CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Cane

 

I sat in my cousin’s elegant living area, a gorgeous view of the city lit up outside the windows. A light snow coated the balcony. Karl sat on the couch, a glass of bourbon in his hand.

“Loosen up, Cane,” Karl said. “You’re wound up tighter than a drum. Makes it hard to enjoy my drink.”

I drained the vodka in my glass, shook the ice, and drank again.

“Where’s Shika?” I asked just to have something to say. I was convinced Karl instigated these long silences just to make me uncomfortable.

“Visiting her family in Hoboken.”

He put down his glass and, leaning forward, leveled a look at me. “You did well getting Evan into the club, even if you didn’t manage a place for Sam. Evan’s increased clients for After Hours exponentially.”

Surprised at the unusual praise, I nodded at him and waited for the other shoe to drop. It only took seconds.

Karl smiled—something I never trusted. “You did so well I am entrusting you with something very important. There’s a dancer that I want for After Hours.”

My stomach lurched. “Who?” I asked, although I knew. I just knew.

“Long blond hair. Very popular on the pole. Works three nights a week.”

I shook my head, keeping my face empty of emotion. “I don’t know him.”

The coffee table shook under the force of Karl’s fist hitting it. Eyes narrowed, he said low and ominously, “You must think I’m stupid. Do you, Cane?” He leaned over the table. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to think you don’t know a man who lives in the same house you do?”

I struggled to remain calm. “He’ll never go for it.”

“He doesn’t have to. I want you to take him.”

My blood turned to ice.

“What do you mean, take him?”

“You know very well what I mean. You pretend like ignoring what we do keeps you from being complicit, but it doesn’t. You know about the drugs. You know about the weapons.” He paused. “And you know about the human cargo.”

My guts turned to water and bile rose in my throat. I shook my head, swallowing hard. “W-what?”

Karl laughed harshly. “Don’t play stupid. I know my father had to have let you in on it. All that work in his office. I’m not an imbecile!” His face had gone dark red and his voice had risen to a shrill shout. Did Karl actually think his father had favored me in some way? That he’d been grooming me for something?

I shook my head again. “You’re wrong. He never told me anything. God, he never would.”

Karl calmed enough to finish off his drink.

“I don’t want to be involved in any of this,” I said, voice strained, the horror of what he’d said seeping into my very bones.

“What you want is to do as I say. I know of another pretty blond boy who would do just as well in Lake Adams’ place.”

My heart pounded in my ears. Tony. He would take Tony—of course he would. He was angry that Tony had turned down the job offer. I swallowed. I’d beg if I had to.

“Please leave my friends out of your business.”

“Our business, Cane. It’s our business, our world, and don’t you forget it.” He leaned back into the sofa cushions and continued to look at me with malice. “From here on out, you do as I tell you to do. If I want your pretty blond friend to work for me, you get him to do it. Understood?”

I floundered for a moment, unsure. When it became clear what Karl was saying, though, relief flooded through me. This was a power play. Karl wasn’t planning on selling Tony or Lake on the sex market—not if he got what he wanted. In one fell swoop he’d reminded me he held all the cards, and he’d insured he’d get what he wanted.

But I had to make sure. “And if I convince Tony, you’ll leave them out of…everything else? I have your word?”

Karl’s lips curled upward. “We’re family. You shouldn’t even have to ask. You’ll bring Tony around tomorrow?”

I nodded, fully aware of how pleased he was at having gotten the best of me. My pride stung, but I’d protected Lake and Tony from a fate worse than death.

Karl stood. “I need to go to the nursery.”

That was definitely my cue to leave.

 

 

 

 

****

“Tony, are you awake?”

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized Hung wasn’t in his bed. I walked into the room and quietly closed the door.

On the single bed closest to the door, Tony lay curled on his stomach, sleep pants dragged low on his hips. My eyes lingered on his round ass before I tentatively rested my hand on his bare back. He immediately jerked awake and rolled over.

Looking up at me with his sleepy eyes, blond curls tussled, he couldn’t have appeared more inviting. At that moment I knew I would protect him at any cost.

“What the hell?” Tony’s voice was hoarse from sleep. “Cane? Is something the matter?” He scooted back to lean against the headboard and switched on the bedside lamp.

My eyes roamed over his bare chest, lingering on the tight muscles of his abdomen before jerking back up to his face. If he’d noticed, he didn’t show it. I sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I need to talk to you about something important.”

“Now?” Tony squinted at the digital clock on the nightstand. “It’s nearly two a.m.” He kept his voice low, undoubtedly not wanting to wake the others through the paper thin walls.

“I need you to call Karl tomorrow and agree to work for him,” I said.

Tony’s mouth dropped open, and I had the sudden urge to run my thumb along his full bottom lip. I imagined him taking it into his mouth. His sharp reply jerked me to attention.

“What the hell are you talking about? You told me I’d done the right thing by turning him down.”

“I know what I said, but I’ve changed my mind. I need you to take the job.”

Tony’s mouth firmed and he crossed his arms over his chest, drawing my eyes to his small, brown nipples. God, I had to get myself together.

Tony shook his head. “Uh-uh. You don’t get to come in here and tell me what to do. You’re crazy if you think you can play with me like this.”

Frustrated, I ran my fingers through my hair, messing it up. “I’m not playing. This is important.”

Tony made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Whatever. It always is with you. The fact is, you warned me off your cousin and telling him no felt right to me. No way am I going to tell him I’ve changed my mind just because you waltz in here and tell me it’s important.”

I wanted to grab Tony and shake some sense into him, but I took a deep breath and reminded myself how crazy I had to look to him, appearing in his room in the middle of the night and doing a complete about face from what we’d agreed to just hours earlier.

“I can’t get into the reasons behind it. I just need you to trust me.”

“Sorry, but that’s not gonna fly,” Tony said irritably.

“Tony,” I hissed, anger getting the best of me. “I’m not fucking kidding!”

“I can see you’re not, but if you want my cooperation, you have to tell me the truth. I figured out a long time ago you weren’t the half-witted sack of muscle you pretend to be.”

I’d dropped my guard around him lately. Probably around everyone.

“Spill, Cane. I’m not doing anything unless I have all the facts.”

I sighed, warring with myself. When Tony scooted toward the wall, making room for me on the bed, I reluctantly stretched out beside him. Tony rolled to face me, head propped on his hand. The position was intimate and felt too good, and in the small circle of light from the lamp in the quiet bedroom, alone with him, it wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought it would be to open my mouth and begin.

“My parents died in a house fire when I was two. I was raised by my Uncle Floyd, my father’s brother. He was great.” I smiled, remembering. Tony’s eyes were riveted to me. If he’d been a dog, his ears would have been perked up. “He had a ranch in Montana and raised wild ponies. I was so happy back then.”

I took a deep breath and let it out before continuing.

“I was fifteen when my uncle was killed in a freak tractor accident. Everything changed after that. I was sent to my mother’s brother in New York City. My Uncle Reiner.”

I glanced at Tony. His eyes remained on my face, his expression unreadable. I turned my gaze back to the ceiling and continued.

“Uncle Reiner wasn’t a particularly nice man. He was usually away from the house on business, but when he was home, he liked to pit me and his son, Karl, against each other. Everything was a competition. Karl’s two years older than I am and was a hell of a lot tougher even back then. I wasn’t used to fistfighting. Hell, I’d never been in a fight in my life. I learned fast, though. Had to. After fistfighting came fighting with a switch blade—dirty, back alley stuff that my uncle said real men needed to learn.” I swallowed, remembering the countless injuries I’d suffered before I got good at it. The day I beat Karl in a fight was the day my cousin stopped thinking of me as fun to toy with and started actively resenting me.

“I’d been raised around animals and liked and respected them. Karl liked to torture them, but fortunately we didn’t have pets and didn’t run across many animals in the city. One night, my uncle took us to a dog fight. When I saw what went on there, I ran outside and threw up. I couldn’t go back in. I walked for hours, but in the end, I didn’t have anywhere to go but back to my uncle’s. He was waiting. He berated me in front of Karl and some of the men who worked for him, calling me a pussy and a wimp. Then he’d had his men hold me while he’d beaten me with his belt until I passed out.”

I heard Tony draw in a sharp breath, but I didn’t look at him, not wanting to see the pity in his eyes.

“The minute I turned eighteen, I told my uncle I was getting a job and moving out. He’d laughed and asked me what the fuck was I was going to do in New York City when all I’d done was work on a ranch. Then he told me he’d give me a job in his business so at least I’d have some experience. I wanted to live on my own, though, so he said I could move out and live in some flea-infested rat trap if that’s what I wanted to do. I was so glad to get out of there, and to not have to try to think up a way to earn money, that I agreed to work for him. I knew he was right anyway, about needing experience. I started in one of his warehouses loading boxes of health supplements, which is one of our largest businesses.”

“B-Natural,” Tony said, and I nodded.

“Sometimes stuff went on—strangers came and had meetings with the foreman that didn’t appear to have anything to do with the products we were shipping—but I kept to myself and didn’t ask questions. When my uncle sensed I was growing bored with what I was doing, he brought me inside the office building downtown to do odd jobs and run errands. Things went on like that for several years. I lived in an okay apartment with a couple other guys who worked all the time like I did. Then my uncle died, leaving everything to his son.”

“Why didn’t you get away then?” Tony asked.

I turned my head and met Tony’s gaze. “It’s hard to explain. My uncle was mean, but he always talked about family, and I was a part of that family. He’d loved my mother, and occasionally he’d say I reminded him of her, and during those times he’d be pleasant to me. Almost loving. It didn’t happen often, but those moments of affection and approval sustained me. I had nobody else. Those moments royally pissed off Karl, though, and anytime he could get me into trouble, he did. Recently, I’ve realized Karl thinks his father favored me in some way, which is ludicrous. When Uncle Reiner died, Karl saw it as his chance to take control of me. The importance of family had been ingrained in him too, and he used it to his advantage with me. It wasn’t until later that I realized family didn’t have to mean blood.”

“When you joined the club,” Tony said, and I nodded. “How’d you get interested in motorcycles?”

“When I was in high school, there was this garage I used to hang out at every day for a couple of hours after school, telling my uncle I was being tutored. A guy named Devin taught me about bikes.” I paused, thinking back.

“He taught you about more than that,” Tony guessed.

“Yeah. He did,” I said remembering the many times I’d fucked Devin in the back room. He was nine years older than I was and an enthusiastic bottom. I’d learned a lot about sex with him. “Anyway, by the time I graduated, I could take a bike apart and put it back together practically blindfolded. I started going to bike shows when I could. Years later I met Blaze at one.”

“I’m glad you did,” Tony said.

I chuckled mirthlessly. “Yeah, right. I bet you rue the day I joined the Hedonists.”

“That’s not true.” Tony put his hand on my leg then quickly pulled it away. I’ve never been sorry you were here.” He licked his lips. “I should apologize.”

I frowned. “For what?”

“For throwing myself at you that night. After that scene we did, I got a little mixed up.”

I let out a disbelieving laugh. “Fucking you wasn’t exactly a hardship, Tony.”

He dipped his head, running his fingertip along the pattern on the sheet beneath us. “Yeah, but you weren’t looking for anything more, and I tried to take things to another level. Anyway, sorry for that. And thank you for sharing all this with me tonight. It makes it a little easier for me to understand why you don’t trust your cousin.”

“He’s dangerous, Tony. He does cruel, unforgivable things when he doesn’t get his way. I don’t want you working for him, but I know he’ll do what he’s threatening if I can’t get you to.”

“And what’s he threatening?”

“You’ve probably heard Axel say something about the servers at The Yellow Banana being approached about prostitution?”

Tony nodded.

“That’s Karl’s doing. He’s got a couple guys working there who are bringing business to the seedier side of his escort service.”

“I knew he wasn’t just providing dates to the rich and famous,” Tony said wryly.

“Right. Well, turns out it’s worse than that.” I swallowed. “Karl’s involved in human trafficking. And he’s threatening to take either you or Lake if I don’t get you to work for him.”

Tony’s shocked gaze met mine, and he scrambled to a sitting position. “What? Human trafficking? Cane, that’s…that’s vile, and…and inhumane! That’s absolutely disgusting and horrible and—”

I put my hand over his. “Don’t you think I know that? I never dreamed it was going on.” I shuddered. “And imagining you…or Lake…taken and made to…” I trailed off, unable to say it.

“But think of all the people already being made to do those things!” Tony looked at me intensely. “We’ve got to stop it.”

I nodded. I’d known that as soon as Karl had said it. Tony’s conviction strengthened mine.

“How?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we will.” He glanced at me. “You don’t know this, but I’m pretty good at hacking. I learned if from a friend growing up. The guy was a genius. If I have to work for Bruder, I might as well hack into his system and see what I can find.” He grinned.

And suddenly I saw it—a light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t want Tony near my cousin, but if it had to happen, and Tony had the ability to find what we needed to take Karl down, shouldn’t we take advantage?

I smiled back at Tony. “Sounds like a plan.”