Chap 4

The club seemed unusually vacant, which was odd unless it was nearly closing time. How long had she been in the back?

"Kathryn, what the heck-"

"That man knows my name," she hissed, pushing Rain forward as her client stepped into the main area of the club.

Why did he have to look so good in a damned suit? He buttoned his jacket effortlessly before adjusting his sleeves, as if he didn't care that she'd just run up to a biker to rat him out for- well, she wasn't quite sure for what. Giving her a mind-blowing orgasm? Not losing his cool after she got caught stealing?

"Yeah, he knows your name because I told him I was sending you back there. Why are you acting like this? Did he try something with you? Did he hurt you?" Rain asked, his back tensing as her client began walking toward them, capturing her attention.

He radiated confidence and a lethal tranquility that she had no idea how she'd ever overlooked before as he approached.

"Not exactly," she muttered under her breath. "He caught me stealing his watch-"

Rain spun around, his eyes wide with panic. "Stealing? Kathryn, I told you to show him a good time, not steal his freaking belongings-"

"You never send me back there to do anything but rob someone!"

"Not him, Kathryn!" Rain never raised his voice at her, nor did he ever lose his cool. The fact that he did now worried her. And then he said something that made her heart stop and a cold dread slither down her spine. "That's Daniel freaking Ford, Kathryn. Our club is indebted to him, and you've jeopardized that with your disrespect."

She turned pale, feeling like she might vomit all over the floor.

The kingpin of Chicago? She'd just climaxed all over Daniel Ford's hand and then cleaned it up after stealing from him?

She thought he'd looked like a devil earlier, and she'd been right. Daniel Ford was as wicked as they came. He was the devil.

Of course, this was her cursed luck, and now she'd endangered the men who had protected her for years.

"Rain-" she began, her voice cracking.

"Quiet," Rain snapped, his usual good charm gone in an instant. "I'll fix this."

But as Daniel Ford caught her eye again, that devilish smirk surfacing for just a moment before it disappeared behind an expressionless mask, Kathryn didn't think there would be any rectifying her mistake.

She was doomed.

....

It was thrilling to watch the dawning terror sweep over Kathryn Chandelle's face as Daniel Ford stepped up to the bar, knowing that all of his meticulously laid plans over the past several years were finally coming to fruition.

Typically, he wasn't a fan of frightening women. He might have built his reputation in the last decade on pain, torture, murder, and shady business dealings, but he didn't enjoy terrifying those weaker than him.

And he had always considered women more innocent than the sick individuals he dealt with on a daily basis, even if some of the women he encountered did associate with all manners of the Chicago underworld.

He'd made an exception for Kathryn though, and he savored the small choked noise that spilled from her throat when his eyes met hers from across the bar.

The man she was clinging to, Rain, was irrelevant. As were the enforcers of the Devil's Guardians that were lurking throughout the club, shooing away whatever patrons remained until it was just Daniel and his new associates.

They'd been keeping tabs on him since he entered this shoddy strip club, wary of the larger predator that had wandered into their midst, but he could have told them all that attempting to stop what came next would be futile.

Daniel always got what he wanted. And he wanted her.

On top of that, this MC owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars and a favor for his assistance in wiping out a rival gang several months back; they wouldn't risk his wrath for one woman, especially one that was unclaimed in their world.

But he'd come here tonight ready for pushback with his plan. It was why he'd ensured this club owed him before he put everything into motion. And now he was ready to cash in his favor.

Daniel should have moved his gaze elsewhere, but it was impossible for him to look away from Kathryn and all that she represented. He was so close to moving in on the final part of his plan, and his golden ticket was right in front of him.

Kathryn Chandelle.

Her hair was shorter than he'd been expecting, so she must have recently cut it. And while the black strands fit in nicely with the tattoos he'd seen scattered across her luscious body, her face too was angelic and the color was too dark for her. Too harsh for her porcelain face and her delicate features.

Perhaps he'd have her change it to blonde.

She was even more beautiful than the picture neatly tucked into the file he had on her, which made him despise her more than he had before meeting her. He didn't want to be tempted by her, but now it was too late.

Full, pouty lips that were made for pleasure, high cheekbones, perfectly sculpted eyebrows that let him know that even though she'd been parading herself around as a biker's woman for years, she'd always be too classy to remain as one forever.

Not that it would matter by the time he was through with her.

Now that he'd met her, smelled her, felt her wet core, and learned a bit about what she craved sexually, Daniel could already feel the lines around his plan blurring, blending, and reforming to suit this newly growing need inside of him.

He hadn't planned on sleeping with her initially, just taking her to use as bait, but he supposed there was a bit of torment to be had by making her reliant on him sexually, emotionally, and then pulling the rug out from under her before he fed her to the wolves.

His fists clenched at his sides at the thought.

Yes, that's what he would do.

Kathryn trembled behind the biker, and a deep-seated viciousness nearly had Daniel breaking his careful facade of indifference. He had hoped, based on what he'd learned of her and from their prior interaction in the private room, that she would have some sort of backbone. That she'd fight what happened next.

He wouldn't enjoy this as much if she morphed into a frail woman before he even had a chance to break her.

"I apologize for the confusion, Daniel," Rain began, his usual carefree smile dropping into a frown as Kathryn's fist clenched around the back of his jacket.

"Kathryn's a good girl, man. She wouldn't have shown you such disrespect if I'd properly explained things to her."

Daniel tilted his head, assessing him. Some of the bikers that were still seated around the strip club even began to stand, a pathetic show of force that was intended to intimidate him.

It didn't.