Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Then it hit him.
The club. The woman on the stage with the white hair and mask.
Nyx.
That dancer in disguise.
The one he’d been attracted to in the club. Fuck. Well, that explained that.
But it didn’t explain what the fuck she thought she was doing dancing in a fucking strip club.
Fury flooded him as he remembered her showing her breasts at the end.
Arguably, her dancing was more modest than the other dancers. It was only right at the end that she bared her breasts.
Or at least from what he’d seen.
However, that didn’t mean he liked it.
So, did that note mean someone knew she was Nyx? She obviously took pains to hide what she was doing.
Why, though?
Because she was worried about her job? Surely they couldn’t fire her for what she did in her spare time?
Or was it because she was ashamed? It seemed a strange thing for Jilly to do. He’d never seen her wear anything but long skirts and full-sleeve tops.
Perhaps that was the reason why.
Which meant she was definitely doing this out of necessity.
It still made little sense. Who was the note threatening to tell?
Did she realize how dangerous stripping was? Especially at Santé Santiago’s club? God, anything could have happened to her while working there. Yeah, Santé seemed a better person than his uncle, but that didn’t mean a lot, considering what a snake Carlos had been.
Had she worked for Carlos?
Just the thought made him murderous. Santé said that Nyx wasn’t available for private dances, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been put in risky situations.
Fuck!
He should have been protecting her better. He should have pushed her to tell him what was going on.
There would be no more putting herself in danger. No more stripping.
No. More. Secrets.
He guessed he wouldn’t get answers until he could talk to Jilly. Both about why she was stripping and why someone was blackmailing her over it.
How dare someone threaten his girl.
Regent crumpled the note in his fist but forced himself to loosen his hold before he put it in his pocket.
Then he grabbed his phone and prepared to make arrangements.
One thing he knew for sure was that no one would harm her.
Not on his watch.
29
Jilly climbed out of the shower the next day and got dressed.
She’d been surprised to wake up on her own this morning. She wasn’t sure where Regent was.
If he was coming back.
It was a good thing that he was gone. Right?
Sure. Why did she feel so disappointed then?
After brushing her teeth, she stared at herself in the mirror. God, she looked terrible.
Thankfully, she’d already messaged work to tell them that she wouldn’t be coming in. She really just wanted to go back to bed.
Opening the door to the bedroom, she froze as she saw Regent there. Her first feeling was relief that he hadn’t left her.
The second was shock. Why was he filling a suitcase with her stuff?
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t turn to look at her. “I’m packing your things. Sit on the bed. You shouldn’t have had a shower. You know I didn’t want you showering until I was certain you were steady enough on your feet. That’s two.”
Two?
Two what?
What was going on?
“What are you doing? Why are you packing my things?” She stood her ground. Even though she really wanted to sit. The room was swaying slightly and she felt weak.
This time, he turned to her. She sucked in a breath at the look on his face.
Why did she have this feeling that she was in trouble?
What could she possibly have done?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
“And how am I looking at you?”
“Um. Well, you kind of look like you’d . . .”
Like he’d like to take her over his knee and smack her ass.
“Do I look like I just found out that you’ve been keeping something big from me? Something that could affect your safety? Is that how I look?”
“I mean, that’s a hard look to pin down. And oddly specific. I was just going to go with a generalized ‘upset.’”
He raised an eyebrow.
“So, um, a secret, you say?” She tried to edge her way to the bedroom door. Jilly wasn’t exactly sure what he was talking about.
But she had a bad feeling.
There was no way he knew about her secret.
Well, secrets, she guessed.
“Yes. A secret.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and she blushed as she saw he was holding a pair of her panties.
Why didn’t she have sexy underwear? Instead, they were all plain cotton and boring.
But then, she hadn’t exactly expected someone to be handling them, had she?
In fact, what right did he have to be upset? She should be the one who was upset.
“Do not even think about going out that door.”
“Excuse me?”
“You haven’t been excused.”
Her mouth dropped open. Who the heck did he think he was?