Chapter 2
TWO
LUCAS
The mahogany shook beneath my fist, but I ignored the pain that splintered its way up from my hand to my wrist after smacking it on table.
He’d touched what was mine. The animal inside me growled, pissed and seeing red.
The only thing that stopped me from getting up and taking the trash out was the fact my girl had already been on her way back towards the stage when the asshole had started to talk to her.
Who did he think he was, talking to what was mine?
I forced my fingers to stretch out and rolled my neck, my gaze pinned on the bar.
The old man was still looking at Jade. He even adjusted his cock, probably hard at the sight of her.
And even though I wanted to kill him and any other man in the club who had the privilege to look at her, who could blame him?
She was fucking stunning.
A naughty little wet dream come to life.
My beautiful woman was going to be the death of me.
I could see at least a dozen men watching her as she walked away in that sinfully sexy schoolgirl getup she had on.
Her pigtails bounced with every step she took, and the skirt swished back and forth, giving you just a tease of her bottom, plump perfect ass cheeks that were barely covered by that tartan plaid skirt.
I breathed in slowly and exhaled even slower.
I wasn’t sure how much I had left in me to keep my hands to myself. I rolled my head side to side, trying to release some of the tightness in my neck. I wasn’t a good man. I wasn’t a bad one, but my hands weren’t clean. I was the one in our family who did what needed to be done.
Trager liked to call me an enforcer. The skills I’d picked up as an angry teenager had moved through the years with me as I fought in all sorts of ways to help us get ahead.
I didn’t need a title to know my place in our family.
I’d done more than well with the investments Hollis and Trager had recommended.
I was at my usual booth with two of my four foster brothers.
Trager didn’t say a word while, not shocking, Jonas’ attention was on the stage where the curvy Latina he seemed to have his eye on danced.
His jaw was set as tightly as my fists. None of them bothered to say a word as we sat in the darkened corner of the club.
The moment I saw my girl was safe and sound in the back area of the club, I got up. If that guy thought he was going to get any more time with my woman, he had another think coming.
“Where are you going?” Trager asked, looking up from his phone, a bored look on his face as his green gaze met mine.
“Time for me to escort someone out,” I said without looking back at my brothers.
The five of us had been raised at the same foster home.
The Porters had been a kind couple. Loving and patient, they had taken in hundreds of us into their home.
They hadn’t been able to have kids of their own, but that never stopped them from loving each of us as if we had the same blood running through our veins.
For whatever reason, the five of us were the ones they had decided to keep around even after we’d aged out.
They’d taught us about family and making sure we had one another’s backs. When they passed away, we’d felt the loss deep in our marrow. A junkie had come into the house, desperate for his next hit and out of his damn mind, and he’d killed them in cold blood.
A week later, we’d found him and… well, just say even my brother Hollis, the future mayor of our city and rising politician, hadn’t kept his hands clean that night.
I shook the memory away as I walked up to the asshole who was now clearly hitting on the bartender, Romy.
“Time to leave,” I said without leaving any space for argument. The guy turned, and I knew by the way his face scrunched up that he wasn’t going to listen and most definitely was going to try to argue.
“What? Why?” He swayed. I wanted to shake my head. Didn’t he know he’d committed the unforgiveable? I was showing him mercy by not killing him right there on the spot.
“You’re not allowed to touch the girls,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice low and steady when all I wanted to do was rip the fingers that had dared touch Jade’s wrist right off the fucking guy.
“I didn’t touch her.” He pointed at Romy. “She’s all the way over there,” he added, but Romy simply stared at me. “I couldn’t even reach if I wanted to,” he kept defending himself, but I didn’t miss the way her eyes stayed on me.
I’d caught her doing that lately.
A lot.
I had a feeling that even if Jade might feel me watching, she might not have cottoned on it was me who was watching, but she definitely had.
I didn’t like that. My brothers, I didn’t care.
I could tell them I killed a dozen people, and they wouldn’t bat an eye.
But the brunette bartender, who no matter what the day or theme of the day it was, always wore combat boots like she was ready to stomp down on someone’s balls if they even got close, was another thing.
Not that I would hurt or touch a woman in anger.
“Time. To. Go,” I told him.
“But—” the dumbass started to argue, but I closed the space, my face in his while making sure my body didn’t even brush up against his.
“I said, it’s time to go,” I said once again, my tone low and menacing, just before the music died down to a low hum.
“Just to be clear, I won’t say it again.
If you don’t start making your way to the exit, I’ll pick you up, and they won’t find you or what’s left of you for at least eight weeks,” I promised without blinking.
“Let’s give Kitty a round of applause. Wasn’t she purr-fect, gents? Make sure to show our puurrty girl some appreciation!” the DJ called out, and the men clapped and hollered. I didn’t have to look at the stage to know that dollar bills flew in the air and landed at her feet.
“Now join me on giving our next girl some much-needed love. She’s smart, she’s gorgeous.
She’s daddy’s good girl.” The DJ kept going with his introduction, and all I could think was for his sake, I hoped the old fucker who was now pale as he stared at me wouldn’t make me miss any more of my woman’s dance than I needed to.
“Fine. Fine,” he mumbled. “I’ll leave.” He put his hands up and started to walk towards the exit.
My eyes didn’t move from his form as he hurried out.
I turned and faced the wall of endless bottles of liquor lit up in all different colors behind the bar.
The DJ called out Jade’s stage name, and I bit the inside of my cheek.
I didn’t turn around.
I’d never been at the bar when Jade hit the stage, in fear she’d see me and notice how I couldn’t tear my eyes off her. But I knew if I did, if I watched her from the lit-up area, not only would Romy confirm whatever she was coming up with in her head, but my girl would see me and know.
And I wasn’t good enough for her.
Fuck, maybe if I were like Hollis, a good guy helping the community, making a difference and changing lives with businesses that helped the community and its residents thrive, I wouldn’t have been sitting in the shadows for just a mere glimpse of her.
I wouldn’t be hiding in the darkness as I followed her around.
Or if I were like Victor and Jonas, business owners, good ones, even if they dealt in a couple of murky, shadier things on the side.
Or like Trager, who owned his own tech company and did freelance cyber security whenever the mood struck him or the offer was worth his time.
But I wasn’t like them.
My hands were dirty and stained with the past.
Music started to play. The light beat filled my veins, and then the lyrics started to warm my body. Take you like a drug.... taste you on my tongue. I swallowed, and without thinking, I turned. Jade was on stage, her back on the ground, arched as her legs rose and fell to the beat.
Slow.
Precise.
She rolled over onto her belly and stuck that pretty ass in the air, and with a wink, she smiled out at the crowd before jumping to her feet.
She stepped around the pole, one pretty, toned leg in front of the other; they seemed endless and so damned toned in those sexy stilettos.
I leaned against the counter, my shoulders on the Italian marble Jonas had insisted he needed there.
Nothing and no one else existed for me in that moment.
She spun a pigtail around her finger over and over while walking about before she took hold of the pole and spun.
Fuck, she was brilliant.
Stunning.
The way she spun around and around the pole, showing off the control she had of her body as her ass flashed here and there before landing on her feet. Go ahead and cry… the song went on, nobody does it like you do. I know you got daddy issues. If you were my little girl, I’d do whatever I could do.
The lyrics hit way too close to home. It was like a love letter someone else had written for me to her.
You ask me what I’m thinking about… Her. All ever did now was think about her.
Unknowingly, Jade kept dancing on stage. Lifting her pleated skirt here and there, giving the men down below a glimpse of what was mine as cash flew in the air and landed on the hardwood at her feet.
She was sexy. My sweetest obsession as she pranced about like my little girl, moving in a way I knew I would make her do for only me one day. Or I’d imagine it at home once she was safely tucked away in her room, a floor above mine.
I’d run away and hide with you. The thought fueled the need in my veins, making my cock throb at the idea.
She started to untie the little white collared top she had on, and the breath in my lungs seized inside my chest. I’d watched her every damn day she worked.
I could fucking paint her if I wanted to because I’d memorized every angle, curve, and shape of her body.
But her tits?
I had a feeling I could stare at them without blinking over two lifetimes and every damn time would feel like the first.
Just as the song started to end, her eyes connected with mine from across the club, and I froze. I should have turned around. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I felt like a goddamn moth pinned down for her sole attention.
And I knew she saw me.
Her movements on the stage stuttered for a moment, her fluid dancing stalling for a split second, but it was enough to know. We blinked, and it felt like time stopped. Nothing else existed around us. For a breath, we were the only two people in the club. I didn’t dare look away.
“Look at me, Jade,” I silently pleaded. “Look at daddy,” I demanded dirtily.
She bit down on her plump bottom lip that was stained red almost like she heard me.
Like she could see right through me. Like she recognized the animal, the monster leaning against the bar that she owned mind, body and soul.
You’re mine, baby girl, the beast in me roared, and I knew whatever fight I’d been trying to put up to keep her at arm’s length would be one I’d lose. You’re daddy’s sweet girl.
Because at the end of the day, Jade Whitlock was mine.
Only mine.
And her time was up.