Tank
I was fucking kicking myself. I couldn’t believe that I’d let my guard down so much with Star that when she kissed me I went along with it. Stupid, stupid. I could’ve told her when it happened that I didn’t kiss the property, but was so goddamn mad at myself that I wanted to get right out of there as fast as fucking possible.
So I grabbed a bottle of wine on the way upstairs and spent the rest of the night drinking and thinking about just what I’d gotten myself into. It wasn’t a catastrophic situation, sure, but it would require a retooling of how I was doing things. I blamed the dinner. I’d let Star lull me into a state of domestic stupor; the wine had definitely played a part, too. I had to figure out how I was going to balance the fact that I didn’t want her to get too close or comfortable with the fact that, well, I liked having her there.
Fucking bullshit. That next morning I decided to focus my attention back to what I needed to get done that day. Namely, meeting up with Dakin and finalizing the arms deal. I was sure he was going to go along with it, but until those weapons were sitting in my warehouse waiting to be sold I wasn’t going to rest easy.
Cruiser and I were meeting Dakin and the rest of his men some other location in the area, so I killed time around the house until around noon when I got the text with the details. I wasn’t sure where Star was; I figured that me putting her in her place last night probably had gotten her good and shook up. Likely, she was hiding out in her room until I was gone. I considered letting her know that I wasn’t pissed off, but I decided that could wait. I had more important shit to worry about at the moment.
Still, as I rode down to the meeting place, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking about her more and more. It was like she’d hijacked my thoughts. The image of her grinding on me last night, my cock in her mouth … they were getting me all kinds of turned on. I decided during the ride that I’d settle the matter by giving her the fucking that I’d been holding off on. Pounding a girl to kingdom come was always a good way of letting her know just who was in charge.
After an hour or so of riding, I came across the location. Dakin and his men were there, and I was eager to get the negotiations behind us. Cruiser pulled up a few minutes after I arrived, and the two of us greeted Dakin and the rest.
But as I shook Dakin’s hand, I couldn’t help but notice that there was an edge to how he was acting. His expression was hard, and I didn’t detect a bit of camaraderie. I kept myself a little on edge, now wondering if this deal was gonna go sideways.
“We ready to do this?” I asked, my eyes on the shipping container packed full of goods.
“Little change in terms,” said Dakin.
“Oh?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.
“Price is up fifty percent.”
“What?” I asked, the words coming out in a snarl.
Dakin’s men tensed up, their hands moving towards the guns at their hips.
“Price is up fifty percent since last time?” I asked. “Why the fuck is that?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cruiser looking at me with an expectant expression. He was just as knocked on his ass by this as I was.
“I’ve been doing a little thinking,” said Dakin, hooking his thumbs into his belt and pacing with leisurely steps back and forth. “And I realized that this little deal we’re cooking up is the perfect chance for me to get my hands on something that you have that I want.”
“Oh?” I asked. “And what the hell do you want exactly besides my money?”
“You need to ask?” asked Dakin, stopping and turning towards me. “It’s that little piece of ass that you bought out from under me. Duh.”
I stopped cold.
“The fuck you say?”
“You heard me,” said, Dakin, not bothered a bit by my objection. “I want that blonde piece. And you’re not getting your hands on so much as a BB gun from this shipment unless I do.”
“Dakin, are you kidding me?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Dakin was holding up what might be one of the biggest money-making opportunities he’d have just to … what, get back at me?
“My man,” I said, evening my tone and trying to talk some sense into him, “I bought Star fair and square.”
“Oh, ‘Star’?” he asked, scoffing. “You and the meat are on a first-name basis? Cute.”
I ignored this and kept on. “I bought her fair and square. That deal’s long done, and there’s no point in bringing it into what we got going on here.”
“No point?” he said, clearly getting a little pissed off that I hadn’t just agreed to it right off the bat “I’ll tell you what does or doesn’t have a ‘point’. I wanted that girl, and you knew it. That’s the only reason why you swooped in from under me and bought her.”
He was dead wrong, but what was I supposed to say—that I had a strange compulsion to buy her?
“Listen,” I said. “Maybe when this is all said and done, I’ll buy you a girl at the next auction—kind of a little bonus on top of everything.”
“Nah, fuck that,” said Dakin, a wildness glowing in his eyes. “I want that girl—Star, whatever the fuck her name is. And this deal’s just gonna get more and more expensive until you agree to my terms. Got it?”
I could see that there was no negotiating with him.
“Got it,” I said.
“Good,” said Dakin, a smart-ass little smile on his mouth. “I’ll give you a little time to think it over. You know how to find me when you make the right call.”
With that, he turned, whistled, and waved his hand, directing the driver of the truck to which the shipping container was attached to move out. The rest of the members of Dakin’s gang climbed onto their bikes, and within a couple of minutes they’d torn out of there, leaving just me and Cruiser.
“I need a fuckin’ drink,” I said through clenched teeth as I started off towards my bike.
Cruiser scrambled after me, and about twenty minutes of hard riding later, we were in some shitty nearby dive.
“Fucking bullshit!” shouted Cruiser, banging his hand on the table bar, attracting the attention of the people there, the sort of low-life drunks who’d be slamming beer at two in the afternoon at some run-down bar in the middle of nowhere. “Why the hell does he is that he thinks he can hold up this deal over some piece of pussy?”
To my surprise, I felt my hackles rise at this. Though that’s all Star was, a piece of ass that I’d bought for a premium price, something about Cruiser referring to her as such didn’t sit right with me. But I let it pass.
“It’s fucking unprofessional is what it is,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “We all stand to make some serious money from this deal, and he’s holding it all up just because he needs to get his nut. Can’t believe this shit.”
“So, when you gonna hand the girl over?” asked Cruiser.
“Huh?”
“Whaddya mean, ‘huh’?” he asked. “Dakin wants the girl, simple as that. Just sell her for whatever he wants and let’s get this deal going.”
“You remember I’m the one leading this club, right?” I said, jabbing a finger in Cruiser’s direction. “You wanna give a suggestion, fine. But don’t presume to tell me what to do.”
“But … what’re you gonna do, then? You think you’re gonna just tell him no or something?”
I slammed a shot of whiskey, winced, and followed it with a chaser of beer.
“Letting Dakin have her just like that wouldn’t solve a damn thing,” I said, flagging down the bartender for another shot. “In fact, it’d be just the beginning. He’d know that he could tack on whatever terms he wanted to any deal from here on out and we’d have to go along with it.”
I was being disingenuous and I knew it. Sure, there was some truth to what I was saying, but the main thrust behind my words was not wanting to give up Star. Especially to a fucker like Dakin. I knew how he treated his girls, and I didn’t want Star to be any part of that. She was … different. There was an innocence, or something, to her that I felt like I needed to protect. I had no idea where these thoughts were coming from; they were weird fucking things to be thinking about an auction girl.
“Then what’re you gonna do?” asked Cruiser.
“Not sure,” I said, downing another shot of whiskey. “But I’m gonna solve this shit one way or another.”