Enslaved By Him

Chapter 11: Narrowing In

"Is something bothering you, Hex?" Rachel asked as she lowered her camera.

Hex debated about lying to her, but Rachel wasn't the type to punish her for having personal problems. "I'm just not on my A-game today. I let Lucy go home with his father today."

"Wait, wait, wait! Baby Daddy is back in the picture?" Rachel scratched her puffy red mane. She was one of the few who knew the real reason for Hex's hiatus.

"Yeah. It's a long story. I'm just nervous." She sighed and struggled not to run her fingers through her hair out of habit. It had been done up for this shoot.

"Who is he?" Rachel asked, lowering the camera to her side. It was a clear signal that she was done for now so Hex carefully went off the stage set up to look like an abandoned house in the woods.

"I don't want to say. I'm not sure if he's wanting to go public with it. He's unfortunately got a much larger following than I do."

Rachel smiled then and held up three fingers. "There are only three options knowing Lucy's Asian descent if we're talking large followings. There's Ryu. Popular model and rookie rockstar. 1.4 million followers. There's Ji-hoon. Most popular k-pop musician and actor. 2.6 million followers. Then there's Dimitri. World class model, wanted by just about every known major luxury brand out there. 4.3 million followers."

Hex struggled not to react to Dimitri's name, but she failed miserably and she knew when Rachel figured it out because of her sharp intake of breath. "Holy s**t! Really?! Dimitri?!"

Hex groaned and instinctively motioned for her to keep her voice down, not that there was anyone else here to over hear. "Shhhhh! Geeze! Wait...what are you doing?"

Rachel was yanking out her phone and Hex nearly tripped running over to her. Rachel, the limber b***h, managed to avoid getting her phone swiped. "Oh my god! He posted Lucy! Oh my god, you're not lying! When did you met freaking Dimitri Chang?"

Hex's stomach dropped to her feet. It wasn't that she was angry about it. She just never would have expected Dimitri to go public about his illegitimate child so quickly. "What?"

Rachel turned her phone to show a picture of Dimitri sitting on a couch feeding Lucy. The description simply said, 'My miracle'. It was posted an hour ago and the photo already had over three million reacts and twelve million comments.

She thought she was going to faint for a second and Rachel had to rush to hold her as she swayed. The woman laughed and eased her down to the floor. "I take it that wasn't planned?"

Hex shook her head just as Rachel's desk phone started ringing. Rachel made sure she could sit up on her own before going to answer it. Normally she had someone there to answer phones, but her help called in sick this morning.

"I think we're good for now, Hex. I have my next shoot coming in fifteen. Are you good?" Rachel asked as she approached.

Hex nodded and stood up on steady legs. "Yeah. I'm good. Let me get changed." The outfit she wore was for an alternative clothing store that she had modeled for on several occasions. They were one of the few that required the clothing back.

"Actually, keep it. That was Liz on the phone." Liz? The KillMoon representative? "She said that she will be sending you several more outfits since your photos have amped up production by 30%. It's a thank you and she wants to sign you as soon as you're free."

Hex was taken aback by that. Liz was one of the snootiest hard ass representatives she had to work with. She was lenient to no one. So what changed?

"Oh...uh...okay." Hex looked down as her strappy torn skinny jeans, and satanic halter top that showed off her midriff. The cardigan she had on had a deep, wide hood that pillowed out on her shoulders. The arms and hood were lined with ritualistic symbols. The platform boots completed the newest designs that weren't even for sale yet.

I guess that just saves me some time, Hex thought to herself as she went to gather her things from the dressing room. Now that she didn't have Dimitri up her ass, she was going to stop by and see what the hell was up with Keith.

She still didn't understand why he told her that she was fired all of a sudden. Granted he worded it much nicer than 'you're fired', but essentially he canned her. They had such a good night at the maze and then all of a sudden he fires her. Had she imagined the whole thing between them? Maybe he really didn't like her and she had just been fooling herself? Either way, she was going to see him today. She had to return her keys to the store to him anyway.

Hex managed to pull her hair down before leaving because she hated how the bobby pins poked her scalp and headed out just as Rachel's next client showed up. The Gallery was only about a thirty minute drive but she still stopped by the local coffee store to get a cup of caffeinated diabetes. She arrived in the customer parking lot almost forty minutes later.

She was distraught at what she found. The whole store had been emptied overnight. She could see the open floor normally hidden by dozens of bookshelves right from her car. She got up to the door and saw a large paper that spelled out 'FORECLOSURE'. There was more on it but Hex didn't have the stomach to continue reading. It just didn't make sense. How the hell were they doing so bad without her knowledge? Yeah they had more online sales than store traffic, but she had been positive they were doing more than enough to make ends meet.

Hex wanted to call Keith and ask what the f**k was going on, but she knew the bastard blocked her. Was that why he always was so resistant to pushing their relationship forward? Was he scared that she would find out about how badly his business was really doing? Or maybe he was taking his own funds away? How well did she really know Keith?

The more she thought about it, the more she realized she didn't know much beyond casual surface level things. She didn't know anything about his family, where he lived, what his life was like outside the shop aside from he also enjoyed horror movies. His humor had simply made her trust him.

She sighed out in disbelief that a man she had wanted to date had been lying so effortlessly to her. "What the actual f**k…"

Her phone vibrated in her hand. It was Dimitri. They had exchanged numbers before she let him leave with Lucifer. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You sound a bit pissed." Hex could hear Lucy's happy screaming laugh in the background. It made her smile, but didn't take away all her anger.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just found out some s**t news, but I'll be fine." She turned and walked back to her car. Her Honda didn't have a wireless car charging pad so she had one of those wireless car mounts that charged and held her phone. Once Dimitri's voice went to the speakers, she started to buckle in and pull out.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked over a rattle sound that made Lucy lose his little mind with giggles.

She laughed because she couldn't help it. Her son was just too damn cute. But she so wasn't going to tell Dimitri that his only rival just skipped town. He'd enjoy it entirely too much and she didn't want him getting his hopes up. Just because Keith was gone did not mean that she was going to just become an item with him. "No. What are you doing to get him to laugh like that?"

"Oh, he likes it when I rattle my car keys. Apparently he likes the sound better than the plastic ones. Even at his age he understands the difference between classy and cheap s**t. Don't you, buddy?" Dimitri cooed which rewarded them with another round of hysterical laughter.

"Great. Just what I need. A brat with a lifestyle crave bigger than my budget. Thanks dad." She took a sip out of her coffee as Dimitri laughed.

"Don't worry about that. Whatever you can't manage for him, I'll pick up. I'd rather just take care of it all for you, but something tells me you'd be against that."

She nodded even though he couldn't see it. "You'd be right. I take it meeting your dad went well?"

"Oh, yeah. As the only male to carry on the Chang name, he was quite thrilled. He wants to meet you too, but that will have to wait until he has more free time."

"Lucifer's last name is Ramirez, Dimitri." Hex stopped at a light.

"What?" She actually flinched at the outrage in his voice, but what had he honestly expected?

"Dimitri, you rejected me and let me carry him to term alone. Even if I had known your last name at the time, I sure as s**t wasn't going to honor you by giving him your name. We can talk about changing it later."

"Which depends on?"

Hex sighed and turned to look left to make sure no cars were coming. "How steady you stay in his life, for one. I also like him having my last name, so there's that too."

Dimitri sighed. "Damn it all to s**t! I knew I should have approached you sooner! I was trying to give you space!" There was a voice on the other side. Female. Dimitri's voice came again but he sounded further away, like he pulled the phone away from his face. "Oh, thank you… We're waiting for mom to get here...I don't feel comfortable with people taking photos of my son, so no...yep. Bye."

"The f**k was that about?" Hex was heated. Who the f**k would dare just come up and ask to take a picture of someone's kid?

"A fan asked to take a photo of him. How long before you get here?" He sounded tired. 'Here' was the riverwalk; specifically in front of Lorenzo's, a nice little Italian place.

"I'm almost to the parking garage." She could actually see the sign for it just passed the traffic light. "Do you deal with that a lot? Fans?"

He laughed. "More than I'd like to. But it's not super crazy like you'd think." He didn't add that it was because he tended to have people around to keep situations from getting out of hand. He was pretty sure she'd get uneasy to know he had constant body guard detail.

"Okay, well I just pulled into the parking garage. I'll be out there in about five minutes." She told him and hung up so she could place her phone in her small bat purse.

Hex was thankful for the cardigan because even though she looked cute, warmth was more important. October was always a little cold. The hood especially was helpful.

She was about to cross the street when she heard her name. When she turned around there was a girl she didn't recognize coming up to her smiling. She was wearing a heavy metal band shirt under a leather jacket, black skinny jeans and converse. "Wow! I thought it was you!"

"I'm sorry, I don't think I know you?"

The girl gave a burst of laughter. "Oh! We haven't met before! I just recognized you because I follow you! I was so glad to see you're back! Your posts give me life! Is it true that the reason you went on hiatus is because you had Dimitri's baby?"

Hex felt her mouth unhinge. How the f**k did she even remotely put that together? Hex had never mentioned a pregnancy to anyone outside of her family and Rachel. So even if Dimitri posted that photo, no one should have put two and two together to pin her as the mother.

The girl's face withered a bit at Hex's horror. "Oh… I'm...so sorry! That was so rude of me! It just slipped out!"

Just slipped out? Seriously?

"How…?" It was the only thing she could manage to say.

The girl took a cautious step forward, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. She motioned with her head to move a bit away from the other people before she whispered, "Some crazy fan of his looked into the possibility of who the mother was because he's refused to comment on it. They searched all Nstagram accounts of inactivity or vague pregnancy posts to form a timeline of likely options. Apparently, they linked to you because you were gone for 11 months. Nine to carry and two which is approximately how old the baby is in his photo."

Hex held her hand out to the light post to hold herself steady. "Holy f*****g s**t!"

That photo had been posted less than two f*****g hours ago! How the hell did someone figure out Hex and he had a baby in two f*****g hours with that little of information to go by? The very concept was absolutely terrifying! Who the hell even did that?! Hex had always known Dimitri had some crazy fans, but this was straight psycho horror movie s**t! Oh, god...what if this person tried to hurt Lucifer out of jealousy?

The girl fidgeted with her hands. "I won't say anything, but it's likely going to come out soon…"

Hex cursed. Just what she f*****g needed! Dimitri's fan base was some of the most brutal out there. If it got out that they had a kid together, there was a possibility that they'd turn around and eat her alive. She was going to have to talk to him about this. "I...appreciate the heads up."

"Do you need help? You look ill." She asked softly.

Hex shook her head. "No, I appreciate it. But I'll be fine. I really do appreciate you telling me before it hits me too late to do anything."

The woman bit her lip, but didn't follow Hex across the street. It took everything in her not to run like a scared mouse. By the time she saw Dimitri sitting at an outside table next to the river, she was borderline shaking.

She slid into one of the chairs and blurted out, "Did you know about that crazy fan of yours that's suggesting I'm the mother?"

His brows raised and he snorted a laugh. "I'm glad to see you too, Hex."

Hex sighed, "I'm serious, Dimitri! Your fans are assholes! If they find out it's me, they will eat me alive! Not to mention I'm scared about Lucy's safety!"

He leaned back in his chair, his hand gently rocking the carrier. Lucy had apparently just fallen asleep. "Yes, I knew. I'm surprised it took this long for them to figure it out. Don't worry though. I can hire protection for Lucifer and I'll make sure I tell them to leave you alone."

Seriously? 'This long'? IT'S BEEN TWO f*****g HOURS!

Hex groaned and leaned over the table. "Like that's going to help me? You need to just tell them I'm not the mother, Dimitri! This could destroy everything I've built up!"

He frowned those pretty lips. "No. I'm not ashamed of you or Lucy. If I need to, I'll sponsor you until the heat blows over."

He couldn't be serious? Yet as he sat there, he looked dead serious. "No, I can't just-"

He cut her off as he leaned forward. "It's going to come out sooner or later, Hex. People are going to see us together. If I lied, that would damage me just as much. If we own it, eventually all the thirsty little hoes will back off. Yeah, I might lose followers, but that isn't important to me. You and Lucifer are."

"Can I get you anything?" A boy who looked to be about 17 came over to the table. He smiled with braces.

Hex dug into her purse to fish out her ID and slammed it on the table. "I need a Long Island."

God, a drink sounded delightful.

Dimitri chuckled, "Really?"

She thrust a finger out to him. "Shut your trap, Dimitri! This may not be a big deal for you, but this is monumental for me!"

Dimitri just laughed again, "We'll get loaded fries and breaded mushrooms too."

The boy finished checking her ID and handed it back to her which told her he was over 21. Then he jotted down the appetizers. "Would you like a drink, sir?"

"Just water. I have a feeling I need to stay sober." So much for taking her out tonight. Dimitri had a pretty good feeling she was about to get hammered. Not exactly a good combination for a lengthy walk in a high stress environment. He was laughing at his luck and Hex glared at him. "What?"

She didn't answer him. Just got up to go look at Lucy. His little hand was clutching Dimitri's finger while his little pacifier occasionally moved. His little cheeks were flushed from his laughter still. Dimitri had changed him into his black 'Mommy's Little Nightmare' onesie, black pants and his little bat booties.

"Where's his diaper bag? I want to put another blanket on him." Hex reached for the chair Dimitri pointed to with his free hand and she pulled out the fuzzy one.

When she finished tucking him in, she looked up at Dimitri with a defeated sigh. "So how are we going to 'own it'?"