Chapter Seven
Anna stared down at her leg, and released a sigh. She was nearly good as new. Her arm was not going to be coming out of the cast anytime soon. She was able to move it, and still cook providing she didn’t put too much strain on her arm. The food Russ bought didn’t require her to cut or dice anything, as he bought it pre-diced. It was a lazy shortcut, but she had been able to cook pretty much one handed in the past couple of weeks.
She still couldn’t believe that she had been staying with Russ for over two weeks, nearly three. She’d spent two weeks in the hospital prior to that. So much time had passed already. Five weeks in total without Karen, and she was coping.
“Are you okay?” Russ asked.
Glancing up, she saw him leaning against the doorway. He was wearing another business suit. It was Russ’s MO, business suits during the day, and at night, the leather jacket came out. She loved his leather jacket, and in the past couple of weeks, she’d started to love the man who wore the leather. She loved him as a friend of course.
Anna wouldn’t dream of there being anything else between them.
“I’ve got good news,” she said.
“What?”
“I’m no longer on pain meds, and my arm is setting fine. We’ve got another couple of weeks, and they might get to remove the cast.” She held her arm up.
“Everything else? All the bruises and cuts?”
“Fine. It’s all superficial. I’m perfectly fine.” She climbed off the bed. “I’m good to go back to my apartment now.”
“I don’t think so. Until that cast comes off your arm, you’re not going anywhere.” He placed his arm over her shoulders, leading her out of the room. “I think I should take you out for dinner.”
Glancing down at her clothes, Anna groaned. “I’m not exactly dressed for dinner.”
“Your clothes are easily taken care of. One stop to a store, and you’ll be perfect to take out to any restaurant.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not restaurant material.”
He cursed, tutted, and gripped the back of her neck. She shivered at the possessiveness in his touch. Russ turned her head so she had no choice but to look at him. “You keep on saying shit about yourself I’m going to put you over my knee, and spank your ass.”
“What?” Her cheeks tightened at the thought of his hand coming down on her butt.
“You heard me. I’m tired of you constantly putting yourself down. Stop it, or I will punish you for every bad word you say against yourself.”
“Don’t be an ass. You won’t do it.”
“You think I won’t?”
She shook her head and smiled.
“Then it looks like I’m going to have to show you how annoyed I get with it. I’m counting, and that’s one.”
Anna rolled her eyes, not believing one word he’d said.
She was thankful that she was able to climb into his car without any help from him. Running fingers through her hair, she released a sigh.
“What are you in the mood for? Italian? Chinese? French?” he asked.
“You pick. I like it all. You should know that by now.”
“Two.”
She didn’t say anything, leaning her hand on her hand, and staring out of the window.
Thirty minutes later they stopped outside of an expensive looking boutique.
“Russ, they won’t have my size. Please, let’s go home.”
“Three.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“Shut up, Anna.” He parked his car, rounded the car, and forcibly removed her from the car, and she was surprised that he was able to do so without even hurting her. He was annoying her with how easily he could move her. She expected him to break into a sweat or something.
They walked into the large designer boutique, Russ showed his business card and told them he wanted several cocktail dresses and outfits. Before Anna knew what was happening she was being ushered toward the dressing rooms.
“I’m Laura,” the woman said.
“Anna.”
“I’ve dealt with Russ several times. He always spends well.”
Standing still, she blushed as Laura pulled out some measuring tape, and started to take down her measurements. For the next ten minutes Anna blushed through the entire ordeal, hating every second of it.
“I’ll be right back with dresses for you.”
Laura left the room, and Anna sat down on the seat, glancing at her reflection. The bruises on her face had faded, and all that remained of the attack was her arm in the cast. The bruises around her ribs were still there, but they were a distant memory now.
“I’ve got some dresses here. Russ likes them, and he wants to see you in the red.”
“I’d prefer blue,” Anna said, wincing when Laura held up a silk red dress. “That material will cling to everything, and I’ve got a lot of everything.”
Laura tutted. “Russ has instructions, and he likes them to be adhered to.”
Sighing, Anna took a deep breath, and decided to go right ahead, and get stuck in. “All right.”
Removing her clothes, Anna wiggled into the dress that surprisingly fit perfectly. Laura secured the back, and when Anna turned back to look in the mirror she was surprised to see that she actually looked okay. Her hair fell around her in waves, and the dress seemed to push her breasts up.
“You look beautiful. Your sneakers won’t work though.”
Before Anna could stop her, Laura opened up the curtain, and there was Russ outside.
“That’s five,” he said.
She rolled her eyes, and waited as he looked. “What do you think?”
His gaze traveled down her body, and she was sure she detected heat in his eyes.
“You look beautiful.”
“I’ll go and get some black heels.”
Laura was gone, leaving them alone.
Placing her hand on her stomach, Anna looked down. “You think I’ll do?”
“More than do.” Russ stood up, and moved toward her.
“You come here often.”
There was something predatory with his steps. She was the prey, and he was the predator.
“Not really. Some of the women at the club needed new clothes. Laura takes care of them.”
“Is Laura one of your women?” Anna asked, surprisingly jealous of her.
“No. She auditioned for the part but never made it.”
“Why?”
Russ laughed. “Do you really want to know?” he asked.
“Yes.” She needed to create that distance so she stopped thinking about Russ as a man. He needed to remain a friend, nothing more.
“She didn’t like being fucked in the ass, nor did she like swallowing.”
Anna jerked back, and Russ caught her, holding her wrist. “I keep forgetting you’re part of an MC. The whole business persona confuses me.”
“That’s the idea, baby.”
“When you first started the club, did people take you for granted? Think you were weaker than they were?”
“Yes, and it was their mistake. It was a mistake they never made again.”
“I can see that.”
He caressed her wrist, and she glanced down at where he was touching. The distance she was trying to create between them wasn’t working. Russ stared at her mouth, and she found herself biting her lip.
“Anna?”
“I’m so sorry. I went and didn’t even think about asking your size,” Laura said.
Jerking away from Russ, Anna turned to Laura. She was thankful the other woman had interrupted them.
Laura asked her what size she was, and when Anna answered, Laura smiled. “I picked that one up. Talk about lucky.”
The shoes were placed in front of her, and stepping into them, Anna was shocked by how comfortable the fit was. The heel wasn’t too big either, which was a relief. She hated wearing heels.
Running her hands down her thighs, she stared at Russ once again. “How do I look?”
“Stunning.” He turned toward Laura. “I want to see all of the clothes I picked out for her.”
“You picked out this dress?”
“Yes. I have good taste I think.”
She made her way behind the curtain, and tapped Laura’s arm. “Did he pick the size?” Anna whispered the question so he wouldn’t hear.
“Yes, I did. I picked very well, didn’t I?” Russ said, speaking through the curtain.
Closing her eyes she groaned.
“I’d take that to mean seven now.”
“You can’t count.”
“I can count perfectly. You don’t want me to know your size, and also the way you just groaned, added to the other five you’ve gotten, it makes seven.”
“Do I even want to know what he’s counting?” Laura asked.
“No,” Anna said, before Russ had a chance to embarrass her.
For the next half an hour, she was forced to try on four more dresses along with different shoes to go with each outfit. Anna never spent this much time thinking about what clothes to wear, and knowing Russ picked them out, including the sizes, made her even more uncomfortable.
Only when he had enough did he say it was the last outfit, and that she had to put the red one back on. So, forty-five minutes later they were finally leaving the shop with several packages, which Russ placed in the trunk of the car.
“Where are we going now?” she asked.
“I paid for you to look the right part for the restaurant, and now we’re going to eat.”
****
They were getting a lot of attention, and Russ saw it was making her nervous. A couple of the men were ignoring their dates to simply gaze at her. Anna had no idea how beautiful she actually was. Laura had grabbed a couple of hair grips, and pulled some of her hair back, leaving most of it down.
Several women were giving her the stink eye, but in his world, women were catty.
“So, I fit the part to be in this posh restaurant?” She sat back in her seat, resting her arm in her lap.
“I wouldn’t even wear my leather cut here. I’ve always got my business suit lined up for a place like this. Did we overdo it today?” he asked, pointing at her arm.
“A little. It just aches a bit, but apparently that’s a good thing. It means it’s working.” She touched her shoulder, and pressed a little. “It’s fine. Working it is fine. The sooner it gets fixed, the sooner I can get back to work.”
She could work now, but he had talked to Franny about him not wanting her to return to work.
Franny knew he wanted her. The whole of the club knew he wanted her, and yet the only person who didn’t see it was the person herself.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You don’t fit in with your leather cut?” She had that sexy little smile she gave out whenever he was actually wearing his cut.
“No. I tried, but they turned my ass away.”
“That’s not very good at all.” She giggled. “I prefer your leather cut.”
“The whole world doesn’t like it.” He took the menu that the waitress offered, and watched as Anna opened her menu up.
“The whole world can suck eggs as far as I’m concerned. I hate the way the world works.”
“You’re rather bitter.”
Anna looked up from her menu. “Take this restaurant for example. They accepted me inside this place without any problem. You change my clothes, and they would turn me away. I’ve never needed fancy stuff.”
“I get that. I want to treat you. How about we start with a glass of wine?”
“I like that idea.”
He signaled the waitress, and made sure Anna got a glass of wine while he took a water.
“You’re not drinking with me?” she asked, taking a sip.
“No. I’ve got to get us home first.”
“Then how about I have one glass here, and then we go and have a drink back at your place.”
Our place.
He didn’t say that though, and nodded. “I hope you’re ready. I love a drink.”
“I’m not much of a drinker, but putting Karen to rest made me want to drink. I think now is a better time.” She raised her glass. “To us?”
“To Karen.”
“To Karen.”
They clinked their glasses, and he took a sip of his water. He couldn’t take his gaze away from Anna. She was such a beautiful, graceful woman. He wondered if her lack of seeing her beauty was what attracted to him.
Russ had been with a lot of women who knew they were beautiful, and they didn’t work at anything else to draw attention. They just believed their beauty was more than enough. It never was, and he got bored with them.
“She would have loved to have come here. We used to pass places like this, and she’d stop and get all excited.”
“About coming here?” he asked.
“No, about success. Where we would be so successful no one could turn us away. Karen tried to get a job as a waitress here, but she told me it wasn’t her style. I don’t know what that meant, and to be honest, I still don’t know. I guess now I never will. It sucks.”
He reached across the table, taking her hands. “Don’t do this right now. I know it’s hard, but be here with me.”
“Yes. This is about celebrating the freedom of my leg. Has Lewis found anything more?”
Russ talked to her about everything that was going on with the devices, and how they were helping with tracking down other criminal gangs.
“We’re locating another possible trafficking site.”
He watched her tense up.
“I can’t believe there are so many of them. I mean you hear about them on the news, but you don’t believe they’re real when they really are, and that is terrifying.”
“It’s a big business.”
“Men buying women as if they’re loaves of bread? It doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t like it.” She took another sip of her wine.
“We’re going to stop them.”
“When you stop them more come up to take their place.”
“Let’s talk about something else. What were your plans for that property you were checking out?” he asked, trying to distract her. This had memories of Karen, but he’d come to see everything in Anna’s life had been filled with her friend.
“I told you we weren’t sure what to do with it.”
“I’m asking about your dreams, your thoughts.” He kept hold of her hands, stroking over her wrist.
“I don’t know. I wanted to either open up a bakery—but I’m not professionally trained—or we were going to open up an artisan store specializing in locally grown produce.” She released a breath. “We were going to plan everything else out.”
He nodded. “A plan is always a good place to start.”
“It is, and good food is always appreciated. I think it’s time for us to order.”
Russ signaled the waitress over, and they ordered their food. He asked for some breadsticks while they waited.
Anna took one the moment they were on the table, and he grabbed one for himself as well.
He really wanted to help her to reach her dreams, but they were all over the place right now.
Turning the conversation to some of the movies they watched, Russ had the best date ever. Anna didn’t have a clue that it was a date, but it was one. The restaurant fell away, and he became absorbed in everything that was her.
When they were finished, he paid for their food, and was on his way toward his apartment when his cell phone rang.
He saw it was Lewis, and answered. “What is it?” he asked.
“We’ve got something. You need to come and have a look,” Lewis said.
It had been a long time since he’d heard Lewis excited, but that was exactly how his friend sounded.
“I’ve got Anna with me.”
“Bring her to the club. She can sit and wait for a few minutes.”
Glancing at Anna, he saw her interest was piqued.
“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Lewis?” she asked.
“Yeah, he wants me to stop by to see something.”
“Go on, and I’ll go back to the apartment.”
“Nah, he’s desperate. You’re coming with me. I just hope you can stomach being inside the B. B. MC clubhouse.”
“I can handle it. Richard told me it’s more of a fancy bar. He said think proper MC just with billionaires’ backing.”
Russ laughed. Several of the guys had stopped by to see her when he’d been at work. She was the first woman that he’d refused to ignore. Every other woman he saved had been taken to the hospital, and he forgot all about them. With Anna, he couldn’t forget about her.
He took her over town toward the clubhouse, and parked the car. The building was heavily secured, and at each gate he had a different security number.
“Wow, you really value your privacy.”
“There’s a reason we’re helping the cops. We all know our shit. Inside that building are nine very intelligent, business minded men,” Russ said, parking in his spot. “We’re not just a front from all of the businesses. We all did this together.”
“I believe you.”
When they entered the bar, he first saw Tina, who was turned toward him. He placed his hand on Anna’s back, and urged her forward. Richard, Jamie, and Sean looked his way as well.
“Wow, talk about fancy meets sexual,” Anna said.
He chuckled.
“Anna, you’re walking normally,” Richard said.
“Yeah, no more crutches. Be careful, I can catch you, and hit you on the head.” She held her arm up in a cast.
“Not with that ass you can’t,” Tina said, mumbling. It was loud enough for Russ to hear, and it pissed him off.
Anna didn’t show any sign of having heard, so he left it alone. He didn’t want her to be nervous around him, and so left her at the bar.
“Have you heard?” he asked, talking to the three men.
“Yeah. It’s big, Russ. Lewis is, well, he’s planning something.”
Russ went straight through to the main office where he found the rest of the club. Lewis was pacing.
“I’ve found her, Russ. I’ve found Mandy.”
Jackson, Blake, and Malcolm shook their heads.
Russ would need to be the person who put some focus onto his friend.
“Tell me what you’ve got.”
“So I was looking through the final tablet, and it has a connection to a live feed.”
“Live feed?” Russ asked.
“Think of it as a constantly running CCTV but in a house,” Jackson said.
At the main screen in the room Lewis did some typing on a keyboard, and over twenty mini screens appeared in front of him.
“Holy shit,” Russ said.
On one of the screens he saw several women bound in cages. Their eyes were covered, and they were tied to the bars.
“Where is this?”
“I don’t know yet, but if we find the location of this house, we find a large order of girls,” Lewis said.
“This isn’t what has him excited though,” Malcolm said.
Lewis went back to typing away at his keyboard, and up came an image of a woman. She was a fuller woman, and Russ was surprised by the clear picture the security had picked up.
“She’s alive, Russ. I fucking told you she’s alive.”
Russ watched as the woman entered a room, and started looking for something underneath the bed. In the next moment, she was talking on the phone, and he saw her place a device in front of her mouth.
He didn’t like this.
“She’s helping us. I knew it.”
“Lewis, I hate to burst your bubble, but you better hope whoever that device belonged to hasn’t seen this.”
Then the reality of what Mandy had done and what they had witnessed came over Lewis.
“Fuck!”
“Yeah.” Lewis scrambled toward the device, and Russ moved around the back of him. This was going to torment Lewis, and Russ had a horrible feeling it was going to be bad news.