by Zoey Parker
“I’m s-sorry!” Ryan stammered. There was a loud smack, and I couldn’t help but grin. I guessed one of the men had slapped him.
“Shut up, you pig,” Marlo said. “The lady said she didn’t want to hear it. You gonna try anything else on our watch?”
I turned back around. Seeing Dante so close was torture; I wanted to bury myself in his chest, to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him so close that he’d never be more than a few feet away. I needed to talk to him before I did that. So many questions needed answering. Why did he leave me? Where did he go? How did he find me?
Just as I started walking towards the men, I heard the sirens behind me.
“No!” Ryan wailed. “No, not the cops!”
“Yeah,” Dante said. He raised his eyebrows and grinned at me. “And I have a feeling they’re going to take Katia’s word over yours, don’t you think?”
I swallowed nervously. Even though my torture and imprisonment was over, I still felt shaky and nervous. My hands were shaking so badly that I twisted my fingers together and twined them behind my back, so no one, especially Dante, would see.
“I think they will,” I said with confidence that I didn’t truly feel, stepping closer to where Ryan was behind held by Marlo and Tristan. “After all, I’m a beauty queen. And you’re nothing but a judge.”
After that, everything happened quickly. There were at least six cop cars that pulled onto the road, one ambulance, and even a fire truck. I laughed uncontrollably when I saw the whole entourage spill out. Ryan started crying and sank down to his knees, snuffling into the sleeve of his shirt. I couldn’t find an ounce of pity for him anywhere in my heart; I felt pleasure at seeing him cry. I know that’s probably a bitchy thing to say, but you can’t tell me I didn’t deserve to feel like that.
One of the cops approached me nervously. “Katia Reynolds?”
I nodded.
“Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
“I can try,” I said softly.
The cop nodded. He had soft brown hair and kind blue eyes. I could tell that he was young and that he actually gave a damn about his job. The badge on his chest read: Officer Stevens. While the other cops pulled Ryan into the back of a cruiser with his hands bound behind his back, I led the bikers over.
“They saved me,” I said simply, pointing to Dante.
The cop narrowed his eyes. I could tell he didn’t like the idea of bikers doing anything good in the community.
“Is that true?” Officer Stevens directed towards Dante and the other guys. “Is what she said what really happened?”
Dante nodded soberly. “Yep. Ask her anything, and she’ll tell the truth.” He raised his eyebrows and smirked. At that moment, he looked so kissable that I wanted to run to him and cover his face and neck in kisses. Somehow, I managed to restrain myself as best I could.
“Well,” Officer Stevens said. He turned back to me. “And why did this guy kidnap you? Did you know him?”
I nodded solemnly. “He harassed me before at a pageant a long time ago, and he kidnapped me because I rejected him.”
The cop’s eyes narrowed. He stared at my face for so long that I began to feel slightly uncomfortable.
“Wait,” he said. “You’re the Katia Reynolds?”
I nodded. “Yes. Just like I told you.”
“My daughter…” The cop trailed off, looking slightly flushed. “My daughter loves you,” he added. “Do you think you’d be able to give me an autograph to take home for her?”
“Well…” I paused to glance over my shoulder at Dante at the other guys. They were all watching me with stony expressions on their faces. I
“Please, Miss? She’s a huge fan,” Officer Stevens said. “It would mean the world to her.”
I grinned. “Yes. As long as you give these guys a break for me. The whole reason Dante was guarding me was because he said the cops were coming down too hard on his completely legitimate MC.” I trembled as I spoke. A wave of exhaustion came over me, and suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to lie down in my soft bed and sleep for days.
Officer Stevens sniffed. “Well, I’ll see what I can do.”
“You’re a good man,” I told him. I reached out and touched the cop’s arm, squeezing his muscle under the thick material of his uniform. “I know you believe me. Just trust me, okay?” I batted my eyelashes, well aware that again I was using my charms to get what I wanted.
Officer Stevens nodded with a slight smile, clearly trying to remain professional. “Okay, you’ve got my word.”
“They’re good men,” I repeated. “Thanks so much, officer. Who should I make the autograph out to?”
Officer Stevens blushed. “Tony.”
I grinned. As I signed To Tony, with love from Katia on a piece of police blotter paper, I had a feeling the autograph wouldn’t be going to his daughter after all.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dante
After the whole damn thing was over, I went home and slept for what felt like a week. Turns out it was only forty-eight hours, but damn. That’s still the longest consecutive sleep I’ve ever had in my life.
Katia did us a solid, getting us off with the cops. I knew that after that, it was my responsibility to clean up the club and make sure the cops never had a reason to fuck with us again. After all, L.A.’s a big city. There were lots of ways to make legitimate money, right?
When I called the guys to order, it was Troy’s first day out of the hospital. He was still bandaged up, but he was paler and shakier than he had been before the whole thing went down. I welcomed him back to the club with a night full of strippers and booze. The strange thing was he didn’t even seem interested.
“Man, you okay?” I sauntered over to Troy and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You’re barely drinking. They still got you on meds?”
Troy shook his head. “Nope. Just got somethin’ on my mind, that’s all.”
The other guys showed up, and we partied and drank for a few hours. When I was just starting to feel the slightest buzz, I clapped my hands and called for a meeting. The guys all followed me into the meeting room of our clubhouse, and I shut the door.
“So,” I said, my voice echoing off the wood-paneled walls. “I gotta talk to y’all. Big changes in store. And I can thank Marlo, Tristan, and Troy for helping me out of the biggest jam I’ve ever been in.”
There was raucous cheering and applause. For a moment, I smiled. It was good to be back. But there was something on my mind, something even more pressing than the needs of the club. And her name was Katia Reynolds.
“So,” I continued. “We’re gonna have to have a talk and a vote about the way we keep running things. You guys on board with that?”
Troy, Tristan, Marlo, and the rest of the guys nodded. After I thanked them all for helping me out with a toast, we settled down into the leather chairs.
“This is serious. Katia talked to the cops. I don’t know what she did, but she worked her magic, and now they’re gonna leave us alone,” I said firmly. “So, we gotta make sure we stay on the right side of the law. Y’all think we can do that?”
Tristan snorted. “Boss, come on, we gotta stay legal now?”
I nodded firmly. “I came too close to losing this club, and I’m not going to let that happen again. And it’s your job to help out with this transition. We gotta make sure that we all have legitimate, and I mean legitimate, sources of income. I’m talking body-guarding and maybe a little security work.”
The guys nodded. “It’s a relief,” Troy called out. He grinned. “I don’t fuckin’ think I can take being shot again.”
The guys all laughed for a moment until I pounded on the table and called to order.
“I don’t give a shit what it is, but you all need to figure out what you’re good at and how to make money,” I said sharply. “Find a store that needs a guard, or find a way to pass a piss test and start working as a private investigator. You think you can do that?”
; Once the guys realized how dead serious I was, they agreed to change their ways in a heartbeat. In a certain sense, it was almost sad. It was like the end of an era. No more guns, no more drugs for the Heaven’s Veil. But I knew that now we had a better chance of being able to keep our club, and furthermore, keep all of our guys out of prison.
When the meeting was over, I banged the gavel on the table and went to talk to Troy. He was still perched in a corner, watching the rest of the guys take shots and chat up the strippers. He looked forlorn and morose.
“What’s wrong, man?” Slapping a beer in Troy’s hand, I stared into his face.
“I dunno,” he replied.
I rolled my eyes. “Always so fuckin’ verbose,” I muttered. “You okay? You havin’ nightmares or any of that PTSD shit?”
Troy snorted. “Fuck no.” He took a long swallow of beer and banged the bottle down on the table. “How’re you, man? Lookin’ a little weak.”
I sighed. “I can’t get Katia out of my mind,” I muttered. “It’s been days, and I can’t stop thinking about her. I bet she fuckin’ hates me for leaving her and for not being able to save her faster. Wouldn’t you?”
Troy shook his head. “No. And besides, she did a good thing. She saved our asses with the cops, didn’t she? Why the hell do you think she hates your guts?”
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, taking a long drink of my own beer. The malty, yeasty liquid was well on its way to filling up my stomach and numbing some of the hurt and loneliness that I’d felt ever since I’d watched Katia climb into the back of a police cruiser for a ride to the hospital.
“Don’t be embarrassed, man. You love her,” he said simply. “Why not just tell her?”
I squinted. “Wow, you really think I’m a fuckin’ pussy, huh?”
Troy burst out laughing. “No. But come on, Dante. We’re getting old. We ain’t gonna be young forever. Don’t you ever think about settling down?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. That was never my job. That was always my brother’s plan and my family’s expectations.”
“And Katia Reynolds’s not good enough? What are you waiting for? Someone better?” Troy snorted into his beer. He finished the bottle and tossed it across the room where it landed gracefully in the recycling bin. “Stop waiting,” he added. “You’re happy with her; I can tell. I watched y’all at dinner, and I saw it.”
I nodded. “I do love her. Shit, did I just say that out loud?”
Troy laughed. “And she’d be happy to be with you, as long as we don’t do anything illegal,” he said. “Tell me, come on. That’s the real reason you’re so dead-set on not going back to drugs or guns, ain’t it?”
I hated to admit it, but he was exactly right. I nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “That’s it. I don’t want her to be ashamed of me. I want her to be proud. I know I’m not some Hollywood fop, but I don’t give a fuck. She’s the most perfect woman I’ve ever met. Even when she’s being a total asshole, I love her.”
Troy rolled his eyes. “You know what you have to do—call her. Ask her out to dinner.” He raised his eyebrows. “I’m sure she paid you fuckin’ well. Use some of that money to take her someplace nice. Chicks like that,” he added confidentially like I didn’t know shit about women.
“I’ll think about it,” I replied moodily.
But deep down, I knew the damage was done. I was in love with Katia Reynolds, and if I didn’t tell her, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Katia
I waited days for Dante to call.
“He doesn’t care about me.” I pouted at Anya. We were lounging in my living room, going over my plans for the next month. “If he cares about me, he would’ve called me.”
Anya rolled her eyes. “That’s not true,” she said. “How did things end? I mean, you didn’t really get to talk to him much when they got Ryan, did you?”
I shook my head, letting my perfectly-waved blonde hair fall in front of my face. “I couldn’t talk to him,” I confessed. “I was covered in bruises and cuts. And besides, those cops dragged me off before I had a chance to say anything.”
I swallowed hard. Deep down, I was glad the cops had done something before I’d had a chance to embarrass myself further. I didn’t want to tell Dante how I felt, if only because I knew he didn’t feel the same way about me. Sure, we’d had great sex. But then he’d left me, and now he was avoiding me.
“I think he just wanted to get away from me, you know, a clean break,” I said carefully, reaching down for my cup of diet seltzer. “That’s how men are. They’re so noncommittal.”
“Call him,” she said with a sweet smile. “I know how you build things up in your mind, Katia. You always have to have the perfect man who’s a perfect gentleman. But Dante isn’t that kind of guy. And if you don’t tell him how you feel, you’re going to lose him forever.”
I licked my lips. Along with the rest of my body, they were finally starting to heal from Ryan’s assault. At the advice of the doctor in the emergency room, I’d started going to a counselor to deal with the “lingering trauma,” but aside from a few nightmares, I hadn’t really had anything too horrible to deal with. The bruises faded in a couple of days, the knot on my head drained down, and the cuts and scratches healed over in a remarkably short amount of time.
“Anyway, I’ll let you go,” Anya said, getting to her feet and wiping her hands on her round thighs. “I know you probably want some alone time.”
I felt a tug of anxiety on my heartstrings as I watched Anya gather her things.
“Hey,” I said softly. “Thank you. For—for everything.”
Anya smiled, looking pretty and ten years younger. She smiled back. “I love you, Katia,” she said. “Even if you’re a royal pain in the ass sometimes.”
I grinned, feeling much more like my old self. Just as I was about to get up to hug my best friend, my phone started buzzing on the table. When I saw that Dante was calling, my heart leaped into my throat.
“You’d better answer that,” Anya told me slyly. “I know how you’ve been dying to talk to him and all.”
I giggled. “Go!” I yelled playfully. “Give me some privacy!”
# # #
Six hours later, I stood nervously in front of my full-length bedroom mirror, staring at the way the black cocktail dress hugged my body. It was something I’d bought a few months ago but had yet to wear, and I was still self-conscious of the way it pushed my breasts into a high cleavage.
Still, it was probably the best thing I had for a date with Dante at Marcus & Fine, one of L.A.’s newest and most expensive steakhouses.
Sliding into the back seat of a cab, I pulled a mirror out of my purse and glanced at my reflection. With my hair teased and slightly over my forehead, the last of my bruises were all but invisible. Inside, though, I was feeling more nervous than I’d ever felt in my life. More nervous than when I auditioned for my first pageant, and much more nervous than I’d felt when I’d gone into my oncologist’s office to hear whether or not the leukemia had finally left my body.
Dante was sitting at a table in the back, looking incredibly handsome in a dark jacket with a dark T-shirt underneath. I instinctively grinned when I saw him.
Dante raised his eyebrows. “The lady arrives,” he said smoothly. He leaped to his feet, pulling my chair out in front of me. “Would she like to sit?”
“She would, indeed,” I replied as I sat down on the smooth velvet chair. The restaurant was dim and intimate with roses and candles on each table. Even though the tables around me were filled with chattering couples, I still felt like Dante and I were alone together.
“So,” I said softly. “How are you?”
“Well, things are getting back to normal,” he said. “I fuckin’ miss your condo though. That was a sweet place to crash for a while. My apartment doesn’t really feel the same.”
I smiled and blushed at the same time. As the waiter appeared to take
our drink order, I grabbed the wine list from Dante before he could say anything.
“Ma’am?” The waiter glanced down at me with disdain. “Did you have a question?”
“No questions,” I replied sweetly as I pushed the wine list towards him. “But we’ll take the second most expensive bottle of wine on the list.”
Dante chuckled, and the waiter threw him a quick glare before turning his attention back to me. “But, madam,” he said calmly. “You don’t even know which kind of wine that would be.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care. I just know that it’s gonna be good.”
