Page 95 of For Pleasure Or Worse

Mateo’s attention flitted to mine and I tugged on his hand, trying to walk away, but the man stepped in front of us again, reaching out to grab me by the arm. His eyebrows pinched together to form a deep wrinkle and he frowned. “Can I at least get a picture? My buddies aren’t going to fucking believe this.”

“Get your fucking hands off her,” Mateo spat, tearing the guy’s fingers from my bicep and shoving them toward the floor. “She said no. It will be a mistake to make her say it again.”

The older man ignored him, growing more annoyed and vindictive as a result. “Are you serious, man? I pay good money to watch your girlfriend take your fucking loads and you can’t take a simple photo with me? I should have cancelled my sub when your content went to shit these last couple months.”

Mateo stepped forward and dug a finger into his chest, pushing him. “You better back the fuck up. I swear to God, I have no problem sending you out of here on a cold stretcher.”

He threw his hands up, a vile smirk playing on his lips. “I thought you weren’t a jealous guy, considering.”

“What’s this guy’s issue?” Bella asked beside me. I had no explanation, a dumbfounded look on my face, my mouth gaping open and shut like a fish out of water searching for air. The entire situation was out of my control.

“I’m pretty sure she made it clear you weren’t welcome breathing her fucking air. Things change.” Mateo pushed him back once more, harder. Before the man even had the chance to steady himself again Frankie and the Swans were at Mateo’s sides, putting a wall of unmoving bodies in between us.

“Uh…” I shrugged, panicking. Maybe the absence of the screen was making him bold. I no longer had that safety net. I couldn’t close the server, couldn’t end the stream. “He’s confused. I have no idea who he is.”

“You’re really going to pretend I don’t know you?” The man scoffed out a laugh, and Mateo stepped forward again aggressively. This guy was inebriated; hehadto be to see five fully grown, large men circling him and still choose his next words. “What’s wrong, Natasha? You’re too good for me with your clothes on? Or do your friends not know you get naked online for money?” He spat that out and it landed like a bomb.My ears started ringing; the ground shook. I waited for a sinkhole to appear in the floor, but it was just my legs wobbling defiantly.

Mia’s confused glare cut to mine. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“You’re way out of fucking line.” Frankie’s harsh voice rang out, surprising me. He didn’t have to step in, but one thing about Frankie Casado was his loyalty to Mateo, and that extended to me. We wereallfamily. I had no doubt the Swans were on the same page. Still, the swell of unease inside me could combust my entire chest.

“Come on, Nat.” Ophelia laced her fingers with mine and tried to usher me away as if the damage hadn’t already been done. “He’s crazy. We don’t need to entertain that. I’m sure the guys will figure it out.”

“Natalia.” Camilla’s voice was stern. She crossed her arms over her chest, brows furrowing. She looked so much like our mother it made the room spin. It was like I was back in school again, standing in the shadow of my bedroom while my parents scolded me from the door, my sisters peeking out from behind my dad’s long legs and sneering at me. “Is that true? Are you…” She looked like she might vomit out the words. “Sellingyourself?”

Her bite of disgust scorched me to the bone. More so than the fact that she seemed to be believing every word out of this random stranger's mouth. She didn’t even think to question him; she’d made up her mind almost instantly. It was more heinous for someone to be a sex worker than to be harassed for it.

“It’s more complicated than that,” I rushed out.

“How could it be?” Bella countered. “Do you even know how crushed our parents will be when they find this out, Talia? They’re going to lose it.”

“That’s extreme,” Ophelia cut in. “She’s a grown woman.”

My body was vibrating. “It’s none of their business.”

“But what if they do?” Mia added. “Wouldn’t you rather it come from you and not one of the doctors Dad works with telling him they’ve jerked it to his daughter doing porn?”

I swallowed hard. “God, Mia.”

“So you’re not denying it?” Camilla asked again.

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood, but couldn’t bring myself to fully walk away as the stranger continued throwing insults. “Really great business model the two of you have. Matthew, right?” he taunted a seething, silent Mateo, and I caught the Swans shooting each other an addled look. “You loan her out to other men to use and manipulate, lead us on to think we mean something, but pocket our money and discard us like trash once you’ve gotten what you wanted. I think there’s a word for men like that.”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Mateo warned, his fists balled up at his sides.

My sisters had gone still. Stone cold, deadpan. I could pinpoint the exact moment I knew they were never going to accept me. All that work we’d done, the change I’d felt within myself and them, the closeness I swore I’d never feel that had come so fucking close to reality, disintegrated between the spaces of my fingers like fine sand. I wasn’t just shocked anymore, I was fucking angry. Humiliated. Tears burned in the corners of my eyes, and it made me want to disappear, because I couldn’t stop them from welling there no matter how hard I tried.

“You’re nothing but her pimp,” the man barked. “And she’s worth a hell of a lot less in person.”

My face fell, Mateo lunged forward, and every single one of us moved like pieces on a chessboard crashing to the floor. Tyler hooked Mateo around the chest with his forearm, keeping himfrom making a mistake that would land him in jail, and Frankie and Sam closed in aggressively. But it was Angelo, who before that moment hadn’t said much, that took one determined step forward and uttered, “Nobody disrespects my sister like that.”

Then cocked his arm back, and punched him square in the jaw.

chapter thirty-six

Mateo

It wasfour in the morning when Angelo finally stumbled out of the Las Vegas police department where they had booked him. His hair was a mop of tangles, the buttons of his wrinkled shirt undone to the center of his chest, golden Catholic cross hanging down. He rolled his neck, yawning, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and got one good look at me.

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