Bane: Trillionaire Shifter Club Book One

BANE

Trillionaire
Shifter Club: Book One

Rosette
Bolter

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CHAPTER ONE

He didn’t look like much when Harper
first saw him. Just another one of the dozen tall, brooding strangers that were
in the room that night. It didn’t matter that he’d had his eye on her from the
moment she walked in, or that any minute now he was going to come over and talk
to her. She wasn’t looking for a guy tonight. She didn’t want to talk to him,
smile at him or listen to what he had to say. There was nothing he could say.
Tonight was Friday, and on Sunday she was getting married to the man of her
dreams, Joshua Lloyd.

“Stalk-err,”
Harper’s friend Cordelia Ambrose murmured, stirring the olive in her cocktail.

Harper
resisted the urge to look behind her.

“Is it the
same one as before?” she asked.

“Yep,”
Cordelia said. “He’s made eye contact with me too. He doesn’t even care that I
know he’s staring.”

“Don’t look,”
Harper advised. “You’re going to encourage him.”

Cordelia
glanced away a moment. “This is why I never come to places like this. Every guy
in here is single and trying to get laid.”

“I’m sure a
few of them have girlfriends,” Harper said.

“And how many
of their girlfriends are here?”

Harper picked
her cocktail up from the table and raised it. She took a few sips.

“Okay, he’s
gone now,” Cordelia murmured. “I think I finally scared him off.”

Harper put
the drink down and leaned back in her armchair. The DJ downstairs turned the
music up and there was a wave of applause from the clubbers on the dance floor.
A couple of men in suits walked past their table without glancing at either of
them. Harper saw Cordelia’s gaze move after them.

“You sure
you’re not looking to pick up tonight?”

“What?”
Cordelia muttered, returning her focus. “No, I just, thought I recognized one
of them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, some
guy from high school I used to hang with. Looking pretty sharp now.”

“I never see
anyone from those days anymore,” Harper confessed.

“What about
online?”

“Well, yeah,
I sort of meant in the real world.”

Cordelia
finished her drink. As she lowered her hand with the glass, her attention was
drawn to Harper’s. “You want to finish it? I’ll get us another one.”

Harper
finished the drink and Cordelia collected it. “Be right back.”

As she moved
past where Harper was sitting in the direction of the bar, Harper glanced over
her shoulder. She wondered if Cordelia was chasing down her old friend.

“Hello.”

The monotone
voice caught Harper by surprise. She turned back to Cordelia’s chair to find
the guy who had been watching them before, sitting there.

“Excuse me,”
Harper blurted out. “My friend’s coming right back.”

“Then I guess
we’ll have to make the most of the time we have,” the man replied.

“I’m not – ”
Harper began. She raised her hand to show her ring. “I’m getting married.”

“What’s your
name?” the man asked.

“My name?”
Harper grumbled. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Bane.”

“Well,
‘Bane’, if you don’t take off I’ll call security on you. You have a lot of
nerve just walking up to someone you don’t know and talking to them.”

“This?” Bane
mused. “This is nothing.”

Harper
lowered her eyes. There was a slight pause between them.

“I really
like your hair,” Bane said.

“My hair?”

“Obviously
it’s colored, but, you’re not a natural red-head anyway, are you?”

“No, but what
does –”

“I didn’t
think so.” Bane leant forward. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to upset you or
anything. I’m going to leave soon. But when a girl like you, walks into a place
like this, with hair like that – you’re the first thing a man like me is going
to see. You’re the only thing any of us are going to see. So I guess the
question is, how happy are you? With hair like that…”

Bane stood up
from the table and placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. While his face
revealed no emotion or expression, the lightning inside his eyes, and way Harper
was drawn into it, forced her to think…

Who on earth
did I just meet?

CHAPTER TWO

Cordelia returned to the table a
minute later. By then Bane had merged into the shadows around them. Out of
sight.

“We got pink
ones this time,” Cordelia said handing Harper her glass.

“What’s in
it?”

“No idea.”

Cordelia sat
opposite Harper looking enthused.

“Can I ask
you a question?” Harper said. “What do you think of my hair?”

“Your hair? I
don’t know. It’s red.”

“Does it suit
me?”

Cordelia
shrugged. “Of course.”

“You don’t
think it’s too loud? Like I’m trying to get attention?”

“What does
Josh think?”

“Josh, oh uh
– he was kind of neutral actually when I changed it. I mean, he praised it and
everything, but after the first day or so he didn’t mention it again.”

“Did you get
it changed for him?”

“What?”
Harper mumbled. “I think –”

“For the
wedding?”

“I did it
just because I thought it would be fun. At least that’s what I thought. Now,
I’m –”

“Seriously,”
Cordelia interrupted. “Why are we talking about this? Who said something about
your hair?”

Harper
sighed. “It was…”

“It was who?”

“That guy who
was staring at us. He came over after you left and sat in your chair. He said I
dyed my hair like this because I’m not happy and I want attention.”

“Bastard,”
Cordelia growled, standing up. “Where is he?”

“No, no –
don’t – please don’t –”

“Who does he
think he is?” Cordelia ranted. “Making fun of you for no reason. We should get
him kicked out.”

“He wasn’t
making fun of me.”

“What?”

“He was – he
was sort of ‘advising’ me.”

“Oh-ho-yeah.
Great advice I’m sure.”

“Well, it’s
got me thinking,” Harper gushed. “Why did I make my hair this way? Why am I
here tonight? Do I – do I really love Josh? Am I ready to get married now?”

“Oh my gosh,”
Cordelia said coming over. She put her arm around Harper shoulder. “Are you
okay, sweetie?”

“I’m fine,”
Harper said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I just need a tissue.”

Cordelia bent
down and picked up Harper’s hand bag. She found a tissue inside of it for her.

“Thanks,”
Harper said taking it, and blowing her nose. “I’m sorry I got like this. I’m
talking stupid.”

“Don’t be
silly,” Cordelia said. “That asshole just got to you, that’s all.”

Harper put
the tissue away and looked up with a smile. “I feel better now. Maybe I just
wasn’t expecting someone to come at me that way.”

Cordelia
nodded and moved to her side of the table again. She picked up her cocktail and
drank from it.

“Harps?”

“What?”

“I think your
hair looks lovely.”

They both
laughed.

CHAPTER
THREE

It was just after ten pm when the
girls decided it was time to call it a night. They knew they could have stayed
where they were and continued on cocktail after cocktail, but they were wary of
the watchful eyes of other gentlemen in the room; circling them like vultures
flying over a wounded antelope. Harper was staying at Cordelia’s that night as
Joshua and his boys were having a bucks night or something back at their house.
They phoned a cab and then stood up from their table, taking one last look at
their surroundings.

She wasn’t
sure why, but Harper knew she was looking for Bane on her way out. She hadn’t
seen him since their conversation and while she had kept on a cheerful face for
Cordelia, there was still so much that unsettled her about the interaction – so
many questions she wanted answered. Instead of forgetting about him as the hour
moved on as she should have, Bane just kept growing and getting larger and
larger in her mind. Until they stepped outside the night club and he was all
she was thinking about.

“Cab should
be here any minute,” Cordelia said, folding her arms against the cold. “They’re
usually pretty quick around this area.”

“Even on a
Friday?”

Cordelia
shrugged.

Harper looked
down either side of the road, trying to make out a taxi from each set of
headlights.

“Hey girls,”
a voice rang jovially behind them.

Cordelia and
Harper both turned as three men in suits surrounded them.

The bouncer
at the club’s opening bowed his head and stepped back inside, closing the door
behind him.

“Uh – do we
know you?” Cordelia asked.

“You know
me,” a voice piped behind them.

They turned
to face the man at the edge of the road.

“You remember
me, don’t you? Come on, Cordelia.”

“Oh,” she
murmured. “Jayden. Jayden Sommers. Of course I remember you.”

“Did you see
us before?” Jayden asked.

“You mean in
there?” Cordelia replied.

“Yeah,” he
nodded. “You should have come and said hello.”

“Well, why
didn’t you come and say hello?” Harper asked defensively.

The two men
behind her started laughing.

“You look
good,” Cordelia said to Jayden. “Things going well for you?”

Jayden gave
half a smile, and raised his eyebrows.

Harper was
getting a really bad vibe from him.

At that
moment, the taxi cab pulled up to the sidewalk. Harper brushed past Jayden to
get to it. “That’s us.”

Jayden put a
hand on Harper’s arm. “Don’t be silly. We’ll take you home.”

Harper
violently shook his hand off. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

“Whoa,”
Cordelia murmured. “Relax, Harper. I know this guy. He’s a friend of mine.”

“Are you
coming or not?” Harper demanded.

“Trust me
guys, I’ve got this,” Jayden said smiling. He stepped round to the driver’s
door and tapped on the glass.

“Taxi for
Cordelia?” the driver asked.

Harper
watched as Jayden handed him some money. “For your trouble.”

The cabbie
accepted it, muttering under his breath, and then pulled away back to the road.

It was as
though Harper’s heart stopped in the middle of its beat.

“Come on,”
Jayden said. “We’re parked around back.”

They started
walking.

CHAPTER FOUR

In the back of the night club’s
parking lot, there were still plenty of people around, arriving and going. For
a moment, Harper had been concerned they were going into a secluded area. She
knew Cordelia wouldn’t automatically trust someone for no reason, but how her
so called friend behaved with the cab implied he wanted to get something out of
them tonight. Seriously. Cordelia had to see it.

“So I left
there, then I went up to Mount Hitchfield because there was an opening, and I
got the job there,” Cordelia babbled. “But it only lasted a few weeks – the
boss was a fucking bitch and we clashed all the time. I met my boyfriend
Marshall somewhere between that and –”

“What’s your
name?” one of Jayden’s friends asked Harper from behind.

She glanced
over her shoulder. “Harper.”

“You have a
boyfriend, Harper?” the second one said.

“I’m kind of
engaged.”

“No shit.”

“Yeah,
getting married on Sunday.”

Faint
chuckle.

Harper didn’t
want to look back anymore. She was keeping her eyes right ahead.

Jayden
stopped in front of a large black van, and forced the side of it open.
“Everybody in.”

Cordelia
stepped inside first. Jayden stepped in the back behind her.

“Aren’t you
driving?” Cordelia asked.

“Not yet.”

Harper went
to step inside also, but Jayden quickly closed the door in her face.

“Hey!” Harper
yelled. “What on earth –?”

Jayden’s
friends grabbed her waist and forced her up against the side of the van. One of
them revealed a silver pistol inside of his jacket.

“Don’t
scream,” he whispered. “Don’t yell. Don’t say a fucking word.”

Harper stared
into the man’s eyes, wide with madness, as her whole body started to shake. She
could hear stuff banging on the inside of the van. Cordelia was trying to call
out for help.

“Why?” Harper
sobbed. “Why are you helping him?”

“It’ll be
your turn next,” the man on her left said.

Harper swallowed.

Cordelia’s
muffled scream echoed from inside the van. Jayden was attempting to rape her.