Page 2

Saint

“Whose fucking idea was it to wear a goddamn monkey suit!”

I glance over at my best friend and VP of the Steel Rebels MC to find him tugging at the collar of his shirt. He hasn’t stopped bitching and moaning since we set foot in here, but in all honesty, I can’t blame him. The suit is so fucking suffocating and goes against everything we believe as bikers. Even so, Knox knows damn well that this is the only way we’re going to blend in with these rich fuckers.

Everything about this place is pretentious. From the ornate chandeliers hanging gaudy crystals from the ceiling to the meticulously arranged seating designed more for show than comfort. The walls are adorned with art—if one can even call the portraits of half-naked women that.

The air is thick with the scent of expensive cologne and the faint smoke lingering from cigars. My eyes wander to the bar where a polished mahogany surface glimmers under the soft glow of the chandelier above.

There’s wait staff too, dressed in crisp uniforms and practiced smiles. Everything in this gentleman’s club is performative and more suffocating than the noose I have wrapped around my neck. There is no way we weren’t going to stand out if we’d walked in here in jeans and leather jackets. Standing out is the last thing we want if we’re going to catch the fucker that’s been hiding from us for weeks.

Derrick Halpin was stupid enough to mess with the Steel Rebels MC. He thought he could hide under our noses and get away with it. Hiring bodyguards and moving out of our territory and into a getting a secure building was enough to provide him a little protection from my men, but his days have always been numbered.

Tonight will be his last.

“Be on the lookout,” I tell my grumpy VP as I look around, fighting the urge to tear off my tie and toss it as far away as I can. I use my rage to motivate me to stay put and not expose ourselves as the outsiders that we are. We can’t afford to spook Derrick, or there will be chaos and innocent blood could be spilled in the process. The coward is not beyond using a human shield to protect himself from us.

“Are we even sure he’s here?” Knox asks, but I can tell he’s looking around as well. “I wouldn’t still be in this goddamn city if I were him, let alone in Steel Rebel territory.”

“My informant was sure that Derrick would be coming to the club to oversee whatever special event is happening tonight. Apparently, it’s worth risking his life for.”

“Your informant better be right, or I will be pissed off that I was forced to wear this goddamn suit.”

My informant knows better than to fuck with me. That is if he doesn’t want his body to be fished out of Lake Michigan tomorrow. Everyone in this city knows I am not to be played with, and yet, someone thought themselves smart enough to get away with exactly that. I don’t make idle threats; I deliver on them, and unlike the fucker we’re looking for, I don’t hide behind anyone.

“He’s here,” I say firmly, looking around the room that envelops me in a haze of dim light that could work in our favor or against us. Well, that will depend on who spots the other first. Either way, I am not leaving this place without Halpin. Even if I have to dig through a sea of bodies to get to him. He fucked with the wrong group of people.

There is a soft murmur of laughter and clicking glasses mixed with sultry notes of jazz, and I am about to suggest we break off to cover more ground when I spot a familiar head of salt and pepper hair a short distance from us.

Derrick Halpin is seated at the front, right before what looks like some kind of a stage with a lit cigar resting between his fingers. For someone who owes a dangerous band of criminals millions of dollars and his life, he sure as hell doesn’t look like it.

A sound forces my attention from the man to find Knox cracking his knuckles. He too seems to have spotted Derrick. But before one of us can step forward and go after the man, the jazz music abruptly stops, and for a second, I am sure someone has spotted us. I go to grab my gun, ready for the fight I assume is going to come, but instead, the stage lights up and a cheer breaks out.

“What the fuck!” Knox echoes my thoughts, and the cheer grows louder, almost too rowdy for men who are supposed to be distinguished members of the community. I recognize some prominent faces in the crowd—including the police superintendent—and they all seem excited about whatever the fuck is about to happen.

Is this the event my informant was talking about? Whatever the case, I’m not here to find out what boring old rich men do in their spare time. I’m sure it’s something equally eccentric and stupid.

The lights over the crowd dim a little more, directing focus to the stage, and I figure this would be the perfect opportunity to get the man we came here for without drawing much attention to ourselves, but we don’t get a chance to move before someone walks onto the stage, a man with hair as black and dull as his suit.

“Let’s get the rat and get the fuck out of here,” Knox says at my side, but for whatever reason, I stay rooted in place, an uneasy feeling churning in my gut. I stare as the man on the raised platform grabs a mike and clears his throat, a smile curving his lips as he looks into the dark crowd.

“I have something special for you tonight,” he says, and I can hear the excitement in his voice. “Normally, I’d save the best for last, but this surprise is too magnificent to wait. Untainted jewels are a rare find these days, but we have one on offer tonight. Who will be the lucky man to win her?”

“You say that every time; how special can she be?” calls out a voice from the crowd, followed by a murmur of agreement, but the man doesn’t seem affected by any of it.

“How about you see her for yourself?”

A loud creaking noise fills the room as a door is pushed open, followed by the sound of heels that echo through the now silent room. There is some kind of tension as everyone waits for the “jewel” they were promised, and when she steps onto the stage next to the man, I damn near lose my breath.

From where I stand, she’s a vision. One that captivates the very air around her. Her long, wavy chestnut hair falls like silk curtains around her face, framing bright eyes that sparkle in the light, though I’m too far away to tell their color. She is nothing short of enchanting, and I imagine every single man in this room is bound by her spell.

She’s wearing a revealing black dress, one that clings to her figure with a neckline that dips to hint at her ample cleavage just enough to have these men panting for more. My cock stiffens painfully behind my zipper as I take her in, but I am not alone. The room is quiet for several moments as they all breathe her in before someone in the crowd breaks the silence.

“Thirty thousand dollars!”

“You are kidding, right?” The man on the stage chuckles, waving his hands over the girl, whose gaze has now dropped to the floor, robbing us of the view of her gorgeous face. “This girl is nothing like the others; she’s entirely untouched. She hasn’t even had her first kiss yet, and you want a night with her for chump change?”

“A virgin?” Someone gasps, and a murmur breaks through the crowd. “We’ve never had a virgin before!”

“Fifty thousand dollars!” yells another man, before someone else cuts in with, “Sixty thousand!” And then the battle begins as people shout out different sums, the number going up with each person, but I don’t pay attention to them.

My eyes stay on her.

The girl who flinches with every bid that is called out. She’s trembling, so visibly that it would be impossible for any of the men in the crowd to miss, but no one seems to bat an eye at her obvious distress.

“What the fuck is happening here?” Knox hisses, and I can feel rage vibrating through his system. “Are these fuckers actually bidding on a person?”

The situation is not lost on me. In this crowd, there are many powerful people. Some of them have been publicly vocal about the rampant crime in the city, rebuking my motorcycle club for some of it, and yet, here they are, bidding on a frightened girl.

A girl who clearly does not want to be here.

“Two hundred-fifty thousand dollars!” calls out a familiar voice.

Lieutenant Derrick Halpin. The man whose took money from us to look the other way during a weapons deal, only to sell us out to our rival MC for a cut of the profits. Millions of dollars were lost in the shipment, and the man walked away with both the bribe money and his cut of sale.

The same man who just offered a quarter of a million dollars for a single night with a girl trembling so hard, she’s seconds away from passing out.

“Three hundred thousand!”

“Three-fifty!”

“Four hundred!”

“Five hundred thousand dollars!”

The girl looks up in shock, her teary eyes staring into the crowd, but barely anyone notices her distress, and if they do, it’s clear they don’t give a fuck.

“This is sick!” Knox growls from beside me, and he’s about to step forward, but I slap a hand on his chest, stopping him. “What the fuck, Saint? Are you just going to watch these sick bastards bid on someone like she’s a toy?”

As though sensing the anger from the barely contained animal standing next to me, the girl looks in our direction at Knox before her eyes cross to me…and stay.

She’s terrified. I’ve seen that look on so many people before, but it’s never moved me. Most of them were from people whose lives were at my mercy. People who thought it wise to fuck with me and were paying for it.

I’ve seen it in the eyes of many whenever they spotted my tattoos or club patches.

Now, my tattoos are covered, and I don’t have the club patch on my suit. But there’s that same look. It’s fear and fading hope of making it through the night.

And then her gaze moves from mine and drop back to the floor.

“Call for backup,” I tell Knox, sliding my hands back into my pockets before leaning in so my voice doesn’t carry. Despite our experience with fighting or how skilled we both are with using our guns, there is no fucking way we can take all these men and their bodyguards. Not to mention the risk we’d be putting the girl in, and anyone else who doesn’t deserve to rot in hell. “Figure out a distraction so I can get the girl out of here. Just make sure that fucker Derrick Halpin doesn’t escape.”

The anger in my best friend dissipates, and in its place is feral kind of excitement. Knox and I have known each other for most our lives, and it’s always been this way—him unleashing chaos and me having to rein him in. Not tonight, though. For once, I plan to set my wild friend free. There won’t be a club left standing when he’s through.

Knox excuses himself to make the call, leaving me alone with the wolves bidding on my little lamb. It seems the sum is now at six hundred thousand, and the men grapple among themselves, all desperate for a chance to be with this jewel but unwilling to go any further. Some even try to negotiate pooling funds and sharing the girl for the night, their voice carrying and fueling the crowd’s excitement.

All still oblivious to…her.

“Six hundred and fifty thousand dollars!”

“We’ll take her for seven hundred thousand dollars!”

“We?” The man on the stage chuckles and a series of laughs follow. It’s a game to them. Twisted and exciting. Oh, how I am going to enjoy carving into any one of them that lands in our hands.

My gun is heavy at my side with the need to take out every one of these men, to watch their smug expressions drop when I plant a bullet between their eyes, but I contain myself. I did not become the president of the Steel Rebels MC by acting impulsively.

So, I wait.

And I wait…

Patiently, I stand in the crowd as the men continue bidding, tossing around money and egging each other on until none of them is willing to offer a cent more. Knox returns to me just as the auctioneer calls out for anyone else willing to bid.

“Priest and a few of his Steel Outlaw guys are still in the area and on their way. Fifteen minutes to ETA. I have two of our guys stationed at every exit,” Knox says at my side. I nod in acknowledgment, glad to hear my cousin and his men from our sister MC are still in the area and willing to offer support.

“Do I hear eight hundred thousand dollars—”

“One million dollars!” I call out calmly, but my voice carries to the man on stage. Of course, he can hear me but not the whimpering girl by his side, and I can practically see his face light up with excitement.

“Sold!” he yells, and the room breaks in disappointed groans as the girl is escorted from the stage and a series of annoyed glances are tossed at the man crazy enough to spend one million dollars on a single night with an untouched girl. I can sense the envy and judgment in their gazes, but there is one face that’s not gaping with the rest. One set of brown eyes that look like they’re going to pop out any second now that he’s spotted me.

As my girl is led off the stage and a small group of other women make their way out, one of the waitstaff approaches and gestures for me to follow him to complete the transaction, and I nod. My gaze stays on Derrick’s as I walk away, threatening him with my eyes, promising all the things he’s going to face now that he’s landed in our grasp.

With one last grin at the man, I disappear through a door.