Chapter Fifteen
MY STOMACH TURNED the second the Fire Dragons clubhouse came into view, something sharp and instinctive twisting low in my gut like my body already knew this was a mistake before my mind caught up.
The music hit next, loud, violent, the kind that didn’t just fill the air but rattled through the car, through my bones, until my head started to pound with it.
I swallowed hard and looked at Ruby and said, “Please rethink this.”
“Let it go, Evie,” she snapped, already reaching for the door like I hadn’t said a damn thing.
“Ruby—”
The door slammed. I sat there for half a second longer, gripping the armrest, my pulse climbing. I need to find a way out of this. A hard smack against my window made me jump.
“Come on!” she snapped, yanking the door open before I could argue again.
I moved slower getting out, every instinct in my body screaming at me to get back in the car, lock the doors, and drive until this place disappeared in the rearview and if I had the keys I’m pretty sure that’s what I would have done.
Instead, I followed her knowing this was a bad decision.
The closer we got, the worse it hit, too many people, too close together, the smell of sweat, alcohol, cheap perfume thick enough to choke on. By the time we pushed inside, it was suffocating.
Ruby grabbed my hand, dragging me deeper before I could stop her. “Let’s find Drago,” she shouted in my ear.
We pushed through bodies, noise, heat—until I saw them.
Drago sat like the King he thought he was, one arm stretched along the back of the couch, the other resting on the blonde straddling his lap, her mouth pressed to his neck like a vampire feeding.
Kane sat nearby, a brunette grinding against him, his hand sliding up her thigh encouraging her to keep going.
My already upset stomach turned souring even more. These men were awful and maybe now Ruby would see it.
Beside me, Ruby went completely still.
“Please,” I said under my breath. “Can we just leave?”
She didn’t even look at me.
“Drago?” she called, stepping forward like she wasn’t watching him with another woman wrapped around him.
He didn’t rush, apologize, or hell even look guilty. He just gave the blonde a lazy pat on the thigh. “Get gone.”
Across from him, Kane grinned at me, slow and predatory. “Move on,” he told the brunette. “Somethin’ better just walked up.”
Both women slid off them, smirking as they passed, like we were just the next round.
Drago tapped his lap for Ruby, but she didn’t move.
“I think I’ll stand,” she said, her voice tight, pride barely holding. “I can see where your lap’s been.”
Something flickered in his eyes, annoyance, not regret. “Don’t be a jealous nag,” he said. “I don’t like it.”
That was it.
That was all she got.
Kane stood then, closing the distance between us before I could blink, his arm slipping around my shoulders before I could react. His mouth brushed my ear, voice low and amused. “I like jealous women,” he murmured. “They’re hotter in bed. You can be as territorial as you want with me, sweetheart.”
My skin crawled, and I stepped out from under his arm fast, putting space between us, my focus locking onto Drago. “You wanted to see me?”
He stood without answering, already moving, expecting us to follow.
Kane stayed close behind me—too close—his body brushing mine every step of the way as we pushed through the crowd, the noise fading the deeper we went until it was just the echo of it, distant and hollow.
The hallway stretched ahead of us in a suffocating kind of darkness, the quiet pressing in so thick it felt deliberate, like even the walls knew better than to make a sound, and Drago didn’t slow until he reached the last door, pulling out a key with a focus that made it clear whatever waited on the other side mattered more than anything behind us, more than anything I could still turn back toward, and that was when my pulse kicked up, hard and unsteady, because the second the door opened and I stepped inside, I knew this wasn’t a bedroom and it sure as hell wasn’t casual, it was a meeting room, set with a round table and heavy chairs, a safe tucked into the corner, and another table laid out with guns that weren’t there for show, weren’t decorative, weren’t anything but real and ready.
And on another table—drugs—lots of it.
This became more and more dangerous every second.
“Sit,” Drago ordered.
Kane moved before I could, dragging out a chair beside me and layering on that fake charm like it was supposed to mean something. “Here you go, my lady.”
I ignored him and sat anyway, slow and deliberate, my eyes already moving, tracking everything, the layout, the exits, the angles, anything that might matter if this went bad, while Ruby sat across from me, already watching Drago with something tangled in her expression, something hard and soft at the same time, like she hated him and loved him in equal measure and didn’t know how to separate the two anymore.
“You got inside their clubhouse?” Drago asked, getting straight to it.
“I was there for a few hours,” I said carefully. “What exactly do you think I’m going to find out?”
“I want everything,” he said, his tone shifting, colder now, more focused. “Members. Security. Weak points. Gatsby handles their systems, and I know damn well he’ll show you around eventually.”
My chest tightened at Gatsby’s name. “I didn’t see anything like that,” I said. “He just introduced me to people.”
“Did you meet that scarred bastard?” Drago snapped. “Big and Ugly.”
The hatred in his face wasn’t normal. It was something deeper. Something very personal.
I glanced at Ruby. She gave me a quick look—don’t say too much. “Yeah,” I said. “I met him.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Drago said, calm and certain. “But not fast. I’m going to torture him for as long as I can keep him breathing.”
A chill slid down my spine.
“Who else?” Kane asked, stepping behind me, his fingers brushing the back of my neck like he had a right to touch me. “Ol’ ladies. That’s where men like them break.”
“Lucy?” Drago cut in. “That bitch still around?”
“Yes,” Ruby answered too quickly.
Drago’s head snapped toward her. “I asked her.” Then his eyes were back on me. “Did you meet Lucy?”
There was no point lying. “Yes.”
“I want you close to them,” he said. “Watch them. Learn their routines. When they’re alone. Where they go.”
“Why can’t you find that out yourself?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
Silence. Then—his hand slammed down on the table so hard I flinched. “Because I have you,” he growled. “And you’ll do it if you know what’s good for you.”
“She will,” Ruby rushed, panic creeping into her voice. “She’s just nervous—”
“Seems to me,” Kane said softly behind me, leaning in again, “you like good ol’ Gatsby a little too much.”
My heart skipped.
“You breathe a word to them about me,” Drago said, his voice dropping into something deadly quiet, “and I’ll end you. And anyone you give a damn about.”
Ruby gasped. “Drago, you don’t mean that—”
The look he gave her shut her up instantly, because he meant it. Every word.
“You better keep her in line,” he said to Ruby, like I wasn’t even sitting there.
“Can I go?” I asked, my voice tight. “Please.”
“I’m not done with Ruby,” he said, already standing. “Wait here.”
Ruby immediately stood and followed him like a good puppy. After everything. After seeing him with another woman. After the threats. After all of it. She still followed him out the door like she couldn’t get enough of the creep.
“Don’t worry,” Kane said, dragging a chair closer to mine, slow, deliberate. “I’ll keep you company.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” I snapped, shoving my chair back, putting as much space between us as I could. “Why don’t you go find the girl from earlier? I’ll be fine.”
He smiled. Slow. Amused.
“Nah,” he said. “She’s just club entertainment.” His gaze dragged over me, lingering. “This?” He leaned back, breathing in deep like it meant something. “Just smelling you is better than fucking that bitch.”
I leaned my head back, staring at the ceiling, trying to keep it together and not puke from being stuck with this depraved jerk.
“God,” I muttered under my breath, barely holding it in, “please get me out of this.”