Chapter Nineteen
A grating jangle cut through her normally slow, luxurious wakeup period and jerked Kori to consciousness in an instant. “Argh, who the hell is calling me at—” She snatched the offending phone off Lucky’s bedside nightstand. “Holy crap! I slept until ten thirty in the morning. Oh, it’s Rebel.” Was Lucky even awake to hear her irritated ramblings?
Lucky’s body tensed around her at the mention of Rebel’s name. Yep, wide awake. His reaction to his president was getting a bit ridiculous, really. Now he couldn’t even stand to hear the man’s name? Maybe, when she told Rebel she and Lucky were shackin’ up, she’d feel her father out, see if there was a reason for the tension beyond his deluded idea that she should be with creepy Savage.
“Hey, Rebel.”
“Morning, baby girl.” His ever-gravelly voice filled her ear. “Wondering if you wanted to do lunch today.”
Silence settled between them for a moment while she chose her words. Most of the time, a lunch invitation was a ploy to shove Savage down her throat and that would only incite Lucky who’d snuggled her against his hard, sleep-warmed body.
“Just the two of us.” Rebel must have guessed the reason for her hesitation.
Well in that case. “Sure, I’d love to.”
“Great. Meet me at the clubhouse in an hour, baby girl. Good?”
“Good, Rebel. See you in a bit.” Calling him Dad still didn’t sit well. Why was that? Her automatic answer was that she hadn’t known him long enough, but hell, she’d known Lucky just as long and was ready to move in with him. No, it was a gut feeling. The name just didn’t feel right. Nothing she could put her finger on. Maybe it had something to do with the tension between him and Lucky.
She dropped the phone on the mattress and rolled over to wish a frowning Lucky good morning. “Hey, handsome. What is on your agenda for the day?” She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her breasts to his chest. There was one sure way to distract him from whatever displeasure he was experiencing over her spending time with her father.
He kissed her and rolled her to her back, settling in the nook of her thighs. “I got a text about ten minutes ago about some destruction at a bar we own. Big bar fight last night or some bullshit like that. I need to check out the damage, deal with insurance, decide if we can remain open, yadda yadda.”
“Sounds like a fun day.” While he spoke, she ran her hands up and down the muscular ridges of his back. They bunched and flexed under her fingertips as his breathing increased. He was so strong, so powerful, so capable, and holding all that power in her arms, knowing she could bring this man to his knees, was as arousing as his body itself. Not in a sadistic, wanting-to-humiliate kind of way, but in an empowering, feminine, sexy kind of way.
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be a blast.” He kissed her again, lingering this time, and her body flared to life. How he managed to arouse her to the point of begging every single time was beyond her. “At least I can start the day off on the right foot.”
She smiled and bent her knees, bringing him in closer contact with the throbbing ache only he could satisfy. “Better get crackin’ then. Time’s a wastin’ and I don’t even have a whole hour.”
“Please, woman, I’ll have you coming around some part of my body in less than five minutes.” He nipped her jawline with his teeth, eliciting a shudder from her.
“Yeah,” she said, breathless as his small bites moved down her neck. “But you’ve spoiled me. I’m no longer satisfied with one.”
Her mind muddled as he chuckled and ran his tongue along her collarbone.
Two orgasms, one shower, and sixty-three minutes later, Kori steered her car into the clubhouse parking lot. It was fairly deserted, but one member was changing a tire on a bike.
“Hey, Kori,” the long-haired biker said as she ambled toward the door.
“Hey…” What was his name? What was his name? “Um…”
“Bull,” he said.
“Right, Bull, sorry. I’m still working everyone’s name out. Bull like the big angry cow?”
He chuckled. “Bull as in pit bull. My bite’s worse than my bark.”
That explained the tattoo on his massive bicep. A pit bull with a spiked collar, holding some sort of limp animal between its bared teeth. A rabbit, maybe? “Right. I’ll be sure to keep my hand away from your mouth then, huh?”
This time his laugh was loud and boisterous. “I get what Lucky sees in you, Kori. If you’re looking for your father, he’s out back. There’s a shed out there. I think Savage is with him.”
Ugh. So much for just the two of them. “A shed?”
Bull shrugged, his attention on a lug nut as he tightened it. “God only knows why they’re out there. Didn’t realize that old thing was actually in use. Been here three years and it’s always been locked up tight. I ain’t ever seen anybody go out there until today.”
Unease slithered through her gut. Knowing what she knew about outlaw MCs and their business dealings, there was a good chance she didn’t want to learn what was in that shed. Plausible deniability and all that jazz. “Oh, maybe I should wait until they come back out here.”
With a grunt of effort, he tightened the last nut and stood, wiping grease-stained hands on his faded jeans. “Nah, babe. Rebel told me to send ya back when I saw ya.”
“Okay then. Guess I’m going out to the shed. Thanks, Bull. I’ll remember your name from now on.”
“No prob, babe. Catch ya later.” He hiked the old tire over his shoulder and whistled as he walked it over to the bed of an old rusted pickup truck.
Sure enough, behind the clubhouse was a large shed with the door shut. Ugh, this was straight out of a movie. Mysterious shed no one thought was in use. Full of what? Trafficked humans? A dead body? Kori shivered as the unease grew into a full out screaming in her head.
Don’t knock! Turn around!
She rolled her eyes and straightened her back. Time to stop reading psychological thrillers and maybe find a lighter genre. Paranoia was jumping off the pages and into her mind. “Don’t be a drama queen,” she whispered as she raised a fist and rapped on the wooden door.
“That you, Kori?” Rebel’s ruined voice came from beyond the door.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“You alone?”
And, that mattered because? The edgy feeling was back, this time complete with a stomach rolling like waves in a violent storm. “Ah, yes. No one else is with me.”
The door swung open and Rebel called out. “Come on in.”
It took a minute to unweight the legs that seemed to be welded to the ground, but she managed the three steps over the threshold and into the substantial shed.
Three steps. Three measly advances of her legs. Maybe four seconds, maximum, and her world flip-flopped so violently she couldn’t tell up from down. If Alice felt one tenth of the fear, confusion, and shock after tumbling down that blasted rabbit hole, then Kori’s heart went out to the girl.
She stood frozen like a statue, except for her eyes which darted in every direction possible trying to make sense of the scene before her. Seated in a chair only ten feet in front of her was a man whose face was so battered and bruised, she’d never be able to identify him if asked.
The first thing she registered, and that gave her a small measure of relief, was that there was no way the man could be Lucky. He was too thin, gaunt almost, with greasy hair and obvious track marks on his arms. Her rational brain reminded her she’d only left Lucky twenty minutes before, but this fucked up scene shot rational thinking to hell.
The man’s swollen eyes were shut. Whether voluntarily or because of the massive edema was a difficult call. Actually, the only indications that Savage hadn’t killed him was a wheezing that accompanied the shallow rise and fall of his thin chest. That, and the occasional tremor that racked his frail body.
Savage stood next to the victim, his knuckles bruised and bloodied. He’d obviously been the one to issue the brutal punishment for whatever sins this man had committed against the No Prisoners. Savage was calm, hadn’t broken a sweat and looked unfazed by the violence he’d just perpetrated. In fact, if it wasn’t for some poor soul’s blood dripping from his still-clenched fists, he’d look like a man ready for that lunch she’d been led to believe was the reason for her presence.
Why the hell did they want her as a witness to this insanity?
There wasn’t a single reassuring answer to that question.
A low hum started in her ears and the room swam before her. Breaths came in rapid, choppy bursts. Kori bent at her waist, resting her hands on her knees and tried to tamp down the hyperventilation before she passed out.
After her breathing evened, she rose to her full height, but averted her gaze from the beaten man. Unfortunately, her attention landed on stacks and stacks of packaged white powder.
Drugs.
Pounds and pounds of drugs.
Jesus, there had to be hundreds of thousands of dollars of illicit drugs in this shed. Was Lucky privy to this? There was no way in hell he condoned this or participated in it. Not after what he told her about the death of his younger sister.
Kori finally noticed Rebel standing against the right wall of the shed, his arms crossed against his chest. When their gazes met, the light bulb went off and everything became clear as the waters of the Caribbean.
Lucky knew.
And Lucky was against it.
Somehow this was…what? Punishment? A warning?
“You good now?” Rebel rasped. Gone was the affection he’d come to speak to her with, replaced with a cold, unwavering tone that gave her little hope that this was somehow a tragic misunderstanding.
“Why?” Her voice was barely a whisper. Buck up, Kori. Showing weakness wouldn’t be smart. She injected some steel into her spine and cleared her throat. “Why are you showing me this? Why the fuck am I here?”
Rebel smiled and pushed off the wall. He sent a look to Savage who nodded and landed a wicked blow to the wrecked man’s stomach. His head lolled to the side but he didn’t make a sound. Was he even conscious?
“It’s simple, baby girl.”
The nickname that just over an hour ago reminded her of her mother and gave her hope for a future that included a father now made her stomach lurch and bile burn the bottom of her esophagus.
“You’re here to save your boyfriend.”