RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (best books for students to read txt) 📗

With a growl of frustration that my mind had wandered down that road, I tossed the cheap-ass scratchy covers off and climbed out of bed.

I had shit to do.

First thing was first, though. I needed to check in with the club.

I snatched my phone off the bedside table and dialed. I didn’t have to wait long until it picked up. It was a good sign that things were in order while I was off territory. “Liam. How’s things?”

“Hey, Prez. All good here.”

“You sure? Nothing to report?”

“Nah. Business is running smoothly. No security issues. The boys are all getting along.”

“Good.”

“How’s your vacation working out?”

“Fine.”

“Yeah?” he pressed. It was obvious he wanted more, but I weren’t gonna give him that.

“Yeah,” I said firmly, making it clear not to push it further.

There was a brief pause on his end, then he said, “Okay, Prez. Stay safe.”

“Will do. Later.”

I hung up and blew out a breath.

Me and him had been through a whole thing about keeping secrets and he’d even gotten it in his head that I didn’t trust him, because I’d gone that route. But this was different. I couldn’t bring it to him until I had things sorted. If this mission failed, then it would slam the lid shut on my plans of leaving Steel Titans anyway. There weren’t no point getting the club all riled up for nothing. Me being away was a real good test to see whether they could pull it together without my leadership. Liam had come a long way recently. He had the instincts there.

Me being out of the picture for a bit was gonna help him to trust in them. Mason had shit locked down when it came to security. It was also a major load off for him that Cole had finally calmed the hell down now that he’d settled with Natasha and their kid.

Internally, things were primed for me to step down. It was just external issues that were throwing up a roadblock.

The Strikers side of things should be covered by Willa. I didn’t see no reason why she wouldn’t take up my case once she looked into all the shit she’d insisted on.

That just left the big gun for me to handle.

Adrian Nolan.

A real fucked-up result of my reckless, younger days. Back then, I’d been out of control. And because of that misspent youth and my foolish belief in my own invincibility, I’d racked up a load of enemies. Over the years, I’d managed to take them down.

Nolan was the only one left now. He wasn’t actively gunning for me, but I knew a lot of that was to do with the club. He knew our code. If you came at one of us, you came at all of us. He didn’t want to risk that kind of blowback. But the second I left the brotherhood and went out on my own, he’d come for me. There was no doubt in my mind.

We had a score to settle.

And guys like us never let that kind of thing go.

4

~Slade~

SLEAZY.

That didn’t even cover it.

Indulge definitely lived up to its name.

I’d been in dozens of strip joints in my time, but this was another level.

It didn’t follow no rules neither. That shit bothered me. Rules meant order and things running smoothly. Rules meant respect. This place had none of that. There weren’t even no such thing as keeping hands-off the dancers. It was a goddamn free for all. I liked a rough and wild time, but this was just demented shit.

Just like the asshole I was here to see.

He hung out here the same time every week. Friday night. He spent his time in one of the VIP rooms screwing around with one stripper in particular. Chardonnay. Hell, they weren’t just strippers here. That was an insult to exotic dancers everywhere. Nah, they were whores. This place called itself a strip club, but it was a fucking brothel. They kept that part of it to the backrooms, though, to keep it off the general public’s radar. Only those approved were allowed back there.

It was just one of the fucked-up businesses that prick, Adrian Nolan, ran.

As President of Steel Titans, I’d done some bad stuff, been on the wrong side of the law, and I had blood on my hands. But even with all that, there were some lines I’d never cross. We had a code with the club, one I busted my ass to enforce. And part of that was that women and kids were off limits. Fucking always.

Nolan didn’t get that.

All he did get was money and power. He could never have enough of it. He was always working toward gaining more of both. The cost never mattered to him. Nothing was sacred to him. When I’d first come across him about a decade ago, it’d rubbed me the wrong way. Back then, I hadn’t known the meaning of the cautious, safe approach. I’d just let my gut lead me. I’d just reacted. It had bit me in the ass with him. He hadn’t been able to let go of what I’d done to him. Every year, he’d call me up and remind me that he’d be coming for me the second Steel Titans fell, the second I stepped out from the protection of the club.

Nah, I couldn’t be having that.

I’d shown mercy to him before, but that had been a mistake. You could only defeat people like him by getting down to their level. You couldn’t pull any punches, because then they’d get back up in time and come for you harder than you went at them.

Time to fix all that.

I chugged back more of my scotch. It was some shitty kind. It tasted like it’d been watered down. Didn’t surprise me that much, given how cheap I knew Nolan to be. I might as well have ordered it on the rocks, instead of my usual neat go-to.

I eyed my watch. I’d been here