Sin & Savage (5 page)

Chapter 9

Tori checked each
of the bathroom stalls to make sure they were alone before rounding on her grandmother. “Are you insane? Hiring that animal out there?” she yelled, her body humming with fury.

Nana checked her mile-high, blonde hair in the mirror before proceeding to pouf it out even higher. “I think I’ll go to the hotel salon and get a comb out. What do ya think?” Taking a small hairspray bottle out of her purse, she spritzed the mist all around her head.

“I think we have a lot more problems to worry about than the size of your hair! And by the way, where did you get that wad of money you’re carrying around in your purse?”

“I went to a bank this afternoon and had some funds transferred from Gideon. I knew Mr. Savage was a man-of-business and would conduct himself accordingly. So, I came prepared.”

“Man-of-business? He’s a killer, Nana—a gangster! He’s a member of the Sons of Perdition biker club. My God, I can’t believe that you’re willing to send me off with him.”

“Why, nothing’s gonna happen to you, sweetpea. He’ll protect you from everything.”

“Who’s going to protect me from him, huh? Because you know what he’s going to do to me? He’s going to rape me, then slit my throat and throw my body into a hole he’s already dug in the desert, that’s what!” Tori balled her fists by her sides to prevent her from shaking some sense into her grandmother.

Nana just laughed at her scenario. “Oh honey, he ain’t gonna do that,” she chuckled.

“Really? What makes you so sure?”

Nana spun away from the mirror to face her granddaughter, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Because I got the tingle this morning when I saw Mr. Savage beat the snot hell out of that Wizard fella, that’s why.” She nodded to add emphasis to her announcement, and her bouffant bobbed up and down.

Tori gasped in shock and she took a step back. “You got the tingle?”

Nana’s bouffant nodded again. “Yup, when I watched him beat the shit outta that slimeball, not only did I get a tingle but I got a clanging like a firehouse bell. I knew right then and there that Mr. Savage was a good man, trustworthy and dependable with a heart of gold, just the kind of man I needed to protect you.”

Tori paused. Could her Nana really have gotten her famous tingle over that monster out there because if she had, that was saying a lot about his character. After all, everybody in Gideon put stock in Nana’s tingle. But wait… hadn’t she also said she’d gotten the tingle about Joe Sorelli? And look what had happened there! He’d disappeared with her money, proving himself to be a first class crook.

Tori crossed her arms in front of her chest, her gaze narrowing suspiciously on her grandmother’s face. “I think your tingle has been on the fritz lately, probably due to all that hairspray you use a hundred times a day.”

But Nana laughed again, dismissing her doubt. “Tori, honey, you listen to me. I know what I’m talking about. If you want to find my Joe, like you’re insisting on doing, then you’re going with Mr. Savage and you will do what he says. That man will protect you. I know it for a fact. But if you refuse, then we go home to Texas right now. There is no negotiation about this, missy. So, what’s it gonna be?”

Tori rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed. Right now there was nothing she wanted more in the world than to ferret out that weasel, Joe Sorelli, get Nana’s money back, and have him thrown in jail. But could she really trust that gorilla out there to help her? Or would he kill her instead?

Yes—she did place some faith in Nana’s sixth-sense tingle but not one hundred percent. After all, look where they were—in Las Vegas looking for Nana’s jailbird boyfriend who she’d also gotten the tingle about. No, she’d have to be on her best guard with that ape, no matter what her grandmother said.

“Okay, Nana. We’ll do it your way. We’ll hire that outlaw to be my bodyguard and together we’ll find your Joe.”

Elated, Nana threw her arms around her granddaughter. “Oh honey, this is the best decision you could have made. You’ll see. Mr. Savage will help us.”

Tori shook her head doubtfully. “If Mommy and Daddy ever find out what we’re up to and that we’re hiring outlaw bikers to help us—oh my God! What if the church ladies of Gideon find out?”

“Fuck ’em all! This’ll be our little secret.”

Tori nodded. “Okay, Nana, but I don’t know how you always talk me into these things.”

The elder patted Tori on the back. “You’re a good girl, sugarplum. Now, let’s go back out. Mr. Savage is waitin’.”

“You go on. I need to use the bathroom first. But don’t pay him one red cent until I come out, okay? I want to be there when you hand over the first installment on this craziness.”

Nana smiled as she walked to the door. “Don’t keep the man waiting too long, Tori honey, because he’s libel ta come into this ladies washroom lookin’ for ya,” she teased.

Tori could hear her laughter all the way out, as the door closed behind her. And no, she didn’t really have to use the bathroom. She just needed a breather before having to face that brute again.

She stared at her pale reflection in the mirror. She was supposed to be having a quiet weekend in her apartment right now. Instead, here she was, associating with biker criminals in Las Vegas. Well, one good thing would come out of all this. Her friends couldn’t accuse her of being dull anymore, that’s for sure. In fact, they all probably thought she was still soaking in that boring bathtub back home. The image brought a quick smile to her lips.

Sighing, Tori walked out. But just as she was rounding the corner to go back into the main part of the eatery, she passed the area where the wait staff kept the cutlery. And that’s when she spied it—a nice, five-inch blade steak knife with a sturdy, brown wooden handle.

She paused and asked one of the young waiters who was passing by, “Excuse me? How much would you charge me if I wanted to buy that knife over there?”

“Ten bucks,” he replied without missing a beat, as if people bought steak knives from him all the time. But this was Vegas after all, so maybe they did.

Nodding, Tori reached into her purse and pulled out the bill. “I’ll take it.” She gave him the money and slipped the knife into her purse.

This was going to be her little insurance policy in case Mr. Savage Whatever-The-Hell-His-Name-Was tried anything fishy. Nana’s tingle may afford some protection but a steel blade afforded more.

Chapter 10

As Tori approached
the booth again, she saw that Lynette had brought the coffees but had once again disappeared. Nana was seated at one end and Savage opposite her; and they seemed to be chatting about nothing in particular.

The biker seemed to have been on the lookout for her because he immediately got up, intending for her to return to her former seat beside him when she’d been boxed in between his large body and the window.
In a pig’s eye,
Tori thought, and instead, she scooted beside her grandmother. He threw her a husky laugh as he sat back in his place. Did he look a little disappointed? No, Tori thought, just humored.

“I was just trying to be a gentleman, Snow White,” he teased.

“Well, you have a long way to go, sir.”

He burst out laughing at that, a rich masculine sound that rumbled from deep within his chest, coming out of his full and sexy mouth. “But a gentleman isn’t really what you’re buying for the weekend, is it?”

“I guess not, no, but I’m also not buying a thug. I don’t approve of violence, Mr. Savage.”

One second he was laughing at her and the next he was frowning, his intense eyes burning into her. “Let’s get one thing straight. If I’m to be your bodyguard, then I guard—your—body. That’s my top priority and whatever I have to do to accomplish that, is what I’ll do.”

Tori’s entire body flushed underneath his raw, scrutinizing gaze and she would have bet money her cheeks were turning red too. Her pulse flickered wildly, leaping in her chest. She couldn’t logically understand why she was having such a primal reaction to his stare. But he seemed oblivious as he continued with his speech.

“This is my kind of town and these are my kind of people. Not yours. They don’t operate by the same rules you do back in Wonderland where you come from, so when we go down this rabbit hole together, you listen to me. If I tell you to move, you move. If I tell you to stop, you stop. And if I tell you to shut the fuck up, you shut the fuck up. My world, my rules. Got that?”

Tori glared daggers at him as he finished his speech. The heat that had begun as a physical primal reaction to him suddenly morphed into red, hot anger. How dare he speak to her like that? “Look here, you…” She was just about to tell him to go to hell when her grandmother interjected.

“Tori! You listen to him, understand? The man knows what he’s talking about.”

Tori’s brain sizzled as she turned to her Nana. “How can you condone the way he just spoke to me?”

“Because I want you safe and this man is promisin’ to keep you safe, but you gotta listen to him and do what he tells you to do, do I make myself clear?” Tori remained stubbornly silent and Nana continued. “Tell me you understand or we go back to Texas tonight.”

Tori gritted her teeth, as she turned back to the biker sitting across from her. “I understand—
sir
.”

Savage nodded, pleased that she was promising to comply with his rules, even if it had been the senior who’d made Tori agree and not his tough guy persona. She had no idea the kind of rough and tough people they’d probably have to deal with this weekend in order to find Sorelli and he wasn’t going to be boxed in on how to handle them by her prim and proper morals.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning at eight sharp.” He glanced out the window at his motorcycle, its shiny chrome gleaming bright under the hot, Vegas sunshine.

Tori’s eyes followed his and she frowned. “I’m not going on that thing. We’ll take my car.”

“No! We take my bike or the deal’s off. My world, my rules, remember?” Insolently, he crossed his muscled, tattooed arms across his chest and threw her a sharp look that dared her to argue with him again, a look that had made many a braver man cower.

But Tori wasn’t afraid of him. His superior, upper-handed attitude had lit a fuse of indignation inside her and she was fuming mad. But Nana was right. She needed him—she needed his talents, she needed his knowledge and she needed his big, strong muscles, especially his big, strong muscles; and if she didn’t want him getting up right now and walking off, she’d have to bite her tongue.

She nodded. “All right. Your world, your rules.”

A broad grin split his face and he nodded his approval at her acquiescence. “Okay, Snow White, I’m glad you decided to take my advice and shut the fuck up.” He laughed, a slow, sexy smile replacing the previous grin.

His powerful body suddenly relaxed with careless charm and for one split second, she actually thought how wildly handsome he looked. But no matter how fiendishly good-looking the bastard was, she would never never never forget who he was—Evil—and where he had come from—Hell. That was a promise she was making to herself right here and now, and keeping. And may God forgive her for having just made a deal with the Devil himself.

She turned to Nana beside her who was already counting out the money. The older woman pushed the stack of bills at Savage.

“Fifteen hundred upfront, Mr. Savage and you get the rest, $1000 at the end of the three days. Tori and I are staying at the Jubilee Hotel and Casino on the Strip. I’ll give you our cell numbers too.” She scribbled the numbers on a paper napkin.

Tori watched as his avaricious regard glued itself to the cash and he picked up the bills.

“Thank you, ma’am.” He proceeded to count the stash in front of them, as if they were actually going to cheat him in the amount. Finishing, he smiled. “Ladies, it’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

“How do we know you’ll show up tomorrow? Maybe you’ll just keep the cash and skip out on us,” Tori challenged, not trusting the thug as far as she could throw him, which, looking over his large size, was nowhere.

Savage pocketed the greenbacks and the napkin with their phone numbers and grinned. “You don’t. You’ll just have to wait outside your hotel tomorrow morning and see if I decide to show up.”

“You’d better be there, mister!”

Savage chuckled half to himself at her bravado. A slip-of-a-girl trying to push a Son of Perdition biker around—it was just too comical to consider, even if she was just about the most beautiful thing he’d seen in a long while. In fact, he’d forgotten what normal women looked like and sounded like and smelled like but this one was reminding him in spades.

“Or what? You’ll come looking for me? Don’t make me laugh,” he teased, while at the same time admiring her courage.

Tori knew he was making fun of her and the thought infuriated her even more. “You think you know everything, don’t you?”

“In this town I do.”

“Well, don’t underestimate me, Mr. Savage, just because I’m smaller than you. Have you ever tried going to bed with an itzy bitzy fly buzzing around your head? Sometimes, size doesn’t matter.”

Suddenly, the corners of his laughing eyes crinkled even more and his voice dropped to a low, sexy, softer tone. “And sometimes it does, sweetheart.” He leaned into her from across the table.

A crackle of sudden, raw sexual energy passed between them. Stunned, Tori jerked back in her seat. A hot blush of mortification infused her whole body, as she realized what she’d said. She hadn’t meant it like that, of course, but obviously, he, the brute that he was, had. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of a suitable retort. All she could do was sit there and allow his suddenly feverish eyes to roam the contours of her face before finally resting on her lips. Every spot on her face that he’d stared at tingled as if he had touched it with his finger and in a flash a burst of longing flooded the pit of her stomach. Why was she letting him get to her like this? Because really, he was just doing it to show her who the boss was in their little business arrangement—which was him. Well, he wasn’t going to win this battle!

Annoyed, she turned to her grandmother beside her. It was obvious the older woman hadn’t been paying attention to their little exchange because she was busy securing her leftover cash with the elastic band again.

Tori’s gaze swiveled back to Savage, and watched as he leaned back in his seat, his mouth twitching with humor. She could tell that he was enjoying the little game he was playing with her, and enjoying the fact that she wasn’t even more.

Nana unintentionally broke the tension when, after stuffing her money back in her purse, she turned to her granddaughter. “Now that that’s all settled with, Tori honey, I need you to go wait for me outside. I want to talk to Mr. Savage in private.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so, that’s why.”

“No! Whatever you have to tell him, I want to hear too,” Tori demanded.

Nana’s nostrils flared. “Victoria Alexandra Jones—don’t make me start spittin’ fire. Do as you’re told right now!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, not caring that every eye in the restaurant had turned their way at her outburst.

The biker laughed softly to himself, obviously enjoying seeing her being put in her place. She turned to him and her eyes blazed murderously but his look said he didn’t care—in fact, she deserved to be spoken to in that way. If she wanted to act like a spoiled brat, then that’s how she should be treated.

“Yes, ma’am,” Tori gritted back at her grandmother, before slipping out of the booth and walking, with head proudly held high, to the exit.

She felt his eyes glued to her back, following her every step out. Suddenly irritated and fed up by the both of them, she hit the door hard with the flat of her palm and stomped outside into the hot, Vegas heat.

* * *

After making sure that her granddaughter wasn’t inside the restaurant anymore, Estelle turned to the biker sitting across from her. “I just wanted to tell you one thing, Mr. Savage. You see that child out there?”

She pointed through the window to where Tori now stood beside the Harley bike, in her sunny, yellow sweater and with her arms insolently crossed against her chest, glaring at the pair of them through the glass.

Savage’s eyesight followed the elder’s finger and a smile naturally came to his lips as he took in Tori’s angry stance. But no matter how big of a frown she was wearing, she was still so heart-stoppingly gorgeous.

Her brown shoulder length hair was innocently tucked behind both ears; and her face was angelic and soft, not hard like the women he was used to. His fiery gaze travelled down her body. She was small but lush and curvy in all the right places. He felt the heat rush between his legs, making him hard for her. No doubt about it, she was beautiful. She oozed breeding and goodness and sweetness and innocence of heart—and for the first time in a very long time, Savage Monroe suddenly felt—dirty. In a flash, his dark eyes turned stormy, angry at her for making him feel this way—because compared to her, he was a no-good, worthless, piece-of-shit.

He glanced back at Estelle. “I see her, ma’am.”

Estelle nodded. “Good. I thought you would,” she said, knowing full well what the man had been thinking. She may have been born at night but it wasn’t last night!

She continued, “My Tori is the most priceless thing in my whole life. She’s good, with a good heart. She believes in the goodness of people and giving people a second chance. But you and me, we know different. We’re not good like her, are we?”

Savage stared at the older woman’s stern face. “No, ma’am, we’re not.”

“Now it’s your job this weekend to protect that goodness. Anything bad happens to that child and I’m gonna blame you. And then, I’m gonna come lookin’ for you and I’ll castrate you myself, with my bare hands. Don’t think I can’t do it. I grew up dirt poor on a Texas farm and I’ve done things in my life that would shock even the likes of you. Do I make myself clear, sir?”

Savage nodded, not quite believing the fearless audacity of both of these southern belles threatening someone like him. “Perfectly,” he intoned softly.

Satisfied, Estelle nodded. “Good. I’m glad we had this chat.”