BANE
Trillionaire Shifter Club: Book One
Rosette Bolter
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CHAPTER ONE
He didn’t look like much when Harper first saw him. Just another one of the dozen tall, brooding strangers that were in the room that night. It didn’t matter that he’d had his eye on her from the moment she walked in, or that any minute now he was going to come over and talk to her. She wasn’t looking for a guy tonight. She didn’t want to talk to him, smile at him or listen to what he had to say. There was nothing he could say. Tonight was Friday, and on Sunday she was getting married to the man of her dreams, Joshua Lloyd.
“Stalk-err,” Harper’s friend Cordelia Ambrose murmured, stirring the olive in her cocktail.
Harper resisted the urge to look behind her.
“Is it the same one as before?” she asked.
“Yep,” Cordelia said. “He’s made eye contact with me too. He doesn’t even care that I know he’s staring.”
“Don’t look,” Harper advised. “You’re going to encourage him.”
Cordelia glanced away a moment. “This is why I never come to places like this. Every guy in here is single and trying to get laid.”
“I’m sure a few of them have girlfriends,” Harper said.
“And how many of their girlfriends are here?”
Harper picked her cocktail up from the table and raised it. She took a few sips.
“Okay, he’s gone now,” Cordelia murmured. “I think I finally scared him off.”
Harper put the drink down and leaned back in her armchair. The DJ downstairs turned the music up and there was a wave of applause from the clubbers on the dance floor. A couple of men in suits walked past their table without glancing at either of them. Harper saw Cordelia’s gaze move after them.
“You sure you’re not looking to pick up tonight?”
“What?” Cordelia muttered, returning her focus. “No, I just, thought I recognized one of them.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, some guy from high school I used to hang with. Looking pretty sharp now.”
“I never see anyone from those days anymore,” Harper confessed.
“What about online?”
“Well, yeah, I sort of meant in the real world.”
Cordelia finished her drink. As she lowered her hand with the glass, her attention was drawn to Harper’s. “You want to finish it? I’ll get us another one.”
Harper finished the drink and Cordelia collected it. “Be right back.”
As she moved past where Harper was sitting in the direction of the bar, Harper glanced over her shoulder. She wondered if Cordelia was chasing down her old friend.
“Hello.”
The monotone voice caught Harper by surprise. She turned back to Cordelia’s chair to find the guy who had been watching them before, sitting there.
“Excuse me,” Harper blurted out. “My friend’s coming right back.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to make the most of the time we have,” the man replied.
“I’m not – ” Harper began. She raised her hand to show her ring. “I’m getting married.”
“What’s your name?” the man asked.
“My name?” Harper grumbled. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Bane.”
“Well, ‘Bane’, if you don’t take off I’ll call security on you. You have a lot of nerve just walking up to someone you don’t know and talking to them.”
“This?” Bane mused. “This is nothing.”
Harper lowered her eyes. There was a slight pause between them.
“I really like your hair,” Bane said.
“My hair?”
“Obviously it’s colored, but, you’re not a natural red-head anyway, are you?”
“No, but what does –”
“I didn’t think so.” Bane leant forward. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to upset you or anything. I’m going to leave soon. But when a girl like you, walks into a place like this, with hair like that – you’re the first thing a man like me is going to see. You’re the only thing any of us are going to see. So I guess the question is, how happy are you? With hair like that…”
Bane stood up from the table and placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. While his face revealed no emotion or expression, the lightning inside his eyes, and way Harper was drawn into it, forced her to think…
Who on earth did I just meet?
CHAPTER TWO
Cordelia returned to the table a minute later. By then Bane had merged into the shadows around them. Out of sight.
“We got pink ones this time,” Cordelia said handing Harper her glass.
“What’s in it?”
“No idea.”
Cordelia sat opposite Harper looking enthused.
“Can I ask you a question?” Harper said. “What do you think of my hair?”
“Your hair? I don’t know. It’s red.”
“Does it suit me?”
Cordelia shrugged. “Of course.”
“You don’t think it’s too loud? Like I’m trying to get attention?”
“What does Josh think?”
“Josh, oh uh – he was kind of neutral actually when I changed it. I mean, he praised it and everything, but after the first day or so he didn’t mention it again.”
“Did you get it changed for him?”
“What?” Harper mumbled. “I think –”
“For the wedding?”
“I did it just because I thought it would be fun. At least that’s what I thought. Now, I’m –”
“Seriously,” Cordelia interrupted. “Why are we talking about this? Who said something about your hair?”
Harper sighed. “It was…”
“It was who?”
“That guy who was staring at us. He came over after you left and sat in your chair. He said I dyed my hair like this because I’m not happy and I want attention.”
“Bastard,” Cordelia growled, standing up. “Where is he?”
“No, no – don’t – please don’t –”
“Who does he think he is?” Cordelia ranted. “Making fun of you for no reason. We should get him kicked out.”
“He wasn’t making fun of me.”
“What?”
“He was – he was sort of ‘advising’ me.”
“Oh-ho-yeah. Great advice I’m sure.”
“Well, it’s got me thinking,” Harper gushed. “Why did I make my hair this way? Why am I here tonight? Do I – do I really love Josh? Am I ready to get married now?”
“Oh my gosh,” Cordelia said coming over. She put her arm around Harper shoulder. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
“I’m fine,” Harper said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I just need a tissue.”
Cordelia bent down and picked up Harper’s hand bag. She found a tissue inside of it for her.
“Thanks,” Harper said taking it, and blowing her nose. “I’m sorry I got like this. I’m talking stupid.”
“Don’t be silly,” Cordelia said. “That asshole just got to you, that’s all.”
Harper put the tissue away and looked up with a smile. “I feel better now. Maybe I just wasn’t expecting someone to come at me that way.”
Cordelia nodded and moved to her side of the table again. She picked up her cocktail and drank from it.
“Harps?”
“What?”
“I think your hair looks lovely.”
They both laughed.
&n
bsp; CHAPTER THREE
It was just after ten pm when the girls decided it was time to call it a night. They knew they could have stayed where they were and continued on cocktail after cocktail, but they were wary of the watchful eyes of other gentlemen in the room; circling them like vultures flying over a wounded antelope. Harper was staying at Cordelia’s that night as Joshua and his boys were having a bucks night or something back at their house. They phoned a cab and then stood up from their table, taking one last look at their surroundings.
She wasn’t sure why, but Harper knew she was looking for Bane on her way out. She hadn’t seen him since their conversation and while she had kept on a cheerful face for Cordelia, there was still so much that unsettled her about the interaction – so many questions she wanted answered. Instead of forgetting about him as the hour moved on as she should have, Bane just kept growing and getting larger and larger in her mind. Until they stepped outside the night club and he was all she was thinking about.
“Cab should be here any minute,” Cordelia said, folding her arms against the cold. “They’re usually pretty quick around this area.”
“Even on a Friday?”
Cordelia shrugged.
Harper looked down either side of the road, trying to make out a taxi from each set of headlights.
“Hey girls,” a voice rang jovially behind them.
Cordelia and Harper both turned as three men in suits surrounded them.
The bouncer at the club’s opening bowed his head and stepped back inside, closing the door behind him.
“Uh – do we know you?” Cordelia asked.
“You know me,” a voice piped behind them.
They turned to face the man at the edge of the road.
“You remember me, don’t you? Come on, Cordelia.”
“Oh,” she murmured. “Jayden. Jayden Sommers. Of course I remember you.”
“Did you see us before?” Jayden asked.
“You mean in there?” Cordelia replied.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “You should have come and said hello.”
“Well, why didn’t you come and say hello?” Harper asked defensively.
The two men behind her started laughing.
“You look good,” Cordelia said to Jayden. “Things going well for you?”
Jayden gave half a smile, and raised his eyebrows.
Harper was getting a really bad vibe from him.
At that moment, the taxi cab pulled up to the sidewalk. Harper brushed past Jayden to get to it. “That’s us.”
Jayden put a hand on Harper’s arm. “Don’t be silly. We’ll take you home.”
Harper violently shook his hand off. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“Whoa,” Cordelia murmured. “Relax, Harper. I know this guy. He’s a friend of mine.”
“Are you coming or not?” Harper demanded.
“Trust me guys, I’ve got this,” Jayden said smiling. He stepped round to the driver’s door and tapped on the glass.
“Taxi for Cordelia?” the driver asked.
Harper watched as Jayden handed him some money. “For your trouble.”
The cabbie accepted it, muttering under his breath, and then pulled away back to the road.
It was as though Harper’s heart stopped in the middle of its beat.
“Come on,” Jayden said. “We’re parked around back.”
They started walking.
CHAPTER FOUR
In the back of the night club’s parking lot, there were still plenty of people around, arriving and going. For a moment, Harper had been concerned they were going into a secluded area. She knew Cordelia wouldn’t automatically trust someone for no reason, but how her so called friend behaved with the cab implied he wanted to get something out of them tonight. Seriously. Cordelia had to see it.
“So I left there, then I went up to Mount Hitchfield because there was an opening, and I got the job there,” Cordelia babbled. “But it only lasted a few weeks – the boss was a fucking bitch and we clashed all the time. I met my boyfriend Marshall somewhere between that and –”
“What’s your name?” one of Jayden’s friends asked Harper from behind.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Harper.”
“You have a boyfriend, Harper?” the second one said.
“I’m kind of engaged.”
“No shit.”
“Yeah, getting married on Sunday.”
Faint chuckle.
Harper didn’t want to look back anymore. She was keeping her eyes right ahead.
Jayden stopped in front of a large black van, and forced the side of it open. “Everybody in.”
Cordelia stepped inside first. Jayden stepped in the back behind her.
“Aren’t you driving?” Cordelia asked.
“Not yet.”
Harper went to step inside also, but Jayden quickly closed the door in her face.
“Hey!” Harper yelled. “What on earth –?”
Jayden’s friends grabbed her waist and forced her up against the side of the van. One of them revealed a silver pistol inside of his jacket.
“Don’t scream,” he whispered. “Don’t yell. Don’t say a fucking word.”
Harper stared into the man’s eyes, wide with madness, as her whole body started to shake. She could hear stuff banging on the inside of the van. Cordelia was trying to call out for help.
“Why?” Harper sobbed. “Why are you helping him?”
“It’ll be your turn next,” the man on her left said.
Harper swallowed.
Cordelia’s muffled scream echoed from inside the van. Jayden was attempting to rape her.
CHAPTER FIVE
And then there was another bang. One that didn’t seem to come from the inside of the van, but from the outside of it. The man on Harper’s left let go of her arm as a dark figure appeared around the back of the van, sticking its head out slowly.
“What in the world –?” the man began.
The creature to turned its head to face them and then a new kind of terror engulfed Harper as its snout braced forth into the light.
“Fuck,” the man gasped and turned to run.
But as he did so, the nine feet tall grizzly bear was on his tail, sending him flying to the concrete with one swipe of his paws.
The other man at Harper’s waist released her, and she dropped to her knees, screaming wildly.
The man took out his pistol and aimed it at the bear as it approached.
“Stay back!” he shouted.
The bear roared angrily at him, and the man discharged the firearm three times at the bear. The fourth bullet didn’t work and the man threw the gun at the bear before taking off screaming.
Harper tried to back away from him, sliding her feet across the ground, as his great mass advanced further. She closed her eyes, expecting the next sensation to be one of horrific pain followed by her untimely death, but … instead…
The sound of the van’s side door grated in Harper’s ears as it was ripped from its hinges. Both Cordelia’s and Jayden’s screams rose above it as the door was discarded to crash beside the first man still on the ground.
Harper opened her eyes to see the bear pulling Jayden out from the van, holding him up to his eyes.
Cordelia ran to her side and pulled her back to her feet and then they bolted towards the night club’s back entrance. The pair began pounding on it as hard as they could.
CHAPTER SIX
A few moments later, Harper’s back was pressed against the wall, looking back to where they had come from. Jayden, who was still in the bear’s arms, was screaming in agony as his bones were slowly crushed and broken. Satisfied, the bear flung Jayden twenty feet into the air, and he soared over his friend on his way to the ground. The bear looked on for a moment, and then turned his gaze towards the girls.
“HELP!” Cordelia shouted. “SOMEONE OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!”
The bear started to back away into the darkness. And then for the briefest o
f moments the bear’s entire entity seemed to shift away, leaving only the outline of a man in his place.
Harper grabbed hold of Cordelia. “Look. Do you see that?”
“See what? Where is he?”
“He’s – He’s –”
The door opened behind them, and Cordelia rushed into the night club quickly.
It wasn’t long before she was calling out again. “Harper! What the fuck are you doing? Get inside!”
But no. Harper wasn’t coming. Not just yet.
She walked slowly around the side of the damaged van, blocking out Jayden’s cries in the process. Around the other side of it, she saw the outline of the man again, walking quickly away from the scene. He passed through the parking lot into another road and turned the corner out of sight.
“Harper, what are you doing?” Cordelia squealed.
And for a second there she was about to return to her friend, and let the matter be. Forget about it. Forget about everything. Turn up to the wedding on Sunday and marry Joshua and have his children and live happily ever after.
It could have been her life.
Her whole life.
But there was something else inside Harper.
Something that told her to run.
CHAPTER SEVEN
He was walking quickly. But not so quickly that he was too quick for her. Just as she was about to reach him he turned sharply, sensing her presence. Harper hadn’t registered the idea of it turning out to be him, but she had felt it, known it somehow. They’d been destined to meet again.
“It’s ‘Bane’, isn’t it?” Harper said gently as they both stopped.
He looked her figure up and down. “I never got your name.”
“It’s Harper,” she answered. Then she took a step forward. “Thanks. Thanks for –”
“It was rude of me to approach you as I did,” Bane said. “For that I’m sorry.”
“Oh, don’t apologize. I’m the one who should say sorry for being such a meanie to you.”
Bane: Trillionaire Shifter Club Book One Page 1