Chapter Thirty One
Leighton
Victoria dressed with a soft smirk on her face. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her, struggling with the urge to tear them right back off of her so much that I stumbled, trying to get my pants back on.
"Enjoy watching me fall for you ma petite?" I grinned as she laughed at my near miss with the floor.
She opened her mouth to respond, but the sounds of shouting just outside the office door cut her off. Groaning internally, I motioned for her to stay put as I strolled over to the door and opened it.
"What the fuck?" I shouted as an officer in riot gear pushed into me and barreled his way into the office.
"Hands where I can see them, both of you." he barked out, raising his gun and pointing it at me as his partner stepped into the office behind him. "You, against the wall here. Nice and slow."
"What is the meaning of this?" Victoria demanded as she complied with his order.
The officer ignored her, grabbing me by my collar and turning me toward the wall before slamming me into it hard enough to split my lip open. My hands curled into fists at my sides. I'd had enough encounters with the police to know that giving in to my impulses would only make the situation worse.
"Excuse me," Victoria's voice took on a tone I was familiar with from high society women. "Do you know who I am? Officer, I am speaking to you."
"Lady, I don't give a flying fuck who you are. If you don't get your ass up against that wall so my partner can frisk you for weapons, I will put you in cuffs."
Her face twisted into a scowl, and as much as I wanted to see her let loose on the asshole cops, it wasn't the smartest play. " Ma petit , just comply and let them do their job."
"No, Leighton. We have rights." she hissed before turning her attention back to the second officer. "My father will have a field day with this. Neither of you will work on any force again once he's through with you." I had to admit, as much as I'd never really been into the entitled high society shit, it was pretty hot when Victoria did it. "My name is Victoria Bristol; my father is Hugo Bristol . If you have any desire to keep your job, you will let go of my boyfriend and pray like hell we don't choose to sue for excessive force."
"Your boyfriend here is a known criminal, Ms. Bristol. You're free to go, but we have some questions for him."
"If you think I'm leaving him here for you to violate the rights he has, then you've got another fucking thing coming. He's invoking his right to an attorney now . Doesn't matter what questions you have. You will unhand him, and you will wait for his fucking lawyer!" Victoria shrieked at the officer.
"We don't have to wait for his attorney here, little girl. We are well within the limits of our position to take him back to the precinct for questioning."
"You haven't even told him his charge, or that he has one at all." Her voice was increasing in octave as she stomped toward Az's desk and picked up the phone receiver. "I highly suggest you remove your hands from him and step outside before I finish this call if you want to keep your fucking badge."
"I just want you to know, one yes to that boyfriend shit, and two, you are so goddamn hot right now, ma petit ." I grinned, wincing slightly at the pain from my busted lip.
"Not now, Leighton." She snapped, before her attention turned to whoever was on the other end of her phone call. "Regina, it's Victoria. I need you to put me through to my father immediately, please… Oh, I see. Can you put me through to someone else? It's urgent, but I don't want to bother him in court… Yes, thank you."
She glared at the officer who still had me pinned to the wall as she waited for someone else to be put on the phone. It was making me hard again, which was unbelievably inconvenient, not to mention uncomfortable as hell.
"Last chance. Get. Your. Hands. Off. My. Boyfriend." she bit out.
The other officer shifted his weight from foot to foot, his expression growing increasingly unsure. "Maybe you should just let him go, Masterson. We don't have to leave the room, but I can't really risk this job. I've got a baby on the way man."
"Yes, Masterson , listen to your partner." Victoria sniped before her attention was pulled back to her phone call, her face paling slightly. "U-uncle Theo… I'm at Temptat!on with Leighton Laurent… No, I don't really know what's going on. Some officers busted into the office where we are and slammed him against a wall… No, they haven't said… Uh uh, no, no charges mentioned yet… Yes, I did. That's why I called; we've invoked our attorney rights..." She paused for a long moment, nodding her head as she listened to Theo on the other end of the line. "Masterson and…" she snapped her fingers at the other officer, and I couldn't stop the gleeful cackle that left me. "What's your name. I need both of your badge numbers as well."
The officer cleared his throat before speaking. "Bennet, badge number three-nine-five-two."
"If you want my badge number you can get it from my fucking report." Masterson huffed.
Victoria narrowed her eyes on him, but it was clear the way her head tilted that Theo had started speaking to her again.
"No, that's not necessary, Uncle Theo… Of course, we'll wait for you to make the call. Thank you." She placed the receiver gently in the cradle before crossing her arms and giving Masterson a smug grin. "I appreciate your cooperation, Officer Bennet. I will ensure that my father and uncle are made away that you attempted to convince your partner to cease his inappropriate behavior toward my boyfriend."
"We'll see," Masterson shrugged, tossing his own smug grin Victoria's way.
The room fell into an awkward silence while we waited. I could hear more police outside of the office. There weren't a lot of patrons in the club at this time of day, but it was pretty clear we'd been raided. I just wasn't sure why it was happening at two p.m. on a weekday, or at all really. Az kept his business clear of the rest of our activities, they were fully legitimate. His name was on them all legal like and everything. The only thing that was criminal about the place was the five of us.
" Mastersons, Bennet. " A stern voice crackled over their radios, breaking the silence. "Stand the fuck down and pull your god damned team from Temptat!on. Now ! "
"Oooh, somebody's in trouble. Nee-ner nee-ner nee-ner!" I grinned as I sang my taunt.
Bennet blanched and Masterson pressed me against the wall one more good time before stepping away. I turned just in time to see the promise of revenge light in Masterson's eyes. I had a feeling I'd be visiting him at some point to make sure he didn't act on it.
I moved across the room and grabbed Victoria by the arm and started to pull her toward the door. When we stepped out into the hall she pulled back and stopped me, leaning back into the door frame.
"Oh, and Officer Masterson. When this is all over and the dust settles, I hear they're always hiring at Walmart." Her voice was dripping saccharine sarcasm, and she gave him a little finger wave to accompany the mean smile.
"Are you trying to get fucked right here in the hallway in front of all these cops?" I chuckled.
"Not the time, Leighton." she replied, rolling her eyes.
"I think you mean boyfriend. "
"Why do I feel like I'm going to regret that?" she muttered as I pulled her toward the main club. "Hey, wait. Shouldn't we be heading out the back door?"
"I mean, we need to prep you for that sort of thing first, and like you said… not the time." I laughed before shaking my head. "No, wait. I was going to answer that for real, but it has to wait until we're somewhere with a little less heat. Just trust me, okay. I'll tell you as soon as we're in the clear."
"O…kay." Victoria replied, obviously confused.
Instead of trying to help her understand, I continued moving toward the main club. The guys were going to want any information I could gather about the raid, even if that just meant telling them I didn't find anything. Leading Victoria to the bar, I motioned for the bartender to fix her a drink.
"Stay here, ears open, okay?" I whispered.
"I-"
"Thanks, beautiful." I cut her off, kissing her on the cheek before moving toward the cluster of police officers near the emergency exit on the opposite side of the dance floor. I did my best to stick to the shadows, what few there were as I closed in on them.
"-supposed to plant the shit. So far, we've got nada and now the chief is crawling up all our asses." a cop that clearly went a little heavy on the donuts complained to the trio around him.
I paused, not wanting to draw attention to myself, and waited to see if they'd say more. If someone was planting shit in the club, we needed to know who to put a bullet in or else Az would have a fucking stroke.
"Our take from the Jackals isn't high enough to deal with the captain crawling up our asses like this, man. Without the plant we're gonna have I.A. up our asses too. We're gonna have to bust down a few of their street guys and make it real clear we need a bigger cut."
I fought the urge to snort. With as loose as these guys' lips were, I almost couldn't blame the Jackals for not holding up their end of the bargain they'd clearly struck. Creeping my way back toward the bar, I picked up my pace as soon as I was halfway across the dance floor.
"Ready honeybun?" I grinned at Victoria.
"Immediately, no." she replied, rising from her seat at the bar.
"Aww, what's wrong snookums."
"What the hell is with these pet names all the sudden?" she frowned, following me to the front exit.
"You said I'm your boyfriend, sugarplum." I shrugged. "I figured that meant we needed more pet names."
"For the love of God, Leighton. No." She groaned.
I chuckled and led her to my bike, handing her my helmet before climbing on. "I hate to make you wait for an explanation any longer, sweetie pie, but this place is crawling with pigs, and I need to fill the guys in before Az catches wind of it."
She grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like an insult as she jerked my helmet over her head and climbed on the bike with me. I decided not to worry about the speed limits since she'd already called in her uncle, and he'd managed to fuck up Masterson's whole day, instead burning rubber as I tore out of the parking lot and sped toward the house.
I nearly slid the bike into place as we pulled up at the manor, pausing long enough to let Victoria get off the back safely before I leapt off and made fast tracks toward the door. I threw it open, looking around as I made my way inside with Victoria walking double time behind me to keep up.
"We got a fucking problem, boys!" I yelled loud enough that my voice would carry through the house.
"GOD DAMN IT!" Joey's voice yelled back at me, and I blinked, realizing that he'd been basically right in front of me, sitting at the dining table, as I walked in. Somehow, I'd missed him there as I barreled through the front door.
"Fuck," I yelped, jumping a little. "You are a damned ghost."
"You two are lucky you're cute," Victoria muttered behind me. "Since there's only one brain cell between you."
"Hey-" Joey grumbled.
"I resemble that remark!" I said at the same time. "But I'll let you get away with it since I'm your boyfriend."
"What the fuck is all the yelling?" Rich's voice cut through our banter as the rest of the boys made their way into the room.
"The cops raided–" I started, when banging on our front door drew all our attention. Everyone tensed up; Craig crossed the room and grabbed Victoria's arm.
"Come on, Bunny. Best make you scarce since we don't know what's going on." He said, pulling her upstairs behind him as quickly as he could.
We all waited until they were well out of sight before anyone moved. The banging became more insistent and louder. It was obvious whoever was on the other side of the door would beat it down if we didn't answer.
"How the fuck do people keep making it to our front door," Rich grumbled as he strolled past me to open it.
"Where the fuck is my daughter?" Hugo Bristol's face was red and mottled, his one good eye looked like it was about to pop out of his head, and I could have sworn I saw spittle fly from his angry little mouth as he raged at Rich.
"Mr. Bristol, how lovely of you to stop by." Rich replied dryly.
"You!" Daddy-O's eye narrowed as it landed on Az and he shoved past Rich. "I don't know what the fuck your little crew of idiots has gotten mixed up in, but this was not what we agreed on. You're supposed to be protecting my daughter. Instead, our home is blown to bits, you vanish with her for a month, and now I hear from my business partner that she was caught up in some sort of raid on your pathetic club. This is not proving your proclaimed innocence in the least bit, Casadei. You and the rest of your fucking criminals are fired. Bring me my fucking daughter, now!"
Az narrowed his eyes on Hugo, opening his mouth to say something. Rich, who had shut the door and moved into the room, stepped in front of Az and stared Daddy-O down with a look that said he'd clearly run out of patience.
"I think that's about enough of the theatrics, Hugo." He drawled, raising an eyebrow. "You don't get to come in here insulting us for doing exactly what we agreed to do. The only reason that Victoria is alive is because of us." Rich stepped toward Daddy-O slowly, causing the smaller man to take a step back. "We've pushed ourselves to the fucking limit to keep her alive, even taken bullets to make sure she's safe."
"Bullets you wouldn't have taken if you'd taken this job even remotely seriously." Daddy-O bellowed, squaring his shoulders and reclaiming the step he'd given up when Rich moved toward him.
Rich took another step closer, his body tense, and everything about him radiated a clear warning. "Hugo, with all due disrespect. Maybe if you stopped looking at your daughter like a business asset, she wouldn't be in this fucking situation. No one here sees her as a job but you . And as far as I care, we don't work for you anymore. We're going to make sure she gets through to the other side of this thing, whether you are backing us or not ."
"Damn straight!" I cheered. "Now, I'm just a little rusty on the law, but I'm pretty sure your job won't save you from being trespassed off the property. I'd suggest you get the fuck out of our house before we make that call."
"This isn't over," Hugo screeched as he backed toward the door. "As soon as I find a way to speak to my daughter, this little kidnapping scheme of yours will be over."
"Yeah, yeah. Get gone. Don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out." I mocked, pulling open the front door in time for him to stomp through it like a petulant child.