Beyond Shame (13 page)

Dallas ignored her and quirked an eyebrow at Trent. "I'm not paying for her, if that's what you're hoping. I'm here to discuss our trade agreement."

"I know." Trent reached out and poked the girl in the hip. "Consider her a bonus, and our terms stay the same. I think that's more than fair."

The brunette opened her mouth again, and Dallas cut her off before she could say something that would stab at Trent's tiny ego and blow the whole thing up in their faces. "Gag her. I'm sick of the screeching."

"Yes, sir." Bren rose, unwinding a length of fabric from his wrist as he moved.

The girl fought when he touched her, thrashing with the blind instinct of an untrained street brawler. She knew how to land an elbow in a sensitive spot, but instinct couldn't compete with Bren, who stood impassive and unyielding as she battered at him. She even sank her teeth into his arm hard enough to draw blood, and he just stared down at her until she began to still. "You done?"

Hatred burned in her dark eyes, but Dallas caught another hint of animal cunning too. Maybe she recognized a rescue, because she did the smartest thing yet.

She kept her fucking mouth shut.

Dallas returned his attention to Trent. "What's her name?"

"Six." Trent leaned back in his chair. "You like?"

He shrugged as Bren gagged the girl with that same bland detachment. Jas was probably fuming inside, but Six would survive a little callous handling a lot easier than whatever Trent meted out to the women who pissed him off. "Like what? Her name? Her looks? Pussy in general?"

Trent laughed. "You're an odd man, O'Kane. Are we
square
?"

"We're square. Your usual shipment of grain for our usual shipment of liquor. And we won't sell to anyone else in Sector Three."

The man spread his hands wide. "Then everyone's leaving here happy. Tomorrow night, you know the place."

"I do." Dallas let Trent rise before grinning. "And, Trent?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time you feel generous, Lex likes redheads. Sweet ones with big tits."

"I'll remember that. Hell..." Trent shrugged. "Maybe I'll set my sights on figuring out what else she likes."

Real men.
The thought of what Lex would do to a spineless, pathetic bastard like Trent was the only thing that kept Dallas smiling. That and the fact that the idiot was tipping his hand, poking and prodding for a weak spot.

Trouble was coming, and he needed to be ready. "See you tomorrow."

Trent slipped out the back door. His guards filed after him, one pausing for a long last look at Jasper, who bared his teeth in a snarl.

Dallas waited until he heard the rumble of engines outside. Bikes, because Trent's sector barely had roads and the cars Dallas kept running would be useless. Sighing, he pointed a finger at Six. "It's your lucky day, sweetheart. Play nice now, and gagging you's the worst we'll ever do."

She stood stiffly in Bren's grip, her mouth bisected by the gag, but it didn't take her long to nod once.

Smart girl. "Get her to the car, Bren."

"I don't like it," he murmured.

"I know. That's why you're taking her to the car instead of Jasper. Pat her down too, for Christ's sake."

"You got it." He urged the girl toward the other exit, leaving Dallas and Jasper alone.

Dallas allowed himself a sigh. "Odds are good she's a spy."

"Or worse." Jasper retrieved a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one. "Trent seems pretty pleased with himself."

"Sure does." Dallas pulled out his own cigarettes and tapped the pack on the table. "Trent and I have always had a difference of opinion when it comes to women and their uses. Maybe he wised up and that girl's a trap. And maybe she's just a distraction, and the trap's going to get a whole lot of us really fucking dead tomorrow."

"There are ways to minimize losses."

"And we'll take them." Dragging smoke into his lungs, he rose. "Tomorrow. Tonight, we've got a party to get to. Don't get too wasted, eh? Leave that to the lady."

"Noelle will be all right." Jasper's gaze drifted to the door. "What about that one?"

"If she cooperates, she'll be all right too." Dallas clapped Jasper on the shoulder. "Cheer up, buddy. Even if she is a spy, Trent treats his women like something he scraped off his shoes. Any of our girls would spit on the best he has to offer. We make that clear enough, chances are she'll turn."

"Or else?" Jasper snorted. "Maybe we should have said no. It's less of a risk."

"Call it a hunch." It was the only explanation Dallas intended to give, and for Jasper—for now—it would be enough. Most of his people knew to trust his instincts.

As they rolled out of the meeting place, Dallas's gut told him something else. Something in Jasper had shifted already, whether the man wanted to admit it or not. He'd come face-to-face with a legitimate damsel in some serious fucking distress, and he'd fixated on the risk she represented.

Jasper was thinking like a man who held lives in his hands. Maybe one life in particular. Dallas only wished his gut hadn't already warned him how much trouble Noelle Cunningham could be.

Chapter Nine

When queried about the dress code for a welcome party, Lex had told Noelle to wear clothes.

Seeing the O'Kane women turned out in costumes that ranged from scraps that barely qualified as underwear to elaborate dresses with several flavors of denim and leather besides, Noelle understood that the response hadn't been as sarcastic as it had seemed. The women simply wore what they wanted to wear, and no one gave a damn if they were half-naked or covered from head to toe.

Her own outfit fell somewhere in between. A pair of her new jeans hung low on her hips, and her shirt was close to transparent in the front, with two dozen tiny black straps crisscrossing her back. Revealing, especially since she wasn't wearing anything under it.

Lex had laughed herself silly when Noelle had asked whether or not she needed a bra. Going without had been Noelle's bold choice, made with flaming cheeks in spite of Lex's mirth. She'd joined a sector gang—
the
sector gang—and if she wanted to go to a party in clothes so skimpy everyone could see her breasts, no one could stop her.

She was a little drunk on her own belligerence, and she hadn't even touched the liquor yet.

A small brunette with a tiny but intricate tattoo high on one cheekbone stood near the door, a plastic bottle of water in one hand. "You're Noelle, right?"

"I am." The woman had ink around her throat too, a collar of black, swirling vines thick with thorns. Noelle had seen other women with ink collars curling around their throats, but not this close. The delicate details were art, testimony to Ace's skill, if he'd been the one to create them.

The woman held out her hand. "I'm Amira. You took over my job at Circle."

"Oh, you're Flash's..." Noelle trailed off, awkwardly shaking Amira's hand as she cast about for the right word. Girlfriend? Woman? She didn't even know.

Amira just laughed. "Yeah, I'm Flash's. Or you could say he's mine. Both work."

Noelle winced. "I'm sorry. I don't think Lex told me what you call it. Or really what it means, except that the marks..." She touched her own bare throat. "They mean something."

"Yeah—everything." Amira mirrored the movement, tracing her fingertips over a whorl of ink without glancing down.

The dreamy expression in her eyes said more than words ever could. The ink circling Amira's slender throat was supposed to be a mark of ownership, but Amira didn't look owned. She looked happy, satisfied. She looked blissful.

Noelle envied that surety, a ridiculous thought with her newly healed wrists standing as proof of her new freedom. She didn't need a man's mark around her throat to protect her, not with O'Kane cuffs adorning her skin from the base of her hand to midway up her forearm.

She didn't need it, but that didn't stop her from wanting. She had to fight not to scan the crowd for Jasper's familiar form, keeping her attention on Amira instead. "Congratulations on the baby. You must be so pleased."

Amira's smile widened. "I am. When I was living in the city, I never dreamed I'd be able to have a baby."

"That's so wonderful." It took money, influence, or luck to obtain access to the fertility drugs that made conception possible, sometimes a combination of all three. And getting your hands on the medication didn't make a child legal, not within the city. Without an official—or forged—birth record and bar code, building a life inside the walls of Eden was all but impossible.

Self-consciously, Noelle tilted her wrist. Her bar code was only a shiny black square in the center of her wrist now, with delicate lines swirling out of it to wrap around her arm. No bar code meant no going back.

"You're staying with Lex, right?"

Noelle tucked her wrists where she couldn't stare at them, hooking her thumbs into the back pockets of her jeans. "Yes, I am. She's been really great. She and Rachel both, helping me get settled in."

"A couple people thought she might make a play for you. Not Rachel, of course. But you're kind of Lex's type." Amira hesitated, then shrugged. "Especially if you're also Dallas's type."

"You mean..." Noelle struggled to realign a world that had tilted slightly. A relationship with more than one person didn't seem so odd when the two people were Dallas and Lex. She could imagine how she'd fit into that equation all too easily...and she didn't think she'd ever be more than a buffer. "No, I don't think I'm Dallas's type," she said, then realized she'd just insulted her new leader. "I mean, not that I wouldn't want to be. Or be flattered."

Amira laid a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't sweat it. Maybe you're better off."

That sounded almost foreboding. "I am?"

"Yeah. That can be messy. You might not want to crawl in the middle of it without taking a man of your own along."

She wouldn't check for Jasper. She
wouldn't
. "I guess I have some time to find one now. It's just nice to have a choice."

That earned her a confused look. "I thought you and Jas were a thing. I'm so out of the loop, but I could've sworn Flash said something like that."

"Oh. We're...something. I mean, I want us to be, but I don't know—" Every word out of her mouth only made her feel more awkward, and she desperately wished she'd had a drink or two already. Liquor loosened her tongue, and she never cared as much if the words came out sounding stupid. She took a deep breath and tried again. "I don't want to read too much into things, you know? I don't know how things work here, not for sure."

"You have time." Amira nodded to the slowly filling room. "Feel it all out."

Noelle stared at the woman's marks again. "How did you know that you and Flash were a thing?"

"When it became about more than sex." She leaned closer. "Coming from the city, I didn't get it at first. Sex there is so taboo—so controlled—but it's so fucking
easy
here. The trick is understanding. Does that make sense?"

"I think so." Easier now that Ace had been between her thighs. His touch had been pleasurable, but he wasn't the one her gaze kept automatically seeking. Sex, but nothing else. Nothing more.

"Sex can mean nothing. That's simple. It can be curious or spiteful or friendly—a thousand other things that are mostly simple too. But it can get complicated fast."

"Just for us?" Noelle asked softly. "Or for the men too?"

"For everyone. Absolute freedom of choice, Noelle. You don't have to pick a very proper, appropriate man—or a man at all. Hell, you don't even have to choose only one person. It's...heady."

The words held an odd sort of intensity, almost as if Amira was trying to convince Noelle. Or maybe warn her. "It is heady. It's overwhelming."

"Which makes time your friend, yes?"

She couldn't help but smile. "Jasper agrees with you, I think. Either that or I'm doing something really wrong."

"No, Jasper's a smart one." A hint of color rose in Amira's cheeks. "Though I can understand why you'd be eager to lock that down."

She made it sound like a competition, but when Noelle glanced over the crowd again, she saw far more men than women. Lex had told her outsiders wouldn't be allowed tonight, unlike the fights and some of Dallas's more extravagant parties. Tonight was only O'Kanes, and when Noelle realized that, she realized how many men were watching her.

Too many. Maybe the transparent shirt with her breasts on proud display had been more of an invitation than she needed. Amira was wrapped in a flowing gown that clung to her curves but covered her modestly enough.

Noelle tipped her head forward so her hair slid over her shoulders to mostly cover her flaming cheeks. "Are they watching me because I'm the new girl, or because Lex shouldn't have let me wear this?"

"Maybe they want to find out if they have a shot." Amira chuckled and stretched up to kiss Noelle's cheek. "Welcome to the family."

Returning the kiss would probably bring more male attention, but Noelle brushed her lips over Amira's soft skin. "Thank you. And I'll be grateful forever if you tell me what I'm supposed to do tonight."

"You're supposed to drink, princess," a familiar voice drawled from behind her. Ace swooped down to lay a smacking kiss on Amira's lips before winking at Noelle. "Jasper and Dallas will be along in a few minutes, and then Noelle here can run the gauntlet."

"The gauntlet?" Noelle asked, sounding more alarmed than she'd intended.

"Part of the family, part of the business." Amira looped an arm around Ace's neck. "Tonight, you familiarize yourself with the O'Kane product line."

Ace tugged Noelle against his side. It didn't seem particularly sexual, no more than everything else Ace did. He tucked Amira under his other arm as if casual touches were to be expected, even when a woman belonged to another man.

There didn't seem to be any harm in it, so Noelle relaxed into the easy embrace as Ace grinned. "One shot of each, princess, and be glad you're a woman. For men it's two shots, though we have one sassy lady who ran the full line up and down and did it better than most of the brothers."