Two Tricks (Hidden Empire Book 1)

by Elizabeth Knight

  Slipping into the gyrating bodies, I found a space for myself and let the music wash over my skin. Since dancing was Harper’s favorite pastime, I’d gotten fairly good at it over the years and knew I wouldn’t embarrass myself. Letting my hips move, I watched the dancers around me. There was the typical circle of girls brushing off any attempts to have guys join, wanting “girl time.” Off to the side were the solo males lurking until they could find their next victim. Then, to finish it off, were the couples where you weren’t sure if they were actually having sex or not. I kept my eye on the few single guys that were watching me to see if I was open to the idea. None of them caught my eye, but I knew I was hella picky about who I let touch me. Just as one of them started to make his move, he stopped, his eyes going wide before he filtered back into the crowd.

  What had chased him off?

  That’s when I felt someone step up behind me.

  I had to hold myself back from striking out at the unsuspecting guy who was trying to dance with me. After years of looking over my shoulder, it was instinct to react first and ask questions later.

  When I didn’t turn or step away from the person behind me, he set his large hands on my hips and pulled me flush with his front. I could tell he was quite a bit taller than me, but that wasn’t shocking. What I found interesting was he didn’t say a word, just letting his body do the talking. He moved with me easily, and I could tell he had a flair for dancing.

  Not every guy can “grind” on a girl well, believe it or not.

  Deciding that I wanted to get a look at this guy who had managed to scare off others, I spun around and let my hands fall to his hips. Looking up at him, I could feel my body tingle, and desire flared between us. Standing before me was a Latin god with sultry light brown eyes that almost seemed copper. His thick black hair was buzzed short, showing off his defined jaw covered in stubble that I wanted to feel against my skin. Seeing me examine him, his hold on me tightened, showing off the muscles in his arms. One of them was covered in colorful traditional tattoos that I wanted to trace with my fingers and remove his t-shirt to see if there were more.

  What the fuck is wrong with me? Never have I wanted to drag a man off the dance floor and find a room to show him just how much I appreciate what he was born with.

  A slow grin appeared on his face, as if he knew the effect he was having on me. His copper eyes sparkled as he stepped closer, putting his jean-clad leg between mine. Then he pulled me flush with him so I could rub myself on his thigh, getting the friction I so desperately needed. One hand moved from my waist to my low back, holding me right where he wanted me, and the other snaked its way up the back of my neck, gripping tightly and making it impossible to look away from him.

  Loving the way he was controlling my body, I willingly gave into his movements. I could feel my breath speeding up as he increased the pressure on my clit, letting the lace of my thong and his jeans do the work.

  Holy fuck, I was going to come right here on the dance floor in front of all these people, and I didn’t give one flying fuck.

  My hand slipped under his shirt, running my fingers up his muscular back, then letting my nails bite into his skin before I drew them down. He groaned and dropped his head to kiss me. He didn’t hold back, biting at my bottom lip for me to let him in, and I was more than willing. His kiss was seductive and borderline painful with the force he used, but I reveled in it.

  Just when I thought I was going to come all over his leg, my watch buzzed, startling me out of the haze I was in. Jerking back, I surprised my dance partner, who blinked at me, confused. Glancing at the screen, I saw it was Wes, and then the three words that would get my attention no matter where I was flashed on the screen.

  “Joke’s on you.”

  Fucking fuckity fuck balls, I had to get out of here.

  “You okay?” a silky voice asked before an arm reached out for me.

  Now on high alert, my head shot up, watching him as I sidestepped his touch.

  “Fine,” I answered and made my way off the dance floor, needing to find a place where I could call Wes and find out what the hell happened.

  As I made my way across the patio, thinking I’d go inside to find the bathroom, I was jerked to a stop by someone grabbing my arm. Moving without thought, I grasped his wrist, twisted my body out of his hold, and pulled his arm up behind him, causing him to cry out.

  “Fucking hell, woman, are you crazy?” my Latin god snapped, trying to pull out of my hold.

  Even though I was much smaller and not as strong, I had pressure points and leverage on my side. “Why are you following me?”

  “Let me the fuck go and I’ll tell you, you crazy bitch,” he growled over his shoulder.

  The one thing I hated most was when men called women slurs. Was I acting like a bitch… yes, but he started it. That wasn’t reason enough to use such language. So to show him a real bitch move, I kicked the back of one of his knees, dropping him to the ground.

  “Now I know you weren’t talking to me using that kind of fucking language,” I whispered into his ear. “I am going to leave now, and you are going to leave me the fuck alone, okay?” I placed a soft kiss on his cheek before letting him go.

  Without looking back, I made my way into the house, found a quiet hallway, and pulled out my phone, hitting Weston’s speed dial.

  “Took you long enough. Are you out of there yet?” Wes demanded.

  “I’m sorry, Mom, I needed to find a place I could call you back and not get overheard,” I said, not liking how concerned he sounded.

  “Damnit, Dax, you need to get the fuck out of there NOW!”

  Wes was always the calm to my crazy, the peanut butter to my jelly. Opposites in everything, but together oh so good. If he was freaking out, then this was worse than I thought.

  “You need to give me something so I know what to look out for,” I said, opening the door to a back room, hoping it would have an exit out to the side of the house.

  “The Phantom Saints are there and coming for you,” Wes said, causing my anger to flare. “Where are you now? I pulled up the blueprints of the house so I can get you out.”

  The door to the room burst open, and five huge guys walked in, including my dance partner that I’d been humping moments ago. This time, though, he was wearing a leather vest he hadn’t been before.

  “Looks like a six card draw, ace high,” I said, letting Wes know what I was dealing with before I dropped the phone to face the unwanted party crashers.

  My pulse beat in my ears, but not for the reason you would think. I was thrilled to have a fight on my hands, and a good one by the looks of it. The guys were all massive, towering over me, even the smallest built like a linebacker. I had to grin at how perfectly they fell into the biker cliché, but I had to admit—it was a good look for them.

  “You’re all so fucked,” I purred, smirking at them.

  “Who was that you were on the phone with? Anyone we know?” the apparent leader asked, stepping forward.

  Okay, it might have helped that he had a “president” patch over his heart, which made him Enzo. The guy gave off an alpha male vibe like crazy. He was a good foot and a half taller than me and trying to use his height to intimidate me. His sharp features reminded me of a hawk or some other bird of prey, his chocolate-colored eyes tracking me as if waiting to pounce. His dark brown hair was buzzed short on the sides, but the top was long and styled straight back. The outline of a beard along his jaw was much lighter than his hair, but somehow it worked.

  My smirk turned into a full smile when I saw what he was trying to do. Mr. President started to frown, not liking my reaction to him. Too bad for this group it wasn’t my first rodeo with being ambushed. Sure, no one would know, seeing as they all the previous assholes who’d tried it were dead, but that just worked out more in my favor. Keeping my eyes on them, I slipped out of my heels. A broken ankle was the last thing I needed.

  “This might go faster if you just tell me what you want or ma
ke a move. This posturing is getting boring,” I said faking a yawn.

  “Is this cunt for real?” one of the others by the door asked with a faint British accent.

  My eyes snapped over to him, my temper rising at the slur. I knew it wasn’t the Latin loverboy, because he already learned how much I disliked that kind of language. My money was on the scary-looking motherfucker leaning against the wall. I tilted my head, taking him in and deciding how I was going to make him eat his words.

  He had shoulder-length hair that was curly and haphazard, but once side was shaved off to show his scalp tattoo. His blonde beard was thick and well looked after, but what made him scary was his icy blue eyes. They seemed to be lacking what I would call “humanity.” This man could take a life and lose no sleep whatsoever. The tattoo of the word oblivion over his left eyebrow might have also added to his feelings about things in general. My eyes drifted to his vest, where the word enforcer announced his role in the merry gang of men. I couldn’t have agreed more. From one enforcer to another, he was a good pick.

  “Since we don’t know each other I’ll give you a pass, but watch your goddamn mouth when you’re talking to a lady,” I said with a soft smile, but I held his eyes so he knew I wasn’t fucking around.

  Much to my surprise, his lips twitched like he was amused by me, which pissed me off even more. I hated to be underestimated.

  Enzo took another step forward, awarding him my full attention.

  “You know what we want. We had our people reach out to you,” he said, stopping as my gaze landed on him.

  “Ah yes, your sister did come to see me.” Everyone stiffened at that. Hmm, seemed they didn’t like me knowing that tidbit of information. “This is where I’m confused. I already told her that Tricks wouldn’t meet with you. Tricks doesn’t do business with MCs.”

  Enzo growled, clenching his hands into fists. Please tell me this is where they decide to use their fists instead of talking me to death.

  Another guy stepped forward, and just by the look of him I knew he was the president’s brother Teo. He had longer hair and a fuller beard, but the common features between them were undeniable.

  “What can we do to change his mind?” Teo asked, seemingly the level-headed one out of the bunch so far.

  Never had a group been so intent on changing Tricks’ mind about the rule against MCs being allowed to do business. I decided to give something a try, because I was curious about them. I walked over to the bed and perched on the corner. Crossing my right leg over the left, I could feel them all staring as my dress rode up slightly higher. Hopefully they would just think I was tired of standing and not that it gave me better access to the knife on my thigh.

  “Answer me this,” I said, looking at them before I carried on. “Let’s say one of your members took the fall for your president here and ended up in jail for two years. While in jail, he was forced into working with a rival drug ring to survive. Upon him getting out of jail and coming back to the club, what would you do?”

  “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” Enzo demanded.

  Giving him a bored look, I just waited, letting out a heavy sigh when they continued to just gawk at me. “Feel free to powwow if you don’t have the answer, pres.”

  Enzo snarled, lunging forward, but Teo grabbed his arm and stopped him. I didn’t even flinch, knowing that I had the upper hand in this. They needed me, not the other way around.

  “Did this member get forced into taking the fall, or did he do it willingly?” a soft voice asked behind the brothers.

  They parted to glare at the Thor lookalike that had spoken. His long, golden blonde hair was in a careless bun, and his intelligent green eyes met mine. The shortest one of the group, as well as the youngest looking, was road captain. Interesting. I grinned at him, seeing his train of thought and asking such an intelligent question.

  “He did it himself, no coercion needed,” I answered.

  Enzo muttered under his breath, but the guys turned to talk in hushed tones as I looked down at my watch. I smiled, as I saw Wes was still listening to the whole conversation. Lord, I loved that man. He always seemed to follow whatever crazy plan I came up with. I also knew he was on his way to get me, but he was still twenty minutes out. I needed to hurry things along if I wanted to get out of here to meet him.

  “We have an answer,” Enzo said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Do share.” I rested my head on my right hand, letting my left drape over my leg where my knife was. Never could be too safe—I was surrounded by a biker gang, after all.

  “While I am thankful that this member took the fall for me and served his time in jail, I wouldn’t take him back. You can’t have two loyalties. If you are part of our family, then you ask us for help. You don’t turn to a rival,” Enzo explained.

  His answer told me more than he thought it would, but sadly, it wasn’t the answer I was hoping for. Even though he claimed that this hypothetical member was family, he would still turn his back on him. As far as loyalties, he was right—you couldn’t be divided, and that is what drove everything that I had done since Devin died.

  Standing, I grabbed my phone and shoved it back into my wristlet, not wanting to leave it behind. “Well, boys, this has been fun and all, but I can’t help you.”

  “What?!” the icy enforcer snapped, pushing off the wall. “Listen, you crazy bitch, we played your game—”

  He didn’t really get to finish that statement because I was up in his face, landing a hit with my elbow into his ribs. As he bent forward, I helped him along and shoved his head into my knee and then onto the ground with a loud grunt. This seemed to break everyone out of their shock, and they converged on me. The Brit wasn’t down for long, lurching to his feet with murder in his eyes. I ducked under a punch and grabbed the arm, using my attacker’s own momentum to slam him into one of the other guys. The Latino with the copper eyes just watched me with a grin on his face, making no move to stop me as I bolted for the sliding glass door.

  I flipped the lock on the handle and yanked at the door, but it didn’t budge. Glancing down, I saw there was a second lock at the bottom of the door that needed to be released. As I was trying to get the lock to pop with my big toe, strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I was dragged back from my escape. Furious, I scratched at the steel arms trapping me against his chest, but he didn’t even flinch. I lifted my legs, trying to unbalance him, but I wasn’t heavy enough for that to work. Trying the next idea, I slammed my heel into whatever flesh I could land on.

  “Son of a bitch!” the man swore, and his arms loosened enough for me to get a grip on my knife.

  Flipping it so the blade was resting along the inside of my forearm, I sliced along his hip. With that he dropped me, and I rolled out of the way and crouched, watching them. I didn’t want to kill them in such a public place. No, I was going to save that for a different night of my choosing. Roughing them up a little, though, made sure they wouldn’t forget little old me.

  “Fucking whore sliced me,” Teo ranted, trying to stop the bleeding with his hand.

  “If you want to make it out of this with only that papercut, then I would really urge you to stop calling me names. It gives me the strongest desire to stab you,” I commented, adjusting the grip on my knife.

  “Seems like plan B might be our best option, Eagle,” Thor’s twin pointed out.

  I frowned, not liking that they were ignoring me and that they had a plan B. Seeing as how they weren’t trying to hurt me, I didn’t think their plan was to kill me, but the other options didn’t seem great either. Peeking at my watch, I noticed the call had ended. Wes had to be close by now if he’d hung up.

  What were the chances I could still get out of this? Two guys were blocking the exit back into the party, one was at the glass door that still wasn’t unlocked, and the remaining two were slowly encroaching.

  I decided to take my chances with the glass door that the fellow enforcer was guarding. He was the only one
I thought could handle the damage I was about to cause with my crazy fucking idea. I feinted to the left, tricking the two brothers to dive after me that way, then sprinted off to the right. Picking up enough speed, I launched myself at the man blocking my way, making sure my knees were out in front. As I landed on him, I threw my knife at the glass door, causing it to shatter enough that when his body hit, we crashed through. I covered my head as the glass rained around me and braced for impact… but it never happened.

  Arms wrapped around me, shielding me as we landed on the patio. Stunned for a moment, I didn’t move fast enough to get out of his hold before an arm snaked around my neck and held on tight. I scratched, bit, and kicked, but nothing was affecting his hold. My vision started to go dark, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get out of this.

  This is why I fucking hated going to parties!

  When she finally passed out from Void’s chokehold, I scooped her up. This crazy little vixen was more challenging than we’d bargained for.

  I had no fucking clue who she was when I started dancing with her. All I saw was a small, sexy, tatted woman I had to get my hands on. I never expected to find someone like her at one of Gaby’s parties—she had certain rules about who she associated with.

  Holding her sexy body against mine made my dick twitch. I still hadn’t managed to get it to calm the fuck down from her rubbing her pussy all over my leg. Never had I been so turned on with so many clothes still on my body. I grinned at Void as he groaned, getting up off the ground and inspecting the small cuts all over his bare arms.