Circle of Death (20 page)

I’m led away from the rollicking floor of the club, off through an inconspicuous doorway. The lights of the casino quickly fade away in our wake as we trek deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast that is The Club itself.

“You fellas care to fill me in, here?” I ask, playing the dumb thug.

“I’m sure you know what this is about, Mr. Vile,” Mike says crisply, stepping into what looks like a freight elevator.

“You’re not as stupid as you look, after all,” Jim adds, following Mike in the metal can.

I grit my teeth as I step in after them, spotting the blinking red light of a security camera overhead. I figured that the entire club was covered in cameras and microphones—this place only looks remote and rustic, but is most certainly fitted out with all the latest hardware. These two must be feeling pretty secure in their safety, with my every action caught on camera. The question is, why aren’t they more skittish about leveling guns at patrons of The Club, right out in plain sight?

The elevator comes to a grinding halt, and the doors open onto a long, white corridor, glowing under fluorescent lights.
Well, that’s not menacing at all, is it?
I think to myself, trailing Mike and Jim as they stroll through the hallway as if it were a goddamn rose garden.

Padlocked doors line the hall, and what they hide is anyone’s guess. But down at the end of the passageway, a simple, single door stands open. From here, it looks like any other corner office. But I get the feeling that I’m in for a rude surprise, all the same.

“Go on in,” Mike says, as I come to a stop before the final door. “He’s expecting you.”

Drawing myself up to my full height, I brush past my escorts and all but storm into the office. May as well face the inevitable head-on, right? And besides, I’m awfully eager for some answers, here.

The expansive office opens up before me. I realize at once that the room is circular, with huge windows ringing the space, looking out over the entire island. We must be up in the old watchtower. You really can keep an eye on everything from this spot. Especially when you take into account the bank of security monitors that loom over a single desk across the way.

Live feed from every corner of the island streams across those screens. Someone’s keeping a close eye on the people who come out to this rock. On at least two monitors, naked bodies writhe and buck, clearly fucking. Guess nothing’s off limits for whoever sits behind that big fancy desk.

“So glad to finally meet you, Mr. Vile,” says a sickly sweet voice from behind the desk. A tall leather chair is turned away from me there, obscuring the speaker.

“I can’t say it’s mutual,” I growl, as Jim closes the office door, leaving me alone with the mystery man, here.

“Come now,” the voice goes on, “That’s no way to begin a business meeting.”

“Is that what this is?” I ask, “Because from where I’m standing, this looks like a scene from a poor man’s
Godfather
knockoff. Who the hell are you, and what the fuck do you want?”

As I look on, the high-backed chair spins slowly around. I almost have to squint to take in the figure sitting there before me. A slight man, no taller than five and a half feet, is perched on the fine leather, staring at me over eerily long steepled fingers. His fine Italian suit has been tailored to his small, slender body, and his stark white hair is combed into a perfect coif. Thick glasses make his watery blue eyes pop out of his thin face. All told, he’s one freaky looking little dude—but I’m not about to write him off just yet. It’s always the little guys who bring along the most muscle, after all.

“Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier,” he goes on in his syrupy voice. “My name is Lester Klein.”

“Well Les,” I say gruffly, crossing my arms, “You have a funny way of making introductions.”

“You’re not an easy man to a get a hold of,” Klein laughs, standing from his chair. He looks even smaller on his feet than sitting. “I did send a couple of my emissaries to your headquarters, don’t forget. But I gather they didn’t make a very good first impression.”

“That’s one way to put it,” I smile, remembering the look of terror on those assholes’ faces as my boys punted them out of our headquarters. “But let’s get down to it. I’m not one for beating around the bush.”

“I appreciate your frankness,” Klein nods, producing a gold cigarette holder from his jacket pocket and plucking out a smoke. “I’m sure you’ve guessed by now who it is I represent.”

“Leviathan,” I say, my voice dripping with contempt.

“That’s right,” Klein smiles serenely, lighting up his cigarette. “The Leviathan Corporation is still extremely interested in contracting your motorcycle club for some light distribution work.”

“Transporting trafficked girls is your idea of light work?” I seethe.

“Ah. My apologies,” Klein goes on, shaking his head. “I suppose it’s a bit of a touchy subject for you, isn’t it? Sex workers and the like, I mean.”

My vision goes white with rage at this little fucker’s implication. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I growl.

“Given your mother’s professional inclinations,” Klein says lightly, “It follows that you’d be sensitive about that sort of thing.”

I lunge across the space and snatch up the front of Klein’s fine suit. I hoist him into the air, his little feet kicking at nothing as the cigarette falls from his startled lips. All I want is to send his body crashing through one of those tall windows. But before I can move another muscle, the door of the office clatters open.

“Back up, Vile,” I hear Mike shout from across the room.

“Put him down,” Jim adds. My ears pick up the sound of two handguns being cocked.

I stare up into Lester Klein’s face, ire surging through my veins. How did this little shit know about my mother? She made absolutely sure that no one ever found out about her occasional, last-ditch efforts to keep us from starving. Even I could never get her admit the nature of her meetings with the various men who would show up at our doorstep in the middle of the night. She never wanted me to know the truth, never wanted me to know what she was forced to do for the sake of our two-person family.

“You can’t talk about a man’s mother and expect not to get roughed up,” I say, shoving Klein back against the desk and taking a step away. I’m not about to start throwing punches with two guns trained on my back. “You want to talk business, talk business. Leave personal matters out of it.”

“Come now,” Klein says, brushing off the front of his suit jacket. “When are personal and business matters ever disentangled from each other, truly?”

“Is that how you’ve managed to get yourself a little office up here? A personal arrangement?” I press. “I doubt that The Club appreciates you abducting one of its esteemed guests. Does Leviathan have something worked out with the people who run this joint or what?”

“You could certainly say that,” Klein smiles. “The interests of Leviathan and The Club are, shall we say, entwined. And right now, those interests involve you agreeing to work for us at long last.”

“What makes you think I’m going to give in now?” I laugh roughly. “You show up at my headquarters, I tell you to fuck off. You try and buy off one of my smaller chapters, I deal with the problem the only way I know how. Now you bring me up here and start waving guns around? Guess what, the answer is still fuck no. I don’t know what negotiation tactics usually work for you, but pissing off the one guy you’re trying to persuade is a pretty shitty strategy. You’re not going to kill me. You need me too much. Looks to me like you’re all out of moves.”

“You’re right about one thing,” Klein allows, nodding for Mike and Jim to lower their weapons. “We’re not going to kill you, Devlin. That would be an enormous waste of talent. But we’re not above shedding some other blood. Blood you might find even more precious than your own.”

Klein steps away from the bank of monitors behind his desk, giving me a full view. One by one, the screens cut away to a single shot. My stomach tightens painfully as the entire wall of monitors flick onto Logan’s beautiful face. She’s still sitting at that blackjack table, trying not to look nervous. But I can see full well that she’s worried, and with very good reason as it turns out.

“We understand that you’ve taken quite a liking to a woman. Logan Farrah, is it?” Klein says, crossing his arms.

“She has nothing to do with this,” I say, my voice low and ragged. “Stay the fuck away from her.”

“We’d be more than happy to leave Miss Farrah untouched,” Klein insists. “If you agree to cooperate, that is.”

Fury and terror battle for control of my mind. I stare up at Logan’s face, paralyzed.

“You’re using her as leverage against me?” I snarl. “What the fuck kind of monsters are you?”

“The industrious kind, Mr. Vile,” Klein replies with a sickening smile. “You care very much for Miss Farrah. We care very much for our business endeavors. If you’d simply agree to work for us, both of things we care about can go on existing in peace and good health. But if you still refuse to give us what we want...Well. I’m afraid that our losses will be repaid with one very significant loss of your own.”

“You’ll kill her,” I say, my voice hollow. “You’ll kill her if I don’t agree to your terms.”

“That’s the long and short of it,” Klein says, clapping his hands together. “Shame that it had to come to this, don’t you think? But, it is what it is. What say we move past this unpleasantness altogether?”

I struggle to get a hold of my thoughts. There has to be a way out of this. Something I haven’t figured out yet.

“Give me the night to think about this,” I say to Klein. “My club and I are leaving this rock once tomorrow night has come and gone. I’ll have an answer for you before we go.”

“I’m sure we can wait one more day for your cooperation,” Klein says, extending his hand for me to shake. I grasp his hand, wishing I could crush his tiny fingers all the while. “Just remember,” he goes on, as I turn to storm away, “Leviathan has its eye on you, Vile. You’d better watch your step.”

With a curt nod, I make my swift exit. My mind reels wildly as I try to think through this terrible mess. As angry as I am with Leviathan, with Klein, with The Club, I’m even still more furious with myself. By coming to care for Logan, I’ve made myself vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. Even worse, I’ve made my club vulnerable. I’ve failed entirely, fucked up beyond repair. There’s no way this shit can end well.

Now, the best I can do is damage control. And if my own happiness is one of things that proves to be irreparable, so be it. God knows, I’ll bear whatever pain I have to. Just as long as the people I care about come out of this in one piece. Especially Logan. I don’t bother hoping that I can keep her now, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to keep her safe.

I owe her that, at least.

Chapter Eighteen

Logan

Without Devlin by my side, the whirling lights and chaotic sounds of the casino are drained of their magic. The scene unfolding all around me becomes grotesque, overwhelming—sickening, even. Try as I might to assure myself that everything is OK, my intuition is screaming just the opposite. Panic snakes through me as I wait for Devlin to reappear. Finally, the pressure is too much for me to withstand. My head swims with worst case scenarios as I resign to my worries and flee the depraved funhouse that is the main floor of The Club.

Calm down, I urge myself, slipping through quiet hallways of the old fortress. Dev wouldn’t have left if I were in any real danger. Probably he just had to settle a bill with The Club or something. Maybe one of his MC brothers was causing trouble out in the woods. Whatever the issue is, I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“Right,” I scoff, slipping the key card into my bedroom door, “Because reasonable is what Devlin Vile does best.”

I step into the darkened room, breathing a sigh of relief as I close the door behind me. Surely, I can relax now. Even if worry still tugs insistently at the edges of my mind. I make my way toward the bathroom, eager to wash off my elegant makeup in favor of something more subtle. This dressing up like a princess thing has been fun, but I feel just as beautiful in shorts and a tee shirt around Dev.

Just as I reach the bathroom door, the lights flick on all around me. A rush of fear stops my heart for a beat as I look wildly around my bedroom. But then Devlin appears in the doorway between our rooms, and a startled laugh bursts from my chest.

“You scared the shit out of me,” I say, shaking off my jitters as best I can. “Where the hell did you disappear to, Dev? You had me thinking the worst.”