Chapter 2 The Blue Eyed Man

Deborah's P.O.V

I'm coming to collect. – The Devil.

The paper shook in Mother's hands. Simple black letters scrawled like they'd been written in blood.

I can't breathe.

"He... he killed Ezekiel..." My mother's voice cracked. "Oh God, he's going to kill us all."

"But why? The Don never attacks unprovoked." I asked fearfully. "Daddy, is there any reason the Don would target us?"

Father snatched the paper.

"It's because of your cursed family! You brought this on us!" His voice boomed like thunder.

"Papa..." Maribelle whispered. Her hand clutched unto her black mourning dress.

"Shut your mouth, Maribelle. You're women. You have no right to question me!" He slammed his fist on the table. We all flinched.

"Maybe if I had a son-" His eyes burned into Mother. "But no. Useless. You gave me daughters and now the only useful human-" He ripped the paper in half. "-is dead!"

Mother's lips quivered. She didn't cry. She never cried.

I wanted to disappear into the floor. My heart pounded so hard it hurt.

What would the Don look like? A monster? A shadow with horns? What has Father done to him?

Father stormed out of the house and slammed the door.

We didn't move.

Then Maribelle screamed. A piercing, wild scream that made my skin crawl.

She fell to the floor, clutching her stomach. "He's gone! My husband is dead!" Her sobs echoed off the walls.

We rushed to her. Mother knelt beside her, stroking her hair. "Hush, Maribelle. You'll hurt the baby."

"Please think of your baby," I added pleadingly.

Maribelle's eyes blazed. She looked at me like I'd set the fire in her heart.

"Don't you dare pretend like you didn't try to take my husband from me with your sinful body!" Her finger jabbed at me.

My mouth fell open. "What?"

"You thought I didn't see the way you looked at him? You wanted my husband!"

"That's not true!" My voice cracked. Heat rushed to my cheeks.

Her face twisted with rage. "He was too good for you. You whore! You-"

"Stop it!" I shouted. "He tried to force himself on me. I never wanted him! Maybe you two deserved each other. A thief and a rapist. Only God knows what your baby will be!"

Maribelle's mouth opened but no sound came. Mother looked shocked.

My chest heaved.

What did I just say?

Regret sliced through me.

"I-I didn't mean..." My voice broke. I turned away.

"I'm going to see Rachel." My words were barely a whisper.

No one stopped me as I grabbed my shawl and slipped out into the cold night.

"Rachel, are you really sure this is going to work? I need this money. Stanford's admissions close in three days-if I don't pay the entrance fee, I'll lose the scholarship."

"Will you stop stressing? It'll work." She stepped closer, tugging at the hem of the black corset bodysuit she'd picked out for me.

"You look sexy," she whispered with a smirk.

I hardly recognized myself in the mirror. My curves compressed into the satin bodysuit, thighs bare, lips painted red like a siren. It terrified me.

"This is so wrong," I muttered, shame twisting in my chest.

Rachel crossed her arms, bold in her own risqué outfit.

"Do you know what's ungodly, Debbie? Watching your dreams rot because your daddy thinks your only place is on your knees or beneath a husband. He walked away when your grandpa needed him. And now, he's denying you everything."

I winced. She didn't stop.

"Do you want to go to med school or not?"

I swallowed hard. "Of course I do."

"Then act like it." Rachel's usual confidence cracked, her voice softening. "I'd help you if I could-you know that. But with my mom dying and bills piling up...it's not enough. All I'm asking is that you use what God already gave you. Dance. That's it. Not sleep with anyone. Just dance like no one's watching."

I glanced at the mirror. But that's... evil. My body is demonic.

She reached out and gently grabbed my face.

"Oh darling. Your body isn't the problem. Your parents made you believe it is. You're curvy-so own it."

Her words landed deep, shaking something old inside me.

A clap of heels in the outside hall shook me back.

"Girls, let's move! Time to give these men their fantasy!" Miss Monroe, the club owner, sashayed in-her crimson dress catching every light. She tapped my behind playfully.

I flinched.

Monroe winked. "Don't be shy, baby. Tonight's just the start."

Rachel handed me a glittering half-mask.

"Your body is perfect," she whispered as she put hers on. "Let them watch."

My hands shook as I put mine on.

The music thundered before we even stepped onstage. Deep bass shook my bones. Rachel led confidently. I followed, step by step-and then I gripped the pole.

Something inside me cracked open. I spun. Bent. Arched. Power radiated up my spine. For once, I owned my body.

And then I saw him.

A blue-eyed man in the V.I.P. corner. His gaze sliced through me and the music stopped with it.

He smirked.

I forced myself to move again, slower now.

Crowd noise surged: cheers, whistles, bills raining down. But I only felt my own heartbeat, my thighs whining, sweat running my spine, all reminding me how this betrayed everything I'd been taught. And I didn't stop.

I caught a glimpse in the mirror-fire in my eyes. I was fire.

When the music cut, Rachel practically shoved me offstage. I was breathless, flushed-and not sorry. I wanted that again.

"Girl!" she said, grinning. "You were fire. Miss Monroe never looked so alive."

I barely heard her. My gaze darted to the V.I.P. corner. He was gone. My chest sank.

Monroe approached, clapping. "Now that was a show. You've got a gift, sugar. Stick around-you could be something special."

I shook my head, chest burning. "I'm just here for tonight. I needed the money."

Monroe gave Rachel a sideways look. "We'll talk later. Let's count the profits."

"How much did we make?"

Rachel turned to me, pride shining. "You made five thousand," she said with a grin.

"Five what?" My voice shook.

"Five thousand dollars, Debbie. You're going to med school."

My mouth fell open. "I got the entrance fee. I'm going to med school."

"Girl, the fee's 3,000. You've even got extra."

Her hug squeezed tears out of me. "Now keep it safe-don't let your family touch it.

I stared at the stack of cash, the weight in my hand. My chest twisted.

"They paid that much to see me dance," I breathed.

Rachel frowned. "Shut that down. You earned every cent. You were amazing."

Miss Monroe returned with our shares. I noticed mine was heavier.

"Let's split it," I said.

Her face hardened. "Don't you dare."

"Rach-"

"No. You need this more than I do. You deserve med school. I've never seen anyone fight like you. Don't give up now."

Tears stung. I hugged her tight. "Thank you."

"Don't make me cry-you'll ruin the mascara." She laughed and walked off with Monroe, leaving me heading to the changing room.

Two men whispered intensely by the stairway. I ignored them and kept walking.

"Are you sure you saw him?"

"I'd recognize those blue eyes anywhere, Boss."

"He shouldn't be here. That bastard's stepping on our turf."

"We wait till he's outside. Then we shoot-but make it clean."

My blood ran cold.

I slipped behind a curtain as they spotted me. My heart thudded. There he was-Blue Eyes-talking to someone. The two men moved closer. I couldn't stay silent.

I yanked him inside the dressing room.

He froze. "What the hell?"

"Shh-" I gasped. "Someone is trying to kill you."

His cold blue eyes flared, but he didn't move. Then footsteps became nearer.

I grabbed his jacket and pushed him onto the couch. He stared, confused.

"What are you-"

I pressed my lips to his. His eyes widened, shock and something else sparking in them.

The furious pounding on the door started. I pressed my body close to his-I had to shield him. They wouldn't see his face through me.

The door opened.

One voice lingered, low and weirdly reverent: "Sorry, didn't know anyone was here."

Another laughed. "You'll be servicing me next, baby. I'll talk to your boss." Then footsteps. They left.

I released a breath I didn't know I'd held. I moved, stepping off him-but his hand shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me closer. I stumbled, breath shaking against him.

He kissed me-fast and deep. His jaw as lax as a prayer, his curls tangled in my fingers. My chase of need and guilt tangled inside me until the entire world narrowed to that gasp.

The magnificence of it was so much that it tore a gasp from my throat, more a whimper than a moan, but it snapped a tether in him.

His tongue thrust into my mouth and licked his way around my lips until a convulsing throb pierced down low in my abdomen.

I waited for the warning bells to ring through my mind, to force me to pull back and evaporate from the situation like I was never really there in the first place, but they never came.

Instead, my head was filled with the sounds of my hands desperately gripping his neck and lush brown curls in my hands, our lips kissing and sucking and biting.

His hands went roaming, one hand reaching over to expertly slide me back over his lap with not even a whisper of protest.

Straddled across him, the waist of my bodysuit hitched over my hips and exposed the most sensitive parts of me, but not once did my hands leave his neck or the crush of his curls that I'd coated my fingers in.

And it was only when a free hand of his suddenly came up to clasp my jaw in it that my bones seemed to melt underneath my simmering skin.

There was a frenzied keen that slipped past my lips but he swallowed it up-swallowed everything up and breathed a life into me that I didn't know I could ever feel again.

My hands clawed at him and tugged him closer, my hips rotating and undulating across his lap until I was mindless, unhinged and panting and needy.

His lips were wrenched away from mine in the span of a stuttered heartbeat and then his eyes were on mine, tugging my attention from his lips as he glanced at me lazily, and then that hand that had bracketed my jaw was suddenly in front of his mouth.

I couldn't look away.

I was hypnotized, spellbound and utterly enthralled.

My eyes were cloudy with desire and his finger was in his mouth, sucking leisurely and slow.

Making sure that I was watching.

And then the material of my bodysuit was no longer in the way as he forewent my underwear completely, shoving the lace band of the simple white panties to the side and diving that finger inside me without warning.

Something broke in me and my mind soared, leaving my body.

It took a long while for me to return to myself.

He groaned, a painful pleasure coating his voice.

"Fuck..."

Reality crashed over me-my hands, his closeness, the shame, the ignited desire, everything.

I backed away.

"I... I have to go."

I stumbled for the door.

"Try not to get killed."

He didn't move. His voice stopped me.

"What is your name?"

"Deborah."

"Stay with me tonight, Deborah."

I froze.

"What?"

"Stay with me tonight."

"I can't."

"Yes, you can."

He stood up and pressed a kiss to my temple.

Then my neck.

Then my cheek.

"I really can't."

He didn't blink.

He pressed another kiss to my cleavage.

This time his hand followed his lips.

By this time, my common sense no longer helped me.

"Stay." A kiss.

"With." Another kiss.

"Me." Another kiss.

"Tonight." Another kiss.

"Okay."