Page 105 of Empire of Savages

The room was quiet.

With a triumphant grin, Kaash slammed the gavel one final time, adjourning the meeting. Everyone filed out, the club girls already waiting for the members to kick things off. Music began blaring as liquor started to flow. I couldn’t stand the idea of partying now. It was disrespectful to Rixon’s memory.

I left the clubhouse, breathing in the cooling night air. The worst of the summer heat had passed, and we were beginning the decent into fall. The cooler weather would soon wreak havoc on my hands, but I wasn’t a stranger to pain.

As I strolled to my bike, something drew my attention to the fence. I could make out someone standing a few yards away from the gate, shifting anxiously from foot to foot. Judging from the size and build, it was a woman. But why would a woman be here at this time of night?

With all the prospects still inside for the moment, I walked down the driveway to see who it was.

The woman had black hair, high cheekbones, and dark, slightly uptilted eyes. My gaze dragged down to the hand she held protectively over her stomach, and my brain came up with a memory.

I’d seen her before, somewhere.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

She took in my mask, inching a step back from the fence. “Is Rixon here?” she asked in a small voice.

“He’s dead.”

Her eyes widened for a moment before they dropped to the ground. When she looked at me again, she clutched at the chain-link fence and asked, “What about Nick? Is he here?”

“Nick’s gone to Columbus.”

“Fuck!” The word was a harsh whisper.

I stepped closer, sensing she was about to run. “Are you in trouble? Is your baby’s daddy giving you grief?”

If there was one thing I couldn’t abide by, it was women getting slapped around by asshole men. My own mother had been the victim of domestic violence—until I was old enough to do something about it.

“What? No,” she replied. “It’s my friend.”

I frowned. She must be talking about one of the club girls. “Clubhouse is closed for a private party. Nobody in or out until morning.”

“It’s not that,” she replied, shaking her head. “She didn’t come home last night. That’s not like her.”

Jesus fuck, this was below my pay grade. “What do you expect me to do about it?”

She blinked, like hearing the question confused her on some basic level. “I-I don’t know. But I don’t know who else to go to.”

“Call the cops. Report her as missing.”

She shook her head. “They won’t do anything about it yet. Look, Quinn left me this really weird voicemail saying something about getting a job at a club. She went in for an interview last night and didn’t come home.”

My greedy mind snagged on that name. Quinn. “Youhavebeen here before,” I said, not phrasing it as a question, because I wasn’t asking one. I knew she’d been here before, because I couldn’t forget the blonde that had come with her.Quinn. Her name was Quinn. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d jerked off to her since that first day I saw her. She was equal measures of timid and feisty, but it was her vulnerability that had really called to me. The short interaction we’d had couldn’t have been called anything less than an intimidation on my behalf. I only realized afterward how it must’ve looked. Me looming over her, watching her, studying her,wanting her. I was fascinated by her. Couldn’t look away from her even though I knew she wasscared. That fear only lasted a moment before she threw back her shoulders and demanded to know what the hell I wanted. She’d even called me Skeletor, and I appreciated the 1980s TV show reference more than I should have.

“Please,” the woman said. “Please help me find her.”

Grinding my teeth, I bit out, “What’s the name of the club she interviewed for?”

“Muse.”

Another Epilogue

Nick

Seven Months Later…

“Nervous?”

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