Twisted Fate (3 page)

I parked and walked the few steps to the line in front of the club. I looked around and didn’t see anyone I knew. Trish had texted me she was running late, so I sighed and stood in line. I hated being alone at places like this and suddenly felt extremely annoyed at Kimberly for insisting on meeting me here. Ever since the unsettling episode at Starbucks yesterday, I was more nervous than usual at being on my own.

“Penny!”

I turned around and saw Kimberly walking toward me. Her blonde curls bounced and her blue-green eyes lit up seeing me as she approached. She was dressed to kill in a tight black tube dress and black knee-high stiletto boots. Her dark red lipstick fit her dynamic personality perfectly.
 

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, giving her a big hug, feeling the relief of not being alone anymore run down my body. “Happy Birthday!” I cried so she could hear me over the crowd of people. “I can’t wait to celebrate. Tonight’s going to be amazing!”

She pulled back and peered into my eyes, a weird look crossing over hers for just a brief second. “Thank you for celebrating with me,” she spoke into my ear.

I pulled back and gave her an odd look. “Of course I’m celebrating with you. We’re best friends, we’ve celebrated our birthdays together every year. I wouldn’t be anywhere else, silly.”

She ran her hand over her hair, whatever strange feeling between us gone. “I know. Let’s head in and see if my sorority friends are here yet.”

I groaned inwardly and followed her. As predicted, Kimberly made her entrance, flashing her ID for the bouncer and everyone around us to see.
 

“I’m twenty-one today!” she cried. “No more fake IDs for me!”

The beefy guy couldn’t have cared less and just shooed us in.

“Jerk!” she cried, sticking her tongue out at him, making me laugh.

Grabbing her hand, I pulled her after me. The lights were flashing and the beat of the music was heavy. Bodies were everywhere as was the strong smell of Bourbon.

Perfect.

We looked around and, not seeing anyone, found a table toward the back and sat down. Kimberly couldn’t sit still; she kept bouncing on her chair and looking all over. The girl was constantly hyper and had always brought out a protective nature in me. Her home life wasn’t the greatest. She’d practically lived at my house throughout high school. When she decided to live on campus when we started college, I missed having her around all the time, but thank goodness we still lived close.

“Where the hell is everyone, and where’s a server when you need one?” Kimberly shouted at me, standing up and looking. “I need to get drunk, now!”

I laughed and sat back, knowing she’d get the server to come over. Sure enough, a minute later a hot guy carrying a circular wooden tray came over, a huge grin on his unshaven face. His hair was light blond, and he had a full sleeve of tats on his right arm.
 

“I see you, sweetheart,” he told Kimberly, chuckling. “What can I get you ladies?”

I ordered a vodka cranberry and watched Kimberly flirt with him until finally ordering her usual sex on the beach.
 

“Oh, and it’s her birthday too!” I cried out as he turned to leave.
 
“She’s officially twenty-one!”

He turned his head over his shoulder and gave us a wink. “I’ll remember that.”

Kimberly pretended to be embarrassed, covering her mouth with her hand, but I knew her better. She loved the attention.
 

“I can’t believe you did that, Penny!”

I lightly smacked her arm. “Oh good grief. You love it, and you know it.”

She started to giggle a bit and nodded. “You’re right, I do.”

A few minutes later, our sexy waiter came back with our drinks and said he’d be back soon. Kimberly downed her cocktail like there was no tomorrow, hollering for another round. I shook my head as I lightly sipped on mine, scanning the room.

The Orchid was always busy, tonight being no different. As I looked around, my eyes couldn’t help but pause on one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen. He was standing at the bar a few feet away, a mug of amber liquid in his hand. His other hand ran through his spiky dark hair, making it stand up even more.

He sent butterflies through me, and I didn’t even know who the hell he was.

“He’s hot!” Kimberly shouted in my ear, breaking me out of my thoughts. Looking at her, I played dumb.

“Who?”

She rolled her eyes and made a show of pointing over at the bar. “That guy, in the red, long-sleeved T-shirt.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised she’d read my mind. She always did. “Yeah, he’s pretty hot.”

“You should go over and say hi to him,” she suggested, putting her hand over mine.

 
“Are you crazy? No way!”
 

She thrust her lower lip out in a pout. “When will you start being more laid back? You’re gorgeous, Penny! There’s no chance in hell he’d turn you down.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. There was no way I was approaching him. It wasn’t me.

A group of four girls suddenly appeared, screaming happy birthday and grabbing Kimberly in a group hug. They started bouncing and screaming, making me roll my eyes. The sorority sisters had arrived.

They finally separated and grabbed a few chairs, sitting down at the table with us. Kimberly sat next to me and introduced me to everyone. I said hi to them and took another gulp of my drink.
 

They all started talking about their sorority life and the fraternity they thought had the cutest guys, completely leaving me out. I didn’t mind, though. I knew this would be the case. I just nodded here and there and continually looked over at the bar, checking the hot guy out. The third or fourth time I looked over, he was looking straight at me, making me jump a little in my seat. I immediately looked away, embarrassed that he’d caught me.
 

Our sexy waiter came back then, dragging another chair to the table and sitting down on Kimberly’s other side. “I hope you ladies don’t mind if I spend my break with you?” he asked, a huge grin on his face. Everyone chimed in no and started flirting back with him. I just looked at my phone for the time, wondering when the hell Trish would get there.

A band appeared on the stage down below and started playing covers of ‘80s music. Kimberly jerked her head to look at me, a big grin on her face. She started clapping her hands and yelled how it was her favorite decade of music. Before I knew it, sexy waiter asked her to dance with him, and she shot out of her chair like a bolt of lightning.

I laughed, not surprised in the least, and relieved when her sorority girls followed them out there. Having no idea when they’d be back, I took a long sip of my drink and continued looking around. Kimberly hadn’t seemed to notice I wasn’t with them, but it didn’t matter. It was her night.

“Is this seat taken?”

I whipped my head to see who the voice belonged to, and my heart slammed in my chest.
 

It was him. The guy from the bar. He was standing at my side, beer still in his hand, grinning and showing his perfectly straight white teeth. My own voice seemed to have checked out because no matter how hard I tried, nothing would come out.

He bent down to his knees and looked into my eyes. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ll leave if you want me to.”

That brought my voice back. I shook my head and gave a weak chuckle. Trying to look as confident as possible, I tossed my hair behind my shoulder, pointed to the empty chair, and said, “No, please, sit down.”

Little did I know how those words would seal my fate.

Chapter 5

“It’s happening in a few hours, Tag. Are you ready?”

I was standing in front of Roman’s desk, again, and nodded my head. I still hadn’t come up with a plan to thwart this stupid abduction and was getting pissed. The clock was ticking.

“Good. I’ve already talked to the other guys separately. They should be fully aware of what to do and what I expect. Nothing can go wrong tonight. I need Penelope Santoro on my yacht.”

The whole thing was just strange. Why the hell did he need to kidnap this girl? He’d never resorted to something like this before. Sure, he’d kidnapped worthless drug dealers and men who betrayed him in some way, but never an innocent girl.
 

Before I could reply, the door opened sharply and the scent of scum permeated my nostrils.

Rico.

“Boss?” Rico’s squeaky voice yelled out.

Roman ran his hands over his face. “Rico, how many times do I have to tell you this is not your office? You must always knock.”

Rico stopped beside me, a piece of paper in his hand. “Sorry, boss, I wasn’t thinking.”
 

Roman started to tap his fingers on his desk. “Something that happens much too often, my friend.”

I resisted the urge to smile, continuing to stare straight ahead. Rico was having a hard time staying still. Something was obviously on his mind. I waited for him to spit it out so he would leave.

“Boss, don’t get upset with me, but I looked up Ms. Santoro on the internet and found a few pictures of her. I printed one out to show you. Boss, she is hot. I need to be on the team that takes her tonight.”

Rico set the piece of paper on Roman’s desk, and my eyes zeroed in on it. From where I stood, it was upside down, but I could tell right away the girl was beautiful. My hand twitched at my side, itching to reach out and flip it around to get a better look. Roman grabbed hold of it instead.

“Rico,” he sighed, staring at the picture. It was like he went into a trance for a moment. His eyes dilated a little as he just stared at her image.

“Boss, please. You knew I wanted on the team even before I saw her. She’s just so pretty; I know I could help get her. Let me.”

I was screaming no in my head. The last thing I wanted was to have Rico on the team. He’d only mess things up since he always thought with his dick and never his brain. Roman had to know this.

“I don’t know, Rico,” Roman started, relief pouring through me.

Rico was practically bouncing on his feet. “I’m not going to mess it up. Why did you make me your right-hand man if you don’t trust me? I want in on this job, boss.”

I could see Roman thinking about it, and it was pissing me off. I balled my fists at my side, doing anything I could to stop from yelling how bad an idea this was. Rico was a ticking time bomb.

Roman finally raised his eyes from the picture and looked at me, then Rico. “Fine, Rico, but Tag is still in charge. You know why I assigned him to be, so no arguments.”

Rico looked over at me, then back at Roman. “No problem. I have no issues with Tag.”

Yeah, right.
 

And Roman, you’ll regret this. You are both idiots.

Roman looked back to me. “So we are clear on what is expected of you tonight?”

Digging my fingers into my palms, I nodded. “Very.”

Romans thin lips curved into a smile. “Wonderful. You may go get ready now, Tag. Rico, sit down so I can fill you in on exactly what you’re to do and what I expect. Tag, I’ll let you know what Rico is assigned.”

“Fine, I’ll check in here before we head out to the club.”

Roman nodded, essentially dismissing me.

I closed the door to his cabin, resisting the urge to pound my fist through it. Damn Rico! This job was bad enough as it was, let alone having been assigned to babysit her ass, but now even worse with him on the team. My mind was a flurry of trying to figure out how to screw it up without it
looking
like it was screwed up. Now that Rico was joining, he’d make damn sure to get her in that car and on the yacht.
 

It felt like a bell just rang in my head. A plan started to form, making me smile. It would work; it had to. Maybe Rico begging to be on the job was just what I needed, come to think of it, even though I hated the little weasel.

As I walked to my cabin, a knowing smile finally appeared on my face. All I had to do was sit outside the club, phone in hand, and wait for Derek to do his job. I knew he’d make her panties melt; he always had a way with the ladies. There was no doubt in my mind that’s why Roman chose him for that job. The girl didn’t have a chance against him.