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Before she could spring up behind me and dart out the door—which wouldn’t get her far with the men on the premises—I set the tray of food down and dropped the clothes. Whirling to snatch her by her waist, I effortlessly picked her up kicking and flailing until I could deposit her on the bed.
“I told you,” I warned, turned on by the fire in her glower as she fell back on the mattress, “you’re not going anywhere.”
“Fuck you.” She tugged her hair from her face where it had fallen over. “Fuck you, Maxim.”
I smiled as she scooted back on the bed.
“Later,” I teased. “If you calm down and accept your fate?—”
“Never,” she snapped.
“Accept your fate,” I continued calmly as I went back to retrieve the tray, “and I’ll let you have my dick again later.”
“I don’t want it,” she shot back. Her stomach growled again loudly.
I pointed at the bathroom. “Shut the water off and come here to eat.”
“No. I’m not a dog to order around.”
“Now,” I repeated. I sat, refusing to overplay my hand here. I wouldn’t tame her in one night, and I didn’t want to, anyway. The challenge she gave me made this all the more exciting.
With a furious glower, she got up and shut the water off, then sat on the edge of the bed. She watched me closely as I placed the tray over her lap.
“Good girl,” I said as I took my seat again.
“Fuck you.”
I smiled, looking forward to taming her. She wasn’t docile at all. She was nothing like what I was used to. “Eat.”
She picked up the spoon and didn’t lose her glower once as she began to taste the soup.
“Tell me more about the dancers who’ve gone missing,” I instructed. I knew better than to expect her towantto talk to me about herself. This seemed like the most neutral topic I could rely on for her to engage with me. Not about her, but about what she mentioned before.
“Don’t act like you don’t know,” she muttered.
“Humor me,” I said, deadpan.
“Some dancers go missing. There is a high turnover anyway, and I thought that the dancers came and went because they did other things or hated stripping.” She shrugged one slender shoulder, looking at the soup and bread instead of at me.
Fuck. When’s the last time you’ve eaten?She was inhaling it all like it’d been days since she had a meal. I hated that she’d gone without, but as soon as that thought hit me, I hated that I cared even more.
“One night, Lenny tried to force me into the van with the others. Some Mafia men were trying to take them.”
“A van?”
She nodded, glancing at me. “They looked like you, yet not. Suits. Hardcore Mafia guys. But they weren’t part of your…”
I raised my brows.
“Your company. Family? Organization?”
I chuckled slightly. “Any or all of the above would do.”
She smirked. “They weren’t Russian. I’ve seen the Russians at the club. But these guys sounded European. Different.”
“Speaking Spanish?” I guessed, wondering if the Cartels were stealing strippers.
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t really tell now. I was scared. Another dancer was telling me about how the Mafia men and gangsters target strippers to work for them. They drug them up and keep them hooked on it so they won’t be able to leave the trafficking ring.”