Page 76 of Arm Candy Warrior

Brawler pulls the shirt off his back and hands it to her. She gives him a wobbly smile and yanks it down over her head. It pools around her until it’s basically an oversized dress.

“Natalia,” I start, pausing until she meets my gaze. Her eyes are like stone, and I can tell she doesn’t want anything to do with us or what happened to her tonight. She wants to bury it so deep inside her that it never comes back up. “We should talk.”

“Nope,” she says, throwing the door to the car open. “I’m good.” She pierces us all with a look before walking away. She didn’t give us the order not to open our damn mouths, but it was implied. Like we would ever say anything.

She runs up the porch steps, straightens her spine, and pulls the rickety storm door open before disappearing into the apartment.

“Son of a bitch,” Oscar curses.

“They’re doping up girls who didn’t even sign up for it,” I say, testing the words out on my tongue because it doesn’t even seem like something that should be said. How could someone be that heinous?

“And using others,” Oscar deadpans.

Magnum pulls away from the curb. It’s only a short drive to the apartment building where Brawler lives. I move to his side of the car and wrap my arms around his waist. He literally gave Natalia the shirt off his back. He has too big of a heart for the Heights. “We need to get these fuckers,” he says.

I nod into his chest, agreeing wholeheartedly. There has to be something we can do. I have to hold faith that this would bother Johnny. If I take it to him, he’ll deal with it. He’ll make sure the guys under him will be punished, right?

Brawler kisses the crown of my head. I scoot away from him, and he gets out, his broad chest naked as he walks up to the apartment doors.

Oscar moves over to my side of the car now, pulling my head down to his chest. He filters his fingers through my hair, playing with the ends until he starts all over again at the top.

“She’s going to be fucked up from this.”

He nods.

A little while later, my phone buzzes, and I pull it out of my pocket. Brawler sends me picture after picture he took of Natalia while he was in the room with her. He made sure to get the full room, so it was apparent it was taken at Candy’s, but he also blurred her face out. Or in closeups, he cropped the picture so it cut her head off. Only Brawler has the originals, and if I know him, he’ll have gotten rid of them so none of this traces back to Natalia. He probably saw his sister in her. An innocent bystander being hurt by the Crew again.

Then, a recording comes through of the conversation we had in the car. I can tell who the voices are because I was here for the actual moment, but he’s hidden Natalia’s identity for anyone who wasn’t there, and I fucking love him for it.

“Jesus, he’s smarter than I give him credit for.”

I nudge Oscar in the ribs. “Not helping.”

He blows out a breath and leans back against the seat.

“Alright,” I say, “Tell me straight. What’s the likelihood the Crew knows about this already?”

“Unlikely.” His eyes apologize as he says, “I get that they’re bad people, but they’re well respected by people around here. If people knew they were doing this, they would get so much shit. At least when it’s my mom, she’s doing it for drugs. But being drugged and taking an innocent girl to be someone’s plaything. No fucking way. In a sense, the Crew is like Robin Hood. Taking from the rich and giving to the poor. People around here have a healthy dose of respect and fear for the Crew, but look how much good they bring? They give people jobs. They give people safety.” I balk at that, but Oscar shrugs. “In here they do. I know that hasn’t been your experience with them, but I’m telling you, if you ask people if they like or hate the Crew, most will say they like them. Crew guys are like fairy tales in the making. Johnny, Mag, me, and a ton of other guys went to Rawley Heights and are doing better than most of the other guys who graduated from the Heights and didn’t join up. We have people trying to get in every fucking day. That wouldn’t happen if people didn’t like them.”

I hope he’s right for Johnny’s sake. I want to think he had nothing to do with this. In fact, I’m mentally praying he’s oblivious. Yes, I’ve seen him do some fucked up things, but hurting young girls? I just can’t wrap my head around it.

“What about the money aspect?”

“The Crew has limits.”

“But they’ve murdered people in cold blood.”

Oscar shuts his mouth, jaw tensing.

Magnum pulls into the underground parking lot, passing by security. “I’m coming up with you,” Oscar says. His hand slides down my thigh.

It’s just as well. I don’t want to be alone tonight. I shudder to think about what happened to Natalia in her doped-up state. If she doesn’t remember now, I hope she never does.

We take the elevator up to our floor. Magnum watches Oscar and me warily. He hasn’t said much since this all went down, and I’d love to ask him what he thinks about it, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

The elevator opens, and Magnum, Oscar, and I split. I wave my hand as he turns toward his door and I turn toward mine. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” he says.

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