by Elle Boon
“I didn’t think you’d fucked her, Duke. I wanted to know what you’d done. You and Doc have skirted around one another for the past three years like two junk yard dogs. Sit down, you’re pissing me right the fuck off with your pacing.” King pointed at the chair Duke had vacated. “Fuck, we all knew he was overprotective of her and wanted you to let her go off to school. I just assumed that she’d come back and the two of you would either work it out or you’d find someone else. I told that bastard once she chose, he wasn’t to intervene again or he’d answer to me,” King bit off. “Nobody fucks with you except me.”
Duke flipped the chair around, straddling it. “I can’t stand you.”
King patted his shoulder. “Love you, too.”
“Ah, bromance at its finest. Should we hug it out?” Keys asked.
Traeger shook his head. “If you weren’t so damn efficient at what you do, you’d be dead. You realize that, right?”
“Several dozen have tried. None have lived to talk. Now, back to NYC and Duke’s little visit.” Keys brought the conversation back around, grinning at Duke.
“After I stumbled upon Lennox and her would be kidnappers, I brought her back here. You know that. What you don’t know is what she told me, later.” He looked down at the floor, the familiar rage he’d felt since learning of what she’d thought happened coming back. “She came home, gave up her dreams of dancing and her scholarship at that fancy dance school. She thought one of her roommates’ boyfriend raped her, several times while she was unconscious.” He let his words sink in, watching the anger flash over each of their faces. “That pissed off feeling you’re feeling. Magnify it by a million, and you might feel half of what I felt. I held her while she slept, sobbing, my heart breaking for her while my anger nearly threatened to overwhelm me. I made plans, called a few friends out in New York who I knew wouldn’t have any problems with what I was going to do.”
King leaned forward, folding his hands together like he was praying. “And what exactly was that?”
“I left my cut at home. I didn’t want any blowback to come to the club. F.O.C.U.S and The Bishop agreed to help me with whatever I needed, going so far as to find out where the little fucker and the two cunts were staying. Of course, it was the flat Lennox had lived for the last three years, making it easy to find.” He explained to them what followed, not skirting over the gritty parts.
“Let me get this straight. You killed the motherfucker and left two women in the care of those two bastards, who I actually like? The men, not the cunts.” King asked.
Duke nodded, uncaring if they didn’t agree with his actions. “Yeah, I did. He had no remorse and neither did the other two. The Bishop, it was his garage, he’d found out the three of them had done that shit before to other women. Hell, they’d actually contacted him months before knowing through the kink vine that he trained submissive men and women. They were going to sell her to him, only she was going to be too drugged up to know what was going on when they gave her to him. You know F.O.C.U.S doesn’t like his women on drugs, which would more than likely have led to her being turned out or killed. They might deal in the shit, but their bitches aren’t allowed to touch it.”
“It’s true,” Keys said turning his computer around. “I did some digging and was able to find one of the roommates’ emails. They were really some trashy fucking hoes.” On the screen were images of the women Duke recognized as Lennox’s roommates and the dickhead along with another woman who appeared half asleep and naked. Each image had the same three people with a different girl with similar themes. “They kept files of their dirty deeds in the Cloud. Don’t they know anyone can get this shit?” Keys voice held an edge. “If you give me their email address of the others, I can take a look and make sure it’s wiped completely,” Keys offered.
“Wait, back up. You said thought, instead of did rape her? What the fuck do you mean?” King narrowed his eyes, sitting back in the chair with a scowl.
“When the fucker was trying to bargain for his life, he admitted he hadn’t raped Lennox. I’m sure they did a lot of shit while she was fucked up on what they gave her, but he swears he didn’t rape her.” He clasped his hands together, mimicking King. “She said her entire body was bruised like she’d been beat by a football team.” The imagery killed him.
“And you believed that piece of shit about the rape?” King asked.
Duke nodded. “Yeah, I do. The little bitch he was with was pissed as shit he’d admitted the truth, yelling at him to shut the fuck up, even though she could see he was bleeding out. I plan to tell Lennox when we’re finished here.”
King spread his arms wide. “Well, fuck. You went off and killed a dickhead, more than likely got two cunts killed, who deserved it in my opinion, not to mention we owe a couple Royal Bastards out of New York a huge favor.”
“Yeah, I suppose I do. They’re solid, brother. Besides, whatever I owe them can’t be anywhere near what they did for me.” Hell, the incinerator The Bishop’s garage held had to have seen more than the three bodies he was sure would be visiting it soon.
“Well, I guess if we ever need to get rid of someone we just need to lead them to New York, yeah?” Traeger joked.
Keys laughed. “That’s an awfully long ways to go when I...”
They all turned to look at Keys who was shutting the lid on his laptop. “What’re you looking at me like that for?”
“You just talked like someone who would then pipe in with some words about knowing a guy, only the guy would be you. Are you some closet Dexter we don’t know about?” King asked, referring to the fictional character who was a detective that went around killing serial killers and other people he felt needed to be taken out.
“Nah, I wouldn’t even know where to look for serial killers. Alright, if y’all are done with the interrogations, I got shit to do and females to get back to.”
“How’s Maui and Moana doing?” Duke asked after the Bully Pit pair Keys owned. Moana, the female just had pups.
“They’re good. Maui’s strutting around like a proud peacock while Moana is taking care of her pups. She’s been growling if anyone comes too close except Maui and me. Check it out, she had eight, but two didn’t make it.” He held his phone up with a video playing.
Duke moved closer to see the animals. “Is that actual live feed?”
Keys huffed out a breath. “Fuck yeah, you think I’m gonna leave my precious babies without my eyes on them?”
“You gonna let me adopt one of your precious babies?” Duke asked.
His friend pocketed his phone without answering right away. “We’ll see. You’ll have to fill out some paperwork and then come for a visit. If Maui or Moana don’t agree, then it’s a no from me as well. Of course, you’ll then have to bond with one of the pups. This isn’t a pet shop where you can walk in and just pick out an animal. These are intelligent creatures that I raise.”
“Fucker, if my ole lady wants one, you gonna make her go through all those hoops too?” King asked.
“She’s already met my babies, and they like her. First hurdle is already over,” Keys informed him.
A knock on the door interrupted them. “It’s Cosmo,” Keys said, pointing at the monitor above the door.
The small woman next to him fidgeted from foot to foot until Ayesha came up to her. Duke tried to find Lennox through the camera angle.
Cosmo strolled in, looking around until he found Duke. “You’re back?”
“Yep. How’s she doing?” he asked jerking his chin toward the closed door.
“She’s like an onion. I peel off one layer and my eyes sting so bad I gotta wash my hands and rest before I can start the next.” Cosmo plopped down in a chair.
“I thought the analogy for an onion was you peel off one layer only to find another and another, until you got to the heart of the onion to find there was nothing left?” Keys words had them all holding their breath.
“Nah, if you heard the shit she’s been through, you’d fucking weep
like you were cutting into the strongest onion you’d ever encountered. The fact she’s still alive and whole.” He took a deep breath. “Man, she’s beyond anything I’ve ever known.” His voice was barely above a whisper, yet they all heard.
“Did she tell you who the fuck was after her and possibly Lennox?” Duke didn’t want to sound like a prick or as if he didn’t care about the other woman, but she wasn’t his main priority.
“I got a line on them.” Cosmo pulled out his phone, facing it up on the table. Keys was the first to look.
“Holy fuck, brother. The Wuhanites? They’re nothing to fuck with.” Keys pushed the phone to the end of the table toward King.
“What the fuck are Wuhanites, a gang or some shit?” King stared down at Cosmo’s phone, his jaw hardening. “What the hell, man?”
Cosmo nodded. “That’s what happens to them after they’re finished with them.”
Duke moved behind his brother, watching image after image flash by. “Shit, they look like they eviscerated that one.”
“Depends on what body part was needed. She was just a spare in her country since her mother got knocked up by an American. To spare her family’s name, they sold her to the government. She was slated for surgery when one of the men who wanted to move up in the Wuhanites spotted her. They move more than body parts. Don’t look so shocked, Traeger.” Cosmo took his phone back. “She took his offer for safe passage to America, thinking he was a good Samaritan. She was, is still naïve as fuck. Hell, she hasn’t fought me once on anything since I brought her here with me. What kind of person doesn’t put up a fight when their life has been turned upside down?”
“A broken one,” Keys said, sadness coating every word.
“Hey, is that your girl?” Traeger asked Duke, pointing toward the monitor.
Sure as shit, Lennox was up on the stage where the stripper pole was with Ayesha next to her. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but from the way both women were moving, they were clearly dancing. “She best not be planning to shimmy her ass up that pole.” He was already moving around the table, ignoring King’s smirk. “You alright with Ayesha working the pole in front of our brothers?” he asked.
“She won’t,” King said with certainty.
Duke pointed at the women on the monitor, making sure he saw what he was, in detailed color, exactly what was going on. They may not be able to hear, but it was unmistakable what was going on. Ayesha turned around, shaking her ass, then pointed at Lennox who then did the same thing. His girl took booty shaking to a whole other level as she began to swing her hips back and forth, her arms flying out to her sides in a sensual dance that had his blood pressure rising, since it also brought her tank top up, exposing her flat abdomen. “I will murder every motherfucker out there if they dare touch her,” he warned, jerking the door open as he growled the last word.
“Keep the body count down. I only have so much supply of the chemicals needed to get rid of the remains.” Keys held up his hands when King growled at him. “Hey, just being helpful. You might hurry on out there.” He pointed at the screen. “Your ole lady is next on the pole. Ah sheot,” Keys muttered.
Duke looked backward, his jaw tight, then turned and marched out of the room, his focus on reaching Lennox before she did something he had to make good on his threat for. Her laughter stopped him dead at the edge of the stage. Every bit of air stopped in his lungs while he stood, frozen, waiting to see what she would do next. Jesus, he had never thought he’d be one of those men who’d get both jealous and hard watching his woman work a pole. Not only that, but Lennox was fully dressed.
LENNOX COULDN’T BELIEVE she was actually dancing on a pole. She and Ayesha had dared one another, which led them to a dance off on the stage. Here she was three quarters of the way up the stripper pole, upside down with her legs in a full split, looking at Duke’s sexy as fuck self. Could her day get any weirder? “Hey, Duke,” she panted, holding herself in place.
“You gonna stay up there all day?” he asked with a casual laziness that was totally deceiving.
“Um, should I?” she asked.
Duke pointed at the floor and snapped his fingers, not saying a word.
She really wanted to tell him she wasn’t a dog who came on command, stopping the flow of words at the fierce look in his eyes. Nope, she would keep the comment to herself. Using her arms, she shifted her body, swirling back down the pole. Ayesha had made a show of cleaning it, announcing she didn’t want them to get cuntacooties. A word she said was real because helloooo, she’d just said it. Lennox knew if given the chance they would be good friends.
“That was fun,” she laughed when she reached the floor.
“And that is my que to make myself...eep, I think we’re in trouble, Lucy.” Ayesha’s words were cut off as King lifted her over his shoulder, slapping her ass.
“Woman, you are a menace to society.” His hand came down on her denim clad rear again, making Ayesha squeal.
“Is she in trouble?” Lennox asked Duke.
“You really shouldn’t be worried about her so much as yourself. You coming to me, or do I need to come get you?” Duke asked.
She looked at him, really looked, and holy shit, he looked sexy. A little pissed but sexy. Sexy won out, hands down. “You don’t scare me, Duke Royal,” she told him, coming to stand in front of him. With the stage she was almost at eye-level to him.
“Good, I don’t want you scared of me.”
Lennox opened her mouth to ask him what he did want, thousands of words jumbled together in her brain as he bent, putting his shoulder against her stomach. Like his brother did to Ayesha, he lifted her over his shoulder only he didn’t swat her ass. “Hey, what’re you doing?” she asked, looking around at the amused stares of the men she’d known most of her life. Her face heated. “Duke, put me down.”
His hand came down in a swat that wasn’t quite hard enough to be considered painful, jarring would be what she deemed it, silencing her long enough they made it to the door before she could form another response. “What the fuck, Duke?”
“Ah, Dancer, you really are gonna get this fine ass a nice shade of red if you don’t keep quiet.”
She lifted up, using his mighty fine ass for leverage. “Traeger, you gonna let him cart me off like a sack of potatoes?”
Traeger stood with a woman tiny in front of him, his massive arms were crossed over her shoulders, dwarfing her small frame. “Yep. You two got some shit to handle. Handle it. We’ll see you later.” He pulled the door shut on her.
“Ahh,” she mumbled.
His hand rubbed her ass, soothing the area he’d slapped, inching farther down until he was in an area she’d longed to have him touch. She froze, wondering if he’d actually venture there.
“Here we are,” Duke said, bringing her out of the sexual fantasy.
She shoved the hair out of her face, the ponytail she’d put it in before coming up to the clubhouse coming loose. “Oh,” she whispered as her feet landed on the ground. She stared at the door to Duke’s house. While she’d been fuming then thinking about his hands on her, he clearly had been fast walking to his house.
“Woman of few words. I like it.” He pushed the door open, holding her hand as he walked in.
Lennox inhaled, not sure what scents she’d thought she’d detect. Another woman maybe. Instead, the fresh smell of apple cinnamon greeted her. Like King’s home, Duke’s was open and large with a view from the living room to the kitchen, with a hallway off to the right that led to the bedrooms. “I have something I need to tell you.” Duke shut the door, pulling her into the living room, motioning her to have a seat. “You want a drink?”
She shook her head. “What do you mean?”
He pushed her down, going over to the bar in the corner, pouring himself a drink. “You sure you don’t want one?” He held the glass up.
“Am I gonna need one?” she asked.
Duke looked at the alcohol, then at her. “Fuck, maybe.” He poured a second gl
ass, taking it over to her. “I took a trip to New York,” he said, holding her gaze.
Her hand shook with the small glass in it. “Why?” she choked out.
“After you told me what happened, I could do nothing else but go there. That’s not what I want to talk to you about. They don’t matter. What happened there don’t matter. That little prick, he and I had a come to Jesus talk. No, don’t look away from me. Even if things happened the way you were told, I’d still want you with every fiber of my being. But that’s just it. It was all a lie. Marco said they drugged you, but he never touched you other than for the pictures. He and Grace are the ones who used the condoms.”
She heard the words coming out of his mouth. Her brain tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Are you saying he and I...that he didn’t...we didn’t. I’m still a”—she stopped on a sob. Her entire world had crashed around her that morning thanks to the three people she’d thought were her friends.
“They’re all worthless fucks who don’t deserve you to cry another tear, babe. Here.” He took her drink from her, setting it on the end table, gathering her into his arms.
“He could’ve lied to you, Duke. They’re really good at not telling the truth, especially if they have each other nodding and agreeing in the background.” She should know, since it had always been that way since she’d met them.
Duke tilted her face up to his. “Do I look like a man who is easily fooled, baby?”
She bit her lip. Hope and desperation filling her at the prospect that she hadn’t gone through an ordeal she had no memory of. Her nightmares were filled with images of what she thought had happened, things Marco and Grace had told her they’d done. The things they’d described had been so detailed, so vile, she never imagined they would make them up. Then there was Blair nodding in the background, agreeing with their every word and showing her pictures that appeared as though she’d at least been naked with them. “There were pictures, Duke,” she whispered, shame warring with the need to believe he was right.