Page 48 of Providence

“Don’t worry. No one will touch you again without permission, but I have to get you out of here first. Then we’ll make you so fucking strong, no one will come for you again,” I vowed softly, feeling his wasted muscles tremble.

Someone stopped beside me, a girl with scars littering her body. She looked impassively at the boy in my arms. “He used to be one of them. Tried to help a couple of girls escape. They cut off his arm and used him as a… a warm up during-” Her bravado broke and the kid’s trembling increased so I just nodded.

“Never again,” I told them both. “I am going to murder every single fucking one.”

The girl sobbed, even though she stiffened her shoulders.

Someone screamed, and I dropped the kid to the ground, grabbing my gun. When I realized it was Goliath, I grunted an expletive, leaning back down to scoop him up again. “Sorry, Kid. Needed my gun hand.” To the rest of the screaming crowd, I made a shushing noise. “It's okay. I know he looks scary, but I promise he's with us.”

Gemma, who was sticking so close to me it was like she was a shadow, whispered, “Goliath?”

I hummed a yes, and then herded them out of there. “All clear?”

Goliath nodded, his eyes going to Gemma, smiling an eerie fucking grin in his red smeared face. “Glad to see you're okay,” he said and sounded creepily pleasant.

Someone whimpered, Goliath was probably adding to their trauma but there wasn’t much I could do about that now. He whirled his finger, only giving the boy in my arms a cursory glance. “Lets go. I want to make a bonfire.”

He led us out the back doors, and I could see why he was covered in blood. It looked like the people in this section of the building had been torn apart by wild animals. There were pieces of some poor fuck on the ceiling, for godsake. More whimpering, and I had to nudge the women along, hustling them through the house of horrors. I glared at Goliath, who just shrugged and grinned, the psycho.

Finally we were out of the warehouse, and some of the girls ran. I didn’t blame them. Didn’t try to stop them. We were an unknown. They couldn’t be sure that if they went with us, they wouldn’t be switching one gang for another. So I didn’t try to keep them. Eventually all that was left was Gemma, the boy in my arms, and three girls who huddled together on the asphalt, uncaring of the cold or the stones pressing into their flesh.

Goliath handed Gemma a phone. She looked down at a message that merely said ‘Kaboom’. “Press the send button,” he said gruffly.

Gemma pressed the button. Nothing happened for a second and then the building did indeed go Kaboom. The force of the blast knocked me back a bit, and it was like a fireball ate the place. “They might have been running a meth lab at the other end. A little C4 helped it along though.”

I felt a grin split my face. I looked down at the battered kid in my arms, the gold of his eyes reflecting the fire. “We’ll burn it all down, every last fucker who ever dared cross us.”

G must have called Judas, because Goose and Bear rolled up in a van with the name and number of a plumbing company on the back. Something about Bear seemed to appease the woman. I couldn't be sure if it was his gentle nature or his boyish face, but even the comatose ones seemed to follow his gentle requests. When he looked at the boy in my arms, he grimaced, ripping off his hoodie and handing it to the kid, who was only in a pair of dirty gym shorts and not much else.

“He needs a doctor,” Bear urged, as he helped the kid put weak arms through his hooded sweatshirt. The kid moaned as the raw edge of his arm hit the fabric, and I winced. Bear leaned closer, whispering soft reassuring things as he rolled it up so it was touching the weeping places.

I slapped Bear’s back. “I know. We’ll get him one.”

I pulled out my phone and called a number that may as well be on my speed dial these days. I only knew one person who’d help these women without asking too many questions. One person who’d understand their suffering. The call answered after three rings.

“Cain?” the voice on the other end sounded half-asleep.

“Hope, I need your help.”

26

Judas

Istared at three men across from my desk. Well, four really. There was an emaciated kid with one arm curled up on my couch. I looked between Bear and Goose, and then over to a grinning Trigger. Yeah, smirk it up you little fuck. They had me, and he knew it.

“You are all as bad as Cain. Why didn’t you give him to Hope like the rest of the rescues?”

Bear shifted from foot to foot, still having the proper amount of respect for the patch on my chest and the fact that I could slit his fucking throat in exactly three seconds with nothing but a ball point pen. Trigger had just been around us way too long. He knew that we loved him like he was ours, the little bastard. I wasn’t above kicking his ass though.

“He wouldn’t leave. He doesn’t speak, but he clutched my cut and refused to let go,” Bear said softly, like he was waiting for me to erupt. He shrugged like he didn’t understand it either, but I didn’t miss the protective way Goose stood beside the kid. Jesus fucking Christ.

“And Hope just let him come home with you? She didn’t do any of her weird mind reading shit?”

Goose shrugged. “She said he was better off with us. So did Gusion. He had a weird ass look on his face when he said it though. That fucker scares the shit out of me,” he muttered. Yeah, if you had two braincells to rub together, the fucking Fallen Angels of Hell should definitely scare the shit out of you, even if they were all loved up. They tortured people in Hell, and it was pertinent never to forget that for a second.

I rubbed my temples. I didn’t need this shit. “Fine. Fix him up. He’s your responsibility, though. When he’s ready, he can either hit the road or patch in. Despite what Cain thinks, we don’t take strays like the fucking pound.”

Trigger smirked. “Except when they are gorgeous blondes?”

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