The phone wouldn't stop ringing.
Jace Montez had ignored it for the third time, but Vincent Griffith wasn't known for his subtlety... or patience.
The penthouse was dimly lit, exactly how Jace liked it... quiet, controlled, unbothered. The entire city of Manhattan sprawled beneath his windows like a glittering whore; gaudy, expensive, and always waiting to be touched. But Jace had no interest in touching tonight.
He leaned back in the velvet armchair, eyes half lidded, a leather bound book splayed across his lap, solitude, silence, and sanity.
And then it rang again.
He picked up this time... not because he wanted to, but because Vincent Griffith doesn't know the meaning of boundaries.
"Jesus, Montez!" Vincent drawled, voice booming through the line like he was already tipsy. "Are you trying to ghost me? Again?"
"Was hoping you'll get the message." Jace replied dryly, flipping the page of his book without reading a word.
"You're such a cold bastard." Vincent huffed, unbothered. "Anyway, screw your moody billionaire phase. I'm back from China, it's celebration o'clock. Get your emotionally constipated ass over to CAVO Lounge, same regular club dusk. The guys are already gathering." He squealed.
Jace exhaled. "Not interested."
"Not asking." Vincent's tone turned playful, then serious. "Come on, one drink, one dance. Maybe you'll even remember what it's like to have blood in your veins."
Jace paused. He could already picture it... the blaring music, the grinding bodies, the stench of sweat and desperation... and then the faces, them, his "friends", or what the public liked to call them. Men with too much money and far too little morality.
He didn't reply.
"You owe me." Vincent pushed.
"I owe you silence." Jace said.
"That's cute, now get dressed."
The line cut, typical.
---
An hour later, the sleek black Bugatti pulled up in front of CAVO Lounge, humming like a purring predator. The bouncer didn't even check credentials; no one did when the Montez name walked in.
Inside, the club was a devil's playground; smoke curling beneath laser lights, bare skin shimmering under the pulse of the bass, bodies coiled together in sin.
Jace walked through like a shadow... still, dangerous, untouched.
Near the VIP section, Marcel Gerard was already stretched across the velvet couch like it was his throne, a flute of champagne dangling from careless fingers. Shirt unbuttoned, his smirk on, gold chain gleaming.
"Look who decided to grace us with his holy presence." Marcel teased.
"I thought you were dead." Nate Khaled said without looking up, nursing his whiskey, voice calm like a blade sliding out of its sheath. His dark eyes flicked over Jace's suit. "Or married, you've been acting like someone's boring husband lately."
"Or a virgin." Marcel added, laughing. "The dry spell's insane."
Vincent appeared behind them, arms spread like a circus ringleader. "He's here! The ice king himself. Jace freaking Montez, can we get a round of applause?"
No one clapped.
Except Jayden Justice, who gave two slow sarcastic claps, eyes never leaving Jace's face.
The air dropped ten degrees.
"Still breathing, Montez?" Jay said coolly. "Thought your ego finally choked you in your sleep."
"Still whining, Jay?" Jace returned, his smile slight but lethal. "Thought you'll be too busy failing to matter."
The others shared a look, same old game same old hatred, are they not tired, they all rolled their eyes.
Jayden sat forward. "Let's see who fails tonight."
Jace didn't flinch. "You'll try, and as always, you never win."
Vincent whistled. "Okay, okay, enough testosterone. Damn! Can't a man just celebrate being home?"
"Celebration implies happiness." Nate murmured. "This feels more like war."
"Then let's start it with a bang." Marcel grinned. "I heard there's a new queen on the pole, Ruby has expired..." He taunted, twirling his champagne glass with the finesse of a bored devil. "New girl's something else, they say, doesn't talk, doesn't smile, just dances like sin forgot it needed a confession."
Jayden leaned forward, the smirk gone. "She got a name?"
Vincent's eyes glinted. "They call her Rose."
That word... simple, sharp, delicate... sliced through the noise.
Jace didn't move, but something shifted, internally, quietly, like the click of a loaded chamber.
Rose.
He didn't believe in rumors, didn't indulge in the breathless gossip of men whose blood ran cold at the thought of being denied, but even he'd heard the name... low whispers, red lips, black cars. She was a fantasy cloaked in silk, the ghost men begged to see and paid to watch.
Jace had never cared.
Until now.
Vincent, already halfway through his second drink, wiggled his brows. "Don't tell me the Ice King is interested, is that intrigue I see cracking through your concrete face?"
"Not interested." Jace said but he was too fast and too flat and Jayden caught it.
"Liar."
But Jace said nothing more, his eyes flicked toward the dim hallway behind the VIP section... where only the staff and the chosen were allowed to pass, where the music took on a slower, darker puls, where the lights went red and the air turned intimate... in anticipation.
"Bro..." Marcel smirked, leaning in like he was about to reveal a holy secret. "When I say she'll strip the soul from your body? I mean it. That girl doesn't perform... she ascends."
"You've watched too many pornos." Nate said flatly.
"Maybe." Marcel shrugged. "But you'll see for yourself, give it five minutes."
Jace said nothing, he stared blankly at his phone.
Vincent grinned. "Come on, Jace. You came, might as well feast, or has celibacy become your kink?" He jested.
"Watch it." Jace's voice was low, but laced with warning, he wasn't interested in jokes.
Vincent laughed, unbothered. "Suit yourself, but I'm going to see the new girl. If she's even half as wild as they say, I might forget all about my ex fiancee."
"You forgot about her before the engagement ring hit her finger." Nate muttered.
"Details..." Vincent sang as he disappeared into the crimson hallway.
---
Meanwhile, behind the curtain, the dressing room of the strippers boiled with chatter.
"I don't get it " Ruby hissed, applying red lipstick in sharp angry strokes. "Who the hell does she think she is? Just because she's new and gets top billing now..."
"She didn't ask for it." Diamond said gently from the side. "She earned it, she's damn good and better." Diamond smirked.
"Earned it? Good and better?" Ruby snapped. "That's what Madam Blaze said about me too... until Miss I'm so mysterious Rose showed up and suddenly, I'm background noise."
"Because you're loud and predictable." Onyx whispered.
Ruby stood.
So did her minions, Candy and Sasha, smirking behind her.
From the farthest mirror, Evelyn Evans... Rose, said nothing, what's there to say? She's used to Ruby's yell and complains and she doesn't give a fuck, she's her boss and she will continue to lead as long as she's still here, stripping.
She ran the gloss over her lips with calm precision. Her reflection stared back cold, composed, breathtaking, but suddenly, inside, her stomach twisted. Something about tonight felt off.
"Madam Blaze wants to see you in her office." Candy said with fake cheer.
"I'm busy." Rose replied, not turning.
"She said now."
Rose finally stood.
But even as she walked out, she felt the eyes of Ruby burn into her back... and she missed the way Ruby slowly followed her out, silent as a curse.
---
Back at the VIP lounge, Vincent was back and he was practically bouncing.
"She's fine and she's coming." He said in excitement.
The lights dimmed; music changed. The announcer's voice echoed like a spell;
"Gentlemen, brace yourselves.
The queen of velvet.
The sin you can't touch.
The rose with thorns."
And Jace looked up.
And she walked in.