Page 15 of Craved By Gray
The game continues, and I play the role of a clumsy novice, missing easy shots and making sure my opponent feels confident, and sure enough, he starts to get cocky. “You’re awful at this game,” Hill comments when I purposely miss another shot, letting the cue ball bounce off the rails.
“You’re right,” I sigh, figuring now’s the time to push for answers that brought me here. “Do you spend all day and night drinking and playing pool?”
“Already bored, prospect?”
“Not really,” I cut in. “I was just hoping you guys would put me to work. I heard there are plenty of jobs that I can do to make some bank, but since coming here, I haven’t seen anyone go anywhere.”
“That’s because of those fucking Rebels who shut down—” Hill hisses before cutting himself off, but he’s said enough to verify what I was already suspecting.
I want to push for more so I lean in and take another shot, surprising Hill and those watching when I don’t fumble this one. “I think I’m getting the hang of this,” I say, but it’s clear I’ve lost the game.
“With practice, prospect,” Hill says, lifting his hand to smack my shoulder, but I easily evade it, avoiding any form of contact. I have managed to rein in my distaste of this place so far, but there is no telling what will snap me out of it. I would rather not break the man’s hand and expose myself to these people. I remind myself that I’m not Gray. Not here at least. Not to these fuckers.
“So, what did the Rebels shut down?” I ask when it’s his turn. “Did they mess with us? I haven’t heard anything about the Rebels and Vipers getting involved in a fight.”
“That’s because no one knows about it,” Hill tosses over his shoulder as he leans to line up his shot. “You think we want to spend all day drinking and playing stupid games?”
“No?”
“Of course the fuck not! Up until three months ago, we were making a killing , pulling in a shit ton of money from a club we used to run before those fuckers came in and—”
“Hill,” a harsh voice cuts him off, and he turns to look at one of the guys. “You know Stone doesn’t like it when we bring this up.”
“The fuck with it,” Hill rages, throwing the stick away and attracting attention to himself. “If Stone had ensured security was tight that night, then the Rebels would not have come in and shut us down, but no, he wouldn’t let some of us anywhere near his precious club! Throwing some bullshit claim about wanting to protect his clients’ identities, but where did that get him? Huh? He was fucking ambushed by the Rebels, and they made a mess of everything!”
I wasn’t there when it all happened. I was on the other end of town getting intel for the club, but I heard all about it. Saint and his VP, Knox, weren’t even at the Den to spy on the Vipers’ illegal activities. Ironically enough, the two men went there for an entirely different reason—to capture a man who thought he could cheat the Rebels and get away with it. Derrick Halpin, a dirty cop who had taken money from us to overlook a firearms shipment, but instead betrayed the Rebels. The man played both sides, taking bribe money from us and bringing in the cops to confiscate the weapons. Saint had intel that Derrick Halpin would be at the Den, so they paid the hefty membership fee to get in too, horrified when they discovered that the place wasn’t a typical gentleman’s club.
And that barely covered woman on stage wasn’t a licensed stripper, but a girl being auctioned to be used by powerful rich men and dirty cops.
Saint and Knox got their man and made him pay for double-crossing them, but they also rescued the girl and shut down the place. And now we need to know who the mastermind behind the club was to put an end to it all. We long suspected that it was the Vipers behind the trafficking. Stone and hislegion of immoral goons are evil enough to use helpless girls in this way. I’ve seen the way he treats his own daughter. It’s not enough to shut down the club. They’ll just move the auction somewhere else. We have to bring down the Vipers for good.
“Walk it off, Hill,” a voice in the room calls out, and the large man kicks the pool table before disappearing down the hall without another word.
I’m tempted to follow him and pry more out of the man, but force myself to stay in the room. I’ve got the ball rolling, and the other men are already talking about it in hushed tones, so I slowly place down the cue stick and walk to the bar, grabbing a beer and moving toward three men huddled together, whispering.
“Hill is right; Stone should have let more of us guard the place. The Rebels took us by surprise that night,” says one voice.
“Stone is probably waiting for things to cool down, then he’ll open another club somewhere else,” counters another. “We just need to lie low for a while and get those Rebels off our backs.”
“Fucking Rebels need to learn to mind their fucking business.”
A part of me, one that was trying to understand Scarlett, was hoping that someone in this hellhole would be disgusted by the fact that they were trafficking women. But no, the fuckers are upset that the business went down, cursing the Rebels for causing it.
Oh, I’m going to love it when we bring the entire MC down! Send these roaches scrambling for cover. With a sigh, I move through the groups, disappointed but not surprised that they all share the same sentiments.
These men all but confirmed that they were running a trafficking ring, and I figure I ought to update Saint on all this, but first I need to give Scarlett a ride home. I turn the corner and head for the stairs, about to go up and grab Scarlett, when I catch the sound of low murmurs. Two guys, one of whom I recognize as Hill, are whispering in the corridor of the first floor.
“This a fucking mess,” Hill says in a low tone. “I can’t believe Stone would trust a freaking twenty-year-old with the finances. What if she’s the one who snitched to the Rebels about the club?”
“No fucking way. Stone keeps the brat in line. She can’t go to the cops either since she’d be the one to get arrested,” says the other guy before lowering his voice further. “Everything in the club is under her name. If we get busted for anything, we can always pin it on the girl. Heck, even this building is under her name.”
“Fuck, you think Stone would set up his own daughter like that?”
“She’s nothing but a whore like the rest of them. He knows this,” the man sneers, and my hands clench in anger, enraged that anyone would talk about my woman in this way. “I heard that Stone is planning to sell her off to his business partner once she graduates from college. He’ll use her to hide the money for a little while longer, and then she’ll be someone else’s problem.”
“Maybe I’ll get a taste before her daddy sells her off.” Hill laughs, and I decide that I’ve heard enough.
In all the years I’ve spied for the Rebels, I’ve never once broken cover no matter how far things went, but this time, I can’t hold back.
