Stripping Her Defenses (7 page)

When it came down to it, though, nothing would ever change. The past was the past, and the best thing I could do was try to move on. Even if I’d been failing to truly do so, up until now.

Still staring in the direction of that poster without really seeing it, every mistake I’d ever made washed over me. It wasn’t that our marriage had ever lacked love because I’d had enough love for Kara that I could, metaphorically, move mountains for her and pull the moon and stars out of the sky, and all of that other pansy ass love bullshit, if it was what she’d wished for. I’d have done anything for her, really. Or, apparently, anything other than see what was happening right in front of my own damn face, which had been the slow death of the love of a good woman. All because I had put my job before my marriage. Youthful ignorance, pride, and miles in between us too many times to count had slowly killed Kara’s love for me.

I shook my head at the knowledge that, if I’d only stopped volunteering for missions, stopped playing the Super Navy
seal
, my Kara would have never started to doubt whether I truly loved her or not. Maybe then she would have never started to morph into a stranger who had taken her anxious ‘perfection’ obsession to extremes, which had inadvertently started to make me crave for time away from her.
If only
I’d seen that she had needed me to stay at home and help her through her fears instead of using missions for an excuse to escape the woman she was becoming. Perhaps then she would have never started to question whether I still wanted our marriage, or if I wanted to be married to the Navy more. These were things she should have never had to ask herself, especially when, at the end, she’d been round and glowing, six months pregnant with our first child.

Finally, the most damning mistake of all.
If only
I’d been home where I belonged, I would have seen Kara through the hard times when she’d needed me the most. Instead, I’d abandoned her to suffer through the most agonizing time of her life with no one to even hold her hand as she cried the moment some idiot had crossed that yellow line, hitting her dead on, causing the death of our son.

If only
I’d been home, my wife would have known I needed her far more than any voluntary mission the Navy asked of me. She would have still known she was loved.

Except, I hadn’t been home; as a result, she’d had no idea anymore that I not only still loved her, but with an intensity that she was and always would be my reason for being. A part of me. Fused in the essence of my soul. She was there in every breath I took, every beat of my broken heart, every lonely tear I’d shed, and every prayer I’d prayed since the nanosecond I’d started rushing home after the accident, only to find it empty.

The sound of soft footfalls approaching pulled me from my thoughts. I looked away from the poster of Kitty the stripper to the two men who were now stopping next to me. It was time to get my head back in the game.

Lucas was the first to speak. “I have to say, I think it’s rather funny that, in our personal lives, no one but Declan and, maybe, Wyatt have stepped foot in a strip club recently, but here we are, doing it for work.”

Declan snorted in disgust. “Yeah, Bobby’s been whining for days that he’s afraid Belle’s going to cut his nuts off if she finds out that’s what we’re doing down here.”

I grinned. “Well, if Belle were my ball and chain, I’d be worried about letting her near sharp objects for a while, too. If he’s smart, he might want to sleep with one eye open. Or maybe try to bribe her with some ice cream for those frequent pregnancy cravings she has now.”

Lucas scoffed. “Ice cream isn’t what she craves anymore. Last time she called Bobby, before he left headquarters, she asked him to pick up a pizza.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Pizza isn’t that bad, man.”

“It is when she dips it in ranch salad dressing.” Lucas shuddered as Dec and I screwed our faces up in distaste.

“Enough about pregnant women with horrifying eating habits.” Because I didn’t need any more gut wrenching memories creeping in on me right now.

With the look Dec was shooting my way right now, he knew exactly why I was changing the subject, which was just fucking great since I didn’t need anyone else’s attendance at my pity party.

“We’re going into the club tonight to meet with Hammer. Tomorrow, we’ll come back before the club opens to talk to him about his theories, any strange occurrences, or missing girls. Try to remember, while the titties are shaking in your face, we are here for a reason, and it’s not for your visual enjoyment. Okay?” I field dressed my second cigarette, stuffing that filer in the pocket next to the first one, before moving towards the front doors of the club.

The bouncer in the front eyed us warily. He wasn’t wearing a Regulators cut, so I assumed he wasn’t a club member. It would be interesting to find out what the Club’s President had told his employees about the incoming “new” members of the Regulators. I seriously doubted that Ice or Hammer would let them know who we were really were. The only thing that mattered was that he kept his mouth shut as we walked through the door. The second bouncer standing just inside the club door took one look at the cuts we were wearing and waved us towards the next set of double doors.

As soon as I opened those, we were assaulted by the vibrations of bass from the loud music. It made me wonder what kind of music Kitty would be dancing to when she took her turn on the stage tonight.

Chapter

7

Riley

Stepping into the inner sanctum of After Midnight
,
I was bombarded by breasts. Literally. It took two point two nanoseconds before there was a stripper’s pasty covered titties rubbing against my arm. Turning my head, I gave the woman a fuck off look, but when she gave me a hopeful, sexy smile back, I realized my glower only seemed to have turned her on more. Weird. Usually, when I gave someone that glare, they hightailed it in the opposite direction.

“Hey, baby. I haven’t seen you around the club before. Are you a newly patched member or something?”

Jesus. This chick was practically humpin’ my leg because I was wearing biker leather? Unbelievable.

When one of her hard nipples practically stabbed me in my arm, I looked down at her rack to make sure she didn’t have a small needle-like weapon hidden under those sparkly pasties of hers. Unfortunately, she took my perusal as encouragement.

“If you want to blow off some steam, I could take you into one of the private rooms and wipe that frown off your face handsome. For a taste of you, I wouldn’t even charge.”

Wasn’t it sad that my dick didn’t even twitch at that blatant invitation? She was a pretty girl with her medium length blond hair, a tight body, and sweet little breasts, but she didn’t do a damn thing for me. It was further proof my dick and heart were still married to a woman who no longer wanted them.

As she tried to slide her hand over my stomach, roaming towards my waistband, I caught and stopped it before she could go any farther. “Appreciate the offer, honey, but I’m here on business.”

Blondie gave me an adorable pout. “Well, after you’re done with your business, will you let me give you some pleasure?”

Shaking my head at her persistence, I answered, “Maybe another time.”

The stripper huffed in exasperation before turning her head towards the sound of some feminine giggling off to our left. Looking over at the sound, I found my brother with his hands full of stripper. Literally. There was a cute brunette with her legs wrapped around his waist and her tongue down his throat. Obviously, Declan didn’t have the same qualms I had. He was eagerly taking what the stripper was offering, not giving a fuck that he was standing in plain sight, making out with his hands under her mini skirt, grabbing her ass.

Blondie left me to go stand behind Declan and started roaming her hands over his chest and whispering in his ear.

Rolling my eyes at my brother, I glanced over to find Lucas in his own predicament. He had a redheaded stripper who kept trying to grab his junk whenever he let her hands free. Honestly, I had to laugh at the sight because there was a hardened soldier, a guy who had been through more military training and special missions than your average soldier would ever see, and he seemed to be completely freaked out by a chick trying to grab his junk.

I didn’t have long to laugh at him, though, before a man walked up behind the feisty redheaded stripper mauling Lucas, grabbed her around the waist, and physically picked her up and set her aside, away from them both. When she opened her mouth to protest, the interloper, who was also wearing a Regulators’ cut, cocked one blonde eyebrow at her in a silent dare to continue. Catching the hint, she pivoted on her stiletto heel and stomped away in feminine rage.

When the man turned back to smile at Lucas, I was able to get a better look at him. Buzzed blonde hair, a strong fit form in a black T-shirt, his cut, and jeans; he easily looked as if he could have stepped out of the military yesterday. Not exactly what I had pictured when I thought of an outlaw biker. The man held out his hand and then enveloped Lucas in a one-armed hug.

Lucas spoke loudly to be heard over the music. “Good to see you again, Hammer.”

“It’s been a long time, man.”

“Hell yeah, it has. I’ve got to tell you, if I’d known that was the reception waiting for me, I might have taken you up on your offer to come back and check out the club when we got out of the Army.”

Hammer laughed. “Fuck that, I’ve heard you fell into some interesting shit, Lucas.”

Lucas shrugged, but gave the man a small smile. “You could say that.” Pointing back to me, he said, “This is Riley, and that fucker over there, sucking face with two of your girls, is Declan. Let’s take this conversation somewhere a little less wild before he starts fucking them in public.”

Hammer snorted at my brother and then barked out, “Candy! Destiny! Don’t you have customers to see to?”

The blonde and the brunette jumped in surprise before slowly starting to peel away from my brother. The blonde pouted at Hammer much like she’d been pouting at me a few minutes before. “Aww, come on, Hammer. We just wanted to welcome the new members before the other girls get to them. Don’t take them away from us.”

Hammer shook his head. “Jesus, woman. Close down the open sign on your pussy and let us get down to business. If the boys want to party later, then you’ll see ‘em. If not, I’m sure you’ll be riding another brother’s dick before the night is out. Now get your pretty little ass to work.”

The brunette gave Dec another kiss on the lips before she peeled herself off him and sashayed her ass back to the main floor to mingle with customers with the blonde trailing behind her. Hammer laughed at Declan, staring at the brunette’s ass as she walked away and then clapped Lucas on the shoulder.

“Come on, man. Ice is waiting in the back.”

As I followed behind Lucas and Hammer, who kept an easygoing conversation flowing as we walked, I studied the Regulators’ member I knew so little about. His and every other Regulators’ intel file had been shockingly light on details. So light, in fact, it had sent red flags up to everyone on the team. We had access to almost every avenue of intelligence gathering you could do on an individual—tax, police, military, even school records. Men like the Regulators’ President, Ice, and his Sergeant At Arms, Hammer, should have hefty files with their prior Special Forces military background. They should also have some sort of profile in an investigative capacity for their time spent as outlaw bikers. However, all their files had contained were the basics—age, name, prior rank, and social security number. Their military records were sealed much like mine had been when I’d joined Ex Ops, so that led me to the question: what were these guys really into?

Because, if they were truly outlaw bikers, they had some sort of blackmail on somebody so high up on the intelligence food chain that everyone from the CIA to the FBI should be shaking in their fucking boots. However, Lucas had brushed all of our questions off and changed the subject, and Commander Jaxon had let him. That left me to believe that possibly both Lucas and Jaxon knew whatever it was that Ice and Hammer were into and were trying to protect them.

When push came to shove, you had to believe in the men who were at your back. One of those men happened to be Lucas. As a result, if he trusted these men with our lives and our secrets, then so would I. For now at least, until they gave me a reason not to.

We walked through the club, and I took in my surroundings. Casually scanning for any threats as well as for all of the exits our outside surveillance had stated were there. The interior of the club wasn’t the seedy, run down strip joint I had pictured. No, apparently these bikers had some class and some business sense. The flooring was either black stained wood or a steel gray carpet, depending on where you were in the club. The chairs appeared to be cushy, black leather with silver studding on the backs, and every other chair or so had a brightly colored toss pillow lying around. The walls looked to be painted a soft dove gray, but it was hard to be sure with the blue and purple neon lights everywhere.

Then, of course, there were the stages. One large main one ran along the back wall with two smaller, circular stages at the halfway point of the club near the left and right walls. On the opposite end of the club from the main stage was a bar just as long as the stage and every single chair had a man sitting in it, talking to the pretty bartenders who fed them drinks.

All in all, the effect was classy. Men could come here and relax after a long day of work or party like they didn’t have a ball and chain at home. Either way, it was easy to see why the reports and surveillance we had gathered said the club was a success.

Hammer led us to the other side of the club, where he knocked two times on a stainless steel covered door with a small, one way mirror on it. The door opened from the other side thanks to the patched Regulator who had been standing guard. The large, well-built man with auburn hair and a goatee nodded his head to Hammer before stepping aside so we could pass.