by Nicole Fox
“We're going to watch the place until we see Silas and Rian, and then you and I are going to walk in together. Once we get past all the security mechanisms, we'll split up—you'll leave me in the lounge while you go looking around. Silas will leave Rian in one of the lounges while he goes into one of the other lounges to talk with his guys. I'll find him there and ask to talk to him in private. I'll keep him distracted while you find Rian and get her out of there. She'll go with Gabi in Gabi's car. I'll break off my meeting with Silas and meet you back in the second room from the entrance. We'll get on your bike, and off we'll go.”
Thorn nodded approvingly. “Just make sure that when you're talking to Silas–”
“Thorn,” I interrupted, giving him a look, “I know. You have to trust me when I say I know.”
Thorn smiled a little sheepishly at me. “I know you know,” he said. “I just want to make sure that–”
“I know,” I interrupted again, shaking my head. I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Well, Gabi? You going to do my makeup or what?”
It was all false bravado, though. This had kind of been my plan — the whole idea of distracting Silas with his sexuality and all of that. But that didn't mean it wasn't nerve-wracking to put the plan into action.
As we walked into the national headquarters — which honestly looked just like any other office building, just with more security measures at the entrance — my grip on Thorn's arm was tight, and not just because Gabi had put me in spiky heeled shoes for this excursion. I swallowed and looked around.
“Relax,” Thorn muttered under his breath. “You look suspicious, turning your head left and right like that.”
I blushed a little and obediently calmed down my gaze a little bit. Thorn greeted a few people, clearly having met them the previous day when he'd come to do reconnaissance. When we reached the lounge where we would split up, he leaned in and kissed me, his lips lingering against my skin.
“I'll meet you soon,” he murmured. I watched him leave the room, walking casually as though he had every right to be there. Which I supposed he did; I was the only non-biker here.
I rocked back and forth on my toes and heels a few times, counting to ten in my head so that Thorn would have ample time to get away from there. Then, I started off down the hall, peeking into room after room in an attempt to spot Silas's dark head.
Finally, I found him in a heated conversation with two other people. I took a deep breath and then strode into the room, trying to emulate Thorn's careless nonchalance.
All three of them turned to stare at me as I walked in. I feigned embarrassment and back towards the door again. “I'm sorry,” I said, putting a hand over my mouth. “I didn't mean to interrupt.”
“Yes, you did,” Silas said, grinning dangerously at me. He came towards me, eyeing me from head to toe. “But you're a pretty little thing, so I guess I can forgive you. What can I help you with?”
I blushed and ducked my head when he called me 'pretty', doing my best to act the naïve and demure female. It wasn't too difficult since it was basically how I normally acted. “I was looking for you, actually. You're Silas, right?” I slid my eyes over to the others, as though I didn't want to be overheard by them. I bit my lower lip.
“Gentlemen, would you leave us alone for a minute?” Silas asked his lackeys. The others exchanged a glance, but they were grinning, and they didn't seem to think this behavior was abnormal.
After a moment, it was just Silas and I alone in there. I boldly walked closer to him, making sure to sway my hips a little as I went. “I've heard things,” I told him. “I've heard that you're absolutely ... domineering in bed. And I need someone who's going to take charge of me, someone who can discipline me. I'm a very naughty girl.”
Silas raised an eyebrow at me, but I could tell that I had piqued his interest. Indeed, he grabbed me and pulled me close to him, a hand coming around to squeeze my ass. I fought down an indignant squeak and reminded myself that this was what I wanted from him right now.
“I work down on Sierra Street sometimes,” I lied. “The girls down there said that you sometimes go down there looking for companionship—but no one's seen you lately.”
“I've been busy,” Silas said, shrugging a little. His eyes narrowed. “I haven't seen you down there before. And how did you manage to get in here?”
“I've got a friend with the Sigma Saints,” I said, shrugging a little. “And I was just so desperate to meet you, to let you have me...” The words were sickening as they fell from my mouth, but I could tell he was buying every line of it, and I was grateful for that.
Or at least, his hands were still roaming interestedly over my skin, grabbing and pinching at will.
The thing was, I could tell that his hands were talented, and as the callused fingers smoothed across my bare skin, I couldn't help shuddering a little. He certainly wasn't an unpleasant man to have to try to seduce. He was definitely easy on the eyes…
“I want you to take me right here,” I whispered boldly, leaning in to say the words against the skin of his jawline. “I'm so wet for you, I'm so—”
“Uh, sir?” a man said at the doorway.
Silas pulled away from me with a growl, fixing an angry look on the man. “What?” he snapped.
The man cleared his throat. “Rian—”
“What has that dumb girl done now?”
“Well, she's… She's gone, sir. Someone has broken into your personal harem and...”
Silas's face began to purple. He looked positively livid, and it was lucky for me that looks couldn't kill. Otherwise, I would have been dead on the floor already. I watched him with bated breath, hoping beyond hope that he would just decide he needed to look into this and leave me there on my own. I could only hope that I had bought Thorn and Rian enough time that they had managed to get themselves out of there. Maybe I should stall longer…?
I put a hand on Silas's chest, pouting a little. “Baby, I've waited so long to meet you, and—”
Silas pushed my hands off him, giving me a withering look. “I have more important things to do right now,” he said. “I—” But then suddenly, something in his look changed, and he grabbed my hair, pulling my face in close to his. “Did you have something to do with this?” he growled. “It seems too perfect for you to arrive here and come to distract me just when someone else is breaking into my harem and stealing one of my women...”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” I lied, but I knew that my erratic breathing was probably giving it all away.
Silas scowled down at me, tightening his grip on my hair. “Oh really?” he asked.
I swallowed hard, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes. I was beginning to get the sinking feeling that I probably would not be meeting Thorn at our arranged meeting point on time. And I had no idea what I was supposed to do then.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thorn
I still didn't like the idea of leaving Jess on her own in the national headquarters, but I couldn't really see any other way of doing this. And she was proving to be a smart girl; I shouldn't worry about her. She would figure out some way to get out of there; I had faith in that.
Rian was surprisingly easy to find. Easy enough to find, actually, that at first I thought there must be some sort of a trap.
“Come on,” I muttered to her under my breath, holding out my hand to help her to her feet. “Gabi sent me to help you.”
Rian's eyes got wide, and she followed me trustingly and without a word. “You're going to need a disguise,” I told her, pushing her sideways into one of the stock closets. I held out the backpack that Gabi had prepared for her. “Get dressed.” I turned my back on her, giving her some semblance of privacy.
She dressed quickly, and I saw that Gabi had arranged for her to dress up as a dude, of all things. But with the girl's short hair and athletic build, there was actually a lot that was hidden by a thick beanie and an oversized flannel shirt. I nodded approvingly at her and then l
ed her back out into the maze of hallways.
We made it out of the compound easily. Again, it was so easy that I wondered just what I was missing. I paused before going through the last of the security measures, looking around to see if Jess might have beaten us down there. But she was still nowhere to be seen.
“Gabi is waiting for you out front,” I murmured, pushing Rian forwards with a hand at her lower back. “This is as far as I'm going with you. I have to wait for my partner; she was distracting Silas.”
Rian nodded at me. “Thank you,” she said, her voice hardly even a whisper.
I nodded at her and turned back towards where Jess should be coming from. I wondered for a moment if I should go looking for her, but that seemed like a recipe for disaster. The last thing I needed was to walk in on her and Silas engaged in… Well, I could only hope that things hadn't gone that far, but if they had and he had made a quick move on her, I didn't need to see that. I would probably end up picking a fight with the man if I did, and the last thing I needed was to be picking a fist fight with Katia Sin's right-hand man.
I waited and waited, glancing impatiently at my watch every couple minutes, but she still didn't materialize.
Suddenly, there was a commotion down at the end of the hall. “That's him there!” one of the men shouted, beginning to run down the hall towards me.
I swore under my breath. Clearly our mission had been compromised. I was torn between fighting them and trying to go after Jess and getting out of there and coming back for Jess. I doubted I could fight both these guys — especially since they probably had weapons on them — and still make it into the heart of the national headquarters to free Jess on my own. I no longer had the element of surprise on my side.
I swallowed hard and made the decision to run out the front door. I hopped on my bike, revving the engine just as the goons flew out the front door of the headquarters building. Sure enough, one of them had a gun, and I was glad I hadn't stuck around and tried to fight with them.
Instead, I peeled out of the parking lot, roaring down the street on the way back to the hotel. I could only hope that Gabi and Rian had at least made it out safely. I'd need their help to hatch a plan so that I could get Jess back. I only hoped I wouldn't be too late.
Back at the hotel, I was relieved to see Gabi's car in the parking lot. That, at least, appeared to have worked out. Sure enough, she and Rian were there in the car.
“Where's Jess?” Gabi asked, looking around a little as though Jess might somehow materialize beside me.
“She didn't make it back to the meeting point,” I growled. “I'll need to go back for her—but I'll need to wait until the element of surprise is on our side again.”
Gabi's eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Good luck,” she finally said.
“Oh no,” I said, shaking my head. I pointed at Rian. “I helped get your sister back. You're going to help me get Jess back.”
“I don't think so,” Gabi said, shaking her head. “I've got the two remaining packages, and I'm prepared to deliver them to Katia. But that's as far as my involvement in this is going to go. You're on your own for this one.”
I scowled at her. “Gabi—”
“Don't,” she said. “There's nothing that you can do to make me help you out. You don't have anything on me. Unless you want to go to the authorities and explain what your role is in all of this, but I'm sure you wouldn't be stupid enough to do that.”
I frowned at her, hating the fact that she was right. There was nothing I could do to force her to help me get Jess out. I slammed a palm down on the side of her car and then turned and stalked into the hotel, trying desperately to think of ways to get Jess back.
I wouldn't be able to just walk right into the national headquarters again. They had to have video surveillance in the building, and everyone would be on the high alert, looking for someone who fit my description. What's more, I knew Silas wouldn't let Jess out of his sight like he had Rian—not after this humiliation.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that it took me a moment to realize someone was reclining on the couch in the suite, clearly waiting for me. I blinked at the man as he moved, sitting up and leaning forwards to stare at me. “You are in some serious trouble, Thorn Riley,” the man told me, a dark look on his face.
I blinked in surprise at him, shaking my head a little. “What the hell are you doing here, Dorian?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thorn
I woke up gasping from another dream about Jess. It wasn't even a very graphic dream — I had just dreamt of her trapped in a room there, pleading with me for help — but it had tugged at my guilty feelings nonetheless. It had been a week now since the fiasco at the national headquarters, and I still had yet to come up with a plan to get her out.
Dorian wanted me to go back home and forget about all of this, but I wasn't able to do that. I knew better than to outright disobey him, but we were stuck in a strange sort of limbo at the moment, tiptoeing around one another and both too stubborn to give in to what the other person wanted.
“It's not just about Silas,” Dorian said over breakfast, glancing up at me from the bagel that he was spreading cream cheese on. He shrugged a little. “I mean, Silas is undoubtedly the one who has Jess trapped, but it all goes back to Katia in the end. You know once she gets out, she'll be gunning for your life.”
“She won't,” I argued, shaking my head. “She got her packages delivered. She got everything that she wanted. There's no reason for her to come after me.”
“Katia Sin doesn't need a reason to go after you,” Dorian said patiently. “And anyway, you have given her a reason. You showed up in her prison and directly defied her orders. She's got to be pissed as all hell about that.” He shook his head. “You've gotten yourself as mixed up in all of this as I'm going to allow. I'm sorry, but it's time we were headed back home.”
I ducked my head a little, feeling like a chastised kid. “Dorian, you don't understand,” I said, shaking my head. “I got Jess mixed up in all of this. I can't just leave her there with Silas; it's not right.”
“You have feelings for her. I understand that,” Dorian said. “But what you did was stupid. And although you enabled her to get involved in all of this, it ultimately was her choice. You have to leave her alone to deal with the consequences.”
“...the notorious Katia Sin.”
I whipped my head around, staring up at the TV which was currently spitting out the morning news. Sure enough, there was Katia Sin on the screen. And the headline? She had escaped from prison.
I swallowed hard, my heart sinking. If she was out already…
“We've stayed here for too long already,” Dorian muttered, shaking his head as he watched the story as well. He eyed me consideringly. “I don't like the way the Sigma Saints has gone lately,” he said succinctly.
“You're not the only one,” I muttered.
“I know,” Dorian said. He cocked his head to the side. “Now that Katia is out of prison, she's just as much a target as you are.”
I frowned at him, wondering if he could possibly be suggesting what I thought he was suggesting. “Are you saying—”
“If you're going to stick around here,” Dorian said very deliberately, “you're going to need to take out your biggest rival.”
“You want me to kill Katia Sin?” I hissed, looking around. I knew that she had had me followed before. If there was anyone around who could overhear this conversation… What Dorian was suggesting was just…
“You know you can do it,” Dorian said, shrugging a little. “Strike now, while she doesn't expect it. She'll be feeling invincible; she just escaped from a federal prison. Before she can get her feet under her again, before she can sort out Silas and everything else—everyone who stepped up and took some of her power while she was in jail—you need to strike before she is ready for you.”
I found myself nodding, even though I knew this plan was absolutely insane. Dorian seemed to believe that I cou
ld do it, though. And if I took out Katia, maybe I could figure out some way to get Jess free from Silas before the chaos settled.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Okay.”
Dorian smiled at me, the edges tinged with sadness. “I always thought you were smarter than all of this, Thorn,” he said. “You never really struck me as the kind of brash and impulsive person who would get tangled up in something like this.”
I shrugged a little, unable to meet his eyes. “Yeah, well.”
“Gabi will be coming by this afternoon to help you brainstorm. She says Rian may have uncovered some things that could help you out.”
I blinked at him. “Okay,” I said, surprised to hear that. “I thought Gabi was out of this as soon as the packages were delivered to Katia in prison. Now that Katia's free, can't she wash her hands of all of this?”