Pain And Pleasure 18+✓

Ten

"Go to your room, Isla," I manage to say without tearing my frosty gaze away from this woman. "Now!" I shout, and my little sister scrambles away.

My insides coil so tightly that I find it difficult to breathe. I feel like punching something, just anything, but this woman's face is the only thing I want closer. But alas, tangling with the cops is the last thing on my scale of preference.

"What did you say?" I ask, my voice calm yet vehement.

"That you are a hooker? Everyone knows you work at nightclubs and God knows where. And now I see you got yourself a—"

"Say another word and I'm gonna rip that tongue out I swear." Teeth clamped, I'm not even aware that I'm literary breathing into her neck right now.

"W-what are you doing?" she asks, her confidence dead and gone at the change in my entire demeanor.

Anger management therapy still needs me. Or maybe I should go back to boxing because the wave of chaos rippling inside me is stronger than my will. If she keeps talking shit about my family I may beat her up.

Maybe that's my greatest weakness.

My family.

Mrs. Millers pulls her daughter to her side, taking a nervous step back. And when I see the little one bubbled with nerves, I manage to hold myself by taking a very deep breath.

"So what if I work in a nightclub? It's just a job like any other, no?" I smile at her because I'm used to this.

Being spoken behind my back, and all the whispers when I walk in and out of the house; it's nothing new to me. I'm glad she dared to tell me straight to my face, even though her grave mistake was including my siblings in this.

"Well, not everyone buys that front!" Mrs. Millers spats.

"And do I look like I'm here to please you and your battalion of gossip? Just do me a favor and mind your own business, will you?"

"Well, we're only trying to protect our families here! We have husbands... and sons... How can we be calm when we have a call girl living among us?"

"Excuse me?" I snap, unbelieving.

"Get out of here." Jake's deadpan voice startles me. I halt in my steps and take a smooth breath. "Leave us alone." He's right behind me.

He can be quite scary, and Mrs. Millers knows very well that he takes no crap from anyone—younger or older.

"You are all crazy! Let's go, Charlotte," Mrs. Millers says. "This is not over. I'm gonna file a complaint to the police." She scoops her daughter and walks away.

I shut the door and shuffle a hand through my hair, oblivious that I'm wearing a scarf. It falls off in the process. My eyes are locked up tightly with Jake's, but he doesn't let on anything he's thinking or feeling. I wonder if he heard everything.

I know he did.

"Why was she here?" he asks.

"Nonsense." I walk past him, heading toward the kitchen to serve breakfast. "She says Isla stole a doll and a ballet shoe."

There's a stuffy thing in my chest and it makes me want to cry for no reason.

"What? You didn't believe her, did you?" Jake demands immediately.

"Of course, I didn't. She's pathetic." I roll my eyes, laughing slimly to push back the tears burning in my eyes. "You serve breakfast. I'm gonna check on Isla." I walk away, and the second I'm out of view I lean haphazardly against the wall.