Page 47 of Victorious, Part 2 (The LA Defiance MC #6)

CLOVER

The Next Morning

The morning light filters through the cheap hotel blinds, painting a glow across Phoenix’s sleeping face.

I’m lying here, tangled in his arms, still trying to process that this gorgeous, complicated man is now my husband.

The cactus wedding ring catches the light on my finger, and I can’t help but smile.

Mrs. Evans.

The name still sends little thrills through me every time I think about it.

Phoenix stirs beside me, his arm tightening around my waist before he presses a sleepy kiss to my shoulder. “Morning, wife,” he murmurs against my skin, his voice rough with sleep and copious amounts of satisfaction.

“Morning, husband,” I whisper back, turning in his arms to face him. His eyelids are heavy, though content, and the smile he gives me could power the entire Vegas Strip.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my bare back.

“Sore,” I admit with a laugh. “But good sore. Amazingly sore.”

His smile turns wicked. “You don’t know how much it turns me on to know that I’m the only man who will ever make you sore.”

Pressing a soft kiss to his lips, I can’t help but smile. “Well, thank God you’re good at it then, otherwise, I might have needed to be a little more adventurous.”

He narrows his eyes at me playfully. “Nuh-uh.” His hands run down cupping my pussy, causing me to inhale sharply. “This is all mine , baby. No one else comes close to what’s mine . Understand?”

Pursing my lips, I raise my brow at him, rocking my pussy into his hand. “Well, then, like I said, you’re just lucky you have a magic cock, because—”

He cuts me off, pressing his lips to mine playfully, a light chuckle escaping his throat as he rolls on top of me.

My legs wrap around his naked body, and I moan into his mouth, my tongue finding his as we rock together.

His cock begins to harden as our bodies move together, and just as I think we’re about to really heat this up—

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Phoenix pulls back from me as I huff, groaning in my frustration. He simply smiles, sliding some hair from my face. “Look at your watch, Clo. Is it your heart rate or a twenty-minute warning alert?”

Frowning, I know I don’t even need to look. I already feel the slight dizziness coming on. Sinking back into the pillow, I frown at him, making puppy dog eyes.

He chuckles, catching on instantly. “I’m gonna grab us some breakfast,” Phoenix says, pressing another kiss to my forehead before rolling off me and sitting up. “You stay here, rest up. Because when I get back, and we’ve eaten, I’m picking this right back up where we left off.”

“Room service?” I ask hopefully.

He picks up his cell from the side table, checking the lock screen for messages.

I smirk, seeing the picture of us that he made me send to him to use as his wallpaper.

With no messages, he stands and starts pulling on his clothes.

“Better. There’s a little diner across the street that looks promising.

Real food for my wife.” He grins as he pulls on his jeans. “Any requests?”

“Coffee. Lots of coffee. And something with bacon.”

“You got it.” He leans down to kiss me one more time, and I catch his hand.

“Phoenix?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you. In case I forgot to mention that between all the screaming of your name last night.”

His laugh rumbles through his chest. “I love you, too, Clover. More than I knew was possible.” He then walks over to the mini refrigerator in our room, grabs me a juice, and hurls it across the room at me.

I catch it, and he winks at me. “Now drink your juice like a good girl. I want it all gone by the time I get back.”

Smirking, I pull off the straw and poke it in the hole. “You’re so bossy, you know that?”

He pulls open the door, reaching back for his wallet on the side table. “Well, if I left it to you, we’d be fucking right now, and you’d go into a diabetic coma. So, sometimes I have to be bossy.”

Chuckling, I take a sip of my juice and shrug. “But at least I’d go into the coma completely satiated.”

He groans as he walks out the door. “Jesus, I’ve only fucked you a few times and already you’re sex-crazed. I’m gonna need to work on my cardio to keep up with you at this rate.”

Waggling my brows, I drop the sheet covering me, showing him my completely naked body. “Hurry back, baby. Your sex-crazed wife wants her bacon, then you for dessert.”

Phoenix groans, clearly rearranges his cock in his jeans, then smiles at me. “I’ll be back soon. Drink your juice, you animal.”

Giggling, I bring my straw to my lips as he closes the door behind him, and I sink back down into the bed. Nothing but happiness flows through me that I could be so lucky to be with a man like him. Someone who takes such good care of me.

I stretch luxuriously in the bed, every muscle in my body reminding me of exactly how thoroughly my husband took care of me last night. I’m still smiling when Dracula jumps up onto the bed, settling himself on my lap with a contented purr.

“Good morning to you, too, you little chaos demon,” I chime, scratching behind his ears. “Did you sleep well despite all the noise we made?”

He blinks at me slowly, like he’s judging my life choices but has decided to approve for now. I laugh, pulling him closer as I settle back against the pillows, drinking the last of my juice.

This is perfect.

This moment, this feeling, this cat purring on my chest while I wait for my husband to bring me breakfast. For the first time in weeks, I feel completely safe and happy.

The guilt is still there, of us being here, in Vegas, living it up while everyone at the club is fighting a war back home. But I push it down, because hopefully we’ll go home soon. We’ll face Maverick’s anger and the club’s judgment and whatever the Cartel has planned next.

But right now, I simply want to enjoy being a newlywed.

I’m lost in thought, absently stroking Dracula’s fur, when he suddenly tenses. His ears prick up, and he lifts his head toward the door, every muscle in his small body going rigid.

“What is it, boy?” I whisper, but he jumps off my lap, racing toward the door with his fur standing on end.

My heart skips in excitement— Phoenix must be back with breakfast.

“You better have brought enough bacon to share,” I call out with a grin, pulling the sheet up to cover myself.

“Because your cat has expensive tastes and—” The door suddenly slams open with such force that it bounces off the wall.

I jump from the shock, not expecting Phoenix to enter with such violence.

But it’s not Phoenix storming inside the hotel room.

It’s three men.

Big men.

Dangerous-looking men.

Men with the kind of dead eyes that tell me exactly who sent them.

The Cartel.

Terror slams into me like a freight train. I clutch the sheet to my chest, my mind racing as the three of them fill our small hotel room. They’re dressed in black, moving with the kind of practiced efficiency that tells me they’re not here to simply chat.

“Well, well,” the largest one says, his voice heavily accented with that particular mix of menace and amusement that makes my blood run cold.

“Clover Cadell. You’re even prettier than those pictures that gave us your location.

You know, for a club brat, they didn’t teach you very well about keeping a low profile. ”

Shit.

The Instagram photos of the wedding told these assholes where we were.

I’m such an idiot!

Dracula hisses and arches his back, trying to make himself bigger as he stands between these fuckers and me. One of the men kicks at him, and the cat yowls, scurrying under the bed.

“Don’t you fucking touch him,” I snarl, my protective instincts overriding my fear for a split second.

The man who spoke laughs, a sound like broken glass. “Such spirit. Javier said you’d have fire in you. Seems he was right.”

Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!

I’m trapped in this room, while Phoenix is across the street trying to take care of me, completely unaware that his worst nightmare is happening.

That my worst nightmare is happening.

The window is too small to climb through, and these men are blocking the only exit.

But you can be damn sure I’m not going down without a fight.

“What the fuck do you want?” I demand, trying to keep my voice steady even though my heart is hammering so hard I can barely breathe.

“You, princesa ,” the second man says, pulling something from his jacket, a cloth. “Javier wants us to have a conversation with you about what the club knows about the Cartel.”

I snort out a laugh. “There’s a reason I’m here and not at the club, dipshit.

They want me away from this war. I don’t know their plans.

And if you hurt me, well, the club is only going to fuck you up even more than whatever it is they already have planned for you and your stupid boss,” I snap, looking for anything I can use as a weapon.

The lamp.

My phone.

Anything.

“Brave words from a naked girl in a cheap hotel room,” the third man sneers. “Where’s your biker boyfriend? Run off and left you already?”

“He’ll be back any second,” I warn, but they just laugh like hyenas.

“We know exactly where he is, mija . Sitting in that diner across the street, ordering eggs and bacon for his little wife. Such a sweet husband. He’s been taking real good care of you. Karaoke, dancing in the rain. He’s a real teddy bear,” the big one mocks.

He shouldn’t know any of this.

And the fact he does makes my blood run cold.

They’ve been watching us.

“Let me put some clothes on,” I say, trying to buy time, trying to think of a way out of this.

“I don’t think there’s any need for that,” the leader says, nodding to his companions. “Javier’s waiting. And we don’t want to make him mad.”

My eyes widen as they begin to move toward me.

My heart rate spikes, but my instinct takes over.

I launch myself off the bed, the sheet dangling around my legs, before I grab for the heavy table lamp.

I swing it with everything I have, catching one of them across the temple.

He staggers back, blood trickling down his face, a savage satisfaction racing through my veins.

“Puta!” he snarls, swiping the blood from his temple. “You’re going to pay for that.”

But my legs move fast, trying to get to the door, to scream for help, to do anything that might save me. One of them grabs my arm, his grip brutal enough to bruise, and I twist away, clawing at his face with my nails. “Get off me,” I scream as loud as I can. “Help! HELP!”

A hand clamps over my mouth, cutting off my cries. I bite down hard, my teeth breaking through his skin, blood seeping into my mouth, making me want to gag while the man swears viciously in Spanish.

But there are three of them and only one of me, and I’m wearing nothing but a bedsheet that is fighting the force of gravity.

I fight like my life depends on it— because it does.

I kick, scratch, and attempt to bite, but they’re stronger, faster, and have that ruthless Cartel venom running through their veins. Within seconds, they have me restrained, the sheet pulled tight around me to limit my movement.

“Feisty little bitch, isn’t she?” one of them pants, nursing the bite marks on his hand.

“Javier likes them with spirit,” the leader replies coldly. “Makes breaking them more fun.”

The words send ice through my veins, but I don’t stop fighting.

I can’t.

If they get me out of this room.

If they get me away from Phoenix.

I’m dead.

Or worse.

That’s when I see it, my cactus wedding ring gleaming on my finger.

The one thing I swore I’d never take off.

The one connection to Phoenix, to this perfect morning, to the happiness I finally found.

With a twist of my wrist that sends shooting pain up my arm, I manage to work the ring off my finger. As they drag me toward the door, I let it fall to the floor by the bed where Phoenix will find it.

Where he’ll know what happened.

Where he’ll know I didn’t leave willingly.

“No!” I scream again, putting everything I have into that one word. “Phoenix,” I scream, my tears flowing freely down my cheeks now.

Suddenly, as I shake and wrack my body from side to side in their grasp, a cloth comes down over my mouth and nose, smelling sharp and chemical. I try to hold my breath, but I’m already lightheaded from fighting, and I can only last so long.

“Sleep tight, princesa ,” the leader whispers as the drug takes hold. “You’ve got a busy day ahead of you.”

The toxic fumes hit me harder than I thought they would. My entire body goes limp in the two men’s arms, the sheet falling off me, leaving my naked body exposed as they begin to pull me out of the safety and sanctuary of my hotel room.

My body is failing me.

I can’t speak.

I can’t fight.

But my eyes are still working.

My ears are still working.

And as a fat tear rolls down my face, and they load me into a van, the man who I hit in the head peers over me, dark, ominous, and dangerous. “Not so feisty now, are you, puta?” He growls, pulling out a syringe with a needle.

I want to scream, I want to fight, but my body won’t let me do anything as I watch him slide the injection into my arm.

I have no clue what he’s putting into me, but as he slides into the back of the van with me, he begins to chuckle.

“Seems like your husband didn’t save you after all. And now we’re gonna have a little fun.”

My heart thrashes against my chest so hard, my eyes welling with tears, it’s almost impossible to see. My head flops to the side, just as they’re closing the door to the van, but the last thing I see is Dracula’s yellow eyes peering up at me from outside the hotel room.

I try to reach out for him, but again, my body won’t move.

The van starts up, the door closes, making everything turn black, and another rag is shoved over my face, that same toxic smell invading my lungs.

But this time, I have no way to fight.

No option but to breathe in the vapors.

My vision blurs, and the world tilts sideways.

I try to fight the drug, try to stay conscious, but it’s too strong.

My last coherent thought is of Phoenix’s face when he realizes I’m gone.

When he finds the ring.

When he understands that our perfect morning was merely the calm before the storm.

I’m sorry.

I’m so sorry I couldn’t fight them off.

I love you.

TO BE CONTINUED