Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Knight
A fter Lizette’s fed and calmed, I take the damned vibrator and leave it in Dante’s office before going back to her room.
The door is as I left it. Still closed, but as I reach for the handle, I close my eyes and drop my head against the wood.
Fuck.
How someone as smart as Dante can screw things is beyond me. Sure, he’s got his kinks, so do I, so does Reaper, but the sweet thing in that room’s innocent. He’s torturing her and enjoying it.
Okay, sure, I might have marked her, sunk my teeth into the most delicious thing I’ve ever had in my mouth. And I tasted her slick. Point is, it’s all fucking up there in the land of decadent and divine and he needs to get over it.
No, that’s not the point.
Point is that she doesn’t deserve his brand of hard-core edging and denial shit. She might like it. Not gonna lie. Liz might like the way she quivers and almost purrs at Daddy/Dom play, even if I just dip a toe in with my tone, a touch.
But none of that takes anything from the fact she’s innocent. A virgin. And he’s giving her vibrators?
I head up the stairs, and Dante’s at the bar, a well-dressed woman next to him. She’s older than me, maybe around Dante’s age, gorgeous. And a weak alpha. She’s also Council.
Without sparing them a glance, I head to Julien, her gaze on me. She’s trying to work out who I am. It’s not anything like lust. I know that look, the pheromones it sets off in the air, even if I’m not interested.
And though he’s not looking at me, yeah, I can feel the hot lick of anger from Dante.
Fuck him.
Liz is no idiot. She won’t come up here. Ask me, and he won’t, but he wants to get his dick in her and he hates that. Fucker. But I don’t slow, don’t speed up, just head on out to the front where Julien is.
Glaring at two men.
“These are?” I ask.
“Council fucks.”
I pat Julien’s arm and smile at them. It’s the benign one that Dante couldn’t ever be bothered to put on, if he even has one, and the kind of smile I don’t think Reaper possesses. Speaking of…
“Julien?”
He nods, eyes still trained on the men who are standing there, their fear and unease in the air. They don’t like this area, or this place, and they definitely don’t like Julien. Good.
“Yeah, boss?”
I almost roll my eyes at the title.
“Let the others know we’re busy and to push appointments back to further notice.”
Julien knows I mean Reaper .
He’s meant to be dead. Or in prison. When the wrong sort of law or government comes near any of our places and he’s there, he vanishes. But the last thing I need is for him to decide today’s the day to walk in through the front door, and, well, I don’t feel like organizing a full-on cleaning job and impromptu burial.
I’m talking about the Council dudes, not Reaper.
He’ll fucking murder them straight up and Julien will probably offer to hold them down.
As Julien steps out of their sight and hearing to make the call, I go up to them and lean against the wall. We don’t use this part of the club often. It’s for day shit, and the official entrance that only people like this would come near. They’d also never drop by at night, not in any official capacity.
“Can I get you anything?”
They look at each other. The younger and better dressed one—probably second in command under the weak alpha inside…at least, second in command on their field trip—straightens his tie and says, “I’m Mal. You are?”
“None of your fucking business,” I say nicely. “I’m just expecting a shipment of wine, and the rep’s very pretty, so…crowds n’ all.”
Disgust crosses both their faces at the meaning of my mythical, pretty rep.
“So, I just wanted to know how long you were going to interfere with our operations today.”
“As long as it takes,” says the second in command.
“Okay. Cool.”
With that, I step out as Julien goes to step in. “Want me to rough them up?”
“No, just get their cards, and text your girl to dress up and come in. She’s a wine rep.”
His mouth thins.
“Dude, she’s just coming in to hang out,” I assure him. “With me. And trust, I’m not touching her. She’d kill me.”
Julien’s mouth flickers into a small smile. “That’ s my girl.”
Love. It’s annoying.
As I walk off, a glimmer of guilt hits. I’m not in love with Liz. I don’t really know her yet, no matter how I react to her, no matter that I bit her, and I know I’d do it again.
I’m betting she believes in forever and all that shit that this place and this pack isn’t. We work with a different kind of happy. One that isn’t her.
Shit.
Well, we’re not all bonding with her, that’s for sure.
I head behind the bar to get a drink, and I slide the tablet from Dante. “New friend?”
“Don’t you have work to do?” he says easily.
I flash an irritated smile.
“Waiting for the wine rep. I guess since you’ve got company…” I do some quick magic on the tablet so it’s just the regular and above-board site on there, complete with wine shipments. I add the rep, Darcy R. And then I make a show of it to him.
Dante glances down and then over at me. He moves the device, closing the tab and making sure a list of fake employee names are up.
“You can handle a wine rep on your own?” He nods at the Council woman, who’s still hovering close by. “I’m busy.”
“Don’t let your date hold you up too much, sir. It’s a busy day of restocking the booze.”
And I wander off back down to my office and my computers, where I pull up information on these three members of the Council.
It’s easy to find them. They’re nobodies according to this, middle management. But the woman works in registration.
I make sure I have their names, and where they live, before I do a deep dive into them.
When Darcy comes down, she’s in a suit, dressed to fucking perfection, like the wine reps we deal with at the classier places we own .
“Do we need a shipment?” she asks. “I can make calls.”
“So can I.”
“Tongue back in head, Knight.” But her words are a light tease. She knows I’d never dare.
As hot as she is, as gorgeous as she is, Darcy’s not my type.
“Okay, I’ll get some work done.”
She sets the folder she’s carrying down. And with a sigh, I pick it up. “Come on, we’ll have a drink…”
The drink’s nice and we do discuss the next order of wine.
I flip through the folder and point out a few I’d like. I’m not a fucking idiot. Reckless maybe, on and off the computer, but never an idiot.
Reaper couldn’t be fucked about the ins and outs of the pack business. He kills and provides the deadlier muscle and delves into the blackest depths of our crime connections. I’m honestly not sure what lines he won’t cross.
But I set up a way to use our legit businesses as a buffer. Like Darcy and the wine. There is a real rep, one who’s stepped foot in our classier joints. And they do sell to us here. There’s definitely an order to be placed. Sometimes I do it. Other times, Dante, but the person who delivers the order, and organizes visits to the other properties of the Unholy Trinity?
Darcy.
So, on days like today, I can pull that out of the hat, and if it’s looked into, it all pans out.
“That’s expensive.” She shakes her head.
And I top up my wine and high-five myself. “I know. I also need two of me.”
“One’s enough, Knight,” she says with a smile.
“Time with Julien has made you cruel.” But I just take a sip of the wine. “Put the order in. The usual for upstairs and some fancier stuff for?—”
“You?”
“The speakeasy.” I stop, look at the space. “What do you think of classing it up a little? More burlesque, call it the Scotch and Cigar?”
She’s too busy filling in the wine order as Mason, our head bartender, comes in.
“For here?” He looks about, setting down a tablet. “Yeah, I like it.”
“You’re not the boss,” Darcy says. “What does Dante say? Reaper?”
“No, I’m one of them.” But her jab rolls off me. She likes to poke us. Me more than the other two, probably because I’m not a psychopath, or the one who just might have the veto power to kick someone out. “And numero uno hasn’t been asked? Numero…er…two…is never interested.”
“Fine, get that ass kicked out,” she says, trying not to grin.
There’s only been one person kicked out on their ass, and that was Ghost. Another alpha. I take a swallow of my wine and glance at Mason. I check the time. “It’s a little early. Couldn’t keep away from me?”
I try to squash the uneasy thought he turned up to see Liz.
Not that I’d blame Mason, a delta. Liz’s a fucking vision, but y’know, hands off and all that. She’s ours. Mine, Reaper’s, and whether he wants to admit it or not, Dante’s. For as long as we keep her.
I know my thoughts on that, but the other two?
“Got a delivery? Booze?” Mason asks. “And I need to set up upstairs, but Dante’s got some Council woman there. Not to mention the fuckwits in the day entrance foyer.”
I smile. “Send the delivery guys down, through that door and not the service one, and if they step on or get too close to a Council asshole…it’s?—”
“An accident?” Mason asks .
I nod. “Or a business hazard.”
“Obviously,” the bartender says. “I’ll unpack and restock?—”
“No,” I cut him off. Liz is dancing in my head. “I’ll do it. Darcy, take the order into the wine distributor. Mason? When you’re done with the booze delivery, take care of this floor….”
“Who’s going to unpack and stock?” Mason asks me.
I pick up the tablet—it’s open to the delivery slip—and I grin. “I will.”
With a little help.
The last bottles are delivered to the correct floor. Dante finished with the meeting and the place is footloose and Council free. I grab the bottle I opened earlier and two regular low-ball glasses, since I figure I need a little celebration for the menial labor of doing the unpacking, counting, checking and delivering.
Liz helped.
I know I’m playing with fire here, but the way her eyes lit up with the happiness of being useful was worth it. Still is.
And she’s good.
She’s sharp, hardworking, and she helped get the job done in a fraction of the time. She also stayed down in the storage room, seemingly happy with the status quo, and the fact Dante wanted her out of the way.
I like how she’s pliant in the right ways, subversive in others. Oh, I don’t mean subversive in a sexual manner, but I can see that, too. No, she’s able to look at things and subvert the submissive parts in her into staying small and out of the way to learn what she can.
I felt that down in the storeroom. Because the moment she worked out I wasn’t about to get on her case with doing the job, she did it better, faster, and different to me.
Is that why she’s still there, I wonder. Apart from making herself useful? To stay away from Dante?
I would.
But he’s not about to venture out and change his version of hellfire over things.
He’s locked up in his office so I don’t disturb him. So she doesn’t. No doubt he’s dissected the entire visit and watched the video feeds of it over and over. No doubt he’s going over numbers and surveillance of trouble spots in our other places, like always.
Nothing is going on with those, I know, but I marked the places for him to look at as usual in the files I sent before the Council arrived. We check everything. People are jerks. People are easily bought, so anything suspicious is examined.
Or after this visit here, everything checked out, rechecked and checked again.
And the length of time he’s taking, he’s got his magnifying glass and fine-toothed comb out.
Normally if something pans out to trouble, Reaper moves in and…
The sweetest melody caresses my ears, making me falter to a stop.
What in the living hell is that sound? The voice is a marvel shifting from one song that’s sweet and high and pure, to another that has that smoky layer of classy sex over it. I recognize it. One of the girls did a bump and grind to this song the other night.
This version…is better.
Hotter.
Shit. It’s doing things, to me, that voice.
When I heard her sing last it was pretty, she was in heat, but this …
“Liz?”
I push open the door.
Her ass moves in time with the song, and she puts bottles on shelves, her voice rich and seductive, and I wish I smoked so I could take a drag.
She suddenly stops and turns. Eyes big, hair damp. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry.”
I put the wine and glasses down on a shelf and come at her and take her face in my hands. She’s soft and sweet smelling. She melts into me, eyes unfocused, and she sighs. “Knight.”
I kiss her, taking my time. This kiss isn’t particularly sweet. It's a slow building need and desire. It’s shared moments.
“Good girl,” I say, lifting my mouth. “You make Daddy very happy when you kiss me like a sweet little angel. Such a good, perfect, girl with the most amazing feeling tits.” A tremor runs through her. I go to her ear, sucking on it. “And the most gorgeous cunt. Will you let Daddy touch your sweet pussy?”
She squirms, parts her thighs. “Daddy—Knight, I…”
Shit, what am I doing? Pushing her? It’s just she sounded good enough to eat, feels and tastes better, and I think she’s into me praising her. She’s shuddering, restless, the side of jumpy that comes from too much stimulation.
I let her go, stepping back. “I didn’t mean—” I stop, because clearly I did. I meant it. “I should have held back. I know you’ve got that order from Dante.”
“He hates me.”
That weird little power game he’s playing with her, one that blatantly drips in sex. And she can’t see that. She’s too close.
I take a breath.
She considers me. “Fuck his order.”
“Really?” I raise a brow and lean against a pile of boxes.
Liz blows out a breath. “Yes.”
I offer her a dirty, sleazy, bad Daddy Dom smile. “You’re going to use that pretty, pretty mouth for such nasty words, baby girl?”
“I’m all grown up,” she says.
My cock twitches. I like the little, bratty, bad girl twist. It’s so fucking hot, it’s adorable because she’s more brat than bad. My kind of brat. The one that wants the praise even if it’s too much.
“Prove it.” I watch to see what she does.
What she does is not disappoint.
Liz comes at me with more determination than anything like a practiced move. And she runs her hand down my chest to my now hard cock.
Her hand squeezes and her eyes widen. “Oh, my, Daddy.”
“Yeah, all the better to fuck you with, to really teach you a lesson, Liz.”
She rises on her toes and looks up at me. She’s almost tall enough to kiss me, so I lower my head and take her mouth in a kiss that makes my cock jerk and my toes curl.
I grab her by the waist as she kisses me back with wild abandon, her tongue playing and teasing mine. And I set her on the boxes, stepping between her thighs.
“Lesson number one…you always, always come for Daddy.”
She’s in one of her dresses, thank fuck. Clearly, she changed and showered after I left, and she came back to continue working. I like her in dresses.
I flip the skirt and her scent is thick in the air. The gardenias are dipped in sex, and I want to inhale them so they fill my every cell.
Instead, I slide my fingers in her panties. My cock is aching now, in need of her. And she’s hot, wet, and touching her is like heaven itself. I push two fingers into her and thumb her clit, determined to make her come as I dip back down to her mouth. And after she comes, I’m burying myself in?—
The door bangs open .
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Dante snarls.
Right then, she screams as she comes on my fingers.
Fuck.