The Devil's Revenge (The Devil's Eyes) (4 page)
“Don’t tell me you are nothing but a tease. Don’t do that to me Kayla, I promise you I will treat you like you have never been treated before.” He says, pushing my hand down his pants.
Once my head starts to spin, I push away from him, “I think I hear my son, let me check on him and I will be right back with you.” I fight off his hands as best I can, but a piece of my dress rips off before I can get away. Hiding in my room, I try to call Dwayne to find out how much longer he is going to be. Luckily he is close and I only need to hold off
Mr. Hands
for a few more minutes. Suddenly, I hear a loud thump and rush out of my room to find Ryan standing in front of me with a confused expression.
“What was that?” He asked me.
“I don’t know.” I open the door to the sitting room and find Brandon laid out on the floor naked and unconscious. “Oh my God! What did you do?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything! I just got here!” Ryan yells at me.
“Oh Ryan! Please! Did you have to hit him?” I say as I check the knot on his head.
“But I …” He checks the situation out more closely. “Why is he naked? Were you going to fuck him?”
“Just help me get him up and dressed.” I say, dismissing his question as I notice the bastard’s lack of size.
He was supposed to impress me with that?
“I don’t think so. You wanted him here, you deal with him. Can’t believe you want to deal with that,” Ryan says, smirking at Brandon’s exposed cock.
“Ryan, help me! I can’t believe you hit him. How am I going to explain this?” He starts to argue with me but instead does his usual frustration dance before finally helping me. “Help me put him in my bed.” Ryan drops him back to the floor. “He is passed out. I will just say we were having rough sex and he hit his head. He won’t remember anything … especially with the blow you gave him.”
“You really want him in your bed?” He asks glaring at me from the corners of his eyes.
He’s right, I don’t want him in my bed. Nick’s bed. It feels wrong having him here at all. “No, you’re right, put him by the fireplace and I will make up a comfortable place there.” Ryan picks him up and begins dragging him in front of the fireplace until Dwayne walks in laughing.
“What in the hell happened?” Dwayne asks, laughing even harder when Ryan drops Brandon suddenly.
“Ryan knocked him out, so now I am going to have to fix the situation somehow.” I say, purposely leaving out that I let things get out of control in the first place and am grateful that he saved me the trouble. Ryan starts to say something smart but I hold my hand up to him. “Did you get the copies done?”
“I did, everything is ready to go.” Dwayne hands me Brandon’s originals and I put them back where I found them.
“Good. Now go and let me deal with this somehow.” Dwayne continues laughing at Ryan as they both leave shoving each other. I carefully slip off my dress and slide under the blanket with Brandon, still in my underwear in case he has more energy than I expect. I begin stroking his hair and kissing his head until he begins to come to. “Hi. How are you feeling?”
“What happened?” He asks, still trying to focus.
“You don’t remember?”
“Not really. I was preparing to romance you and then … nothing.” He says slowly trying to stand up but he immediately begins swaying back and forth until he falls back to the floor again.
“Oh you are so sweet. I came in to greet you in my outfit here and you passed out and hit your head. I have to say that must be the biggest compliment any man has ever given me, but you must have some headache?” He grunts with a slight nod. I wander my hands over his body as I kiss him seductively, “so do you want to continue getting to know each other better? I have several active ideas.” His eyes begin to flutter. “Oh, you look ill. Maybe you should go to the doctor. I can have my driver take you.” Reading his pain well, I know this situation calls for a lot of movement for him to try to focus on. So I dance seductively and energetically in front of him.
“Please stop, please stop moving like that.” Brandon says, somehow making it to his feet. “Oh … I think I am going to be sick. I think I will take you up on that offer to go to the hospital.” I nod as I watch him get dressed. Brandon leaves in confusion and I celebrate my small victory.
Even though I don’t believe that Ryan would ever betray me, I still am curious about where he is sneaking off to every night. Tonight, especially, I told him my plans to meet with Estrella have moved up, and not long after he gives me an excuse that he has to leave. This time, I follow him and watch from a distance as he does indeed meet with someone, passing off documents of some sort. I decide to follow his friend, but lose him quickly in the fog. When I return home, I decide to confront Ryan immediately before he has a chance to think of a lie. Barging into his room, I catch him in his boxers. His toned, muscular body catches me off guard and I have to take a breath before I speak.
“Is there something you need Kayla?” He asks with attitude.
“Yes! Where were you?”
“I told you, I was meeting a girl for some stress relief. You know, someone that doesn’t drive me crazy.”
“Well he didn’t look like your type.” I say, watching his surprised reaction carefully.
“Stay out of it Kayla, it doesn’t have anything to do with you!” He points his finger at me with that patent Jayzon glare.
“Then tell me what it’s about Ryan.”
“No! Now, is that it, or is there something else?” He demands, hovering over me with his bare chest stuck out and his devilish eyes gleaming in the light.
I have to take a deep breath and step back before I can recover. “Who was that? Who were you, meeting with Ryan?”
“Just an informant. I was trying to check up on Welch for you but so far nothing is panning out. There, are you happy?” Ryan backs off, returning to dressing himself.
“No, I want to know who your informant is.” I say, watching him pull his pants on over his perfectly rounded ass.
“I don’t even know who he is! He calls me and I go. It’s all very creepy, actually.”
“Then how do you contact him?” I ask, searching for something for him to give me.
“I don’t. He contacts me.”
“How?” I ask, irritating him even more
Approaching me with his shirt hanging off the back of his shoulders, he looks down on me, “Kayla, don’t worry about it. He has nothing that can help us so I won’t be meeting with him anymore.” I stand strong, knowing he isn’t telling me everything.
There has to be something that I can get out of him.
Ryan leans down even further, staring deep into my eyes, “Is there anything else?” His eyes nearly weaken my legs right out from under me and I forget for a moment who he is. Sighing he backs off, “Go to bed Kayla before you end up in mine.”
With little else to say, I leave him and go to bed, planning my next move against Welch … without Ryan.
Pagelle Place is under attack. Since moving back to this city, I haven’t paid much attention to the old gentleman’s club. The club is so much a part of my memories of Nick. It is, after all, the place I worked to go after him and make him pay for my sister’s death. Who would have ever thought that things would turn out so differently? That I would have been able to expose all the lies and unveil the truth. Nick became the man of my dreams and the love of my life, and Pagelle holds so much of his spirit within it. The memories of him there are too great and too heartbreaking for me. I have been content letting my husband’s original plan stand, letting Exie continue to own and run it. Exie, my best friend since we first met, has done well with Pagelle but recently she came to me for help. Exie has her hands full these days and needs help keeping Pagelle alive. Andrew Curtis Rankin III is a businessman and a religious man, s
o he says
. Although, I know some girls who would say otherwise. Rankin is on a mission these days to clean things up within the city. Rankin’s first goal is to start with the area in which the club operates. It is no surprise to me that he also happens to be throwing money Senator Welch’s way to help him in his quest. Welch is heading up a new committee to shut Pagelle down, along with many other businesses along the strip. Welch says the whole strip is being run by
dirty money.
So Rankin, for the sake of our children, for the sake of their souls, says the area needs to be cleaned up, and the
bad
needs to be cleared out. Rankin, himself, is running for good saint of the year, only if you look behind his mask you will see his true colors. The land Pagelle is on has recently become prime real estate, since the new highway design has been completed. No one is supposed to have seen these designs, and no one is supposed to know the designs have been completed. Welch found out because he is on the committee to help decrease traffic, therefore his big donating, friend Rankin also happens to know. What they don’t know is, I also know, thanks to Ryan’s inside people. It took us some time to rebuild our eyes and ears within the government buildings, but we were able to get it done just in time. As soon as I found out, I let Exie know. She agreed she doesn’t have the weapons to deal with them, and I feel the need to have a major piece of Nick back. So my best friend and I became partners again and own Pagelle together.
My involvement and determination to hold strong against him must have worried Rankin. His next plan was to park himself outside each business and preach until they could no longer operate. Luckily for me, the business owners preferred to sell to me rather than Rankin or Welch. Our control of the neighborhood increased with each passing day. Everything was working beautifully until Rankin decided to get on his soapbox and point out the massive amounts of crime happening in the neighborhood. He alleges that this same crime is slowly making its way towards the respectable citizens of Belmont, and if they want to prevent it from spreading, they had best do something now. Belmont is easily riled up, their picket signs and protests are overpowering us. They act as if a bunch of strippers are going to attack and rob them. If anything the strippers should be the ones scared of being robbed, they are the ones walking out with a ton of cash on them. The whole thing is ridiculous, but one by one the businesses are shutting down. The once upscale Pagelle is becoming the last place prominent businessmen and women want to be a part of. The club is taking a hard hit and there is little reason to leave it open, but shutting it down is difficult for me. Instead, I decide to reopen somewhere else. A new building, and a new club with even better clientele. An even better Pagelle. If I can only get Rankin to back off the new club location so it can be built. The man is relentless. I cannot put up a wall without someone setting fire to it. I have to set up guards day and night to protect the building and then I have to assure the workers that they won’t be attacked on their way to and from the site. I have to spend more than a few times battling Rankin face-to-face. Not all planned, at least on my part. Rankin makes a point of showing up to confront me at every place possible, even taking the opportunity to approach Nicky and I on our way into the Children’s Gym, a business that Nick also built.
I see him coming with his group of rowdy do gooders, who mistakenly believe they are simply ridding themselves of a strip club - not helping Rankin make money off the selling of land. Yelling at me and calling me a whore, they hope to embarrass me. When that doesn’t work, they come after my son. Trying to pull him from my arms, they chant. “Save the child!” The guards from the gym run out and stop them from going any further. While my son clings to me, I burn holes through my attacker but he will not stop. He threatens to attack the gym itself, a place that’s purpose is purely for the safety of the children. It was built with Nicky in mind, a dedication from a father to his son. Even though I manage to squeeze out from the swarm of people, he has come after me and I escape into the gym. It is not the only opportunity Rankin decides to take advantage of. He goes after Exie and her son too.
The man will not stop, and I wasn’t about to lose another part of Nick or risk a place that my son loves so dearly. And now Exie is being overwhelmed by his bullying and has no place to hide from him. I have been accused of being stubborn before, but right now I am wondering if my stubbornness is even worth it. The land itself doesn’t mean much, and the money for it is nothing to me. The only thing I cared about was the club itself, but there is no saving the original building now, nor is there even a good reason to. Exie could care less and is more than content to let the club go. Swallowing my pride I decide to give in. Rankin is quite pleased to hear from me, and is expectedly eager to have me sign over the property for a ridiculously low amount of money considering how much he is going to profit.
The contracts have been drawn up. All I have to do is sign them and everything will belong to Rankin. Rankin wants to meet at the club so I arrive early so I can say my final good-bye to the place. “I can’t believe the place is going to be gone.” Dwayne says, as we walk through the door. “Lots of great memories here, and then some not so nice ones too.” He smirks at me as we both recall our own images.