Prologue

STEEL

I ran as fast as I could out of the compound to my bike, my leg screaming at me to take it slower, but I couldn’t.

Mia was in danger.

Stella’s pain-laced words echoed in my mind as I jumped on my bike, and it roared to life. My brothers knew I was heading to the strip club, so I didn’t even waste time telling them. Booth had to get to Stella before it was too late.

I saw Booth’s SUV peel out in the opposite direction, but I also heard the thunder of two exhaust pipes behind me. Without even looking, I knew it was Creed and most likely Darth coming with me. I ground my teeth thinking about Creed. Even though we were brothers and former teammates on the best sniper team in the commando’s history, we had also clashed heads since the day we met—but I would die for the broody fucker any day of the week. However, his interest in Mia was irking me. Don’t ask me why because I couldn’t figure that fucking shit out.

Mia was my best bartender and my friend. She was also the sister of the woman who had just knocked back my proposal of marriage, laughed in my face, insulted my president, and was just banned from the compound. I couldn’t even begin to compute what went down with Callie, or why I had let her lead me around by my dick. Nope, I was not going there. My primary concern was getting to Mia and seeing with my own eyes that she was safe. Yeah, I was not going to compute that yet, either.

Barely missing going through a stop sign, I gave myself a mental kick in the arse. Creed pulled up beside me and gave me a chin lift, asking if I was okay. Nope, not even a little bit, brother. But I nodded my head anyway. How I got shit so sideways in my life with these women was beyond me. Maybe I was just gifted that way. The rueful thought entered my head as I pulled on the throttle and sped across the intersection.

“Mia,” I shouted as loud as I could the second I entered the main part of the strip club. The bar was in chaos. Tables and chairs were overturned all over the place, bottles of expensive grog had been smashed to smithereens, and glass littered the floor, but none of this meant shit to me. My only focus was finding Mia and Rainn.

A muffled cry caught Creed’s and my attention. Darth left us at the front door to run around to the back entrance, wanting to make sure it was secure.

“Brother, it’s coming from the dressing room area.” As he spoke, Creed pushed me towards the back of the bar that led to a long hallway. There were at least five individual dressing rooms for the dancers, plus three supply closets off the hallway.

“Mia,” I shouted again. My mind raced with so many scenarios after seeing the state of the bar. Had she been hurt? Rainn? The thought that someone would hurt a woman as sweet and as beautiful as Mia had my blood boiling.

“Steel.” Mia’s innocent voice called my name.

My heart rate calmed slightly. Thank the fucking Lord. I rushed to the end of the corridor and saw the door to a supply closet cracked open, and the long, ruby-red locks of the club’s best and most popular dancer were sticking out.

“Guys, in here.” She motioned with her hand, not opening the door completely.

“Rainn, are you okay?” Opening the door, I bit back a curse when I saw a very red, very hard slap print across the sexy Rainn’s face. Creed had no problem letting a stream of expletives rip from his lips as he took in the sight.

“The fucking fuck is going to fucking die,” he said between clenched teeth as he took Rainn into his arms, the fiery redhead unusually sombre. Her usual attitude to something like this happening would have been fireworks going off but not so tonight. It was a bit worrying, but my mind was on Mia, who I couldn’t see.

“Mia? Beauty, where are you?” The closet was dark except for the dim light coming from the corridor, but I could see a figure hunched over in the corner, and I breathed a sigh of relief—my first since listening to Stella on the phone. “Mia, come here, sweetheart.” I kept my voice low and gentle. She was obviously scared, and I would be fucked if I was going to cause her anymore horror.

She turned her body in my direction, and I had to hold myself back from going postal. Her shirt was ripped at the neck, exposing a part of her bra, and there was a scratch on her throat. Mia took no more than a second to decide before launching herself into my arms. The impact caught me off guard, and my legs nearly gave out from underneath me for the second time tonight.

Once again, Creed had my back and helped me right myself so I didn’t have to take my arms from around Mia’s shaking body. Her sobs pulled at a deep part of me that I’d thought was once dead.

“Hey. Hey, Beauty, calm down. Come on, Mia. Breathe for me, sweetheart,” I said in a soft and soothing voice. I wrapped her tightly against me and did my best to absorb her shaking. Jesus Christ, what did they do to her?

“Brother, let’s get them out to the other room,” Creed said, already leading Rainn out with his arm around her shoulders.

Nodding my head, I lifted Mia easily into my arms, her slight weight not impacting my leg at all. Callie was a bit heavier than Mia, and she liked me to carry her, insisted on it most times. Said it sent a message to those watching. What message, I had no fucking clue—she’d never informed me of that part—for some reason, I never bothered to ask her.

I steeled myself against the feeling of having Mia’s arms around my neck. Her face burying in my throat and her warm breaths were doing some weird shit to my heart and dick. What the fuck is wrong with me? This is Mia, for fuck’s sake. The questions went unanswered as I walked us back into the bar. I tried to settle her into one of the booths, but she wasn’t having it as she tightened her grip on me.

“Beauty, I need to get this shirt off you. It’s ripped, and we need to look at your scratch, then see if there are any more.” I noticed Darth had come into the room from one of the back rooms with a first-aid kit in his hands. The big prick had been an army medic in our team. There wasn’t one of us he hadn’t doctored up more than once during our service.

Reluctantly, Mia let go, and I slid her down my body, causing a faint stirring behind my zipper. Fuck me! I am a sick prick. Focus, Cooper, I admonished myself.

“They wouldn’t take me,” Mia whispered against my chest, her small body shivering against mine.

I removed my cut and quickly pulled off my long-sleeved tee. I had a short-sleeved shirt under it so I wouldn’t be shirtless.

“What, Mia?” I asked softly, not understanding what she meant.

“I begged them to leave Stella and not take her from Booth. To take me as I wouldn’t be missed, and no one would care if I was dead.” Her words were quiet and resigned.

She fucking believed this shit? I heard Creed as he took a deep breath in and Darth’s muttered curse.

“Mia, no. That’s bullshit,” I argued, but she was already shaking her head back and forth.

“No! It’s true,” she shouted, her eyes filling with more tears. Mia pulled away from me completely, and I instantly felt the loss of her sweet body. “I’m unlovable,” she whispered brokenly before she snatched the tee out of my hands and ran over to Rainn.

The dancer wrapped Mia in her arms and turned to lead her somewhere more private—presumably to give Mia some privacy to change—but not before she sent me a scathing look. A look that said ‘You are an arsehole, Steel.’

Looking at Creed, I could see the disbelief on his face as he watched Mia disappear. He had another look on his face, too, one I couldn’t read. Longing? But I would be fucked if I was going to let him play his games with Mia. I may have been an arsehole and deserved to be strung and quartered for hurting Mia as much as I had—I felt ashamed of myself for doing it—but he wouldn’t get her. Not if I had any say in the matter.

Not happening.