me.”
Elle smiled at her. “You’ll learn to love it.”
Her eyes widened, wondering how in the world a girl as sweet as Elle was saying these things. Just when you think you know a person…
It would be a cold day—never—before she was going to let the dark, psychotic side of Vincent dominate her. She shivered merely thinking about it…
Chapter Forty-Eight
In Case of an Emergency
Lake couldn’t believe Nero and Elle lived right beside Vincent. She didn’t know why that shocked her, but she found it kind of cute that childhood best friends lived beside each other. That also explains where Nero always disappears to.
Looking at his beautiful place, she saw it resembled Vincent’s in a way. They both had a modern flare, but Vincent’s was much darker. Nero’s place was black and white, not too dark and not too light. She could tell he had designed it to accommodate not only him but Elle. A lot of the things that had been put in there were for her. It made Lake a little envious; their love seemed so perfect.
Elle was a great person to be around and they got along great, finding themselves to be fast friends. Lake related to Elle in ways she honestly didn’t expect. She didn’t come from a rich family, having to go to Legacy Prep High on a scholarship, and from what she could gather, Dante didn’t care for her much, either. There was something else Lake saw in her, which reminded her of herself, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on it.
“It was hard for me, too, when I first started dating Nero, dealing with all the girls he had been with. I had to see them every day at school,” Elle told her.
Ouch. Lake wondered how in the hell their story had even started. She still didn’t like the thought of Vincent working in the casino. It actually pissed her off the more she thought about it.
“I just don’t think I can get over the fact that he’s freaking working around half-naked women. Does that make me a bad person? How do you deal with it so well?”
Elle blinked, staring at her stupidly. “What did you just say?”
“Oh, shit.” Lake’s eyes grew big. “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”
“No … He’s working around half-naked women?” Elle looked hurt.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed you knew when you said Nero had told you I worked for Dante. I was a cocktail waitress in his underground casino.” She didn’t particularly want to tell her the next part. “Down there, girls have to dress in lingerie.”
“All he told me was you worked for Dante and he had to work every day for the next month to keep Vincent from killing people, making it seem like the hardest job on the planet. He didn’t mention anything about being surrounded by girls or lingerie or being half-naked.”
Lake got even madder seeing Elle’s pain. Nero obviously kept that a secret from her for a reason, the same way Vincent was eager to get back to work when she had wanted him to stay and play.
“Fuck them. They are assholes.”
“So, he’s just standing down there watching girls in thongs?” Elle was still trying to comprehend what her boyfriend was calling work. “That’s so unfair. He made me quit the diner because he didn’t like it when I poured guys coffee!”
She didn’t want to tell her what they were doing in their thongs.
“Vincent got pissed when he found out I was working down there, but he doesn’t give a shit that I don’t like him working there. I have a reason to be upset. One’s practically obsessed with him and refuses to cover her tits!”
Elle gasped. “He’s dead!”
Lake looked at Elle, wanting to even the playing field. “You wanna go have some fun?”
* * *
“Bitch, say what?” Sadie picked up her long curls off her neck and quickly put them in a bun.
Vincent had thought it was fair to warn Sadie that Kim was done, but he hadn’t expected Sadie to go after her. He followed behind her as she ran off to one of the rooms in the back.
“Oh, shit! Bitch about to get pimp-slapped!” Amo said enthusiastically as he followed behind Vincent.
“I ain’t fucking missing this.” Nero was right behind him.
I wanted to—he watched Sadie practically kick the door in. Never mind, this is better.
Sadie grabbed the back of Kim’s fake blonde hair, yanking her away from her knees as she was giving a very round, older man a blow job. She pulled her away so hard and quick the man screamed, grabbing his junk then running out of there.
Kim raised her arms above her head, trying to grab on to the hands that were pulling her hair. “Owww!”