Chapter 7- A Taste Of Power
673 Words
The first time Rex took her outside the club, it wasn’t to impress her.
It was to control the air she breathed. He picked her up in a black town car with windows tinted like secrets. The leather seats smelled like money and silence. His driver - Javier, dark eyes, no
They drove in silence through the city until the grime gave way to glass, neon to moonlight. He brought her to a rooftop restaurant above the skyline - white tablecloths, private booths and servers who moved like shadows.
Faith didn’t belong here. And that was the point. She wasn’t here to belong. She was here to be seen - with him.
Rex didn’t talk much during the meal. He didn’t need to.
He let the wine do the talking. Let the eyes from nearby tables do the whispering. Let Faith feel the difference between being stared at on stage… and being noticed by the powerful.
When he did speak, it was soft. Calm. The way a man speaks when he already knows he’ll get what he wants.
“You carry yourself differently than the others,” he said, watching her over the rim of his glass. “You don’t flinch.”
“I do”, Faith replied. “Just not when anyone’s looking.” That made him smile. Not wide. Just enough.
“I could use someone like you,” he said. Faith’s heart thudded - not from fear. From curiosity. “What does someone like you need?” She asked. He didn’t answer right away. Just leaned in slightly .
“Loyalty. Discretion. Intelligence. I can find pretty anywhere. I can’t find you anywhere.”
It should’ve sounded like a compliment.
But it felt like a signature.
He started giving her things. Not the obvious ones - no stacks of money or diamond bracelets. Rex’s gifts were subtler. More dangerous.
Information.
He let her listen during business calls - not the violent kind, not yet, but the kind where deals were made and lives were reshaped. He let her see who owed what, who ran what corner, who was about to fall out of favor.
“You’re sharp,” he told her one night. “You see things most don’t. That’s rare.”
She swallowed the praise like it was wine and venom.
******
In the club, people started looking at her differently. Even Silas.
He didn’t say anything. But his stares grew colder. His nods shorter. The other girls noticed too - some with envy, some with fear. Fatima said nothing. But her glances grew heavier.
“You think you’re climbing,” Jules said one night, brushing glitter onto her collarbone. “But you’re just getting a better view of the cage.”
Faith didn’t answer. Because part of her agreed.
The other part was already figuring out how to take the damn cage apart, bar by bar.
That night, Rex took her to his penthouse.
It wasn’t seduction.
It was a test.
The space was minimalist and cold. Clean lines, black and white furniture, nothing soft. The windows stretched from floor to ceiling, offering a view of a city that sparkled like it was trying to lie.
He handed her a glass of champagne. “Tell me something,” he said, voice low. “If I asked you to lie for me…Would you?”
Faith didn’t blink. “Depends.” she said. “Is it a good lie?”
His smile widened. “It’s the kind that keeps people alive.” She held his gaze. “Then yes.”
He leaned closer. “And if I asked you to lie for me..to yourself?”
That one caught her. But she didn’t flinch. She drank instead.
She left the penthouse with a hollow ache in her chest and a fire in her throat. The city below didn’t feel as far away anymore. It felt…reachable. And that terrified her. Because the deeper she stepped into Rex’s world, the more she couldn’t tell the difference between being chosen…
And being owned.
- Writer
