Page 24 of Kiss of Death
“Are you hurt, Mary?” Otto asked again, and she looked at him like she just realized he was actually in front of her.
She shook her head. “This...this isn’t my blood,” she stammered over her words, “I can’t do this again, O. I can’t be here for this.” She sobbed into his arms, and Ivy wondered about the woman’s past. She was also hit with a wave of guilt like a swift kick in the ass. Mary had clearly been through something before Ivy came into their world, and her presence here was only going to make things worse.
This was the problem with these types of jobs Bruno made her do. There were always casualties, and it was the innocent ones who got hurt the worst.
Otto made Ivy take Mary into the locker room to help get her cleaned up. He had his sister book her the first flight out to stay with her aunt and niece in Florida. It was the one place no one aside from him and Gia knew about, and it would be the safest for her.
Bruno was definitely behind this attack. He knew how close Otto had been to her and partially what she had gone through. She was targeted because Bruno knew it would hurt Otto to see Mary hurt. Otto had to send two of his guys over to Mary’s place to clean up another dead body. They shot Eric twice in the head—execution style—in front of her. How she managed to escape he wasn’t sure, but he was glad for it. Otto wasn’t sure how he would have handled having to bury Mary’s body. It was already going to be tough on him to tell Eric’s family he wasn’t ever coming back home.
Otto rubbed his hands over his face, wondering how he ever managed to get into this life and never find a way out. His bad days were starting to look like his good days with the shit he’d experienced since Sofia came home. He never should have gotten in bed with her, but he honestly believed she wanted more than dead bodies piling up on her door.
Otto knew the cost of war was blood, but he wasn’t sure he was on board with the amount that would need to be spilled to win this.
Otto looked down at his watch, making note of the time. He had to head uptown with Sofia and Dom to meet Ethan. His hope was that this meeting was Ethan’s way of aligning himself with Sofia. It would give them the advantage for numbers.
“You good to go, O? I got everything here.” Otto turned his head to see Smoke walking on to the main floor. Smoke was already at the club helping Gia with whatever by the time Otto had arrived. Otto wanted to say something to Smoke about always being around his sister, but he swallowed his words. They had bigger issues to worry about than his relationship with Gia.
“I can’t wait for this to be over,” Otto murmured as the club started filling up.
“And for me to be gone.” Smoke said it more as a statement than a question, but Otto nodded anyway. Smoke chuckled at his response. “I bet your sister feels differently.”
Otto growled. “Why is your default setting on dickhead?”
“’Cause it’s easy to rile you up. You’re so sensitive. It’s sexy in a man.” The dipshit winked at him, and Otto contemplated beating him in front of all the customers who were pouring into Tres.
Otto pinched the bridge of his nose. “I really hate you,” he groaned, before letting out a breath. This wasn’t a battle he was going to win. “Just keep your guys here so Gia is protected and–”
“And Ivy?” Smoke finished for him.
“And the other women,” Otto stated matter-of-factly. Ivy and his sister weren’t his only concerns. “Does Mary have a ride to the airport?” Smoke nodded.
The lights in the club started to dim, and it made Otto anxious. He wanted to be well on his way before Ivy took the stage tonight. It was Thursday, which meant tonight was more for the gentlemen than their club atmosphere.
Their DJ got on the mic and went over his usual spiel, which Otto tuned out until the first chords of music started to play and the spotlight hit the stage. He didn’t want to look. He wanted his feet to drag him out of the club, but he hadn’t moved. He waited, his body strung tight in anticipation, waiting for her to take the stage.
Beyonce’s sultry voice boomed in the club as she sang the first lyrics to “6 Inch,” and Ivy walked out in six-inch heels and a short trench coat. She had on a fedora hat, hiding her face from the crowd. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see anything but the silhouette of her body, Otto felt like he already knew what she was hiding underneath the clothes.
She walked toward the pole and the crowd of men started clapping and cheering her on. The whistles got louder when she turned around, tossing the hat to the side. She spun around the pole once, slowly sliding down the front of it into a toe stand. She opened her legs, giving the men in front a nice preview of what was to come.
It was like the first night they met all over again. Otto was drawn into her performance like a sailor led astray by a siren. His feet forced him closer to the stage instead of out the door like he thought he wanted.
She bent at the waist, giving the crowd a view of her ass as she shook it back and forth in time to the bass drop. His cock twitched in time to her moves, and when she undid the belt of her coat, he felt his mouth salivate. She quickly turned around and their eyes locked across the room. It almost felt like she was seeking him out to make sure he had a front row seat to the very thing he wanted but couldn’t touch.
Ivy slowly pulled her coat off to reveal a green lacy thong and matching see-through bra. He could see the dark tips of her nipples peeking through the bra, and he hummed low in the back of his throat as possession quickly consumed him.
Mine.
The word roared in his mind, silencing the cheers and hungry gazes of the men looking at her like they had her taste already on their tongues. He took another step toward the stage, but Smoke was on him, keeping him close so he didn’t do something crazy like rush the stage, throw her over his shoulder, and take her back to his office.
Ivy’s lips pulled into a smirk, and she slid down the pole again, getting on her hands and knees before sliding down onto her stomach with her ass up in the air. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from groaning—images of fucking her flooded his mind in rapid succession. It was enough to bring him to his knees.
She quickly rolled over and sat up. Her legs dangled off the stage and as she put her hands behind her to grind on the stage. Otto knew what she was going to do next before the bastard sitting in front of her realized what was happening. She slid off the stage, hands planted on the man’s shoulders as she gave him a view of her tits before she rolled her body into the man’s face. He could tell from where he stood the man had a vice grip on the chair to keep himself from touching the temptation that was in front of him.
Ivy slowly sat on the man’s lap, never taking her eyes off of Otto. He had no idea what or why she was doing this, but all he could feel was rage coursing through him as he watched her grind on the gentleman’s lap. It was the first time since he started working at Tres that he hated gentlemen’s night. They should have never okayed the dancers to give the guys in front a lap dance as part of their performance. This was cruel torture for him, and going by the way Ivy danced, he had a feeling she knew what she was doing to him and she liked it.
He had to get out of here. He had a war he needed to help fight and a meeting to attend, and all he wanted to do was shut everyone out so he could spend the rest of the night marking her in a way that left her as addicted to him as he was becoming to her.
My poison Ivy.
