Below The Line Read online

  “Not much to look into,” I finally accept. “I’ve already done it.”

  Rowdy steps beside me. “Maybe we missed something.”

  “He’s a pimp. An underworld boss moving drugs, women, and guns through the gulf and by the canals of southern Louisiana. He controls every movement down there. He was my mother’s pimp. He knows me and he is going to die by my hands.”

  “Owen, he’s your father.” Hadley whispers. “That’s what has kept you alive this long.” Her voice breaks as does my world.

  Lo’ren Maximus Cortez can’t be my father, can he?

  What the hell is Hadley talking about?

  “He had an affair with your mother,” she explains.

  “Is it an affair when he was her fucking pimp?” I scream as I punch the wall. My knuckles burn, the skin is tight as my hand swells. I continue to hit the unforgiving sheetrock over and over. None of this makes sense and yet at the same time it sort of does. A memory hits me like a sledgehammer to the head.

  “Lo, he needs braces,” my mom tells her pimp the evening after my orthodontics appointment.

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Lo, it’s bad enough I can’t give my son a proper name. I can barely keep a roof over our heads and keep him fed -,”

  Lo’ren’s hand goes to my mother’s throat closing her windpipe as my mother instinctively grabs at his wrists looking for relief. My young body trembles in fear. I want to rush out and help her. The last time a man put his hands on her and I made myself known, Lo’ren showed up and beat my mother and me with a belt. My mother begged me to never intervene again.

  “You get a higher cut of any other whore to cover what you need for that bastard. You wanted to keep him, you made your choice. You get all you’re gonna get from me.” He releases her and she gasps for air.

  Their eyes lock and the man huffs out a breath before reaching in his back pocket to toss out cash onto our kitchen counter. Without a glance back he leaves our apartment and my mother counts the money before picking up her phone and making an appointment for my braces.

  I want to break something, destroy the room, beat the shit out of someone. The kaleidoscope of rage rushes through my body like the mix of shapes and colors.

  I’m ready to explode.

  The man who has cost me everything somehow has this power over me.

  No one has power over me. No one. Time for daddy dearest to learn this lesson the hard way.

  Chapter Eight

  ~Hadley~

  “How are you really doing?” Sonnie asks as we sit at the café table sipping our iced coffees while the guys are close by smoking and talking. It’s our first stop since we hit the road yesterday. My legs are happy to have the reprieve. I need to work on my tolerance of time on the back of his motorcycle if this is really how he lives his life.

  The place is a small shop with a walk up window and small bistro tables out front. The guys are all standing on the outside of the fence surrounding the entrance. It’s a gorgeous day in Monroe, Louisiana. The area is quiet and not filled with the hustle and bustle of the city life. I wish we weren’t back in Louisiana at all, but Owen is determined to face Lo’ren.

  “I’ve been better, I’ve been worse.” I reply honestly feeling lost.

  “You and X, how’s that?”

  “A mess.”

  She sighs before reaching out and giving my hand a squeeze. “You can talk to me.”

  Sonnie is genuine. I’ve liked her from when I met her and she inked me. “Do you by chance travel with your tattoo gun and ink?”

  She smiles proudly. “Of course.”

  “This isn’t gonna be easy, Sonnie. I have a brand that needs to be covered.”

  “A brand?”

  My mind races as I automatically go back.

  “Happy birthday, Hadley. Sweet sixteen.” Lo’ren’s sinister smile only makes my fear grow in leaps and bounds. I’m tied to the bed spread eagle in the house. The brothel is a well-known whore house on the east side of New Orleans. Lo’ren Cortez, the boss who runs more than one show down here, stands in front of me, his long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail on the back of his head.

  “I have the men lined up for a taste of your sweet birthday cunt tonight.”

  I want to vomit. Three months, I spent chained to a wall in the attic of this house with a gag in my mouth. I was given bread and water. Every other day Marco lead me out to shower me while someone else cleaned up the messes from my bathroom needs on the floor. It’s been humiliating, disgusting, and a war on my mind.

  Marco has teased my body every shower ‘preparing me’ for tonight. My sixteenth birthday, my living nightmare.

  Thinking about my time in the attic I don’t pay attention to Lo’ren.

  His fingertips hit my knee and I jolt at the touch. My eyes grow wide in terror as I see the red hot metal rod coming down. He twists my leg exposing my inner thigh to him. Holding the wand up, he leans down and licks the inside of my leg and inhales the scent at my juncture.

  “Sweet sixteen pussy,” he says on a growl before pulling back and bring the hot metal to my skin.

  Agony.

  Fire. My skin prickles and I feel it bubble and scar from the branding.

  “Mine. You Hadley Lauryn Combs belong to me, Lo’ren Maximus Cortez. To have, to fondle, to fuck, and to do with whatever I please from this day forward.”

  He removes the sear taking my flesh with him.

  “Hadley,” Sonnie’s voice breaks through.

  “A brand,” I whisper with my mouth dry. “Like you would brand cattle back in the day.”

  She gasps. “I’ll figure something out, Hadley. I promise, we’ll get it covered up into something beautiful.” I can see her eyes working as she tries to figure out what she can do for me.

  Shaking my head, I fight back the past as I worry about the present.

  ***

  “Haven’t taken the time to really talk.” Owen says as we settle in beside each other on the bed. “What do you do for Lo’ren?”

  He needed time, space to process what I told him. Then we got on the road to head south. This is the first chance we have had to really talk in the last two days.

  Like all the other places, the door is on the outside of our ground floor room. The bed tonight is a standard queen with a couch since we are in a single room instead of a double. Typical of all the places, the pillows are flat and the sheets and comforter itchy.

  Oh well, it’s better than being chained to a wall and sleeping on a floor.

  “What do you think?” I counter his question holding my head high and refusing to be ashamed. Owen’s mother worked for Lo’ren for his whole life. If I have to say it, I will.

  I wasn’t a whore because I was afraid of hard work. I wasn’t a whore because it was a quick buck. I did it all for the man in front of me.

  “Why?”

  I shrug my shoulders. “Guess it was time to face my destiny. Let’s be real. Outside of you, the only thing any man has found value in me has been my body.”

  “I don’t buy it, Hadley. You have smarts, the book kind and street kind. You sing, you write. You had opportunity, I just needed time to get us off the streets. I was working for it, for us.”

  I can’t let him feel like he didn’t do enough for me. On a sigh, I explain, “If I didn’t earn back the money you cost him keeping up you and your mom, then it was going to come out of you.” I meet his stare giving him the truth.

  “You took on my debt to that piece of shit?”

  I nod.

  “Baby, you realize, I owed him nothing?”

  “Not at the time. At the time, I was a scared teen. The only person who ever looked out for me, was kind to me, suddenly was being threatened. I did what I had to.”

  “You gave up everything to save me.”

  I nod.

  “This is so fucked up, Hadley.” He whispers before rolling over me and kissing me senseless.

  The feeling, having h
im here, alive, it makes every second of hell with Lo’ren worth it. The more time we spend together the more the emotions grow. I thought he was my angel when we were on the streets. I know he’s my angel now without a doubt now.

  Wrapping my hands around his neck, I pull him closer to me as my body comes alive with a need … a desire only for Owen.

  In a matter of minutes, we’re both naked and he’s buried inside me. I feel complete. I feel like I’ve found home.

  ***

  “Call your friend,” Deacon instructs sliding a flip phone across the table to me.

  We woke up tangled in each other. Since Trapper brought me back, Owen hasn’t let me out of his sight. The guys have also spent every minute they can searching into Lo’ren Cortez and all of his affiliations. Now that we’re all together this morning and had breakfast, Deacon is ready for us to get to work.

  They are getting in too deep.

  I hesitate, Owen gives me the look.

  The one that screams to go easy, cooperate. I want to but I also want to protect the man I love.

  “I make this call, one thing goes wrong and Lo’ren is on us all before we can blink.”

  “I like it when they play rough,” Trapper smarts off in a way that I’m beginning to learn is the man’s personality, but also he means it.

  “Trapper, he doesn’t play rough. Everything about him will be a slow, meticulous torture and there is nothing about it that is fun or playful.” I try to explain to which the man only smiles bigger.

  “Trapper has a death wish.” Judge intercedes.

  “No, Trapper considers himself like the challenger of death. He dares the reaper to come collect his soul.” Rowdy chimes in.

  “Make the call,” Deacon again orders.

  With shaking hands, I flip the phone open and one by one dial the numbers to reach Cameron Linn.

  “Hey it’s me, Cameron Linn B,” her voice comes through so vibrant on the line. “I’m not in right now leave a message.” I close the flip phone ending the call.

  Before we can talk about anything else, the phone rings in my hand. The number reads unknown. Slowly, I flip the phone back open connecting the call. I don’t speak.

  “Hadley,” his voice is menacing. “Cameron is taking the punishment for you till you return. Don’t have that on your soul. She’s got a boy to take care of you know.”

  I slam the phone shut and throw it like it’s contaminated with the plague. I have to go back. No matter how bad the punishment, Lo’ren won’t kill me not while Owen is alive. I can’t let Cameron’s little boy get tangled up in this. She gave custody to her mom but visits and pays for him to go to private school and everything. She wants better for him than she had. Her mom is legally blind. They have no way to support themselves without her income.

  “Get her kid set up,” Owen orders and Deacon nods. “I promise you Hadley, we’ll take care of the boy.”

  “And what about Cam?”

  Collector steps in. “We’ll do the best we can, but you have our word, the boy will be safe and provided for.”

  “Not good enough,” I counter feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. I wish I had never left. If I would have stayed put, Owen wouldn’t have found me. His life would go on, Cameron Linn would be working and taking care of her family instead of being beaten on a bed in an attic while she has to pee and shit on herself. Lo’ren is that kind of man there is not a single doubt in my mind of the sick and disgusting things he will make her endure in an effort to bring me back into the fold.

  Owen claps his hands, “we need some time. Y’all need to go. I don’t care where, but you can’t stay here.”

  Collector takes Sonnie by the hand who gives me a soft wave before they leave followed by Rowdy and Deacon.

  Owen ushers everyone out of our room following behind them. He locks the door and then climbs in the bed before reaching down and pulling me to him. He’s on his back sitting up against the headboard and I’m half draped over him.

  “Why did he take you from me? If he’s my dad and he wanted nothing to do with me, why take you?”

  “That’s the one question I don’t have an answer to, Owen.” I really wish I did.

  “I never knew. Momma never told me who my daddy was. He was in our home, Hads. I remember him coming to pick up money. He would slap her ass, but hell, most men did.”

  “Your mom loved you, Owen. You gotta know that.” He sighs under me.

  “As fucked up as shit was, I do know that. She used to read me bedtime stories.” His voice rumbles with each word. “She would tell me she wanted me to be a man who put every one of those Prince Charming’s to shame.”

  “You do,” I smile against him. “You’ve always been better than a Prince, a Knight, or even a King to me. You are the kind of man they don’t even know how to describe in the books.”

  He smirks, “I’m something alright.”

  Chapter Nine

  ~Owen~

  Lo’ren is a twisted son-of-a-bitch. Thinking of everything Hadley has endured kills me inside. I know how the scumbag treated my mom. I can only imagine all the different ways he fucked over Hadley knowing he had power over her.

  Watching her ready to give up her freedoms all for her friend and a little boy only makes me love her more.

  Yes, love. I love the woman in my arms.

  Her loyalty, her strength, her courage, and so much more make Hadley everything I could ever want and then some.

  Hadley lays over me with her hair in this messy knot on top of her head. She’s wearing these plaid pajama pants and an old t-shirt of mine. In this moment, she is more beautiful than any woman I have ever laid eyes on.

  Knowing we lost this for too long, I need to savor every moment and every inch of her body. Flipping her over she gives a playful yelp.

  “Love you, Hadley Lauryn Combs.” I admit and watch as she gasps in shock.

  “I don’t know what to think or do with you.” She replies honestly.

  Sitting on my knees at the end of the bed, I start at her feet. Rubbing them, massaging them, I tease my hands up the bottoms of her pants to find her legs smoothly shaven and silky from her lotion.

  “Owen, you don’t look down on me for what I’ve done?”

  “Just as you don’t look down on me for who I am.”

  “Owen,” she says my name softly as tears glisten in her eyes and I continue to massage her feet. “I’m a hooker. I was paid to fuck men. My body hasn’t been treasured except by you.”

  “Always by me,” I promise her and I mean it. “You aren’t a cumdumpster Hadley. You’re my woman. You’re more than my sexual partner you’re my emotional partner. Baby, you were my rock before I ever kissed you. What we have runs deep and has before either of us knew what it was.”

  “How do you know what to say to explain what I feel?” She asks and I feel her relax in my hands.

  “Because it’s what I feel too. Hadley, when I was told you died, I died with you. You’re alive, I’m alive, and baby we’re gonna live our lives together. I can’t promise you good because shit has a way of being fucked up for us both, but I can promise you my every emotion. You own me Hadley and have since the first night you slept beside me as a teen.”

  “I’m yours, Owen Maximus Gallow and I believe in us. Always have and always will.”

  Releasing her feet, I move up to kiss her tears away. My lips meet hers with the taste of her salty tears and our kiss mingling as the passion ignites between us again. I can’t get enough of her.

  When we are both panting, I pull away and go back to sit on my knees and massage her feet again.

  I smile my appreciation as she reaches for the waistband of her pants and shimmies them down to which I pull them off.

  Massaging my way up her legs, I nuzzle and kiss her soft skin. Bypassing her panties and the brand, I push up on her shirt exposing her belly and bra to me. Licking, I tease her before I flick my tongue in and out of her belly button as if I was tongue fucking her pus
sy. She arches to me seeking more contact.

  She reaches out to touch me, I pull her hands together and push them back up over her head.

  “Let me love you, Hadley. Take off your shirt and bra. Then simply lay here, let me have this moment to take away all the bad and give you all the good from your head to your toes and everywhere in between.”

  She squirms under me before she moves to remove her shirt and bra. Once she settles against the pillows, she lays back and gives no resistance.

  With my mouth covering her nipple, I flick the tip that’s separated fighting back my anger. She arches but there is no moan as I release the bud.

  “Talked to Sonnie,” I say before licking the underside of her melon hoping she won’t be upset with me. “Gonna get you pierced. She said it may bring the sensation back.”

  “Sounds good,” she says on a whimper as I trail my fingers over her panties teasing her while they dampen more.

  “You aren’t upset I told Sonnie about your nipples?” I want to make sure this won’t get thrown in my face later.

  “I’m not thrilled about it, but Owen you’re just trying to help me. Plus, I have to face that my body is damaged from years of abuse.”

  There is a somberness in her tone that kills me. I kiss her again loving the simple acceptance we have between us.

  I kiss my way south. Reaching her lower stomach, I trace my tongue over the edge of her panties before I lean up to slide them off. I make my way to her center. Finding her clean shaven middle, I blow gently making her rock for more attention. With my fingers I spread her lips before I take my tongue and graze her clit to her hood. Releasing her pussy lips, they settle on the outside of my lips as I lap at her core. Massaging her legs, I spread her wide while moving my nose in a circular motion and darting my tongue in and out of her fucking her with my face.

  Her body jerks wildly under me as she moans in ecstasy. I feel like I will explode as my cock strains painfully against my zipper.

  Inserting my finger with a slow in and out motion, I suck her clit fiercely. She’s building. I feel it as I make a come here motion with my finger to hit her g-spot. She comes hard and fast around me.