Page 44 of Living Without

“Babe, don’t,” Dodge ordered. “What happened to you is as fucked as what your girl went through. Don’t matter you were there less. Got it.”

“Yes,” she murmured. Her hand gripped mine tighter. “Kelsey said Baxter usually stuck to homeless girls so no one would miss them. She couldn’t work out why I was taken.” She sighed. “I found out why. It wasn’t only because you knocked him back, Talon, or that Dodge bested him. He was Cameron’s cousin.”

“Fuck,” Dodge clipped. “The dick who wanted Josie?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus Christ,” Stoke grumbled.

“He’ll get what’s coming to him,” Talon said. Looking to him, I saw his eyes were on Nary. They were soft as he went on, “But, honey. We need to know what happened in there.”

“Talon—”

“No. One way or another you gotta get that shit out, and we ain’t your girls, I know this, but we want to hold that burden with you. No one else has to know, girl. Give it to us to hold. Give it to us to take on, Nary.”

“I don’t—”

Squeezing her hand, I glanced up to catch her eyes. “Angel,” I said softly. “Give it to us.”

“You will all lose it. I’ve seen it happen. I know what this will do to you all.”

“Baby girl,” Stoke started. She turned to him. “We will lose our shit, but it won’t happen in front of you. We will lose it because of that fucker. It will make us crazy in anger, but none of it will change the way we care about you or treat you.”

Shit, fuck, shit.I didn’t want to hear, but I knew I had to.

She nodded and sucked in another breath. “They dideverythingexcept… he, Baxter, he wanted me to stay pure for my owner, that way they could get more money for me.” The room filled with a thick fire of rage. It rolled off us all in waves. “Um, when they took my photo, I begged for him to not send it to you all. I-I tried to refuse it. That was when he hit me, and because I fought back…” She fell silent. “We didn’t eat or shower for four days after that, not until I’d found out I was sold.”

She sucked in a shuddering breath. I stood, picked her up, and sat her on my lap, cradling her head against my chest as her body shook. “Fuck, angel. You’re safe now,” I murmured against her hair. I felt her nod, only my eyes were looking from one brother to the next. They were all fightin’ what I was to keep our cool.

Baxter was gonna pay tenfold for what he’d done.

How-fuckin’-ever, he wasn’t gonna get the easy way out with death. Shit no. I’d bring the idea to my brothers for Baxter to be turned over to the cops after we’d had our time with him. He needed to live his life out with days filled with pain and hell.

We had brothers on the inside. They would make certain of it. They’d keep an eye on him day and night to make sure he couldn’t end his own life, and they’d make certain Baxter knew what fear was.

The fucker did not deserve easy.

The bedroom door banged open. Dallas entered, yelling, “Cryin’, screamin’ girl down the end. Nary, we need you.”

Nary gasped and was off my lap, running to the door in seconds. I quickly followed her, and in the hall down the end, we heard the ear-splintering pierce of Kelsey yellin’ Nary’s name.

As we came to the door, Nary paused only a second before she was up and standing on the bed with a scared Kelsey. With her arms out in front of her, she whispered shit to Kelsey.

“I was only sitting in here when she woke while Gypsy showered. I didn’t do shit,” Dallas said from beside me.

Looking there, I saw Melissa standing in front of him. She slowly turned and glared up at him. “You big arse, you would have told her not to freak or cry, or some stupid shit.” She pulled back her leg and kicked him in the shin.

“See, it’s okay.” I heard Nary say. “The men here won’t do anything even if we do something to them.”

“Fuck, tiny woman. You—”

“Shut it, Viking man, and get out.”

“Gladly,” he snarled in her face, only his head tipped back to the ceiling, and he cried, “Why me?” Melissa sent him a wink and a kissy face.

The banter, the small smile on my woman’s face helped cool the fire raging inside of me. No matter how much I wanted to race from that room and deal with Baxter, my woman was coming first. I wasn’t leavin’ her side until it felt right.ThenI’d deal with Baxter alongside of Stoke and Josh.

Family first.

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