RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (ebook voice reader .txt) 📕

in his demeanor, in the lighthearted and almost jovial way he’d reacted to killing two people in that explosion, people I cared about deeply.

I clenched my fists, fighting harder than I’d ever had to do before to hide my reaction from him. I couldn’t let him know about the pain and grief clawing at me and threatening to take me over. It would be a weakness and that was something a strategist like him could use far too well to their advantage.

“I’m not the asset you think I am.”

“How’s that?”

“For one, my recent job was a failure. My client was… neutralized. You managed to apprehend me.”

“Because you fell victim to the Rick Vale curse.”

“What curse?”

He laughed nastily. “I’m surprised he never told you about it. He’s like a broken record about it.” He thought for a moment. “Then again, he probably figured you’d never get mixed up with him, let alone, spread your legs for him, if you knew. Anything that guy touches goes to shit. It never fails either.”

“That’s a sweeping generalization. Ridiculous.”

“Well, whether you’re down with it or not, it’s the truth. You faced a double-edged sword with this job, though, because Slade was involved.”

I fisted my free hand in the sheets to contain the ire close to exploding all over the smug asshole at both his audacity and the cavalier way he’d just brought Slade up, like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t gotten caught up in that explosion.

“What about him?” I managed to grit out.

“He ran roughshod over you with his own plans and intentions, compromising your meticulously crafted approach. Him going after Nolan is proof enough of that.” He shifted his weight. “I’ve gotta ask, after he did that, going behind your back, and breaking your hard and fast rules, why did you keep him on as a client? I’ve looked into you, I know you’ve kicked people out the door for less than that. Not only did you keep him on, but you also went out of your way to protect him at your safehouse. I want to know why, why was he so valuable? Was it about his connection to Rick?”

Everything was still so raw when it came to the guys, especially Slade. With the weakness from the strong sedative compromising me, and something else that I just couldn’t seem to put my finger on, my poker face shattered.

I knew the second I’d given it away, because the realization was all over Freeman’s face in the next moment. And it was clear that it was something he hadn’t actually accounted for.

“Huh. I see. It wasn’t just a one off with Rick. You’ve got a thing for bikers.” He smirked slyly. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He pushed off the bed and shook his head to himself. “You could do a lot better than Slade Mitchell, sweetheart. He had way too many demons weighing him down. He didn’t have the means to handle a woman like you. He was broken, a shell. My father saw to that. Slade was set in his ways and already surrendered to his lot in life. You want somebody who’s going places, who’s got the whole world to give you. A woman like you is a hell of a rarity and you need to be appreciated for that.”

He was laying it on thick.

It was making me sick to my stomach.

So was him talking about Slade in the past tense.

“All of this is pointless. These compliments, hitting on me, all the trouble you went to in order to bring me here so we could talk privately… every little bit of it has been wasted. Look elsewhere for what you want, because I’m not taking on any new clients. In fact, I’m leaving this business, retiring.”

I noted his surprise. It mirrored my reaction to Slade confessing the same thing to me. Instead of heeding it, though, he shook it off and told me, “You don’t understand. This isn’t just some job. It’s more than even a career path. It’s a calling. I’m building an empire. It’s way beyond the Strikers Rising ruse.”

“Ruse?”

“Yeah, I fed that bull to Rick, because I knew he was playing double agent.”

“You were trying to buy time until you had everything in place.”

He grinned. “That’s right.”

Realization dawned. “I redirected the surviving Strikers members for nothing. You never had any intention of really recruiting them.”

“Nah, they were just pawns. Building my own motorcycle club was never my plan, certainly not my endgame. Like I said, I’m building an empire.”

“What kind of empire? Weapons? Drugs? Gambling? Trafficking?”

“Yeah,” he answered with a glint in his eye.

A bit of everything then. The guy was building an empire all right. Shit.

“And where do I come in?”

“You have a network of contacts and a hell of a lot of leverage.”

“What leverage?”

“Tons of clients you’ve done questionable things for, things that they’ve ordered which will compromise them big time.”

“You want me to turn on them, blackmail them to bend them to your will and agenda?” I asked incredulous.

“I want you to use them to your advantage.”

“Discretion is a vital part of my business.”

“A business you want to retire from anyway.”

“These are dangerous people we’re talking about.”

“I have an army at my back. I can protect you.”

“I don’t need anyone to protect me. I never have. And you want to know why? I make smart decisions. I don’t disrespect or threaten the wrong people.”

“To achieve true success you have to make a few waves along the way.”

I shook my head. “This is suicide. You’ll be taken down before you even make it out of the gate.”

“Not with you beside me. It also spreads the risk. My father made the mistake of going it alone. He never even gave his VP or Sergeant-at-Arms any autonomy. They and the entire structure of the club was completely dependent on his rule and say so. So, once he was taken out, his entire club fell apart. I don’t plan to go the same route.”

“You already have Nolan.”

He scoffed.