Page 40 of A Seductive Beauty
“I want to see a manager,” she demands, and I look around, trying to figure out what’s going on.
“I’m the manager.” I look over and see Rory approach us. He’s dressed a lot like Aidan dresses in a black suit with a dark blue shirt and vest. His hair is hanging in his eyes as normal. He doesn’t look at me, but I watch as he looks at the other girls. “Is there a problem?”
“Why is our tab showing a balance? I was told that everything was on the house.” She holds up a slip of paper.
“Ma’am, your first two bottles are covered by your entrance but not the rest. If you’ll stick around for a bit afterward, I’ll help you.”
He turns and walks away, leaving us there. My guards move toward us.
“Ms. Griffin, it’s time to leave,” Uglier says, then he asks the server for my coat.
“I’m not leaving until all the girls leave, and Brigid needs to wait to talk to the manager.” I stay seated. I watch as he sends a message. His phone immediately rings, and he hands it to me.
“Fiona, don’t cause an issue. Leave the girls, right now,” Patrick says over the phone, his voice full of grit. I look up and see Ugly standing behind Moira, and the fear spikes through me. I trust Aidan. I trust Aidan, I chant in my head.
“I will be leaving here shortly,” I tell him and hang up. The phone rings again, but I ignore the call. Ugly tries to grab the phone, but I keep ahold of it. I watch as the club is completely emptied, even the servers have disappeared.
“Ms. Griffin, now,” Uglier says as I hear the sound of a gun cocking. All the girls turn at the sound. I turn, my eyes flaring wide as Seamus puts the barrel of a gun to the back of Ugly’s neck, who is holding a gun at Moira’s head.
“Drop it.” Seamus’s voice is so low it sounds deadly.
Uglier reaches for me and yanks me toward him and pushes a gun into my side. I scream as his hand goes lax. His eyes flare wide just before they close, and he slumps to the ground, pulling me down with him until Aidan pulls me toward him.
“Never touch my woman,” Aidan growls as he leans over and wipes the bloody end of his knife off on Uglier’s pant leg. “Seamus, take care of him.” He points at Ugly. “Rory, Carson, and Brody, get the ladies to the compound. Come, my love.” He directs me, and we step around Uglier’s body. Aidan stabbed him in the back of the neck, killing him instantly. It doesn’t scare me because I know he would have killed Moira if given the chance. I squeeze Aidan’s hand and he looks down at me.
“You’re taking her to the compound too, right?” Moira asks, stopping us, and we turn to look back at her.
“She’ll be with me in case there is another attack. I told you I would take care of all of you,” Aidan says before the girls are led out the back and I’m led upstairs to an office.
“Why aren’t we leaving yet?” I look at him.
“Because we need to talk before we leave, and I want to know they are safe on the compound before we leave here. That way we only have to protect one vehicle at a time.”
“Okay.”
He drops my hand as he makes his way across the office to a desk. He doesn’t sit but moves behind it. He picks up a midsize box. It’s a jewelry box and my heart starts beating faster.
“I had these made before you took off, and I kicked my own arse for not giving them to you sooner.” He opens the wooden box and nestled inside in the velvet are three bracelets and a white gold diamond ring. “Take off that ring.” He points to Patrick’s engagement ring. “I’ll send it back to him, but my ring should be the only one on your finger.” I pull off the ring, hating it. “Take off any jewelry he gave you too. They have trackers in them more than likely.”
“Why would he put trackers in the jewelry?”
“So he’d know if you were near me, also so you could never escape him.” A chill runs over my body as I realize I was never going to be able to get away from him.
“But this is your club, how did he not know that?” I wave my hand around.
“For one, it’s not actually mine, it’s Rory’s, and two, it’s owned by a company that won’t lead back to me. He didn’t know. It’s why we picked this as the location to get you away from them.”
“How though? How did you figure this all out? Why didn’t you come for me? Why didn’t you try to get ahold of me sooner?” I slip off the earrings and necklace my mother insisted I wear tonight. I watch as he puts them in a bag and turns to hand them off to Lex, who walks in right then.
“Give us a moment, Lex.”
“Yeah, boss.” He walks out and pulls the door closed.
“I’m going to put these on you now just in case we are separated between here and the house. Yes, they have trackers in them, so I’ll never lose you again. But when we get home, I want you to strip so I can fuck you in nothing but them. As for the rest of your questions, I’ll answer them soon. But know this, I tried to reach you every day. I called and your mum or da would say you didn’t want to speak to me.”
“I was upset but I would have spoken to you. I shouldn’t have run without confronting you.”
“We’ll discuss this soon, okay?”
