“I mean, it’s one thing for her to do that shit in Vegas, you know?” Nick was saying, clearly on a roll. “It’s different there, high-class gigs and all. Their security, it’s tight, and I don’t worry so much. But Angels... you ever been there? It’s insane, man.”
Sean blinked. “Your sister danced in Vegas?” Weren’t there licensed brothels in Nevada?
“Yeah,” Nick said, his face hardening as if he guessed the natural progression of Sean’s thoughts. “But that’s all, man. And she’s good, too. Real good. Too good for the sorry bastards around here.” Nick spoke with the vehemence of a protective brother. Sean hoped, for Nick’s sake, that the kid was right.
“They’ve got a good crew over there,” Sean said confidently, though his mind was racing and his insides were squirming a little. Something just didn’t feel right. He didn’t have the gift of reading people like his twin Shane, but he was proficient enough to sense when things didn’t line up properly.
“I know the owner, and he’s real protective of the girls.” At least the ones that wanted to be protected. Mutual consent was sacred at Angels, and it wasn’t a secret. Judging by the severity of Nick’s reaction, Sean guessed he knew it, too.
“You don’t know Nicki. She might think she’s safe, but she’s a magnet for trouble, man.”
Yeah, Sean could believe that. She was simply the female version of the young man sitting in front of him. Definite problem with authority. Didn’t like to be told what to do. Filled with attitude and carried a chip on her shoulder a mile wide.
Sean almost snorted. Maybe he should introduce Nicki to his brothers’ wives. She had something in common with Taryn, Lexi, and Maggie, but then no delicate flower could ever capture the heart of a Callaghan man. Their women were, by nature, as fierce as the men, even though they presented it differently. The thought sent a strange chill through him, but he shrugged it off. Nick was too caught up in his own troubles to notice.
“So what was she doing under the Benz?”
Nick had the good sense to look guilty. “I told you, she knows her stuff. I work days, she works nights. We don’t get to spend much time together. She’s been bringing food over to the garage, hanging for a while, helping me out before her shift, you know? It’s been kind of nice. Then later, I’ve been going up to Angels, just to, you know, keep an eye on her and stuff.”
Sean brought the bottle to his lips and drank. “So why aren’t you there tonight?”
Nick’s eyes flashed with barely repressed anger. “Last night things got out of hand. Some jack-off wouldn’t take no for an answer and I might have gotten in his face. Ended up getting my ass thrown out and hers nearly fired.”
Sean was definitely on Nick’s side on this one. “Did you do some damage?”
Nick smiled. “Broke every bone in the hand he had on her ass.”
Sean smiled too. “That’s the debt she was talking about?”
“Yeah. She’s too damn proud to admit it, but that guy was twice her size. Some things a brother’s just got to do, true?”
Yeah, he knew. And that explained the dark circles under Nick’s eyes the last few days. At least he wasn’t using or gang-banging. His respect for the kid went up a notch. How could he fault him for looking out for his sister?
“Now I’ve been banned from the place when she’s dancing, and she refuses to quit. What am I supposed to do? I try to get in there again and they’re not going to be so forgiving this time.” Nick rubbed the back of his head gingerly; Sean guessed it was probably where one of the bouncers had driven that point home.
Not for the first time, Sean was infinitely glad he only had brothers. Men were so much simpler. Growing up in a family of seven boys ensured they all learned how to take care of themselves, but even then, they stuck up for one another when they could. Because that’s what family did.
But they were guys. Holy hell, he could only imagine what it would have been like if they had a little sister! Sean’s protective instinct kicked in in a big way. At least that’s how he rationalized the next words out of his mouth.
“Want me to head up there, check it out?”
Nick looked at him suspiciously. “You’d do that? Why?”
Sean shrugged. He had no clue. Maybe he was bored. Maybe his life was just too tranquil. Maybe he had some kind of shining knight complex. Whatever. All he knew was he had to do something and he didn’t want to analyze it, because that ominous foreboding was back again, more powerful than ever.
“Because you’re the best mechanic I’ve got and I need your mind on the job.”
Yeah, he’d go with that. It sounded both reasonable and believable, and held some small measure of truth. It was enough that he knew that whatever was driving his actions had nothing to do with common sense.
Apparently Nick wasn’t buying it completely either. Something passed through Nick’s eyes then, something dark and wild. Sean could tell he didn’t trust him; the kid was looking for some angle, some bennie. Sean supposed he’d better give him one or the kid would end up running up there himself and getting himself killed.
It was a shame Nick couldn’t accept the fact that sometimes people helped each other out with no ulterior motive. Something in Sean’s subconscious whispered that the kid was right, but he shushed that inner voice.
“Besides, if your sister’s as good with engines as you say she is, maybe she can help with the overload for a while.” Fuck. His own words numbed him; he couldn’t believe he was actually saying them. If he hadn’t heard his own voice, hadn’t seen the reaction of the kid sitting across from him, he would have thought he had a minor brain bleed and hallucinated the whole thing.
“Christ, you mean that?” Nick asked cautiously, excitement beginning to overshadow the darkness. For just a few moments, Sean saw a hint of the real Nick underneath all the jaded, tough-guy. When Sean didn’t answer right away, he saw it all drain away just as quickly, the hardness returning with a vengeance.
“Yeah, right,” Nick laughed, but his eyes were colder than ever. “You had me there for a minute. Good one, boss.”
“No joke, man. Unless you’re yanking my chain about her.”
“Fuck, no!” Nick said, shaking his head. “That bike of hers? She built it, custom, from the ground up.”
“I don’t believe it.” If that were true, then the girl really was better than anyone he had working for him, present company excluded. Sean’s interest went nuclear.
This time Nick’s smile was genuine. It transformed his entire face. “No shit, boss.”
“Then I want her.” In more ways than one.
Nick’s smile faded a little. “What?” Sean asked, feigning innocence as he took another pull on the longneck. Surely the kid didn’t read minds.
“It’s just... well, it might be hard to convince Nicki that you’re serious. Most guys, they don’t take her seriously because she’s a girl. They’re just interested in ...” His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Man, the kid had eyes like ice.
Sean let his own eyes harden. Gray ice against blue. And Sean was a lot better at it. “Do you seriously think I’d put a woman in my garage to get into her pants?”
“You wouldn’t be the first.” Nick stared hard for another long moment, then dropped his eyes. “No, I don’t think you’d do that.” Nick said, blowing out a breath. “But she’s my sister,” he added, as if that explained everything.
It explained enough. Sean relaxed a little, feeling only a very small twinge of guilt. In their brief encounter earlier, the woman had really gotten under his skin, and it was starting to piss him off. He was saying and doing things that he normally wouldn’t, and the lack of tight control didn’t sit well with him.
“Good mechanics are a lot harder to find than a good lay, kid.”
Nick nodded. That apparently made more sense to him than the possibility that Sean just wanted to help. “True enough. Think you could come by my place tomorrow, around four maybe? She’ll never believe me if I tell her myself.�
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“Sure.” Sean checked his watch. “But I’ve got to get my ass over to Angels if you still want me to check in on her. What time is she on?”
“Around midnight tonight, I think. Hey, boss.... Thanks.”
Sean nodded as he finished his beer, wondering once again what the hell he’d gotten himself into even as the tingle of anticipation of seeing her again started spreading through his veins.
Chapter Three
Sean left the Pub with even more questions than he had going in. The only real knowledge he had gained was that Nick wasn’t telling him everything, and the parts he was omitting smacked of something dark. The kid was good at keeping secrets, but Sean’s training made him an expert at detecting when someone was withholding information. It was in the defensive body posture, and the deliberate swagger injected into Nick’s voice. Mostly it was in the eyes, and Nick’s were nothing less than haunted.
Sean had seen that look enough in his tours. It was the kind of look a man had when he was forced to watch something awful play out and was unable to do anything about it.
A sudden chill crept down his spine. What the hell was going on? And why were his protective instincts flaring to life with such ferocity? Nick was an employee. Sean cared about the kid, wanted him to do well, maybe even felt a personal stake. But that didn’t explain the intensity he was feeling, the strong sense of warning, or the clawing need to get involved.
That left... the sister? Hadn’t his sense of unease peeked right before he encountered her? The possibility hit him like a brick to the temple. Oh, hell, no, he thought, shaking that thought free before it had a chance to take root. He wasn’t even going to go there. She was smoking hot, sure, but this was no time to be thinking with his dick, no matter how strong the ache in his balls was.
No, he told himself, he needed to get a grip, stop acting like some horny adolescent, and figure out what the hell was going on in his town.
He decided to start with Nicki’s reason for being in Pine Ridge. What was this “family stuff” that brought Nick’s sister into town? Nick had spoken the word “family” like it left a bad taste in his mouth. Was there more to their little unit than brother and sister? And why the uncertainty over how long Nicki would be in town? What kind of situation was open-ended like that?
Nick’s reaction to Nicki’s temp job also raised a few warning bells. Sure, any brother would have issues with his sister working in a place like that and they’d be well-founded ones, too. But Nick’s concern was a bit too intense to be explained away by simple brotherly concern over his sister’s rep, especially one whose nine-to-five (p.m. to a.m., that was) was a showgirl in Vegas. Angels could be hardcore, but Sean knew the owner and Jason took very good care of his employees – men and women - and even Nick should be able to pick up on that. No, there was a decided undercurrent there, one that had nothing to do with false modesty or suggestions of a little OT between the sheets.
Sean firmly refused to consider the biggest question of all: why did he care so much?
Angels was dark and smoky, just as he remembered. The music was so loud he felt the bass reverberating through his bones. And there were pole dancers. Sexy, lovely strippers on the semi-circular stage, doing their thing. He shouldered his way through the standing room only crowd, made his way toward the front, and sat his big frame down beside the table that had just conveniently opened up in the VIP seating area. There were definite bennies to having the boss owe you a few favors.
He accepted a drink from the pretty young server. It was on the house, but that didn’t stop Sean from giving her a generous tip. The smile she gave him was genuine, probably as much for the size of the tip as the fact that he didn’t attempt to grope her. Sean sat down and waited, steeling himself against the nearly unbearable ache that had settled in his balls since some crazy-ass female crawled out of his pit and cupped him there. Shit, he still felt her hand on him, like a fucking brand. That made about as much sense as the fact that he was even here.
Eyes and ears open, Sean tried to relax. It was simple recon. Sure as hell beat the rainforest he’d found himself face down in a month ago, covered in mud and crawling with bugs. Weird, how he almost felt cleaner there than he did here in what his Irish grandmother would have called a “den of iniquity”.
He smiled at the thought, but that smile quickly faded when he realized that something inside him was changing. Some fundamental shift he couldn’t quite identify. Since when had alcohol and beautiful, sexy women started to lose their appeal for him?
He knew the answer, but he didn’t have to like it. Ever since his brothers started settling down it was the beginning of the end. Before then, none of them really considered the possibility of a soul mate. Hell, not one among them could comprehend the monotony of a single woman, let alone a lifelong commitment. Lifelong sentence was more like it, and the Callaghan boys had no wish for incarceration without possibility of parole.
Others laughed at their total disregard for settling down, citing divorce or annulment as a way out if things got unbearable. But the Callaghan men took their oaths – all of their oaths – seriously. They believed that if they pledged before God, family, and friends to love, honor, and cherish till death, then that is exactly what they would do.
Then Taryn came into their lives, and Jake was lost. Lexi returned to her roots and ended up right where she belonged – in his brother Ian’s arms. And Maggie – well, if she wasn’t custom-made for Michael, then the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow.
They were all changing, realizing that maybe there was a chance for each of them. The only one not thrown by the last two years’ worth of upheaval was the clan patriarch, Jack Callaghan, who had always known the truth of it – that Callaghan men, when they fell, fell hard and completely. He’d married the love of his life and they’d had seven sons together. Even now, two decades after her untimely death, Jack Callaghan swore he was as much in love with her as the day he’d first laid eyes on her.
That’s what Sean wanted. That’s what they all wanted. Until recently, none of them believed it possible.
Sean took a long, slow sip from his glass and exhaled. When – if – it happened, he wouldn’t have any control over it. He just had to make damn sure he was ready, just in case.
The first set of dancers was good, but nothing special. The club owner, Jason Michaels, usually had three girls on each set, one to the left, one to the right, and one center stage. The first trio was traditionally the tamest, meant for those out for just a little taste and nothing too hard-core. Standard moves, predictable music, traditional costumes. Cute, but definitely not his style.
Sean used the time to pound back a few cold ones and give himself over to the music, trying not to think too hard about any of the serious shit that kept niggling at the back of his mind. He wished he could go back to just enjoying himself. Get drunk, watch the girls, hook up afterwards, go home sated and alone.
Yep, that’s exactly what he wanted. Simplicity. Independence. Freedom.
The next set of girls was a bit more risqué. The music was harder, the costumes more daring, the moves more suggestive. But still, no sign of Nick’s sister. He checked his watch. Almost midnight.
The lights dimmed and the fog machines created a rolling mist as the stage was prepared for the final act. The minutes ticked by until finally, a hush fell over the crowd and men all across the room found themselves leaning forward in anticipation. Looking around, Sean noticed that the crowd had grown considerably since he’d first arrived – quite a feat since it had been packed then.
It started with a low-pulsing base. Black and red lights illuminated the dance floor, shining up eerily through the fog. For a few seconds all of the lights went out, and when they came back on, three of the hottest women Sean had ever seen were positioned besides gleaming silver poles.
Now this is what he was talking about. Black leather held together with the skinniest of cords and shiny metallic rings. Suicide heels. Gleaming silver chains. Oh, f
uck yes. Sean found himself shifting in his seat, too.
The woman on the left side – where he was – drew his attention immediately. Jesus, he thought, as his brain soaked in the image before him. The dancer had the same color hair as Nicki. The same lean, lithe build. The same motherfucking tattoos.
She remained on his side of the stage, one of three biker chicks dancing seductively along to ball-pounding heavy metal and screaming guitar. Lace thongs. Black leather jackets. Mirrored shades. High-heeled boots that went up to the thighs. The jackets opened slightly, giving a peak at the black satiny lace beneath. He watched, his mouth slightly open as he found himself wishing he was a shiny silver pole, just like probably every other guy in the place.
How the hell did she get her leg all the way up there like that? And that, that was some serious muscle control, there.
Sean couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Her moves were fluid, graceful. Her body, while lush, was extremely toned, which Sean found very attractive. There was something about the way her sculpted strength flexed and danced beneath all that soft, glistening skin that had him harder than iron. Standing still, she was hot. Moving, she was nothing short of a supernova.
And then oh, fuck him, the dancers were slinking down the stairs for highlighted lap dances.
Sean was all too aware of the surge in male interest around him as the men started reaching for their wallets. A possessive, almost primal growl started rolling through his chest as he saw dozens of hungry eyes glued to Nicki expectantly. Like hell.
* * *
Nicki’s eyes scanned the crowd, slightly unfocused, catching vague physical outlines and smudges of color. She never looked at their faces, never. It made it too personal, too real. If she didn’t look into their eyes, then they weren’t real people, and she wasn’t really doing this. It was just a job, a means to an end. To find the rats you had to spend some time in the sewer.
Seeking Vengeance: Callaghan Brothers, Book 4 Page 3