by Alexx Andria
Roxy smiled and took the opportunity to straddle him. Even though he was ready to crash, he let her remain there. “You sure live up to the hype,” she said with appreciation, trailing her red-nailed finger down his chest. “A girl could get used to this kind of lovin’.”
“Sorry babe. Not accepting applications for a permanent gig, if you know what I mean.”
She pouted then said, “You don’t know what you’re missing. A man like you needs a good woman on his arm. Someone to look out for him.”
There was something about her tone, something about the mild suggestion lying beneath the proposition that halted the haze train. His gaze narrowed and he removed her from his lap. “Yeah? And what makes you think that I need someone watching my back?”
Realizing her mistake, she tried to backpedal. “Baby, I’m just saying, a man in your position within the club, there’s gotta be people who’d rather see you gone. A man like you needs someone who’ll always have his back.”
“I have those people,” he growled, not letting her back down. “Are you saying that someone out there has it in for me?”
Roxy hesitated and then admitted, “Yeah. You’re not the hero in everyone’s story.”
“What are you talking about?”
Roxy didn’t look happy about spilling whatever information she held but she said, “Listen, I shouldn’t tell you this because it’s my ass on the line but there’s something about you that seems better than you let on. I don’t know, I guess somehow that tugs at something in my heart, though Lord knows, it’ll probably put my ass in a sling or a body bag.”
“I’ll protect you,” he promised her. “Just tell me what you know.”
“I was set up as a distraction tonight. Someone wanted you out of commission and out of the way.”
“Someone, as in?”
His stomach rebelled as she confirmed his worst fear. “Dimas.”
“A distraction from what?”
Roxy bit her lip. “Something about a reporter…does that mean anything to you?”
A cold, hard knot grew in his gut. “Yeah, what about the reporter?”
“I don’t know exactly but I think he’s going to do something to her.”
Dimas? Next to Jax, Dimas was his best friend. They’d shared time together since they were kids running the streets, up to no good and doing short stints in county jail for petty crimes. He and Dimas were fucking tight! And now he had the balls to double cross him using Zoe as leverage? White-hot rage bubbled up from the sense of betrayal and he wanted to kill Dimas. But he had a bigger problem that demanded his immediate attention — Zoe was in danger.
#
A knock at her front door had Zoe’s heart racing. Had Jax come back? Maybe he was remorseful over what he’d said to her. The thought buoyed her ragged heart and as she opened the front door, prepared to forgive Jax immediately, she stopped short with a squeak when she saw someone she didn’t know standing there with a hard look in his eyes that matched the cold grin on his lips. “W-who are you?” she stammered but he wasn’t there to chat. The man, hard as granite and just as soulless, pushed her back into the apartment and kicked the door shut with his fingers pressed to his lips. “What do you want?”
“Shhhh,” he told her as he circled her, raping her with his gaze. She clutched her robe around her body, wishing she’d checked her peephole before opening her door. Rule No. 1 in the Living Single handbook and she totally blew it. “So you’re Zoe Delacourte…can’t say I blame them for losing their focus over you — you are highly fuckable.”
Her cheeks colored and she squeezed her lapels together like a prim maiden. “Excuse me?” She dared to point toward the door with a believable amount of outrage to demand, “Who the hell do you think you are? Get out of my apartment!”
“Sorry, dollface. Can’t do that. You see, there’s a lot of money on the line and I’m owed a good payday after everything I’ve gone through to make this happen. Nothing, not even an old friendship is going to fuck this up for me.”
Zoe swallowed. “What does that have to do with me?”
He grinned. “Funny you should ask. Before you came along, I had everyone playing their individual parts just as they were supposed to. But then you showed up and started poking into things that are none of your business and that started Jax and Hunter asking questions that I didn’t need answering.”
“Simms and Sanchez,” she murmured and he nodded with a subtle sneer. “You had something to do with their murders?”
“You could say that. Not my best work but loose ends have to be snipped.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, stalling for time, trying to think of an exit plan. Her apartment was woefully small and she was regrettably short of defensible weapons. Pepper spray! That’s right, she had a canister of the stuff in her bedroom drawer. Great place for it, right? Zoe refocused on the man stalking her. “I already told Jax and Hunter I wasn’t doing the story.”
“Too late,” he said with finality. “You’ve already got Jax and Hunter thinking. Hell, somehow you managed to get Jax and Hunter to have a meet-and-greet with Bronx and I would’ve thought that’d never happen. You must have a powerful pussy to get them to override their burning hatred for the guy to ask questions.”
“I never told them to talk to Bronx,” she retorted, but a small part of her was proud of them for trying to hunt down answers for the greater good of their club, even if it meant talking to someone they couldn’t stand. “What they did, they did on their own. I had nothing to do with it. If you have a problem with them asking questions, why don’t you take it up with them?”
He laughed as if she were stupid. “If they even had a clue what I’ve been up to for the past six months, they’d dump my body in the desert and forget I was ever born. They don’t take kindly to traitors. And for that matter, neither do I, but I’ve earned this payday, far more than Jax and Hunter ever did. I secured the deal, I took the risks, and I’m the one who spent a year in prison for a stint that should’ve been Hunter’s. So yeah, I earned this.” By the way his eyes blazed at the mention of his prison time Zoe took a wild guess that it hadn’t been easy time. Was he raped in prison? Was it bad that she hoped so? “Enough talk, get dressed. You’re coming with me.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she disagreed vehemently. Statistically, if she walked out that front door with him, chances were she wasn’t coming back. “You’re going to have to drag me kicking and screaming if you want me to come with you. I should warn you, my neighbors are incredibly nosey. The minute I start screaming, they’ll come running.” That wasn’t entirely true but Zoe was completely fine with stretching the truth until it broke if it meant she’d live to the see the morning. She made a little scoot gesture with her fingers, telling him, “Why don’t you run along and threaten someone else? Maybe I won’t tell Jax and Hunter what you’ve been doing.”
His gaze narrowed as he growled, “Wrong answer,” and then sprang at her, scaring her into sudden motion. She bolted for the bedroom but it was a mad dash of futility because he tackled her way before she could reach her dresser drawer. They crashed to the floor and Zoe managed a pained scream before he clocked her right across the jaw, silencing her with a starburst of agony. MOTHERFUCKER! That hurt! Get up, Zoe! She tried to scramble to her feet but he was too fast and his grip was like iron when he wrenched her head back with a handful of her own hair. Lifting her from the floor by her head, she blinked back the tears and sucked in great lungfuls of air as the pain in her jaw nearly caused her to pass out.
“Tough girl, huh?” he crooned in her ear before roughly pushing her to the bed. Was he going to rape her? Noooooo! She kicked at him, not caring that her robe had opened and she was nearly naked underneath. She’d been preparing for a shower when she’d heard the knock and her silly heart had fluttered like a dumb girl at the hope that Jax had returned. Would Jax or Hunter even know what’d happened to her? He punched her hard in the thigh, giving her an immediate Charlie horse a
nd she screamed, her leg useless. He took advantage and jerked her to her feet, griping her chin hard. “Now listen up, sweetheart, this is how this is going to play out. With you out of the picture, Jax and Hunter will be too preoccupied with your pretty ass to pay attention to what’s going on right in front of their faces.”
“You overestimate Jax and Hunter’s feelings for me,” Zoe said against the grinding pain in her jaw and leg. “I’m just a booty call to them.”
“For your sake, you better hope not.” He released her chin with a jerk. “Now get dressed.”
For a brief, fleeting moment, she considered trying to run again but her leg was almost useless and she could barely put any weight on it. If she tried to run, she’d end up face-planting on the floor with the creep’s laughter ringing in her ear. She sent him a dirty look before asking, “Care to give me some privacy?”
“I think I’ll stick around and make sure you don’t tuck a knife into those bloomers of yours — they’re damn big enough.”
“Oh, a fat joke, real original,” she hissed. “Top of the class weren’t you, huh?”
“Keep it up, honey. I’m in a real playful mood,” he said with a cruel smile. “But I don’t think you’ll enjoy my games. My games leave scars.”
Zoe shuddered in spite of her attempt to appear unaffected by his threat but he was scary in a psychotic way, which made her realize that neither Jax nor Hunter had ever truly scared her. There’d always been something about them that she’d been drawn to and it wasn’t the fact that they were supposedly bad men. This guy, with his permanent cold sneer and rough, callused hands, was scary and bad — terrible combo — and she was going to leave with him. Her hands shook as she quickly jerked on her clothing, trying to move at the speed of light so that the creep couldn’t get a nice eyeful of her private parts but his leering gaze caught plenty. She swallowed her mortification and prayed that somehow, someway Jax and Hunter figured things out before she ended up
eating dirt in a shallow grave.
Hunter burst into Jax’s place, nearly taking the door off the hinges. Jax, quick with his gun, had Hunter in his sights within seconds but Hunter ignored the gun and went straight to Jax, ripping him from the old, ratty recliner to shout in his face, “Dimas has double-crossed us and he’s going after Zoe!”
Jax pushed Hunter away with a scowl. “What the fuck are you talking about? Are you drunk?”
“I wish I were,” he answered. “Come on, we gotta find her.” “What makes you think it’s Dimas?” “I can give you details on the ride. We’re taking your truck.” Hunter wasn’t the kind of guy who cried wolf. If he thought Zoe was in danger,
chances were, he was right. Jax grabbed his keys and they sprinted to his truck. “Dimas? Are you sure?” he asked as they climbed in and he throttled the engine. The lifted truck
was a mean-ass piece of metal. There was no sneaking up on anyone in that rig but there was also no stopping it either. Jax could squash anything in his path if need be. “I don’t understand. I was just with Zoe three hours ago and she was fine. Have you tried her cell?”
“Yeah, no answer.” Jax nodded and he pressed the gas pedal harder. Within fifteen minutes they were
at Zoe’s apartment. Sprinting the stairs, they found Zoe’s apartment door unlocked, which didn’t give him a warm and fuzzy feeling. They walked in and knew within seconds that her tiny apartment was empty.
Hunter went to Zoe’s bedroom and came out with a tense expression. “There’s evidence of a struggle,” he said, showing Jax several broken cat figurines. “Something went down in this room and she’s not here. I’m willing to bet my left nut Dimas has her.”
“Why would Dimas take Zoe?” Jax asked, his gaze searching the living room before snagging on a small note taped to the television. He ripped the note from the screen, reading it to Hunter, “Meet me at the warehouse. Come alone or you’re going to end up with one dead reporter.”
“Fucking Dimas, you back-stabbing piece of shit,” Hunter swore under his breath. “This has to do with the shipment.”
Jax agreed, though he still didn’t have a clear picture of why Dimas would do something so fucked up. Why now? There were countless times that Dimas could’ve killed them and taken over the club before this moment. Apparently, the fucker had been biding his time, waiting for the most opportune moment to completely ream them in the ass. “Let’s go,” he said tersely. “There’s nothing left to see here.”
Hunter followed and they strode away from Zoe’s apartment, head and hearts in sync with one another. They climbed back into the truck and Jax told Hunter without an ounce of hesitation, “If he hurts her…I’m going to kill him.”
At that Hunter barked an ugly laugh filled with the promise of pain as he muttered a dark oath, saying, “I’m going to kill him regardless.”
Jax had no reason to disbelieve Hunter.
And he had no reason to stop him either.
#
A million different scenarios were ripping through Hunter’s mind as they approached the warehouse. What if Zoe were already dead? What if they were showing up too late to stop what was going to be inevitable from the start? The last words he spoke to Zoe were mean. A sick twist in his gut made him want to puke. Zoe, sweet, spunky, irritatingly sexy Zoe…how did someone get attached so quickly? He felt as if she were the missing puzzle that he’d forgotten he’d been searching for and now that someone else was holding that piece hostage, he wanted to do some major damage.
“She’s going to be fine,” Jax assured Hunter and all he could was grunt in response. Jax didn’t know that — he couldn’t make promises and Hunter wouldn’t be so stupid as to pin his hopes on something that couldn’t be secured. “Do you have any idea what Dimas is up to?”
“My guess is it has something to do with the shipment. He’s double-crossing us for the money. Simplest explanation don’t you think?”
They entered the warehouse, the empty space illuminated by one sickly fluorescent lamp overhead that threw menacing shadows on the walls and ratcheted the creep factor to ten. The warehouse, one of the few holdings along with the bar that actually belonged to the club, wasn’t much to look at but it was a convenient, out of sight place to conduct business in a private manner. Plus blood was easier to wash out of concrete than carpet. However, at the moment, the warehouse was stocked with boxes of artillery, waiting for the buyer — five million dollars worth to be exact.
“You come alone?”
At the sound of Dimas’ voice, they whipped around to see Dimas standing above them on the catwalk.
“That’s what you said, isn’t it,” Hunter barked in answer.
“You’re smarter than you look.”
“Why don’t come down here and I’ll show you just how dumb you are,” Hunter proposed.
“I think I’m good right where I’m at,” Dimas said, pulling Zoe from the shadows. “Looking for this?” Her hands were tied and her mouth gagged but even in the milky light of the dim fluorescents Hunter could see her fear. Dimas pretended to push Zoe over the edge and her terrified, muffled scream sent a shaft of pure terror through Hunter’s heart. “Ohhh, careful now…that’s a nasty drop,” he said, chuckling as he pulled her away from the edge. “I’d say a drop like that could kill a person.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Dimas?” Jax demanded. “Let Zoe go. This has nothing to do with her. Hell, I don’t even know what the fuck this is all about. Why don’t you let us in on your little drama and we can sort this out.”
Dimas laughed. “You’re such a dumbass, Hunter. Always have been and always will be. You’re the muscle but definitely no brain. No wonder you’ve always stuck around Jax…does he wipe your ass, too?”
Jax clenched his fists but kept his cool. “You gonna throw insults like a whiny bitch or start talking about the shit that matters? You want a bigger cut of the payday? Is that what this is about?”
“Hell yes, I want a bigger cut. I want it all, jackass,” Dimas shot back.
“What do you think of those terms?”
“I think they fucking suck,” Hunter barked, beginning to prowl beneath the catwalk, violence rippling from every pore. “Get over yourself. What makes you think you deserve everything we’ve worked so hard to gain?”
“Because I fucking earned it! Remember that little stint in prison I did for your ass? Remember when I took the fall when it was your fault that we got caught? Yeah, well, I remember quite well my time in prison and I’m the one who made the contacts for this job. I paid for this job with my motherfucking ass. What did you do but sit around and look pretty while I did the hard work?”
“Are you saying you got ass-raped in prison so now you’re taking the money as your compensation?” Jax asked, disgusted by Dimas’ thought process. “Life is fucking hard, you pussy. If prison was the first time you got felt up or touched ‘in a bad way’ then you got off fucking easy. Give me a motherfucking break. Get some therapy if you’re gonna be a pussy about it but don’t throw everything away like this. We had something good and you ruined it.”
“You got it all wrong,” Dimas said, wrenching Zoe close to him so that he could nuzzle her neck. Zoe whimpered and tried to pull away but he wasn’t having none of that and just jerked her harder to actually bite her shoulder. “She’s nice and soft in all the right places,” he said as if complimenting their taste in women. “But a little too doughy in the middle if you ask me.”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Jax returned in a steely tone. “Leave Zoe out of this. What do you want?”
“I want you and Hunter to know pain,” Dimas answered simply. “It’s not enough to just take your money, which I admit, feels pretty damn good, but I realized, just recently actually, that in order to truly fuck you over, I gotta leave a mark. And that’s where this little pigeon comes in. You care about her. I can see it in your eyes. I could see it that first night when you wouldn’t tell me who she was or who’d been in the room with you. And that’s when I knew the final cog had slid into place.”
