Chapter 3

Jackson

*****

Few Months Ago

I was simply an observer at the club. I never sampled the goods. I frequent the establishment for the secrets it unlocks. That’s what the draw is to a place like Provocateur. It is drowning in secrets. I’d learned from a young age that knowledge was power, and there’s no knowledge more powerful than the sinful desires people hide from the rest of the world. Once you have the darkest desires of powerful men in your hands, you suddenly become the one with control, and that’s what I’ve always craved. Control. Powerful men will do everything you demand to ensure their skeletons stay where they live in the closet.

Then she steps into my vision, like the sun eclipsing the entire world around it with radiance and warmth.

I chuckle as soon as she comes into my view. She shuffles her feet and keeps her eyes glued to the floor beneath her, probably shocked at the depravity she’s witnessing. She doesn’t really look like she belongs here. That’s what I like—her innoce