All is Lost (All Series, Book 2) (35 page)

Gravitating closer, she flattens her hand
against my bare chest, gliding it up and around my neck, gripping
roughly. Pressing her tits firmly into me, her lips part slightly,
allowing a low moan to escape as she nuzzles into my neck. She is
absolutely more brazen than her cousin too. Breesan would never
shamelessly flirt. Needing to diffuse the situation, I search the
upper balcony, that ingresses to the VIP section, for any signs of
Marcus. I hope that he’s had time to alert Breesan of Wren’s
presence or formulated a diversion, preferably one that extracts me
from her allurement. Perhaps it’s her affinity to the girl I
recently wanted to make mine, but I am beginning to discern a
strong familiarity with her.

Unsuccessfully pinpointing Marcus or Breesan,
I resign escaping her clutches temporarily and glance down at her
again. Seductive silvery eyes rivet me struck still, and I breathe
in deep as she stares at my mouth expectantly.

“
What is your name?” She asks
hungrily, her pink tongue sweeping out of her luscious
lips.

“
It’s just one dance,” I respond,
breaking eye contact with her. “There’s no need to get intimate.”
There is definitely something familiar about her, but I just can’t
put my finger on it.

“
Listen, I get it. I’m not into
playing games either so why don’t we just say goodbye.”

Her words echo déjà vu, causing me to glance
back down, piercing her heated glare with curiosity. Finally, it
hits me.
I do know her, or at least someone identical to
her
.

“
You remind me of a Vegas hooker,”
I stumble out my remark before editing. Gasping loudly, her
annoyance surfaces and she withdraws from our embrace entirely.
Before storming away, she strikes me hard across the
face.

“
You’re a real bastard.”

Clasping my hand against my reddening cheek, I
wince at the tenderness, but dismiss it quickly as I notice Wren
trudge her way through the thick, gyrating mob, approaching the
staircase.
Shit,
I mentally chide myself for letting her get
away, heading exactly where she doesn’t need to go. I rush forward
pushing my way through several tangled couples receiving several
annoyed glares.

Within a few feet of reaching her, I glance up
the stairs spotting Breesan descending. Turning my head back to the
landing where Wren remains, appearing to be searching for someone
again, I halt trying to come up with some damn excuse to keep her
from coming face to face with her cousin.

Slowly she spins around preparing to climb the
stairs, when out of nowhere a guy looking a couple of years younger
than her places a tender hand on her bare shoulder. Smiling, he
leans into her grazing his mouth against her ear as he speaks. She
nods her head agreeably accepting his offered hand. He leads her
away from the stairs and ultimately out the front door. Exhaling
loudly, my shoulders slump and I weakly angle my head around,
seeing Breesan’s foot hit the bottom step. She flashes her
thousand, megawatt smile oblivious of the close call, and I shake
my head disgusted by how close I was to hitting the panic button
and screwing this whole plan up.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Breesan

The energy of the Toxic’s capacity crowd
bounces with the blaring “Motorhead” tunes playing while “Beginning
Monday” is between sets. So far the night has been one of the more
interesting nights since I started working here. Several fights
broke out and the bouncers booted all parties involved. The entire
crew working with Marcus is decked out in Goth and it appears that
they are all enjoying the hell out of their anonymity behind the
heavy makeup. As many times as I’ve seen Marcus dressed up I still
can’t get over how damn fine he is and tonight is no exception.
Hard as I try, I cannot stop looking over the edge of the balcony
down to where he is sitting at the corner edge of the bar. We make
eye contact every once in a while and each time I am rewarded with
a devilish smirk and promising wink.

Working my ass off tonight I have not had much
of an opportunity to observe and I am really getting frustrated by
not spotting the abductors after nearly two weeks of this charade.
Earlier tonight I decided that just looking for them is not enough.
When the crowd thins out a little I am going to start integrating
myself into conversations and hopefully extract something useful. I
damn sure am not letting Marcus know what I have planned. He would
be pissed, but I just do not have the patience to keep waiting
around for some freaking miracle to happen.

Dropping off orders at one of my regular’s
table, I stop by the one next to them where a couple of men just
sat down. I let them know I will be back in a few minutes to get
their drink orders and bring menus. The guys don’t look familiar so
maybe they should be my first shot at digging for information.
Adding their very hard edge look to their less than happy demeanors
gives me the idea that they could possibly know the guys who
abducted my friends. I’m not judging I just think that every person
that usually hangs out here comes for the live bands. These two
look like they are scoping out the place for more than musical
entertainment purposes. I am not naive by any means. I know that
there are dangerous forms of entertainment that some of the patrons
like to dabble in. I even had a very close call with death once
when someone injected me with a deadly, new drug called Ryske right
here in this very club.

“
Hey ya fellas,” I smile. “Here are
your menus. What can I get you to drink?”

The larger of the two glares at me with a look
of disgust filtering through his dull green eyes. Feeling
overwhelmed by his merciless scowl, I quickly avert my attention to
the other man.

“
Bring me Hennessey on the rocks
and keep the menu. We’re not here to eat.” The smaller guy states
coolly. His eyes are only slightly kinder then his friend, but his
hard tone is definitely just as intimidating.

“
I’ll have an Ultra.” The larger
man growls, tossing his menu back at me.

“
Sure thing,” I say. “I’ll send the
bartender over with your drinks in just a few minutes. If you need
anything else, my name is Beatrice. I’ll be back to check on you
soon.”

“
You’re new.” The larger man
states, rather than asking, before I can walk away. “And a little
young to work in a place like this.” He adds, scanning his eyes
along my body.

Not wanting to reveal too much about myself, I
normally avoid personal conversations with customers, but I decide
with these two I need to change that. Perhaps they will be the
break we have been waiting on.

“
Yes, that’s right. I just moved
here a few weeks ago.” Swallowing down my apprehension I add, “My
cousin let me move into his place, but he made it very clear that I
had to get a job. Luckily his roommate runs this place so she hired
me as a favor to him. I haven’t seen you guys here before. What
brings you out tonight?”

The smaller guy smirks slightly at my
admission, but before he can respond the larger guy
answers.

“
Just. Drinks. That’s all we’re
here for. Now, be a good girl and get our drink’s sent over here.”
He snaps at me before turning to his friend and adding, “Can we cut
the small talk? I’m not in the mood for this shit!”

Spinning on my heels, I hear the smaller guy
respond as I walk away, “You need to loosen up, dammit. There’s no
reason to be mean to the kid.”

Tyle takes the orders to the guys who don’t
act like assholes with him. I continue working my other tables
while keeping an eye on them. They don’t look happy. As much as I
want to press them for information it is clear that they don’t
trust outsiders. So I scale back on pursuing information and just
go for casual conversation.

“
So are you guys ready for another
round?” I ask politely, taking their empty glasses. Neither man
looks directly at me when the larger guy responds by nodding his
head.

“
Not that I think you need help
with women, but there’s a cute lady at the bar that keeps looking
over and watching you guys.” Catching the smaller guy’s eye with
this tidbit of information, I wink after he peers around me to spot
her.

The larger guy grunts unhappily, tugging on
his buddy’s arm, drawing his attention away from the cute woman.
Shaking my head at his determination, I chuckle once before leaning
against their table. I place my arm down and signals for them to
come closer. Narrowing their eyes at me, the guys glance between
themselves before letting out a unified huff while leaning toward
me.

“
It is totally none of my business,
but you two act like someone killed your dog.” I say playfully.
Both men jerk back away from me like I just slapped the hell out of
them. Startled by their reaction, I straighten my posture and my
smile fades when they stab me with a hateful look.

“
What the hell is wrong with you?”
The larger guy growls at me.

“
I’m sorry? Did I say something
wrong?” I ask.

“
Have you been living under a damn
rock since you moved here?” He answers my question with a
question.

I shake my head no, uncertain of what I could
have said that has him so defensive. Proving my point, he crosses
his arm snuggly across his chest, barely containing the anger
rolling off of him.

“
What did you say your name was
again?” The smaller guy asks.

“
Beatrice,” I say as I swallow hard
forcing down the nervousness that his anger instigates. “Beatrice
Bentley.”

“
Bentley? As in Tyle Bentley?” The
smaller man asks with a kinder tone.

“
You are Tyle Bentley’s cousin?”
The larger man asks accusingly, still being a dick about something
that I do not have a clue about.

“
Yes!” Mustering every ounce of my
stubbornness, I face him directly and give him just as much
attitude as he is giving. “Now, for fucks sakes, are either of you
going to tell me what the hell I did that has you both so pissed
off?”

“
Jesus, you would think your cousin
would have told you since
he
was dating our sister when she
was abducted two weeks ago.”

Every ounce of blood drains from my face as I
stare harder at them waiting for the earth to split open and
swallow me whole.
No, it can’t be true
. These two guys
cannot be Waverly’s brothers. However, as I continue to look at
them realization slowly reveals to me that they are the same men
who attended Morgan’s welcome home party when I was his date.
Frozen where I stand, I search their faces for any similarities to
the beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed woman, but with their dark
auburn hair and green eyes, I don’t see it.

“
Damn, you must have heard about it
on the news at least. Our sister and two other local girls were
abducted from the hospital parking garage in broad
daylight.”

The smaller guy continues to speak to me, but
with the last bit of information he provided the world fades away.
Here I stand in front of Waverly’s brothers, and they have no idea
that I am one of the girls that was reported as abducted. Tears
burn harshly behind my eyelids and nausea stabs my stomach. My hand
jumps to cover my mouth as my stomach lurches. Unable to stop it,
the nausea takes over and I empty what little food I have in my
stomach right in front of them.

“
What the hell?” One of them
snaps.

Running away sick and guilty, I see them jump
to their feet following me. Fear begins to creep across my skin as
I cut through the crowd and dash down the hallway to the employee’s
bathroom, hoping I lose them in the cluster of people.

Winding my way down the hallway, I feel the
rush of nausea once again as I turn the last corner. Scooting
around a couple groping and kissing against the wall, I stagger
forward and startle when I bump into a man coming out of the
bathroom. Taking note of my diminishing state, he leaps back
against the door frame to let me through. I grab the sink and drop
my face into the ice cold water from the faucet. I stay under the
water for several moments rinsing my mouth and praying I could wash
away the shame I feel.

Waverly’s brothers are distressed over the
abduction of their sister and here I am staying on a freaking gated
and guarded compound with people who are willing to risk their
lives for me, sleeping with my boyfriend every night, and
pretending that I am someone else. All while their sister could be
god knows where, if she is even still alive.

A knock on the outside of the door jars my
mind to the present and I glance in the mirror at the mess I made
of my makeup. The guilt I once had is replaced with fear, seeing my
reflection. With most of my facade washed down the drain I am
easily recognizable. The knock comes again and I begin to panic. If
they want in here bad enough they will get in, even if it means
busting the door down.

No one is going to bust down the damn door.
Pull yourself together
.

I smear the last remnants of my eyeliner
around my eye hoping that it will help mask some of my identity.
Expecting to find the two brothers when I pull open the door, I am
a little shocked to see the guy who was coming out of the bathroom,
waiting on me.