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Matthew’s eyes stayed glued on Filip as though I hadn’t spoken. “Noted, but you may want to collar her if she’s off-limits.” He walked back to the group he’d been standing with as if he hadn’t just spoken about me like Filip’s pet poodle. I grabbed Filip’s hand and yanked him out of the room. “What the hell are you doing? Is this some kind of game to you?” “No game. That’s just how it is here at the Den.” “Bullshit. You’re screwing with me, and you need to stop. Now.” Filip leaned in, bringing our faces a breath apart and stealing the air from my lungs. “If you don’t like it here, honey. Leave.” OceanofPDF.com 2 FILIP Camilla f*****g Genovese was parading around the Den like a juicy steak waiting to be devoured. All thoughts of my intended destination fled my mind when she stepped from the elevator. Never in a million years would I have imagined I’d ever see any of the Genovese women inside The Lion’s Den. Rapid-fire emotions slammed into me. Surprise. Confusion. Fury. And more than a little lust, which brought on a whole shitstorm of selfdeprecation. Young Camilla wasn’t much over twenty, although she appeared far more mature in that black dress glued to her slim curves. Her blonde hair hung loose around her shoulders, and her warm brown eyes weren’t clouded with excess makeup like so many other women. She was innocence in a garter belt, and I wanted to wrap her in a blanket and hide her away so none of the sick f***s in the club could find her. Some of the members were relatively straitlaced, just looking for a little spice in their s*x lives, but others had some pretty twisted fantasies. No f*****g way would I allow her to get wrapped up in that s**t. I wanted to break Dante’s perfect face for simply letting her in the door. He might not have known who her family was, but one look at her picture should have said enough. She was too good to be sullied. Too pure to be tainted with depravity. The last thing she needed was some fifty-year-old p*****t acting out his i****t fantasies with her. Jesus Christ. Just the thought made my muscles clench with unmitigated violence. I had to figure out what to do and fast; there was no time to think it through. My first inclination was to give her an obnoxious helping of club life and make her run screaming. I could have ordered her to leave, but making her decide on her own not to come back would be infinitely more effective. As it turned out, I hardly had to try before she was fleeing from the club close to tears. It had been entirely too easy. Disappointingly easy, in a way. Once she was gone, the club suddenly seemed lifeless. Boring. Stoking her fires had been more entertainment than I’d had in ages. I went back into the gathering room after her departure, but I couldn’t escape my thoughts of Camilla. Had she gone home? Would she try to come back? Why the hell had she joined in the first place? I needed to know more. Thirty minutes later, I was standing outside her apartment building. Getting her address hadn’t been hard, but she lived too high up for me to see anything. I considered installing cameras outside her place so I could see her come and go but decided that might be excessive. For now. Gathering what information I could, I checked out the building's lobby and security features before going back home. On the way, I called the guy who did all my cyber work and asked him to dig up what he could on little Camilla. I’d been around her on a dozen occasions but never gave her much thought. Never dreamed she would show up at the Den. What other secrets was she hiding? I wanted to know everything I could before I decided whether to tell her father about her escapades. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t called him immediately. Aside from the fact that ratting out anyone was against my nature, I also had a selfish desire to keep this between us. It was a risk. If her father discovered what she was up to and learned that I hadn’t informed him immediately, I could be in grave danger. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Within a half hour, I was in possession of a complete dossier on Miss Camilla Genovese. She hadn’t stepped one toe out of line since high school. Interesting. I definitely needed more. When I started to question myself about why it mattered, I refused to concede any answers aside from pure entertainment. Camilla was a mystery, and I’d been bored for far too long. 3 CAMILLA A week before I decided to submit an application at the Den, my mother confessed that she’d been more impulsive in her youth than we’d ever dreamed. She’d gotten herself pregnant when she was a teen. My sisters and I had a half brother somewhere in the world. It had been the turning point in my endless debate, along with the fact that my father had revealed months earlier that he was a part of the mafia. My fundamental beliefs about my parents’ infallibility were shattered but in a good way. Realizing that everyone bore the mark of imperfections gave me the courage to confront my differences and seek out something I’d been secretly craving. Finally joining the club after agonizing over the decision for so long made the threat of losing access unbearable. Emotions overwhelmed me when I realized that Filip was going to sabotage my night at the club. Without vocally prohibiting me from participating, he effectively shut me down. He planned to ruin the club for me until I was forced to concede and cease my efforts. It was a game to him. A war of attrition. I was furious and frustrated but vehemently refused to be a victim of his bullying. I could probably get Dante to help, but I wanted to try to handle Filip myself before admitting defeat. This was my life, and he had no right to dictate a single thing in my world. I might have left the Den for the night, but that didn’t mean I was surrendering. Far from it. Twenty-four hours later, I was back at the grand metal doors looking the lion’s head crest in the face and promising myself tonight would be better.
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