Knight (33 page)

“Ms. Hart?”

The feminine voice was a couple hours early, and now she’d probably get murdered.

I hoped Agent Greene packed a gun somewhere in those ridiculous pant suits. I had no way to help her once Temple decided she was pretty and could serve their needs.

But even they weren’t stupid enough to attack an ATF agent.

Maybe
.

My hands sweated. I tightened my knees over the bar and gripped the rigging with one hand, wiping the other on my pants. It did nothing but make me nauseous. My hand bolted back to the metal, wrapped so tight my pulse thudded in my fingers instead of my ears.

I listened for what happened beneath me, prepared for every word, every scream.

Heathen approached her first. His words shouted, roared over the stage.

“Kitty, where the fuck is your girl?”

Kitty
?

Agent
Katherine
Greene didn’t pull a gun. Instead she righted a table and chair. “She’s here.”

“You said she’d be waiting.”

“She’s supposed to be.”

I twisted, but couldn’t see them from my angle above the curtain. A slap struck against flesh. I imagined it was her face, though the fleshy crack wasn’t against her mouth.

Heathen slapped a federal agent’s ass.

And she…
apologized
?

“What the hell, Kitty? You promised us this bitch.”

Agent Greene softened her voice. It wasn’t the same hard-ass, intimidation she tried on me. This was the throaty promise of a half a bottle of whiskey and a good time.

“She was going to wait for me,” she said. “You must have scared her off.”

“Fuck. Her car is here.”

“She’s not some basic little bitch. Lyn’s smart. Smart enough to know what happened to Blade, smart enough to hide.”

“What about Knight?” Heathen’s buddy spat on my carpet as soon as he said the name. “Where the fuck is he?”

She hesitated. “Probably with her. I thought you were going to kill him?”

Heathen growled. “Don’t fucking start. We had that cocksucker when he nabbed Blade’s goddamned daughter.”

“And?”

“Prince Charming got away and Loco died on the road.” He struck her again. She yelped as she crashed into the bar. “You said your asshole team could get the stripper and Knight.”

Agent Greene groaned. “Toviel never wanted me to get involved—”

“Toviel ain’t here, so your sweet little ass answers to me, got it? You’re fucking lucky I’m so patient. Think Toviel would put up with this bullshit? Planning a goddamned
sting
on us?”

“I couldn’t do anything else. I had no choice. My bosses are here!”

“Fuck your bosses. You sucking their cocks too?” Heathen’s tone changed. Not jealous, but just as territorial. “You running around on us? Fucking any cock you can sit on while our prez chokes on a feeding tube?”

My breath released in a trembling puff. I swallowed everything that rose from my stomach, but it didn’t help. Shock tensed every muscle holding me still. The rigging shifted.

Heathen and his man focused on Agent Greene—
Kitty
. They didn’t hear the squeaking.

Jesus Christ, Temple had a source in ATF.

Not just one they paid.

One they
fucked
.

“I’m not running around.” Her voice garbled. Heathen grabbed her neck and squeezed the air from her words. “I swear! I’ll get you the stripper and Knight. I swear it.”

“You
fucking
better. You know what happens if they talk.”

Kitty
pleaded with him. “You said I wouldn’t like it.”

“You won’t, but I will.” Heathen popped her again. “It was bad enough with Blade squealing. We gotta end this motherfucking shitshow before anyone else gets an opportunity to fuck us. Christ only knew who else he talked to about Temple or ATF. Fucker might not even be dead.”

“I swear Blade is dead,” she said. “I know it. We’ll get the girl and Knight—”

She said too much. Heathen forced her to drop to her knees. He ordered his partner to search through the club again. His belt unlashed. The zipper was too loud. I gripped the rigging as Agent Greene’s gags immediately echoed over the stage. Heathen enjoyed her coughing.

I listened for anything but the slobbering choke of the blowjob.

What the
hell
was happening?

And where the fuck was Luke?

My arms and legs prickled with fatigue and the aching pain of overstrained limbs. The silk bundled over my body, pinned against the metal frame.

I couldn’t hold the position anymore, and the instant that silk flapped over the stage, Heathen’s cock would blow its load down my throat.

I accidentally gagged.

Wouldn’t let it happen.

Heathen’s man crashed through the dressing room, bolting beneath me with a harsh profanity.

“She’s not fucking here!”

Heathen groaned over Agent Greene’s discomfort, his growl turning shrill as she whined against his cum.

“At least you’re good for something.” He tossed her away. “Get to your fucking office and find that stripper or it’s your asshole that gets fucked tonight.”

“I’ll find her.” She regained a shred of dignity. “I promise.”

Heathen wasn’t satisfied. With a shout, he flipped more tables and cursed every last corner of my club. I pinched my eyes closed as he loaded a fresh clip in his gun.

The bullets flew.

Everywhere
.

The floors, the tables, the mirror.

He punctured my stage but aimed for the lights packed next to the silk’s rigging. Shards of glass and shredded bits of metal rushed over me. I fought a shriek, but the supports lurched, hard, as a row of lights bashed against the metal frame.

The rigging shifted.

I didn’t know what would hurt more—Heathen finding me or the crash to the stage.

Why they wanted me dead didn’t matter. Why Agent Greene sucked his cock wasn’t important. I tightened my core and tried to stay in balance on the rigging as the damn thing shook under me.

They had to leave.

Now.

Before it collapsed. Before I fell.

Before Luke walked into a fucking bloodbath.

I held my breath. It did nothing to stabilize the metal. Heathen yelled for Agent Greene. His buddy jumped off the stage.

The vibration ripped through the frame. The joints squeaked. More glass trickled from the light and layered a dangerous bed of shrapnel below.

My girls talked me out of doing any dance that required a safety net. I wished I had installed one now.

Heathen and his partner stomped outside. Agent Greene followed.

But the door hadn’t closed before the rigging violently swayed. I held my breath. My heart struggled to beat as the roar of Harleys in the parking lot rumbled outside the club.

I counted the seconds between the metal’s creaking. The grinding was constant. Not good.

My hands trembled, but I shifted the silk off my body and let it drape down. Just the weight of the material shuddered through the equipment.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

I released the metal and gripped the silk. One leg unhooked. An arm followed. I took a breath. It wasn’t fluid enough.

The metal screeched against the failing joints.

Shuddered.

Collapsed.

I fell.

Landing was pure agony.

I’d never fucking forgive myself.

The hospital was no place for a lady, and even less for a stick of TNT like Lyn. Too many oxygen tanks nearby and not nearly enough mirrors for her makeup.

She’d deny crying and downplay the pain, but the damage was severe. Her leg broke the instant she crashed against the ground. Fortunately, the rigging for the aerial silks saved her. Only her hand sliced open on the broken glass.

I was still covered in her blood.

She’d be pissed she ruined her corset. Even madder that she passed out in the ambulance.

I took my chances and leaned over the bed, brushing her hair from her face. She couldn’t move. The doctors completely immobilized her leg, and the nurses pumped enough drugs in her that she wouldn’t feel it.

Her eyes opened. Gone was the impish green. Those babies were full on nuclear.

“ATF.” She spoke. Regretted it. “Where’s…”

“You told me to keep them away.”

Her expression blanked, but she’d pretend like she remembered. God forbid the woman show any vulnerability even while in the hospital with a broken leg and concussion.

“I got hurt,” she said.

I’d tear the bone out of my own leg and give it to her just to ease her pain.

“What the hell were you doing in the
silks
?”

Lyn tried to sit up. I let her make the mistake. It was easier for her to learn from the pain than to take orders from me.

Her face paled as she realized how much she hurt. “Heathen and his cocksucker friend were looking for me. I didn’t have any other place to hide but…
up
.”

Christ, how desperate was she? I should never have let her be there alone.

Lyn reached for me. I offered her to the remote with the morphine.

She took my hand instead.

Squeezed.

“Agent Greene was there too,” she said. “Luke, she’s like…she’s like their sweet-butt or something. I don’t know.”

Those were some powerful fucking drugs. I doubted she realized what she was saying. “I don’t think you’re remembering things right. You hit your head on the way down.”

“Yeah, after I watched Greene blow Heathen.”

Holy shit.

Lyn struggled against the mattresses. The sheet pushed back, but she wouldn’t like what she saw. The gown didn’t cover enough of her bruises, and the splint held her leg stable. She paled, her fingers brushing the full-leg brace. She looked to me like I came after her with a sledgehammer.

How the hell was I supposed to tell a dancer how badly hurt she was? I faced drug dealers, meth-addicts, and murderers easier than the truth.

“You broke your leg. The doctor was in, but they were waiting to X-ray you when you woke up.”

“Oh my God.”

“Do you hurt?”

“You’re the smart one. Figure it out.”

Her hand squeezed, as much of an apology as I deserved. She collapsed onto the pillow. Her breathing rasped.

“Luke, we’re in trouble. None of what I heard makes sense. And whatever they have in this IV…” Lyn’s words slowed as she tugged on the plastic. “I feel like Keep.”

“Yeah, well he’s the one who helped me get you here.” I touched her cheek. “Lots of shit is happening, Lyn. You gotta start from the beginning.”

“I think…I think Temple
targeted
Blade. We killed him first…but now they’re after us—you and me and…” The morphine loosened her tongue too much. Her words slurred. “They want to kill anyone who helped Blade get out of jail.”

“Lyn—”

“We gotta get out of here. Can’t trust ATF. Don’t trust Temple.”

Her words chopped. Not just the meds. Lyn struggled to move, but the pain crippled her. I’d slit my own fucking wrists if I watched her drop in agony again. I lowered her to the bed and tucked the blanket, hiding the rest of her battered body. Without the leather and corset, makeup and heels, attitude and sunglasses, Lyn looked remarkably…

Beautiful.

Fragile.

Vulnerable.

She’d hate it. But she didn’t push me away. Didn’t order me with an arch of her eyebrow or a flick of a wrist. Most of her nails broke from the fall, but the slice through her palm from the glass was worse. They already bandaged it, but she hadn’t noticed. Not yet. She could dance with a cut hand.

But a broken leg?

Who the fuck was I kidding? It wouldn’t slow her down. An injury like that would just piss her off.

I knew tough. I fought hard-asses. I dealt with enough defiant motherfuckers coming at me to prove themselves worthy of the 1%.  But Lyn deserved a cut, earned her patches, and created the respect many men in the MCs refused to give a gash.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” Like those words meant anything to a woman in pain because of me. “I was too late.”

“They would have killed you.” Lyn didn’t look at her leg. “I’d rather take this than…”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” Her lip trembled. She punished herself with a held breath. “This year was a disaster. This war was a nightmare.”

“Don’t,” I said. “Not worth dredging it up.”

“I could have lost you at any moment. Without ever telling you…”

“You don’t have to say it.”

“I’m in love with you, Luke.”

Fuck, I needed to hear that. Maybe without the IV and pages over the intercom, heart monitors and pain-killers.

“God, you’re an idiot,” Lyn said.

“What?”

Lyn’s eyes softened, the nuclear threat replaced with something softer…jade, maybe. Something far more beautiful than I deserved rolling through the streets in a torn leather vest with blood on my hands.

“We lost so much time,” she said. “And I can’t keep blaming you for everything. I want to, but I’m at fault too because I…I didn’t know what to do.” She swallowed. “I still don’t know how to feel. How to let you in. But if anything had happened to you…”