Page 54 of Torch

I nodded in agreement while pressing in the code to his door. It clicked, and we made our way inside. My face turned up at the smell in the air.

Axel pulled his shirt over his nose. “Eww, why does his place smell like corn chips and hyena piss?”

Blade and I stared at him blankly. “How the hell would you know what hyena piss smells like?” Blade asked him.

“That’s a story for another day, brother. Let’s get the cameras up and get out of here.”

Axel took Smoove’s bedroom, while I had the living room, and Blade had the kitchen and dining area. We wanted to make sure we had multiple angles so that if he had any visitors, we were guaranteed a good look at their faces. Eight minutes later, Cara’s panicked voice came through the earpiece again.

“Get the hell out of there! Smoove just walked into the lobby. Take the emergency exit down the hall.”

Axel rushed from the back. “Emergency exit? It better have an elevator in there. We’re on the seventeenth floor, Cara!” he whined.

“Axel, shut up and get out of there! He’s already on the damn elevator. GO!” she screamed.

We hurried out of the condo, sprinting toward the stairwell. Right as the door was closing, I heard the elevator ding.

“Haul ass,” I told them as we started jogging down the stairs.

By the time we made it to the final floor, we were breathing harder than Darth Vader on a treadmill. I pushed the door open, taking in loads of fresh air. Dice was there waiting in the van. He honked his horn for us to hurry up. We all stumbled inside and lay on our backs, trying to catch our breath. Dice and Gunner sat up front, laughing their heads off.

After a few minutes of gathering ourselves, Blade spoke. “Come on, Torch. I think if we jump her little ass, we can take her,” he panted.

Axel held his fist out to us. “I’m with you, brother. Her ass needs to pay for this stunt.”

“I agree,” I huffed as my chest rose and fell rapidly.

“Is that so?” Cara’s voice came through. My eyes ballooned, and so did Axel’s and Blade’s. “Well, I’ll be waiting out front of the clubhouse, fuckers!” she spat as the connection went dead again.

“Don’t take us home, Dice!” Axel pleaded.

The asshole laughed deviously while speeding up. I plopped back down, preparing myself to run yet again. We might have to face the Tasmanian devil when we got back, but at least the mission was complete. A win is a win. Right?

Chapter Eighteen

BRITTNEY

It had been a week since Cara had given me all the info on my biological father. I was currently parked in front of his barbershop with a stomach full of butterflies. I had finally made the time to come here. Things had been kind of hectic for me lately. For starters, Kira, Oscar, and I finally presented our business plan to the club, and they approved it. Viper wanted things done as fast as possible. He hooked us up with the club’s realtor to find a location. After two days of searching, we finally found something we all fell in love with.

From there, we hit the ground running. I didn’t know much about opening a business, but it was fun learning. We were all splitting the tasks of opening the salon. I was so busy these days, all I did was work, go home to Christian, and sleep.

And Christian made sure to give me a daily dosage of sex at least twice a day.

All in all, things were going pretty good for me. I just had one last battle to face. Honestly, pushing it off was easy. I was too scared of what the end result would be. I didn’t know exactly what I was expecting to gain from all of this. I just knew that if my father didn’t want anything to do with me, I would be crushed.

I screamed when someone tapped on the glass, scaring the shit out of me. I grabbed my chest as my heart beat wildly. Christian pulled the door open, stepping closer to me. “Sorry about that, beautiful. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay. I was kind of lost in my thoughts.” Christian nodded while eyeing me with a smirk. “What?” I asked.

“Nothing. It’s just that I have given you access to all my cars, but you are always driving the Lamborghini. Let me guess, you done fell in love with Midnight?”

I giggled, staring at him. “I can’t help it. It drives so smoothly. But did you really name this truck Midnight?”

Christian playfully frowned. “Your damn skippy, I did. If I’m dropping nearly three hundred thousand dollars on a vehicle, I’m naming it, bonding with it, and everything else.” I threw my head back, laughing at his silliness. Christian smiled widely, watching me. “There it is,” he said.

“There what is?” I questioned in confusion.

“That smile. When I walked over, I could tell you were a ball of nerves. Understandably so. But I want you to remember that I’m behind you every step of the way and I got you.”