The Cunning

61

Madison could barely catch her breath. She was sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. The door opened, but she didn't bother looking up. There was only one person it would possibly be.

"You're smart. But you know that, don't you?" Jase said. "You had me for a minute with the little act you were putting on." He walked around the bed, crouching in front of her. She wouldn't meet his eyes. "What were you aiming to do, Madison? Did you think I was going to catch feelings for you? Save you?" She clenched her teeth, swallowing the lump in her throat, hard. Even at his worst leading up to this point, Madison had not met this side of Jase. There was something unhinged in his tormenting like he enjoyed it. And it was very bad news for her if he did.

"You were doing the same thing," she spat back.

Jase grinned menacingly. "And I had fun while it lasted. Unfortunately, playtime's over now." Tears finally broke free, running down her raw cheeks. Jase frowned, brushing them away with his thumbs. "Don't cry, darlin'. I wasn't really going to let him tell his 'boss' you were available."

He stood up, towering over her, putting the word 'boss' in air quotes then laughing. "In case you hadn't worked it out for yourself, he was looking for someone quite a bit younger. And it was for himself, there was no boss," he said. Madison blinked, meeting his eyes. He tilted his head. "You guessed that, didn't you?"

She refused to reply. It felt like she was walking into a trap and she couldn't figure out when the ground was going to give way. "What gave it away for you?" Jase questioned. When it was obvious he wanted a genuine answer, Madison peeled her tongue away from the roof of her mouth.

"His word choice," she croaked out. "He made a point of the girl being small. And he used the word 'girl' twice." Jase nodded as though impressed by her observation skills.

"I noticed that as well but it was his suit that failed him. If you're working for someone rich enough to go for little girls, and trust me, they're the expensive ones-" Madison's throat burned as bile lurched skyward, she was barely able to keep it down, "-then he'd have worn a better suit and he wouldn't have been so jittery." He shrugged, "Anyway, you weren't exactly cheap, someone paid twenty big ones for you princess so, even if he didn't go for the youngsters, I wouldn't have handed you over. I just wanted to give you a quick reality check."

Madison curled her fists so tight, that her nails pierced her palms, leaving several red crescents. "Fuck you," she hissed.

Jase laughed.

"Yeah, you wish. I bet you thought that would be your ticket out of here. Unfortunately for you, I'm not big on the product we sell here." Madison squeezed herself harder as if she needed to literally hold herself together. The tears weren't letting up. "Oh, and you can talk as much as you like. Benny needs me right now, so you'll be the only one that suffers."

He left her alone, closing and locking the door behind him. The thought that she'd lost Jase's protection was too much to bear. What hurt most was that at some point, it had stopped being just a game. Madison had grown to understand Jase somewhat and even enjoy his company. There was no one on Earth she had spent so much time with, an attachment was inevitable to some extent. Everything would change now.

Jase grabbed his jacket from the coat cupboard, shrugging it over his shoulders.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked from the kitchen doorway.

"To the club," Jase replied. It wasn't only Madison he was mad at, he was pissed at himself as well, for biting her bait and thinking he had full control of the situation.

He broke most of the speed limits on his way to Ramon's gentlemen's club, hoping the girl who had been there last time was working. Maybe she could help him release some tension. Playing mental chess with Madison, whilst more stressful than ever, was still an adrenalin rush and he needed to find something - or someone - to pour that energy into that wasn't Madison.

Sasha was behind the bar when he walked in. She was already clutching the brandy and filling a glass by the time he reached her.

"You look like you've had a long night," she said. Jase hummed.

"Something like that." He took out a twenty, sliding it over. "Keep it. This won't be my only one."

"You want to talk about it?" she asked, clipping the money in the till.

"Not particularly." Sasha nodded, taking his lack of conversation as a hint to leave him be. He had shared the odd pleasantry with Sasha but Jase was hardly renowned for being chatty with anyone.

He was halfway through his third double when a familiar face came strutting over, donning a practised smile. The same one the girls flashed to customers at the house. Jase was instantly turned off.

"I was getting sad, thinking I'd never see you again." The nameless stripper said, placing a hand on his thigh as she slid herself onto the barstool opposite. She was making it too easy, all the thoughts he had in the car subsided.

When something didn't present any challenge, it held no appeal. He could abuse his power at the house. Anything he wanted, at his fingertips? There was no satisfaction, no working for it. That was half the excitement.

"You here for some fun?" the stripper asked. Jase picked up his glass, watching her over the rim.

"Not tonight," he said before taking a sip. She shrugged, to her it was nothing more than a business proposition.

"You know where to find me if you change your mind." She slipped away, and he watched her leave, but he wasn't thinking about a next time. He was still thinking about Madison. Since the day she was dragged into the house, she'd been an all-consuming entity inside his head.

"Fuck you."

He smiled at her words. The fight was contagious. The anger and venom that stewed in her - that was the real her. The uncaged tiger. Under different circumstances, Madison was his perfect match, and he wasn't oblivious to this.

He returned to the house just before the sun was coming up, half a bottle of Remy Martin down. Madison was asleep. The long dark lashes that fanned out on her red cheeks were still shimmering with wetness.

Jase found it incredible how she could still bring herself to wear one of his t-shirts. From the door, he stared at her with disdain. At some point in the evening, the alcohol had flipped his tone from being subtly, yet humbly, impressed by Madison and how far her little scheme had gotten her to being downright infuriated by her sheer audacity.

Few people got the better of Jase and saw the light of day again. Yet here was a woman, of all things, that had nearly toppled the reputation he'd spent four years painstakingly nurturing while avoiding any run-ins with the police. With a grunt at the sight of her, he pulled off his t-shirt and slumped down into the sheets. The brandy helped everything fade to black rather quickly.

*

Sorry to break ya lil hearts with the total 180, i'll make it up to you at some point. Here's this chapters question; do you think Madison can come back from this or has the warning snuffed her out? Leave your thoughts and feelings in the comments x