With that, Chaz released her throat and removed his hand from between her thighs. Lucian dropped his gun to his side, but made sure his shoulder hit the man's as he passed.
"Don't touch her again," Lucian threatened. "Ever."
Again, Chaz laughed. "Club Property, pretty boy."
The door didn't close behind the bouncer as Gio was there to keep it open. With a single glance at his brother, Gio got the point and let the door close, but Lucian knew he was waiting for a knock to let his brother back in.
"You okay?" Lucian asked, turning back to Jordyn.
The girl was holding her neck with one hand, tears beginning to spill over her cheeks. Splotches of reddish color had saturated her face and throat as she gasped in a lungful of air.
"Hey, it's all right," he said when she didn't answer. "Bastard is gone."
"No, it's not!"
Lucian jerked away from Jordyn as if she slapped him. "Excuse me?"
Anger flit over her pretty features as she stood toe to toe with him. "Why would you do that? Christ, do you even know what you just did?"
"Saved you from being raped?"
"From Chaz?" Jordyn spat out a laugh, bitter and dark. "That fool has been chasing after me since I was sixteen. I'm not worried about him. I can handle his dumb ass."
Lucian frowned. The scene he walked in on was not one that looked to be in her benefit.
"I'm not going to apologize," he told Jordyn.
"It wouldn't make a difference if you did," she retorted hotly. "Now, I have to explain why some Mafioso is chasing after me."
Chasing after her?
"What?"
"Like you were being discreet in there?" Jordyn asked sarcastically. "Staring at me and touching me? That might be fine and great in your world, but here, that's not okay. It's just not! Those guys, they think of us girls like we're their property and you … You know what, never mind. Get out of here. Maybe I can save what bit of safety I might have left."
Lucian didn't have a clue what she was going on about, but it didn't sound entirely good. "Is that what you need, sweetheart, safety?"
"What I need is for you to go."
"But-"
"Go," Jordyn repeated fiercely. "Before something else you do leaves me in even more trouble."
If that's what she wanted, that's what he'd do. Not that he particularly liked it. Lucian turned on his heel and rapped his knuckles on the door. Gio opened it immediately, a silent question passing from brother to brother.
Lucian nodded towards the hall. "Let's go."
When the door closed behind them, the phonebook blocking it from locking completely, Lucian let out a heavy breath of air.
"You good?" Gio asked.
"Club Property," Lucian said, fixing his gun. "What's that mean?"
"Just like it sounds," his brother answered. "Property of the Club."
Lucian's head jerked up, eyes narrowing. "As a whole?"
"As in all, yeah. You didn't know that?"
No, he hadn't.
Chapter Six
Jordyn wrapped the thin blanket tighter around her shoulders. She wasn't cold, but she needed some form of comfort. Something to hold tight and keep her warm. All she seemed to feel now was alone.
It'd been four days since the Marcello family showed up at Legs, making the scene they had. Jordyn hadn't even bothered to go to work after, even though the place was open for business every day of the week. She was well aware of how much trouble she was probably in. At least she called in, they had to give her that. Although, she wasn't entirely sure how much Ron believed her sick excuse.
Jordyn barely managed to scrape through the last week without having to strip. Will was still hiding out somewhere, so she hoped making her life miserable was the last thing on his mind currently.
Knowing him, it probably wasn't.
Once Chaz had spit at Jordyn that she was now Club Property, she was all too aware of what that meant. The protection she once had from Gabe, his mark on her body and his status within the club, was gone. Chaz might have been nothing more than a low level member of the MC, but he was more likely to have that inside information before Jordyn did.
The last thing Jordyn wanted was to turn out like those other girls. High all of the time, being used for whatever purpose a man seen fit, and walking on their last legs. The life they thought they wanted or were going to have was not what it turned out to be.
"Is that what you need, sweetheart, safety?"
Jordyn almost wondered what would have happened if she said yes. Could Lucian have provided her with that? Probably not. If she was property, that's all she was. Something to be owned. There was no bartering or a price for her, the guys simply took what they wanted when they wanted it. And like Chaz said, if she didn't give it up willingly, they'd take it anyway.
What kind of a man would want a woman with that crap hanging over her?
I hate you, Mom, Jordyn thought brokenly.
It was entirely Sandra's fault for putting her daughter in this situation and leaving her here to deal with it alone. That anger had to go somewhere. At least Jordyn felt like she was doing something useful with it this way, considering there wasn't a damn thing she could do to the club.
Run, something whispered inside.
Sure. Jordyn could try to run, but how long would that last? Other girls had tried before. Some lasted only months, others years. Eventually, though, it came to an end. Someone who knew someone who knew someone else might have caught sight of the girl, even if it was states away. The club tracked them down every damn time.
It was always worse when they had to come and find you.
Jordyn shuddered at the thought, never mind the memories.
Once a girl was caught, she could expect punishment for her actions. No one was to run. The club was for life.
Punishment usually involved violence and public shaming. It was always done in front of the entire club, the women of the men included. She'd seen girls beat within an inch of their life, then once they were bloodied and bruised, they were just used by the men they ran from.
Jordyn wouldn't give them that.
The best hope a girl could have being nothing more than property of the club was to become too old or worn for the guys. A female they didn't want because she'd already been had a dozen times over. Usually those girls were so screwed up on drugs they didn't even care what happened to them at that point. Once that happened, she was eventually forgotten.
The damage, however, was already done.
Unfortunately, Jordyn was a shiny new toy. Some of the MC members had been looking at her for years. Their very open comments were more than enough of an indication of what they'd like to do to her if ever given the chance.
Jordyn felt sick.
At least her excuse for work wasn't a complete lie.
The ringing of Jordyn's cell phone jerked her back into reality. She fumbled to reach for the device and answer it before it went to voicemail.
"Hello?"
"Jord?"
Jordyn's brow furrowed at the female voice, but knew exactly who it was. A stripper at Legs who went by Ruby because of her flaming red hair. She also happened to be an old lady for one of the MC members, and stripped because she enjoyed dancing. Why she was calling Jordyn's phone was a mystery.
"Ruby, hey. Does Ron have you calling to check up on me, or what?"
The girl tried to laugh, but the sound was awkward and filled with tension. "Jord, listen. Uh, this is kind of important, okay. I was at the club with Donnie, just to pick up some stuff. Will was there, and he's not happy. Really, really not happy, Jord. So, um, he's coming to you."
Jordyn froze. "What?"
"He's coming to see you with a couple of guys," Ruby said quickly. "And I'm sorry, but I have to go. Donnie told me not to call and he'd kick my ass if he knew. I gotta go."
"Wait!" Jordyn shouted into the phone, practically leaping off the couch. "What time was he coming?"
"Like, now? Or he was, ten minutes ago. I'm already gone and they were getting ready. I'm sorry, but I really have to go."
The phone call cut off as Ruby hung up. Frantically, Jordyn glanced around her apartment wondering if there was something she could do to save herself from what was about to happen. Her apartment was only a twenty minute walk from the club and maybe ten minutes driving. That didn't afford her a whole lot of time.
She briefly thought of the revolver that had once been her mother's hidden in her bedroom closet, but knew it wouldn't do much good. Jesus, she hadn't even cleaned the thing in years because she didn't know how and never felt a need to use it. Ruby had specified more than one man was coming. All of them carried their own weapons.
If anything, waving a gun would only piss them off more.
It didn't matter.
Outside of her shitty apartment building equipped with locks on the main entrances that didn't even work, Jordyn could hear the unmistakable rumble of motorcycles. At least four. Panic welled like a poison, but she was frozen in place. Vomit threatened to rise from her stomach, but she forced it back.
There was absolutely nothing she could do. Call the police, she'd risk having more retribution later on. Run, they'd no doubt catch her before she even got outside of the building.