Hot as Hades (6 page)

She sat on the end of the bed, and turned the tables on him. “Why don’t you answer a couple of my questions instead?. How the hell did you even break in here so quietly? And what about the hotel security footage?”

“I walked right in the front door.” He smirked, pulling a hotel key from his pocket. “My club, the Four Horseme, owns Hades. So, no surveillance video, no cops. No worries.”

You have got be fucking kidding me.
Of all the crappy motels in Texas, she picked one owned by his biker gang. She glowered at him. “That means Voodoo is a member, too?”

“Yup.”

“And he told you I was here?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I texted all my brothers, told ‘em to be on the lookout for a blonde, dressed in sexy duds, driving a Silverado.”

“Well, shit.”

He shrugged. “By the way? They’re headed over, and they have a proposition for you.”

“Yeah, well you can all shove it where the sun don’t shine. I’m not interested in any proposition.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said smugly. “So why is a girl like you stripping at the Pussycat?”

She had no desire to swap Intel, but she might have to offer up some info in exchange for her freedom. She had a feeling his club wouldn’t let it go until they knew the truth. But, they didn’t appear to be friends of the Raptors either, so maybe she could damage control this situation. “I’m looking for my sister. The Raptors took her.”

Suddenly, he grew serious as hell.

 “How do you know for sure?”

“Apparently, she dated a dickhead named Rock, a known Raptor.”

“Is she a dancer?”

Daisy shook her head. “No trace of her, and given the scope of the club’s illegal activities, Rose could be doing
anything
and could be anywhere. I’m tracking down leads and the easiest place to do that is from the inside. Apparently, this is Rock’s home base. He’s gotta come to the strip club sooner or later.”

Cowboy nodded and his features softened slightly. “I’m sorry about your sister.”

. Her throat tightened and she fought back the tears. “Thanks,” she croaked.

“What’s her name?”

“Rose,” she bit out, and then changed the subject. “What were
you
doing at the club? From what I understand, MCs are territorial. I don’t think they’d appreciate you sniffing around the place.”

From what she’d gathered, MCs pretty much kept to themselves, except when it came to defending territory or their sources of income. They had a lot in common with mercenaries.

“You make it sound like I want to piss on their tables or something.”

“You said it. Not me,” she retorted. “Out with it. What were you doing there?” she repeated.

“Just a bit of club business,” he said evasively.

“Or maybe you wanted to ogle some girls,” she said flippantly.

He smirked. “Wildcat, if I wanted to see tits shake, I’d go to my own clubhouse and I sure as shit wouldn’t have to pay for it.”

She didn’t doubt that for a second. With his bad boy swagger? He’d have to be knee-deep in women. “Then what were you doing?”

“I told you. Club business,” he answered with hooded eyes. Then, he put her on the hot seat again. “You are going to rescue your sister all by yourself?”

She guessed this confessional only went one way. “I’m a Marine,” she snapped. “I’ve handled terrorists and I can take on a few bikers without any backup.”

“These fools are serious criminals. You need hell at your back if you plan to take them on.” He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “Or maybe just the Four Horsemen.”

She raised a brow. “Why do you give a crap? You guys are all outlaws, right?”

He made a face and she got the distinct impression she’d offended him. “Fuck no. They’re dicks. We are
nothing
like them.”

She snorted. “Hmm, leather cuts, tats, big bikes, and guns? Oh yeah, you’re right.
Completely
different.”

“Here’s one big fucking difference for you.
We
don’t make a living off of innocent women and if we find someone who does? We don’t let that sort of shit slide.”

She frowned at him, unsure what to think.

 “Let me tell you what happens next. You are going to lay all this out for my brothers, provide us with some info about their operation, and then we’ll help you find your sister.”

“No. I’m going lone wolf on this.” She hadn’t counted on the bikers trying to help her out of this situation. Frankly, she’d expected something totally different. Like handcuffing her and handing her over to the other club in exchange for drugs, or women, or even a favor.

Not that Cowboy was all sweetness and light about the issue. He gave her a cold-eyed stare. “This is the sort of offer that can’t be refused, Wildcat.”

Fantastic.
She was going to meet the rest of the gang.

As if bikers hadn’t screwed her over enough for the day.

Chapter Five

Twenty minutes later, Daisy watched three more Horsemen stroll into the hotel room, as if they owned the place and evidently they did.

She was
still
pissed about that.

 After surveying a lanky blond with blue eyes, a tall man with black hair and even blacker eyes, as well as a slightly older but very attractive man, she concluded the Horsemen had some sort of minimum hotness requirement for members. All of the bikers were hot in a gritty sort of bad boy way. Granted, she’d only met a handful of them, but she had no doubt the rest could fill in as
Magic Mike
extras.

The oldest nodded to her. “I’m Captain.”

He still had a powerfully built body and she noted the president patch on his vest. She placed him in his early forties, with gray at his temples, though it blended into his blond hair. Slight lines crinkled around his blue eyes, and he had a neatly trimmed beard, that he scratched thoughtfully as he gave her a measuring look.

They gathered at the small table by the window. The young blond straddled a chair from the back and she noted a VP patch on his chest.

Captain sprawled in his chair, sitting with splayed legs. The dark haired biker didn’t sit; instead he leaned against the wall, moving the curtain to one side so he could scan the parking lot.

Then he quietly watched her, eyes dark and devoid of any discernable emotion. She easily placed him as the most dangerous man in a room filled with dangerous men, so she kept him in her line of sight.

 The blond man nodded to her. “I’m Shepherd. It’s nice to meet you, sweetheart.” He reached across the table to offer her a hand, which she didn’t take.

“Sweetheart’s name is Daisy.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

Shepherd dropped his hand, but she observed amusement in the curl of his lips. He inclined his head in Cowboy’s direction. “According to his texts you are posing as a stripper and searching for your sister. That means you got the inside track.”

“Stripper and waitress,” she put in as though the hybrid title made it somehow better.

 “And you’re a Marine?” the brunette asked.

“Yes.”
Short, sweet, and barely cooperative.
The perfect answer in her book.

“I used to be Special Forces. The name’s Duke.”

 “She’s got plenty of notches on her gun belt,” Cowboy put in. “So watch yourself, brothers.” He fixed her with a look that promised retribution if she tried out any of her sweet hand-to-hand combat moves on his buddies.

She wanted nothing more than to bust out of this crazy place, but she knew a lost cause when she saw one. Besides, Cowboy had his big booted foot propped on her duffel bag, which held her considerable arsenal. The guns were so close, yet so very far away.

 
Dammit.
And here she’d been worried about the Raptors coming after her. She hadn’t seen the Four Horsemen coming.

Shepherd chuckled at Cowboy’s assessment and eyed the road rash on his bare arm, the bruise on his bicep. “What happened, brother? A girl beat you up?”

 “She got the drop on me, is all.” He scowled, his pride had clearly been stung a bit.

Captain’s eyes widened and she could see a glimmer of respect forming in them as he looked her over again.
Good. Now we are getting somewhere
. “Tell us what you know,” he asked.

She opened her mouth to set him straight about her level of cooperation when Cowboy interjected. “Maybe you should start with the Marine thing.”

Fine.
She would shoot the breeze and then bolt. “I served as a military police officer in Afghanistan. I guarded checkpoints in Kabal, mostly doing pat downs on female civilians,” she explained. “The insurgents knew male soldiers wouldn’t search women, so terrorists tried to use them as suicide bombers.” She shrugged. “I did some other things too. Patrols, guarding IED sites, and stuff like that.”

“Did you ever find a bomb?” Cowboy asked, and he actually seemed interested.

She nodded, but didn’t elaborate.

“As fascinating as this is, we aren’t doing a job interview,” Captain put in, giving Cowboy a look. “The Raptors have your sister?"

She couldn’t talk about Rose with them, none of their business anyway. “That’s personal.”

She found some sympathy in Cowboy’s eyes. “I know it is, Wildcat. We aren’t trying to snoop, but we need to know what’s going on, so we can help. This kinda shit is our specialty. We love nothin’ more than meting out some good old fashioned vigilante justice.”

She splayed her hands. “That’s great and all, but you don’t seem to get it. I don’t want your help.”

 “You might not want it, but you’ll need it,” Captain said sharply.

She sagged in her chair. Truthfully, as soon as she’d gotten the job at the club, seen how big their operation was, she’d begun to wonder if she needed some muscle to get this done. She’d even contemplated calling a few of her Marine buddies, but she didn’t want to involve any of them in something with so much lethal potential. She didn’t want to rob yet another child of a mother or father.

“The Raptors are ruthless. Trust us. They’ve gunned down a brother of ours in cold blood. You don’t take them on without some serious backup,” Cowboy said.

 “I understand retaliation for your brother’s death, but what does this stealth shit buy you? Why are you hot and heavy to go after Raptors?

“Let me guess, you figure MCs are all the same, right?” Shepherd challenged.

“If the motorcycle fits,” she retorted.

After all, they’d walked in here with lethal swagger. She swept over their bodies, easily detecting the guns they kept hidden in holsters.

 “I’m telling you, we aren’t all the same, Wildcat,” Cowboy defended. “Only lesser men join that MC. Dicks who like using women and making bank on the misery of others.”

She considered that a moment. Maybe she’d been too hasty in her assessment, assuming all MCs were only about profit and power. There were exceptions to every rule. The Horsemen probably weren’t completely on the up and up, but they did seem to possess some sort of moral code.

“We’ve been watching them since the drive by, gathering information,” Captain told her with a sigh. “We need to know everything they are up to because we don’t want any other surprises.”

 “And what
exactly
are you going to do with the Intel?” she asked.

“That’s club business,” Duke said quietly.

 “You guys are headed for a big showdown with them, aren’t you?” she deduced.

They ignored her question.

 “Why are you looking for Rose yourself? You are a citizen, and you could use the legal system.” Shepherd cocked his head. Daisy figured out his use of the term citizen. Military members also differentiated themselves from civilians. She had a feeling the brothers had the same sort of mentality.

 Shepherd’s intense blue eyes searched hers as though he tried to see right through her. Pick her apart.
Jesus.

She’d hate to be in a room with both him and Voodoo. Each of them had an uncanny ability to see into someone, right down to the depths. Although, she sensed the hotel owner only did it for his own curiosity, while the VP seemed to be focused on a bigger picture. Maybe only on what was good for the club?

She hesitated, unsure if she wanted to share anymore. “I have my reasons,” she hedged. Spending several years in the foster care system hadn’t exactly taught her to open up to people, or the military for that matter. She’d learned to fend for herself and keep her mouth shut, for the most part.

“You are a Marine, military police no less, a straight arrow if I ever saw one. Rescuing your sister will be difficult and things are bound to get crooked. Real fast. Would you do anything it takes to get her back?” Shepherd asked.

“And what about the fallout?” Captain put in.

Point for the bikers.

She hadn’t really decided what she would ultimately do once she found Rose. She had a healthy respect for the law, but war had given her a more practical side. All of her initial plans had centered on locating her sister. Her first instinct had been to extract Rose and then turn the bikers over to the authorities.

But the more she learned about the Raptors, the more concerned she became. While not exactly the mafia, they had clubs all over the country. What would stop them from exacting vengeance if she blew the whistle on their illegal activities?

That
could get really messy.

She and Rose would have targets on their backs for the rest of their lives. While she didn’t have a problem handling that sort of burden, she loathed placing it on her sister. Rose had been through enough already.

Yet, grabbing Rose and not shutting down about the club’s drug running and prostitution felt wrong too. She couldn’t let them get away with it.

The Horsemen had just given her a third alternative. She had no doubt the MC would punish these jackasses and it wouldn’t blow back on Rose and herself. The Horsemen could provide some firepower and much needed backup.

What had her drill sergeant said once?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
. She wouldn’t go
that
far, but the Horsemen might prove valuable. At the very least, they’d be cannon fodder while she safely removed Rose.