VEGAS

CHAPTER 2: Juno Kane - Juno’s POV

“I don’t know, mom. Maybe I didn’t think-”

“You never think, and that’s my biggest problem with you.”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes, mainly because she is standing right in front of me, and it’ll lead to another major scolding series about my bad attitude. Like, my bad for being frustrated that my pay wasn’t able to meet the bills for the month just because ‘someone’ accidentally double purchased a bottle of $2k pills. And I’m the one that never thinks.

“Listen, if you think it’s easy to dance naked in front of men twice the age of my father, be called a slut for a living, and be sold off to higher men for the night like a stick of tobacco, just so I can afford to pay for your meds and get us through another month without having to rely on your creepy brother, then why don’t you go out tonight and do it? Huh??”

My mom stares blankly at me for a second, then shame settles in her eyes as she sighs. “You know I never intended this life for you,” she whispers. “I wanted you to go to college and…be better. Be better than I ever was and…” the words die in her throat and I know what she wanted to say.

…and be the woman my father would regret that he abandoned. Her eyes say that to me everyday, but it’s already established that I can never be that. Never.

My mom was diagnosed with a sever heart condition seven years ago, when I was thirteen. Before then, she had a very stable job and she did everything she could to give me a nice life. We went on vacations sometimes, she payed for my ballet and violin classes and was even saving up so I could go to Julliard. But then she fell sick and everything changed. She quit her job and used everything she saved to pay off her medical expenses, including my college funds.

I had to drop out of school just so I could work to help with the house at sixteen but I earned almost nothing and we became homeless, so we moved in with my uncle, Benny.

That pervert.

But the very second I turned eighteen, I found a job at the club, sexed up my moves from previous ballet classes and we were finally able to move out of Benny’s into a small but cozy apartment. Some months we’re okay, but others? We live off canned food and our electricity and air conditioning will be cut off.

Like how this month is going to be. Sigh.

I pull my mom into a half hug, holding her as delicately as I can. “We’ll be alright. I swear.”

She smiles, but it doesn’t last long. Her cheeks swell as bile rises up her throat and she runs to the toilet to puke, but not without getting some on the rug. I’m about to go after her to make sure she’s okay when the door bell rings.

I’m not expecting anyone…no one ever comes for my mom either, so who could that possibly be?

The doorbell rings rings again and I hurry towards it. “Coming!”

Looking through the peep hole, my eyes settle on a young man standing on the other side. He looks impatient and somewhat important, but unfamiliar. I see his hands reach out for the bell again, and before they ring a third time, I pull the door open.

“I’m not deaf. I heard you ring the first time,” I mutter, staring him down. He looks younger than he did through the peep hole and pretty in a feminine way. His lean and long fingers are paused halfway from the bell and his other hand is clutching a tablet.

He eyes me like I’m a fly beneath him and shoves the tablet in his face. “I didn’t think so, but I was hoping it. Didn’t want to have to deal with club bimbos who believe they’re special, but really not.”

Who is this fool again?

“Why don’t you tell that to your dad?”

His eyes snap up to meet mine in a death stare. “Because he’s dead.”

“How special.”

He narrows his eyes at me, but doesn’t say anything.

“So, who the f**k are you, and who are you looking for?”

I know he’s looking for me, and what I really meant by the question is what he’s looking for me for, if that makes sense.

“I’m Dean, and I suppose you’re Juno Verde.” He looks back down at his tablet. “We have approximately thirty minutes to get to Summerlin, by the way.” He begins to walk away.

Summerlin? What the hell is going on in Summerlin?

“Wait…why do we have to go to Summerlin? Why am I supposed to follow you?”

He turns back to look at me briefly but he doesn’t stop walking. “My boss said to get you.”

“Your boss? Who is your boss?”

“Mr Oliver Kane, genius.” He rolls his eyes. “I’m his assistant.”

I’ve been so occupied thinking about the tight finances that I completely forgot about my night with Oliver. My chest immediately flares up at the memories of last night, and Dean mistakes my red face and neck for a blush.

“Don’t feel too special. Mr Oliver doesn’t like girls,” he smirks and his eyes light up a little. “He possibly just wants to use you as a cover up.”

“Your boss pounded me with his massiveness last night, and didn’t even pay me a dime!” I notice the light in his eyes dim. “Lead the way, twink. He better have asked you to get me because he wants to pay me.”

“Who wants to pay you?” My mom asks suddenly from behind me. I turn around abruptly to face her, finding her leaning on the door weakly.

My voice dies in my throat. She can’t know what I did last night with who I did it with. Her already weak heart would give out and continue to give out even in the afterlife! But I don’t want to lie to her either.

“Um…a uh…client.” That is the best way I can put it without lying.

She nods. “Who is that?” She tilts her head towards an already impatient and irritated Dean.

“He’s unimportant,” I shrug. “The client sent him to get me.”

“And we have twenty three minutes to make it in time,” he adds, irate.

I walk up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not going to be gone for long, I swear. And by the time I get back, we’re going to have a lot of money.”

She smiles and then shakes her head. “Be safe, okay?”

“Twenty minutes,” Dean echos. “God, I might not get my raise this month.”

“I’ve got to go before the twink bitches me to death.” I place a quick kiss on her lips, then I follow after Dean who leads me to a black cadillac. The drive to the fancy neighbourhood takes more than twenty minutes. Maybe it was less, but it did seem more because of Dean’s incessant complains.

We pull up into a fancy gated mansion with cream stone walls and a fountain in the middle of the vast driveway. From the magazines, I recognize this as one of the holiday getaway houses owned by my father. I remember when I was sixteen and my mom and I had just been thrown out of our home, I once asked her if she could call dad so he could let us crash here, since he hardly ever used this home.

She was desperate and thought it was a good idea, so she did. He only said one word. “No.” That was the first time she had called him in years, and the first time she ever asked him for anything since he left us. He didn’t even think about it. Two years later, he gave it to Oliver for his twenty-first.

The memory makes my blood boil and I get the urge to make him suffer. My dad, I mean. I want to make him feel as rejected as he made us feel. But I know I might never even ever see him face to face.

The car stops and Dean is out before the engine even goes off. I hurry after him as he taps the earbud in his ear and begins speaking to someone on the other end, his long legs climbing quickly up the stairs that leads to a thick wooden door with a real gold knob.

The door is open before we both reach it and we step into the foyer, walking past the butler that pulled it open for us. The house interior kinda smells like sugar, but it also has this minty smell…like crisp dollar bills sprayed with menthol.

As we make our way up the stairs, there’s the sound of heavy footsteps that seems to be walking down towards us. The staircase curves like an ‘S’, so we’re not able to make out who is approaching until we climb past the bend and we’re standing face to face with Oliver.

“Mr Oliver, I’m sorry for the delay,” Dean sputters. “But you see, this…woman won’t comply and she was just-”

“That would be all, Dean,” Oliver cuts him off. “I knew you weren’t going to make it on time. You have the habit.”

Dean looks flustered, his cheeks flaming and his eyes gleaming, like it’s an angel that spoke to him. Well, he might as well be an angel.

Clad in a pastel yellow lounge set that contrasts his black hair and soft brown eyes that hold that stare…cold, yet welcoming. His perfect lips, soft like I remember, almost smile and this seems to make Dean’s day. I guess like the magazines, Oliver truly never smiles. Never fully.

“You owe me 10k,” I blurt and his eyes notice me for the first time.

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, matter of fact, you do.”

He frowns, turning to Dean whose face is redder than a tomato. “You forgot?” he asks the embarrassed man, who just nods.

Oliver just shakes his head and turns, heading back up the stairs, beckoning for me to follow him, while Dean scurries back down hopefully to get my money sorted out.

Can you believe it? The i***t forgot.

Oliver leads me to an office, taking a seat behind the head of the table. His movements are so smooth and graceful like a swan, and his general aura is uptight, yet gentle.

“I know you didn’t call me here to apologize for your twinks’ short memory.”

“No. And he’s not my twink.” His voice is steady, and his eyes dig into mine. He looks like our dad in a way. It’s not much, but it’s enough to be my constant reminder about who he is to me, but not nearly enough to keep my body from responding to his detached gaze.

“He said you didn’t like girls, and last night, you kinda acted like you’ve never had a girl before.” I shrug. “I don’t know, but he seemed really pissed when I mentioned that we fucked.”

“I didn’t call you here to discuss about Dean or last night.” His face is unemotional, like he couldn’t care less about what I said. “I called you here because I want to rent you.”

Wait…what?

“Rent me?”

What a way to put it like I’m a commodity, but then again, I guess everyone is a commodity to a billionaire.

“My family would be in Vegas in three days. I need you to pretend to be my fiancee for the duration of their stay.”

His family…? My dad…

“And how long are we talking?”

“Three months, max. But it won’t be up to that, I’m sure. My mother gets bored seeing the same scenery for more than a month, and if she leaves, everyone leaves.”

I think about it for a second. This is actually the opportunity that I’ve been waiting for my entire life. The chance to look my dad in the eye, so he remembers just who he left behind. The chance to turn his pretty family ugly.

“You know it’ll cost you a lot more than $10k, right?”

“$300k. Final offer.”

“Deal.”

Woah…my mom will finally get a heart transplant with this. And it’ll be an extra gift package when the news headlines carries the remains of what will happen to the Kane’s when I’m done with them.

When I’m done with Christopher.