DECK

I paused for a second as I let my eyes adjust to the dark room, strobe lighting and smoke filling the space.

Booth and Darth had taken care of the moron security guard at the front door. Security—what a fucking joke. Mannix would have laughed his arse off had he seen them.

The place was disgusting. Men of all kinds were sitting at tables drinking and smoking.

Was that a guy jacking off? What the ever-loving fuck! Mannix never allowed men to touch the girls or themselves inappropriately during dances at the club’s strip club. What the hell was my sweetness doing in here?

“Oh, fuck me,” Darth cursed. His eyes seemed to be bugging out of his head. Following his line of sight, I looked towards the stage, and my heart stopped beating.

“Oh, fuck no.” I growled as I sprinted towards the stage, leaping over a table and the prick jerking off to my woman’s body clad only in a piece of flimsy see-through shit. Her breasts were barely covered, and I could see her nipples plain as day. The prick Shifty knew if he kept this place cold enough, the dancers were going to have erect nipples whether they wanted to or not.

I reached the stage and vaulted up in one smooth motion.

“Deck, no.” Charlie looked horrified as embarrassment filled her beautiful face. “Oh, God, Deck, you can’t see me like this,” she cried, trying desperately to cover her breasts.

“You’re coming with me right now, Charlotte.” Again, I growled. I ignored the hurt look on her face at me using her full name instead of calling her Charlie or Sweetness. Charlotte was for everyone else to call her.

“Deck, I can’t. I have to finish this. I signed an agreement,” she protested, not trying too hard to fight my hands from her body.

I had to cover her from the filth around her. So I whipped off my shirt, pushing it down over her head, and helped her get her arms through the holes. I ignored her intake of breath as she took in my chest and arms. I was a big man. My muscles had always been large, and all of us took our fitness seriously. It had helped us during our military days, and it still did now. I noticed the other night Charlie had a thing for my arms. Arms I desperately wanted to hold her in right now, but I held myself in check. There was way too much talking that needed to happen first.

“You’re finished here, Sweetness. Now, where is your shit?” My tone didn’t invite chatter.

“At the back of the stage in the dressing room,” she answered quietly. She sounded dejected, broken.

“Just hold on, Sweetness. Let me cool down from the vision of seeing you dancing on a pole on a stage, showing other men things I haven’t even seen yet.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke. I made a mental note for the next time I took Shiloh to the dentist to make an appointment for myself.

“Darth!” I shouted for my brother.

“Yo.”

“Go take Charlie to get her stuff. I’ll help Booth deal with this Shifty prick.”

“Deck, please, listen to me. I’m sorry—” she started to explain, but I cut her off.

“Not ready to hear anything yet, Charlie. Please, just go with Darth. Put some clothes on, and we can get out of here, okay?” I implored her. I couldn’t talk in here with the music and the smell of dirty sex penetrating my brain. The beautiful scent of her skin was long gone from last night, replaced by booze, smoke, and bad choices.

Then I turned my back on her and walked away. It hurt too much to look at her like this. Her innocence lost in sin. Charlie didn’t belong here. Okay, so sin was a bit harsh. I was far from a choirboy myself, after all. But Charlie and this place didn’t go together. And before I had to make a hard decision, like ending things with her, I needed her to talk, and she was going to tell me everything. Everything.

“She owes me until tomorrow at four,” the bald man shouted in the face of my pres.

Smirking, I stood back. This was going to be fun. Booth was itching for a fight and had been for days now.

Booth moved closer towards the little weasel. “Listen here, you little fucker. You have taken advantage of a lady who never wanted to be here in the first place.”

Huh, what had Booth already found out? My gaze sought his, but I could see he was deliberately ignoring me.

“I will send you one of Body and Soul’s girls. She can work the hours Charlotte promised. You get to keep the grand, but the girl keeps any tips. One of my men will stay here and watch her at all times. Agreed?”

Shifty pondered for only a few seconds before he smiled wickedly.

“I keep the grand? And she never comes back here again. Fucking reneging on a deal. She came to me, and you tell her to remember that,” he said with a snarl.

I was done with this arsehole. Walking up to him, I reached for his scrawny neck.

“Listen here, you fucking cunt. You don’t get to talk about her like that.” The need to push my fingers through his throat grew stronger with every second.

“Let him go, Deck.”

I instantly released my grip. The soldier in me could never disobey a direct order.

Booth nodded my way, but I could see the disappointment in his expression. Directed at me? The fuck?

“Pres?”

“Let’s get out of here. Squid, you ring Mannix and have him bring Rainn. Then you and Seb stay here and watch her like a hawk. Got it?”

“Absolutely, Pres,” Squid answered, then pulled out his phone and walked off to the side, leaving me alone with Booth.

“Deck, you take my bike and head back to the compound. Darth and I will take Charlotte back in your truck.”

“The fuck you will.” I growled at him. Charlie was going nowhere with anyone but me.

“Stand the fuck down, Sergeant. I saw you up there, and I didn’t like what I saw.” Moving away, he dismissed me. I do not think so.

Reaching out, I grabbed him by the arm to stop him. Bad move. Booth moved so fast that I hardly saw it coming. The punch hit me smack bang in the jaw. I was fucking seeing stars.

“Take my bike. Charlie does not deserve your anger right now. Something ain’t right here, Deck, and you know it, but you’re too busy trying to make her feel bad that you don’t see it. So I’m taking her back and finding out the reason. And if she feels like telling you, then she can.” And just like that, he walked off to where Charlie was waiting with Darth. I could see the humiliation in her eyes, but what gutted me more than anything was I could see deep hurt. Hurt I’d made her feel because I was too stuck in my own head.

Of course, she wouldn’t want to do this intentionally, right

Booth was right about one thing. Something wasn’t right here. But he was very wrong about something else. I wasn’t angry at Charlie. I was angry with myself for not trusting the person she was with my daughter and me—but she was going to be doing a fuck load of explaining.

Getting onto Booth’s Night Rod, I took off after my woman. I wanted her in my arms.