Bad Boy's Honor: An MMA Bad Boy Romance (58 page)

I’d never liked nightclubs. The second I went near a dance floor, women flocked towards me and started not so subtly grinding their asses against me as if rubbing their butts on my thighs was supposed to turn me on. The worst thing was, no matter what the general public thought, you could not tell how good a woman was in bed by the way she danced. That had let me down on a number of occasions.

A far more reliable indicator was the way a woman engaged you in conversation. I had a perfect success rate in predicting who would be good in bed by looking at the way they reacted to jokes and keeping an eye out for those with a cheeky sense of humor. One thing was for certain, if all a woman did was talk about herself then I would run a mile. That always ended badly.

A delicate hand touched my upper back to get my attention. I almost shook it off assuming that a customer was just trying to squeeze passed to get to the bar, but I heard a faint “Denton” over the deep base of the music.  

I turned round and saw Kara. Shit. No, not Kara. Chloe. God damn it, she looked the spitting image of her sometimes. But Kara had been a bit of a tomboy at heart; she’d certainly never dressed this sexy.  

Chloe had pulled out all the stops tonight. The professional-looking assistant I’d sent home at lunchtime had been replaced by a seductive young woman in a halterneck top with a low cut, revealing a generous portion of her firm breasts, with a short skirt and ‘fuck me’ boots.

When I remembered to look up at her eyes, I saw the same timid and shy young woman that had been there earlier today, but the outfit was of someone a lot more confident. She’d be brave to wear that on a night out with friends, let alone with her boss.  

Men were already eying her up, and she’d noticed. The more eyes on her, the more uncomfortable she became. Did she not normally dress this way? If not, why had she tonight?

Oh God, please don’t say she’s hoping to hook up with me. That can’t happen. Not with an assistant. Not after Kara. But she is beautiful. I can’t take my eyes off her.

“Hi,” she said with a smile. I couldn’t actually hear her, but you didn’t have to be a genius at lip-reading to figure it out.

I smiled back and told her to follow me. I pushed my way through the crowd creating a gap for her to walk through, but then turned back when I noticed she had stopped following me.

I retraced my steps until I found her with trying to politely reject a man who wouldn’t get out of her way. He looked absolutely wasted, but had a friend with him who looked relatively sober and had the decency to look embarrassed by his friend’s behavior.

“Go. Now,” I said to the man in Chloe’s way. We were further away from the speakers now, so he could hear my message and even if he couldn’t, my body language made it perfectly clear.

“Come on, Sam,” the man’s friend said, trying to pull him away by the arm. The friend looked suitably scared of me, but Sam must have been off his tits because he wasn’t frightened. You’d have to be drunk, drugged up, or just stupid not to be scared of me when I’m angry. And now I was angry.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sam responded.  

I didn’t particularly want to destroy someone in the middle of my own nightclub, but he had three seconds to walk away or that was exactly what would happen.

One.

“Sam, let’s leave,” the friend pleaded.  

“I’m just offering to buy her a drink,” Sam replied.

Two.  

“Don’t you know who that is? Let’s go.”

Sam turned to have a proper look at me. He didn’t recognize me, but he did quickly figure out that I was not someone he wanted to have a fight with.  

Thre--

“Okay,” Sam said, holding up his hands. “Christ, I just wanted to talk.”  

“You okay?” I asked as the two of them walked away.  

Chloe nodded and smiled, but I could see she was a little shaken up. She wasn’t used to being hit on, which seemed remarkable given how stunning she looked tonight.

Chloe took a seat in the VIP section, while I had a quick word with a few of the security guys.  

“You see those two over there?” I asked, pointing out Sam and his friend, who were now looking around for their next target. Wallace nodded. “Get them out of here. If the one in the blue shirt
accidentally
trips and falls on the concrete then no harm, no foul.”

“Got it boss.”  

Wallace walked off, and I ordered some drinks to be delivered to the table which arrived promptly after.  

“Vodka tonic okay?” I asked. I’d ordered Kara’s favorite drink without even thinking about it. I probably looked like one of those assholes who ordered food for the lady in a restaurant without even asking.

“I shouldn’t be drinking,” Chloe replied. “I’m technically working.”

“One drink won’t hurt.”

Chloe took the drink reluctantly and sipped at it. I saw her wince as she tasted it.

“You don’t like it, do you?” I asked.

“No, sorry. I can’t stand vodka.”  

I laughed. “You can just tell me if you don’t like something.”  

“I didn’t want to seem rude.”  

How could a girl who was fairly blasé towards violence, not have the confidence to tell me she doesn’t like to drink vodka?

I called a barman back over and Chloe ordered a white wine. I tried to warn her that the wine wasn’t exactly of the best quality here, but she didn’t seem to mind.

She drunk half the glass surprisingly quickly; she must be nervous. I turned the conversation to business.

“Do you know why we’re here tonight?” I asked.  

“You’re keeping an eye on the business?” Chloe guessed.

“Not really, although I do that while I’m here as well. The real point is to be seen in public and give people the opportunity to talk to me with a degree of privacy. Some
customers
use it as a time to pay off debts.”

“Why don’t they just make an appointment with your office?”

I smiled. “Let’s just say that some of my customers look a bit too undressed to appear in the office. Many of them are too undressed for a nightclub as well to be honest. I’m here every Tuesday night, so my clients know where they can find me. I am expecting some of those clients tonight.”

“Okay. Oh, hang on a second.” Chloe picked up her purse and pulled out a small notebook and a pen.  

I watched curiously as she wrote the time, date, and location at the top of the first page.  

“What are you doing?” I asked.  

“Taking notes,” she replied innocently.  

“Chloe?”

“Yes?”

“Put the pen and paper away.”

“I have an awful memory,” she responded.

“That’s fine. In fact, I’d rather you forgot these meetings. I certainly don’t want you writing them down.”

“Oh. Oohhhh,” she said again, as the realization finally hit.  

A cute grin spread across her face. I was grateful for it. She looked completely different--and not at all like Kara--when she smiled.  

“Like I said before, discretion is important. You okay with that?”  

Chloe nodded vigorously. “How you run your business is none of my… business.”  

“I wouldn’t go that far, but that’s the gist of it.”

I’d instructed Perry to come by in about fifteen minutes time. We had a piece of business to conduct, but in the meantime I could just relax with Chloe.

I found it surprisingly easy to talk with her, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with her resemblance to Kara. Her voice and mannerisms were different, so the more we talked the more I began to distinguish between the two of them. And the more I liked her.  

“You must be very proud of what your dad has achieved,” Chloe remarked. “He’s got his fingers in so many different pies.”  

“Yeah, sure. How’re you getting on living in Chicago?” I asked, quickly changing the subject. The last thing I wanted to talk about was Dad. Just the mention of him made me think about the last time he sent me out on a collection. I’d nearly killed the victim. He’d never asked me to kill anyone--not yet--but I sensed that moment getting closer. Soon I’d have to end someone’s life. The only person I wanted to kill was Roddy Barton. He had it coming to him.  

“It’s cheaper,” Chloe replied. “I like my apartment. I had to share an apartment with three other people in New York and could still barely make the rent. Although I suppose it’s been awhile since you’ve had to worry about things like that.”

“Money’s never been a huge issue,” I admitted. “But money can’t buy you everything.”
If it could, Kara would be here now.  

“People who have it always say that.”

“Fair point.”

Perry appeared in my peripheral vision and motioned that he was ready to talk. Chloe’s test was about to begin.  

“I have to go meet someone,” I said. Chloe went to stand up, but I motioned for her to stay seated. “You stay here. I shouldn’t be long. The staff will look after you. There’s a private bathroom just down the end of the hall there. Wallace will let you through. Don’t want to have to mix with the riff-raff.”

“Okay,” Chloe said, as she pulled her phone out of her purse.  

What did we do before we had smartphones to keep us amused when we were bored?

I’d arranged it so that Chloe would need to walk past my office door when she needed to use the bathroom. The door would be ajar and she’d see what Perry and I were working on.  

“Come on through,” I said to Perry as he met me by my office. “How’s Barb?”

“She’s fine,” Perry replied.  

“And the kids?”

“The kids are… kids. They’re a fucking nightmare to be honest, but you have to love ‘em regardless don’t you.”  

“So I hear.”  

An awkward silence fell between us. We both knew what had to happen now, and neither of us was looking forward to it.  

“Don’t worry, Denton,” Perry said. “It’s just business. I don’t take it personally. You’re doing me a huge favor by letting me off this debt. If I have to take a beating for it then so be it.”

“My dad never should have loaned you that money when you were in that state.”

“That money helped pay for Barb’s treatment. It was worth every punch you’re going to throw.”

“I hope so. I don’t like hitting friends. I need you to send a couple of swings my way too. I want to look a bit worse for wear after this one.”

Perry smiled. “Trying to impress a girl, eh? There are other ways to impress women you know. Some men buy flowers.”

“I’m not trying to impress her. I just want to leave an impression on her.”

“That’s the same fucking thing.”

“Whatever.”

“Okay, let’s do this.” Perry bounced from foot to foot and shook his head from side to side to loosen up.

“Not yet,” I said, looking at the security camera footage on the monitors. Chloe was still playing with her phone. She’d nearly finished her wine--any minute now she’d get up for the bathroom.  

Sure enough, five minutes later she stood up and headed in this direction.  

“Let’s go,” I said, before swinging my right hand and punching Perry in the face.

My phone couldn’t stop me getting bored within about five minutes. I couldn’t use my real smartphone on the off chance that Denton saw me using accounts with my real name.    

The Bureau had gone to great lengths to engineer a fake set of social profiles, so it looked like I used all the apps someone of my age would use, and I even had a full set of “friends.” They weren’t much use now, though.

I knocked the wine back quicker than I would usually, but I was rather nervous. Either it was hot in here or I was just panicking, because my face started to feel flushed and the back of my neck was a little clammy.    

I headed to the bathroom to freshen up, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a man scream and fall to the ground. I rushed towards the noise to help, assuming a member of staff had fallen over, but stopped short when I saw the sign on the door. 'Manager’s office.'

Denton must be in there. I should just keep moving; head to the bathroom and remain unnoticed. But what would Lois say? She wouldn’t be impressed if I shied away at the first opportunity of gathering information about Denton and what he was up to. Besides, what kind of undercover agent would I be if I ran away from the action, instead of towards it?