clipboard and walked around the bar, leading him back to her office.
They stepped inside and he leaned against the door while she sat on the edge of her desk.
“What’s going on?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. Normally, I don’t get involved in this shit, but when it
involves my VP, I got to ask.”
“What did he tell you?” Gia asked, furious.
“Nothing, I got fucking eyes, G. It’s obvious you two are feeling each other. Why freak out when I made shit official with Ardy and shut my man down? It doesn’t make sense.” He shook his head. “I don’t like it when pieces don’t add up.”
“I’m not one of your men, Demon. You don’t get to know my every move.”
“You’d better shut that noise down, Gia. Do you come to me for protection?” He arched an
eyebrow at her.
She bit her tongue. His point was valid. “Yes.”
“Then the shit going on is my business. This ain’t like you. So, I’m asking myself, what’s got you so jittery? If it’s some female shit, say that and I’ll leave you alone. If it’s an outside source…we got a conversation that needs to take place.”
She bit the inside of her lip. “Right now, it’s in my head.”
“But it might not be for long?”
“Not sure yet.”
“Not good enough, G.”
“Look, we all have a past. I crossed the ocean to escape mine, worked my ass off to get the money to open this place and make it successful. Now, I’m hearing rumors that the bogey man has come to the United States. Now, I don’t know if it’s all bullshit. Hearsay has a fifty-fifty chance of being true.”
“What are we talking about here? Another M.C.? Cartel?”
“Flesh peddler,” she whispered.
Demon’s eyes turned as round as the tumblers he drank out of. “And their business with
you?”
“It’s my fault they lost some of their best girls. Memories are long on a small island.”
“I think you’re only telling me a sliver of the story, but that’s your shit. Who is this man?”
“Woman…Mylandra.” It was a name Gia never wanted to speak aloud again. She pressed a
hand to her bubbling stomach and gripped the edge of her desk with the other. “She used to be under the thumb of a pimp named Diron and she literally fucked her way to the top. After being his main bitch for a few years, she pulled a Caesar, had him cut down, and took over the
business. She expanded their territory, locked down the area, and started recruiting younger and younger.” Images of the girls flashed in her mind like a photo book being flipped. Their faces were etched into her brain and on the back of her eyelids, never to be forgotten
“What the fuck?”
“It’s different there.” She shook her head. “Poverty gets so bad and people see it as a step up, a way out of starving to death. At least this way you’re clothed, fed, and kept to a higher standard of living than most of those around you.”
“Babe, please tell me you don’t believe that bullshit.”
“I’m just trying to share with you the way people see it there. It’s nothing like America.”