Page 24 of Protected By Saint

“It’s nothing personal.” She shrugs. “Buck promised us good money if we brought him a virgin, and you just fell into my lap.”

“Us?” I ask.

Natalie gestures to the man driving the car. “That’s Nero, my boyfriend. He runs the club with Buck. We find the girls; Buck arranges for the payday.”

“That’s it?” I ask with surprise. A part of me thought that maybe she had some kind of vendetta against me. Maybe I’d said something hurtful in the past or was a bad roommate or something. “You’re doing all this for money?”

“That’s not a good enough reason?” She laughs, leaning back against her seat.

“I trusted you,” I whisper. “I would never have done something this horrible to you.”

She snickers at my words. “Yeah, that’s the difference between me and you.”

“Have you…done this to other girls? Don’t you care at all what happened to them?”

She rolls her eyes. “Look, I just facilitate the interviews. What happens after that isn’t my concern.”

I sniff back tears and turn away from her and to the driver. “Where are you taking me?”

“To collect our money.”

“What?”

“That fucking animal closed the club and did something to Buck. Now we have no money and no way to get it. You were supposed to be our big score. That biker asshole stiffed us and stole you. No if he wants you back, he’s going to have make good on his auction bid!” he rages, punching the steering wheel. “And if that doesn’t work, we have a backup offer. Someone is willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars for you. Cash on delivery.”

I fall back on the seat, resigned to my fate. I realize that I don’t have any more tears to shed. Not for these people at least. “What’s going to happen when they find out that I am not a virgin anymore?”

The car falls into a tense silence, and Natalie suddenly sits up, panic plain in her eyes. For a short, satisfying moment, I take in the fear I read in her eyes and the horror I spy on the driver’s expression in the rearview mirror.

“The client is going to kill us if he finds out that she’s not a virgin!” Natalie cries out in panic, leaning forward and sticking her head between the two front seats. “Nero, what are we going to do?”

“Shut up, bitch, and let me think!”

“Oh my God, this is a disaster!” she cries, before quickly turning to me. “You’re lying! Four days ago, you told me that you were a virgin.”

“Four days ago, I was,” I say smugly, despite my fear.

“No! Fuuuck!” Nero shouts, punching the steering wheel over and over again before hissing out a sharp breath, and I stare at them in disbelief. Did they really think they’d make so much money off me a second time? “Now we have to go with plan B.”

“What’s plan B?” Natalie asks.

Nero pulls over to the side of the road, and a chill runs down my back when he turns around to look at me. “You better hope that fucking biker values you enough to ransom you back. If he doesn’t, we’ll have another auction. Virgin or not, I’m getting my money’s worth.”

And then he makes the call.

Chapter Eleven

Saint

A bloodshot eye looks up at me with thinly veiled hate. With the other eye swollen shut and his nose broken from the punch I delivered earlier, the man looks like he’s ready to pass out, but I’m not remotely close to being done with him. His face is bloodied from hours of being worked over, and I am equal measures surprised and impressed that he still has some fight left in him.

I roll up my sleeves and crouch to eye level with the broken man. “We went through so much fucking trouble looking for you,” I say with a disappointed sigh. “I hope the house you bought with our money was nice and cozy for the short time you occupied it because I can assure you that you’re never going to step foot in it again.”

The first real show of fear crosses the man’s expression, but he doesn’t beg for mercy. He knows it’s useless, and I don’t exactly like it when they beg. I’m not some sadist who gets off on tearful pleas and pain. What use is there sobbing and begging for mercy when these people knew full well what crossing us would lead to and still did it anyway?

It’s like they never learn, always figuring they’ll be the exception. That somehow, they’ll have the bragging rights for besting the Steel Rebels.

Derrick Halpin could have walked away when we offered him the bribe to look away as we smuggled in weapons. He could have played the good cop and told us to go fuck ourselves after the offer, but no. He took the bribe, shook our hands, and then went on to backstab us.

---