Page 17

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

CONAN

TWO HOURS EARLIER

“So this is how the other half lives, huh?” David teases, his eyes drawn to the topless women dancing in the middle of the common room.

Destiny, Echo, Varity, and Enigma are putting on quite a show since they saw the four men walk through the doors of the clubhouse with us.

They’re new with the club and with my focus on making Demi mine, I don’t know them as we dispatched the others we had because we couldn’t get a straight answer as to who all was involved in poisoning Luna.

Guess they want the chance for a little bit of strange every once in a while too, only they won’t get that opportunity.

“Jealous?” I ask, smirking at him.

“Just a little,” he replies, holding his pointer finger and thumb a hair length apart.

“This is what I call a party,” Joey interjects, a wolfish smile on his face.

“This, my friend, is the way we unwind after a stressful day,” Midas tells them.

“Or any other day,” I snort. “Life in itself is a reason to celebrate.”

I glance over at the other two and smirk when I notice how Liam and Niles have gravitated to the center of the room where the women are showing off some of their many talents.

“Always having to be at the center of the stage,” David remarks, his eyes lit up as he takes in the entertainment. “If I could live out the rest of my days here, I would.”

“Now that you’re a friend of the club, the door will always be open to you,” Marcum lies. “What’s your poison?”

“Poison?” Joey inquires, confused by Marcum’s question.

“To drink. We have most of the common beers on tap, but we have bottles in a fridge too. We also only stock top shelf liquor, so pick your poison.”

“I’ll take a Jack and Coke,” David relays. “More Jack than Coke if at all possible, I can’t stand the watered down shit.”

He doesn’t realize it yet, but he’s just given us a gift.

An open drink will be easier to roofie than a bottle.

Most people prefer to open their own, but we had already taken that into account and Stixx, who’s manning the bar during this operation, was going to pop the top for them before lacing their drink and apologize profusely for doing so if they got huffy about it.

“I can speak for me, Liam, and Niles by ordering a Bud light,” Joey claims. “The three of us prefer tap, as long as there isn’t too much of a foamy head, but we’ll drink from the bottle too.”

“Whatever’s easiest on your guy,” David inputs. “We’re here to enjoy your hospitality, not be demanding or a pain in the ass.”

Marcum nods his head at me and I head to the bar to place their drink orders.

On the sly, I watch Stixx pull four tablets from the shelf below the bar top and slip them in the glasses before pulling their beers and mixing David’s drink.

I watch them dissolve before my eyes, as soon as they evaporate, I grab the four pre-frozen glasses and take them over to our guests.

“We don’t use ice so I grabbed you a frozen mug,” I tell David as I hand him his.

“Wish everyone was that considerate,” David mumbles. “They either water it down with ice or they give it to you at room temperature.”

“And with us, you get the five star treatment without having to break the bank,” I confirm, which is mostly true.

They don’t realize it yet, but they’re going to pay the ultimate price, however, it won’t be from them opening up their wallets and giving us their green bills. Not to mention, we don’t swipe credit cards so their plastic would be useless anyhow.

No, in our neck of the woods, we take payment in blood, sweat, and tears—which, there will be plenty of all three flowing freely by the end of this night.

We lead them to the cluster of recliners near the back wall and have them sit.

We kick up our feet and they mimic our action, thinking they’re kings of the castle.

David and Joey don’t smoke cigarettes, but they do enjoy a cigar on certain occasions, which they told us the night we headed out to the local bar when their inhibitions were low and their tongues were loose.

The girls, wanting the officers’ attention to be on them and only them, come over to where we’re kicked back, and double their efforts by stripping off their G-strings.

They seductively gyrate against each other, rubbing their hands across their partner’s skin and pinching each other’s nipples.

This used to be the highlight of my nights before Demi, now, it does nothing for or to me.

I look down at my crotch and substantiate that he’s as limp as a noodle. Yep, he is, no inflation whatsoever.

Demi’s ruined me for any woman but her.

Just the way it should be.

Some of our brothers have strayed in the past when they’re in committed relationships, but Marcum and I, we’re fierce in the belief that our loyalty should extend past that of our club ties and to that of the women who’ve captivated and captured our hearts.

Marcum and I both sit back, bored out of our eternal minds since this sex driven display does nothing for either one of us, as we watch our companions salivate.

I nod at our newest girl, Destiny, and tilt my head in David’s direction. She gets what I’m trying to communicate to her and steps between his splayed legs, bending over and shaking her tatas in his face before crawling into his lap.

“You like what you see, Daddy?” Destiny purrs, leaning forward and licking a line from his shoulder to his ear.

“Yeah,” David huskily responds. “I like it a lot.”

I look up at the ceiling and count tiles so I don’t break out into laughter. Fucking classic. Put a naked woman in a man’s lap and he forgets to use the brain in his skull and only thinks with the head behind his zipper.

When I have myself under control, I snap my fingers to get her attention and point to David’s mixed drink. She takes the hint and lifts the glass out of his fingers and runs it down her chest, settling it between her tits.

“Wanna drink, Daddy?”

“Fuck, yeah,” he answers, leaning forward and nibbling the top of her breasts before grabbing the rim of the glass with his lips and leaning back, swallowing it in one go.

The other three, eyes hypnotized by the act taking place in front of them, down theirs too.

It won’t be terribly long before they feel that hazy feeling and their limbs loosen. Hopefully they just think it’s the environment and alcohol but at the end of the day, it’s not really going to matter much.

Marcum nods at me, grabs his phone and calls his old lady. His brows wrinkle as he excuses himself and heads to his office. I can only imagine Luna giving him the riot act.

I don’t leave my recliner where I’m comfortable but do send Demi a text letting her know that things are kicking off.

She returns it with a thumbs up. I’m not sure if she’s nervous or if she and Luna are in the middle of something, but with Marcum needing space to talk to his old lady, my gut says it’s the second thought and not the first.

We’ve recruited new girls since the whole tampering with Luna’s drink thing and got rid of our old stash.

It’s better to be safe than sorry, and there’s no telling what the ladies got in their minds after that ordeal.

I’m not sure of the new group yet, but since Destiny took direction so well, I’m hoping the others follow suit and can read my cue.

I also know that after that whole debacle, Auto did a major deep dive into their backgrounds and we had a contract drawn up with specific rules so there was no way to misunderstand their role within the club.

It’s for the single brothers to get off, no more and no less.

While it’s not unheard of in our world for a club girl to become an old lady, none of my brothers would be likely to avail themselves in this manner, to be honest.

Not unless she was the only one he was sticking it to and I can’t blame them one bit.

That may sound misogynistic to some, but it’s not about them having a lot of lovers, it’s more the fact that every other brother would know how that woman felt while having sex.

Yeah, not gonna happen.

I don’t care about Demi’s past before me at all. Humans are sexual beings and I’m not about to say women should hold themselves pure and untouched while men run around sowing their wild oats. I’m a lot of things by nature, but being a hypocrite is not in my wheelhouse.

Echo, who would’ve been a favorite of mine if I weren’t with Demi, glances over at me and I issue the same command as I did Destiny, only this time, I nod toward Joey.

She gets a mischievous look in her eyes and saunters over to him, running her hands up and down his thighs.

I then start shooing girls over to the other two, watching them fall like dominoes to the ladies’ alluring skillsets.

These new women must’ve come up with their own cues, because once Echo glances at them, Varity, and Enigma, pounce on Liam and Niles. I can literally see their eyes glaze over as the drugs begin to take effect.

I look over at Stixx and wave my bottle at him. He gets the hint and goes over to the fridge, pulling me out a full one before hustling it over to me. “It’s go time, let Kodiak know, will ya?”

“Sure will,” Stixx answers, excitement shining in his eyes.

We’ve all been looking forward to this night, and once it’s over, there’ll only be two more people I’ll be going after.

Those fuckwads that terrorized my woman.

They were supposed to shelter her and help her grow as a person, instead, they fucked with her head and self-esteem, on top of that, they made her leery when it comes to trust.

I’m going to take my time with those two, not that I won’t with these motherfuckers once Demi’s said her peace, but those foster parents of hers, they started her lifelong fear of love.

The girls step back from their targets and when I notice that the men are slouched, a blank stare on their faces, I point to the door and watch as they scuttle away.

They’ve definitely earned a bonus for their performances tonight and I make note to tell Marcum.

As one of their perks of being a club girl, they get a weekly allowance, room and board, and if they take on any other duties, like cooking or laundry, we add to their pay.

Unable to help myself, knowing that they are vulnerable and incapable of defending themselves, I walk to the middle of where they’re laid back, lean forward, and tell them, “It’s time to pay penance, fellas.”

I hear them try to grunt, confused on why they’re here, but soon enough, they’ll be enlightened so I only grin at the four pieces of shit.

“It’s time for you to answer for your crimes against my old lady.

” With that, I turn on my heels and head toward the back door where Demi will be waiting on me.

Once I’m certain she’s mentally and emotionally ready to come face to face with her tormentors and rapists, I’ll escort her in and all of their questions will be answered.