by AJ Adams
I vaguely remembered a chatty blonde, also a regular at the Oak Leaf. “Oh right. I haven’t seen her for a while.”
“She’s downstairs,” Tracy giggled. “You didn’t recognise her because she’s permed her hair.” Her pale eyes narrowed with spite. “She was boasting about you and her having a thing for each other. Now I’ve got one up on her.”
She was a nasty cow. Disgusted with myself, I got up and headed for the shower.
Tracy’s nasal cry followed me, “Shall I join you?”
“No.” I locked the door and practically boiled myself in the shower, trying to wash her off as fast as possible. Back in the room, it took me a minute to dress.
“You off?” Tracy was lying flat on her back, examining her nails.
“I’ve got to go to work.”
I needn’t have worried about her feelings. “You paid for the room, right?” Tracy asked.
“Yes.” I was ready to run.
“Oh, good,” she yawned. “I’ll have a nap.” She snuggled into the feather pillows. “I’ll see you tonight.”
I substituted the instinctive, ‘Not if I see you first’ with my usual putt-off, “I may be busy.”
Tracy shrugged. “Rex, can you lend me some cash?”
Great. This was turning into an expensive quickie. I peeled off some bills. “Here you go.”
She was counting it and smiling before murmuring hastily, “I’ll pay you back.”
Again, the answer was automatic. “No rush.”
We didn’t kiss goodbye or make any promises about calling.
Crush and DT were still in the bar. So were Tracy’s friends. I looked over and finally remembered the blonde. By her stormy expression, she wasn’t happy. I wasn’t in the mood for tears, yelling or recriminations.
“Let’s go,” I urged Crush and DT.
“That’s a new take on hit and run,” Crush sighed, but he drained his pint.
Wally popped up. “Everything satisfactory?”
“The girl’s staying a while.” I stashed the pie he’d wrapped for me in my pocket. “I’m not picking up any more bills for her. If she orders room service, she’s got cash.”
“Thought she was a slapper,” DT murmured.
I ignored him. “Wally, thanks again for the heads-up. A new man is coming in, Inspector Harding, so things will be a bit unsettled for a few days. If you get any more news, phone me.”
“Sure thing.”
Exiting the Dog and Duck, we pulled up at the crossroads, waiting for the light to turn green. That’s when I saw her.
She was wearing a straw hat with a blue scarf tied around the massive brim, huge sunglasses, and a navy blue polka dot dress that hugged opulent breasts and a trim waist before flowing down to her knees. She carried a big handbag, also blue, and blue strappy sandals. It was sexy, fun and summery.
I looked closer and saw shoulder-length glossy black hair, sharp cheekbones, and full lips. Her bottom was rich as her breasts, and the legs long and shapely. I leaned forward, trying to see more of her face, and touched the horn. The blare made her jump and turn around.
Faced with bikers leering at them, most girls panic. The nervous ones squeal and dash. The cool ones pretend not to see us - and stroll away at a pace that would be envied by speed walkers.
This one stopped, took in the panting leers, and whipped off her shades. Her eyes were sky blue, fringed with thick black lashes, and full of laughter. She popped a hip and stood arms akimbo, posing for us. Her voice was a low sexy growl. “Hi, boys. Like what you see?”
The wolf whistles said we did and by her grin, the cheeky minx knew it was wood all around, too.
“Hello, darling. How about a drink?” Yes, me.
She smiled and waved her hat at me. “I have to work, love. Crystal Wave is waiting for me.” Then she was trotting across the road.
“The new photography studio,” DT said. “She must be a model.”
“She’s fucking gorgeous.” I wanted her. She’d be sweet, lush, firm and fun. Clever by the look of her, and limber. Perfection. I raised my voice, calling after her. “Come to Perdition when you’re done. Ask for Rex.”
On the faraway pavement, the girl turned and blew me a kiss. “I’ll think about it.” Then she jammed her hat on her hair and waved. “Bye, boys!”
“Lickable,” Crush sighed.
“I saw her first. I claim first dibs.”
Crush just grinned. “Seeing your strategy is hit and run, I can wait.”
For a moment, darkness overwhelmed me. The prospect of going home to Perdition, vast and empty, with only endless business to keep me occupied, sickened me.
I was fed up of being lonely, fed up with the violence, and most of all, I was fed up with being me. I wanted to run away from it all and dive into that sexy polka dot dress. Maybe Kraken was right. Perhaps it was time to get a girl. But I knew it just wasn’t possible. And that was the most sickening thing of all.
“Hey, Rex. You okay?”
Called back into reality, I found Crush and DT staring at me. I had the best friends in the world, a roaring business, and more women than I could count. I was an ungrateful bastard.
I revved up the Ducati. “Sure. Let’s ride.”
Chapter Three
Lacy
“You’re making a mistake,” I said for the third time. “You’ve no right to keep me here.”
“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” The copper was plump, pink and pompous, a perfect pig.
“What flipping crime?” I was hopping mad because he’d picked me up in front of the Hot Red Studio, just as I was going in for a job with Crystal Wave. If only he’d picked me up at the end of the day, I would’ve been okay. As it was, sitting in the Bonnington cop shop was costing me a fortune. “I was on my way to a shoot,” I moaned.
The pig’s attention sharpened. “A shoot, huh? So where’s the camera?”
“I’m a model. It’s the photographer who has the camera.”
The pig gave me an old-fashioned look. “You stole a camera from Jason Barrows.”
Fuck. Jason was still up to his tricks. “Look, two weeks ago I kneed him in the balls, and now he’s out for revenge,” I told the plod. “I didn’t steal anything.”
“Barrows says you did.”
“He’s lying. I walked out on him, and now he’s trying to drop me in the shit.” I told him what had happened, ending with, “Jason wants me to come back and finish the job.”
“Rubbish,” the copper said. “There must be plenty of tarts around who’ll do it.”
Terrific. But I wasn’t surprised. People think adult modelling means getting naked and just standing around.
I didn’t bother trying to explain. Instead, I focused on the problem. “We were halfway through the project. As I walked, Jason has to start from scratch, or he will lose the commission. He was already late when I took the job. He probably thinks it’s cheaper to blackmail me into going back.”
“Is that so?” The plod was looking bored.
“Yes! He’s been stalking me and going around all the studios where I work.”
“Looking for his camera.”
“No! He’s telling them I screwed him over, that I owe him, and that I need to go back. As he’s a big scary bastard, he’s freaking people out. One photographer was so frightened that she won’t work with me anymore.”
But he wasn’t listening. “Give the camera back, and he’ll drop the charges.”
“I didn’t do it! I’m not a thief!”
The pig just shrugged. “Don’t play innocent with me. You’ve got form. Shoplifting at Tescos and Aldi supermarkets.”
Bugger. That was awkward. “It was years ago,” I muttered. “And there were special circumstances.”
“There always are,” the pig sneered.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “Look,” I said desperately, “let me call Jason and fix this, okay?” I showed him my phone. “One call, that’s all.”
The pig shrugged. “It won’t help you.”
“Pleeeeease!”
I beg nicely, a skill learned in the bedroom, and it worked for me in the cop shop as well. The pig nodded. “One call. Keep it short.”
I was already dialling. “Jason?” I swallowed my rage; there was no point in having him hang up on me. “We need to talk. This has gone far enough.”
“Who’sh this?” he slurred.
He was drunk, the fool, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. “It’s me, Lacy.”
“You stupid fucking bitch! Where the fuck did you go?”
“Hey, you attacked me!” I wasn’t mentioning Mia in front of the pig who was listening. “You made your bed. Lie on it.”
“Do you know what you cost me? You owe me, you cunt!”
That did it. That foul word really gets to me. “I owe you? You owe me! You jack booting about has cost me a job!”
“That’s just the start of it,” he snarled.
“Don’t you threaten me! I’ll -”
He cut me off. “You’re dead. You’re gone, and you don’t even know it.”
“Oh, don’t be so fucking dramatic!” But he’d hung up.
The plod was staring at me. “So, you admit it.”
“What?”
“You fought, you think he owes you, so you took his camera.”
Hell. “No, that’s not how it was. You’ve got it all wrong.”
But he had a story he liked the sound of, so he wasn’t listening. “Come on, girl. Just hand it over.”
“I can’t hand over something I don’t have.”
The nasty little eyes narrowed. “You get six months for theft. You’d not like prison.”
Instantly my stomach dropped into my shoes. “You can’t bang me up. I’m innocent.” But he could and then Mia would be taken into care. I might never get her back.
The bastard was grinning as he saw me wince. “Now, where’s that camera?”
“I told you -”
I didn’t get to finish because another plod walked in. “Inspector Harding, phone call, sir.”
That opened my eyes. Inspectors don’t handle simple accusations of theft. Most plods can’t be arsed to investigate robberies. When village teens broke into my cottage and nicked a load of my stuff, including some very expensive Perla undies, they wouldn’t even talk to me. I got fobbed off with a text. Lack of manpower, they said.
“Right.” Harding was getting to his feet. “Bang this one up, will you, Fisher.”
“Oy!” I was pretty hot at that. “You can’t do that!”
But he could and so I was chucked into a cell.
I’m certainly not a nice girl, I’d been held overnight before, but the Bonnington nick was an eye-opener. Although it was Thursday morning, the place was heaving. There must have been two dozen women there, all being frisked and processed. From the high heels, micro mini skirts and heavily made-up faces, these were tarts.
“Come on, Henry,” a redhead wearing a red pleather dress moaned. “We weren’t bothering anyone.”
“Yeah,” a bottle blonde in a skin-tight blue lycra dress agreed. “The massage centre is our hangout. We should’ve been left alone. What the fuck’s going on?”
“Sorry,” Henry, the fresh-faced copper, sighed. “Orders from Inspector Harding.”
“Who?”
“The new boss.”
That explained why he’d been so keen. The inspector was a new broom, sweeping clean and impressing the lads with his efficiency.
“The MC won’t like it,” the redhead sniffed.
“Yeah, the Disciples will go spare,” the blonde agreed.
That surprised me. I’d heard that Bonnington was rife with bikers, everyone in England had heard of Belial’s Disciples, but to listen to those girls talk of the MC as if they ruled the place, and to a copper, seemed outrageous.
“I don’t think Inspector Harding cares,” Henry replied.
I didn’t hear anymore because at that point a policewoman dragged me off to be strip-searched. It’s humiliating, that’s why the bastards do it. The inspector had given orders to rile me up. It worried me that he thought it was worth pushing me but thanks to my work, I’m not shy. When photos of naked you are plastered all over for everyone to slaver over, modesty goes out of the window.
So while the policewoman prodded and poked, I just switched off. As I don’t happen to stuff my hoo-ha with drugs, it wasn’t long before they were shoving me into a cell. The blonde and redhead were there, as well as a little brunette. They looked up at me and then went on talking.
“My Emily’s school is out at four,” the blonde worried. “I have to be there to collect her.”
“We’ll be out by then,” the redhead soothed her.
“No way,” the brunette was shaking her head. “They won’t even charge us until tomorrow.”
I knew that was true. My work is entirely legal, but as some people get all riled up about triple X rated film and photos, I’d had my share of harassment. The people in my home village had been so poisonous once they’d found out about my career that I’d left. London had been better but not much. By the time I moved back to the country, to an entirely different village, I’d learned to avoid trouble by telling people I was a catalogue model.
While ordinary people were just rude, the plods were nasty. I’d been hauled in on various pretexts and kept banged up as long as possible on many occasions. They knew there wouldn’t be any charges, but they did it because they enjoyed fucking people up. A uniform is just a license to bully.
I knew Mia was snug, safe and happy, so I wasn’t fussed about being in lock-up, but I did feel for the unknown Emily.
“We’ve got protection. We’ll be out by teatime,” the redhead said smugly.
At that, the door swung open. I took one look and then I had trouble breathing. I’d seen him earlier, astride a huge motorbike. Back then he’d looked damn good but up close and personal he was stunning.
Broad shoulders, narrow hips and long legs, all lickable. Plus, he had a face to die for. Beautiful bones, good skin, cornflower blue eyes and hair so dark blond, that it looked like old gold.
He was just what I like in a man, so I tucked in my elbows, pushed out my tits and cooed, “Hello!”
His eyes flickered over me, but he wasn’t smiling now. Lean and mean was focused on business. “What the fuck happened?” He had the clipped, precise speech of royals and posh public school boys. “Serene, why were you picked up?” he demanded of the blonde.
“We were in the massage centre,” she said quickly.
Lean and delicious was frowning. “No dustup of any kind?”
“No,” Serene was shaking her head. “It’s the truth, isn’t it, Paisley?”
The redhead crossed herself. “Honest to God, Rex.”
I gazed at the angular jaw, and a long forgotten memory stirred. I’d seen those chiselled bones before. Not that morning but way back. It wasn’t a good memory. This was one I’d buried and for a damn good reason. I’ve got quite a stock of those, and so I knew it might take a while to get to it.
In the meantime, I looked him over. He was wearing tan chinos and a black tee, not a cut or patch in sight, but from the way the girls deferred to him, I knew he was a Disciple.
By the hard set of his jaw, he was definitely in a temper. I enjoy bad boys, and a bit of spanking is always fun, so I pushed away the burgeoning memories and fantasized happily, thinking what fun it would be to be taken in hand by him.
“You’re new.” He was examining me. “I saw you this morning.”
He was interested. I saw my way out, so I danced right over and gave him my best smile. “Hi, I’m Lacy. We met at the traffic lights, earlier.” He gazed down my dress, getting an eyeful of my boobs, so I gave them a little shake. You know, to entertain him. “You’re certainly a sight for sore eyes.”
“Is that so?”
A little cold for a man who was having a good time but I didn’t let that bother
me. “Rex, sweetie, will you get me out of here?” I gave the girls another little shake. “I’d be grateful,” I hinted.
Yes, shameless. But I wanted out. And anyway, the long elegant body, fine bones and air of danger went straight to my clit. Those hard muscles would feel great wrapped around me, and from the bulge in his chinos, he was built for fun and games. He smelled good too, of leather and spices. I’m not a pain slut, but I was having visions of crops.
“We could go to your place right now,” I encouraged him.
You’d think any man would jump at the offer of incredible me but the bugger frowned, “Lacy? Lacy what? I don’t remember seeing your name on our list.”
Before I could explain, the two tarts were jumping in.
“She’s not with us,” Serene said quickly.
“She’s in for theft,” Paisley added. “Henry said so.”
I didn’t like this turn at all. “You told me to come and find you,” I reminded him. “At a place called Perdition?”
“Not if you’re a thief. You’re on your own, Lacy.” He turned and called up the hall, “Zero, I’ve got Serene and Paisley here.”
I was about to set him straight, but one look at that profile shut me right up. Again, I was having trouble breathing, but this time it was pure fear. I remembered where I’d seen this man. That air of danger wasn’t sexy anymore. This was a cold-blooded killer.
“Theft isn’t tolerated in Bonnington.” Lean and lethal was inches away from me, now laser-eyed with menace. “When you’re released, get out of town. We don’t want your kind here.”
I wasn’t even going to try and deny it because suppressed memories were flooding back. I felt sick as flashes of recall from a night I’d hoped to bury forever came rushing in, crystal clear. I knew what he was, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I was too scared to speak, so I just nodded.
“Uhm, Rex,” Serene said hesitantly. “I can’t afford any fines at the moment.”
“It’s just a misunderstanding,” he replied. “We’re making arrangements now. There’ll be no charges.”
I admit I was gawping. With the inspector all over this, there would be hell to pay. This man was either a liar, or the Disciples were world-class fixers. But the girls took him at his word.