Torin (Savage Kings MC Book 3) Read online

  “I did?” I ask, unable to remember leaving the group. I do remember that the Kings were taking up about four tables in front of the stage, smoking cigars and throwing back drinks. I was only sipping at my beer. We were all having a good time, but I was…uncomfortable.

  “Y-you were very, ah, excited,” Lexi stammers.

  “Excited?” I repeat, since that doesn’t sound like me.

  “Below the waist,” she explains.

  “Oh,” I mutter when the pieces start to fit together. That’s why I was so uncomfortable at the table with the guys. I was so hard and horny it hurt, and I couldn’t sit still. Fuck, was I embarrassed. There I was, a grown-ass man, the president of the MC, getting married in a week, and I couldn’t keep my cock down. That’s why I got up and left before any of the guys could see it. I needed some relief bad; but instead of going to the bathroom, I apparently went backstage.

  “You were slurring your words and stumbling a little, but no more than most of the guys who come into the club and drink,” Lexi whispers. “You told me ‘let’s go’ and grabbed my hand, dragging me into the Kings' room that doesn’t have cameras or time limits…”

  Clearing the gravel from my throat, I admit, “I sort of remember that.” And son of a bitch, if my face doesn’t heat up when what I did next suddenly hits me. I wasn’t going to touch Lexi, I swear to God that I wasn’t. But I do remember planning on pulling my aching cock out and jerking off while she danced for me.

  “Y-you unzipped your pants,” Lexi whispers. “And then you were…touching yourself. Vigorously.”

  “It hurt,” I reply in my defense. “I didn’t realize it at the time, everything seemed so fuzzy, like a dream, but I think my beer was spiked with a lot of Viagra. I had never been so…excited.”

  “You said you were in pain. You looked like you were in pain,” she says. “And you begged me to, ah, help.”

  “I wouldn’t have asked you to fuck me,” I grumble under my breath.

  “You didn’t,” she replies. “At least not at first.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “What happened next?” I ask, not really wanting to know, but needing to know.

  “I believe that’s when you told me to get naked. And then, when I was leaning over you, dancing, you grabbed my hand and put it on your…excitement.”

  “Shit,” I mutter.

  “And I had no experience with doing that whatsoever. I was so bad at it that you said I made it worse,” Lexi informs me. “So, then you told me to get on my knees…”

  “Oh, great,” I groan. The words are so loud that I’m sure they woke up Cooper and War; but when I look back, they barely startle before drifting back to sleep.

  “I told you to do that?” I repeat, feeling mortified. “I didn’t ask nicely?”

  “No. You told me,” she says with a sigh, turning her head to look out the plane’s window. “And you were the president of the Savage Kings, the owner of Avalon, and the man who never asked for private lap dances, so I did it.”

  “I’m sorry, Lexi,” I apologize as I give her hand a squeeze.

  “You didn’t make me,” she whispers back. “I wanted to do it. If I didn’t, I would’ve walked out of the room. I thought…”

  “You thought what?”

  “I thought you wanted me, that your…excitement was for me.”

  “Oh,” I reply in understanding. “That was the, um, Viagra,” I whisper.

  Lexi thought that I was hard because I was aroused by her. And I was, but the pill made it ten times worse. Not that I can admit that to her when I can barely admit it to myself. I was engaged, planning a wedding. No matter what drugs I had been slipped, none of that matters. I shouldn’t have caved. I was only supposed to watch her dance, not ask her to jerk me off or suck my cock. Just like right now my jeans shouldn’t be getting tight to accommodate the swelling.

  “I wasn’t very good at the blowjob either,” Lexi says. Even if I currently had my dick under control, that phrase would’ve been enough to steal its attention away.

  “You weren’t?” I ask in disbelief. I don’t know of any woman that’s not amazing at putting her mouth on a man.

  “I kept gagging,” she whispers, and I’m barely able to bite back my groan. I’m not a weak man. I’m just a man who lost the love of his life and I’m suffering. My dick is begging for a distraction from the grief. “So, you told me to…ride you.”

  “Told, not asked,” I huff, scrubbing my free hand down my face, unable to believe I could stoop so low. And this is the part that I’ve seen with my own eyes and heard the very loud audio that only consists of screams of my name and moans coming from Lexi’s mouth while she bounced on my lap and the occasional groan from me.

  “As soon as you…finished, you fell asleep,” she says, which is quite a brutal blow to my ego.

  “I fell asleep, and you just, what? Got up and left me there?” I ask through clenched teeth.

  “What was I supposed to do? It was my first time, and you fell asleep! I was embarrassed and thought I was so bad at it that it put you to sleep! That’s what I’ve thought all this time until you told me you were drugged.”

  “Oh,” I reply, and then look over my shoulder to make sure the guys aren’t awake and heard that. Thankfully, both of their mouths are open as they continue to snore through our conversation.

  “I got dressed, zipped you up, and hurried to leave,” Lexi says. “A few days later is when my father finally told me about the video.”

  “Did he say anything else?” I ask.

  “Ah, yeah. He said you were married, which was a surprise, since I didn’t know you were even engaged, and he told me to stay away from you,” she says. “I had made good money at Avalon, so when I found out that I was…well, when I found out about the video, I was pissed at my father, so I left.”

  “You left without telling him?”

  “Yes. What kind of father does that?” she asks with her voice breaking.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her again.

  All this time I thought Lexi was the bitch who fucked me while I was drugged, and now I realize that she was more the victim than I was in this whole fucked-up mess.

  “The next morning, I woke up in that room and couldn’t remember anything about the twelve hours before,” I admit to her. “Pieces eventually started coming back, but I don’t think I wanted to believe them. I felt guilty enough as it was when I married Kennedy.”

  “I’m so sorry about what my father did to her. It was him, wasn’t it?” Lexi asks.

  “Yes.”

  “I saw it on the news all the way in Vegas. And I knew my father was probably responsible. It was the first time I was certain that I did the right thing by running,” she says.

  “She was nine months pregnant with my son,” I tell her. “I lost everything.”

  “I know,” Lexi whispers. “Make him pay for it.”

  “I will,” I assure her. “Even if it’s the last thing I do.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Lexi

  I need to tell him.

  While I swore to myself that I wouldn’t say a word about Liam, it feels like my gut is telling me to spill. Torin’s actually being decent to me, and our conversation makes for the perfect opening.

  “Torin, there’s something else I need to tell you about that night,” I start.

  “No,” he grunts, like in the snap of my fingers he’s back to being a surly, angry man. “I’ve heard enough about it now, so please just let me try to forget it happened.”

  “You need to hear this,” I tell him.

  “Not now, not ever again…I don’t want to think about that night,” he says. “It’s over and done. You filled in the blanks in my mind, and now I feel guiltier for what I not only did to Kennedy but what I did to you. I’m a monster. I get it. Now please fucking drop it.”

  “Okay,” I agree as I gnaw on my bottom lip. Part of me thinks I should just blurt it out, but another thinks that this is a secret I should keep
and never let go. Once I do, everything will change, and I don’t want that to happen.

  “How much longer?” I ask, getting antsy now that we’re getting closer to the place where I’ll have to come face to face with my father again.

  “Probably another hour or so,” he mutters. “Try and sleep,” he adds. Which, in other words, means he wants me to shut up and leave him alone. I thought that the way we were talking about that night that things were better between us, but I guess I was wrong.

  Torin will never forgive himself or me for what happened.

  And while I didn’t drug him or know we were being recorded, I should have. Torin was right. I’m too naïve. My father is evil, so I should’ve known that he wanted to hurt him. If I had, I could’ve saved Torin all this regret.

  Even knowing all that, I wouldn’t go back and do anything differently.

  That night changed my life for the better. Before, I was my father’s puppet, but then when I left, I finally had a purpose.

  Now that I know what the Savage Kings want, I’ll do whatever I have to in order to be rid of my father once and for all and get back to the only thing that’s truly important to me.

  …

  Torin

  When I sit down at the president’s seat at the head of the table, the brothers who have gathered immediately break into grins. They all begin banging their fists onto the tabletop to welcome me. I stare at them silently for a few moments before raising my hand for them to settle down. My choice of seat doesn’t mean anything has changed. Chase is still the acting president. All I have left is leading this one last mission.

  “I know you’re wondering why I called a meeting while many of our brothers are still out of town,” I begin since Sax and Dalton are still keeping with Chase in Vegas and Abe is apparently off on his own handling some personal business. “And you’re probably wondering why I only invited a few of you.” Eddie is too old for this mess and Gabriel is too young and inexperienced when it comes to getting bloody. I’m certain Abe would want us to leave him be in his tattoo studio rather than bring him in on what is no doubt a dangerous set up.

  “Looks like you’re planning some dirty work,” Miles comments from his place at the table beside Reece.

  War and Cooper are sitting across from them, and they both nod in confirmation.

  “That’s right,” I acknowledge. “Miles, Reece, you know that we managed to get Lexi Cruz back here yesterday. We’ve got her on lockdown here in the clubhouse for now. On Tuesday, Hector Cruz has agreed to meet up for an exchange. He’s supposed to be wiring money to an account that I texted him, and then he’s going to hand over something that belongs to me in return for getting his daughter back.”

  “What?” Reece asks.

  I stare at him for a moment, waiting for him to clarify. When he doesn’t say anything else, I realize I can hear my teeth grinding in the silence. I love the brilliant bastard, but he can be almost as obnoxious as Chase. “We’re going to exchange Lexi Cruz for cash and property that Hector owes me…” I begin to explain again.

  “What property?” Reece finally demands.

  “MY goddamned property!” I explode, before I pause to take a deep breath. “It’s a flash drive, all right? That’s all you need to know. What it contains is personal. The money is club business.”

  Reece gives me a curt nod to acknowledge his acceptance but then adds, “Anything on a flash drive can be saved to a computer or on the cloud…”

  “Yeah, I know,” I tell him. Getting that flash drive is more of a symbolic gesture to me than anything. It represents everything that Hector cost me because of his blackmail. I want to hold the damn thing in my hand and burn it, even if there are probably other copies out there that his goons will have access to once he’s dead.

  Reece motions with his hand for me to go on, finally agreeing to drop the subject.

  Letting out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, I pull out a map I printed of the meeting site. “This is the southern entrance to our salvage yard, where the deal will go down. War and Coop will be here with me,” I say, stabbing my index finger on the spot. “Hector also agreed to bring only two men with him. I know he’s going to have a crew waiting in the wings backing him up, though, which is why I want you two,” I say, pointing to Miles and Reece, “across the street here on the roof of the old fire station.”

  Miles leans over the map for just a moment, then closes his eyes. “That fire station was three stories,” he recalls. “From the roof there, I should have a clear line of sight less than…what, three, four hundred yards?”

  “That’s the plan,” I confirm. “Reece will act as your spotter. When you see me tap my ear, you take down the men accompanying Hector. The order is up to you. You don’t kill Hector, unless the rest of us are already somehow dead, understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” Miles agrees.

  “Now, that’s if they stick to the terms of the meet. If they don’t, Reece, I want you geared up on the roof as well. You got plenty of belts to feed that cannon of yours?”

  Reece nods, so I point down to the map again. “They’ll have to come in from either the east or west, here. If they show up heavy, you unleash everything you’ve got on them while we get clear. Miles can pick out select targets while you light up the whole damned place. Once it’s done, you two head down the escape ladders here, and we’ll pick you up on our way out.” Leaning back in my chair, I say, “That’s it. Get together whatever you need and be ready Tuesday morning at sunrise. The meeting is at ten a.m., but I want you two on that rooftop hours earlier to watch for any traps. Anyone got anything else to add?”

  War grumbles under his breath, then speaks up. “Does Chase know this is going down so soon? Should we wait…”

  Raising a hand to stop War from continuing, I say, “I’m not interrupting his honeymoon any further. Waiting is out of the question. Every moment we keep that girl here is a risk. We need to get this done as quickly as possible. I want Hector dead, and Lexi Cruz gone.”

  “Gone?” Cooper repeats with an arched eyebrow.

  “Set free,” I amend. “I promised to let her go; and from everything I’ve learned, she deserves it. She wants her old man dead as badly as we do. Let’s help her get her wish and then let her get on with her life.”

  “We’re more worried about helping you get on with yours,” War says, to which my brothers all nod in agreement.

  “You want to help me? Let’s handle this shit perfectly on Tuesday. That will be the best thing any of you could do to honor Kennedy and my son,” I tell them. “And, this should go without saying, but none of this leaves this room. None of you are to talk to anyone in or out of the club about our plan.”

  Miles glances at the others before saying, “You’re not just trying to keep Chase out of the loop. This is something else.”

  I had already decided to let these select brothers know what Chase and Abe suspected, and what Lexi has confirmed. “We’ve got a rat. Not at the table,” I add quickly as all four of their faces darken in rage. “But Chase suspects a prospect, and Lexi told me that one of them was on her father’s payroll.”

  War and Cooper turn to each other, both men visibly paling as their anger fades. War is the first to speak up. Clearing his throat, he says, “Torin, you remember how I met my prospect? Maddox was out in the rain on that rat-bike he was so proud of, sitting under an overpass waiting for the storm to pass. I stopped with him and ended up inviting him to the clubhouse to get dry.”

  “I remember,” I tell War with a smile. “He was just a kid with no place to go, too proud to go to his momma’s house, and too poor to piss indoors.”

  “That’s right. Maddox had a falling out with his stepdaddy when he was fifteen or so, and they had shipped him off to a boot camp. Once he graduated he hit the road, and he found his way home to our little family. I’d like to think we’ve raised him into a good man. I’m not just saying that because I’m sponsoring him. I’ve spent a lot of time with him,
helping him through some shit, and I believe in him. He’s only a prospect, but I trust him like a brother, and even…”

  “Like a son,” I finish for him. “And he looks up to you like a father. I don’t want to believe it could be him that was slipping information to Hector, but I had to let you guys know the facts.”

  “It could be Holden,” Cooper says with a sigh. “I’m sponsoring him, and I know I should be listing all the reasons it couldn’t be, but…I met him at Avalon, when he was hanging out looking for work as a bouncer. He did fine and the girls liked him, so when we got to talking about making real money and how he could fit into the club, it just seemed natural. The truth is, though, when I think about it, I just don’t know that much about his past.”

  “I can try to find out,” Reece says.

  “You gonna work some of your computer voodoo on the prospects?” Miles asks. “I thought you already did that when you vetted them.”

  “I did,” Reece nods. “Maddox was too young to have any real digital imprint. I verified his story about graduating from Oak Ridge Military Academy and saw no red flags in his background. Now Holden…well, I didn’t find anything on him at all. That always bothered me. That’s why I got in contact with a supplier I use to see about getting some high-end polygraph equipment.”

  “Can you get it?” I ask him since the two of us have already talked about the prospects and trying to get more proof of the traitor.

  “Overnighted,” Reece agrees.

  “Do it,” I order. “Figure out how to work the equipment and have it ready as soon as you can. Until then, the prospects are on scut duty. I don’t want them even serving a drink in the bar. You have them digging holes and counting sand, got it?”

  Once everyone nods their understanding, I slam the gavel down to adjourn the table.

  “It’s almost time, brother,” War says, offering me a fist bump that I hit. “You need anything else from me?”

  “No, man. Head home and hug your kid,” I tell him.

  “Will do,” he agrees before he leaves.