No, no, no. I did not just wonder that. Did I? Dammit! This was all Booth’s fault. He was turning me into a horn bag.
I was looking at Rainn in silence as I waited for her to answer when I noticed all of the women were staring at me, their mouths opened and eyes wide. Did I miss something?
“What?”
“Does Booth know you want to know what Mannix’s body feels like on top of you?”
“Eyes the colour of coffee?”
“You think my body is luscious?”
Oh, Lord, I had done it again. I held my head in my hands and waited for the laughter to die down. Seriously, I had to get a grip on this word vomit.
“Okay, ladies, give the poor girl a break,” Vegas spoke up, her eyes shining with laughter, though. “Stella, you have the worst case of word vomit I have ever seen,” she said with a giggle.
I joined in because what else could I do? She was right. It was a part of who I was. A big part of my personality and Booth found it cute and amusing—he might not if he found out about this particular case, but I knew the flock wouldn’t say a word. Well, Charlotte might accidentally tell Deck. The woman couldn’t resist telling him everything. She said it was the blue eyes that got her. I could see how anyone would want that hunk of hotness calling them Sweetness and doting on them like he did Charlotte.
“To answer your original question, Stell, Mannix doesn’t want an exclusive relationship. He has far too many trust issues as far as women go, and to be perfectly honest, I am fine with how things are. He is kind and caring towards me, sees to my sexual needs and some emotional ones too, and he is a great boss who pays me well for my work at the strip club. So really it’s a win-win for both of us,” she explained flippantly, shrugging her slim shoulders like she really didn’t care.
“What about you, Julie?”
The oldest of us, Vegas, looked at us with guarded eyes. She had been at the club the longest. I knew she only just turned thirty because Darth took her out for her birthday just last week.
“I have my reasons, and so does Darth. What we have is fine for now for us both. We have been together for years, and all the other brothers know I am his, so that’s all I need.” I heard her words, and they were sensible and clear, but I couldn’t help but think there was so much more going on there.
“Would you like to be claimed by him?” Mia asked softly.
Vegas didn’t say anything for a minute, but her beautiful eyes filled with tears. Like Rainn, Julie was stunning. Blonde hair, soft feminine features, and her breasts! We all envied them.
“I love him, so yes, I would love to be claimed by Darth, but it will never happen, so let’s drop it, okay?” she said quietly. Her hand swiped at a stray tear on her cheek, ending any further discussion on the matter. All of us quietly reflected on why Vegas wouldn’t let Darth claim her.
***
“Ladies, if you don’t mind waiting inside the shop, I’ll bring the car around to the front.” Squid was all business as he planned how he was going to get us loaded and safe into the car. The guys were taking no chances with our safety. Rogue had Booth and his men at their limit, and none of us girls was prepared to add to their grief. So we helped by doing as we were told, lessening their stress just a bit.
“So where to now?” Mia asked, jumping about all excited. She hadn’t spoken about Steel much today, and none of us had pressed her, either. She seemed like she wanted to party more, and truth be told, so did I. I wanted to keep my upcoming appointment off my mind. Booth had been amazing about my meltdown, and I would need his strength to get me through what could possibly be my own hell. Our weekend in denial was about up, though, and I wanted to prolong it for a few more hours.
“I think I might head back to the compound. Shiloh and I have a night of Tour of Duty and Frozen planned, and Vegas can’t wait to watch the Disney flick for the thousandth time, can you Vegas?” Charlotte said with a laugh.
The brunette rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face told a different story. “Nothing would thrill me more,” she answered, which had us all laughing.
“Okay, everyone in the car. Let’s move it, women,” Squid called from the front door, holding the door open wide and motioning for us to hurry up and get a move on.
“You are aware that two of these women belong to your pres and sergeant-at-arms, right, Squid?” Rainn sassed the prospect as she strutted past him and out to the vehicle that waited for us.
How did she walk so fast in those killer boots with six-inch heels? And why was her arse so perfect? I quickly darted a look to see if anyone was gawking at me. Nope, all clear. I didn’t speak the thought aloud. Thank God.
“Yes, I am, Miss Rainn, and I am doing exactly what they told me to do. Not take any shit from any of you.” The moment he said it, I could see he regretted the words, but it was too late.
The three champagnes I’d consumed inside the spa had given me a real nice buzz, and from the look on Rainn and Mia’s faces, they were buzzed, too. A great idea suddenly popped into my head, and I smiled slyly at the biker.
“I think it’s time to get some yummy fruity cocktails into us. What do you think, ladies?” Now if I were soberer, I would have taken notice of the horrified look on Charlotte’s face, even the shake of Vegas’s head, but no, I took notice of the equally nearly drunk Rainn and totally and completely inebriated Mia instead. My biggest mistake to date.
Their jumping, squealing, and clapping appealed to my fuzzy brain so much more. So that was how we found ourselves dropped off at the strip club. I may have used my status as the president’s woman to get there, but whatever got me closer to the yummy fruity goodness worked for me.
***
“Ohh, let’s dance.” Mia slurred as she tried to climb out of the booth, but in her inebriated state, which was worse than Rainn’s and mine, her legs were not quite ready for the move. “Why won’t Steel take notice of me?” she asked out of the blue, her beautiful dark-chocolate eyes haunted with sadness.
Poor sweet Mia.
“Sweetheart, maybe it’s time you move on from Steel,” Rainn suggested gently, taking Mia’s hand in hers. “When a man is obsessed with another woman, it usually means he isn’t obsessed with you,” Rainn added, and although it was harsh, I thought she was right to some degree. Mia’s sister held too much of Steel’s attention, and he really was obsessed as Rainn said.
Reaching over, Mia grabbed another drink and knocked over the bowl of chips and salsa Tori had brought over earlier, suggesting it was a good idea to eat and soak up some of the alcohol. Rainn and I had taken notice, but Mia, however, was not interested in food and had started to chug back vodka and orange juice the minute we walked into the club, and she hadn’t eased up since.
“What does he see in her?” she yelled. Her head dropped down, and her forehead hit the table with a thunk, making the table bounce. Ouch, that really looked like it hurt.
“Why don’t you ask him?” I suggested. Now, again, had I been sober, I probably would never have suggested such a thing, but drunk Stella had a new liking for drunk calling the men.
Without looking up, Mia reached into her bra and pulled out her phone.
Oh, my God! Why hadn’t I thought of doing that?
“Put it on speaker, sweetheart. I like to hear Mannix laugh when his brother is getting his arse chewed off by you.”
Mia nodded her head, and with great concentration, she connected with Steel’s number and enabled the speakerphone option.
“Steel.”
“Stud? It’s me, the sister you can’t stand to look at,” Mia said loudly into the phone.
“Mia?”
“Yep, that’s the one, stud. The one without the blonde hair. The one without the sexy body and plastic tits. The one who doesn’t get to have your amazing lips kiss her all over her body. The one who is still a virgin,” she said. Her voice was so sad, so lonely.
My heart broke for the younger woman. Even drunk, I understood her pain. Booth had ignored me f
or so long I thought he didn’t like me in return. Of course, the opposite had been correct, but I didn’t see that happening for Mia. Her sister was too much of a stumbling block.
“Mia, please, hang up, Beauty, and come on back to the compound. You are obviously drunk again.” Even over the phone, I could hear the weariness in Steel’s voice. He was being gentle with her. I knew he cared about Mia. I saw it all the time in the way he called her beauty, for heaven’s sakes, but Callie was his kryptonite.
“Am I lovable, Steel? If Callie wasn’t so beautiful and perfect, would I be the type of girl you would like to be with?” The trembled words and the hope in her tone was a sign this was more than a drunken call. She was desperate for the answer, desperate to find out if she needed to move on from Cooper Steel.
“Fuck, Mia, this isn’t the time to talk about this,” Steel pleaded with her, and for once, I agreed with him.
Please, hang up the phone, Mia. For your heart’s sake.
“I need to know, Steel, please. I love you so much, and she doesn’t. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself. Please, Steel, am I wasting my time?”
“Yes.” The quietly spoken word struck us dumb. Oh, my God. The sob that came from Mia brought tears to my eyes as she just broke. With her hand held over her mouth, she nodded her head at the phone, then stumbled out of the booth, taking off in the direction of the bathrooms.
“Fuck you, Steel,” I shouted before Rainn pressed the end button on the phone but not before I heard him yell he didn’t mean it. But Mia didn’t hear, and I was not going to tell her. It was time she picked herself up and found a man worthy of her beauty and her love. And from what I just heard, Steel was not that man.
37
BOOTH
I looked at my brother as he hung up his phone. He’d just lied to Mia—for what reason I couldn’t know or understand. I had known my VP since we were eighteen years old, and I just watched him tell a barefaced lie.
“Fuck, that was brutal. Jesus, Steel. What the fuck are you doing?”
Steel ran his hands through his long hair, his frustration clear. “Bloody hell, Booth. You know how I feel about Callie, but I have so many feelings for Mia, too,” he admitted as he blew out a breath and sighed.
Creed sat at the end of the table, his eyes narrowed, and his jaw ticked. He had bonded with Mia more than the others and saw her safely home at nights and helped her with her car. I couldn’t figure out if he wanted her in his bed or just wanted to be her friend. Creed wasn’t the easiest man to read, and he let no one in.
“Well, as far as I am concerned, that’s good fucking news. Now she can get a guy who cares about her feelings and about her heart,” Creed ground out between clenched teeth as he got up from the bar. He glanced at his watch and headed in the direction of the door leading to the club’s garage.
“And what? That means you are going for a shot with her?”
“What the fuck do you care, VP? You just destroyed a beautiful woman with one fucking word, brother. So you can go fuck yourself,” Creed yelled over his shoulder, not even bothering to turn around.
Creed and Steel had always clashed heads—even when they were in the army, they were always at it—but give them a sniper rifle each, and they were a fucking sight to see. Their brotherhood was strong, and that was the only reason I wasn’t stepping in. Well, that, and by the sound of my woman on the other end of the phone just now, she sounded a tad pissed off with my VP. She also sounded very drunk, and a drunken Stella was a fun time in bed for me. Time to go retrieve my woman.
“Oh, fuck me, Pres. This looks like trouble.” Darth was pointing at Steel, who was striding purposely over to where Callie was playing pool with Ingrid and Seb.
Oh, please, tell me he wasn’t going to do what I thought he was going to do. I prayed to God he wasn’t. When he dropped awkwardly to one knee, my stomach rolled. The whole scene was like a bad movie with Steel on his good knee and his hand out to the blonde bitch—fucking idiot was asking her to marry him. Fuck me sideways.
“For fuck’s sake, you’re a dickhead, Cooper,” Mannix grumbled from beside me, using Steel’s given name. Cooper and Mannix Steel, brothers in arms as well as blood just like Carson and I had been. I often wondered if Carson had lived, would he have helped start the club with Deck and me. I reckoned he would have since the little bugger had done anything I did. He had been my bloody shadow, but that day, I wished he had gone for cover. Instead, he’d followed me. To his death. I concentrated on the couple in front of me and pushed the ugliness in my mind aside.
***
“Are you serious? Steel, please, I don’t want to marry you. You know how I feel about your leg. I have a queasy stomach. Now get up. You look ridiculous down there.” Everyone in the main room could hear Callie’s cruel taunts as they enjoyed and relaxed the afternoon away. I saw Steel, frozen to the spot, his leg wouldn’t allow him to get him up without stumbling, and that shit was just not on. I jumped off my barstool and strode over to give my brother the support he needed. Reaching my VP, I grasped his arm, his face turned up to me, and the sorrow in his expression said it all.
“Come on, brother. I got you,” I said quietly as I took most of his weight so his leg didn’t give out underneath him and ended up on his arse in front of this bitch. I helped him up so he could look like he did most of the work himself. Pride was a big thing and important around this club, and this horrible woman just tried to strip it from my friend.
“I want you out of here, Callie. You aren’t welcome here anymore,” I ordered Mia’s sister, and her eyes went wide with shock.
“You can’t do that. Steel, tell him I can stay,” she spluttered, but it was for nothing. I’d had enough of her vile mouth and nasty attitude towards the women of my club.
“Fuck off! Get out of here now,” Mannix shouted from behind me where Deck and Darth had also gathered. Their support of Steel was expected and always a given.
I looked at Steel, who was now on his feet, and his face was devoid of any emotion. I wasn’t sure what the damage would cause him, but I was sure he was going to feel this humiliation for a long time to come.
“Pres!” Creed’s shout from the garage sounded frantic, and he burst into the room with a phone in his outstretched hand.
“Creed, Creed, can you hear me?” Mia’s voice was muffled and low, but it was her.
“Mia, yes, we can hear you. Go on, gorgeous, tell us what’s going on.”
I ignored the growl coming from Steel when Creed used the pet name. My gut was telling me something very bad was happening.
“They … they took her,” Mia whispered so softly I could barely hear her. “I begged them to take me instead because Stella has a man who loves her, but they wouldn’t take me, Creed, and they took her.” Her sobs filled the silence that had descended in the room. The music now turned off, all eyes were on Creed’s phone.
“Mia, Beauty, tell me where you are?” Steel asked. His feelings for the beautiful, sweet, quiet girl were never far from the surface despite his involvement with Callie.
“I’m in the cleaning supply cupboard. Rainn pushed me in here and locked me in when I tried to bargain with them,” she cried.
Where was Stella? My vision blurred with images of her. She was the air I fucking breathed, the fucking love of my life.
“Where… is… Stella?” I asked. I wanted her to say that she was with her, locked in the supply cupboard, but I knew she was gone. She was the one they took—whoever they were.
“Booth, they took her. Her stepfather and brothers knocked her out and took her.”
Fifteen words. That was all it took for my world to fall out from beneath me.
38
STELLA
Oh, God, I am going to die. That was my only thought as I lay there in the boot of my stepfather’s police car. He and my stepbrothers had burst into the strip club under the pretence they were on official police business. They had thrown Mia and me to the ground, and poor Rainn received a p
unch to the face when she tried to fight back. Where the prospect went, I had no clue. I just hoped he hadn’t suffered the same fate as Dundee. Booth would never be able to handle the guilt of another lost brother. My sexy soldier with the heart of a lion—so protective and full of pride. And Mia, my sweet friend, tried to get Gary to take her instead. She’d begged them to and told them she had no one who would miss her, try to find her, or go to the police. Rainn had gotten so mad at Mia that she had dragged her from the room, and I never saw where she went from there.
Of course, they took me but not before each of them hit me. After so many weeks of not being abused by them, the pain felt worse. Having Booth love and adore me had given me a false sense of safety. I should have known they wouldn’t let the house go. Booth found out from a strip club owner and pimp called Shifty that a developer wanted the land, needed it desperately for a multi-billion-dollar deal to go through. I hadn’t heard of any offer from anyone, so Gary must have pretended to be the owner of the property. His gambling must have gotten out of control. Booth said Gary had been suspended from the force, but the boys were still active as far as he knew but under investigation. How had this happened to me? What was my mum thinking when she married this piece of shit? Surely, she knew at some level that he was bad? No one can hide their real side for long, so how could she leave me in such an environment?
I couldn’t help the anger that bubbled to the surface. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. I had an appointment to see about this lump. Then Booth was going to marry me, and we were going to have little Booths, and I was going to have a lifetime of mind-blowing sex, and the love and devotion of the most amazing man.
Suddenly, the boot lid opened to reveal my stepfather and stepbrothers and a man I had never seen before. He was tall, well over six foot, and he looked to be in his fifties but could have been older. His greying hair was cut in a typical military style, short back and sides.
His Honey (The Wounded Souls Book 2) Page 18