Joy (Hell's Handlers MC 7)

“Nice try, but nah. Club’s got money. We do real well.” He shrugged. “Just want more of it. And we’ll only do time if we get caught.” With a snort, he stepped into the hallway. “Don’t plan on getting caught. Get comfy, princess, you’ll be here for another day or so before your master comes to collect his new pet.”

Any hope she might have had seconds ago burned up into ash. Greed, straight up money-hungry business was driving this bus. And that meant she had no chance of convincing him to let her go.

For one fleeting moment, while that smarmy asshole Wayne was delivering her to this piece of shit shack in the woods, she’d thought she’d glimpsed a man who didn’t approve of what was happening to her.

An angry-sounding growl had come from the hunk in leather who seemed to be some kind of guard dog for the bikers. Something about him struck her as different. An energy he projected drew her to him.

Now she was trying to read biker’s auras? She really was losing it.

She’d given the guy her most pleading save me look, but all she’d received in return was a cold, hard stare.

He’d been a gorgeous man. Tall, lean but not skinny with a leather jacket and jeans hugging his firm thighs. A floodlight had shone in her direction, blocking her view of his true eye or hair color, but both appeared some shade of brown. Maybe on the lighter side. A few days’ worth of stubble obscured his cheeks. Cassie had had the insane desire to rub her own face against his, and find out it if was scratchy or silky soft.

Hot was too mild a word to describe him. Incendiary more like it. Had she run across him at her parent’s country club, she’d have swooned and stammered like a school girl.

Another bark of laughter left her. That man wouldn’t set foot inside a country club. And not just because security wouldn’t let him, but because he was way too badass.

Too bad he was as evil as the rest of them.

“You good with the plan?” Sarge asked as they sat astride their bikes.

Viper stared straight ahead at the quiet shack. Legs was back on duty, had been for the past six hours. Viper and Sarge were set to relieve him for the rest of the night. Their orders were to keep the girl alive and a virgin, but were given the green light to “play a little” as Fox had said. Never before had Viper actually considered murdering his father.

Until that moment. He’d had to walk away because he couldn’t trust himself not to wrap hands around the old man’s throat.

Since making eye contact with the woman the previous night, Viper felt like a live wire dangling from a power pole, snapping and popping with dangerous energy. Every man in the club had suffered from his mood at some point over the last day. Fox was so fed up with him, he assigned “bitch sitting” duty and ordered Sarge along to babysit the babysitter.

Mission accomplished. Now they both had a reason to be back at the shack.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

Sarge nodded. “Okay, the body should be arriving in about two hours. I’ve got the Scoundrel’s cut all ready to go.”

Nodding without taking his attention off the shack, Viper said, “You never told me how you managed that one.”

“What? Swiping one of the Scoundrel’s cuts?” Sarge said with a chuckle. “Remember that bar fight Legs got into with one of those fuckers last year?”

“Yeah.”

“Before the fists started flying, both of ’em took their cuts off. Legs tossed his to Fox. The Scoundrel was stupid enough to leave his on the bar. I straight up walked out with it. Figured it’d come in handy someday. I was right.”

Viper grunted. He’d actually heard the story before, but his brain was only half in attendance tonight. Most of it was dedicated to the woman they were about to rescue. The plan was simple. Frame the Scoundrels, an MC from a neighboring town.

The Devil’s Tribe’s one and only enemy.

Sarge had a contact who worked at a funeral home. Actually, he had a woman he banged on the regular who worked at the funeral home. A good fucking and five hundred dollars was apparently what it took to purchase the dead body of a homeless man. Not much, all things considered.

“All right, let’s review one more time. We bullshit Legs until he leaves. Body comes in two hours. We wait one hour after that just to make sure someone ain’t coming around to feed us or some shit. I’ll make a trail in the woods for the club to follow, you place the body then grab the girl and scram. I’ll burn the place to the fucking ground.” Sarge sounded almost gleeful, as though they were planning a party instead of an escape. “It’ll look like one of he Scoundrels didn’t make it out, but the rest took off through the woods.”