Chapter 22
With a heavy sigh, Jagger sinks into one of the jade-green velvet chairs, as he runs a hand through his hair.
Stress lines on his forehead make him look every bit his thirty-one years.
“All I know is when Ma brought you home to us, she was petrified something terrible was going to happen to you. You were so little and scared. So fragile. She made the four of us promise to protect you no matter what. From that day, I have loved you as if you were our flesh and blood. What you found out yesterday doesn’t change anything for us. You are our sister, an Iron Stryker, and you always will be.”
I see the love he holds for me; he’s not the kind of guy to admit his feelings, but he really cares about me, and I love him for it.
It doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t born here, though.
“But who am I?”
“The daughter of some high-up politician who got messed up in some bad shit with the wrong people. I don’t know the full story, only snippets of what I overheard Syd rambling about at the time. But Sloane, no one except for our immediate family can know about this. If word gets out, then the same scumbags who killed your family could track you down as well. It puts a massive target on your back.”
“Reef was the one who gave me all this. I think he’s trying to protect me. He was tasked with finding the girl by the commissioner who believed she has been hidden on my premises,” I say, knowing she’s the one on a witch hunt.
She’s a tenacious woman, and I know she’s not going to give up so easily.
His lips turn up at the sides into a menacing smirk.
“I’ll deal with her, if you can get your detective friend to keep his trap shut.”
I nod, agreeing.
I’m not quite sure how I’ll do it yet, but last night he did say my secret was safe with him.
He seems eager to bend the rules for me.
Exactly why I haven’t worked out yet, but I’m happy to use it to my advantage for now.
“If I didn’t find out on my own, would you have ever told me the truth?”
“No. You were safer kept in the dark. Us four brothers and Onyx are the only ones who know. You have been here so long, and Ma always treated you just like one of the kids, anyone else just accepted it.”
“Syd didn’t though, did he.” My pained eyes meet his.
He knows the torment Syd put me through as a kid growing up in this place.
That man hated me with a fucking passion, and I guess now it makes sense.
His eyes flash with a knowing darkness.
“Syd got what he deserved,” he growls.
There is no one in this world that hates that man more than me, except maybe Jagger.
A frantic, pounding knock echoes through the room.
“Sloane, we have a situation I think you need to see,” comes Romeo’s voice.
“What now?” I groan to myself.
Jagger is up and out the door before me, his boots clomping along the concrete floor.
I follow behind him to find both Onyx and Romeo waiting for me on the other side of the door.
I look between the two of them, their faces sending a fresh wave of panic flooding through my veins.
“What?”
“You need to see this for yourself,” Romeo mutters, taking off up the hall.
The four of us head back through the club and to room number six.
Onyx steps in front of me protectively so he enters the room first. There, in the center of the room on one of my luxurious beds, lies a young woman’s body, lifeless, her long platinum-blonde hair cascading over her shoulders in a matted bloody mess, her heart ripped out of her body and left on her chest.
I stagger back, nearly falling to the flaw when I bump into Romeo.
My chest constricts, sickness washing over me for the poor girl.
“What the actual fuck,” mutters Jagger from my side.
I glance back at him, my heart pounding, a cold sweat prickling my skin as I feel the color drain from my face.
How the hell did this happen in my club?
My mind bounces through the possibilities.
“These rooms weren’t even booked last night because of the raid,” I say out loud, but mostly to myself.
Hesitantly I step forward, my heart in my throat.
I’m not sure I can deal with this today, not another innocent girl taken on my watch.
They are supposed to be safe here, protected.
I take a quick glance at her face.
She’s young, in her early twenties, her skin pale like porcelain.
But her face isn’t familiar to me.
“She looks like you, Sloane,” Romeo’s voice breaks the silence, saying exactly what I was thinking.
She looks just like me.
“Do you know her? Does she work for us?” he asks, throwing questions at me faster than I have time to respond.
“I’ve never seen her before. How the hell did she get in here?” I wonder out loud.
Onyx’s shirt brushes my arm as he joins me, his hand to my lower back.
“You need to see the bathroom.”
I glance over my shoulder at him, wondering what fresh hell is waiting for me in there.
Tentatively I move past the poor girl and into the adjoining bathroom.
There scrawled on the mirror in deep crimson is a message.
I’m coming for you, mia ragazza.
I stumble back into Jagger’s brick wall of a body.
His strong hands catch me, his eyes wide in shock and fear.
“What the fuck is this shit?” He glares back at Romeo and Onyx like it’s their fault.
Like they should have stopped this shit from happening.
“The blackout last night,” Onyx tries to explain.
“All the wires to the electrical box were cut. We got the power back online using the generator until the electrician could fix the box.”
“But someone could have slipped into the building while everything was down,” I whisper, piecing it all together.
That blackout wasn’t a coincidence, it was set up on purpose.
If I wasn’t so fucked up last night, I would have seen this shit coming.
I could have done something.
They’re all right. I need to pull myself together and stop being so selfish.
“What does it say?” Jagger demands, staring directly at Romeo.
“ I’m coming for you, my girl. It’s the same as the images Sloane received while on her date with the detective,” Romeo answers him.
But his eyes are on me, and I see the worry there.
An image with a fucked-up note was nothing, but this…
this is sadistic as hell.
“What images?” Jagger’s attention flicks back to me, his eyes narrowing.
I don’t normally keep stuff from him, but the truth is I have been preoccupied this week, and I have hardly seen him.
“I thought it was Romeo messing with me,” I admit.
“When I was out with Reef the other night, the server handed me an envelope with a couple of photos and a creepy message in it.”
Romeo’s hand brushes my arm.
“You know it wasn’t me now. I was with you all of last night.”
I blink back at him, knowing what he’s saying is true.
I may have been asleep for most of the night, but I know Onyx would have been watching.
I glance toward him, silently asking him the question.
“He didn’t leave the room,” Onyx agrees .
Jagger runs a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends, his fists balling.
He looks like he’s about to lose it and fuck some poor asshole up.
“Fuck, Sloane, I told you once the truth got out you would be in trouble. Some asshole is already hunting you down.”
Romeo’s hand comes to mine, forcing my attention back to him.
“What shit got out, doll face?”
I snatch my hand back, not wanting him or anyone else to touch me right now.
“Nothing you need to worry about, Romeo.”
“Don’t lie to me, Sloane. If it has something to do with the business, you have to tell me,” he demands, his voice holding a threatening edge to it.
“It’s personal,” I seethe through clenched teeth.
“Nothing to do with this place.”
“Then why are you being targeted here? This looks like a pretty big threat upon you and this place.”
My hands fly to my hips.
What the fuck is he trying to imply?
“Why don’t you answer me that question? These fucking threats didn’t start until you showed up, and being written half in Italian is a pretty big giveaway. I reckon you know more than you’re saying.”
A stony expression settles on his face, his lips pressed into a thin, grim line that tells me I have pushed him too far.
He closes the gap between us, forcing me to back up into the counter.
He puts a hand on either side of me as he stares me down, his nostrils flaring.
“Both times this shit has happened you know where I was. Why would I need to do something so vicious to get your attention when I already own you?”
My heart races erratically.
He doesn’t even care that my bodyguard and my big brother are in the same room as us.
He thinks he has some claim to me, not my club, but me directly.
And neither of them stops him .
“You don’t own me, and you never will,” I spit back, glaring daggers at him.
Why did I let him touch me again last night?
All the progress I have made to get some power back over him this week, gone in a moment of lust. It wasn’t worth it.
Or maybe it was; my needy body betrays me, still begging for more of his hands on me.
What in the ever-loving God is wrong with me.
I stare him down, tension burning in the air between us so strong I can feel the power he has over me.
It doesn’t matter what I say, we can both feel this.
And the way he twists his lips up at the side tells me he knows it as well as I do.
“Fuck you.”
With a grunt, Jagger shoves roughly in between us, separating our furious bodies.
“Cut this lovers’ quarrel shit out, we need to clean up this mess before staff and patrons start to arrive.” His piercing gaze comes to me.
“Call your cop friend.”
“What?” I snap.
“That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had. There is no way he needs to know about this. I’m calling Asher, his crew can take care of it.”
His hands come to both my shoulders, and he peers down at me all big brotherly.
“Not this time, Sloane. This is a direct threat against you, and we both know if we’re going to protect you, we need a contact on the force. We have nothing to hide, but covering this up could put you in more danger. You think you can trust the detective, so use it to your advantage.”
I stare back at Jagger, knowing he’s right.
Before I have a chance to think too much on it, I dial Reef Wilder’s number and wait.
“Wildcat?” he answers a little too happily since we left things terribly last night.
Jagger watches me, searching my face in a way I don’t appreciate.
“I need your help. Come down to the club alone.” I disconnect the call before he has a chance to respond, looking back to the three of them who are all now watching me in a way I don’t like.
“Done.” I shrug like it’s no big deal when the truth is we all know it is.
This is bad, all of it.
Me hopping into bed with Romeo and kissing the detective a couple of times, the tension between Onyx and me, and now my brother is getting involved.
I feel like a ticking time bomb about to explode, not sure which way to turn or who to even trust right now.
Twenty minutes later, Romeo shows Reef through to room six where I’m waiting for him.
His eyes find mine first, and I see the worry immediately.
“Wildcat, are you okay?”
With a shake of my head, I glance over at the body lying lifeless on the bed.
His eyes follow mine, cautiously.
“Jesus Christ. What the hell happened here?” he says, taking a step back, before moving in closer.
I gesture subtly to the other boys, silently urging them to leave us alone.
And to my surprise, they comply, leaving the room and closing the door with a click.
“We don’t know. Last night after you and your team left, we had a brief electrical blackout before the generator kicked in. I didn’t think much of it until this morning when the boys found her.”
His forehead creases as he surveys the scene before him, walking around one side of the bed before the other.
“Is she one of the girls who work for you?” he asks, studying her.
“I have no idea who she is, Reef, I have never seen her before.” I wring my hands, not wanting to show him the next part, because after the other night, I already know what his response is going to be.
He’s going to get all protective and shit just like the other two.
“There’s more.” I lead him into the bathroom to show him the mirror, a heaviness sitting on my chest as I wait for his response.
He follows closely behind me, and I see in the mirror the way he flinches when he reads what’s written in blood.
His eyes dart back to me immediately, his body tense.
“It’s the same threat you were given the other night,” he growls, leaving no room for error.
He’s genuinely concerned for me.
I swallow the lump in my throat.
“Yeah. Jagger thinks maybe someone is targeting me in relation to what you told me last night about my identity. That’s why I called you.”
His gaze comes over me like a warm blanket, filled with concern as he closes the gap between us, his hand moving to my arm softly.
“Sloane, you’re trembling.”
I shake my head.
“I’m not. It takes more than a fucking threat to scare me,” I snap back, but my voice quivers, betraying me.
His warm hand rubs up and down my arms, the gentle pressure soothing my spiraling thoughts.
We stay like this for some time, and I know by the way he’s looking at me he wants to say more, but he’s waiting for me to calm down before he does.
He pulls me into his solid body, hugging me.
I close my eyes and breathe him in, fresh and clean and something so distinctly him.
How can a man I hardly know feel so comforting to me?
I have no idea, but he does.
I wrap an arm around his waist and hold him close, needing this moment of silence in all the chaos that is my life at the moment.
While still holding me close, his eyes find mine.
“I have to bring a team in to investigate,” he tells me quietly.
“I will catch whoever is doing this.”
“I understand.” I bite into my lip, trying to work out the best way to go around this.
“Can you try keep it on the down low? I don’t want this getting out. Whoever this poor girl is, she deserves better. I have no idea why someone is targeting me, but this is sadistic as hell. No one deserves to die like this. And… and I don’t want some asshole thinking his disturbing-ass prank worked. I won’t cower to anyone.”
His hand moves up my arm, cupping my face as he brushes my hair out of my eyes.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, wildcat. I’m going to catch this asshole and make sure he pays for ever thinking he can mess with you. But first, you need to come down to the station with me for some questions. We need to do this right, make it look by the book. Also, have someone clean up this shit. I don’t want this,” he motions to the mirror, “coming back on you in any way. Jagger is right, someone else knows who you really are.”
I stare back at him, seeing the truth in the depths of his green eyes.
I get the impression he plays dirty when it comes to protecting people who are important to him, and for whatever reason, he has put me on that list. He’s not some soft-cock cop.
Maybe Jagger was right about him; there is so much more to the detective than meets the eye.
Just for good measure and because I truly can’t resist him when he’s all protective of me like this, I pop up on my toes and press my lips to his.
His hand snakes into my hair, and he pulls me into him, devouring me hungrily.
I pull him close and kiss him with everything I have.
Right now, this man is the only thing making me feel normal.
I need to hang on to this moment for as long as he will let me.
Eventually he pulls back with a playful smirk on his lips.
“Does the idea of me interrogating you turn you on, wildcat?”
I blink back at him, all flirty.
“I had hoped you might consider taking my statement here. Say, next door, perhaps?”
He chuckles playfully.
His eyes roam over me a little mischievously, and I think I might just be distracting him enough.
“Have you had time to come to terms with who you really are?”
Fuck, the way he looks at me like he could be my hero.
He has no idea about this life, none at all.
“Reef, for now I think it’s best if we all pretend like last night didn’t happen. I need your help with this as well. If Commissioner Sedgwick drops anything else on your desk about me, make it disappear. I know it’s a lot to ask of you, and really you don’t know me all that well, but I’m relying on you to keep me safe here. You’re right, if this information gets into the wrong hands, I’m in big trouble.”
“But you believe me about it?”
I nod, not able to admit in words that it’s true just yet.
“I appreciate you coming to me with the information you found.”
“Your secret is safe with me, Sloane. But you have to know one more thing about the case, do with it what you want. From what I can find, the Strykers kidnapped you then murdered your family. The police didn’t have enough evidence to convict anyone at the time, but the man who raised you, Sydney Stryker, is linked to this case. Shame he just disappeared a few years back, so we don’t have any definitive evidence to pin on him.”
Now it’s my turn to stare back at him, confused.
What the hell is he on about?
“Syd was a piece of shit, but he didn’t have the balls to do something like this.”
“The payday must have been worth the risk. It’s his face on the video surveillance breaking into the mansion where your family lived. I have seen it for myself.”
A cold shiver runs down my spine, knowing what he’s saying could be as much a possibility as what Jagger and Onyx have told me.
“Are you positive?”
“Yeah.”
“Why wasn’t there enough evidence at the time?” I ask.
He lets out a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping, and I know he’s hiding something from me.
“Please, Reef, I need to know what happened in my past to lead me here. Ever since you dropped that bomb on me, I have been confused as hell. My life has been one big lie, and now I have no idea who I really am. ”
His hand falls to my waist, and he pulls me closer to him.
He knows he shouldn’t give too much away, but he can’t resist me.
“You are going to be big trouble for me.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be, I just need the truth,” I reply, way too flirty.
I would like to say it’s an act to get him to comply, but fuck, I can’t help but flirt with him.
Especially when he’s so close to me.
He sighs heavily, and I know I have won him over.
“We can’t pin the murder on the man who blanked out the cameras. He wasn’t working alone. For a job of that size, there was a team of them, he was just the only one who was stupid enough to get caught on camera. He was questioned at the time, gave some phony story about being the camera repair guy.”
My head drops, and a flash of memories flood my brain.
“Syd’s Audio-Visual Repairs. Yeah, I remember the bogus van.”
His eyes light up, and I know I have said more than I should.
But so has he. “The murders didn’t happen until over an hour later, making it difficult without any more evidence to pin it on him.” His eyes meet mine.
“There is so much more to this story, I’m sure of it. Until we work out exactly what’s going on, I think you should come stay with me.”
I take a step back from him, his hand falling away, the silence heavy between us.
“Excuse me?” I blink back at him in shock.
Stay with him?
He closes the gap again, his presence suffocating, not giving me the space I need.
My back hits the counter as I stare back up at him.
Something about his posture is way too powerful in this moment.
“Let me keep you safe. You don’t belong here, Sloane. In this life with these people.”
He wants to save me, but he’s wrong, I do belong here.
I huff out a laugh. “That’s a real sweet offer, Detective, but I have a bodyguard. I don’t need to uproot my life to stay with some guy I hardly know. ”
He takes my hands again.
“I’m sorry if you think I overstepped asking you to stay with me. I just… there is something here between us, and every time I walk away from you, I have this fear I will never see you again. It’s messing me up.”
“You’re so intense.” My fingers find his soft hair, running through its strands, less irritated than I should be.
Because for some unknown reason, I feel this connection between us as well.
It’s why I want to know every damn thing about him.
“You just need to realize I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself, Detective. You don’t need to worry about me.”
He glances toward the mirror like he knows he does.
“Maybe just find the asshole who’s doing this so we can both sleep a little more easily at night and do what you can to keep the commissioner off my back.”
Something shifts in his demeanor, and his face becomes more serious.
“I plan on it, but first, you will need to accompany me down to the station while I have a forensic crew come through the place. We need to do this by the book. Sedgwick is riding my ass after I let you slip through our fingers last night.”
I inhale a deep breath, trying to keep my shit together.
A trip to the station is the last thing I need this morning, but I need to keep Reef on our side and the commissioner off both of our backs.