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Vengeance is certainly on Lance’s mind, but I don’t say anything about that. Instead, I narrow my eyes at him. “What makes you think I ruined anything?”
Sydney leans back against a pillar that’s chipping white paint, completely unbothered about his expensive suit. “Lance was eager to take ownership of your little club, excited to be given such a responsibility. Yet, he failed to seal the deal. I hate to admit it, but he has a knack for getting his own way. So for him to have failed, I knew it was because he had pulled back.”
Gray starts to moan next to me, and I turn my head to look at him. His eyes remain closed and there’s only very little movement from him.
“What have you given him?”
“Oh, just a light sedative, he’ll be fine,” Sydney scoffs as though I’m being pernickety. I just glower at him.
“Anyway,” he sighs with an exaggerated eye roll. “When I came by the club and saw you with him, I could see there was something there, so I looked you up. A brief background check and I saw that you attended university with Lance and his little crew of merry men. You had to be the reason that he was hesitating.”
“And you thought having me delivered to him black and blue would make him sign on the dotted line?” I snarl.
He looks to the ceiling to contemplate this. “You know, I’m not sure what my plan was initially, I was just so fucking mad, I needed to make someone hurt,” he laughs. “I thought that maybe his bleeding heart would want to step in and buy the club to keep you under his protection, but that backfired and apparently paused the process completely. That’s my bad.” He puts his hand on his chest as though apologising, just not for the right thing.
I shake my head at him, disgusted by his very presence.
“However, imagine my surprise when I did a little more digging and found outwhoyou are!” His eyes glint with a promise of danger and my heart races. “I don’t know what’s more upsetting, the fact that Lance would jeopardise an important sale for you, or that he had unfettered access to Byron Maxwell’s daughter without making use of it.”
52
LANCE
My two-minute document sign turned into fifteen minutes. Apparently after my last meeting with Amiri, I’d scared him enough to have his lawyer draft up a contract guaranteeing that as the new owners, neither Annika nor I would let go any staff from the club for any reason short of gross misconduct. I rolled my eyes and agreed to sign, not wanting to read it, but he insisted I read the contract to know what I was agreeing to. On any other day I’d be more thorough, but I wanted to get back to Elle.
I run down the stairs and out into the bar, throwing a wave at Micky, the bartender Elle purposefully flirts with at some point during every set. I had hated him until she’d introduced me to his stunning model wife and their equally beautiful dancer girlfriend. I’m pretty sure he’s not interested in a third. Out in the cold evening air, my breath whisps out in front of me. I look both ways up the street but don’t see Elle, a small twine of panic coiling at my insides.
Tommy is stood at the door, looking pissed and ready to fight. He doesn’t scare me though.
“Where’s Elle?”
He looks at me with a frown. “Her ride picked her up about ten minutes ago.”
That twine grows to rope and squeezes my chest to the point of pain. “What ride?I’mher ride,” I growl at him.
“I wasn’t looking, I was dealing with a couple pricks who thought they could bully their way in. It was a black car, a guy got out and spoke to her and she got in the car with him. She seemed fine.”
“What did he look like?” I’m trying to keep my cool but failing miserably.
Tommy huffs in annoyance and it takes everything I have not to sock him in the eye. “Tall, built, crew cut, black suit…oh and a scar across his face.”
“Fuck!” I’m striding to my car and pulling my phone out before Tommy can say anything else. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. I shouldn’t have let her come outside alone. I’ve fucked up.
Brent answers on the second ring. “Hey.”
“Elle’s gone,” I’m sliding into the driver’s seat of my Lamborghini, grateful that I have the horsepower to get me home in the quickest possible time.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” His tone takes on a harsh note that I am not usually on the receiving end of.
“She was ahead of me out the club and Keith picked her up before I got there.” The engine growls as I haul-arse out of the car park and screech onto the near empty road.
“Shit.”
“I need to know where he’s taken her, Sydney has properties all over the fucking city, some even I don’t know about.”
“I’m on it, get back here and we’ll plan.” He huffs out a sigh before gentling his voice. “Are you okay?”
For some reason that infuriates me. “No, I’m not fucking okay. I was meant to protect her!”
