by Sam Crescent
“I can count perfectly. You don’t want me to know your size, and also the way you just groaned, added to the other five you’ve gotten, it makes seven.”
“Do I even want to know what he’s counting?” Laura asked.
“No,” Anna said, before Russ had a chance to embarrass her.
For the next half an hour, she was forced to try on four more dresses along with different shoes to go with each outfit. Anna never spent this much time thinking about what clothes to wear, and knowing Russ picked them out, including the sizes, made her even more uncomfortable.
Only when he had enough did he say it was the last outfit, and that she had to put the red one back on. So, forty-five minutes later they were finally leaving the shop with several packages, which Russ placed in the trunk of the car.
“Where are we going now?” she asked.
“I paid for you to look the right part for the restaurant, and now we’re going to eat.”
****
They were getting a lot of attention, and Russ saw it was making her nervous. A couple of the men were ignoring their dates to simply gaze at her. Anna had no idea how beautiful she actually was. Laura had grabbed a couple of hair grips, and pulled some of her hair back, leaving most of it down.
Several women were giving her the stink eye, but in his world, women were catty.
“So, I fit the part to be in this posh restaurant?” She sat back in her seat, resting her arm in her lap.
“I wouldn’t even wear my leather cut here. I’ve always got my business suit lined up for a place like this. Did we overdo it today?” he asked, pointing at her arm.
“A little. It just aches a bit, but apparently that’s a good thing. It means it’s working.” She touched her shoulder, and pressed a little. “It’s fine. Working it is fine. The sooner it gets fixed, the sooner I can get back to work.”
She could work now, but he had talked to Franny about him not wanting her to return to work.
Franny knew he wanted her. The whole of the club knew he wanted her, and yet the only person who didn’t see it was the person herself.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You don’t fit in with your leather cut?” She had that sexy little smile she gave out whenever he was actually wearing his cut.
“No. I tried, but they turned my ass away.”
“That’s not very good at all.” She giggled. “I prefer your leather cut.”
“The whole world doesn’t like it.” He took the menu that the waitress offered, and watched as Anna opened her menu up.
“The whole world can suck eggs as far as I’m concerned. I hate the way the world works.”
“You’re rather bitter.”
Anna looked up from her menu. “Take this restaurant for example. They accepted me inside this place without any problem. You change my clothes, and they would turn me away. I’ve never needed fancy stuff.”
“I get that. I want to treat you. How about we start with a glass of wine?”
“I like that idea.”
He signaled the waitress, and made sure Anna got a glass of wine while he took a water.
“You’re not drinking with me?” she asked, taking a sip.
“No. I’ve got to get us home first.”
“Then how about I have one glass here, and then we go and have a drink back at your place.”
Our place.
He didn’t say that though, and nodded. “I hope you’re ready. I love a drink.”
“I’m not much of a drinker, but putting Karen to rest made me want to drink. I think now is a better time.” She raised her glass. “To us?”
“To Karen.”
“To Karen.”
They clinked their glasses, and he took a sip of his water. He couldn’t take his gaze away from Anna. She was such a beautiful, graceful woman. He wondered if her lack of seeing her beauty was what attracted to him.
Russ had been with a lot of women who knew they were beautiful, and they didn’t work at anything else to draw attention. They just believed their beauty was more than enough. It never was, and he got bored with them.
“She would have loved to have come here. We used to pass places like this, and she’d stop and get all excited.”
“About coming here?” he asked.
“No, about success. Where we would be so successful no one could turn us away. Karen tried to get a job as a waitress here, but she told me it wasn’t her style. I don’t know what that meant, and to be honest, I still don’t know. I guess now I never will. It sucks.”
He reached across the table, taking her hands. “Don’t do this right now. I know it’s hard, but be here with me.”
“Yes. This is about celebrating the freedom of my leg. Has Lewis found anything more?”
Russ talked to her about everything that was going on with the devices, and how they were helping with tracking down other criminal gangs.
“We’re locating another possible trafficking site.”
He watched her tense up.
“I can’t believe there are so many of them. I mean you hear about them on the news, but you don’t believe they’re real when they really are, and that is terrifying.”
“It’s a big business.”
“Men buying women as if they’re loaves of bread? It doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t like it.” She took another sip of her wine.
“We’re going to stop them.”
“When you stop them more come up to take their place.”
“Let’s talk about something else. What were your plans for that property you were checking out?” he asked, trying to distract her. This had memories of Karen, but he’d come to see everything in Anna’s life had been filled with her friend.
“I told you we weren’t sure what to do with it.”
“I’m asking about your dreams, your thoughts.” He kept hold of her hands, stroking over her wrist.
“I don’t know. I wanted to either open up a bakery—but I’m not professionally trained—or we were going to open up an artisan store specializing in locally grown produce.” She released a breath. “We were going to plan everything else out.”
He nodded. “A plan is always a good place to start.”
“It is, and good food is always appreciated. I think it’s time for us to order.”
Russ signaled the waitress over, and they ordered their food. He asked for some breadsticks while they waited.
Anna took one the moment they were on the table, and he grabbed one for himself as well.
He really wanted to help her to reach her dreams, but they were all over the place right now.
Turning the conversation to some of the movies they watched, Russ had the best date ever. Anna didn’t have a clue that it was a date, but it was one. The restaurant fell away, and he became absorbed in everything that was her.
When they were finished, he paid for their food, and was on his way toward his apartment when his cell phone rang.
He saw it was Lewis, and answered. “What is it?” he asked.
“We’ve got something. You need to come and have a look,” Lewis said.
It had been a long time since he’d heard Lewis excited, but that was exactly how his friend sounded.
“I’ve got Anna with me.”
“Bring her to the club. She can sit and wait for a few minutes.”
Glancing at Anna, he saw her interest was piqued.
“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Lewis?” she asked.
“Yeah, he wants me to stop by to see something.”
“Go on, and I’ll go back to the apartment.”
“Nah, he’s desperate. You’re coming with me. I just hope you can stomach being inside the B. B. MC clubhouse.”
“I can handle it. Richard told me it’s more of a fancy bar. He said think proper MC just with billionaires’ backing.”
Russ laughed. Several of the guys had stopped by to see her when he’d been at wo
rk. She was the first woman that he’d refused to ignore. Every other woman he saved had been taken to the hospital, and he forgot all about them. With Anna, he couldn’t forget about her.
He took her over town toward the clubhouse, and parked the car. The building was heavily secured, and at each gate he had a different security number.
“Wow, you really value your privacy.”
“There’s a reason we’re helping the cops. We all know our shit. Inside that building are nine very intelligent, business minded men,” Russ said, parking in his spot. “We’re not just a front from all of the businesses. We all did this together.”
“I believe you.”
When they entered the bar, he first saw Tina, who was turned toward him. He placed his hand on Anna’s back, and urged her forward. Richard, Jamie, and Sean looked his way as well.
“Wow, talk about fancy meets sexual,” Anna said.
He chuckled.
“Anna, you’re walking normally,” Richard said.
“Yeah, no more crutches. Be careful, I can catch you, and hit you on the head.” She held her arm up in a cast.
“Not with that ass you can’t,” Tina said, mumbling. It was loud enough for Russ to hear, and it pissed him off.
Anna didn’t show any sign of having heard, so he left it alone. He didn’t want her to be nervous around him, and so left her at the bar.
“Have you heard?” he asked, talking to the three men.
“Yeah. It’s big, Russ. Lewis is, well, he’s planning something.”
Russ went straight through to the main office where he found the rest of the club. Lewis was pacing.
“I’ve found her, Russ. I’ve found Mandy.”
Jackson, Blake, and Malcolm shook their heads.
Russ would need to be the person who put some focus onto his friend.
“Tell me what you’ve got.”
“So I was looking through the final tablet, and it has a connection to a live feed.”
“Live feed?” Russ asked.
“Think of it as a constantly running CCTV but in a house,” Jackson said.
At the main screen in the room Lewis did some typing on a keyboard, and over twenty mini screens appeared in front of him.
“Holy shit,” Russ said.
On one of the screens he saw several women bound in cages. Their eyes were covered, and they were tied to the bars.
“Where is this?”
“I don’t know yet, but if we find the location of this house, we find a large order of girls,” Lewis said.
“This isn’t what has him excited though,” Malcolm said.
Lewis went back to typing away at his keyboard, and up came an image of a woman. She was a fuller woman, and Russ was surprised by the clear picture the security had picked up.
“She’s alive, Russ. I fucking told you she’s alive.”
Russ watched as the woman entered a room, and started looking for something underneath the bed. In the next moment, she was talking on the phone, and he saw her place a device in front of her mouth.
He didn’t like this.
“She’s helping us. I knew it.”
“Lewis, I hate to burst your bubble, but you better hope whoever that device belonged to hasn’t seen this.”
Then the reality of what Mandy had done and what they had witnessed came over Lewis.
“Fuck!”
“Yeah.” Lewis scrambled toward the device, and Russ moved around the back of him. This was going to torment Lewis, and Russ had a horrible feeling it was going to be bad news.
Chapter Eight
Anna sat at the bar, and a lot of women were giving her the evil eye, making her rather uncomfortable.
“You’re new, and they’re pissed,” Richard said.
She turned toward him, and she considered this large, tall, rather beast-like billionaire her friend.
“Why are they pissed?”
“They want Russ, and he’s never bought a woman home. You’re new, and it means that he’s never going to pick one of them as his wife.”
“I thought Russ considers them free pussy.”
“He does, but it doesn’t mean they don’t hope for one day to be his everything.” Richard fluttered his eyelashes, mocking the women.
“Don’t you sleep with them?”
“No, baby, I fuck them. I don’t sleep with them. They’ve got no chance of getting a ring on my finger. I’m not some fucking pussy.”
She chuckled even though she shouldn’t. “It sounds kind of mean. You’ll have sex with them, and nothing else.”
“Honey, this entire room is full of bitches who want to bleed me, and my nine brothers, dry.”
Glancing around the room, Anna ignored their glares, but she saw the women were doing everything they could to draw the men’s eye. It was sad, and oddly interesting.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why? No wonder Russ has a thing for you.”
“He doesn’t have a thing for me. He’s being nice.” She shrugged.
“And you’re blind.” He placed the back of his hand over her forehead. She batted away his hand.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m seeing if you’re ill, or if you actually believe that.”
She shoved his hand away and shook her head. “I know it, okay? Look at these women. They’re beautiful, and the woman who was sitting here at the bar, the one who called me fat, got it right. I know my place.”
Richard was silent, and she looked at him to see he was glaring.
“What?” she asked.
“You really believe that, don’t you?”
“Yes. I do.”
He leaned in close and tugged on a strand of her hair. “Russ would be pissed if he heard that.”
“I’m not trying to get compliments or anything. It’s the truth. Men go for girls like this, slender, and beautiful, and utterly captivating. No one goes for me. I’m used to it, believe me.”
“These bitches have got nothing on you, babe. Believe me when I say that.”
“You’re just being nice.”
“No, I’m not. We’re all billionaires, and the women here, they’re gold-diggers. We pay them to fuck us, and in return they get to have a whole lot of cash for the pleasure.”
Anna’s eyes widened. “You mean they’re prostitutes?” she asked.
“You’re putting it nicely. I’d call them a bunch of money grabbing whores, but they’re money grabbing whores who’ll suck my dick, and know their place. You on the other hand, would you allow us to place you on the pool table, spread your legs, and one after the other of us billionaires, fuck you?”
“What? Ew, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult, but no, not at all.” She scrunched up her nose.
“Every single one of these women has been tag-teamed by the whole of the club.”
“But that’s what you want, right?”
“Right. It’s what we want for the club, but if a woman comes along that I love, I’ll stop using the bitches, and I’ll take the woman I love as my wife. None of these women fit the bill. I want a woman who’ll turn down other brothers. Who will only look at me.”
“Are you talking about a virgin?”
“No. She doesn’t have to be a virgin. All she needs to do is not be drive-thru pussy.”
“I don’t know if I like you all that much anymore.”
He chuckled. “I get that a lot.”
“I bet you do. You’re very, erm, blunt.”
“You’ve been hanging around with Russ. He’s pretty blunt, too.”
“He’s very determined to get his own way.” Anna couldn’t deny that. Russ spent a great deal of time ordering her around.
“I’d say he was more protective than anything else. Russ cares about you. Do you care about Russ?”
“I do. I know we’ve not known each other all that long, but I like him. I’d never like to see him hurt or anything. He saved me. You all saved me.” She rested her head against his shoul
der.
“Shouldn’t you be taking her for a test drive?” The woman who was at the bar and had made that nasty remark walked up to them.
“Back the fuck off, Tina. You don’t rule this club.”
“Club pussy comes here, and I don’t see Russ keeping her ass around all that long. She’s got a pretty big ass to accommodate.”
Richard stood, but Anna grabbed his arm. “Don’t let it bother you. It doesn’t me.”
“I’m not having anyone call you shit, Anna. You got a problem with a real woman being in your presence, Tina? Does it hurt that your used up pussy isn’t enough for Russ?”
“He’ll come back. You all come back.”
Anna wrinkled her nose. “You don’t want to go bragging about that.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, fatty. You need to learn your place.”
“I don’t have a place here, so I guess I don’t have to learn it.” Anna had no intention of ever fitting in a place like this. She didn’t want to be used by a variety of men.
“I suggest you back off, Tina,” Russ said, coming into view.
Anna saw he looked angry.
“Russ, baby, I’ve missed you.”
“When are you going to realize that he doesn’t want you?” Richard said.
She watched as Tina walked up to Russ, and was about to run her hand up his chest. Russ grabbed her arms and held the woman away from him.
“I will make sure your ass is thrown out of this club faster than you can fucking blink, Tina.”
“I’m your favorite. You wouldn’t do that. Not for her.”
Wow, this woman was crazy.
“No, you’re not my favorite. You’ve got a big, wet, pussy that can’t say no to a dick, and a whole heap of cash. Make sure you keep the rest of the brothers happy, as otherwise you’re going to have no dick, and no money. We both know you wouldn’t last two minutes out on your own.”
He pushed her away, and held his hand out toward Anna.
Anna climbed off the stool and stepped close to him, placing her hand within his.
She saw the angry look in Tina’s eyes, and she forced herself to stare right back at the woman.
I’m not doing anything wrong.
Russ isn’t married. I’m fine.
He gave her hand a squeeze, and they made their way back toward his car.
“Don’t you think that was a bit mean?” she asked.