Page 90 of When Kings Fall

A strip club.

Sultry Sirens.

That was where Tommy was spending his night.

I really hadn’t known him at all.

Not the true him, anyway.

Just the façade he’d put on to win me over and then keep me close.

To weaken me, I suspected. To keep me immersed in my trauma.

He’d claimed he hated this sort of place.

He’d never even looked twice at any of the club girls.

And whenever one of the club members had strippers in the clubhouse for their birthdays, he’d never participated.

Just not around me, clearly.

“Shithole,” I murmured as Levi and I passed through the doors and into the place, hair metal blasting through the club.

His hand slid into mine in his protective and possessive way.

But that was all he did.

He’d let me go in first, he hadn’t tried to talk me out of doing this.

Despite his need to ensure I was safe and well and all of that, he was also working hard just like Mason and Colt were not to be overbearing about it or to take away my agency.

My leather jacket with the studs and pink stripes across the hard black leather swished with my rapid movements like my ponytail as we made our way through the place.

Levi was decked out in his go-to cargo pants and packing heat, just in case, and wearing his well-worn riding jacket too.

We’d come down here on his Harley.

I had a little something on me too, the blade he’d given me stowed in my inside jacket pocket.

“This is the second time in a few weeks that I’ve set foot in one of these seedy places,” Levi commented, his eyes bouncing off all the topless women serving drinks, some performing lap dances, others up on the stages working their moves on the golden, glittering poles.

There was no fakery with him. he could barely stand it.

“Second time?” I wondered.

“Yeah, it was that night I went to see Kyle Trass. He owns one now.”

“Huh. Want a lap dance while we’re here?”

“From you, yes. But in private. I don’t want anyone seeing you in your throes-of-passion state. Only me, Mason, and Colt get to see that. Our eyes only, baby.”

“Throes of passion state,” I chuckled to myself. “You’re too sweet.”

“Keep my sweet side to yourself for tonight. This fucker’s only getting my scary and fucked-up side.”

I leaned into him as we continued scanning the place for Tommy. “You’ll give me a taste of that sweetness later?”

“Damn, Brianna. You’re not making it easy to remain focused and on-mission.”

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