Chapter Three

Bren slid into the back seat, but he left the door open and one foot on the ground. He never shut himself into a car until they were ready to roll. "We leaving now?"

"Waiting for Flash," Jasper muttered.

"Aw, shit. Did we check to see if he had his hand in Amira's pants? 'Cause that'll take all day."

Flash jerked open the front passenger door. "That's why I have a woman and you don't."

"Something you never let anyone forget," Bren drawled.

The third man folded his immense body into the front seat and grinned, looking entirely self-satisfied. "Marking that girl was the smartest move I ever made. You think the women are hot before they get the ink around their throats? You have no fucking idea."

Flash's satisfaction was a tangible thing, filling the scant space left in the car. Jasper started the engine. "Where's this place supposed to be?"

The man's smugness melted away, replaced by brisk, businesslike seriousness. "Over by the border with Five, just outside the second perimeter. I think they took over an abandoned church."

"Are they stupid or desperate?"

"Probably both."

Both was dangerous. Jas pointed the car toward their destination. "Our orders from Dallas are to tear it down. Standard shit. This is their warning. If they rebuild, we tear them down."

"Standard shit," Bren agreed.

"Violence and mayhem." Flash grinned. "I hope someone takes a swing at me."

Jas unbent enough to smile. "And ruin that pretty face?"

"Didn't say I'd let them hit me." Flash clenched his fists. "I'm itching to deal a little damage. Property, people... Whatever gets in my way."

Bren leaned over the back of the front seat. "Save it for the cage. Pick up some extra money."

"Why, you going to climb in there with me?"

"Hell, no. But there's never any shortage of dumbasses who will."

"Chicken." Flash muttered the word, but there wasn't much heat behind it. He played for keeps in the cage and didn't relish facing off against the few men he actually liked. "So what's the deal with the new girl? Amira says she's like a baby deer in the woods."

Jas shifted gears as the car pulled free of the more congested, debris-scattered streets and gained speed. "Something like that." A woman desperate to find a place and a little bit of safety was more like it.

"I hope she takes to waiting tables. Maybe then Amira'll quit bitching that Rachel's got too much on her shoulders. She's pissed I won't let her work, but fuck if she's gonna haul trays around when she's pregnant with my kid."

"She could do something less physically taxing," Jasper pointed out.

"I don't want her around outsiders, either."

No, Flash wouldn't rest easy having her exposed to unknown dangers. "Amira's sharp. Dallas could probably use her help with paperwork. Keeping the books."

Flash grunted and glanced at Bren. "No smartass comments from you?"

"What? He's right." Bren shrugged. "Only questionable thing the woman's ever done is place her bets on a monster like you."

"Monsters always get the girls," Flash said, his haughty arrogance returning. "We're the ones who can keep them safe."

Safe. Jas swallowed a growl. Amira wanted a damn sight more from Flash than that, and she got it--even if the man barely seemed to realize it. She always watched him with a mix of adoration and indulgence, and none of it had to do with his macho posturing.

As usual, Flash was oblivious. "Up here." He pointed to an intersection where rundown buildings sagged alongside burned-out warehouses.

Jas slowed the car and took a turn around the block. "Remember what I said, both of you. No blood."

"And if they hit first?"

"Then you do what you've got to do."

Bren checked his sidearm as Jas parked in a shadowed spot in the alley. "We've got it--no excessive force."

"No excessive force." Jasper jerked open his door.

Flash popped the car's trunk and pulled out a sledgehammer before falling in behind him as they headed for the side door of the warehouse. "Is kicking the door in excessive?"

"Come on, man." Bren stretched his neck and grinned. "Jasper's polite. He'd rather knock."

Flash tightened his grip on his makeshift weapon with an answering expression of mirth. "Good. That'll make the surprise bigger when I rip the place up. Go on, lover boy. Knock."

"You both talk too much." Jas shouldered through the door and watched as the men surrounding the copper monstrosity in the center of the room scattered. "Nice still, boys."

The leader cursed and dove for a gun, swinging it up to point at Jasper's forehead as chaos erupted behind him. "We're on the border between sectors," he snapped. "This isn't O'Kane territory."

Bren swore and reached into his jacket, but Jas held up a hand as he stared down the barrel of the gun. There had been a time when the sight had scared him, a time when that tiny little black space inside the muzzle had expanded to encompass the world, and he'd been so sure it could swallow him whole.

It still could. Jasper wondered idly where the fear had gone, then forced his thoughts back to the task at hand. "It's possible you don't understand what a non-compete clause is. I've come to explain it to you."

The gun barrel wavered. "What the fuck sort of fucking bullshit is this?"

"It's an opportunity," Jas said evenly. "A chance to start over someplace else."

The blond man hesitated, his gaze leaping to Bren and Flash and back. "We can't move our operation."

"Yes, you can." Jasper gripped the man's wrist and twisted until the barrel of the gun pointed toward the exposed steel rafters above. "Once we're done, you won't be operational anymore. Easy enough to move then."

As if to punctuate the point, Flash hefted the sledgehammer and swung it through a crate of bottles. Everything shattered, wood and glass alike, crashing to the ground.

Blondie cursed and tried to free his gun hand. "Fuck, you can't do that."

Jasper gestured Bren forward to check the tanks. "First warning's your only warning. Next time, Flash tosses that sledge through your face."

"Tanks are clear," Bren declared. "Looks like they're between batches."

Two of the men started forward when Flash lifted his weapon again. A snarl and bared teeth had them scrambling back, and Flash demolished their remaining supplies in an orgy of gratuitous destruction, the very recklessness of it its own message. O'Kane didn't need to steal supplies from competitors. O'Kane would just wipe them off the map.

Jas didn't release his grip on the leader's wrist, even when the man kept fidgeting. Instead, he spoke calmly. "You're going to let us walk out of here with no trouble and go set up shop someplace else. You're going to do it because nothing here is worth dying for. Yes?"

The leader rolled his eyes toward his men, who looked torn between rage and disgust. He could let Jasper walk away, but he wouldn't be leading anyone.

He knew it, too. Bravado and bluff filled his eyes. "There're more of us than there are of you."

"Yes, that's true."

He twisted fast, thrusting his free hand behind his back. Another gun. Jasper jerked the man's arm with a snap. "Don't."

The second gun spilled from nerveless fingers as Flash stomped across the floor, scattering splintered wood, glass shards, and cheap liquor across the cement. "Boss?"

"Back to the car. They've learned their lesson." He squeezed a little harder, and the bones in the leader's wrist ground together. "Haven't they?"

"Yes," came the pained, shaky whisper. "We're gone."

He released him and stepped back. "Don't forget--Dallas O'Kane doesn't do second chances."

No one tried to stop them as they left. No one said a damn word.

Back in the car, Flash heaved a sigh. "So much for a fight. What a bunch of limp-dick cowards."

Cowardice or intelligence, Jasper didn't really care what had motivated them. "Would you rather fight, Flash? All it takes for someone to get the jump on you is a split second, and Amira could be raising that kid alone."

"She'll never be alone," Flash shot back, "not while she's an O'Kane." He shifted on the seat with a growl. "Are you telling me you don't miss it, even a little? Having to fight to protect our territory instead of showing up and watching them all piss themselves?"

"Of course I miss it," Jasper muttered. If he didn't, he wouldn't spend so much time in the brawling ring and the cage. "But this is what we were fighting for. Enough recognition and respect to not have to spend all our time cracking heads to get the point across."

Bren spoke from the back seat. "He's saying you should get your ya-yas out some other way, 'cause this is the new standard operating procedure."

"Fuckin' hell." Flash grumbled for a few minutes more before subsiding with a sigh and switching back to his favorite topic. "The cage is better anyway. Amira gets fucking wild watching. You two don't know what you're missing."

Bren kicked the seat. "But you're gonna tell us--at length, whether we want you to or not."

How would Noelle react to the violence of the cage fights? Amira knew how members of the gang blew off steam and settled scores amongst themselves. Noelle, on the other hand, was used to pacifism. Civility.

And look where it got her, a voice growled deep inside him. Drugged and helpless, waiting to die.

Flash was still running his mouth. "Since when do you not like the dirty details? Or am I supposed to shut up 'cause the bleeding heart over here's got his panties in a twist? Honestly, Jas, why are you in such a fucking foul mood?"

"Because I have to deal with you. Isn't that enough?"

"Nah, I'm a laugh a minute."

Jasper didn't fight his grin. "Your face is."

"Least it's not my dick. Poor Bren."

Bren snorted. "Amira seems to like it okay."

Flash lunged, driving his hip into Jasper's arm as he swung at Bren between the seats.

Jasper swore and jerked the wheel to correct their course, but the left front bumper clipped an already-dented garbage can. "This is one of Dallas's new cars. He just got it running the way he wants it."

"Fucker." Flash settled on his seat. "I'll punch you when we're back home."

"When we get back, we're all going to have a drink and think of a good way to break the news about the busted headlight to Dallas."

»»» § «««

Noelle couldn't carry a tray worth a damn.

Not that it mattered much. Lex had poured her into a pair of leather pants that hugged her ass and a halter top that only precariously covered her tits. Jasper caught himself staring, watching for the inevitable moment when the slinky silver fabric would shift just a little too far.

"We're stuck with her," Dallas drawled next to him. "We might as well ink your waif now. Lex went and got attached, and now she'll take my dick off if I kick the girl to the curb."

Dallas wasn't scared of Lex, not for a second, which meant something more like sentimentality--or mercy--motivated him. "She's trying. After a day, that's about all you can ask."

"Yeah, she's trying." Dallas ignored the women gyrating on stage and watched Noelle smile at two customers as she set drinks in front of them. "And she's a little lost lamb in a den of wolves."

The other waitress who'd been training her, Rachel, joined Noelle in animated conversation with the customers, and Jasper finally looked down into his glass. "Maybe Lex'll keep her."

"Unlikely." Dallas stirred his drink. "If it'll bother you when the men start fighting over her, you better get straight. Because that girl wants it, and when she gets around to admitting it, the boys are gonna give it to her."

Jasper didn't have time for a woman, much less one with big eyes who would expect things. "What, you don't like her?"

A shrug. "She's got a nice ass. Pretty mouth. I like the idea of Lex teaching her how to give head. But I'm not in the market for a keeper."

Jasper let his gaze stray back to Noelle. "Neither am I."

As if she could feel his gaze, she glanced up and smiled, an open expression edged with a hint of shyness. An unwitting invitation.

Dallas snorted. "That one's in the market to keep you."

How could she be? "She doesn't know me, and a day isn't long enough to know what it's like around here, either."

"She doesn't know shit about shit," Dallas agreed. "But you're her bloody fucking savior, and good for you. What I don't need is you beating the other men bloody outside of the cage 'cause you're a jealous motherfucker. So hit it or quit it."

"You're a humorless bastard. When did you get so cranky?"

"Times are tough in the slums of paradise. Politics are heating up in the city."

Politics. Jasper hated them, thought about them as little as possible, and even that effort was reserved for the careful dance of power between the gangs that ruled the sectors. He never thought about the shit going down in the city. "Uh-huh."

Dallas huffed out a laugh and rose, glass in hand. "You suck at pretending to give a shit, Jas. I'm going to go find someone who'll suck at something more interesting."

Nothing went on at the Broken Circle without Dallas's approval, explicit or not. "If I kept her--and that's a big if--it wouldn't be because she has no place to go. I'd rather help her out as a friend than rope her into something she doesn't understand."

"I'm not fucking heartless. She can stay, and you and Lex can be responsible for her." Dallas hit him with a stern look. "But don't make a habit of this. I can't take in every stray the city kicks out."

True, and Jasper had seen him flat-out ignore people a lot more pathetic than Miss Cunningham. Whatever was driving him to tolerate Noelle probably had more to do with Lex than his compassion. "Yes, sir."

Dallas strode away, stopping to say something to Rachel and Noelle. Noelle looked at the stage and transferred her tray to Rachel's more competent hands.

Then she turned and wove a path through the tables, heading directly for Jasper.

He pulled out a chair and nodded to it. "Taking a break?"

She slipped into the seat, and for a moment he thought the halter was going to lose its grip on her breasts. "Dallas told me I should watch the show with you."

"I'm sure he did."

Her cheeks colored. "You don't want me to?"

"He's testing you," Jasper explained. Testing them both was more like it, but she didn't need to know that. "He wants to see if watching makes you run and hide."

"It might make me squirm and blush," she admitted, eyeing the stage. "But if I was prone to running and hiding from sex, I wouldn't be here."

"If all sexual encounters were equally shocking, you'd be set," he murmured. "But there's shit that goes on up there that I never saw before I joined up."

"Really?" Her eyes widened, their blue faded to smoky gray in the dim lights. "Like what?"

"Depends on the night. This? It's just a little dancing, some making out for show." He stretched his arm across the back of her chair and motioned to the curtain behind the front half of the stage. "There's a raised section back there they use for the real action. Most nights, it's two or three of the girls getting it on."

"Oh." Still wide-eyed, but she didn't look appalled. She leaned back, and her curly, unbound hair tickled across his arm. "It's kind of hot," she whispered, watching the current dancer swivel her hips. "That's what I used to dream about. Being that free. Not having to hide."

Or maybe her fantasies were simply that. "If you want to see what that freedom's like, you'll have the perfect chance tonight. Dallas is having a party after hours."

She tore her gaze from the dancer and studied him. "The parties are like that?"

He'd have to lay it out for her. "Some people are paired off, but they're not hard to spot. They have the collars, you know, or ink. Everyone else just wants to get off. You can join in or you can watch, but that's pretty much all it is. Wall-to-wall fucking."

Her top was so slinky he saw her nipples stiffen under the fabric. "That's the sort of party we were trying to have when I got arrested. None of us were very good at it. People who are good at it don't last long in Eden."

"Yeah? Well, remember--it's optional."

She slid her hand onto his thigh, awkward instead of smooth. Her fingers dug in, and her expression was more earnest than sultry. "Are you going to be there?"

"I'd planned on it." But that wasn't what she was really asking--and it wasn't what he wanted to say, either. "You want to go with me, Noelle?"

Shivering, she swayed toward him. "Do you think I'm a harlot?"

She could not be serious. "No. I think maybe you're a lady who likes to fuck."

Noelle's lips twitched. A laugh bubbled up, and she jerked her hand from his leg to cover her mouth. "You say it so easily, like it's not the same thing at all."

"Because it's not. No one here is going to think you're a bad person." Seeing her mouth covered was a travesty, so he pried her fingers away and rubbed his thumb over her lower lip. "I'll show you tonight, and you'll see."

She wet her lower lip, her tongue flicking over the tip of his thumb. "I've only done it once," she admitted in a husky whisper. "They caught us the other night before I made it to the actual fornicating."

Practically the virgin everyone would assume she was, and the big guy was right. The other men would be fighting to get balls-deep in her by the end of the night. "Tonight, you can watch," he said evenly, a fucking miracle when she was already licking him.

"With you?"

Her chest heaved with every breath, and Jasper flicked the material aside just enough to catch a hint of one pink nipple. "Yeah, with me."

She gasped, and this time she licked his thumb on purpose. "But no sex?"

"No sex." If he could manage it.

A tiny frown tugged at her lips. "Why not?"

"Because first I've got to figure out how to give it to you."

She shivered again and looked down. Her hair spilled forward to hide her face, but not before he saw her blush. "Maybe I'll get some ideas tonight."

Or she'd run screaming, thinking a simple life in the communes might not be a bad idea, after all. "We'll see, sweetheart. We'll see."