Emotion welled up in Tank’s chest. “She’s a fucking shark. Or maybe a snake. I can’t keep up with her. She always seems to be two steps ahead of me, and when I start asking questions, she whips off her clothes, and I can’t think about anything but fucking her. She’s fucking hot, man. Beautiful, but dangerous.”
“So the fuck am I.” Holt threw a few bills on the counter. Tank laughed, letting some of his tension go as they walked out of the café.
“Not pretty enough, brother. If I recall she dumped a beer on your head when you tried to get her into bed.” Tank skirted around a group of Skull Crackers who had recently pledged allegiance to the Sinners.
“I pissed her off on purpose,” Holt said. “She made my fucking skin crawl. At some point I decided the challenge wasn’t worth the risk.”
If Tank were as perceptive as Holt, he wouldn’t be in this mess, but he’d been a long time without a woman and with Holt gone, he’d suffered again from the lack of self-esteem that had plagued him since he was a kid. “She’s stacked, man. Tits out to here. Curves all over the place. Her skin is so fucking soft and smooth. Her hair is always perfect. She’s like a doll. I never had a woman like her. Never thought I was worth—”
“Don’t say it.” Holt cut him off with a bark. “You’re worth fifty fucking Ellas. No. One hundred. One thousand.” Holt turned down a side street, and they made their way down the back alleys to the Majestic, a ten-story hotel overlooking Sandy Lake. “She’s not even worth the time it would take to fuck her.”
“That’s not gonna be an issue,” Tank mumbled as he took in the lavish gold-and-red reception area, the huge crystal chandelier and the slick marble floors. “I’m more worried about keeping my dick around her than using it.”
They took the elevator to the tenth floor and walked down the hallway to door 1147. Holt made a quick check of the corridor and the exit then nodded for Tank to knock. Ella opened the door right away and gestured him inside. She looked perfect as usual, her blonde hair sleek and shiny, her voluptuous body encased in a form-fitting white dress, and her vivid blue eyes cold and clear. The only imperfection Tank could see was a fresh smudge of red lipstick at the corner of her mouth, as if she’d been kissed only moments ago.
“James. How nice to see you again.”
Holt came up behind him and slammed the door open. “You get two for the price of one this morning, sweetheart.”
Ella barely flinched. “And you brought a little friend. Your missing friend, if I remember correctly. The one who murdered that Black Jack back in Still Water. Are you really so scared of me, James, that you needed to bring him with you? You were very much in control when we were in bed together. Or don’t you remember?”
“Shut the fuck up.” Tank gritted his teeth and walked into the room. Decorated in dark, heavy wood, rich blue carpets, and gold brocade furniture, with a separate bedroom off to the side, the suite was at least five times the size of his room at the clubhouse.
Ella closed the door behind them and leaned against the wall, arms folded. “Don’t be rude,” she admonished. “I could have just handed this tape over to the police or aired it on the six o’clock news. I’m doing you a favor by offering to give it to you.”
“How the fuck did you get into my phone?” Tank snapped. “I don’t sleep that heavy, and the phone was in my pocket all night. I woulda felt you taking it out.”
“Not if you were drugged.” She lifted a creamy shoulder and shrugged. “Hard to tell the difference between a man who’s had too much to drink and a man who’s been given a little something to help him sleep, so I can use his thumb to unlock his phone.”
“You fucking bitch.” Tank started toward her, and Holt held out his hand.
“Hear her out, brother. You’re on the back foot here.”
Ella fiddled with the shiny gold doorknob beside her. “Listen to him, James. He’s the smart one. He knew enough to stay away from me the first time we met. But then he went and got himself caught by Viper and left you all alone. Poor James. So trusting. So lonely. Such easy prey without his savvy friend by his side to warn him away.”
Holt growled. “What the fuck do you want? Spit it out or quit wasting our time.”
“We want you.” Ella gestured behind them. And fuck, if it wasn’t the ATF dude who had been after Naiya standing in the doorway to the bedroom, his weapon aimed at Holt. Tank reached into his cut for his gun, but Ella quickly pulled a weapon from the table beside her and pointed it in his direction.
“Hands where I can see them.”
A howl of anguish ripped out of Tank’s throat. Holt was here because of him. He was going to die because he had come to help Tank. How fucking stupid could he be? Why hadn’t he realized the whole thing with Ella was a trap?