Claimed Darker by Em Brown
Chapter 36
DARREN
Past
From outside my office door, I watch Felipe give Bridget a long hug after she tells him the good news that he has his ten thousand dollars. I’m not sure why Felipe was hesitant to ask me himself. I would have given him the money. He knows too much about what goes on in the club, so I need to keep him happy. But I’m glad Bridget did the asking because I got something out of it that I wasn’t expecting. Per her usual MO, she wants to think about the choices I left her. Maybe run a regression analysis on the options, she joked. I didn’t laugh because I don’t know what the hell a regression analysis is.
“Thanks for the heads-up about Amy,” JD says to me on the phone as I step into the office. “I was thinking to come over, but I don’t feel like hanging out with her tonight.”
“Are you done with her?” I ask.
“I think so.”
I pour myself some baijiu from a sideboard even though I’d had some earlier. “Then let her know.”
“Shit, I hate having those types of conversations. She should just get the message.”
I down the baijiu. “You can beat the crap out of a guy, but you can’t say a few words to a woman? Man up, bro.”
“I guess I can text her.”
That’s better than nothing.
“What’d you do with Manny’s body?” I ask.
“Actually gave him a decent end, nice guy that I am. Had him cremated. Old Dog knows the owner of a funeral parlor.”
I picture Manny’s mother riddled with anxiety when she realizes her son has disappeared. “We just going to leave it at that?”
“Why not? Nobody’s going to miss him.”
“His mom will report him missing.”
“So? It’s not going to lead anywhere.”
JD’s right. Manny’s family isn’t high up or as significant in the triad as JD, so I doubt anyone in the Jing San is going to look too closely into it. And if they did, they would have to side with JD. Manny wrote his own death warrant.
“What if Manny told someone else his plan?” I ask. “People besides Tran or the PSB. We might have just started something with the PSB.”
“You think I’m fucking scared of the PSB?”
“If they know something, they might go to the cops.”
“That’s what we’ve got Trawley for. You worried?”
Not really. I don’t know who else Manny would have confided his plans to. Possibly his mom. If I share that thought with JD, he might want to take care of Mrs. Wu to be on the safe side.
I decide to pour myself more baijiu before sitting down at my desk.
We killed Manny too soon. Now I’m going to have to figure out what, if anything, Mrs. Wu knows. The easiest way would be through my mom, who’s fairly close to Manny’s mom, but I don’t want to drag my mother into this.
From the corner of my eye, I see from one of the security screens that Kimberly is outside my office.
“Kimberly’s just walked in,” I tell JD.
“You ever think about getting back together with her?” JD asks. “She’s super-hot. You guys made a good-looking couple.”
I don’t answer. “I’ll catch you later.”
Setting my phone down on the desk, I down my drink.
“That little skinny friend of your girlfriend’s is here,” Kimberly informs me.
I start at the word girlfriend. Kimberly notices.
“Oh, did I say something wrong?” she asks.
“What do you want?”
Kimberly comes over and sits on the edge of my desk in front of me. “Came to see that you were okay.”
Noticing my empty glass, she asks if I want another drink. I don’t want to get wasted again like I was the other night. Though it’s tempting.
“Why would you think I wasn’t okay?” I reply.
She curls a strand of hair around her finger. “I don’t know. Maybe because you didn’t get a boner when I hugged you earlier?”
I snort. “Guys don’t get boners every time a woman touches them.”
“You used to get them all the time with me.”
It’s true. I knew I wanted to fuck her the moment I set eyes on her. After things ended between us, I would occasionally consider hooking up with her again. Until I met Bridget. Who’s like the opposite of Kimberly in so many ways.
“Maybe that girl has dampened your ability to get it up,” Kimberly muses, reaching over to play with my hair.
I have a direct view down her dress. Not that the garment was hiding much to begin with. Her tits are huge compared to Bridget’s.
She slides from the desk onto my lap. “Hearing that you were shot, I was so fucking worried. It made me realize how much I missed you.”
I should shove her off my lap before she gets the wrong idea, but the buzz from the drinks I had earlier has set in, making me slow to react. Nevertheless, I consider pouring myself a third glass.
“Did you miss me?” she asks.
“Honestly? No.”
She frowns. “I don’t get you. I mean, why are you still hanging out with the ugly sweater girl?”
“She has a name. Bridget.”
“Whatever. That name is about as sexy as Agatha or, I dunno, Mildred.”
I don’t care what a woman’s name is. If I find her fuckable, she’s sexy. “You should get off my lap,” I tell Kimberly.
“Why? I like it here.”
“You don’t want your three-inch boyfriend jealous, do you?”
“Now who’s sounding like the jealous one?”
I grasp the back of her neck and ease her up off my lap. She pouts. Seeing my phone, she grabs it and slips it into her dress between her tits.
“I think we should do a little test,” she says. “If you can put your hand between my boobs and not get hard, then I know something’s definitely wrong.”
Not amused, I tell her, “Give me back my phone.”
She hops onto the desk and leans back. “You’ll have to get it.”
I grab her arm and haul her back into a sitting position. Sounding like a parent who wants their kid to put a toy back on the store shelf, I say, “Kimberly.”
But she tries to squirm from my grasp. At one point, she accidentally kicks me in the knee. I release her, and she’s about to escape, but I grab her again and pin her down on the desk with my body. Fuck this. I’m getting my phone back. I reach into her dress.
I catch movement on the periphery and look up to see Bridget standing in the doorway. She raises her brows.
Shit.
Phone in hand, I stand up.
“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” Bridget says.
“You didn’t interrupt anything,” I say with exasperation, not at her but at Kimberly.
Kimberly does a not-so-great job of hiding her smile as she sits up. “We were just messing around,” she says. “Oh, that kind of came out wrong.”
I glare at her. “Get the hell out of my office.”
Without a word, Kimberly peels herself from the desk and saunters out, tossing her hair as she passes Bridget.
“She had my phone down her dress,” I explain.
Bridget walks toward me, her gaze penetrating mine. “I’ve heard that one before.”
I do a double-take.
“Not really,” Bridget says. “Gotcha.”
I release a sigh of relief. But I can’t tell for sure how she feels about what she saw. Does she believe nothing was going on?
Noticing my empty glass, she asks, “Have you had a lot to drink?”
“Just a glass or two. Where’s Amy?”
“Up on the balcony. She’s hoping JD shows up tonight.”
“I don’t think he will.”
“Why do you think that? Did he text or call you?”
It would be better for Amy’s sake if she knew sooner rather than later. I’d rather be getting it on with Bridget than keeping Amy company.
“Yeah, sounded like he was going to take it easy at home.” I wrap an arm around her and pull her in close. “I can send a driver to take Amy home. You make up your mind whether you’re going to go for sounding or something off your hard limits list?”
She frowns. “I can smell the alcohol on your breath. What did you drink?”
“Just two glasses of baijiu.”
“I did make my decision, but I’m not trying anything new with you tonight.”
She’s right. I’m not trashed, but I am intoxicated. Not a good state to be in for BDSM.
“I should go back to Amy,” Bridget says. “Should I send Marshall over here to protect you from Kimberly?”
“Cute,” I respond wryly. I grab her by the ass and shove her against my groin. “I’ll remember that when I’m sober and have you shackled to the floor in piledriver.”
After an initial gasp, she collects herself. “I’m game—but only if you’re sober.”
With that, she tears herself away and leaves the office.
Damn. I didn’t expect that response from her. But that third glass of baijiu I was thinking of before is no longer a consideration.
