Page 5 of The Truths We Seek

I can be a very patient man, but right now, I’m like a kid being told to wait for cake.

I don’t fucking want to.

Someone at the table asks me a question but I don’t really hear it, continuing to check my phone as the minutes pass slower than time has ever moved.

“Excuse me,” I say to the table before standing. I have no idea who was even talking, but I am done waiting around. Without so much as rearranging myself to hide my straining dick, I make my way through the people in the room. Smiling when needed, trying to stop as little as possible, but then my phone rings and I want to throw it.

Except it’s Harper. So I can’t.

I duck into an alcove and answer the call, exasperation filling my veins like poison. “Someone better be dying, Harper.”

“Hello to you fucking too,” she drawls and I roll my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to keep my calm. I don’t have the mindset to deal with her shit at the moment. “The other two aren’t answering and we have a problem. Four of the girls have called out sick, they’re all from the basement.”

Shit.

“Do we have anyone big coming in tonight?” I rack my brain because most of our clients are here tonight anyway.

“I don’t think so.”

“Then keep numbers reduced down there, we’ll just have to take the hit and keep going.”

“I could call Elise? See if she has girls who want to come over?”

“The fuck you will,” I hiss. “The two clubs don’t swap, you know better than that.” The chastisement is sharp, but she, more than most, knows exactly why we keep the two separate.

“Fine, fine.” She sniffs and I groan. Her manipulative ways might work with Meyer, but I’ve never liked her much. “We’ll just take the hit.”

“Suck it up, Harper. Meyer won’t think less of his pet, don’t worry.”

“I am not his pet,” she snaps back. “That would be the little blonde bitch you’re all drooling over.”

Rage floods me and my nostrils flare as I press my lips together. “Be very careful what you say. Meyer might like you, but he won’t think twice about cutting you out if you keep talking shit like that.”

“Sorry,” she mumbles, and the insincerity is so thick it coats my tongue, but I am over this shit. I have my girl waiting for me and this call has me distracted enough. “I didn’t mean it.”

“We both know you did. Keep your shitty, jealous opinions to yourself. Do your fucking job and suck it up. I have to go.”

I don’t wait for an answer before dropping the call. The moment I do, I feel it.

Except I don’t get a second to move before I feel the blade on my throat. “You’re the pretty one she’s been simpering over. Fucking pathetic. She’s mine. Always has been, always will be.”

I clench my jaw but keep stock still. I can already feel blood trickling down my neck. Having my carotid sliced open really isn’t on my fucking yes list for tonight.

“Trent, I assume?” His name tastes like ash on my tongue, but most of my thoughts go to Quinn. “Where is she?”

“Let’s go find her, shall we?” His laugh makes his hand shake, the blade cutting my skin a little deeper. The second he relaxes, I’m going to stab him with his own fucking knife then cut his tongue out for daring speak of her after everything he’s done.

My mind flits between Quinn and thoughts of torturing him as he leads me across the hall to the bathroom I was supposed to be meeting her in.

“How did you find her?” I ask as he opens the door with a kick.

He laughs again. “Not everyone is as loyal as you think. It only took three of your people giving up details to find you all. One of them was very helpful indeed. It’s amazing what money can buy from the scorned.”

I grit my teeth as he pushes me forward when I feel something heavy in my back. A knife and a gun. What is this guy, a fucking Boy Scout?

He pushes me forward, the door closing loudly behind us, and that’s when I see her.

Slumped in a pile on the floor, bound and unconscious. “What the fuck did you do to her?”

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