Blade

 

“You awake? Still with us?” a voice asked as I woke up with a jerk.

 

“Those smelling salts will get you every time,” the voice said, directed away from me this time.

 

I lifted my head and looked around as everything came into focus. The person standing in front of me wore a blue suit with his greasy hair slicked back. He was looking at other people in the room, cracking jokes, but he was the only person laughing at them.

 

“You must be Axel,” I said. My throat rasped with disgust.

 

“How perceptive of you!” he cheered.

 

“Yeah, great. So you’re the one who’s been trying to take us down. I always thought you were some lowlife drug dealer. What’s with the get-up?” I asked.

 

“I’m no longer your local dope pusher. I’ve moved on to much bigger things,” he said with a cocky smile on his disgusting little face.

 

I went to swing on him. He was close enough for me to knock that shitty little grin across the room. But something held my arm back, held both of my arms back. I looked over my shoulder and realized the mammoth from outside was holding me. I looked across the room and saw Maggie, tied to a chair. Next to me was Vlad.

 

“I’m sorry, Blade,” he said when our eyes met.

 

“Oh good,” Axel said quickly as he raised his gun and shot Vlad right in front of me.

 

Maggie screamed. The goon standing behind the Russian jumped back from the sudden gunshot. Blood spattered on my face. The man who had saved my life slumped forward in his chair. The arms holding me back tightened.

 

“He deserved better than that,” I yelled at Axel. Vlad had been a lot of things. He’d been a criminal and a pervert. But he’d saved my life. There had been some decency in the man despite the unwholesome, and often depraved, ways he made money. He didn’t deserve to die like a dog.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Hold on.” He stood in front of the Russian’s slumped body and crossed himself like he was in church. “Better?”

 

“You bastard,” I growled through clenched teeth. I struggled against the arms holding me back. How the hell could any man be so strong? The behemoth just laughed as I fought him.

 

“Are you ready to talk yet?” Axel asked. “Or do you want to keep playing with Beefcake here? You do realize he could snap you like a child’s toy if he wanted, right?”

 

“Okay, let’s talk,” I sighed. I stopped struggling and let the giant hold me up. I leaned forward against his grip, letting all my weight hang from his arms. He had to grow tired at some point.

 

“Good. We can finally get this show on the road. You see, I’ve been dying to tell you my plan ever since I found out you were shacking up with my ex over here,” Axel started.

 

“What is this plan of yours?” I asked.

 

“Well, you’ve witnessed the first part of it. I have eliminated my competition. I have successfully murdered Vlad and everyone in his operation.” Pride beamed from his beady little eyes and pinched nose.

 

“What’s the next step?” I dreaded his answer.

 

“Well, the next step is a little more complicated. See, the next step involves you.” He took a sick delight in the way he talked. Each word was chosen to delay his response and build tension and anxiety in the listener. I could see Maggie growing anxious as she listened restlessly in her confinement.

 

“Go ahead,” I urged him. “Tell me what your glorious next step is.”

 

“You’re going to love it. I have an offer to make you, Blade.” He started pacing. He walked back and forth between the two of us sitting on either side of him.

 

“Just go ahead and tell him already,” Maggie yelled at him.

 

“The way I see it, you are not in a position to talk,” he said, turning to Maggie.

 

“Hey, you’re talking to me. You weren’t talking to her. She’s not part of this conversation,” I reminded him.

 

“True.” He spun around on his heel. “Where was I? Oh, yes, your part in all of this, should you choose to accept it. See, I’m going to be taking over the sex slave auctions. I already have Vlad’s client lists and contacts.” He held up Vlad’s phone.

 

“I should have known.” I had suspected as much.

 

“Yeah, it was me. I was the one texting you, leading you here. Unfortunately, I can’t impersonate the old Russian any other way,” he said with a note of sympathy in his voice.

 

“All right, so you’re taking over the sex slave auctions. What do you need me for?” I asked, growing weary of his rambling.

 

“I’m going to need someone to work security and help me make sure we get the right girls. You have shown promise in weeding out clients who don’t belong as well as girls who shouldn’t be there. You paid a nice price to take this little one off the auction block,” he said, stroking Maggie’s hair. He ran a thin finger along her jaw line and under her chin.

 

“Not a chance in hell. I’d rather die than work for a sick fuck like you.” I spit the words out at his feet.

 

“That can be arranged, you know. If you’re not going to run my auctions, I have no use for you.” He shrugged. “I could always tell the president of your MC what you’ve been doing for Vlad. I’m sure the Marauders will approve of you working these auctions. Isn’t this the kind of thing your MC usually fights?”

 

“They wouldn’t listen to you,” I argued.

 

“Oh, but they already know you’re connected to Vlad, and after the cops were sent to your clubhouse, I’m sure they know he’s involved in the trading of sex slaves. It doesn’t take much to put two and two together from there, Blade,” Axel said, standing in front of me again.

 

“I’m going to kill you,” I told him.

 

He put his gun to my head. “Not if I kill you first.”

 

“Do it. Pull the trigger, you coward. You can’t do it, can you? No, you’re enjoying yourself too much. If you kill me, you won’t feel like a big man anymore, prancing in front of me like some drag queen. There won’t be anything left for you to do. I bet you want me to run the auctions because you think I know how. Well, I have a surprise for you. I only know how to bounce people out of them. I never helped with anything else.” I knew I was playing with fire, but I also knew he wasn’t about to shoot me.

 

He pulled his gun away. “You know what else, Blade?” he asked, backing away, walking towards Maggie.

 

He stepped behind her and put his gun hand under her chin to hold her face up, forcing her to stare at me. With his free hand, he reached around and grabbed her breast. He squeezed her while I looked on, powerless to do anything to help her. “Your little girlfriend here was my eyes and ears. I used her to keep tabs on you,” he said in his usual, teasing tone. He reached down to her waist and pulled a phone out of her pocket.

 

“No,” she protested, crying and shaking her head.

 

“See, I even gave her a nice little burner phone to use.” He held up the phone and opened her text messages. “Here’s where we’ve been talking the whole time, Blade. She never left me. I planted her to bring you in. I knew you had a soft spot for the girls already, so I used one to tug on your heart strings.”

 

“You motherfucker.” I pulled against the giant again, but he only laughed and pulled back even harder. I didn’t know who I was angrier at – Axel, for using Maggie like that, or Maggie, for deceiving me and playing her part in all of this. I had initially suspected there was something wrong with the whole situation. Maggie was the first girl to show up without any information, the first one to simply appear on the auction block as if from thin air. I should have known she was a trap. “I should have tossed you back onto the street,” I snapped at her.

 

“It wasn’t like that, Blade. Please, trust me,” she pleaded with me through her tears.

 

“Please, Maggie, you can drop the act now,” Axel said. He kissed her neck. “He knows we’re still together. He knows you work for me.”

 

She shuddered with each touch as he kissed up to her cheek and then over to her mouth. At first, she didn’t kiss back, but with a hand on the back of her neck, he gripped her until she finally returned his attentions.

 

I couldn’t believe what I was watching. The girl who’d shared a bed with me, who had fit against me so perfectly. I looked away. I couldn’t stand to watch her kissing another man, especially not the creep who had just shot Vlad, the man I owed my life to.

 

I heard her spit when he let her face go. “You’re disgusting.”

 

“But you still love me,” he said, and it sounded like a threat more than a statement.

 

“Okay, you’ve had your fun,” I interrupted. “Now, handle your business. If you’re going to shoot me, do it. If not, let me go.” It was a feeble plea, but there was nothing else to say. He’d made his point. He was a big, bad crime boss now, and the MC was going to have to take him down, just like we had so many others before him, just like we would have done with Vlad if things had gone differently.

 

“But I’m not finished yet,” he said in a cruel, ominous tone. “I’ve still got one little treat left for you, Blade. Maybe this will entice you to change your mind and come to work for me.”

 

I watched as he cut the tape holding Maggie’s wrists and ankles to the chair. She started to get up on her own, but he grabbed her wrists with one hand and stuffed his gun behind his belt with the other. He held her in place in front of me.

 

“Look at her, Blade. Look at that beautiful red hair.” He ran his hand through her hair. “Those delicious lips.” He dragged a finger across her full, plump lips. “These perfect tits,” he said as he grabbed one and then the other, as if he were offering them up. “Does she still taste as sweet as nectar?” he asked, running a hand down between her legs. I watched as he gripped her and squeezed her crotch.

 

“No. Please, stop.” She writhed under his touch.

 

“Leave her alone, Axel. If your problem is with me, handle it with me. Leave her out of it.” I pulled even harder against the arms holding me back, but the behemoth didn’t budge. He held me as tight as ever.

 

“She’s a feisty one, isn’t she? Gotta love redheads, man,” Axel said, enjoying the fight she was putting up. He licked her earlobe in front of me and kissed her neck again while she struggled. A greasy little smile spread across his face. He wrapped both of his arms around her and pulled her shirt up, groping her underneath it while she fought to break free from his grip. “Don’t fight it. You know you still want me. I can smell it on you,” he said in a loud whisper.

 

“Come on, man, stop. You’ve done enough. This isn’t right,” I said.

 

“Oh, you do care,” he taunted me. “Is this your sweet little tart?” He reached down and started to open her jeans. “Has she given this to you yet? It’s like a fucking drug, isn’t it?” He buried his face in her hair and sniffed her. “She smells so good, doesn’t she?”

 

“Axel,” I said in a warning tone.

 

My restraints – the arms of the giant – tightened as a warning to me.

 

Axel smiled at me. “I’ve got one more thing to show you before we’re done,” he promised.