In the ranks of the club, Talon was high up in status due to the fact that he was the treasurer. Being the treasurer didn’t just give him the power of overseeing the club’s monies, he also had the responsibility of keeping track of the clubs colors, patches, and even any reproductions that might be issued to any of the members.
Many people outside of the club had no idea how organized the hierarchy of a motorcycle club was. There was the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Sergeant at Arms, and even a Road Captain. Elections were held and members were voted in. The club was run much the same way a multi-million dollar company would be run. It was organized and Talon’s position made him one of the top players. Being his old lady would have secured her position in the MC family. She now stood no chance of obtaining old lady status thanks to that lawyer bitch.
Unlike most of the other members, Talon was college educated and could make a penny stretch into a dollar. He was irreplaceable as far as handling the club’s finances. The club dealt with a lot of fucking money and he had the brains, training, and knowhow to stay on top of it all. There wasn’t just the illegal activity like running guns and prostitution to consider. There were also legitimate businesses like the strip club and the tattoo parlor that Tiny owned and ran.
She hadn’t taken under consideration that he would be drawn to a professional woman due to his upbringing. It wasn’t like they had female CEOs and lawyers coming through the club on a daily basis. This woman had come out of nowhere and infiltrated the ranks, which was unheard of. The Dauntless motorcycle club wasn’t in the habit of letting outsiders in and this chick didn’t even act like she cared about the status she had by being Talon’s old lady. Grace acted more like she really cared about the club and its members.
All Red craved was the same thing; she wanted to belong to something bigger than herself. She had grown up being tossed around amongst family members who only wanted her for the monthly check they would receive. She wanted the sense of family that went with being an old lady and that bitch Grace had taken that opportunity away from her. She hated her—just fucking hated her. How could she ever go back to the club when no one wanted her there? She hated the feeling she had become so familiar with as a child… rejection.
A man’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked up to see that a van had pulled up beside her. “Hey, it’s getting a little bit chilly out here. Do you want a ride?”
She walked over to the window and eyed a middle aged, slightly overweight man wearing glasses.
“Well, I’m actually looking for a little bit more than a ride.” She licked her bottom lip and put on her best sexy face. She hadn’t been hooking since she started hanging out at the club but if she wasn’t going back there, she’d now need rent money. If she could make a hundred bucks towards rent, it would be a good start. She had no intentions of throwing the money she made in the club’s till anymore. Fuck the club. If she couldn’t be an old lady, then she would just work solo and not go back. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, a small part of her knew that her feelings were hurt and she was reacting out of anger but why stay there if none of the members wanted her? The rest of them might give their dying allegiance to the Dauntless motorcycle club, but she was over it. If she wasn’t going to be a true member of the Dauntless family, then why bother?
“What will a hundred dollars get me, pretty lady?”
“Any fucking thing you want.”
With that, she drove off into the night with a serial killer…
Chapter Nineteen
Grace watched the tablet fall in the water and fizz, hoping it would give her the promised relief from the hangover she suffered.
“Oh God, what was I thinking?” She spoke aloud, not realizing she was within earshot of anyone else.
“I’ve been asking myself what you’re thinking for quite some time.”
“Don’t start, Luke.”
She rolled her eyes as she watched him enter her office uninvited and take a seat in front of her desk. She raised the glass to her lips and held her nose as she forced the medicated fizz down.
“I’m serious, Grace, you’re so much better than this. What do you see in that guy? You’re so far out of his league.”
“See… I don’t get that mentality, Luke—the whole us and them thing? I mean, really, are we, as professionals, supposed to see ourselves as better than the average, working class citizen?”
“There is nothing average about Dauntless motorcycle club, Grace. They bring in millions a year in illegal gun trade. Don’t even get me started on the prostitution rings and whatever drugs they may or may not be involved in. How can you date a guy who puts guns on the streets, guns that kill law-abiding citizens? Like I said, you’re so much better than that. You could get any guy you wanted, including me, and yet you settle for that loser. Why?”
Grace’s eyes cut through Luke as she pointed her manicured nail at him and yelled, “Get out of my office! Now! You may think you’re better than everyone else but I don’t think like that and you fucked up when you called my friends losers.”
Luke breathed deeply, rose from the chair reluctantly, and made his way out of her office. That had not gone the way he intended for it to go, not at all. All he could think about as he made his way down the hallway towards his office was how in the world he was going to make her see the light. It killed him to see her with that guy because, in his mind, he meant it when he told her she was so much better than those people.
What he didn’t realize was Grace didn’t see things the same way as the people who worked in her circle did. To her, it was all about loyalty and the club had been there for her when no one else was. They had shown her what it meant to truly be a family and she had no intentions of letting that feeling of comradery go. Dauntless motorcycle club had been the only family she had ever known and she would go to bat for them until her dying day.
“Hello, hello,” Red screamed out as she pulled against the chain on her manacled leg. She looked around and tried to remember how she had gotten here. Her head pounded with pain as she made her way to the small window on the metal door. She was grateful the chain on her leg allowed enough room for her to look around. She peered out and could see that it appeared she was being held in some sort of warehouse.
She reached towards her back pocket to feel for her phone but the son of a bitch had already gotten that. Fortunately, he hadn’t gotten the camping knife she kept in her boot. That thing had all kinds of little tools on it and the instinct to survive would see to it that she found a way to utilize it to save her life.
Tears streamed down her face as she realized she was on her own. No one would come looking for her because she had no one. No family, no friends, and no Dauntless motorcycle club members would be coming to the rescue.
If she wanted to survive, she would have to do it on her own. She’d be damned if she was going down like this. She didn’t know who this crazy bastard that had abducted her was, but she did know who she was. She was a survivor.
Chapter Twenty
Scooter eyed himself in the mirror as he ran his hands through his hair. Tiny’s marriage to Raven had gone off without a hitch and now everybody was out in the courtyard celebrating—everyone except the woman he wanted to see, Red.
She hadn’t returned last night and he’d gone by her apartment to look for her but she wasn’t there either. Where was she? Was she with another guy? Scooter couldn’t shake the feeling he had that the girl was in some kind of trouble.
It sat like a concrete block in his gut every time he thought about her. She seemed so lonely and sad whenever he watched her and she didn’t know he was looking.
It was evident she had no family. She had just kind of stumbled into the club one night with some outside girls that were looking to party. Tiny had offered her a job at the strip joint and Scooter would go there just to stand in a corner and watch her dance.
Nobody knew how he felt about her but he sure did. From the moment he had
laid eyes on her, he wanted her. He kicked himself for being so damn shy. Any of the other brothers would have made their move by now. Though you’d never know it by looking at him, he had always been painfully shy. He was a 6’2” mass of muscle, hiding his flawless face behind his long, blonde hair. He did well watching over the club’s events from the sidelines but he had never done well with being the center of attention. It just wasn’t who he was.
The sound of a commotion pulled him from his thoughts and he rushed outside to see what was going on.
Justine rubbed the towel through her freshly showered hair. She had managed to get a night away from her partner, Derrick, for the night because he was busy working an undercover case that the agency didn’t need her on.
She made her way into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She was looking forward to a night in front of the TV alone. A bump against the counter as she reached up into the cabinet to get a teabag brought on a memory of the night before.
Derrick had shown her a world she would have never known without him. He had all but blackmailed her into a relationship with him. Hell, who was she kidding? He had blackmailed her.
Unlike most men who would just ask a girl on a date and go from there, Derrick had confronted her about opening up to a convict. He had acted like he was so jealous about it. She had noticed how he watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She knew he liked her and she also knew she would never have anything to do with a guy like him.
The guys she had always dated before were trust fund babies. They came from society’s elite. Old money, and all that went with it, was all Justine had ever known. Her greatest rebellion had been getting a job with immigration customs enforcement. Her parents had a fit when she did so and that had been the whole reason she had done it.
Derrick was the total opposite of any man she would normally ever have anything to do with. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a woman; it was just the opposite for him. He drew women like bees to honey with his bad boy looks. His whiskey brown eyes that smoldered when he was taking her body the way he did, along with his long, dark brown hair that he kept tied back in a ponytail holder, caused women to swoon over him. The five o’ clock shadow on his chiseled face, along with a Roman nose that fit his face perfectly, only added to his badass good looks.
He looked more like a drug dealer or a biker than he did a cop. It was what he did to her physically that did it for her though. When he looked at her, it was like he could read her thoughts and see right into the depths of her being. He was a sadist at heart and he had brought out the masochist in Justine that she never knew existed in her before him. He had changed her and she would never be the same.
The ringing of the doorbell pulled her out of her thoughts and she reached up to turn the stove off and stop the whistle of the teakettle before she made her way over to answer it.
She stood on her tiptoes and looked out to see a huge bouquet of flowers. She chuckled as she thought about Derrick standing behind them. Maybe a night with him wouldn’t be so bad after all. She opened the door, excited to see him, and never saw the needle her abductor carried. She only felt the prick of it and the warmth that was delivered to her system before the feeling of euphoria hit her. Her body slumped into the large man’s chest as he dropped the flowers on her doorstep and carried her to his van.
“What the fuck is going on out here,” Scooter asked getting in between Derrick and Talon.
Talon’s face looked like a contorted and demonic mask of hatred as he held the agent up by his throat, causing his feet to dangle. The men just stood around in a circle with their arms crossed over their chests and watched.
Talon never saw Derrick’s hand retrieve the gun from his holster.
“There’s one in the chamber, motherfucker.” His voice was raspy from lack of air and he knew he was going to be rendered unconscious if he didn’t get out of the large man’s grip.
The sight of Tiny’s gun caused everyone’s head to turn in the Prez’s direction. Derrick didn’t need to see it though. He could feel the cold metal of it his against the back of his head.
“You have the audacity to come up in my fucking club and pull a gun on one of my boys? Not smart!” He directed his next statement at Talon. “Let the dickwad go. I want to hear what he has to say.”
Talon dropped him like a sack of potatoes and then reached down to take his gun which Derrick didn’t resist giving up. If not being armed was what it would take to get through this meeting and get the help he needed, then so be it.
“This lying motherfucker is trying to tell me that Red is missing and he thinks the same guy who took his old lady is responsible.” Talon spouted out after disarming him.
“Red is missing!” Scooter interrupted. “Who’s got your old lady?” He directed his question at Derrick.
“The convict who broke out of jail and he’s a serial killer. I’m sorry for all the shit I’ve put your club through,” Derrick stated, looking at the club president, Tiny. “I need your help. If we’re going to rescue these girls and get them out alive, it’s going to take all of us pooling our resources together.”
“He’s right boys,” Tiny answered. “How do you know he has Justine?”
Derrick pulled a note from his pocket and read. “She’s going to pay for the way you sullied her purity and you are going to have to live with it. He left the note with flowers he dumped on my doorstep. I was on a job and evidently she mistook him for a flower delivery man.”
“Didn’t she know what he looked like,” Tiny asked.
“Not with that big ass bouquet in front of his face is what I’m guessing.”
Tiny addressed his next question at Scooter. “How do you know Red is missing?”
Scooter looked at Talon and shook his head. “She got pissed off when Talon wouldn’t let her dance for him. I guess he doesn’t want to do anything to piss off lawyer lady.”
“I don’t,” Talon growled.
Tiny looked at Scooter, “Dude, you’re going to have to get past that being shy shit. You’ve been that way since we were kids. Why didn’t you claim her or at least tell me you wanted her as your property?”
“Yeah, I’ve already been told that but it’s easier said than done, guys.”
Tiny’s face took on a sardonic expression as he once again addressed the ICE agent, Derrick. “That means no more fucking with my club or anybody in it.”
“You have my word. Just please help me get my woman back alive.”
Chapter Twenty One
Derrick sat in his boss’ office, agreeing with everything he said but having no intentions whatsoever of following his commands. If his boss knew he had already met up with the boys at the club, he would be so mad he would bust a vein in his head. Hell, if he knew half the shit Derrick did on the down low, he would have already suffered a stroke or cardiac arrest.
“I’ll have everyone in this office working nonstop until we find your partner. This is one of our own. This guy has crossed the line by taking Justine and that isn’t going to happen in my agency. Now isn’t the time for you to go all rogue on me, Snyder. I know how you think so just get it out of your head and get that note down to the lab for processing.”
Derrick looked at the balding, pot-gutted, head of ICE and noted that his chest puffed out in pride whenever he spoke of his agents. He was glad the boys accepted Justine as one of their own. He knew how hard it was for a woman. That had been the whole reason she had opened up and talked to the convict. His mind wandered back to the things she had said about it being a boys’ club. He was glad he had never treated her like she was anything but on his level and capable when it came to the job. His bedroom antics had nothing to do with his personal thoughts or opinions of her capabilities. He had nothing but the utmost respect for her.
“I already took that note down to the lab, boss.” He failed to tell him that he had taken it by the club first as proof to the members of her abduction.
“All right, well… keep me abreast on
what’s going on.”
“Will do, boss.”
Derrick had to continually push away the guilt he felt in feeling responsible for the abduction of his partner. He couldn’t shake off the thoughts of what that fucking convict might do because of the way Derrick had treated him. He could only hope the convict wouldn’t take his hatred towards the agency, and Derrick’s sadistic visits with him, out on her. She didn’t deserve that.
Derrick was quickly learning that there was much more to his relationship with his partner than just good sex. He actually cared about her. He wasn’t used to feeling any emotions towards his sexual partners who took part in his depraved escapades of pain and pleasure. Whether he liked it or not, he cared about this girl and the thought of being without her was unthinkable. He had to find her, he had to rescue her, and he had to kill the convict who abducted her so the bastard could never hurt her again.
He had no intentions of adhering to the agency’s protocol. This wasn’t about justice or righting a wrong. It was about exacting revenge and avenging the honor of the woman he loved. The problem was that he needed the Dauntless MC club to help him out and he wasn’t one of their favorite people right now. It was going to take more than just working with him to find these girls to convince them that he could be trusted.
For the first time since he had tried to muscle the club into paying him off, he found himself regretting it. He really needed to get past the penchant he had for blackmailing people. It never was about the money; it was about control. Though he regretted trying to blackmail the club, he would never regret blackmailing his little pet. It only added to the dangerous intrigue they experienced in their sex life. He was a man who was all about sadistic control. This was the first time he had ever experienced this kind of connection with any woman and that was something he would never regret—ever.
Hunted (Dauntless MC Book 1) Page 7
