Stain (King's Harlots MC Book 2) (4 page)

“How did you find my address?” I wasn’t surprised he had shown up. He gave me a week but I didn’t take him for a patient guy. I knew he had been bluffing.

“You’re seriously asking me that? You didn’t hide yourself very well.”

I wanted to, but Angel wouldn’t have any of it. He wanted to make it easy for Charles and for us to get our hands on him. I didn’t understand Angel’s logic at times, but I knew he was desperate. I would be too if my girlfriend had been taken by those bastards and if those same bastards had taken her sister.

“Have you talked to your pet? I don’t see her tied up anywhere. Or is it a male? Is he strapped to your bed maybe?”

My jaw tightened. “No. I appreciate both sexes, but men don’t do it for me. My pet is occupied.” My skin burned. Meeka was in no way my pet. Even if she agreed, she would fight me every step of the way. She may have been small and shy at times, but she was
not
submissive. Not from what I could make out, anyway. Although, at times I wondered. My dick jumped. Where the hell were these thoughts coming from?

Best friend, Asher. Remember that.

“Make her unoccupied.” Charles leaned against the wall. “I want to meet her.”

“You will.” I went back to hitting and moving around the bag.

“No. I want to meet her now.”

Well, that stopped me in my tracks. “She isn’t here.”

“Really?” Charles looked around the room. “I never would have guessed.”

I bit back an eye roll.

“You will call her and get her here. If you have to drag her, tie her up, drug her … I do not fucking care. Just get her ass here.”

I should listen to him. I should give in and force Meeka to help me. But she didn’t owe me. If anything, I owed
her
. For my life. For my well-being. For my fucking sanity. She was the voice when I couldn’t speak. The eyes when I couldn’t see. I never told her any of that because I couldn’t. Words didn’t come easily to me and as much experience as I had being undercover, even I couldn’t fake that.

Another knock sounded on the front door, softer this time. My stomach twisted into knots. Every inch of me told me that it was Meeka. Knowing her it was probably because of our earlier argument. She never liked leaving things open-ended with us. We were like brother and sister that way. Fight. Apologize. Move on.

“Ah.” Charles clapped his hands together. “Could that be your little toy?”

I prayed it wasn’t.
God Almighty, if anyone is listening
. Please don’t let it be her.

“Asher?” Meeka’s small voice sounded from the doorway.

Shit
.

“Is that her?” Charles asked, grinning.

“Let me deal with her first,” I ground out.

“Of course.” He winked. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Fucking fucker. I pushed past him and his goons, making my way to the door.

Meeka smiled, closing the distance between us. She wrapped her small arms around my middle, hugging me tight. “I’m sor—”

I gripped her hair, tugging her head back. Crashing my mouth to hers, I acted first.

Meeka gasped. She hesitated for a moment before opening up to me.

A slight shiver ran up my spine at the rough contact. “Trust me,” I said against her mouth before deepening the kiss.

She moaned, sliding her tongue between my lips.

My cock twitched unexpectedly.
Best friend. Best friend.
Warnings sounded in my head but my body took over. I had no intentions of kissing her, but I needed Charles to see that I had control. That Meeka was my pet as he liked to call her. That she was in on this even though she hadn’t agreed. Even if outside of this operation, she didn’t cooperate, I, at least, needed to show him otherwise.

Before I could take the control further, Meeka broke the kiss and took a step back. Her cheeks flushed, her gaze dark and billowing with a lust I never thought I would see from her. Not over me, anyway.

“You need to tell me what that was for before I slap you.” Her voice came out breathless, wavering with the uncertainty of whether she should like the kiss or not. I knew because I felt the same way.

I smiled at her sass. Playing into it a little more, I leaned down to her ear and tightened my hold on her hair. “Are you threatening me because you liked the kiss, Hummingbird? I thought for sure you would have pushed me away but your body melted into me.”

“You took me by surprise,” she said, her voice low.

“You need to trust me.” I wanted to tease her but we needed to get Charles and his bastards out of there first.

“Of course I trust you. I just don’t know why you kissed me.”

“I’ll explain later.” I turned back to Charles, keeping Meeka safely behind me. I knew she would play along. It was the police training in her blood. Even though she never became an actual cop, she was good at everything she did. She worked hard and played even harder.

“Well, look at this little one.” Charles clapped his hands together. “Do you have control on her yet, Ash?”

I gritted my teeth. “She is everything she’s supposed to be.”

“Vague answer.” His brows narrowed. “Your lack of information is starting to piss me off. You come into my house, demand answers, and you won’t give me anything in return. You won’t even take the toys I have to offer and insist on bringing in your own. We don’t work that way, but I have made an exception for you.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he only raised his hand, cutting me off.

“If she’s not submitting like she should be by now, bring her ass in, and I’ll break her into being nothing like she was before.”

“You gave me a week. It hasn’t been a week yet.” I gripped Meeka’s hand tight in mine, knowing she was itching to fight back.

“Maybe so, but I can still check in whenever I want.”

“Send me to the person who runs the organization then if you’re not happy with how I do things.” For whatever reason, Vice-One hadn’t been able to get any information except for what we found on Charles, and even then, it wasn’t much. We should have brought Charles in, but Angel insisted I go undercover to get the info we needed to bring this system to justice. A part of me felt it wasn’t even worth it, knowing they were probably dead.

Charles threw his head back and laughed. “Not going to happen. You know the rules.” His gaze zeroed in on Meeka. “What is it, pet? You need a man to show you how to submit? Is Asher not doing it for you?”

Her back stiffened.

“I could break you.” He licked his lips, letting his eyes roam down her body. “You’re pretty athletic. I bet you’d put up one hell of a fight.”

That’s it. “What the hell do you want?” I snapped, forcing Meeka further behind me.

“There you are.” He glared at me. “I want you and your toy at my place in two days. If she doesn’t meet up to my standards, I am taking her off your hands. You got me?”

“Listen—”

“I said, do you got me?” he asked, slowly.

“Yes,” I growled.

“Really?” Meeka gasped. “You can’t be serious.”

“Quiet.” The situation could end deadly if she kept up with her outbursts.

“I will not stand here while you two talk about giving me away.” She pulled from my grasp and placed her hands on her hips.

In a quick move, I fisted her hair, pulling her head back roughly. “You will do what I say,” I growled in her ear. “If you want to make it out alive, you will do exactly what I tell you to do. You got me?”

She pushed me, glaring daggers between Charles and me. A tingle shot up my back. What I wouldn’t give to have her over my knee and the feeling of her flesh burning beneath my palm.

“You need to tighten your leash,” Charles teased. “Two days.” He snapped his fingers and approached the door, his two goons following behind him.

I pulled Meeka out of their way, careful not to let them touch her.

Charles chuckled, his laughter fading when the door closed.

“Fuck.” I let out a heavy sigh, pushing a hand through my hair.

“Asher Donovan,” Meeka snapped, “tell me what the hell is going on.
Now
.”

BESIDES THE
fact that Charles Brian scared the ever-living shit out of me, the new feelings tore through me over my best friend as well. Life was playing a trick on me because I knew there was no way Asher would just go ahead and give me to Charles. Who the hell does that?

I stood there with my hands on my hips, staring up at the eyes I had looked into since I was a child. Since we were in kindergarten together and all the way through high school. Asher didn’t respond to my question. Why would he? There was only a monster who wanted to claim me as his own if Asher didn’t train me accordingly. I felt like I had been sucked into a life that wasn’t mine. My parents would lose their shit if they knew what I did to bring down those bastards. “Asher.”

He moved to the couch, sitting down, and dropped his head in his hands. “Shit is getting out of hand,” he mumbled.

“If you need my help, you need to give me more information.” I sat beside him, touching his arm gently. “I need to know.”

“I need to work out.”

“No, tell me first. Something, at least,” I insisted, sitting forward.

“What do you want me to say, Meeka?” His gaze hardened. “That I forced you into this shithole of a mess? That I have no idea what I’m fucking doing? That this isn’t even my fucking job but Angel insists on me helping? That we’re all so fucking desperate to bring down these bastards that we would do anything, no matter the cost?”

“Tell him you quit,” I suggested, my heart thumping hard against my ribs. There had to be a reason why Angel would get Asher to go undercover. Something wasn’t being said, but I wasn’t sure how much information Asher could give out.

“It’s not that easy. Angel is my brother. Whatever he needs, I am there.”

“But you make it sound like you have no choice. Angel wouldn’t do that to you.” I didn’t know Angel well, but I knew he cared about his brothers and would lay his life on the line to make sure they were protected and safe.

“I need to work out.” He rose to his feet. “Are you coming?”

“I still don’t know what’s going on.” I followed behind him as he led us to the gym at the back of his house. “How do you expect me to play along if I don’t have any details?”

“You’ve done it before, Meeka. Look at what we both did with Violet.” Rolling his shoulders, he hopped from foot to foot. Violet was Jay’s twin and someone I wasn’t allowed to see for fear it would be a trigger for her. Because of that, I would never forgive myself for using her the way we did. We brought down one of the corrupt men in the organization but losing a friend wasn’t worth it.

“Yeah, and look what that almost cost us,” I mumbled, holding the large punching bag in front of me.

“Everything worked out.” Asher landed his fist against the bag, the sound reverberating through the room.

He made it sound so easy. Do something. Apologize. Move on. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe life was like that, but there was no arguing with him when it came to Vice-One.

“Why are you undercover when SEALs deal with terrorists?”

Asher paused, his gaze sliding to mine. “We came across a bunker filled with females of all ages.” His eyes flashed, falling back into his memory. “The smell … So much death. It was putrid. It was something I never expected. None of us did. We had come across death before but,” his face paled. “This was different. It made us keep going.”

“And now?”

“I thought I would never smell it again.” He cleared his throat. “Being undercover has nothing to do with me being a SEAL.”

“You’re right, because like you said, it’s not your job. So why the hell is Angel making you do this? The FBI should be all over it. They have people for this type of job.”

“Meeka, damn it,” he snapped, punching the bag hard enough to push me back. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, I am
so
sorry,” I rolled my eyes. “If you want my help, you will tell me. We can keep doing this song and dance shit but we both know that I’m going to win. Like I always do.”

Our gazes locked, something switching between us. His chest heaved, his back stiffening. All I could think about was running my fingers over his smooth skin, feeling his muscles tighten and twitch beneath them.