by Ruby Vincent
“Mommy.” The high-pitched little boy voice that came out of his mouth stood my hair on end. Acker slid off the couch onto his knees. “How was work?”
Flicking to the wine bottle, I moved closer and veered to put the table between us. Acker simply crawled around and planted himself at my feet. “It was good. Fun. Love what I do.”
“Aren’t you going to ask about my day at school?”
I closed on the bottle. “Ack— Bry, before we get started, why don’t we have a glass of wine to relax?” The pills were heavy in my pocket. “White or red?”
Acker frowned. “Mommy, what are you talking about? Little boys can’t drink wine.”
“You—”
“Ask me about my day at school.” The little boy voice dropped for a moment to let a hard edge in.
Frustration and discomfort made me want to scream. The girls were hiding twenty feet from the Kings, waiting for me to come for them. I did not have time for this!
Just play along. I’ll be out of here soon.
Taking a deep breath, I plastered on a smile. “How was school, Bry?”
“Good,” he said. “I got a hundred on my spelling test and Mrs. Tannen said I was the smartest boy in class.” Acker started bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Aren’t you proud of me?”
“So proud.” An idea came to me. “Mommy is so proud, she’s going to make you a special treat.”
“Yay!” Acker nuzzled my thigh. “What kind of treat?”
I stumbled getting away from him. “Your favorite. Warm chocolate milk.”
“That’s not the treat I want.”
Revulsion turned my stomach. No grown man should speak in that kind of voice while oozing such lust.
“Part two is under new management, sweetie. It caters to a very different clientele.”
“Good b-boys eat and drink what their mommies give them.” The words cracked under my fight to not throw up. “If they do, they get more treats.”
“Ooh. I want more treats.”
I opened the minifridge. On the bottom shelf, mini cartons of white and chocolate milk lay side by side. I poured the chocolate in a glass.
My back to him, I loudly whistled over my spoon crushing the pills. The powder was tipped inside and the drink put in the microwave in the time it took Acker to crawl to my side.
“Almost done,” I said brightly.
Acker turned me around, resuming his nuzzling. I glared at the microwave timer and willed it faster.
Beep. Be—
“Here we go.” I moved to the couch if only to stop him touching me. He followed on his hands and knees, and then sat up to take the offered glass. “Drink your milk, Bry.”
He looked from the glass to me. “Oh, I’ll drink my milk.” Holding my gaze, he smiled wide, and tipped the drink on the floor.
Acker launched at me. Shooting off his knees, he snatched my collar and ripped. Buttons pinged across the room with the echoes of my scream.
Sequin-covered breasts fell out of the torn blouse. Acker shoved it down and descended open-mouthed.
I dove away and he knocked off-balance, pitching forward. Moving fast, I twisted around and whacked him across the butt. Acker straightened and gaped at me in pure surprise.
“Bad,” I barked. “Bad boys spill their milk and rip Mommy’s favorite shirt. Do you know what happens to bad boys?”
“I...” Acker stalled like the script had been snatched from him and he didn’t know what to do next. “They...”
“They’re spanked.” I pointed to the couch. “Assume the position right now, mister. Pants down.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Acker nearly smacked himself in the face rushing to remove the suspenders and drop his pants. A rock-hard erection poked a hole in the cushion as he bent over the couch, wiggling his ass in excitement.
I thought fast—head whipping from the remains of the pills splattered on the floor to something, anything, that would get me out of here.
My gaze fell on the bottle of wine, and Sinjin’s voice roared through my mind.
“I’d be concerned about this country’s alcohol consumption if it didn’t provide a handy weapon.”
“I’m ready for my spanking, Mommy.”
I grasped the neck, and the devil in my ear spoke again. “Use it. Kill him.”
The gross costume was in tatters. My breasts sore from his eagerness leaving scratches. After one of the most horrific nights of my life—the three girls I couldn’t save and the girls I wasn’t certain I did—this man forced me into his incest fantasy and assaults me.
“Kill him.”
I jumped on the couch, bottle raised high, and smashed it over his head. Countless shatters burst apart on his skull, showering the floor in glass raindrops.
Acker slumped over the back. Unconscious.
“Sir?” A faint voice came through the door. “Sir, is everything alright?”
I snapped up and tumbled off the seat. I hit the floor hard.
“Sir, I’m coming in.”
Time had run out.
Scrambling to my feet, I raced to the hall table and grabbed the phone as the door chimed open. The heels clomped my retreat, stamping on the tile too slow to pace my thudding heart.
“Wha— Hey!”
I fell on the door to the balcony as thunderous footfalls sounded behind me.
“Stop!”
Cold, whipping air blew tears in my eyes. I seized the ledge, vaulted over, and fell to the unforgiving earth below.
Screaming, I dropped past an open window and the shocked couple inside. Brambles caught me. The bushes extracted payment for saving my life, tearing gashes on my arms and cheek. There wasn’t a part of me that didn’t hurt. I forced the pain down and pushed myself up.
“Don’t move,” the guards shouted. The clicks of half a dozen safeties going off were heard amid the couple in the window’s squawking. “Stay right there, bitch!”
“I don’t appreciate being called a bitch by the dickless minions of a pervert!” I took off running, bullets peppering the ground behind me. “Go spank your boss’s ass!”
I veered around the building, leaving their threats behind.
Exposed. Bleeding. Chest heaving like I ran for a century. I was a terrifying specter exploding into the dignified, elegant scene.
Those that didn’t run away shrieking, demanded to know what happened and if I was okay. I ignored them, kicked off the cursed heels, and ran across the drive, scattering millionaires in my wake.
Where are you? Where are you?!
“Redgrave?” Cash materialized from the shadows under the awning. “What the fuck happened to you? Did Acker do this?” Cash drew his gun so fast, it pulled me up short and I almost dropped on my ass. “Where is he?”
“Cash, no. Forget him. He doesn’t matter.” I fell into his arms, adrenaline deserting me short of the final stretch. “We have to get to Marco’s Pizza now.”
MY ARRIVAL DREW ALL eyes to me. Running inside wearing Cash’s oversized coat and screaming, “Kaylee,” would do that.
“Kaylee?”
“Check the bathroom,” said Cash, coming in behind me.
I was moving by the end of the sentence. Throwing open the door, I stopped at the threshold and swept the room. There were three stalls, each one hanging open.
“Kaylee, are you here?” I whispered. “Please, be here.”
A small hand gripped the frame, and then a blinking eye followed. “You came.”
My knees gave out. I dropped to the floor, arms flying open to catch her. “Of course, I came,” I sobbed. “Where are the other girls?”
Kaylee shook her head in the crook of my neck. “They wouldn’t come with me. IIona said she didn’t trust you. She can take care of her sister by herself. She told me to go with them, but I didn’t go.”
I shut my eyes, heart squeezing. “That’s okay. I’ll find them if I can. Make sure they’re safe. Let’s get out of here.” I stood to leave, holding her hand. The door
opened.
Kaylee saw Cash, and ripped free. Crying, she ran in the stall.
“Kaylee, no, it’s okay. He won’t hurt you.”
Honestly, she couldn’t be blamed for thinking otherwise. Free of his coat, Cash’s well-built physique of rippling muscles and tattoos were on full display. Clinging tighter to him than the white Henley shirt was the leather gun holster. But none of that was what struck true fear.
The sub-zero frost in those harder-than-gold eyes would frighten anyone who had witnessed that coldness in the ruthless gangbangers who beat, terrorized, and sold her.
A ruthless gangbanger like Cash himself.
But as I got on my knees, reaching for her again, I spoke knowing deep down everything I said was true. “Cash would never hurt you. He’ll protect us, and bring us somewhere safe.”
His weight thumped the ground. Cash was on his knees. “That’s right, Kaylee. You don’t have to be afraid of me, and to prove it”—Cash placed his gun in my hand—“Adeline will hold on to this.”
Kaylee poked her head out.
“If I do anything you don’t like, she’ll kill me.”
An extraordinary thing to say to a child, but Kaylee looked at me, eyes seeking, and I nodded.
Kaylee came out of the stall.
She took my hand, and together, the three of us left.
“WHAT IS THIS PLACE?” I asked softly.
Kaylee wasn’t sleeping. Her head rested on my lap and the blanket Cash gave us wrapped her up warm, but she was wide awake. Still, I spoke barely above a whisper. The energy needed to do more left me hours ago.
“It’s my apartment.”
A better description would have been loft, and topping that, would have been luxury downtown art gallery doubling as a living space.
City light streamed in through a wall of windows. For the other three walls, their beauty lay in the portraits, paintings, canvasses, and prints covering the exposed brick. They demanded all the attention, and therefore, the rest of the décor was simple. The couch we sat on. The coffee table, rug, dining table, and the kitchen accompaniments. That was all.
“You have your own apartment? Then, why do you live in the station?”
Cash moved around the kitchen, taking things in and out of the fridge. “My alias is on the lease, but all of us use this as a safe house.”
He set a sandwich and glass of milk on the coffee table. Kaylee immediately dug in.
She gave me the okay to return his gun awhile ago. She trusted him. Trusted us. And as we waited for the Merchants to arrive, she had told us her story.
Cash returned from the kitchen carrying a first aid kit. “Come here.”
I didn’t fight him. Getting up, I settled on a dining chair and let him tend to my cuts.
“How did you get these?” he asked, not letting his voice carry.
“Jumped off a second-story balcony into a bush.” The toneless voice that came from my mouth didn’t belong to me. “How did you get that?”
Cash followed my line of sight to a jagged scar on his arm. “Sinjin. We got into it over something stupid and he stabbed me. He was wild in his teen years.”
“Was?”
The dim lights didn’t allow me to be sure, but I thought I caught a grin.
“Did Acker hurt you?”
I definitely imagined the grin. No one could follow a smile with the menace leaking from his pores.
“No. I ran from the bodyguards that burst in after I smashed a wine bottle over his head, not from him.”
“I will hear the full account of tonight.” His gentle touch was at odds with his voice. “Then I’ll determine what happens to Bryan Acker and his guards.”
I said nothing. What was there to say?
His movements were steady and sure bandaging me up. Exactly as I would’ve expected from a doctor. The unexpected was the effect he was having on me any way. The places he touched soaked in his warmth—drawing it deep into myself.
Cash turned over my hand to treat a cut on my palm. I closed over him, lacing my fingers through his.
Twice I’d place his expression as he looked at our hands as curious. But he didn’t move. And I didn’t speak.
We sat there for a while. Until Kaylee got up.
Cash stood too, sliding out of my grip. “I’ll find her clothes,” he said. “She can shower and then get some sleep. The guys are on their way.”
I nodded. Tears prickled behind my eyes, and I couldn’t say why.
“Thanks, Cash.”
“You’re a wild card, Redgrave,” he replied, walking off. “I would be an idiot if I hadn’t assumed something like this would happen.”
“WHAT CAN I SAY? I PROMISED life with our bunny would be interesting.”
A chin rested on my forehead. Sinjin drew me out of the way, and closed the sliding door on the sleeping eleven-year-old.
“What happened?”
I faced them.
Mercer reclining on the couch. Cash leaning on the window. Brutal a silent figure by the table. And Sinjin—eyes level and serious like I’d rarely seen.
“The auction,” I seemed to say. The voice that spoke was still not mine. “That’s what happened. Whatever it was, it’s not that anymore. Hasn’t been for a long time. They cater to different clientele now.”
Mercer leaned forward, brows drawing together. “What does that mean?”
“It means Corbin tried to sell that little girl to the highest bidder.”
“Sell—”
“Yes, sell! Her and two other girls I managed to get out of there, but I don’t know where they are.” I threw out my hands. “I don’t know where they are, or the other three I couldn’t help. They’re gone, Saint!” I whirled on him. “They could be anywhere in the city with people who are doing fuck knows what to them.”
“Adeline—”
“It’s not the first time.” Tears soaked my cheeks. “The deep shame of everyone behind that stage made it clear they’ve seen more children than they can live with put on that stage.”
He reached for me. I ducked his touch, advancing on Cash.
“I couldn’t make out the people in the crowd. I got a glimpse when I came in, but on stage, the lights blinded me. All I know is the bidder numbers for the ones who took the first three girls. Ninety-one. Forty-seven. Twelve,” I counted on my fingers. “We have to find out who they are, and get them back.”
“Corbin’s the one who will have that information,” Cash said.
“Then we get him!” I fumbled at my pocket. “I have the phone. This is what you needed to take them down. I got it.” I forced it on his palm, closing his fingers on it. “I couldn’t go without it, because you’re going to stop them.”
Saint grasped my shoulders, setting me on the couch. I stopped his retreat.
My nails cut piercing tracks that didn’t elicit a flinch.
“Tell me you are.”
“We will, Adeline. Their crowns will be wiped clean off the street.”
Strike.
“Their businesses smoldering ash.”
Strike.
“Their men cemetery fodder.”
Strike.
“The Kings are finished in this city.”
The final blow landed and Adeline Redgrave fell.
“Then I’m in.”
“In?” Cash repeated.
“I’m in the Merchants. I’m in with you,” I told Sinjin. “I’ll be your bride. I’ll perch on your throne. If you’re destroying those sick, child-trafficking bastards, I’m going to be a part of it.”
“You understand we don’t do anonymous police tips,” Mercer said. “We don’t give warnings and we don’t show mercy. If we find the people who took those girls, they will die in a manner violent serial killers would call excessive.”
The phantom hand squeezed my breaking wrist.
“Sure you want to be a part of this?” Sinjin swept over the assembled men. “Of us?”
My gaze was steady, and the voice that replied, wa
s mine. “I’m in.”
A normal man would’ve showed disbelief. A moral man shock and outrage. But a blue-haired demon was neither of those things.
A grin curled into Sinjin’s cheeks, wide and beaming.
“Welcome aboard. Want a nickname? I’m still partial to Bunny.”
Adeline Redgrave fell.
And the person who rose in her place was new, unnamed, and masked.
COLD SEEPED INTO MY thighs. A bitter replacement for the heat the concrete floor was stealing from me. I could’ve gotten up. Returned to the bed made of pillows and blankets in the living room.
I swiped another finger through my treat and licked it clean.
A figure moved in the darkness.
“When the Brutal’s away, the mouse will play.” Mercer appeared above the kitchen bar. “Naughty.”
“Ever notice how much better food tastes when you eat it with your hands?” I scooped more icing as proof.
“Can’t say I have.”
“Try it yourself.”
To my surprise, Mercer got on the floor next to me. He cupped his hand over mine and tasted the chocolate buttercream. “Mmm. You might be onto something.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
It was just the three of us. Mercer slept on the couch and Sinjin tucked me in under him. At some point in the night, I slipped out and found my way here.
“There was nothing you could’ve done, Adeline. You know that, right?”
My grip tightened on the plastic. “I should’ve stopped him.”
“You did stop him.”
“Not before he sold three girls like exactly what they called them. Items. Objects.”
“He had a gun. You thought fast, came up with a plan, and took him down anyway. You got Kaylee and the others out.”
“Two girls, one of them eight years old, are spending a night on the streets because it took me so long to get back to them,” I said. “We can do this all night, Mercer. I don’t deserve praise.”
“I think Kaylee would disagree.”
I turned away. Mercer grasped my chin.
The crushingly beautiful face. His hands on my skin. Chocolate and woodsy cologne. All of him became my world.
“We’ll find them, Adeline. As of tonight, Corbin’s out of business.”
