Why the hell that idiot had to have one woman over the other when they were fucking twins had been anyone’s guess, but Maverick was pissed as fuck. He’d had to help remove everyone involved in the ‘disagreement’ instead of being able to keep his eye on Emma. His Emma. He shook his head to try and clear the lust that kept clouding his judgment where she was concerned. They’d only just met, but the instant their eyes had fallen on each other, he’d felt all his protective instincts rise.
The bastard, Dahlin, would have hell to pay if he took advantage of Maverick’s woman. He just had to work out a way to get her out of The Club, with him instead of Dahlin, before his employers knew what he was up to. It was against the employee regulations to mix with the guests or members. If they did, it was straight up dismissal. But he was resigning anyway, right? So what did it matter? The only thing that mattered right now was Emma.
“Hey man, what’s up with you and that chick?”
The minute those words were spoken Maverick clenched his fists in annoyance.
“What do you mean?” he asked Jay, one of the bar staff from the ground floor.
“I saw you drag that chick from the VIP lounge to the stairwell. She’s hot if you get rid of the hideous dress she’s wearing.”
He hated the fact that someone else talked about her like she was a piece of meat. Not for much longer. Maverick got right in Jay’s face, a scowl clear on his face as he stared him down. He knew instantly that Jay had gotten his message loud and clear by the surprised, but shocked, look on his face. “She is not a chick, and she certainly isn’t someone you need to be looking at,” he said.
“If she’s yours, what is she doing here with someone else?”
How the hell was he supposed to explain that they met, what, about an hour ago? It was too bizarre for even his ears. “Just leave it.” Maverick stepped back, but halted when Jay grabbed his arm.
“She means something to you?” Jay didn’t give Maverick time to reply, and continued, “I think you should know that before I came down here, the guy she’s with was dragging her to one of the rooms up there.”
Maverick’s whole body froze as the words hit him. She promised him that she wouldn’t go anywhere with Dahlin. Had she been playing him?
“If it helps,” Jay added, “I don’t think she was going willingly. In fact, I’d even go as far as to suggest that perhaps she’d been drugged. She didn’t look all that with it.”
“Drugged?”
“Yeah, she looked hot.”
Maverick felt his anger rise at the ‘hot’.
“I mean,” Jay quickly added, “she looked flushed and...and, maybe, aroused.” He shrugged. “He could have drugged her.”
Aroused?
Drugged?
Drugs weren’t allowed in the club. It was one of the top rules. No drugs. The last spot search had been a week ago, and one member had been banned. They may not be allowed, but that didn’t stop some people.
An arousal drug?
He knew that there were drugs on the market that could arouse someone and make them do things they wouldn’t normally do just to reach a climax. He’d never seen anyone on the drugs, but a friend of his had. His friend had been there to witness the effects on his girlfriend, who’d been drugged in a nightclub along with her friends. He’d told Maverick that it was hot as hell, and difficult to do the right thing. He hadn’t elaborated further.
“I need you to cover for me.” Maverick didn’t need to think about what he was going to do. There really was no choice.
“I figured. How long?”
“My shift. Give me ten minutes, then go and clock me out. Make sure no one sees you.”
Jay rolled his eyes. “You are going to owe me big time for this.”
“Yeah, I know,” Maverick acknowledged over his shoulder on his way out of the room.
He had to get to her before Dahlin so much as touched her because he’d see red and wasn’t sure he’d be able to control his compulsion to pound him into the ground.
As he ran upstairs and then out into the VIP lounge, he felt an urgent need to get to Emma. It was so strong that he wanted to charge through the club, tossing people to the side just to get to her. She’d looked sweet and innocent, but under the drab dress she’d been wearing, there were lush curves waiting for him to caress. Just the thought of touching Emma was enough to start a twitch in his pants.
Looking around, he headed toward the private rooms but came to a stop when he realized he had no idea which room they’d gone into.
Maverick checked the roster outside each door, which showed a timeslot that was booked but not by whom. There were four out of the six private rooms on this floor that had been booked for now. Dahlin didn’t look like he’d share so they wouldn’t be in the group room.
What the fuck was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t walk away because he had a gut feeling that Emma didn’t want to be with Dahlin. If she’d wanted to be with him, surely she’d have been in a sexy outfit instead of the one she’d worn. She wouldn’t have been so drawn to Maverick either.
He needed to find the room that she’d been taken to...and fast.
“What the hell is causing you to sweat,” Dave, a probationary ‘suit’, asked as he walked toward Maverick. “I don’t think I’ve seen you lose your calm.”
“I don’t have time to explain, but a member has taken my girl into one of these rooms against her will. He drugged her.”
The anger Maverick felt knew no bounds at the thought of Emma trapped in the room with that bastard.
“Who is she in with?”
“Dahlin,” Maverick snarled.
“Then it’s your lucky day.”
Maverick locked eyes with Dave, and waited.
“I’d just come up here when I saw them enter that room,” he pointed behind Maverick, “right there.”
“Thanks.” He sighed in relief.
Maverick pivoted and caught his breath before he used his security pass to get the door unlocked. Once inside, he froze.
Emma was fidgeting, as though she couldn’t stay still, while she backed toward the door Maverick had just entered. Dahlin stalked her like a wild animal and looked ready to pounce.
The minute he spotted Maverick, his eyes threw fire before he blinked and hid his anger at the interruption. That wasn’t allowed—interrupting a guest—unless the alarm was triggered from within the room.
“I’ll have your job for this. You’re not allowed inside and no one triggered the alarm,” Dahlin hissed, barely able to control his anger.
Emma slammed into Maverick, her backside snug against him. He curved his arm around her stomach and secured her against his chest. She let out a whimper, which caused his dick to swell—he had to ignore his body’s response to her while he got rid of Dahlin.
“You think I give a shit about my job when you have Emma in here? When you’ve drugged her?”
Dahlin’s eyes widened before they narrowed into thin slits. “She isn’t drugged,” he denied.
“Like hell she isn’t.”
Maverick turned Emma in his arms and realized his mistake when he felt the twin peaks of her nipples as they stabbed into his chest. He gentle cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to his. Her eyes focused on him, but what he saw took his breath away. Her eyes were hot with arousal, but he could see the fear in them as well. It was clear that she was afraid of everything that was happening to her.
“Dave,” Maverick barked. “Get that fucker out of here. I’ll talk to the boss about tonight.”
“You can’t do that!” Dahlin yelled as he moved into Maverick’s space.
Maverick maneuvered Emma behind him, out of Dahlin’s reach, before he stepped nose-to-nose with Dahlin. “Yes. I. Can. And I am doing it. If you have any complaints then let the boss know, but remember he’ll have the results from the blood test that we’ll be doing on Emma,” he bluffed.
There wouldn’t be a blood test because he refused to put Emma through that. Dave would back him up in their report about the incident with Dahlin.
What he really wanted to do was punch the bastard so hard he wouldn’t be able to see for a week, or eat for that matter. Why did Dahlin have to act like he hadn’t done a damn thing wrong? If Emma had left the room, Maverick didn’t think he’d have been able to hold back from knocking the fucker’s teeth down his throat.
Dave picked Dahlin’s jacket up from the chair and took him by the arm. Dahlin shook his arm and freed himself.
“I’ll have your job for this,” he spat as he marched out ahead of Dave.