Billionaire Beast (Billionaire Bikers MC #2) (8 page)

“Yep.”

She nodded. “I just wanted to make sure.”

“I’ve already handled business. We’ve got a long day
on Monday.”

“That’s my day,” Jay said.

Richard laughed. “We’re talking work.”

“We’re on a date, and you’re talking work?” he asked.

She stared at her best friend, and his brow rose,
letting her know that he knew what she was doing. Talking work kept it away
from a personal level.

“Don’t let her fool you, Richard.”

“I’m not. I’m just letting her play all of her cards.
I may not have known her since preschool, but I know her.”

Temperance couldn’t help but smile. Richard
did
know her. They had fun with each
other, without it leading to sex.

Richard pulled up outside of a large night club, with
a line of people waiting to get inside. Temperance groaned, but neither man
would listen. Richard got out, handing the keys to some valet. Nightclubs had
valets? He took her hand, and Jay followed in behind her.

He greeted the doorman, who didn’t have a problem with
them going straight inside even as people were standing there complaining.

“Now, this is the life,” Jay said.

It was time to have some fun.

They were taken to the VIP section. She’d never been
there before, so seeing several celebrities surprised her. Temperance was used
to seeing familiar faces as she worked with Richard, and he was expanding
within that business.

“Blake likes to give his clients whatever they want.
The VIP section allows celebrities the privacy to party, but to also get their
faces recognized. They can party without being bombarded. People can come,
party, and see celebrities if they want. It’s a win-win.”

“Sounds good,” Jay said.

“I want to go and dance,” Temperance said. She was one
of the people who were meant to be down there, not in the VIP spot. “Jay, dance
with me.” She held her hand out, and he went with her. They left Richard, and
the song was an upbeat one, allowing them to join the throng of people, and get
into the dancing. Jay stood behind her, gripping her hips as they danced along
to the music.

****

Richard watched the couple on the dance-floor. They
were natural together, showing they knew each other. He wasn’t jealous.
Temperance was nervous, and for now, he’d let her create her little circle
around herself. He wasn’t going to let her get away, nor was he going to let
Jay leave either.

The more he thought about them being together, the
more he liked the idea. He loved to see a woman come apart in another man’s
arms, and with Jay, he’d be able to trust him. Temperance was not going to be a
woman he’d just share with any man, so her being best friends with Jay, helped him
solve that problem.

His cell phone started to ring, and without taking his
gaze away from Temperance, he answered it. She was staring right back at him.

“Bruce,” he said.

“I’ve just got a call from our informant within the
police service. More women have gone missing, and are turning up dead,” Russ
said.

“Shit, Lewis missed this?”

“Lewis hasn’t been keeping an eye on shit since he
found Mandy. Tonight, I’m declaring a church meeting, only we’re all going to
his house. You’ll be there?” Russ asked.

Glancing at the time, Richard cursed. “Give me a
couple of hours, and I’ll be there.”

“We need to keep our eye on the ball.”

“Agreed.” He hung up the phone, and didn’t bother
drinking the scotch that had been given to him. Leaving the VIP section, he
made his way onto the dance-floor, and found his woman.

Gripping her hip, he tugged her close, slamming his
lips down on hers.

“Important call?”

“I can deal with it soon. Now, I want to dance.”

Chapter Seven

After two hours, the heels that Temperance was wearing
meant he had no choice but to take them back home. Jay asked if he was coming
up, and Richard declined, letting him know he had some business to take care
of. He kissed Temperance good night, with the promise that Jay would be
sleeping in his own bed.

Leaving his woman, and in a way, his man, he rode over
to Lewis’s place, not surprised to see the various cars and bikes of the club
already parked. He’d already sent a text to let his brothers know he was on the
way over there.

He knocked on the door, and Lewis was the one to
answer the door.

“What the fuck is this? All of you turn up at my
house, uninvited?” Lewis asked.

“Uninvited? What’s going on, Lewis?”

He found the rest of his club brothers waiting in the living
room. Some were standing, and others were sitting. None of them actually looked
happy about the situation.

“Nothing is going on. You’re the one that is in my
place, and after Mandy’s attack, I don’t think you should be coming around.”

Russ threw a large file down on the table. “So, you
got what you wanted, and that’s it? The club ceases to exist?”

Pictures of women, dead, beaten, and drowned spilled
out of the file. Richard had a strong stomach, but the sight of them made even his
gut turn.

“What the fuck?”

“We created this club for a place for us as
businessmen, but we found a cause. We were helping people, Lewis. You were the
one that took us down that path.”

“I’ve been distracted of late,” Lewis said.

Richard stared at his club brother, and saw the truth.
“This hasn’t been about the women all along, has it?”

“What? Of course it has.”

“Then why the fuck weren’t you over this?” Blake
asked. “Look, I love the club, and the women, and the fun, and just being
something fucking different. But we were meant to mean something. We’ve got
money, all of us have. We’ve come from nothing, are nothing, but what set us
apart from other wealthy businessmen, is this.”

“Was it just about you getting back Mandy?” Jamie
asked.

Richard couldn’t argue, but if Lewis only used them to
get to Mandy, then the club was about to take an ugly turn, and he didn’t like
that. Other MCs, they dealt with drugs, with money, women, whatever they
wanted. They had their own glue that bound them together as a club.

The BBMC was bound by a cause to help women.

It was how Richard could look in the mirror every day,
and still keep breathing as he did. He loved the club, what they did.

Lewis bit his lip. “I’ve not used you. I’ve not turned
my back on the club.”

“Then what the fuck have you been doing?”

“He’s been trying to help me, remember?” Mandy said,
coming into the room.

They all turned to the woman who didn’t look strong
enough to be in a room full of men. All of them were dominant, demanding, and
they were scary as fuck.

“Mandy?”

“I can’t let you tear apart your club.” Mandy’s arms
were folded. “Lewis told me what you did, and how you saved me. He’s also,
against doctors’ orders, showed me what I was doing. How I was helping these
women.”

Richard glanced at Lewis, seeing the shame in his
face. The doctor had said that if he tried to push too hard, they could lose
Mandy. She was at a frail point in her recovery.

“These women, they need us, and Mandy, she was helping
them.”

“Lewis believes that more information is locked inside
my head. I’ve got to get it open, and little points, trigger a moment, or at
least a moment within a memory. It’s what happened earlier today, only I
couldn’t help it. My past, it’s filled with horror, and remembering that, it’s
going to hurt,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I don’t want to see my
family. Not only do I not completely remember them, but what if by simply
looking at them, it’s a trigger?”

Richard’s throat felt thick as he watched the woman
start to cry. The tears ran down her cheeks, and she made no move to bat them
away.

“I want to help,” Lewis said. “My mission
started
with finding Mandy. The deeper
down this path I went, I saw that it didn’t matter if I got her, I’d still have
to find some way of, I don’t know, saving as many as we could.”

Silence fell on the room.

John, who was sitting by the paperwork, gathered it
up.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for this. I should have
been.”

“Mandy, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, we all
do, but you can’t do this,” Russ said. “You’re going to hurt yourself, and none
of us want that.”

“I was able to remember something today. The news that
was on the television on my, erm, my blackout at the clubhouse today,” Mandy
said. “They were reporting on the stockyards, like the places where fishing
boats and sea ports or whatever come in.”

“What about it?” Richard asked.

“The men, they use those kind of ports to transport
girls. The crates are quite deep, and they can hide them behind stock. Drug
them up, and some girls are out for like forty-eight hours. It’s how they’re
doing it. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. If some of the girls cause
trouble, they’re killed, and another woman is ordered.”

Mandy left the room, each of them watching the door.

“You’ve been trying to get her to remember?” Jackson
asked. “That’s fucking dangerous.”

“These women, they’ve been discovered where exactly?”
Lewis picked up the file and started to flick through it.

“A couple have been found washed up on shores. Others have
been seen floating in canals, and there was even one found down by a lake by a
kid of five in a theme park,” Russ said.

Lewis frowned. “There’s something about this that
doesn’t add up. No one kills off their stock without a reason. Even women are
considered stock.”

Richard watched as he moved toward his desk, pulling
out a large map. They all stayed out of his way as he started to put little
crosses on the map, looking over the file, and then putting the dots on the
map.

Even as he saw what was happening, Richard started to
get chills.

When Lewis drew a circle, all the men looked at each
other.

“They know who we are,” Lewis said.

The circle on the map was drawn with a radius that
included all of their main company buildings.

Could it be a coincidence? Richard doubted it.

****

For the next couple of weeks, Temperance divided her
time between the two men. On the first Sunday after their nightclub date, they
all went out to dinner as a small group, Jay and Richard getting along as if
they’d been friends longer than a couple of days. She liked to see them
together, having fun. They were both charming. At the end of the evening, they
went to Richard’s place that had four bedrooms, one for each of them, and a
spare. She slept in a room that wasn’t her own, all the time aware of the two
men who wanted her.

The following week, she worked closely with Richard on
several of his accounts, and Jay joined them for lunch, or they all went out.
Her nights were spent with Jay. They stayed in watching movies, neither of them
saying anything about the obvious sexual tension. Wednesday was their sharing
day, and that meant they stayed at Richard’s apartment as his place was big
enough to accommodate them all. Then she had Thursday and Friday with Richard,
and they worked ‘til late, shared dinner, and she slept once again in the spare
bedroom. She did enjoy the time, and it was nice to actually be having fun.

With Richard, she did notice that he was a little
distant. Something was clearly bothering him.

Late one Sunday night on the third week, she saw him standing
at the window. Jay was still in bed, and Richard was staring out over the city.

“Are you okay?” she asked, folding her arms.

“What are you doing up?” He turned toward her.

“You’re looking at that city as if it’s going to bite
you at any moment.”

“It’s nothing.”

She saw the ink on his back. The same symbol had been
on his leather jacket, and she imagined it was his club emblem.

“Does this have to do with your club?”

Richard looked at her.

“We both know you’ve been distracted,” Jay said,
coming out of his bedroom, rubbing the back of his head as he did.

“I want you both to move in here, and I want to hire
you both a bodyguard.”

Temperance gasped, staring at her boss, the man who
was becoming more than just the guy she worked for.

“What?” she asked, not sure if she had actually heard
him correctly.

“It’s not safe out there for either of you. Please,
let me do this.”

She shook her head.

“What the hell is going on?” Jay asked.

“There’s a possible threat to the club. It’s not
something we know for certain, but it’s enough of a problem that I want you
both to have some form of protection. Please, for me.” He cupped her cheeks. “I
don’t want anything to happen to you, to either of you.”

She saw the fear in his eyes, and knew he wasn’t
kidding. This was real, and he believed the threat was out there.

“You want us both to move in with you?”

“The space is big enough, and we all know this is
going to happen. You want us both, Temperance. There’s no need to deny it. Just
let it happen. All three of us want this. I’m not going to rush you, and I’m
happy to take our time, getting to know each other.” Richard pressed his head
against hers. “Please.”

She’d never heard Richard say please, so she nodded.
“Yes.”

“Yes,” Jay said, stepping up behind her. She sank
against him, finding comfort in both men. In that moment she knew they both
needed her.

Even as her fear of being with them both was great,
her arousal was even greater. Taking both of their hands in hers, she stepped
toward the fourth bedroom. She had noticed that the fourth bedroom had the
largest bed.

Richard gripped her hand tightly, and she looked back
at him. “This is not to rush you.”

“I’m not feeling rushed. Do you feel rushed?”

“No.”

“Then do you not want to be with me, with us?” She
released them long enough to enter the fourth bedroom. She hadn’t anticipated
this tonight, but it just felt right. No matter her main doubts, it did feel
right to her.

Turning toward them, she removed her robe, staring
from Richard then to Jay, then back again. The robe fell at her feet, and she
kicked it aside. She wore a sheer negligee as she loved wearing sexy night
clothes. They were the most comfortable.

Pushing the strap of her dress down her shoulder, she
stared at both men, even as the negligee fell to the floor. She walked up to
Richard first, placing her hands on his sides. He only wore a pair of pajama
bottoms, so he was naked for her to touch.

“Baby, I want to be with you, but only if you’re
ready.”

“I’m ready.” She cupped his cheek, unable to believe
that this was going to happen. They had been together for three weeks, and
before that, she’d been part of both of their lives. Richard and Jay had found
a friendship with each other. She loved being snuggled up with both men, and
she knew they enjoyed being with her.

Lifting up on her toes, she started to kiss him,
sliding her tongue into his mouth, and then caressing over his lips.

He moaned, wrapping his arms around her and drawing
her closer.

Jay moved toward them. He stood behind her, pulling
her hair off her shoulder, and kissing her neck. Tilting her head to the side,
she gave him access as Richard followed, still kissing her back.

The feel of both men turned her on. Her doubts started
to fade as they began to touch, Jay at her back, and Richard at her front.

Never did she imagine that this would be her life, her
best friend, and her billionaire boss, yet this was what was happening.

“Let it happen,” Jay said. “Don’t overthink it.”

Her best friend at all times. Closing her eyes, she
continued to kiss Richard, and at the same time, slide her hand down the front
of his pajama pants. His dick was already rock hard tenting them.

Richard broke from the kiss, moving down her chest,
and taking possession of one of her tits.

“I love your tits,” Richard said. “They’re so fucking
big.” He cupped both of them, pressing them together, flicking his tongue over
each nipple.

Suddenly, Jay started to move her back, and Richard
followed, neither man letting go of her.

“Come on, it’s time to get on the bed,” Jay said. He
climbed on the bed, and she saw he was already completely naked. “I’ve got room
for you right here.” He patted the space between his thighs, making her laugh.
“This has got your name all over it.”