Chapter 15
Two Bit
She wasn’t lying when she said it wouldn’t be easy for me to hear everything she had to say. I could see the torment in her eyes when she talked about her father’s death and her suspicions that it wasn’t an accident. It was agony listening to her voice tremble and seeing the tears stream down her face. I wanted to take her in my arms and make all the pain go away, but there was nothing I could do to change the past. So, I kept my word and listened to the entire story before I responded. She explained how she’d started working at the strip club to help pay for her classes. Graduating from college was important to her, and I respected her for not giving up. When she made her way into the present and started to talk about Slider, it become much more difficult to hold my tongue. A blinding rage surged through me when she told me about his ultimatum. I wanted to interject and tell her how fucked up it all was, but I held it in. Instead, I listened silently as she described how she didn’t want him touching her, so she’d knocked him out by mixing valium with his alcohol. I’d done my best to wait and hear her out, but when she started explaining her and Kat’s plan to have him arrested, I’d had all I could take.
“No,” I growled.
“What do you mean ‘no’?”
“There’s no way in hell I’m gonna let that happen. Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?”
“Yes, but I don’t have a choice. I need to have time to access my father’s money, and that means dealing with Slider.”
“I will take care of Slider,” I assured her.
“How?”
“I’ll have him behind bars by tomorrow night.”
“Really?”
“You have my word.” I gathered the blankets and headed towards the front of the truck. “Get in.”
“Where are we going?” she asked as she walked over to the passenger side and climbed in.
“This is the part where you have to start trusting me, Zoe.” After I tossed the blankets into the backseat, I started the truck and headed towards the warehouse. Big and the others were there waiting for my return, so I reached for my phone and sent them a message, letting them know I was on my way and I had Zoe with me. I knew they’d be surprised, but no more surprised than she would be. Knowing I needed to explain, I turned to her and said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay?”
I turned my attention back to the road as I told her, “I can’t go into detail, but The Chosen Knights took something from us… and you don’t take from Satan’s Fury without paying the consequences.”
“Are you saying the brothers stole from Satan’s Fury?”
“I am, and they are going to pay for that shit.” Without taking my eyes off the road, I said, “We could really use your help.”
“My help? How?”
“I’ll let Big explain everything when we get to the warehouse.”
“No,” she snapped. “I want you to explain everything now.”
I knew it would be hard for her to hear, especially since I hadn’t been upfront with her from the start. I wish I could’ve told her, but I didn’t have a choice. None of us knew for certain how she felt about the club, so there was no way of knowing if she could be trusted. I was supposed to get close to her and keep it friendly, but I’d fucked it all up by falling for her. “We’ve been trying to get intel on them for days. We need someone on the inside… someone who has access to the club.”
As I pulled up into the warehouse parking lot, she glared at me as she crossed her arms. “And you want me to help with this?”
“I know it won’t be easy, but if you do this, we’ll be able to shut them down for good.”
“So, you being here really wasn’t about me at all. It was just about getting back at the club for stealing from you.”
“You don’t honestly believe that, do you?”
“What am I supposed to think, Seth? One minute you’re telling me you’ve come to Seattle to prove you’re one of the good ones, and then you actually make me think you are. You made me think there was something special between us, and now that you’ve pulled the wool over my eyes, you’re asking for help. It’s total bullshit, Seth.” Her anger quickly turned to heartbreak as she continued. “I hate what the club has turned into and would like nothing better than to see them pay for all the horrible things they’ve done. You didn’t have to make me think you cared about me to get me to help you.”
I’d heard enough. I got out of the truck and walked over to the passenger side door. Determined to show her how I felt, I opened the door and reached for her, pulling her towards me as I stood between her legs. “I can see where you might think that I was just playing you, but you’re wrong, Zoe. Very wrong.”
My hands dove into her hair as I leaned forward and covered her mouth with mine, kissing her deeply. It wasn’t one of those soft, tender kisses. It was full of passion and need. The caress of her lips made me hungry for more, and I wanted her to know exactly how I felt as I delved deeper into her mouth. Her fingers ran down my spine, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us. As she held onto me, I could feel the heavy beating of her heart against my chest, and when a slight moan escaped her lips, I knew I’d made my point.
My hands slowly drifted to her waist as I pulled back and looked into her lust-filled eyes. “I want this. I want you, Zoe. And whether you help or not, I’m going to deal with Slider. His days of fucking with you are over, and in a matter of time, the club will take down the Chosen. You will be free of them. I’ll make sure of that.”
She stared at me, studying my expression for several moments, then said, “Do you really mean that?”
“Absolutely,” I assured her. “In my eyes, you’re mine, and no matter what happens from here on out, I’m not letting you go.”
“Seth.” She wrapped her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly as she whispered, "I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, beautiful.”
She eased herself out of the truck and asked, “So, how exactly do you plan on shutting the club down?”
“Let’s go inside, and the guys and I will explain everything.”
Big, Clutch, and Stitch were waiting for us when we walked through the door. I could tell they were eager to know why I’d brought her there, so I wasted no time telling them everything that had transpired between Zoe and the club. None of them seemed surprised when I told them about her suspicions surrounding her father’s death, and while she hadn’t said anything, it was clear she was still struggling with it.
Seeing the pain in her eyes, Stitch turned to her. “Lucky was a good man. He had good intentions when he started that club, and no one holds him at fault for how things turned out.”
“I hope you’re right about that,” she answered.
“I know I am.”
“There’s more,” I told him.
I spent the next half hour telling them about the bullshit with Slider. Once I was done, Clutch smiled. “Hold up. She drugged him?”
“Can’t say I blame her, can you?” Big snickered.
“Fuck no. I think it was brilliant.”
“If you ask me, the asshole had it coming. That and more.”
“Well, after hearing everything, it should be no surprise that Zoe has agreed to help us. She’s here now to find out what you need her to do.”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Clutch asked.
“I’m more than sure,” she answered adamantly. She never failed to amaze me. She’d been through hell and back, but she never stopped fighting. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do, but why do you need me? I mean… you’re Satan’s Fury. Nobody messes with you. I figured you’d just go in and wipe them out after all they’ve done.”
Clutch hesitated. Under normal circumstances, there would be no way they’d tell her. Club business was kept under wraps, especially when outsiders were involved, but this was different. She was putting it all on the line to help us, and we owed her the truth. Before he could answer, Stitch took a step towards her. “We don’t want the wrong people getting hurt. You’ll be there to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Okay. That makes sense.”
After fucking around with his laptop, Big had already gotten into the shop. He’d hacked into their security system and managed to access the cameras and sound. It was the other locations we were having issues with. The systems were old, and he wasn’t able to get the sound to work. “Big will give you microphones to hide at Nudie’s and at the clubhouse. Those are places we know they will be talking.”
“So, you’re bugging them?”
“Yes. We’ve already accessed their security cameras, but they’re older or just junk, and we’re having issues with the sound. Seeing them does no good if we don’t know what they’re saying.”
“And once I’ve done my part?”
“We will use all the information we get from the mics to take them down. That’s all I can tell you.”
I could see the wheels turning in her head as she wondered what we would do to her father’s club. We couldn’t tell her that we planned to burn down the strip club and the shop. The shop was something her father had established as a means for the club to make legitimate money, but that had changed. Big discovered that over the past year, it was strictly used as a means to distribute drugs and guns. We would’ve already burned them both down, but we hoped to use the intel from the microphones to locate their distributors and shut them down as well. Losing the club’s means to make money would be a hit—a hit that would make it harder to keep going.
After a brief pause, she replied, “And Slider? What’s going to happen with him? I won’t be able to do anything if he’s around.”
“We’ll take care of that. He won’t be an issue,” he assured her.
“Okay. I’m in.”
Big grabbed his bag and carried it over to her. He reached inside and pulled out one of the small microphones. “These are small enough to put just about anywhere. Just be careful. We don’t want there to be any way they can tie any of this back to you.”
“Sounds easy enough. I’ll do it before we open tomorrow.”
“There’s nothing easy about it. All it takes is one wrong move, and you’re done,” Big cautioned.
Hearing his warning gave me second thoughts. He was right. If anything went wrong, her life would be on the line. The thought shook me to the core. She meant something to me, more than I even realized, and the last thing I wanted was to put her in harm’s way. While I had my doubts, I had faith in my brothers too. I knew they’d do everything in their power to keep her safe.
It was well after midnight and I knew she must be exhausted, so I pointed out to them, “It’s getting late.”
Big looked down at his watch and then handed her the bag. “Get some rest, and let us know as soon as you’ve gotten them set up.”
“Okay.”
I reached for Zoe’s hand and led her out to the truck. Once we were settled inside, she asked, “Where are we going?”
“That’s up to you. I can take you back to your car, or you can come stay with me for the night.”
“Oh.”
As I started the truck, I said, “I want to spend as much time as I can with you, but if you need to go—”
“I’d like to stay with you, if you’re sure that’s okay.”
Relieved, I told her, “It’s more than okay.”
Neither of us spoke as I drove us across the street to my hotel. I had a million thoughts running through my head, mainly her, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to tell her how she made me feel, how I wanted to keep her close, protect her, love her. It all seemed to be happening so fast, and I didn’t want to fuck it up by saying too much too soon. I kept it all bottled up inside, hoping that the right time would come along so I could tell her everything that was on my mind. We still hadn’t spoken when I showed her into my room. Silently, she took off her jeans, leaving on her t-shirt and panties, and crawled into my bed. I quickly undressed and got in the bed next to her. We laid there staring at the ceiling for several minutes before she finally asked, “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure I want you to do this,” I confessed.
“It’s going to be fine.”
“I know, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying.”
“We can’t worry about what might go wrong. We need to focus on what could go right. I can do this, Seth. I promise I’ll be careful.”
I rolled to my side to face her, and she quickly did the same. With my eyes locked on hers, I whispered, “You better, because I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
Her touch soothed me as she ran the tips of her fingers down my arm. “When you were laying in that hospital bed, I would try to imagine what it would feel like to be wrapped in your arms. I never could’ve dreamed it would feel this good. This… right.”
“You and me both.”
When I saw the swirl of emotion in her eyes, I couldn’t resist. I pressed my lips against hers, kissing her tenderly. The kiss eliminated every thought. The world around us disappeared, and it was only her and me. It was a kiss that marked a beginning, a promise of much more to come. Overcome with desire, my hands slipped under her t-shirt, caressing her soft, smooth skin. Her breath quickened when I reached for her breast, brushing my thumb across her nipple. A little whimper vibrated through her chest, urging me on as she squirmed at my side. She wanted this just as much as I did, and I was going to give it to her—over and over again, until she fell asleep in my arms.