Page 56 of Ink's Devil

“Ink…”

“Mace,” I say as I start to stand, and lean with my hands on the table. “It’s early days and I don’t know where my head is as yet. Don’t fuck it up for me, okay?”

He stares intently, then nods and huffs. “Your funeral, Brother. Just be sure what you’re getting into.”

Why is it that Mace’s caution has made me more determined? They don’t know her like I do. I grin, as I follow my brothers out to the bikes. No, they certainly will neverknowher like I do, as I’m the only biker who’ll be fucking her.

“Night’s warmer.”

“Above freezing, that’s for sure,” I reply to Sparky. The weather’s looking up, Beth will be able to have that first ride tomorrow.

And after that? Well, she can ride my cock. Then I may broach the subject of us giving a relationship a try.

Demon circles his hand over his head, engines start and exhausts roar, then we’re rolling. Me with a smile on my face and, as I’m thinking of Beth, a semi-hard dick in my pants.

A large number of motorbikes arriving at the strip club isn’t unusual. Sometimes we have a new dancer who brothers want to check out, or, when we had a permanent manager, visiting artistes to pull in the crowds. Something perhaps Wills and Sparky will get back to arranging once they get themselves better organised.

We don’t need to be discreet or hide our arrival, it’s only after that there’s a difference in our normal procedure. Rather than all the brothers disappearing inside, I and some of the others peel off to take up our assigned positions.

There are cops, I can see them, but only because I was looking for them. I act nonchalant as I pass them, going to my allocated spot, a back-stop position should the dealer escape and come in my direction.

We’re early, of course. There’s currently no action. Sparky, who’s my backup tonight, leans against the wall while I take the stance and mentally prepare like all those times I stood on guard, staying motionless but hypervigilant for hours. Once trained, you never forget.

We don’t speak, we just observe.

A man shuffles past us, kicking an empty crumpled can out of the way. He’s a user, not a dealer, and from the twitching I see as he passes me, he’s in desperate need of a score. His arrival confirms we’re in the right place. Sparky nudges me to check I’ve noticed but doesn’t say a word.

I wait to see what the police are going to do, but there’s no commotion. Unless they’re making a silent arrest and their victim no audible protest, they’re at least being clever. If the dealer turned up to find no customers, he’d know something is wrong.

Another figure appears, this one it’s hard to tell whether he’s a dealer or customer, but he takes up a spot, unbeknownst to him, near the hidden cops. They leave him alone too. I know they need to catch the right person and hopefully with drugs in his hands.

Now another. A tall, slender man in a hoodie. A customer for sure. The way he’s walking shows he’s nervous. His head is down as though he doesn’t want to be recognised and he’s carrying a bag.

Sparky nudges me. “Dealer?”

I return in the same almost inaudible voice Sparky had used, “If it is, he’s new. Christ, I can see him shaking from here.” The bag is dangling at arm’s length as though the man’s carrying a live snake.

Damn it. If this is the dealer, it’s a small player and not the top man himself, he’s far too nervous to be that. Maybe the real culprit got word of a possible bust but didn’t want to lose sales, so sent a new minion instead. That’s what it looks like to me.

There’s something about the gait of the slim man that’s familiar. As he passes under a light, I get a flash of blue from under his hoodie.

Immediately, I know who it is.

Immediately, I know I have to stop her.

Everything about her screams that I’m right to think what she’s carrying could mean she’ll be looking at a long stretch in jail, and from what I know of her, she’d never survive.How the fuck is she involved in this?

In a flash, I estimate distance and calculate there’s a chance I can stop her before she gets too close to the cops. I rise like a dark avenging angel…

“What the fuck, Ink?” Sparky grabs at my arm. “Leave him to the cops…”

But I shake him off with a violent blow that throws him back into the wall. Then silently, I move up behind her.

“Get out of here, Beth,” I snarl quietly, while covering her mouth with my hand. As she relaxes and realises who I am, I release her.

“Ink?” she whispers, turning. “I can’t, I—”

“I think you’ve got something of mine.” The other man we’d noticed earlier moves out of the shadows twenty yards away. He’s still some distance from the cops.

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