Chapter Four

Linc sat in his private office, staring out the second story window of his newly renovated building. He had purchased the large piece of property knowing it would suit his dream of building The Leisure Club on it someday. Now that the elite club was up and running, it was one of the most successful businesses he had today. It wasn’t like any other strip club he had ever owned. This was his pride and joy, the one thing he was proud of as far as successful business ventures went. The clientele he entertained were strictly high-profile investors who paid very dearly just to be members of the elite private club. Not everyone could become a member. Only money and reputation got a person one very expensive membership into his club.

Politicians, actors and wealthy businessmen were just a few who were among the very elite clientele he had acquired since the doors opened. Linc made sure everyone who was a new member knew the rules before they were allowed to venture around his club. There were two levels people could find themselves lounging around in, depending on the mood they were in when they came to The Leisure Room.

The main floor, known as the common area, was where most members came to enjoy a drink, play some cards with the other members or just sit and have a drink and maybe enjoy some companionship with a beautiful lady for the evening. The women who worked for him were classy and extremely sophisticated, easy to have an intellectual conversation with.

Upstairs he offered a fine dining restaurant with live music nightly. Linc didn’t offer rooms to his clients where they could take their escorts for the evening. This wasn’t a swingers’ club of any kind. It was more of a gentlemen’s club for single and married men who wanted to spend time away from their wives and significant others and not be bitched at for enjoying some time with a beautiful woman. The members weren’t allowed to bring in any outside female guests with them.

The women who worked for Linc were the best he could find. They weren’t paid to sleep with the men who came in; most just wanted to unwind from a hard day’s work with the companionship of a lovely lady. Linc wanted to make sure that his girls wouldn’t give him any trouble with the members. They were to be kind and courteous to everyone they encountered. Linc ran a legit business; he didn’t need the cops to break down his door because they thought he was running an illegal brothel of any kind. His club was nothing like that. Sure, men would meet and hook up for the night, but he didn’t allow his clients to have sex on his premises. The members were encouraged to give each of their companions a little extra something for their time—a tip of some sort. His girls worked hard to ensure Linc’s members were pleased with their experience when they left the club. His club was no different than any bar with the possibility of two people hooking up and going home with each other at the end of the night.

A knock at his door turned him to face whoever was on the other side.

“Yes, come in.”

In walked his club manager, Steve. He and Steve had known each other for years, since Linc had opened his first night club. That was a long time ago and he no longer owned that particular club. Linc had sold it and invested his money wisely, making him extremely rich for someone in his late twenties.

A tall, well-built blond-haired man stepped inside his office and nodded at him. “Hey, boss, Tina just called to remind me that she was off next week. I asked her to call and remind me so we made sure she had a replacement. So I called Rita and asked her if she was still able to come and help us out until Tina gets back and I could barely understand her on the phone. She told me she has been sick with strep throat. I told her I would try and find a replacement, but being such short notice, I would be lucky to find a girl this late.”

Linc leaned back in his chair and contemplated his next words before saying them. “This is the least of my problems right now. They knew the anniversary was next week. I have a mind to fire Tina for taking the time off when we really needed her most.”

“Rita can’t help her being sick. I will put in a call to—”

Linc raised his hand. “No. I think I might know of someone who would be a good fit in the club and who would be willing to work on such short notice. But I will need you to show up where she works and take a listen for yourself. Once you are comfortable with her performance...” Linc wrote down the name of the club and the amount he planned to pay her to work in his club. “See if you can get Ms. Alison Arbor’s attention with this number.”

Steve looked at the paper. He brought it to his face to take a closer look. Then he eyed Linc and asked, “You must really love her singing to pay her this much.”

“I have heard her sing for myself. She’s worth more than that for just the night.” Linc knew he would have Alison’s attention with that figure. There was no way she could turn him down with the amount he planned to pay her for two nights’ work.

“You don’t even pay Tina this much to sing in one week.” Steve smirked. “I have a feeling this Alison Arbor is more than just a pretty voice.”

Linc could still hear her sweet voice as she stood up on stage and sang for the crowd. He knew she wouldn’t be able to turn his offer down. He had been trying for an entire week to figure out a way to get up enough nerve to go and see her again. Normally he had never had a problem approaching a woman he found attractive. But there was something about Alison that had him tongue-tied. Her sheer beauty had him captivated while she was up on stage. He had wanted to buy her a drink after she was finished, but he found himself scared to talk to her. That wasn’t like him at all.

“I’ll let you handle this one. Keep me posted after you speak with her.”

Steve nodded. “There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you.”

Linc leaned forward in his chair. “Yes?”

“Joe just called me to let me know that Manny Delgado and two of his goons are in the club downtown asking questions about you to some of the employees. I’m told he’s still there right now. What do you want me to do about this?”

Manny Delgado was a son of a bitch who regularly kidnapped girls and sold them into sex slavery. With the help of the Sons of Sinners, Linc had managed to intercept six of his victims who had been brought by boat in order to be sold as sex slaves. When Linc got wind of what Manny was doing he did what he could to give those six women a fighting chance at living before they got into the hands of a monster. Linc was able to get all six girls to a safehouse and out of harm’s way. Too bad one of the girls had insisted that she return home to help out her relative with an illness she was going through. Manny had found out where Gina was and had her killed as an example to the others of what would happen if they were found.

Linc made sure that the other five girls were safe in a secure environment under the watchful eye of the Sons of Sinners on their compound. Stone and Jace, along with the other MC members, would make sure to keep the girls safe until the danger of Manny no longer existed.

“Have Joe stall him there for a while. Have some of my best girls show him and his friends a good time. That will give me enough time to head down there to introduce myself in person. Whatever you do, don’t let him leave. Do whatever it takes to keep him there.”

A man like Manny Delgado didn’t deserve to exist in this world.

Now that Linc was older, he was an extremely wealthy and reputable businessman who had earned the respect of the people who worked for him. He stayed away from illegal activities and tried to stay under the radar of law enforcement. Now if he wanted things done, he had others do his dirty work for him. That’s why he had the Sons of Sinners on his payroll.

Linc had done a lot of things in life that he wasn’t too proud of to get him where he was today. He had come a long way from the scared teenager who did what he had to do to protect himself and Sienna while living on the streets. The days of stealing just to eat and even killing to survive were long behind him. He wasn’t proud of what he had done, but someone had tried to hurt Sienna. Something snapped inside him the day he saw her running from her house and into his arms. He vowed that day to never let anyone ever harm a hair on her head if he had a say in the matter.

He took care of her after they ran away from their foster homes. It was just the two of them. He did whatever he needed just to feed them and put a roof over their heads. And then one day he met a guy who told him he could help him out if he did this one job for him. What Linc didn’t know was that he would be a mule for a drug dealer. He never told Sienna what he was doing to make the kind of money he was. And she never asked as long as he came home every night unharmed. Eventually the guy he worked for got shot and killed by a rival dealer. Linc had enough money saved up so that he was able to get a real job as a bouncer in a strip club. The guy he worked for, Don, had made him a deal after he earned his respect and kept him around the place. Linc was made the manager of the club and had a lot of great ideas to help make Linc a partner. Years later, Don passed away, leaving Linc to run the club himself. With the money he made in that one club, he decided to open up another one until he had several to be proud of.

Drugs had been a big part of his life. He got mixed up in the wrong crowd and found himself doing more than his body liked him to. In time it got old to him; he wanted his head clear. He didn’t want drugs to cloud his brain and cause him to fail as a businessman. Nowadays Linc enjoyed a few cocktails to unwind after a long day, but he used alcohol as more of a social interaction rather than letting it take over his life. Drugs and alcohol were in his past. He didn’t like to abuse either. Linc was too busy making money and making sure Sienna was taken care of. Now that she was happy and in a ménage relationship with her men, Marx and Dalton, he was envious of their relationship. He wanted to meet someone he could see spending the rest of his life with. Too bad that woman didn’t seem to exist. If he did meet the right woman, he would probably scare her off the minute he told her all the secrets of his life. The woman he met would have to learn to trust him and be able to live with his past. After all these years of searching for the right one, he had given up all hope that she existed.