She Used Me for a Dare… Now I Own Her Mother

"Goodbye, Lila."

Alex turned from her without another look. His footsteps echoed once against the wooden floor, deliberate and certain. Then, halfway through the doorway, he paused.

He turned back... not to her. Not to the mess on the floor or the trembling woman naked in defeat.

He looked up.

Straight at the smoke detector in the corner.

At the hidden camera.

At Sophia.

The air in the room changed. Heavy. Charged.

His voice broke the silence, calm but cold enough to scrape bone.

"I've been patient, Sophia," he said, his words measured like every syllable was sharpened steel. "Letting you think I'd forgotten you. Letting you think you were safe behind your little games."

He tilted his head, eyes locked to the lens.

"But I've been neglecting you for too long."

A pause. A faint curl of his lip.

"That ends soon."

The words weren't shouted. They didn't need to be. The quiet confidence was far worse.

Then he left.

The door clicked shut behind him... soft, deliberate, final.

Lila didn't move.

She stayed on her knees, hair tangled across her tear-streaked face, staring at the empty doorway. The world spun around her but offered no escape.

Her throat burned; she couldn't decide if it was from crying or the scream clawing to get out.

She dropped forward, palms hitting the floor, her body shaking as sobs tore free again... ugly, uncontrolled.

Gone.

Alex's words echoed in her skull, louder with every loop.

Enough whores... not one more. Not You.

Her chest constricted until breathing hurt. The humiliation was so complete that even the air felt cruel.

And then, through the thick fog of her grief, her eyes flicked toward the ceiling.

The red light on the camera blinked once.

Sophia's eye.

Still watching.

A cold tremor ran through Lila's body.

Her heart stumbled into a slower, emptier rhythm.

She was alone.

A sob tore from her throat, this one different from the others.

This one was fear.

Because somewhere in that dark room, watching through that blinking red light, Sophia wasn't smiling.

She was planning.

Planning exactly how to make Lila pay for tonight. Planning what punishment would be severe enough, public enough, devastating enough to remind every other girl in her network what happened when you failed.

Lila pressed her forehead to the cold floor, her naked body trembling.

She'd lost Alex. Lost the mission.

And soon... very soon... she'd lose everything else too.

The apartment. The money. The fragile safety net that kept her life from collapsing... everything Sophia controlled with a single word.

All of it. Gone.

Her sobs grew quieter, hollowed out by the crushing weight of what was coming.

Soon, Sophia would make her move.

And when she did, being alone would be the least of Lila's problems.

***

The door clicked shut behind Alex, and for a few long seconds he simply stood there, the echo of that soft, final sound rolling down the narrow apartment hallway like distant thunder.

The quiet outside felt heavier than the storm he'd just walked out of. The air carried a faint tang of iron from his palms, knuckles tight, veins drawn.

Mike was leaning against the opposite wall, eyes down, jaw set. Danny was a few feet away, shifting his weight nervously, rubbing the back of his neck in restless silence.

Neither spoke when Alex stepped forward. But both of them looked at him, first at his face, then at the faint tremor running through his hand.

"Mike," Alex's voice was low, tired, rough at the edges. "You okay?"

Mike nodded almost automatically. "Yeah." His voice didn't sound like his. Too even, too calm, the calm of someone who'd just seen something he'd never forget.

But Alex saw it.

That flicker in his eyes... brief, sharp... was the sting of what she'd done to him. The kind of pain that came from betrayal, still raw and bleeding beneath the surface.

He held Mike's gaze for another moment, studying him, trying to read the silent chaos behind that nod. But he let it go. At least for now.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah," Mike said again, quieter this time. "I just..." He stopped himself, swallowing the rest of the sentence like it hurt to say aloud. Finally, he finished, "It's over. That's all that matters."

Danny shifted beside him, exhaling sharply. "Over," he repeated, like the word would make it true.

Alex gave a faint nod, but he didn't agree.

Because even as the words left Mike's lips, a part of him knew, this wasn't over. It never had been.

Not while Sophia was still watching from the shadows. Not while her games still rippled through everything they touched.

Alex looked at Mike again, seeing the way his friend's breathing stilled, steady, measured, but his eyes glistened faintly in the soft hallway light.

He wanted to say something. Anything that would let Mike off the hook for what they'd both had to do. But there was no way to make it right.

Before Alex could say anything, Danny pushed off from the wall and closed the distance between them in two quick strides.

"You should've told us," Danny said, his voice rough with something between anger and hurt. "This afternoon. Before any of this started. We deserved to know."

Alex's jaw tightened. "Danny..."

"No." Danny cut him off, his hand shooting out to grab Alex's shoulder. Not aggressive. Desperate. "We were worried sick, man. The way you were acting... the way you just disappeared into your own head... we thought..."

His voice cracked slightly.

"We thought you were going to do something stupid. Something... alone."

Mike straightened from the wall, moving closer, his eyes locked on Alex with the same mixture of concern and relief.

"He's right," Mike said quietly. "You shut us out. Again."

Alex looked between them, seeing the genuine hurt beneath Danny's frustration, the quiet worry in Mike's eyes.

He held their gazes, studying them both, trying to read the silent chaos behind their words.

"I didn't want to drag you into this," Alex said finally, his voice low. "Lila was my problem. My mess to clean up."

"Bullshit," Danny shot back, but there was no real heat in it. Just exhaustion. "That's not how this works. That's not how we work."

He squeezed Alex's shoulder, then let his hand drop.

"We're in this together. All of it. The good, the bad, and the completely fucked up. You don't get to carry everything alone just because you think you can handle it."

"Danny's right," Mike added, stepping closer until the three of them formed a tight circle in the narrow hallway. "What happened with Lila... with Sophia... that's not just your fight. It's ours too."

Alex was quiet for a long moment, the weight of their words settling over him.

He'd spent so long being the one who fixed things, who handled problems, who made sure everyone else was okay that he'd forgotten what it felt like to let someone else share the burden.

"I'm sorry," he said finally, the words coming out rougher than he intended. "You're right. I should've told you when I figured it out. Should've let you help instead of... instead of trying to handle it all myself."

Danny's expression softened. "We're a team, man. We always have been. Don't forget that."

"Yeah," Mike agreed quietly. "We've been through too much together to start keeping secrets now."

Alex looked at them both, these two people who'd stuck by him through everything, who'd trusted him even when he didn't deserve it, and felt something tight in his chest finally loosen.

"It won't happen again," he said, and meant it. "Next time... I'll tell you. Both of you. Before I do something stupid."

"Good," Danny said, a faint smile finally breaking through. "Because if you try to pull this lone wolf shit again, I'm kicking your ass."

Despite everything, Alex almost smiled. "You can try."

"Don't tempt me," Danny shot back, but the tension had broken.

Mike stepped forward and pulled both of them into a rough embrace, the kind that spoke louder than words ever could.

For a moment, they just stood there, three friends who'd been through hell and somehow made it out the other side.

When they finally pulled apart, Danny wiped at his eyes quickly, trying to hide it.

"Alright, enough of this emotional shit," he muttered. "Let's get out of here before I start actually crying."

"Too late," Mike said dryly, and Danny flipped him off.

Alex looked between them, feeling something he hadn't felt in weeks: certainty.

Whatever came next with Sophia, whatever games she tried to play, they'd face it together.

Not alone.

Never alone.

He took one last look at the closed apartment door behind him, at the world he was leaving sealed inside.

"Come on," he said, turning toward the elevators. "Let's go."

The others followed, and as they walked, the weight on Alex's shoulders felt just a little bit lighter.

Because he wasn't carrying it alone anymore.