Would I have still gone to Paris? Most likely, because pursuing my dream meant everything to me. I enjoyed the six-month competition and even most of the last few years, getting to be the center of attention, a well-known model, even if most of my recent work shows a lot of skin. But it would’ve been nice to come home to Winston over the years.
When we pull up to a random house out in the middle of nowhere, which takes several minutes riding down a dirt road to find, Winston quickly shows us inside to our rooms where there are two other women, a pretty redhead and blonde, hanging out, watching television in the living room.
I can’t help but feel jealous of them when Winston gives the blonde a hug.
“You know the drill?” he asks her.
“Yep. Stay inside with the doors and windows locked. Don’t answer for anyone unless I recognize them on the Ring doorbell camera, and try not to worry myself to death.”
“That’s it,” he tells her. “Charlotte, Tessa, these are my folks, Martin and Debra Donahue and, ah, my stepsister Zoe Donahue.”
“Nice to meet you,” the blonde—Charlotte, I’m guessing—says when she stands up and offers us all a handshake while the redhead stays seated and gives us all a small smile. “I’m Charlotte, Roman’s girlfriend.”
Well, that’s a relief, that she’s with the president of the Savage Kings. Guess that explains why she’s here too.
“I hate it, but I need to get going,” Winston says.
“Will you call and give us updates?” I ask.
“I’ll try, if you’ll answer your phone,” he remarks before he grabs my waist to pull me flush against the front of his body. He kisses me with a little tongue action before he pulls away and walks out the door without another word, leaving me surrounded by stunned faces.
“Wow.” Charlotte is the first one to speak as the motorcycle outside cranks up and the rumbling grows quieter as he drives away. I brace myself for her to mention the stepsister thing but instead, she says, “I never thought I would see the day when that grumpy SOB would be smitten.”
Winston
* * *
I hate having to leave Zoe after spending every second of the last few days with her, but it’s time to take care of business.
She’ll be fine at the safe house with my parents and the other women. If it was in any way traceable back to the MC, then there’s no way Roman would have left Charlotte there. Besides, if all goes according to plan, I have a feeling we’re going to get the drop on the assholes tonight before they even know who or what hit them, so any chance of retaliation is slim to fucking none.
After parking my bike in a row of about two dozen others, I stroll into the clubhouse feeling lighter than usual; in part, because Zoe’s forgiven me and lifted that burden off my shoulders. But mostly, I’m floating because the last few days in bed with her have been fucking amazing.
“Holy shit. What the fuck happened to you?” Marcus asks from his post next to the door as he flicks the ashes away from his cigarette.
“What do you mean?”
“You were just smiling,” he replies. “Like the kind of goofy grinning that shows teeth. Never seen that happen before.”
“No, I wasn’t,” I argue, getting back in control of my facial muscles and forcing them to frown.
“Yes, you were. So, either you’re really looking forward to tearing some bastards limb from limb tonight, or”—he takes a draw from his smoke as his eyes narrow at me—“you’ve got a girl on your mind. Conrad said you haven’t been to work this week. So, what’s up, Winston? You been pussy whipped?”
“You would be pussy whipped too, if you had spent the last three days with the sexiest fucking woman in the world.”
“The sexiest woman in the world? You been banging your fine ass stepsister?” he asks with a smirk.
“You better watch your next words carefully before I cram that cigarette down your throat,” I warn him.
“Hey, man, I don’t fucking blame you,” he says as he blows smoke out of the corner of his lips. “But I don’t envy you either.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it can’t be easy knowing how many men have seen her naked. The girl probably can’t leave her house without getting hit on, you know?”
Fuck. I don’t know why it didn’t hit me before now that Zoe will be leaving soon, headed back to New York, where I’m sure Marcus is probably right. I doubt she can walk down a street without some asshole checking her out or saying shit to her. And I won’t fucking be there to do anything about it.
“Come on,” he says before I can figure out how the hell I can convince Zoe to move back home. “We better get inside. Roman’s probably waiting for us and you know he’ll be pissed if we make the original Kings wait.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I agree.
He puts out his cigarette in the ashtray on top of the trashcan beside the door and heads inside with me right behind him. Later, I’ll worry about keeping Zoe here with me. For now, I need to get my head on straight and get ready for bloodshed. It’s not something I’m looking forward to, but it’s a necessity.
“Finally,” Roman grumbles from the bar when he sees us come in. He raps his palms on the counter loud enough to get everyone to shut up and listen. Raising his voice so the entire room full of men in black leather vests can hear, he says, “Tonight’s the night we’ve been waiting on for months. Thanks to some dumb luck on Winston’s part, we’ve located one of the men who hurt Tessa and the other girls. For the past few days, I’ve been working with our IT guys, doing background searches on the other men associated with Stanton Studios, a pornography production company. If these guys were just filming consensual fucking, I wouldn’t have a problem with them. But that’s not what’s going on in their backwoods shitshows.” Roman pauses to take a deep breath. “They’re sick fucks who are hurting women and making money off of their abuse and torture. So, I think it’s time we take them down.”
A roar of agreement goes up around the room.
“I’m going to turn the floor over to one of our Emerald Isle brothers now to give you some more details about our plan,” Roman looks around the room. His eyes settle on a large man at the very back of the room, sitting at a table with a laptop in front of him. “Reece, come on up here, brother,” Roman says as he waves a hand to get the man’s attention. “If any of you don’t know, Reece is Emerald Isle’s resident ‘computer guy.’ He’s good with a lot of that electronic shit, and I asked him to help our IT guys gather some information about our targets.”
Reece stands up and takes off a pair of glasses he was wearing before rubbing his eyes and moving to stand by the bar. “You need better IT guys,” he starts off bluntly. “They weren’t comfortable doing some of the things necessary to scout out this group that calls themselves Stanton Studios.”
“What sort of stuff did they not want to do?” Roman asks with a scowl. “If we need to hire someone else, we will.”
“They didn’t want to do the dirty work,” Reece answers cryptically. “I’m going to say some things that won’t make sense to some of you. My brothers from Emerald Isle are used to it, but for those of you who don’t know me, don’t interrupt me with stupid questions. If you don’t know a term, I’m not going to explain it to you.”