“What the fuck was that?” Ghost scoffed at me.

“I was establishing who’s in charge.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Listen, I get that we’ve been waiting a damn long time to find another girl to help out around here, so everyone’s on edge and ready to strike. That girl is different though, she’s not the usual girl who tries to slip in here through being a groupie or looking for job perks if you know what I mean. She’s spunky and from what I can tell intelligent. Perhaps we just have to introduce her to everything in a different way.” Ghost explained to me.

“You seriously want me to go and apologize to her?” I asked, rolling my eyes in his direction.

“If you want her to stay, I’d do just that. What, first time saying sorry?” He chuckled.

“No, but it will be the first time a girl inside of this building hasn’t been whipped for raising her voice at me.” I pointed out.

“True, true,” Ghost agreed.

With one last sigh, I got up and made my way to the room Kuza had put her in.

“What do you want?” She snarled, opening the door after my string of knocks on the door.

‘To beat that attitude out of you’ I thought to myself, but decided that wouldn’t really be the best way to smooth things over.

“I wanted to come in and talk to you, hopefully clear the air and explain some things.” I told her.

She said nothing but walked back to the bed and sat down.

“Please do.” She finally replied.

‘Easy Chris, easy’ I had to keep repeating in the back of my head.

“As you may have overheard Ms. Heather say, we have been looking for a new girl to come and help out here for a very long time. Not only did we personally interview girls, but Heather and some of our other employees went out and searched for someone new. No one quite fit the mold, they were either untrustworthy, in it for the wrong reasons, or simply unworthy.” I started to explain to her.

“I could be a serial killer for all you know. All Heather asked me was if I needed a job, and I said yes. That’s not exactly covering all of your bases on looking for good employees.” She shot back at me.

Sassy little thing.

She’d be so much fun to break.

“Call it intuition, love.” I chuckled.

In a flash she shot up from the bed, and had pure fire in her eyes.

“My name is Zoey, not Love. Understood?” She growled.

“I’ll make sure my assistant gets that written down.” I smirked, handing her a pad of paper and a pen.

She brought her hand up, whacked the two items out of my hand and sat back down on the edge of the bed.

“Ok, so I get that you had a hard time hiring people. Now let’s get to the stuff I give a shit about. That would be two things. The fact that you’re keeping me here against my will, because I was fooled into a contract. Secondly, the fact that I’m not just stuck anywhere, I’m apparently stuck in a fucking sex club!” She exclaimed angrily.

“Woah….who told you this had anything to do with sex?” I asked her.

“Um...I think his name was Casper.” She said, obviously unsure.

I let out a chuckle.

“I believe you’re talking about Ghost.” I corrected her.

“My bad..I should’ve known it wasn’t Casper, afterall he wasn’t too friendly.” She egged me on.

I wasn’t going to let her have that one, so I simply ignored that last comment.

“I want you to listen, and listen real close. I am going to give you 6 words that describe what go on in this household. That will explain the dynamic of this house far better to you, and it’ll hopefully eliminate some pesky questions down the road. Alright?” I asked.

“Sure.” She grumbled.

“Bondage & Discipline, Domination & Submission, Sadism & Masochism.” I said.

“BDSM?” She groaned.

“Oh wonderful, you’ve heard of it!” I cheered.

“Get on with my first question. Why won’t you let me go?” She growled, not taking in my chipper mood at all.

What a shame.

“I’m not going to be able to provide you an answer that will please you, Zoey. I’m big enough to admit that. Perhaps as time goes on, you will see why we didn’t want you to walk out those doors as easily as you walked in them. For now though, you’ll just have to trust me.” I informed her.

“I appreciate your honesty, even though it’s totally screwed up. You need to let me go though, I am not special. I never have been, and never will be. There are thousands of other girls prettier, smarter, and more efficient at their jobs than I will ever be. I am simply an 18 year old girl who’s fresh out of high school, is literally just about to run out of money, and lives on my own. I’m nothing. Whatever you’re looking for….it’s not nothing. So please just let me go.” She pleaded, a softness in her coming out that I hadn’t seen since she was first brought here.

She was on the verge of crying she was so upset.

“You haven’t met most of the guys who live here, but here’s a fun fact about all of us. We were once nothing too. We weren’t special, people could give a shit about us, absolute nobodies was what we were. In this building though, you become something. We’ve become something, all of us have become something in this building together. You could too.” I told her.

“I still want out.” She whispered.

“I can’t and won’t allow that for now, and I’m done telling you that for the night. Go ahead and feel free to explore around the premises for the rest of the day. This can be your time for the time being, and tomorrow I’ll take you on an official tour and let you meet the rest of the guys.” I explained.

Before she had the chance to respond, I made my way out of her room and headed back to the office where Ghost thankfully was still hanging out.

“Well, how did that go?” He asked me.

“As well as I expected, which wasn’t that great. She still is hell bent on leaving, but I tried to convince her as much as I could. I told her she could look around the house for the rest of the night.” I told him.

“Were you nice to her?” He questioned me, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes, even though it wasn’t reciprocated.” I chuckled.

“Give her some time. She’s scared, and to be honest she has reason to be. She’s in a strange place with people she doesn’t know.” He replied.

“I know, I know.” I sighed.

“Don’t fuck this up and scare here away, Cerulli.” He groaned, exiting the room and leaving me by myself.

As much as I hated him being that blunt about it, I knew he was right. We had exhausted our search for so long that if Zoey didn’t work out, I feared no one would.

I groaned as a million thoughts chased around and around inside of my head.

I needed to go to my room, and just clear my mind for a few hours.

About halfway to my room, I heard a loud banging that caught my attention.

I peered down over the balcony and saw the one and the only Miss Zoey attempting to try and get through a set of doors that lead outside.

“They’re all locked, don’t waste your energy.” I called to her, turning around and making my way to my room where I locked the door behind me.

Silly girl.

She had to realize she was perfect for us, right?

One day she would see the truth.

She needs this place, just as we need her.

Notes

I keep saying I'm going to keep up and update this book, but it somehow always manages to take the back seat in regards to my writing. My apologies!

The only thing I can promise is that the next update will be much sooner than 5 months, unlike this last chapter.