Page 10 of City of Salvation

Any trace of a buzz I was feeling from the tequila disappeared the moment my attention went back to Nikki. She’d moved toward the front of the stage, a look of rage painted on her face. My body moved toward her, weaving through the crowd before my brain processed our actions.

I got there just in time to hear the douchebag in the front row spout off some shit about him paying to be there, and that meant he could do whatever he wanted. She had the heel of her stiletto shoved into his shoulder, but as soon as I was standing beside the little prick, she yanked her foot up, catching him in the face.

“Oops,” she said in a mocking tone. Nikki was a fucking spitfire. There wasn’t an ounce of remorse in her voice and it had me grinning from ear to ear.

That was until he opened his mouth.

The club and all its patrons faded away. My fingers dug into tender flesh, and I yanked the kid toward me by the throat, relishing how his Adam’s apple bobbed against my hand. “Silly me. I thought I heard you call her a fucking bitch. But that can’t be right, can it?” His tongue swiped across his bottom lip, sweat starting to bead on his nose as he frantically searched for his two buddies.

No loyalty amongst the rich and entitled because they’d run off the second I’d walked up.

I leaned closer to whisper in his ear, not wanting anyone to hear my threats. “Because if you did call her a bitch, I’d have to cut out your tongue and feed it to my dog,” I said, pulling away to give him a wide sneer.

I didn’t have a dog, but he didn’t need to know that. The threat to cut his tongue out still stood.

Angry eyes met mine.

I chuckled at the vitriol on his face. I’d give him props. Most men couldn’t glare at me the way he was, but my guess was that he could do it because he was dumbass, not because he was brave.

“Do you know who my father is?” he spat out.

A burst of laughter came from beside me. Nikki was no longer on the stage. Instead, she was close enough that I could smell the coconut scent of her hair. I wanted to lean over and bury my nose in it.

“Called it. I knew you would say some shit about yourpowerfuldaddy.” She stepped between us, her back brushing my chest. I wanted to rip the little fucker’s eyes out when they dipped to her breasts. I did the next best thing, forcing his head up with the hand still wrapped around his throat.

Nikki reached back and patted my thigh, and I felt like a fucking proud peacock at the gesture of praise. I was so wrapped up that I almost missed what she said to the punk. “Please, tell us who he is. I guarantee he’s dirty. Taking bribes and orders from the real people who run this city.” She leaned in close, lips turned up in a sneer. “Bet I could get him to crawl on his knees and beg at my feet like the dog he is.” Her ire made my dick hard.

God. I love an angry woman. I’d crawl to her…fucking bark too.

She signaled toward me with her thumb. “This is my friend Dex. He’s the enforcer for the Skeletons of Society MC.” The kid began to pale when he spotted the rocker on my cut, confirming her claim. “And the owner you were probably going to demand to see, she?—”

My free hand shot out and covered her mouth when Irealized where she was going with that sentence. Her muffled insults vibrated against my skin as I pulled her back to my chest. She waspissedI was manhandling her, but I’d prevented her from spouting off that a Los Muertos cartel’s female kingpin owned the club. I doubted that Ryan wanted that fun little fact to go around Tucson.

Plus, I knew Nikki would regret it the moment the words slipped out because, normally, she wouldn’t share that shit.

I cut in. “The owner would tell you that she’s calling the cops on your ass for assault, and your daddy wouldn’t like that shit stain smear on his reputation, I’m sure.”

The way he flinched confirmed my suspicion. Pops was the real Boogeyman in his life. I let him go, but to my surprise, he didn’t run off the first chance he got. He looked at Nikki, needing to get in the final word. “I didn’t want to watch you dance anyway. I was sent in to give you this.” He shoved a white envelope toward her. Painted nails plucked the stationery from his hands.

I pushed him away, worried he might try to take a swing at her. “Get the fuck out of here, kid, and don’t come back.”

I released the hold I had on Nikki as soon as he was far enough away, surprised she hadn’t fought harder to get out. When I looked down, all I caught was her blonde hair flying behind her. She practically ran toward the private rooms.

“What the hell, woman,” I mumbled under my breath, heading off after her.

CHAPTER 5

NIKKI

WE YELL FUCK LIKE A PROPER FUCKING LADY

Natasha Petrov.

That was allthat was scrawled on the stationary the asshole had shoved into my hand. There went my hope that Yuri was looking for me elsewhere, because my name alone was a threat. No one here knew that name.

Not even Ryan.

I slipped into one of the vacant private dance rooms, my heart hammering in my chest as if I’d run for miles and not just down a hall. The rooms were about the size of a walk-in closet. Intimate, with a deep tufted bench that ran along three sides of the room and a pole smack dab in the middle. For safety reasons, there wasn’t an actual door. Instead, a heavy velvet curtain hung from the ceiling and pooled on the floor, looking like spilled blood under the red lighting.

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