I knew he meant every one of them.
He never said anything he didn’t mean.
He never made a promise he didn’t keep.
If he meant to kill us, then he would kill us.
CHAPTER 39
NICHOLAI
Satisfaction wrapped around me like a warm blanket.
I’d removed the mask I’d painstakingly created last night to resemble Blade’s face and stuffed it into my backpack while I was on the way down in the elevator. By the time the doors opened, I was back into my hotel uniform. I jumped off the elevator, grabbed a broom and dustpan I’d socked away in a corner and blended into the crowd, one eye on the elevator the whole time.
As Ziggy approached, his cocky smile irritated me, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. As soon as he got up to the suite, he’d see the gift I’d left and that ridiculous grin would fall like a house of cards.
I was tempted to follow him, to board the elevator with him, just to see how much I could trick him, but if Lucky had found my gift already, she’d be waiting for him as soon as the doors opened onto her floor.
I couldn’t risk getting caught just yet.
There was so much work left to do.
Instead, I waited, watching as the elevator doors closed and whisked him back up to the love of my life. Maybe I’d not yet accomplished my goal of eliminating them both, but I was closer with each day.
Sure, I could have done it today. I could have just walked into that shower and slit her throat now, let her smitten lover find her in a pool of crimson blood, but that would be too merciful.
Like a cat, I preferred to play with my prey before I killed it.
The taste of fear is a delicacy, you know.
CHAPTER 40
ZIGGY
“Where the fuck were you?” I shouted at Blade, as he sat in front of me, his head hung in shame.
The Gods filled Lucky’s room, as I paced around like an angry panther in front of them, raging like a madman.
I’d returned to find Lucky’s room completely unguarded, and Lucky sitting on the couch like she was in a coma, dazed and wide-eyed. I saw the roses, Blade’s vest, and then read the note with growing alarm. Right away, I called everyone up to the room and a few minutes after they’d arrived, Blade came rushing in, buckling his belt, his hair disheveled and the guiltiest look I’d ever seen smeared on someone’s face.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
“I told you I would be right back! I told you to wait for me.”
“Wait, what? When? I didn’t talk to you. I didn’t see you.”
“Dude, I was only gone ten minutes and you were at the door when I left, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Ziggy, wait a minute,” Ryder said, standing up and putting a calming arm on my own. It was no use. There was no calming me down here. “None of this makes sense. What are you saying, Blade?”
“Look, I fucked up, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to mention this, but I’ve been —,” he paused, his glance flashing over at Lucky before he lowered his voice to finish his sentence, “—I was with Becky.”
“Becky? My assistant?” Lucky asked, her voice full of surprise. “Where?”
“In her room.”
“You were in her hotel room?” Ryder, Lucky and I all asked at once.
“Yes,” he said, his head dropping into his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“You fucked Becky?” Lucky said, half-laughing, and half-bewildered.
“Yes, ma’am,” he admitted.
“Wait, how is that possible?” I asked. “You were waiting at the door when I walked out and told you I was going to find the bracelet.”
“Ziggy, I swear none of that happened.”
“It fucking happened, are you trying to tell me it wasn’t you?”
“It wasn’t me. And that cut?” He pointed to his vest on the counter. “That’s the one I lost at breakfast.”
“Of course it wasn’t him!” Lucky cried out, jumping to her feet. “Are you people not listening to me? It was Nicholai! He stole the vest. He pretended to be Blade and he came in after you left, Ziggy. This isn’t brain surgery!”
“That’s not fucking possible, Lucky. I saw Blade. I looked at his face. I spoke to him! He spoke back!”
“Ziggy, Becky and I came up to her room before Lucky had even done the first encore. We didn’t come out until five minutes ago. Whoever you spoke to — it wasn’t me.”
“It fucking looked just like you!” I shouted, quickly feeling completely shaken. “How could I be so fucking wrong?”
“Ziggy, I told you, it’s Nicholai. He’s a genius. A horrible, evil genius,” Lucky insisted.
“This can’t keep going like this,” Ryder said, his voice a deep, angry growl that reflected the storm going on inside of me.
“This is fucking crazy,” Slade said, shaking his head. “And kinda brilliant.”
“Brilliant?” I shouted, the urge to punch him rushing through me.
“Sure, dude,” he replied. “Imagine how great it would be if we had these skills, or someone with them, on our team? It could be a huge benefit.”
“Slade, we’re not recruiting Nicholai to be a God,” Riot replied, rolling his eyes.
“Well, of course not, he’s an evil motherfucker! I’m not stupid, I’m just saying that it would be nice if we could do that, too,” he said.
“You all read the note,” I said. “He means business. What should we do now?”
“I have an idea,” Slade said, a gleam sparkling in his eyes.
“Dude,” Riot said, shaking his head.
“I mean it,” he insisted. “You have to fight fire with fire, right? What if we beat him at his own game?”
The smile that spread across his face must have convinced a thousand people to do things they weren’t comfortable with, because one by one, each of the Gods started nodding as they caught on, until the only one left scowling with uncertainty and worry was me.
CHAPTER 41
LUCKY
The first thing we did was switch rooms.
Taking every precaution necessary, the Gods insisted I do things they’d not done before. First, I had to give up my phone, because according to them, it could easily be hacked to find my exact location. Then, they insisted we switch to an entirely different hotel — Caesar’s Palace, next door. They registered me under a fake name, one I’d never used before and that Nicholai would have no way of knowing. Then, they insisted I travel surrounded with a group of them every where I went.
Once we’d checked in to the new hotel and gotten settled, I locked myself in the penthouse bedroom, and fell into bed with Ziggy and slept like a baby, the rest of the Gods standing guard throughout the rest of the suite. The most privacy I could expect from here on out would be found in a locked bedroom, with them just outside the door listening for any sound or reason to bust the door down.
It didn’t matter. I was way too exhausted at that point to have that sex-filled night that I’d anticipated anyway.
Yet, when I woke up the next morning, the sun streaming in over our tangled bodies, I realized it didn’t matter. The sex wasn’t what had made me feel so good, so free, so relaxed.
It was just being with him.
He was still asleep, his blonde hair falling over his face, his arm thrown over my breasts possessively. He’d not taken his hands off me all night, always maintaining a point of contact. I snuggled into him, closing my eyes and willing the morning away.
I wasn’t ready for this day to start.
The events of last night haunted my thoughts, and the anxiety I felt at what was to come tonight made me want to crawl under the covers and never come out. I inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of Ziggy’s skin, rubbing my cheek over his chest and relishing in his warmth.
When he stirred slightly, I cleared my throat, hoping to wake him up. I’d missed losing myself in his kisses last night, I’d missed the feeling of his body sliding against mine as he took me in the darkn
ess to a place that I longed to reside again and again. I desperately wanted him to wake up, to allow me the brief respite just one more delicious time, before we were forced to face the day together.
For just a little while, I wanted to pretend that everything was normal.
That a madman wasn’t hunting me like prey.
That all of this wasn’t temporary, that Ziggy wasn’t going to go away someday and leave me all alone again.
I pushed my breasts into him, wrapping my thighs around his and pressing my sex into him, willing him awake.
It worked. With a groan, he pulled me closer, his hardness growing immediately. I smiled, moaning in pleasure as his hungry lips found mine, his tongue searching deeply as he rolled me over onto my back, his huge frame hovering over me as he slid inside smoothly, his body performing all the magic it promised.
The thoughts fell away, leaving me panting and gasping and moaning until I was writhing under him with no regard for anything outside of this bed, outside of this man, outside of the warm light that he bathed me in every single time he smiled my way.
For the first time in a long, long time, my heart cracked open and let a little sliver of that light inside.
CHAPTER 42
ZIGGY
I couldn’t sit still.
I couldn’t stand still.
I insisted the Gods stand guard not just outside the suite but inside, too. I wanted layers of security for Nicholai to try to penetrate. Since I’d come out of Lucky’s bedroom this morning, Blade had been doing his best to apologize to me. After pulling myself from Lucky’s arms, the reality of everything that happened yesterday was so much more stark in the early morning light.
We’d been played, plain and simple.
Nicholai won a battle.
But the war wasn’t over yet. In fact, it hadn’t even started yet. Once we unloaded the full power of the Gods on him, he wouldn’t know what hit him. Until now, we’d been too lackluster, not taking him seriously, or appreciating what a threat he really represented.
His message left no doubts about his intentions.
And if thought he was going to kill Lucky, he was crazy.
Slade had come up with a plan last night that was so crazy it just might work. As much as that guy slightly annoyed me, I was growing to love him. He was creative and his thinking outside the box might just be the thing that puts an end to all of this madness. For that, he’d have my unending gratitude.
But first we had to put the plan in play, and that was going to take all damned day, and the last thing I had time for was Blade following me around like a puppy dog that was in trouble for peeing on the rug.
“Dude, just let it go,” I said, finally.
“I just want you to know that I feel really terrible, man,” he replied.
“I get it,” I said. “But I forgive you. Lucky forgives you. This guy has skills, doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.”
“But I did, man. Becky…”
“Yeah, that might have been a mistake, but for other reasons. I mean, really, Blade? Becky?”
“I know, she’s a little awkward, but in bed, she’s a —.”
“—No, dude, I don’t want to know.”
“I want to know,” Slade piped up, causing everyone to laugh. “She’s what? Does she keep her glasses on?”
“She’s just very…hungry,” Blade said, reaching down and protectively grabbing his cock. We all burst out laughing again, breaking the nervous tension that had been lingering in the air all morning.
“Look, guys, we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to transform a pig into a princess, so let’s get out of here,” Riot said.
“I thought you said I was a snake,” Slade said, before snorting loudly. The guys broke out into laughter again.
“The others should be arriving in about half an hour,” Ryder said. “After we pick them up from the airport, we’ll all be meeting on another floor. If you’re not needed downstairs, your job is to stay here and not let anyone near that bedroom door.” He pointed at Lucky’s bedroom.
“Nobody goes in or out but me,” I said, with a determined nod.
Slade, Riot, Ryder, Wreck and Bones stood up and Ryder came over, giving me a huge hug with a big pat on the back.
“Don’t worry, Ziggy, we got this,” he said.
I swallowed hard and nodded and looked over at the other guys, waiting behind him.
“Thank you. All of you,” I said. “I know this wasn’t your traditional way of working and I know you’re taking a big chance even being here. I just want to say thank you, man. It’s means the world to me.”
“It’s obvious Lucky means the world to you. We’d have done it even if you weren’t involved. Don’t sweat it, Ziggy,” Riot said.
“Man, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m having a fucking blast,” Slade said. “So thank you, dude.”
“It’s all good,” Wreck said. “And yeah, don’t worry. Frankie’s Dad is incredible. This is all going to work, you’ll see.”
“I’m going to trust you on that,” I said.
Ryder patted me on the back again and flashed me a small, reassuring grin, before walking out, leaving me there with the others.
“I feel helpless just sitting here,” I said.
“So don’t just sit there,” Fury said. “Go back in there. You know you want to.”
I paused, feeling torn between my loyalty to the club and my desire to be glued to Lucky’s side. So far, they all seemed to understand, but I still felt as if I was somehow excluding myself from the brotherhood we all enjoyed.
“Just go, dude,” Eli insisted. “Look, it’s happened to the best of us. You’re in love.”
“Love?” I parroted, my eyes wide with surprise. “I don’t know if we’re there yet.”
The whole lot of them started laughing again and I looked at them in surprise.
“Y’all suck,” I said, shaking my head as I joined in.
CHAPTER 43
NICHOLAI
A new day, a new mask.
Today, I was one of the backstage crew. After spiking one of the drum techs drinks, I followed him back to the tour bus after he got sick, promising I’d give the message to the production manager that he’d be out for the night. Instead, I hacked together a quick disguise and showed up in his place. The rest was easy. Blending in, jumping in on short conversations, laughing in all the right places, pretending I knew what I was doing. The day flew by and by the time Lucky arrived to go on stage, I was pulsing with excitement about being so close to her for so long.
I knew she’d gotten my message and it thrilled me knowing how rattled she must be. Of course, her group of bumbling idiots had finally figured out I was tracking her on her phone, so they’d taken that away, but that was fine.
I was getting tired of watching her fuck that pretty boy anyway.
She arrived in a flurry of activity, surrounded by at least ten of the bikers, like some modern-day version of a West Side Story gang going to rumble. It was comical. And desperate.
Because she actually thought they could keep me away from her.
It was pathetic, really, when you thought about it. She should know me better than that. The crowd of beefcake parted and Lucky appeared, but instead of holding Ziggy’s hand like she had been the last few days, she was turned away from him, her arms crossed in defiant anger.
I stepped closer to get a better look.
The Gods disbursed to their posts, leaving the two of them alone on the side of the stage.
“Lucky, it doesn’t have to be this way,” I heard him say, his voice low.
“You’re useless!” she cried. “I’m letting you stay for tonight’s show, but that’s it! You’ve screwed up too many times, you’re fired!”
“Lucky, please!” His begging and groveling were enough to make me hard.
“No, Ziggy!” she seethed. “Don’t you see? You were just a good lay, that’s all. And now it’s over. Did you really think you could wor
m your way into my bed and my heart?”
“Are you saying you don’t care about me?” he asked.
“Care about you?” she repeated. “All you were was a hard dick. You’ll never live up to what I need. In or out of bed. You should book your flight home, in fact, book them for everyone, I want you all gone by tonight.”
It took all I had not to burst out laughing. Lucky had a sharp tongue and she was giving this guy such a harsh lashing with it, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“Lucky, it’s not safe to leave you alone!” he insisted. I shook my head. This guy doesn’t know when to quit, I thought.
“Safe? What do you know about safe? You guys have done nothing but fuck up over and over. I’ll tell you when I was safe. Before all this shit went down, when everything was easy and normal and made sense — before — before, well before I broke things off with Nicolai!”
My eyes widened in surprise. Was that nostalgia I heard in her voice?
“Lucky, that doesn’t make sense. Nicholai is your enemy.”
“Is he, Ziggy? Is he really?” She grew quiet, her eyes searching his, before she turned away abruptly, calling over her shoulder as she walked on stage. “Book those flights.”
He turned away in disgust, his head down as he went to confer with his buddies. Lucky started the show with a hearty wave to the crowd, followed by a roar of a greeting from her adoring fans.
And then, she did what she always did.
She gave them what they’d come to see.
Every ounce of blood, sweat and tears the woman possessed came pouring out of her like a fountain. She held nothing back, leaving all her emotions on the stage, and two hours later, she was absolutely glowing.
This was the Lucky I’d fallen in love with.
The one I’d created.
The one I’d molded into this beautiful, light-filled goddess and gifted to the world.
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