Page 67 of Pirate

Pirate scowled. “Does everyone know I hurt my leg?”

Demo nodded easily. “Pretty much. Jumper sent out a text message this morning not to bother you, but I knew you’d want to know what’s going on. I didn’t know Sophia was here and could drive you.”

“Thanks, man. Yeah, we’ll head over. Let me get my?—”

“You better be about to say ‘shirt’,” Sophia scolded him. “If you were about to say you were going to get your leg, I am going to put that damn thing down the garbage disposal.”

“Ha!” he laughed in her ear. “Joke’s on you. We don’t have a garbage disposal.” He kissed her cheek from behind. “And I’m feeling much better. I can walk?—”

“Pirate!” she scolded, turning around to face him. She would not be moved on this.

“We have to go,” he pushed, meeting her eyes. “Whatever is going on, it’s urgent. Why else call Paige?” Sophia shook her head, because she honestly didn’t know. Paige was an acupuncturist, and she didn’t know enough about the profession to make a guess as to why Paige was called to Jenna’s aide. “I promise, I will sit down whenever I can and I will not overtax myself.”

He held her gaze for a long moment. Finally, Sophia sighed, “Okay, fine. I just don’t want you to start hurting again.”

He kissed her quickly on the lips. “For that, I am appreciative, but right now we need to get dressed.” Over her head, he said to Demo. “Go on ahead. Sophia’s cage is downstairs. We’ll follow as soon as we can.”

Sophia glanced over her shoulder in time to see Demo nod and then head out the door with the boys again.

“Let’s go,” Pirate urged her into the bedroom. “Paige had a head start on Steel, but there’s no doubt Steel still beat her back to his house.”

They didn’t botherto shower. Since Sophia didn’t have any clothes but the ones from the previous day, she wore her jeans, sneakers, and did some weird bow-thing with one of his button down shirts that actually looked incredibly hot. She either didn’t care anymore or forgot about hiding the marks he left on her body.

Pirate switched from his work khakis to a pair of dark jeans, put his leg on, boots, and threw on an old Marine’s t-shirt with his cut. Putting weight on his leg stung more than it hurt, but hewasn’t going to let that stop him. He was just reaching for his phone, along with his wallet, when the device started to ring.

Seeing it was Demo, Pirate frowned. “Hey, did you hear more?”

“No, we haven’t left yet. Viktor just got here with the cage. But you better get down here. Your lady’s tires were slashed.”

“The fuck?” Pirate stood up straighter.

He looked around for Sophia and found her walking into the bedroom with his gun held between her thumb and pointer finger by the grip. Her face held such disgust for the weapon that one might have mistaken the gun for a poisonous snake.

He rushed over, a slight limp in his gait, to take the weapon from her. The safety, thankfully, was still on, but it still was never a good idea to put a loaded weapon in the hands of an amateur. He should have disengaged the clip before putting it down earlier and wasn’t entirely sure why he hadn’t.

“Pirate?” he heard Demo ask over the phone.

“We’re on our way down,” Pirate said shortly and then hung up. He pocketed his phone. “We need to go. Get the dogs.”

Sophia turned and hurried back out into the living room. She called back to him, “What is it? Is it Jenna?”

“No!” he called back, locking his gun safe in his nightstand. Double checking he had his wallet, he left the bedroom. In the living room, Sophia had Pooch’s harness on him and was working Kidd’s over his head. “It’s your cage. Someone slashed the tires.”

Sophia bolted to her feet, Kidd’s harness hanging unclipped off of his sides. Unlike Aerial’s harness, neither Kidd’s nor Pooch’s claimed them to be service dogs. They were standard, everyday harnesses. “What! My Bug!”

“We’ll get everything figured out.” Pirate finished getting Kidd’s harness clipped. “Let’s get downstairs and see what’s going on.”

For a morning that had started out so nicely, Pirate had a feeling the day was going to make a one-eighty turn.

They endedup having to leave Viktor to deal with Sophia’s cage. Shortly after they got down the stairs of the apartment building and into the parking lot, a text message went out to all the members and ol’ ladies saying to get to Jenna and Steel’s house. Sophia didn’t get the message, but Pirate had plans to change that. Whatever was going on, he still had every intention of claiming Sophia.

Demo got the boys into the SUV, Sophia hopped into the far back with Pooch and Kidd, Pirate got into the passenger seat, and Demo got into the driver’s seat. Viktor was left in the parking lot with Sophia’s keys, instructions to take pictures for her insurance company, and to call for a tow to take her cage to Grumpy’s garage. Sophia also texted Carlos, not knowing if she should make a police report but needed to get to Jenna’s house.

In the back seat, she looked more pissed than sad. “Maybe it’s time. I’ve had my Bug since I was sixteen. Maybe it’s a sign I need to get a new car.”

Pirate turned in his seat to look back at her. Mikey had put his tablet down and both boys were paying attention to the dogs. “That’s not a today decision. Tires can be replaced. Once we figure out what’s going on at Steel’s, we’ll have Keys look at the apartment’s security cameras.”

She met his eyes. “You think my Boot Mover is responsible.”

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