Eyes Behind the Mask

DOM

By the time Dom and Nash headed toward the exit of the gentlemen’s club, it felt as though they had walked these halls a thousand times that week alone. Even with its notorious reputation among New York’s richest circles, the establishment remained one of the most fiercely guarded secrets of their era.

Outsiders never truly grasped what transpired behind those tall gates. An unsuspecting housemaid or her newly wealthy employer might easily write the place off as a high-end brothel, yet the venue operated on a far higher level than that.

These back rooms served as the true proving ground for the city’s upper echelon, the private arena where massive corporate deals were born. That exact influence was what Dom needed to put his own ambitions into motion, and judging by the headway they had made tonight, their business here was nearly finished.

Nash led the way toward the front doors with Dom a step behind him when a woman ascending the staircase caught Dom’s eye. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have spared her a second thought; women passed through these doors constantly for all sorts of reasons.

Still, one glance was enough to tell him why she was here tonight. He held no judgment over it—everyone carried their own motives for the choices they made—and right then, he ought to have looked away.

Instead, his gaze stayed locked on her. Even with a delicate mask concealing half her face, her beauty was undeniable. A fitted black dress hugged every curve in all the right places, while effortless curls spilled down her back.

Halfway up the steps, she froze in place. Dom wondered what had made her stop so abruptly, yet he still couldn’t force himself to look elsewhere. Her head angled toward him now, warm chocolate eyes meeting his straight through the cutouts of her mask.

For a split second, a sharp jolt of recognition sparked inside his chest. He couldn’t explain why, yet an undeniable instinct told him he knew this woman.

Nash had already brushed right past her without offering a single glance. Telling himself to follow his brother’s lead, Dom wrenched his attention away with real effort and kept walking, fully intending to put the stranger out of his head the moment she was out of sight.

That resolve didn’t last. Even when he paused by the reception desk to exchange brief pleasantries with a small group of businessmen gathered in the lobby, her image refused to leave him. Something about that brief encounter sat wrong in his gut, though he couldn’t quite pin down why.

She stayed lodged in his thoughts as he wrapped up the conversation, followed his brother outside to the car, and pulled away from the property. Nearly two minutes into the drive, the reason he couldn’t shake the memory of a masked woman finally clicked into place.

The answer lay entirely in her eyes—the sheer shock rooting her to the stairs, the sudden catch of her breath, and the unmistakable terror staring back at him as their gazes locked.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Dom swore aloud as the truth hit him full force, making Nash jolt in the passenger seat beside him.

“What? What’s wrong?” Nash demanded.

Ignoring his brother completely, Dom yanked the wheel hard and whipped the car around on the road, scorching fresh skid marks across the tarmac.

“What’s going on?” Nash pressed again.

“We’re heading back to the club,” Dom replied, his tone leaving zero room for argument.

“Why?”

“Because Cora is back there.”

“Cora? How? What are you talking about?” Nash asked, pure confusion written across his face.

“I saw her on the stairs. It was definitely her.” Snatching his phone from the console, Dom dialed a number and pressed the receiver to his ear. He was breaking half a dozen traffic laws at once and couldn’t care less. The line connected on the very first ring. “Pull everything you can find on Cora Vance. Fast!” he barked, then killed the call.

His knuckles turned white around the steering wheel as he pushed the speedometer well past the legal limit. Out here on this secluded stretch of road, with only two minutes separating them from the gates, none of that mattered.

Dom barely waited for the tires to roll to a complete stop before throwing his door open and bailing out. Right behind him, the rapid rhythm of Italian leather shoes hitting the ground told him Nash was hot on his heels.

Together they bounded up the entrance steps three at a time, only to face the grueling task of shoving open one hallway door after another to track down whichever room held Cora. Asking the front desk would have saved time, of course, except the house enforced an ironclad rule protecting guest privacy—a policy Dom himself respected.

Reaching the final door at the far end of the corridor, he shoved it open just as forcefully as he had done with all the others. There she stood right in the middle of the room, her fingers curled around the bottom hem of her dress while Gordy sat on the edge of the bed leering at her. The door crashing hard against the wall made both of them jump.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Gordy barked.

Dom recognized Gordy immediately—every man in their circle knew his face. He was one of the dirtiest drug dealers operating in the city, notorious for how he treated women and how he tossed them pocket change to perform all kinds of degrading acts for his entertainment.

Because none of the girls had ever come forward to accuse him of force or coercion, management continued welcoming him back, especially since the bastard had plenty of cash to throw around. Seeing him here with Cora sent a wave of rage tearing through Dom that defied all reason. Locking a lethal glare on the man, Dom spoke in a low growl that left no doubt he meant business. “Get out.”

Gordy hesitated on the mattress, barely shifting an inch. “And who the fuck are you? I paid good money for this slut, and you’d better believe I’m staying right here to get my money’s worth.”

In the corner of his eye, Dom caught the sharp flinch that rippled through Cora’s frame at the insult. Turning his head toward his brother, Dom issued a cold order. “Get this man out of my sight before I knock him out cold. And make damn sure you walk him all the way downstairs.”

Nash gave a sharp nod, hauled Gordy straight off the bed, and muscled him toward the open doorway. Halfway across the threshold, Gordy twisted his neck back to shoot Dom a vicious glare before fixing a filthy grin on Cora.

“Not bad at all for a first-timer,” Gordy jeered at her. “You’ve already got grown men fighting over you. Can’t say I blame the guy, though. Don’t worry, sweetheart—I’ll be back around later. I never minded having seconds.”

Dom balled his hands into tight fists at his sides, ready to drive his knuckles straight through the bastard’s teeth, before Nash thankfully dragged the man out into the hall and out of reach. Just like that, only the two of them remained inside the room. Setting his jaw hard, Dom walked over to the doorway and pushed the door shut until the latch clicked softly into place.

“Dom…” Cora breathed.

He halted near the threshold, sweeping his gaze from her face down to the hem of her dress in sheer disbelief. Crossing the floor toward her, he hooked his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up until she had no choice but to meet his stare. “Care to explain to me what the fuck you’re doing in a place like this?”

“Dom…” she whimpered a second time, a deep crimson flush rushing up her neck to burn across her cheeks.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he roared, his fingers tightening around her chin. Rather than shrinking back, she met him with a fierce glare and shoved his hand off her face.

“I don’t owe you a single explanation,” she shot back. “And you shouldn’t care to know anything about my life anyway.”

Dom watched her hold his gaze head-on without blinking or backing down an inch.

“Did you honestly believe you could pull something like this behind my back?” he demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous edge. “Did you really think you could just walk around whoring yourself out however the hell you pleased?”

That finally made her look away, breaking their eye contact to stare down at the floor. Somehow, watching her drop her gaze only drove his temper higher. Before rational thought could even catch up with him, Dom lunged forward, caught her firmly around the waist, and hoisted her clean off her feet to plant her atop the table.

Before she could let out a breath or react, he pushed her knees wide apart and stepped directly between her thighs. One glance down at the lacy red underwear exposed beneath her hiked dress sent hot blood roaring straight to his head, his gaze turning pitch-black as his fury multiplied a thousand times over.

“Cora, do you have any idea that the men who walk through these doors will touch you however they please and do whatever the hell they want with you!?”

Trapped between his arms, she gave a small, silent nod. And once again, blinding red was the only thing Dom could see.