Taking Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 1)

by Wild, Nikki

  “Assuming that she’s coming back,” I finished the sentence for him. “She’ll be back. And thanks.”

  I opened my voice up to catch all the members of my club. “Thank all of you. Run out to the nearest market and load up on beers, playing cards, whatever you need. Put it all on the club funds. I think we might be holed up in here for a while…”

  A few of the men nodded, heading out the door to do just that. Meanwhile, I had suffered a long and fruitless day, so I took my phone off of vibrate, closed the door to the empty storage room, kicked off all my clothes, and slumped down to the makeshift bed.

  It was neither a cot nor an actual bed but, given the present circumstances, it was still what I needed.

  My ringtone jarred me from my sleep. As I glanced at my phone, I noticed that I’d been asleep about three hours, and that Sarah was calling me.

  “Hey, Princess,” I murmured sleepily.

  “You came.”

  “Couldn’t leave you out here alone.”

  “Even against Talon or Soroka Sarkonov?”

  “Nah. I’ll always be by your side.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “I met Talon.”

  “So I heard.”

  “I believe you now, about Sarkonov. He’s pretty scared by her, just like you were… I think she’s the one who paid me to investigate the missing container… I took the money, Hunter. I’m supposed to call the detective who paid me with an update in a few days. What’s going to happen if I can’t give her the answers she wants?”

  “I think you know the answer to that, Sarah… Soroka doesn’t leave loose ends.”

  “I should have followed your advice… I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re allowed to make a mistake every once in a while,” I lightly teased her down the phone. “We’re in this together now. Soroka must know we came out to California, and that means all of us are in danger until she gets her damn container back. Why don’t you tell me where you are, and I’ll come scoop you up?”

  “I’ve still got the car.”

  “Right, right… alright, I’m at this old busted Chinese restaurant on Los Verdes Street. It’s a small road – think you can find it?”

  “I’ve got GPS. I’ll call you if I get lost.”

  “Sounds good, Princess.”

  “I’m sorry, Hunter.”

  “Apology accepted.”

  “See you when I get there.”

  I was so exhausted that I passed straight back out. It was only when I noticed a fumbling around in bed that I started waking back up, straight to Sarah’s lips on mine.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, babe,” she murmured as her face dived into my neck. Sarah had ripped her clothes off and climbed into bed naked beside me.

  It was just the three of us:

  Her.

  Me.

  The baby.

  “I wasn’t gonna leave you out here alone,” I mumbled half-asleep. “Dangerous in Los Angeles… Talon and his club control the underbelly of the port, but there’s plenty of criminal activity in the city alone…”

  “Shhh,” Sarah whispered, a finger pressing against my lips. “Just lie here and let me take care of things…”

  “Take care of… things?”

  “Shhh…”

  I felt her hand grope around my cock, and relaxed my head back down into the pillow. With drowsy satisfaction, I enjoyed how it sprung to life within her grasp, hardening at her touch.

  Sarah seemed to enjoy that as well, as I soon felt her lips wrapping around the thick rod and pumping it with her mouth.

  “Oh god, Princess…”

  “Shhh…” she reminded me after pulling it free from her lips. “Only a door between us and the Dragons…”

  I took the hint and put away the dirty talk as her wet, velvety mouth slid around my throbbing cock. Stifling a grown, I enjoyed Sarah’s warmth as she began to bob up and down on my manhood, her curvy lips sucking down what I had to offer.

  I bit my lower lip in frustration that I couldn’t tell her how great that felt, knowing that my voice would descend into telltale groans.

  It didn’t help that I could hear the Dragons making merry just yards away, only separated by a door that didn’t even touch the ground or the ceiling.

  I tapped her shoulder twice to let her know that I was getting close, and she plucked my cock from her mouth and gave it a few lasting strokes. Before I could come, she stopped, releasing my member and allowing the potential orgasm to die back down.

  After a moment, I felt her ascending the cot, rising to take my cock inside her. It was only when she pressed her needful hips down against mine that I realized how wet she really was.

  Her lower lips slid down effortlessly, taking my mammoth equipment into her slickened chasm like it was nothing.

  “Fuck, Sarah…”

  “Shhh!” She insisted quietly.

  “Don’t know if I can do ‘Shhh’ much longer…”

  She steadied herself against the bedding and started pummeling her hips against mine. I clutched my fingertips into her shoulders as she pushed downwards over and over, forcing my generous length up inside her as far as possible.

  Our bodies rocked together in the dark, only our touch and the slight sounds of our quiet panting and groaning to distinguish us.

  The way she was taking charge was primal, and I loved every second of it. I loved how she needed my cock, how she craved it, how badly she wanted it satisfying her…

  My hands slipped down to her hips as she continued, holding her in place against my pelvis while she undulated her back. I reached forward and took one breast in my hand, fumbling around for the nipple until I could lightly twist it between my fingers.

  A slight yelp rang out in the dark, and we stopped when we thought we heard the commotion outside draw to a close, but then there was another round of clinking beers, and the coast was clear.

  Both my hands were tweaking her nipples now, careful to keep her tender breasts from enduring any pressure.

  “I’m gonna come, baby,” I heard her whisper in the dark. “I can feel it now, I think it’s starting to happen…”

  “Do it,” I murmured as quietly as possible, placing a palm along her cheek. “Come for me.”

  I felt her nod, and she clenched her muscles and dug her fingertips into my chest as she pummeled my hips even harder.

  I was silently thankful for the soft, quiet material of our raised bedding when she finally came, her spine whiplashing with pleasure and her hips pushing so hard against mine that it almost hurt.

  Feeling and not seeing the pleasure pushed me to my own climax, and the building pressure inside my cock exploded with release. I thrust my rock-hard erection as far up into her as I could manage as I pumped more of my seed into her welcoming body.

  Sarah collapsed against me in bed. She was panting with lust fulfilled as my chest rose and fell, again and again, sucking in as much air as it could have.

  “That was incredible,” she whispered in my ear. “I loved feeling you but not seeing you… I could only rely on your touch, and it made it so much more…”

  I chuckled drowsily. “That was definitely intense.”

  “It sure was,” she smiled in the dark.

  “We’ll figure this all out, Sarah,” I reassured her. “I know you need to find this container. I’ll sic my boys on Los Angeles, and we’ll handle this the way we handled Tucson – sniffing out leads and knocking on doors.”

  “You really mean that?”

  “Of course,” I told her. “We’re here for the long haul. We’ll help you sort this case out, whether it takes forever or a few days…”

  “Talon’s up to something,” she replied thoughtfully, pulling up closer against my chest. “I can feel it.”

  “I know, baby. He’s a dangerous one, though… better to not trespass on his territory if you can help it, especially after the stunt you pulled earlier…”

  “Even if he’s behind this somehow? I’m telling you,
Talon is involved!”

  “Talon was pretty clear that he was going to start rolling heads if you or I – hell, if any of us stepped foot in that port again,” I softly replied. “Pissing him off again so soon isn’t such a hot idea…”

  She went quiet, thinking on this while nuzzling my chest. My mind swam in endorphins after a solid round of fucking.

  Everything was warm and comfortable.

  Sleep was dragging me down hard…

  Sarah

  I tried to fall asleep, but the ache in my lower back combined with my fears and paranoia to keep me wide awake in the makeshift bedroom. I peeled myself away from Hunter’s muscular body and threw on a t-shirt and panties with every intent of coming back to bed after I grabbed a glass of water…

  Until I saw the notification light flash on my phone.

  A feeling of unease and washed over me. I pulled on a pair of jeans, then quickly scooped up the phone. Stepping out into the main space of the abandoned restaurant I made my way past the sleeping bikers and stepped out the front door for a bit of privacy.

  The text message came from a number I didn’t recognize, but there was no doubt who was on the other end. It was my client…

  My real client.

  You’re running out of time, Sarah… And I’m getting impatient. Tell me I didn’t make a mistake when I hired you.

  I stared long and hard at the message before tapping out a reply.

  Who is this?

  I held my breath and hit send. Only a few seconds passed before the dreadful sound of a text message pinged from the tiny speaker.

  Do you love your father?

  A cold sweat beaded on my forehead as I stared at the phone. Another message came through, and this time, it was a picture.

  It was a picture of Daddy’s house.

  I thought back to my aging sheriff father, with his limp and the cane that supported his step.

  He’s not involved in any of this!

  I knew my protest was going to fall on deaf ears, but how the fuck could anyone go and threaten my family? Fear was starting to be replaced by anger.

  He’s involved now. Where is the cargo?

  My fingers moved fast, flashing over the keyboard in a rage fueled flurry.

  At the bottom of the ocean, according to Talon. He says the ship dumped it offshore and he has men out looking for it. I’m doing what you paid me to do. This is between you and me. Leave my family out of this!

  I smashed the send button and stood there on the verge of hyperventilating.

  You’re going to have to do better than that, Sarah. You have three days. For the sake of your family, find my cargo… Or prove who’s responsible for its absence.

  There was a long silence as I read and re-read the message.

  And Sarah… If you do anything to warn your father, anything at all, there will be no force on earth that will find his broken body.

  Two days later…

  True to his word, Hunter was helping me. His men were scouring the streets looking for information, and he’d already managed to bribe someone at the port to provide him with information on Talon’s salvage efforts offshore.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  We were no closer to finding the crate.

  With the threat on my father’s life looming, I had to take efforts into my own hands. Hunter wasn’t going to help me in this. He told me he could protect me, but I saw the unease in his face every time he spoke Soroka’s name…

  The answers weren’t out there on the street, and he wasn’t going to get them out of some weasel of a dock worker.

  The answers were at the port.

  No matter how much my morning sickness and nausea was starting to flare up, I needed to go back.

  I waited for my chance to slip away unnoticed. I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, and with a little luck, I’d have something to go on by morning…

  And so far, my luck had held.

  I slipped into the port without difficulty, and now that I knew exactly where to find Talon and the Devil’s Dragons, I didn’t need to go rattling doors and bugging dock workers. All I had to do was get into Talon’s office, and I’d seen my way in on my first visit.

  With a little know-how from my days in the police academy, and some skill from my time as a beat cop, it wasn’t hard to slip over to the stairs up to his building.

  I expected the security to his office to be a little stronger, especially taking the outside approach – but on my first trip out here my police instincts had been working on overdrive.

  I had paid attention to the way the guards watched the elevator, and the way the club congregated around the bar. Nobody was watching those old rusted stairs. If I could make it without being noticed, the shitty door lock I’d seen from the inside of Talon’s office would be easy work for my pick set.

  It was a hell of a risk, but as I slipped past the guards and made my way quietly up the metal staircase, I knew I was going to pull this off. I didn’t even have to pick the damn lock. I tried the handle and the door swung open.

  Slipping into the empty office, I reached in my pocket for the voice-activated recorder. It was a high-tech piece of equipment I’d bought on an impulse to prepare myself for a career of private investigation: just advanced enough that it could tap into the port’s unsecured Wi-Fi and upload anything it heard right into a folder I’d set up online.

  To keep it from dying on me, I connected it to a high-capacity USB external battery. With that much power, this thing would run for days…

  And that was long enough.

  The second Talon talked about that container… I would know about it. That’s what I needed. It was definitely a step in the right direction for getting to the bottom of whatever the fuck was going on with this goddamn shipping thing.

  I just hoped it’d be enough to satisfy my client…

  Confident that I had a few minutes free, I turned the recorder on, plugged it into the battery, and started brainstorming where it could go. I opted for a tall sill along the top of the right wall. It was high enough where nobody would see the bug, and the row of short windows above looked like they hadn’t been touched in decades.

  I planted the device and gave a quick vocal test of two sentences at medium volume to see if it caught the results.

  Less than a minute later, my phone notified me of changes to my online folder. I played back the audio, and was pleased with how clear it came out.

  Technology is awesome, I thought to myself, mentally giving myself a quick pat on the back as I decided to make my quick escape. It was time to get the hell out of dodge.

  As I turned to leave, the shit suddenly hit the fan. A loud noise outside the door clued me into unwanted company, and I kept myself from mentally panicking as I searched for quick cover.

  The large lockers on the wall looked good enough.

  Quietly slipping one open, I found one that was barely occupied. It was just large enough to fit me, and I squeezed inside and closed the door right as a key entered the office entrance and the door clicked opened.

  I could barely see through the slits on the front of the locker, mostly at a downward angle, but I wasn’t surprised to realize that Talon had returned with a few of his men.

  “Would you care to explain to me how she got into the fucking port without anyone seeing her?”

  Oh God…

  He knows I’m here!

  “Sorry, boss,” one of the bikers meekly replied. “I left Chet in charge to grab some lunch, and he decided he needed a shit break.”

  Talon’s voice rose in defiance.

  “I personally don’t give a rat’s ass if he was shitting out the fuckin’ Queen of England. If I ever, EVER catch the posts abandoned again you’ll be shitting inside a sinking motherfucking shipping crate. Do I make myself perfectly understood, ass-wipes?”

  “Yes, Boss,” the biker instinctively replied quickly and thoughtlessly. “Sorry, Boss.”

  “Won’t happen again,” another biker
responded meekly. I imagined that this voice belonged to the Chet who got name-dropped.

  “Good,” Talon growled satisfactorily.

  Not a moment passed before there was a knock on the door… the door to the staircase that I had taken up here. Talon growled angrily, clicking his fingers. I still couldn’t see them very well, but I heard one of the bikers move towards the door.

  “You’ve got company, boss.”

  “Yeah, shit-stain, I fucking gathered that. You let the bitch walk straight to my office.” Talon groaned.

  What the hell is going on? I wondered to myself, suddenly realizing that I wasn’t the only woman who’d snuck into Talon’s domain today…

  There was a moment of quiet in the room before Talon finally spoke again. “Are you just going to fucking stand there or are you going to let her in? Open the damn door and excuse yourselves from my presence. We are going to have some words alone.”

  “Are you, uh, sure, Boss?”

  Talon practically chuckled, although the layer of menace beneath made it self painfully clear. “Are you questioning my abilities? Wondering, perhaps, about my mental faculties? Are you honestly calling my choices into question?”

  The apologies were fast and furious.

  “Very well then,” Talon replied as the door knocked again. “Do as I say, or else. Answer the door, allow the girl in, and take your leave outside to guard against other unexpected guests.”

  Two pairs of sturdy boots passed into and out of my sight, strolling towards the door. I heard it swing open, and the bikers offered what sounded like a quick, apologetic note to the unannounced guest as she entered.

  I couldn’t see her from my vantage point, and she didn’t speak a word as she entered. Neither of them spoke a word. She was hanging out of sight, probably against the far wall.

  It was Talon who broke the silence.

  “So this time, it really is you, and not some fucking imposter on my territory,” Talon finally spoke. “Yes, I can see it written all over your face…”

  His voice sounded surprisingly weary. There was nothing in his tone like the dark confidence that poured off him the last time that I was here.

  A light laugh rolled off his visitor’s tongue before she finally began to speak: “It was only a matter of time that we would speak face to face, Talon…”