Grit (King's Harlots #1)

by J. M. Walker

  “Jay, watch your mouth,” my dad snapped, slamming his fist on the table.

  I feigned a yawn. “Are we done?”

  “No.” Tyler placed his hands on the table, leaning on his knuckles. “We’ve just begun.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Max whispered.

  No shit. “Fine. Talk. Tell us what’s going on.”

  “We got news that someone else knows about the missing girls,” my dad explained.

  “Okay. Why is that news? I’m sure the families contacted the police about it.” We needed all of the help we could get. If someone else tried to bring those fuckers down, more power to them.

  “No. Someone else,” Tyler added.

  “I don’t understand why this is a big deal.” I shook my head. “We need to get these girls back.”

  “It’s a big deal because someone is stepping on our turf trying to get the recognition for being the hero.” Tyler paced back and forth.

  “You’re telling me right now that you would rather save the girls yourselves, risk more of them dying, than to get the extra help all because you’re worried about a pissing match?” When no one responded, I laughed. “Dad, you’re the president, you have nothing to prove. Why are you letting him influence you?”

  My dad didn’t say anything.

  “What the hell does he have on you?” I demanded, needing to know what I was getting myself into.

  “Jay,” Max said, grabbing my hand.

  “No, Max. I’m sick of this,” I told her.

  “I know.” She looked toward the group at the table before gazing back at me. “Just trust me on this.”

  I searched her face. Her eyes pleaded for me to calm down. “Fine.” I rose from my spot. “I think this meeting is done. Dad, if you want to talk to me, you know where to find me. Alone.”

  “Nugget, we need to talk about this now,” he insisted. “T-Bone has nothing on me.”

  He glanced down at his fist resting on the table before meeting my gaze.

  I knew he was lying but I didn’t press.

  “As always, we have to clean up the streets for the fucking police. This small town would burn to the ground if it weren’t for us,” my dad continued.

  “That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” I asked. It wasn’t like the cops didn’t know about the missing girls.

  “No. What’s dramatic is the fact that women are disappearing and we can’t do shit about it because no one cares,” Max bit out.

  “Jay.” My dad’s gaze softened. Pity.

  “Don’t.” A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t need pity. I needed fucking answers.

  “We need to talk about it.” My dad placed a file on the table in front of him. “But we don’t have to right now.” He pushed the file toward me. “On a different note, have you thought about what I said?”

  “Why would I?” I asked, staring at the file like it was on fire. What was inside would no doubt burn me, leaving scars on a piece of my being that was stolen years before.

  “Because this—” he waved a hand between us “—is dangerous.”

  “Too dangerous for women?” I snapped. “Just because we don’t have dicks between our legs, it makes us weak?”

  “I never said that,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Daddy, I love you but I think you should leave.” My gaze fell on each and every one of the large men surrounding the table. “All of you.”

  The men grumbled, attempting to argue with me, but I was having none of it. I slumped down in my chair and turned around. Facing the bay window, I stared out the tinted glass, waiting for the silence.

  “Come on,” Max said. “Let’s go.”

  “We need to talk about this,” my dad argued.

  “You don’t know your daughter. She’s done talking,” Max pointed out.

  Grumbling.

  Arguing.

  I ignored it. As always, praising the silence when it came. But the quiet was louder than the noise from just a moment before.

  Thought after thought bounced around in my head. I couldn’t control the day-to-day nightmares that invaded my mind. They threatened to consume me even while I was awake.

  I was twenty-one when she left me. My sister. My twin. My other half. The yin to my yang. I believed she was taken from me but I heard the whispers.

  She ran off with a man. She eloped. She got pregnant. She needed out of our small town.

  Lies. All lies.

  Violet wouldn’t just leave without giving some sort of explanation. My dad became a different person after that. And so had I.

  A light knock sounded on the door pulling me from the thoughts pounding inside my head.

  “Yeah.” And then I smelled him. Leather. Man. Pure, hard male. Sex. “Angel,” I breathed.

  “Max said you were still in here.” He stepped in front of me, leaning against the window ledge. “Rough meeting?”

  I nodded. Under normal circumstances, people weren’t allowed in the meeting room. But I trusted Max. And she trusted that I needed to see Angel. Which I didn’t like to admit even though she was right, and it annoyed me.

  “Anything I can do to help?” Angel asked, crossing his thick, tanned arms under his broad chest. His t-shirt stretched over his muscles, the veins in his biceps throbbing. My insides quivered, remembering him holding me like I was his lifeline.

  “Tell me something. Anything. Something that has nothing to do with my club, your line of work, or whatever,” I blurted out all in one breath.

  Angel thought a moment, scratching the dark scruff on his chiseled jaw. “I have a dog. He’s a Rottweiler.”

  “What’s his name?” I asked, thankful for the distraction.

  “Buck.” Angel reached into the back pocket of his light-blue jeans and pulled out his wallet. “I found him as a puppy curled up on a pile of leaves under a bush in my backyard,” he explained, handing me a small withered photo.

  The picture showed a smiling Angel with his arm wrapped around a large dog. “He’s handsome.” The dog’s eyes shone, happy and photogenic.

  “He’s my boy,” Angel stated, his back straightening.

  I smiled, handing him back the picture, wishing I had a friend like that. Someone who could take my mind off of everyday life. Someone who I could lay out my stresses on. When I fell apart, they would pick me up and put me back together. They would console me when I got lost inside of myself. Max was always there for me but she had her own shit going on; I couldn’t expect her to drop everything whenever an issue arose.

  Angel.

  Yeah. Fucking. Right.

  Angel pulled up a chair, sitting beside me.

  We sat in silence, comfortable with the fact that neither of us spoke for what felt like hours. I was content, curling my legs under me and scrubbed a hand down my tired face. “My dad thinks I shouldn’t have a motorcycle club, but he’s the one who convinced me to start it in the first place.” The words fell from my lips. Knowing for whatever reason they would be safe with the man sitting beside me. “I know his crew convinced him otherwise.”

  “But they’re family.”

  “Yeah.” I turned to Angel. “I grew up with them. My mom was my dad’s old lady, but she had enough and left.”

  “I’m sure being raised by men wasn’t easy,” Angel pointed out, stretching his arms over his head. A crack sounded, causing him to shiver.

  “It had its moments,” I said, swallowing hard. My mouth became dry when all I could focus on were the veins protruding from his thick forearms. “Dating was hard,” I added.

  “I bet.” Angel chuckled.

  “Thank you.” A slight heat crept up my neck at the outburst.

  “For what?” He frowned.

  When I didn’t answer right away, Angel turned his chair toward me. “Jay.”

  “Genevieve,” I corrected. “My name is Genevieve.”

  “Genevieve,” he repeated, testing the name on his tongue. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  My name
leaving his lips forced my heart to skip a beat. “Hi.”

  “So why Jay?”

  “It sounds rougher.” I shrugged. “What person would be threatened by a Genevieve?” I joked.

  “I would be.” Angel laughed. “You’re pretty threatening,” he said, pulling my chair toward him.

  “Am I?” I licked my lips, pushing my knees between his.

  “Oh yeah. Especially this hot body of yours.” His gaze moved to my lips, his thumb brushing over my mouth.

  “Hmm. Does my body threaten you, Sin?” I purred, nipping the pad of his thumb.

  With rough hands, he forced my knees apart. “Your body brings me to my knees.”

  “Your demands bring me to mine,” I panted, leaning in for more. Grabbing onto the hem of his shirt, I inched my hands beneath the soft fabric. My fingers grazed over his hard abs, the tight muscles twitching under my touch.

  “Fuck.” His fingers dug into my thighs, no doubt leaving bruises in their wake.

  I smirked, leaning back in my chair and pushed out of his touch. The warmth of his hands left me, and as much as I missed them, I needed to regain control before someone walked in on us. “I’m surprised you never left,” I said, stretching out my legs in front of me and placing my feet in his lap.

  Angel cleared his throat. “I was going to, but then I saw your dad’s crew pull up.”

  “Aww, were you protecting me, baby?” I may have been joking with my question, but in all honesty, it warmed my heart.

  “Yes.”

  And there you have it, folks. I think I just died and went to man-candy heaven. “Well, all right then.”

  “You may trust them,” Angel continued. “But I don’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I know a monster when I see one.”

  THEY MAY have been her family, but Dante’s Kings were evil. They dealt with weapons, money laundering, drugs—anything they could get their hands on. They were lucky they left the women alone. Human trafficking and sex slavery were becoming the norm all through the world. Some places worse than others. Being in a small town, you’d think people would notice if you went missing. But people, although in everyone’s business at times, stuck to themselves whenever a girl got the short end of the stick. They turned up their noses to the less fortunate. Our town was small enough that you ran into people you knew on a daily basis but big enough that you could disappear.

  “Angel?”

  My gaze snapped to Jay’s. The frown on her face showed she had tried to get my attention. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  “They aren’t that bad,” Jay stated, stifling a yawn.

  “Do you believe that or is that what you’re told to believe?” I asked, pulling off her boots one by one.

  “It is what it is,” she shrugged, yawning again.

  “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

  “No,” her eyes twinkled. “Someone wouldn’t leave me alone.”

  A grin spread on my lips, remembering the warmth of her body wrapped around mine. “I think it was the other way around. You woke me up, remember?”

  Her cheeks reddened. “I was hungry.”

  Fuck. Me. “Oh, I know.” My dick twitched with thoughts of her reaching for me, begging me to make my way back inside her.

  She smiled, her eyes fluttering closed. “It was worth it,” she whispered, letting out a peaceful sigh. Something told me she didn’t sleep much. The human trafficking shit was getting to her, but I didn’t know how deep it went. Or how much she was involved.

  I hadn’t known her for long but every time I saw her, she became more and more beautiful. If that was even possible. Her long, red hair draped over her shoulder, her alabaster skin flushed with arousal.

  My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. “Angel.”

  “Where are you?” Asher asked.

  “Inside the clubhouse. Why?”

  “Spend as much time with her as you can, man.”

  He knew me well. “When?”

  “Friday.”

  Great. That would give me three days to convince Jay to be with me. “How long?”

  “I have no fucking idea, but this one will be short.”

  “How do you know?” I lowered my voice when Jay shifted, her eyes fluttering open.

  “Vega wants us in, get what we need, and get home.”

  “I’m on leave.” Not like that mattered. Vega didn’t always play by the rules even though he expected us to. If he was pulling me in, something was wrong.

  “He wants you in.”

  My gut twisted. “Fine.”

  “What gives?”

  “What do you mean?” I wrapped my hand around Jay’s ankle, pulling her closer.

  She let out a small laugh and sat up.

  “You never agree to come in so fast.”

  “Gotta go,” I answered instead. I hung up and threw my phone on the table. Asher was right, but I would never tell him that.

  “Everything okay?” Jay asked, rubbing her eyes.

  No. Rising to my feet, I towered over her, blocking her in.

  A small gasp escaped her lips, her mouth parting at the unexpected move.

  “I have three days to show you this will work,” I told her, trailing a finger over her collarbone.

  “And then what?”

  “I have to leave for work.” I leaned down, brushing my lips over the soft spot just under her ear.

  “What do you do?” she asked, tilting her head to give me better access to her neck.

  “I’m a Navy SEAL.”

  In an abrupt move, she pushed back, her gaze snapping to mine. “You’re a what?”

  “Uh…” I frowned. “I’m a SEAL.”

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “WELL, I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction.” Angel slid his hand to the back of my neck. “What gives?”

  “You’re a SEAL?” It came out more as a whisper, no longer bearing the confidence I had felt a moment earlier. Why the hell was it bothering me? Oh yeah. Because it meant he would leave me just like everyone else. Angel and I hadn’t known each other for long but I wanted him with me, by my side. I bit my lip to keep my face impassive, refusing to showcase any more emotions.

  “We’ve discovered that. Jay, talk to me.”

  I shook my head, pushing out of his hold, and stood from the chair.

  “Jay.”

  “I have to go. No, you should go.” A million thoughts traveled through me. We had sex. One night. That was it. But with him being a SEAL, it sent a pang through my chest. It had been the best night of my life, and I wanted more. He wasn’t stupid. He was good. Rough. Pure, hard male and I wanted to experience everything I could with the guy.

  “Baby, talk to me.” Angel grabbed my arm, spinning me toward him.

  “I have nothing to say.” I struggled to get out of his hold, but his grip tightened. My throat burned. Emotions. Fuck this. He did this to me. After my sister left, I swore I would never let someone in again. But Angel? One night and I was already weeping like a baby over the guy.

  “You sure had a lot to say last night,” he reminded me, curling his fingers around the base of my throat. The hold, gentle yet strong, proved how much control he had over me.

  My cheeks heated. “You need to go.”

  “No.” He gripped my shoulders, backing me up until I hit the wall. “You need to talk to me.”

  “Angel.” My hands clenched at my sides, itching to touch the hard body in front of me. But I couldn’t. If I did, I would be done.

  “I have three days.” His nose brushed up the side of my neck, scenting me, breathing me in.

  My mouth parted, a soft purr leaving my lips.

  “Three days,” he repeated, his voice oozing with sex.

  “And then what?” I snapped. “Last night was a one-time thing. We fucked, and now we move on.” But even I didn’t believe those words leaving my mouth.

  “Can you honestly stand here and tell me that’s what you want?” His
eyes searched my face. “You want this to be over?”

  “Yes.” I lifted my chin defiantly, but both of us knew I was lying. “You’ll be gone for God knows how long. Why would you want to come back to this when you can have whoever you want?”

  “Woman, don’t you dare stand there and question what I want and don’t want.” His face hardened, his brows narrowing into sharp peaks. “I want you.” He grabbed my hand, placing it on his crotch.

  I swallowed hard, his erection growing beneath my hand. I let out a slow moan, his body tensing beneath my touch. “And why not?” I breathed.

  “Because I will show you that this—” he waved his hand between us “—is worth it.”

  “What do you want from me?” I whispered.

  “This.” His mouth covered mine in a hard but slow—oh-so-agonizingly slow—kiss. His lips moved over mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth like it had done my body hours before. He kissed like he fucked. Hard. Fast. Rough and passionate. He swallowed my moans, feasting on my mouth.

  My arms went around his neck on their own accord. My fingers dug into the thickness of his strong shoulders, gripping onto him like he was my lifeline. My body vibrated, my skin tingled. His pelvis pushed into mine, grinding and showing me just how much he wanted me. How much he craved me.

  A groan slid between us, but I couldn’t guess who made the sound.

  Angel’s body pressed against mine, pushing into me until all I felt was him. Every single inch. The heavy weight between his legs. The powerful, tree-trunk thighs holding me firm. His strong hands roamed down my sides until they reached my ass, grinding his hips against me.

  “Angel,” I breathed, breaking the kiss. The passion ensnared us, growing thick to the point of suffocating. All I could breathe was him. All I could feel was him. And I wanted more. One night was not enough. But a powerful fear closed in around me. My chest constricted.

  His mouth trailed down the length of my jaw.

  A warm heat spread up my body, unfurling into an inferno of desire. “Please,” I panted, the ache for him growing between my legs.