“You could certainly say that,” Damon confirmed, but he said it in a way that seemed particularly evasive to me and I peered back at him in suspicion.
“Have you known him a long time?” I asked, sitting back as nonchalantly as I could. I wanted him to think I was just making conversation and not digging for more information about Silas even though that was exactly what I was doing. I glanced back at him, seeing just the smallest glimmer of a smirk on the right side of his lips. Maybe he knew what my intentions were after all. I decided to hold my ground and push a bit further anyway.
“We used to work in the same department maybe fifteen years ago, before he went out on his own,” he answered.
“What kind of department?” I pressed a bit more, this time looking out the window.
“CIA,” he answered casually, and my gaze flicked back to his almost immediately.
“Wait, seriously?” I asked, unable to keep myself from asking.
“Yeah,” he replied. “We were in black ops together. I was on his team.”
“Wow. Honestly, I expected you to tell me he was like a mob boss or something by the way everyone was acting around him in the club,” I scoffed, and I saw a flash of something in his gaze that he quickly smoothed over. My curiosity peaked even further, although this time I kept it reined in. I was onto something and it was obvious that I was going to have to tread carefully. I was quiet for a while and I leaned back against the seat, rubbing my thumb along my thigh.
I wondered if I’d ever see him again.
As I sat there in the car, the full weight of what had transpired that night crashed over me. As my face reddened with embarrassment, a sense of vicious panic jolted through me. In one single night, I’d probably destroyed everything I’d ever worked for. The newspapers and magazines would be plastered with my face in the morning and likely for weeks to come.
It was all over.
“My career is going to be ruined,” I said softly. My hands were shaking, and I pressed them into my lap. Stronger tremors quaked through me and nothing I did would make them stop. I wanted to cry.
Not only had my entire body been on display for the crowd, but I’d come for them. In public. They’d all seen his fingers inside my pussy and how he’d pushed his thumb into my bottom hole under the bright lights of the stage. They’d seen everything. Worst of all, I’d liked it. I was horrified at myself.
“You’re not ruined, Chloe,” he answered softly.
“Did you see what happened?” I asked him.
“I did,” he answered.
“Then how can you say that? I’m sure there’s already pictures circling on the gossip blogs and I’ll be on the cover of a bunch of magazines by morning. I’m going to lose my record deal. I’ll never be a singer after this. I’ll never catch my big break. It’s all over because of what happened tonight,” I moaned, covering my face with my fingers. Tears threatened to fall at any moment.
“Silas would never allow such a thing to happen,” he replied. There was a certain confident edge to his voice, and it distracted me enough to lift my face to stare back at him.
“How could he stop something like that?” I pressed, sniffling back the sobs that threatened to undo me.
“Silas knows a lot of powerful people in a lot of very powerful places. He has a great many friends he can call on to get things done,” he said. The evasive tone had returned, and I swallowed heavily, trying to figure out my next move.
For a while, I said nothing at all. I felt a bit overwhelmed and I watched the lights of the night pass by in a blur. I needed to concentrate on them in order to keep myself together and for a while, it worked. Damon cleared his throat.
“Silas takes care of his own,” he added.
“I’m not his,” I scoffed.
Even as the words left my mouth, I knew that somewhere deep inside that I knew that was a lie. I’d known the moment his fingers had first touched my flesh that he’d claimed me in a way that would leave me forever changed. Every single man that I dated after this would never compare to him. I’d never be able to forget him.
My thoughts were interrupted when the car stopped in front of my apartment building. Damon parked it and got out, only to come over to my side and open the door. He offered me his hand and didn’t give me a choice about accompanying me inside. He was polite in that he didn’t comment on the sorry state of the apartment building that I lived in or the wretched moldy smell that never seemed to go away. I led him to the stairs because the elevator was broken and when we reached my apartment on the fifth floor, he reached into his pocket and took out a set of keys.
They were mine. I could tell by the Hello Kitty keychain.
He unlocked the door and gestured for me to wait. I watched him as he did a quick sweep of my small studio. I didn’t have anything in there that anyone would want, so it seemed a bit weird to me, but I kept quiet and just let him do his thing. When he’d cleared the room, he gestured for me to come inside. I yawned and he strode back to the door.
“Enjoy your night, Miss Banks. You’ll need your rest,” he said boldly, and I cocked my head toward him in confusion.
“What do you mean?” I asked sleepily.
He didn’t answer.