THE BARON'S PET

CHAPTER 2

CORA.

"I'm here for Dante," I told the bouncer at the door. He gestured to a nearby thug.

"She says she's here for Dante."

The thug leered at me. I recognized him as the one who smashed the coffee table.

"After you," he sneered.

I walked in front of him, hands in the pockets of my sweats, trying not to let my nervousness show.

A meaty hand squeezed my ass.

I whirled around, eyes blazing. "Do that again, and you'll find yourself missing a few fingers," I threatened.

He guffawed. "You've got a pretty mouth for threats." He reached for my breasts.

"I wonder what Dante will think when he finds out you've been playing with his goods", I said coldly, the degrading words leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

The thug thought twice, then mumbled something and kept his hands to himself.

He led me to a dimly lit room, and out another door.

Finally, we entered a large, almost empty room. I realized this was where the stripping took place.

There were poles at strategic points in the room with chairs surrounding them.

Dante lounged on a chaise at the very back of the room. His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"So you came."

"I keep to my word", I said curtly. "Remains to be seen if you keep to yours. The money."

Amity's needs came first. I tried not to think of the disappointed look on her face as she begged me not to come here.

My mother had ground up another sachet of meth and had been snorting it through her nose.

She'd said nothing as I gently tugged Amity's hands away from me and left the house to sell myself.

Dante chuckled. "You'll get your money, pretty girl. For now, why don't you get undressed."

"Now?" I hissed.

"Would you like to wait till tomorrow?" Dante asked.

"I'm not...dressed for stripping," I bit out. All I had under my sweats were a bra and panties that didn't even match.

I had thought Dante would provide whatever he wanted me to wear.

The man waved a hand. "That doesn't matter. No one's here except me."

"And them," I said pointedly, referring to his thugs.

"They'll close their eyes", Dante laughed. "Won't you, boys?"

Soft music began to play, and I took a deep breath, reminding myself of why I was doing this in the first place.

I peeled my sweatshirt off, swaying gently to the music, and had just gotten my pants over my ankles when the door to the room burst open.

Guns c****d as Dante's thugs faced the intruder. I scooted away from the line of fire, making myself as small as possible in the corner of the room, my heart in my throat.

Of course, something bad would happen to me the one time I would do something like this.

Cold air brushed against my skin and I blushed furiously at the eyes of the men on my underwear.

A suit-clad man strolled into the room, looking like he owned the world.

My breath caught. The man was beautiful. Cold and hard, but beautiful.

His lips looked set in a permanent sneer, and his eyes were hard and clear as ice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you", he warned Dante's men in a voice deeper and smoother than honey.

I shot a glance at Dante. He looked...scared.

He waved at his men nervously. "Put the weapons away. Sir Baron, Sir... I wasn't expecting you."

A chill ran down my spine. Baron? This man was the Baron? There wasn't any New Yorker who had their ears down and hadn't heard of the Baron.

I had thought Dante was ruthless, but he was so far down on the food chain compared to this man.

"Please, sit," Dante was saying, standing from his chair.

I shrunk into myself, my eyes darting around the room for an escape route.

Men with guns were stationed at the only visible exit.

"I have no time for your games, Dante," the Baron said. "You owe me."

I picked up my shirt, wanting to pull it over my head. That small movement seemed to draw his eyes. Gray eyes fell on me.

I stared back, outwardly fearless. Inwardly, my heart was doing a marathon.

The Baron's disinterested gaze left me and focused back on Dante. I pulled my shirt on.

"I...owe you?" Dante asked timidly.

"Product worth two hundred grand was headed here, with the cops tailing it. I took care of that for you. That was very careless of you."

Dante gulped. "I am...in your debt. I assume you want the money from the sales?"

The Baron shot another gaze at me. "That's not why I'm here."

He made an almost imperceptible gesture and one of his men grabbed Dante by the collar and threw him to his knees.

"Do you know what happens to careless people, Dante?"

I could almost see beads of sweat forming on Dante's brow. He gulped.

"Y-yes, Baron."

"Good", The Baron replied. "Then you know I can't let you go without teaching you a lesson."

"A lesson, s-sir?", Dante stammered.

"I want her", the Baron said, completely going off tangent.

"W-who?"

"Your little w***e over there," He snapped.

My head snapped up as I stared at the man. He was talking about me? My already pale skin grew ashen.

Dante looked over at me. "Um...Baron, Sir, she isn't really..."

One of the Baron's men c****d his gun and trained it at Dante's forehead.

"What I meant to say is," he hastily amended, "she's all yours."

What?!

The Baron nodded. "Good. I hope for your sake I don't pay you another visit." He turned to leave, then snapped at me. "You, w***e! Come with me."

"I'm not a w***e!", I snapped back. The silence in the room was deafening. "And I'm not coming with you!"

Dante yelped, giving me an alarmed look.

With as much dignity as I could maintain while wearing only a sweatshirt over my underwear, I stood, clutching my pants in a death grip.

"Excuse me?" He said, his deep voice almost sending shivers to my toes.

"You heard me,” I spat. "I don't work here, and I'll be damned if I let you take me."

"Is that so?” The Baron said quietly.

"Don't fight it, girl," Dante said to me.

I whirled around to face him. "You better tell him I'm not one of your girls, Dante! Tell him now or I'll scream this place down! We had an agreement! We..."

"Take her,” The Baron said.

Two words.

One of his men stepped forward and a strong arm wrapped around my waist, lifting me in the air.

I screamed.

They began to walk, taking me with them.

"This is kidnapping,” I yelled. "Let me go! Let me go! Dante!"

"Shut her up,” The Baron ordered.

He turned back to Dante, then gestured to one of his men. "And make sure he can't walk for a few weeks."

The horror dawning on Dante's face was a mirror image of mine.

He screamed as he was surrounded, overpowered, then dragged away.

There was a dull thud as something hard hit my head, and all went black.