The second we skidded to a stop in the clubhouse parking lot I leapt out of the back doors as they flew open. I blazed a trail by an unsuspecting man and booked it for the house. I bounced around, peeling off my thigh highs and tossing them to the side, scattering money and ammunition around like I was one of the customers at my own damn place of work.
But when I heard a chorus of sniffles and whimpers, I stopped in my tracks.
And saw a sea of fearful brown eyes staring back at me.
“It’s okay,” I said softly as I held out my hands, “I come in peace. I swear.”
But none of them looked like they knew what I was saying. So, I held up both of my hands in mock surrender and smiled, which seemed to garner me a few head nods.
Then, I pointed to my chest. “Josie.”
One of the girls pushed her way forward and I tried not to cringe at how skinny she looked. “Josie.”
I nodded. “You?”
The girl held her head high. “Gabriella.”
I smiled. “Gabriella. It’s wonderful to meet you.”
I slowly held out my hand and the girl shook it before she spoke in her broken English. “Some girls hungry. Others, no drink for two nights. Showers?”
Tanner rushed past me and gathered the girls. He rattled shit off in Spanish and they immediately gravitated toward him. My eyes bulged as he spoke the language like he had grown up in it or something, and as the girls walked with him down the hallway, I saw Gabriella peer over her shoulder.
Before giving me a bright smile.
“He’ll take care of them,” Archer said as he walked up beside me. “But I need to help go get Cole cleaned up. He’s in pretty rough shape.”
My phone rang and I looked around the floor for it. “Sounds good. Where the fuck is my—”
Cole handed it to me. “Here. It slid into the corner where I was sitting.”
I took it from him and tried not to react to all of the bruises forming on his face. “Thank you.”
He looked over at Archer. “You ready?”
Archer slid his hand under the man’s arms. “Ready when you are.”
Then, the two of them hobbled off as I opened the text message I had from Summer.
“Hey, Archer?”
“Yeah?” he called back.
I turned my phone around. “The girls are safe at the police department. Summer says they’re with a Chief Declan?”
Finn came up beside me. “Oh, he’s a good one. I had to deal with him a few times as a kid. He’ll take very good care of those girls.”
That gave me a piece of mind. “That’s good. That makes me feel better.”
Summer’s text message had a picture of Chief Declan wrapping blankets around the girls’ shoulders while another officer handed them sandwiches and bottles of water. The caption on the picture said, “I’ll see ya when I see ya,” and I knew that meant I’d be seeing much more of Summer in the coming days.
That didn’t matter, though. I welcomed the company while we all recuperated from the shitshow that tonight had become.
I quickly shot a text back to Summer, letting her know that I’d help them out in any way I could. But the second I pressed the “send” button, Archer called down the hallway for me.
“Josie! Tanner could use some help with the girls, if you’re up to it.”
I tucked my phone back into my bra. “Coming!”
I jogged down the hallway and followed the voices of the girls chittering away in Spanish. And the second I entered the room, they all gravitated toward me. I heard the shower running and one of the girls quickly stepped out in a towel, and as Tanner ushered his arm out for another girl to go in, no one took a step forward.
“I don’t think they trust me very much,” Tanner said as he lowered his arm.
So, I traded places with him. “Just translate for me. Ready?”
Tanner nodded as he stood by the door. “Ready.”
I held my arm out. “Who’s next for the shower?”
Tanner rattled it off and Gabriella pushed a girl that looked to be no more than nineteen years old to the front of the room. The poor girl had tears streaming down her face and blood dripping from her nose, so I quickly grabbed a shirt from off the floor and dabbed her nose with it. I held her chin still softly, trying to clean her up as yet another girl came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
Then, I sent her inside along with another girl so they could quickly clean themselves up.
I ushered them in and out while Finn handed them clothes that were at least three sizes too big. But they were clothes and that bought Brooks some time to throw all of their tattered rags into a washing machine to see if he could salvage them at all. We sort of set up a chain for the fifteen girls: they washed down with me, they went to Finn for clothes, they got changed in a room that Brooks guarded before he carted their dirty clothes to the washing machine, then they made their way into a room where Archer and Cole helped to patch them up.
By the time all of them were through the stations we had set up, some of the girls were yawning.
Until Tanner rattled something off in Spanish that made them perk up.
The girls spoke back in one massive voice and while it overwhelmed me, it didn’t seem to overwhelm Tanner. He took out his phone and typed down notes, and it wasn’t until he got the chaos to die down that he turned his phone to me.
“Ooooooh,” I said softly.
Porter plucked the phone out of his hand. “This part I can do.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why are you all sweaty?”
He sighed. “Takes a hell of a lot to clean up a crime scene, make sure there’s no trace of you guys in the alleyway, and delete security footage from a remote location in some cramped vehicle.”
I whistled softly. “Man, you guys really bring it all together, don’t you?”
Porter grinned. “It’s how we stay alive.”
He pulled his own cell phone out and dialed the closest pizza place, then ordered the seventeen pizzas that were to be delivered to us this evening. The more he rattled off, the more disconcerted the young man on the other end of the line became. And by the time we were ordering, we had seventeen pizzas, ten two-liters of soda, four trays of breadsticks, multiple dipping sauces, and a large order of fresh salad headed in our direction.
Which made my stomach growl as he finally hung up the phone.
“How long do you think that’ll take?” I asked with a giggle.
He shrugged. “I told them I’d tip everyone at least a hundred bucks if they shot our order to the forefront and had multiple people deliver it in order to cut back on time.”
Archer chuckled. “That’ll light a fire underneath their asses.”
“Should we hide the girls, though? Just in case?” Tanner asked.
Brooks walked up to us and slipped into the fray beside me. “Nah. If they ask questions, we simply tell them we’re aiding the local women’s shelter in an overflow issue. That should shut them up if they get nosey about things.”
I nodded. “Good thinking. I would’ve just told them to shut the fuck up.”
The guys roared with laughter and it startled the girls at first. But Tanner quickly started rattling off in Spanish and the girls soon laughed with us. We gathered all of them in the living room and turned on the flatscreen television that I hadn’t even noticed was mounted on the wall. And after we found a movie with Spanish subtitles on one of the streaming services, the girls quieted down to watch.
Which gave all of us a moment to breathe.
“I’m really glad you’re safe,” Archer whispered in my ear.
His arm wrapped around me and I leaned heavily against him. “I’m glad everyone is okay. But especially you.”
He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. “I have something I want to ask you, and you aren’t going to like it.”
I giggled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going back to work for those assholes as long as they own that club. Consider this my official ‘I quit’ moment.”
He sighed with relief. “Thank fuck, we understand each other. Thank you.”
I yawned. “You think I could lay down somewhere for a few minutes before the food gets here?”
He kissed my temple. “Follow me. My room has the biggest bed, so you’ll be comfortable there.”
And as he led me down the hallway, away from the crowd, his hand slid to my ass cheek. He massaged it softly as we turned a corner and made a beeline for his room. My tits puckered with every grip of his hand against my body. I felt that all-too-familiar heat between my thighs wake me up as we slipped into his bedroom.
Then, he closed the door, locked it for good measure, and turned around to showcase how needy and hungry his eyes had become.
“Josie?” he asked, his voice dripping with want for me.
I perched on the edge of the bed. “Yeah, big boy?”
He growled and crossed the room, his hands parting my legs. “Josie, I need—”
I watched as he knelt to the ground and shimmied between my legs. “You need what, handsome?”
He stared directly into my eyes. “I need you.”
I cupped his face in my hands. “I need you, too. I—”
His eyes danced between mine as I drew in a deep breath. “I love you, Archer. And that’s never going to change. It scares the hell out of me, but it doesn’t make it any less true. I will never love another man the way I love yo—”
His lips crashed against my own, cutting off my ability to speak. And as he laid me back against the bed, his hardened cock ground against me through his jeans. My thighs grew damp with my juices. My hands tore at his clothes, wanting to feel his skin against my own. And as he stripped off his jacket, ripping his shirt over his head, his lips kissed down my stomach before he pulled my thong to the side.
Allowing his tongue to fall effortlessly against my swollen clit.
