3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Joshua “Loki” Ledet
As I pulled up to Conjure, the strip club owned by the Sinners, I could already hear the pulsating music and laughter from inside. This wasn’t my regular spot, but whenever I needed to let off some steam, this was where I found solace. Tonight, however, I didn’t need to let off steam. Monica, one of the dancers called and said it was urgent that I stopped by.
As a recovering alcoholic, women had become my new addiction. Bishop had done good when he opened this club. And he didn’t hire just anyone. The women enticed the tourists’ wallets. And while I had the club whores back at the clubhouse, I preferred to get my fix here.
After shutting off my Harley, I walked inside, and the sound of laughter and clinking glasses filled the air. Tonight, the place was bustling with an overwhelming crowd of tourists, so I slid onto the first empty barstool I could find. The Saturday night crowd during tourist season made it nearly impossible to clear out the patrons at closing time. They always wanted to see more of the women, and I didn’t blame them.
“Same as always?” the bartender asked when she reached me.
She was cute. Tall, busty, with a pixie cut as dark as midnight, and covered in tattoos, but I wasn’t here to flirt tonight. So, I just nodded, a small smile playing on my lips. A cute blush stained her cheeks as she grinned and headed off to grab my glass of Coke, chilled with ice cubes. My usual.
When the bartender came back, she grabbed the dishrag hanging over her shoulder, cleaned the bar top in front of me, then placed a coaster on the bar and set my glass of Coke on it.
“Thank you,” I said, grabbing the glass of soda.
“If you need something a little stronger or anything else, let me know,” she said as she sauntered away, putting a little sway in her hips.
Tonight, I was celebrating another year of sobriety. Hence the Coke and not whisky which I was dying for just a drop of. So no, I wouldn’t be asking for anything stronger, no matter how much I wanted it.
The knowledge of me being a recovering alcoholic was limited to the Sinners and my blood brother and sister. It was a struggle when I came back from deployment and the only thing that silenced the demons of war was alcohol until it became a demon I had to deal with too.
I enlisted in the military in the aftermath of 9/11 after graduating high school that same year. I ended up becoming an Army Ranger and was awarded a bronze star and purple heart for my service, even though I struggled even now that I made it home when others didn’t. Some of the ones I lost were my closest friends, including my best friend, Reggie.
But my battle for survival didn’t end after the war. It had only begun once I came back stateside, and it was a battle I waged every single fucking day. Remain sober or throw my entire life away for just one more drink. Those were the two choices I faced every time I was on this earth another day. It was a struggle not to end it all.
My gaze landed on the stage, where Monica, our best dancer, showcased her talent with a pole trick. She had the undivided attention of everyone around, including me, as she hung upside down with her long, gorgeous legs wide open.
People didn’t know Monica was a classically trained dancer who was working her way through school here at the club. She was smart, beautiful, and easy to talk to. If it were another lifetime and I was another man and she was another woman, we might could have something more between us. However, I called her a friend even though benefits came with that friendship. Which was why I didn’t hesitate when she said she needed to talk to me.
I stood, took another sip of my drink, then sat the glass on the bar top. As I walked towards the back room, I caught her attention while she was still on stage. I gave her a wink and headed to the private room we used whenever I came to Conjure. She knew to meet me there whenever she was done with her set.
While these backrooms were used for private lap dances, I fucked her in them. She didn’t come to the clubhouse, and we stayed out of each other’s personal lives. She didn’t come to my house, and I didn’t go to hers. We kept things simple. She got what she needed from me, and I got what I needed from her. No feelings involved. That was why this thing between us was solid.
I strolled down the narrow hallway and found my way to the empty room designated for her to give private dances whenever she was on schedule. In a matter of minutes, the door opened and in walked one of the most gorgeous women I’d ever had the pleasure of fucking. She closed the door and locked it behind her.
“What’s so important?” I asked, genuinely curious about her phone call.
With a shake of her head, she pressed her finger to her lips. I had never seen fear in her eyes before, and it instantly put me on high alert. It was impossible that this place was bugged. Although nothing illegal happened here, it was still something we checked, just to be on the safe side.
She sauntered to the sound system and switched on the music, turning it up louder than necessary. Then she walked towards me, never taking her eyes off me. When she positioned herself in front of me, she pushed against my chest, making me lean back in the chair. Without hesitation, my hands settled on her ass as she straddled my hips.
“My sister’s in trouble,” she whispered in my ear, when she leaned forward while moving her hips to the music. “And someone’s following me.”
“Why do you think she’s in trouble?” I asked, alarm moving through my system. Monica was a cheerful person, effortlessly shrugging off her problems. But this had her nerves on edge. I could tell by the strain in her voice. “And why do you think someone’s following you?”
In any other circumstance, the graceful movement of her body against my dick would have captured my attention. However, her voice trembled with fear, mirroring the same fear reflected in her eyes.
“She’s missing,” she said, her voice full of pain. “I don’t know how long she’s been gone.”
“How old is she?”
“Sixteen.”
“And you’re sure there’s not a boy involved?” I asked.
This was the age that I rebelled against my parents and for this to be a girl, there was a good chance there was a boy involved.
“She’s not that kind of girl, Loki.” She got up and spun around on my lap, brushing her ass against my cock. I returned my hands to her hips as she laid back against my chest, wrapping one of her arms around my neck. “She’s an honor roll student. And since school’s out, she’s been interning with a state senator at the State House.”
Definitely didn’t sound like the typical behavior of a rebellious teen.
“I’m going to need more than that, sweetheart.”
She sighed. “I got a phone call from her boss. They said they were giving her position to another student because she hadn’t shown up in over two weeks. That they could no longer hold it for her, even if a family member was very ill. No one in our family is sick, Loki. It’s just me and my parents.”
Alarm shot through me. Who didn’t let a family know that an underage child hadn’t been seen in over two weeks?
“When was the last time you talked to her, Monica?”
She rose from my lap, then flipped around, straddling my hips again.
“It’s been a minute. With my job, trying to rehearse for tryouts at the theater company, and school, I hadn’t had time to check on her like I should have been doing.” Sadness clouded her eyes, and I wiped away a stray tear that fell. She gave me a small smile.
“She was excited about getting transferred to a higher-ranking senator the last time I talked to her,” she continued. “Anyway, I filed a missing person’s report and since then I think someone’s been following me.”
“And why do you think you’re being followed?”
“It’s hard to explain. Maybe it’s all my imagination, but I keep seeing the same car around the theater, my apartment, and school. Even when I come to Conjure and when I leave.”
“Maybe it’s an unmarked cop, since it started after you reported her missing?”She shrugged. “I have no clue, but I’m scared, Loki. Something’s not right.”
I’d have the boys pull the security cameras for this place and see if Wires, one of our prospects, could pull any footage from anywhere she frequented.
I didn’t want to say it was just her imagination because it could be something. She was a beautiful woman. If it wasn’t the cops, it wouldn’t shock me if she had one of these bastards at the club sniffing around her.
“And your parents?” I asked.
“Are useless as usual. They don’t give a fuck about her as long as she’s out of their hair.” She sighed. “I wouldn’t come to you if I didn’t need your help, Loki. I’ve been so caught up with school, work, and tryouts, I didn’t even check on my own fucking sister.”
“Shit happens, Monica. You can’t blame yourself. You have your life to live. What’s the Senator’s name?”
“Senator Owen Decker. And when I called his office to see if they had any information on her, they didn’t even recognize her name.”
I recognized his name immediately. He had been on television, and they expected he would run to become the next president. Other than that, I didn’t know too much about him.
“I’ll see what I can dig up. What’s your sister’s name?”
“Her name is Lila. Lila Goins. There’s one more thing. I’ve done some digging and I think she may be caught up in a sex trafficking ring. A lot of girls are going missing around here if you hadn’t noticed. I spoke to a patron who came in here not too long ago. He was drunk out of his mind, but he said something about an auction for women happening soon. It’s by invite only and caters to only the richest people in the world.”
Auction? I’d never heard of anything like that happening in New Orleans so that meant that shit wasn’t connected to the mc world. There was no way Savage Order, the other mc in area was involved either, so that meant someone powerful enough to have the cops turn the other way was behind this shit. And if that was the case, Monica might have drawn attention to herself investigating if her sister was connected. That was probably why someone was following her.
“You can’t be doing shit like that, Monica,” I growled. “Whatever your sister might be caught up in, it’s possible you’ve pulled yourself into it.”
“I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, Loki. You know the cops don’t give a shit about us. I just want to find my sister.”
I let out a heavy sigh, feeling the weight of the situation. She was right. If you weren’t a part of the elite in this town, the police would not help you. With no one else to rely on, the task of finding her sister fell solely on her and now me.
“Okay, I’ll do some digging. No more investigating.”
She let out a sigh. “But I just can’t sit around and do nothing, Loki. My sister is missing.”
“No more looking into this shit, Monica. I fucking mean it. You have me now. Let me take care of it. Just go about your routine like you normally do.”
She let out another deep sigh. “Okay but you’ll keep me in the loop?”
I nodded. “When I find something out, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling. “Is it cool if I take a rain check?”
“Of course,” I said. “Are you done for tonight?”
“One more set. Thank God. They’re a little more handsy than usual tonight.”
“You need me to handle it?”
She laughed. “Nah. They’re just being men,” she said, winking causing me to chuckle.
“Okay, I’ll have one of the prospects follow you home, tonight.”
She climbed off my lap, leaving behind a faint scent of her perfume. “I’d appreciate that.” She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek then took a step back. “Congratulations on your anniversary.”
“Thank you.” I smiled and stood, shamelessly adjusting my cock. “I can’t believe you remembered,” I said, genuinely surprised that she remembered today marked my sobriety anniversary.
“Of course, I did,” she said as I escorted her out the door, and back to the main floor. “It’s a big milestone, Loki. You should be proud of yourself.”
Being proud of staying sober wasn’t something I’d ever be. It was an everyday battle, and I was shocked I hadn’t slipped up yet. God knew, there were days it was all I could think about.
“I’ll make sure I touch base if I find anything out,” I said ignoring her comment and the demons taking over my thoughts. “And remember, no more fucking investigating. Let me take care of it.”
She winked, and we parted ways.
I didn’t know how I was going to find out any information about Lila without alerting the wrong people. If Monica was being followed it was a possibility it was linked to the missing person report she had filed. Which meant someone on the police force was involved and possibly alerted someone.
“Fuck!” I pulled out my phone, as I walked out the front entrance of Conjure, and dialed New York, the Sinners Enforcer.
“Prez?” he answered on the second ring.
“I need a favor.”
He was silent for a minute. “Anything.”
“Get in touch with your cousin.”
“I assume you’re talking about Antonio.”
“I am,” I said, straddling my bike. “Find out if there’s an auction that happens down here about every six months. And if there is, see if he can get us an invitation.”
“What kind of auction?”
“An auction for women and girls.”
Hopefully Antonio could help because I had no idea who I could contact to get us in this place if it was as exclusive as Monica said.
“Ah shit. Okay. Got it. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
He ended the call, and I let out a deep heavy sigh. I had no fucking idea where all this shit was headed, I just hoped we found Lila before any actual damage was done.