Turning back to her, he continued. “As I was saying, they came after me, so I decided to turn the tables and go after them. I followed each one home and watched and learned. Imagine my surprise when I saw you sneaking out of the President’s house in the wee hours of the morning. It was like God himself was smiling down on me. So, I bided my time. How I wish I’d had the time to get you alone with that young one. Oh, how much fun we could’ve had.”
His mention of Cass stoked a fire deep inside her.
“If you even think about touching her, know that I will fucking hunt you to the ends of the fucking earth with my last breath. You will not touch her.”
“Don’t threaten me, sister, you won’t like the results. Besides, she is plan B. But you’re plan A, so do your part, and I won’t need to enact plan B.”
She was losing patience with Travis. He was monologuing just to hear his own voice, and whatever he’d given her was starting to kick in.
“How did you come to owe an MC money in the first place? They run a bar and a hotel. What? Did you take the towels when you checked out?”
His laughter bounced off the walls. “Oh, that’s rich. Do you not know anything about the men you spread your legs for?”
She cut her gaze to Billy. “Obviously.” She turned back to Travis. “Why don’t you tell me before I break the other one?” She stared pointedly at his wrapped wrist.
It was an empty threat, but she wanted him on the defensive, and he hated any shortcomings or failures being pointed out.
“It’s not broken, just sprained.” He sneered but stood up from the foot of the bed to pace. She preferred the distance. Without him on the bed to feel her movements, she worked her charm bracelet down. A part was caught in the tape, but it was loose-fitting, so she was able to contort her fingers and grab a charm.
Score, lightning bolt, the sharpest one.
She made a series of pokes and saws while Travis paced and spoke.
“The Kings don’t just own a hotel. They own a brothel. Picture it—the wife and kids are in the hotel pool while the husband is getting his dick sucked just a stone’s throw away. It’s brilliant really.”
If Travis thought that would shock her, it didn’t. He didn’t know she’d been a working girl herself at one time, and you can’t turn away a client just because he was married. However, the fact that the Kings owned one, hidden in Vegas no less, was a surprise. Despite what people like to think, prostitution was in fact illegal in Vegas and Clark County.
“The bar—well, that’s just a bar, a run-of-the-mill dive with video poker. But it’s where people go to find the Kings and secure a loan or an invite to their casino.”
That paused her little lightning bolt. If Travis was to be believed, Prowler and the Kings were into some heavy illegal shit. The one thing casinos hated more than cheaters was illegal competition.
She wanted to keep stabbing and sawing at her duct tape. Free herself, kick their asses, and call Prowler to warn him about Travis and to protect Cass.
She also wanted to hear more of what Travis had to say. She wanted to keep him talking because something just wasn’t adding up. Travis and Billy knew each other from when they’d been a couple, but since when did they work together?
Billy had only tolerated Travis to piss her off. He loved making her miserable, and Travis was one way to do that. However, it was Travis’s loose lips that got Billy pinched one time, so he told him to disappear and never come back. It was the one and only thing Billy had done in their relationship that made her happy.
More than knowledge, her body craved sleep. It was giving in to whatever Travis had given her.
“What was in the water?”
Travis waved her off with his bandaged wrist. “Nothing more than the painkillers they gave me for this. I just need you not to be hysterical while I contact your lover. Damn pills suck anyway, so it’ll wear off soon.”
She drifted off to sleep. She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, but it was light outside, so for a while she surmised. She vaguely remembered being awoken, allowed to relieve herself, and made to drink more pill water.
When she woke the last time, she heard Travis’s voice, but not a responding answer. When she peeked through her lashes,he was on the phone. She didn’t want them to drug her again, so she feigned still sleeping.
“I want to talk to your president.”
Pause.
“It doesn’t matter who this is. Get me the president.”
Another pause.
“I’ll call back in twenty. If he doesn’t answer, I’ll start carving parts off his girlfriend until he does.”
Time passed slowly, pretending to sleep. She wanted to look around, to be on the offensive, but it was too risky. She did, however, ever so slightly keep that lightning bolt moving.
