Page 72 of Running on Empty

Chapter43

It was all going so well, which should’ve been warning enough. We strode up to the door of the Viper Club, another door bitch guarding the entrance, but as soon as she took a closer look at us, any complaints died in her throat. So when Ash held the watch up to the door sensor, it slid open and we walked through.

I’d thought the place was hell when I’d come in here on the Spencers’ arms, but back then I’d thought so because of the red lighting and the writhing bodies on the stage. Now I looked everything over more closely, looking for signs on the faces of the performers, of those cosying up to men sitting in the VIP section, for evidence that they too were drugged. Were their eyes too wide, the red flush across their chests signs of Rush? Were they under its spell and that’s why they were bumping and grinding against each other? But as I scanned the club, I saw someone else getting treated the same way I had.

Blaine’s hand was in her hair, using it as a means to control her, dragging her down to her knees even as the scantily clad performer was swivelling and pressing herself against him in well practised movements. She was trying to dance, like any other hard working stripper might, but he wasn’t satisfied with that. I saw her red slicked lips shift into a grimace, could almost hear her cries for him to stop when I moved.

“What’s going on, omega?” Ash asked, taking up position by my side. His eyes followed mine though and then they narrowed. “Him?”

“Blaine,” I confirmed.

“Well, well, looks like the little prince is sitting there all on his own,” Rusty said. “No boys to protect him, no brothers at his side.”

“We have to assume that the three of them are being sacrificed,” Ash said. “The price the Spencers have to pay for what they did, but while Snake and Rock seemed to go to their deaths without too much of a fight, this Blaine might not go so easily.”

“Oh he’ll go down without a fight,” Ronan said and then he moved.

He scaled the steps of the VIP area with ease, brushing past the staff employed to keep the riff-raff out, unclipping the red velvet rope before they could even react and then he was on Blaine. The alpha’s grip on the dancer’s hair was loosened and she skittered away as quickly as she could, casting a frightened look behind her, the other dancers all leaving the same way.

“What the fuck are you gonna do, you piece of shit?” Blaine drawled, a sloppy smile on his face. “You’re in my club, on my—”

“I’m gonna blow a fucking hole in your guts for starters,” Ronan growled, his gun in his hand, the muzzle pressed against Blaine’s abdomen moments later. “Won’t kill you at first, but fuck it’ll hurt. There’s be blood, guts, shit, all exploding everywhere, making a fucking mess of you, one no crack team of doctors can fix. You’ll die slowly, painfully, just like you deserve.”

Blaine went to shove the gun away but every muscle in Ronan’s body locked down then, preventing it from moving a millimetre.

“That’s gonna happen anyway,” Blaine said, a look of resignation on his face, but his eyes started to dart around, a hand going to gesture for staff to come forward. We stepped in then, surrounding him, shielding him from the rest of the club. “Look, I know my brother has sold me out, but I’ve got something you need.”

“No—” Ronan started to say.

“Let's hear him out,” Ash said, stepping forward, arms crossed.

“You want Rush.” Blaine’s focus shifted from Ash to the dads. “So do the MCs. I’ve got lots of it here. You can take all of it.”

“In return for?” Ash said.

“Just let me go. Kill someone else and make it look like me and I’ll run, get the fuck away from here and my damn family. They sold us out!”

“Isn’t it a bitch when you think you can trust someone?” I drawled. “And they just fuck you over.”

“You want money?” Blaine stammered out. “I can get you into the safe. You want the drugs?” He turned to the dads then. “You can contact the MCs and have some of their boys load it up in the back of their trucks and have it out on the street within hours. Best high money can buy and no law against it right now. Fuck, I can even get them the formula.”

“So can we,” Ash said in a flat voice. “We started this job employed by the people you stole that formula from.”

“Show us the drugs,” Rusty said.

“Dad—” Ash went to argue with his father but the man just held up his hand as he stared down at Blaine.

“C’mon, rich boy. Show us what you’ve got.”

“Dad,you’re not giving this shit over to the MCs,” Ash argued as Blaine got to his feet, fishing out a couple of swipe cards and then leading us deeper into the club.

And that’s when it all started to come unstuck for me.

The wolf whined as the throbbing sound of the bass line filtered through, along with the moans of the dancers. She paced back and forth inside me, probably had for some time, pushed down by the adrenalin of before. Because it was all too familiar and yet somehow worse.

When one guy bent another over, slapping his cock on the bent man’s arse, before shoving it inside him I couldn’t work out if the receiver’s mouth fell open due to pleasure or pain. The wolf’s whines picked up as a girl forced a man down onto his back, a grin on her face as her knees landed on either side of his head, her hips slamming down, smothering him with her. I felt the wolf’s tension as my own, my heart beating way too hard, any feeling of power I’d earned in the alleyway well and truly gone, replaced instead with this.

No wonder I’d gotten drunk and stoned before coming here, because I wouldn’t be able to stand it otherwise. Did people want this? Were they just like me…? My steps slowed as I got to the nearest stage, my eyes searching the faces of the performers. I didn’t give a fuck about what they were doing, just that all parties were consenting enthusiastically. Jax stopped by my side, eyes flicking from the performers and then back to me.

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