His Virgin Angel

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-050-5

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  HIS VIRGIN ANGEL

  Sam Crescent

  Copyright © 2016

  Prologue

  Jack Sosa sat outside of an apartment block where the woman he was supposed to marry had just been caught screwing his enemy. Running a hand down his face, he waited for the rage inside him to dissipate. He was alone, which in itself was a miracle. Usually he was surrounded by guards, but they were inside dealing with the mess that he’d created.

  No one made him look a fool, and that was what Beverly had tried to do. He would have married her, and she’d have been a perfect choice to keep in place. She liked his money, his connections, and the fear he created. She reminded him of another person who’d tried to make him look like a fool—Ronald, an enemy of his that always tried to fight for turf. Most of the time, Ronald lost, but on occasion they lost people on either side. Death was something that Jack was used to. He took life so often that he was numb to it, just like he was numb to the dead bodies upstairs. There was never going to be a nine to five life for him.

  That life, and any other life, was gone. Staring down at his hands, Jack wondered if anyone would ever realize the damage he could cause. He didn’t need any other kind of weapon. His hands were all he needed. It was a good job that Ronald had never come near him. The bastard would be dead.

  Getting dirty had never been a problem for Jack like it was for most.

  Beverly and her little lover boy had taken their last breaths.

  Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw movement, and he turned in time to see a chubby young girl walking down the street. She wore pants rather than a skirt, and Jack had seen plenty of girls wearing short skirts. What also surprised him was this girl was walking and reading at the same time. There was no one around as she walked. Jack couldn’t help but watch as she seemed completely oblivious to the dangers that surrounded her. Anyone could pounce, kidnap her, and take her away from this life. Didn’t she have any self-awareness?

  She passed, and suddenly the girl stopped and turned toward him. The first thing that struck Jack was the depth of her brown eyes, and the concern shining inside them.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, moving toward him.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he asked. The girl frowned. She couldn’t be a day older than fourteen. She didn’t even have makeup on. Looking around the streets he saw no one was paying them any attention. “Do you just go around talking to random strangers?”

  “No. You looked kind of sad, and I don’t like the thought of seeing you sad.” She put her book away, shoving it into her backpack, and zipping it up. She further annoyed the hell out of him by taking a seat beside him. Where was this girl’s fear? He could have attacked her by now. Pushed her around the darkened alley, and raped her, yet she sat down as if there was not a single care in the world.

  “You don’t even know me.”

  She smiled. “So? I think if everyone took the time to have five minutes away from their life, everyone would be a whole lot happier. I’m Piper.”

  He stared at her hand, amazed. This girl was offering him her hand when moments ago he’d killed people with his own.

  Unable to hold back, he placed his hand within hers. “Jack.”

  “Hey, Jack.”

  Her smile was beautiful, and so pure. He’d not seen innocence like that in so long, and especially in a teenager. Weren’t they all running around, screwing and taking drugs?

  “Why do you feel sad?” she asked.

  Jack couldn’t find it in his heart to push her away. “My girlfriend cheated on me with another man.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Why don’t you have any friends?”

  “Because I’m fat and weird.” She shrugged. “I get told it all the time. My mom thinks I’m a loser because I like books.”

  “Your mother’s a bitch.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t care. I’m used to it. Here, I’m so sorry about your girlfriend. Mom’s boyfriends cheat on her a lot as well.” She handed him the book. “When I read it, it makes me feel happy. Like maybe one day there will be that special someone who’ll accept me for me.” Piper handed him the book. “I better get home. I’ve got to take care of my younger brother.”

  Before Jack could say anything more, she was gone.

  Staring at the book in his he saw it was a British classic, Jane Eyre. He remembered reading it in school. The book was well worn. He saw it had been read many times. Opening the book again, he saw her name on the front of the page, Piper Johnson.

  He found it strange that she would give a total stranger a book, especially a book she clearly loved with all of her heart.

  Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by the van pulling up against the curb. His own personal cleanup crew.

  Shoving the book into his jacket pocket, he finished what he’d started, and that was disposing of Beverly’s body. By the time he made it home, the book was forgotten, and he tossed his jacket at his house keeper.

  ****

  The following year Jack was looking through his closet for a tie pin when a large box fell on him. Frowning, he glanced down to find the book he vaguely remembered being given. The chubby schoolgirl came back to him, and he had a sudden rush of guilt. Crap, he’d forgotten about her book, and she used it to feel better. He’d simply tossed it aside, without a single care in the world.

  Picking it up, he flicked open the page to see her name scrawled across it. He knew nothing about her apart from her name.

  Picking up his cell phone, he dialed his contact, Eric, and demanded that he find out the address of a Piper Johnson, giving a brief description from what he remembered. It wouldn’t take long. The girl wasn’t that old. He wondered if she was still as charming as she’d been the day she gave him that book.

  It didn’t take long for Eric to get back to him with an address. Leaving his home, Jack got Drake, his driver, to take him to the address. He wasn’t surprised to find the estate he was looking for to be rundown. The apartment flats were in an awful state, and thinking about the girl, it made him marvel at the fact she’d been so damn sweet.

  Jack stared at the decay all around him. He was the son of a whore and a gambler. Growing up on the streets, dodging loan sharks, and all kind of other crap, Jack had promised himself he wouldn’t be like this. His fists had gotten him out of this crap, and his intelligence had taken him to where he was today. Feared, respected, and above all, King.

  “Sir, what would you like me to do?” Drake said.

  Drake had been working for him for five years and had proven his loyalty time and again.

  “This place stinks, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s not the best part of the city.”

  “No, it’s the fucking worst.” Jack stared out of the window wondering what the fuck he was actually doing. He paid men to deal with this shit.

  She sat with you that day.

  She tried to put a smile back on your face.

  Had she missed the book? He didn’t know. Considering the state of the paperback, there had to be a chance.


  “Wait in the car,” he said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Several of the men hanging around the apartment stared at him. None of them approached him. They all knew better. When he entered the apartment building, the scent of piss and shit surrounded him. He refused to back down, so he made his way up toward the third floor, along the corridor to the door that housed Piper.

  On the floor was an array of needles, trash, used diapers, and all other kinds of crap. The sight repulsed him.

  Lifting his hand, he knocked on the door and waited.

  “Who is it?”

  He recognized her voice, and he was shocked by how protective he suddenly felt.

  “Piper,” he said. “I don’t know if you remember me. It’s Jack. A year ago you passed me a book, and I took it.”

  The door opened, and what he saw made him so damn angry.

  Piper was standing in her pajamas, and she held a small boy in her arms. “I remember you.”

  One side of her face was black and blue. “Who did that?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  From the information Eric had given him, she was seventeen years old. He’d gotten her age wrong. She was still a minor, and the bruise on her face didn’t sit well with him.

  “That’s not nothing.” Glancing through past her shoulder, he saw the apartment was bare.

  “Piper, who is he?” the boy asked.

  “He’s no one. Please, you need to leave.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Jack wasn’t used to being told he was no one. He wasn’t no one. He was someone!

  “It’s okay, Brian,” she said, turning to the boy as he began to whimper. It was then he noticed the boy also had some bruising, and Jack didn’t like it. Pushing his way into the apartment, Jack saw everything. The apartment was so small. Only two bedrooms. Piper was clearly sleeping in the same room as her little brother.

  “If my mom and boyfriend find you here they’re going to go insane.”

  “Is the boyfriend the one that gave you the black eye?” he asked.

  “Yes.” The little boy spoke up first. “He hits us when we don’t behave. We naughty kids. Idiots. Stupid.”

  “Sh, Brian, stop.”

  Jack had heard enough. Dialing Drake’s number on his cell phone, he ordered the man upstairs. Moving into the kids’ bedroom, he didn’t see anything worth taking, so herding the two out of the apartment building and toward his car wasn’t a hardship.

  “Are you going to hurt us?” Piper asked.

  “No. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  He didn’t know what he was going to do with them, but hurting wasn’t one of them. Drake glanced back at him in the mirror, and he saw the confusion on his driver’s face. This girl and this boy meant nothing to him. But seeing the bruises covering them, he didn’t like it. Jack’s stomach twisted.

  “I don’t understand. How did you find me?” Piper asked.

  Jack handed her the book back. She took it from him, and he noticed her hands were shaking. “When you have a name you can find anyone.”

  “My book.”

  “I’m going to take care of you now.”

  “You are?”

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “You didn’t know me that day, but you still stopped to talk to me. Consider this payment for when I needed you, and I didn’t even know it.”

  In the back of his mind he’d remembered the girl that had risked her very life to make him smile. It was the first time anyone had ever done that for him, and in doing so, Piper had secured her future for life. He was intrigued by her gentleness, charmed by her age, and now angered by the asshole who had put the bruises on her face. They would pay. Jack didn’t expect anything in return, but he made a vow to always be able to look into her eyes, and see the smile shining back at him.

  “Now, tell me more about your mother and her boyfriend.”

  Chapter One

  Four years later

  “Do you want me to fuck you?” Jack asked.

  Piper bit her lip, not knowing what else to say. “Yes.”

  He pushed her to the bed, and she let out a little squeal.

  “That little cherry is going to be mine.”

  Pulling out of her fantasies, Piper stood in the restaurant waiting for the next order to ring up. Glancing in the mirror across from the kitchen she saw that her hair was impeccable. There was no evidence of her little fantasy on her person. The waiting staff was not allowed to have their hair escaping, or it risked customers being put off their food. Her uniform was also clean and ironed to a crisp, another stipulation of working in the restaurant. She had been working here since she was eighteen, and even though some of the hours were long, the chefs, and other waiting staff were amazing, at least the ones that had been there before she was employed.

  “Hello, beautiful,” Luther said, coming to stand next to her.

  “Hey.”

  “Your hair is fine. You’ve been working here for three years. You’re fine. Besides, no one is ever going to fire you. You know that.”

  She didn’t know that. Working at Exquisite for Mark Simkins was a dream come true. The pay was good, and it allowed her to continue to study at the local college. It also meant she could find decent care to take her little brother, Brian. He was eight now, and there was no way she was ever going to let him go into the foster system. The other bonus was how regularly she got to see the man who’d changed her life forever, Jack.

  “Mr. Simkins can fire me just like everyone else. I don’t have a special deal with him or anything.”

  Luther held his hands up. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

  Now she felt awful. “No, I’m sorry.” She forced a smile, and was relieved when her order came up. Talking with people was always a challenge. Before Jack had come along and taken her out of that apartment and that life, she was used to being ignored, forgotten. If it wasn’t for her little brother, she truly believed she would have been forgotten. Jack was her white knight in all things.

  Keep it together.

  Taking out the plates, she set them down gently in front of the two customers without saying a word. Exquisite demanded the waiting staff be seen only when the customers wanted them to be seen. Stepping away from the table, she moved toward the bar where most of the staff stood, watching the room to see if anyone wanted anything. Clasping her hands together, Piper took a deep breath, and expelled it slowly. Four years ago her life had changed forever. Up until Jack Sosa entered her life, Piper only recalled pain and humiliation at her mother’s hand. There were occasional boyfriends who wanted to offer “love” in return for something else. Piper avoided those boyfriends at all cost.

  Jack had taken her and Brian away from all of that. At first she’d been terrified in case the social services sent her back to her mother. They had been to the apartment many times, and after they left, her mother’s aggression always got worse. Once she and Brian were with Jack, there were no social workers, no interviews, no questions. She didn’t know how he did it, only that since he took them, she’d had a much better life. Four years’ worth of happiness. Something she had only ever dreamed about happening before.

  He’d taken her to an apartment in the city, and Drake, his driver, had lived with them for many months. At first Piper had been worried, but Jack had assured her that Drake was a good man, and wouldn’t hurt her or her brother. So, in a weird kind of way, they became a little family. When she hit nineteen and was able to fend for herself, Drake no longer lived with them, but he dropped by regularly. Piper did enjoy his visits. Jack didn’t stop by all that much, and she only ever saw him on occasion, unless she was at the restaurant. She had to use her fantasies about him, to keep her going to the next time. It was kind of silly really. She had this big crush on a man twenty-four years older than she was, and who would never actually look at her as anything other than the young girl she’d been. She wasn’t a young girl. Her mothe
r had made sure of that.

  Sure, Piper was a virgin, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have needs.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, she focused on her surroundings.

  Thinking about Jack always made her feel safe. There was no chance in hell of him ever wanting her the same way. She could only hope.

  It was strange really. Like when he came to the restaurant, it didn’t matter what area he sat in, she always served him. No matter what. No one else served him, and they would take the table they were working at, and swap with her. Strange.

  Anyway, she ignored the curious stares from her fellow waiters, and did her job to perfection. Four years she’d been living in her fantastic little bubble, and she had no intention of ever leaving it. Brian had flourished, and they were both happy. It also didn’t help that when it came to Jack, her feelings were all over the place, but that was for another time to even think about.

  Leon, another waiter, came toward her.

  “Mr. Sosa has just entered, and he’d like you at his table.”

  “Oh.” Then she remembered it was Friday, and he usually requested a quick report on her week. “Will you keep an eye on my tables?”

  “Of course.”

  She smiled her thanks and made her way toward the kitchen. Jack always sat near the window where the kitchen was. Mark had told her it was Jack’s table.

  He was alone, and she stood beside him, gripping her hands tightly. “Hello.”

  “Take a seat, Piper. I’ve told you many times you don’t need to stand for me.”

  “I’m sorry.” She lowered herself down into the chair opposite him. He was pressing some keys onto his phone, and then he looked up.

  “I apologize. Have you eaten?”

  “I tell you this every time. I eat when I get home.”

  He smiled. “So, how was your week?”

  “You ask this all the time.” She chuckled. “I did a few days at the college this time, and I helped Brian with his school work. He’s, erm, he’s having a few troubles at school.”