Bubbles

by Candace Blevins

  One of the men in the living room said, “He told Snake he was here to pick something up. Might be we should search for product.”

  Dozer said, “Clear!” and I raced in with Gonzo on my heels. I took the guy on the right, he took the one on the left, and we were in the bedroom within seconds.

  “You crazy mothafuckin’ whiteboys coulda got me kilt! They told Lexi to come alone!”

  Talk about mother-of-the-year. Fuck. I stood over her and said, “No way in hell was she walking into this by herself. Do you have any idea what an innocent your baby girl is, or what they’d have done to her?”

  “They weren’t gon kill her no how — she just need tuh learn a lesson. That girl too damned uppity for her own good.”

  I looked at the asshole on the floor, knocked out cold. I could hear his heartbeat, so Dozer hadn’t killed him, unfortunately. I wanted to punch Lexi’s mom, but this was between mother and daughter. For now, anyway.

  I met Lexi’s mom’s gaze until she was afraid of me. It’s a gift. “You’ll stay with your business partner until we get this sorted. If that isn’t possible, we’ll work somethin’ else out to keep you safe, but you will not put your daughter in danger again.”

  Lexi ran into the apartment with Duke right behind her. “Mama! You okay?!”

  “What the fuck you thinkin’, lil girl!? Lettin’ these white boys come when you were s’posed tuh come alone!”

  Lexi glared at me and told her mother, “They were supposed to let me come in and just keep watch. I didn’t know they were going to do this, but…” She looked at the bodies on the floor and shrugged. “It seems to’ve worked out okay.”

  I stepped to her and put my hand on the back of her shoulder. “Your mother’s going to spend a few days with her business partner while we get this sorted.”

  “I called Marlin,” Duke told us. “He’s on his way.”

  “I dragged the assholes from the hallway into the living room,” Gonzo told us from the other room.

  I leaned down, hogtied Fury with zip strips, and carried him into the living room. They’d already done the same to the men in there. Two were conscious but not talking, the other three were still out cold.

  A table and lamp were broken — the guard I’d punched had fallen on top of it on his way down — and Lexi’s mom went on a rant about it the instant she saw it. Instead of arguing or apologizing, I pulled my wallet from my pocket, counted out five twenties, and handed them to her. She’d be able to replace them for ten bucks at Goodwill, but whatever. I just wanted to shut the ungrateful bitch up.

  I looked at Duke. “The Half-pint’s gonna pack a few more things. We’ll be in her room until Marlin gets here.”

  It was a small, two-bedroom apartment and we’d been in her mom’s bedroom, so figuring out which room was Lexi’s wasn’t hard. She followed me in and I closed the door.

  “Will your mom be safe with her business partner?”

  “Yeah, but she’s gonna be pissed at me that you know she has one.”

  “Sorry. Just tryin’ to keep everyone safe.”

  “You shoulda told me the plan.”

  I sat on her bed so we were eye-to-eye. “I wanted to, but I worried you’d get hurt if you went running upstairs ahead of us. Would you’ve trusted us to keep her safe?”

  She crossed her arms. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’d have argued with you, but…” She sighed. “I’ll trust you for sure if something else comes up. Don’t lie to me again.”

  I considered what I could promise before saying, “I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll do my best to keep from lying to you about anything that involves you or your family.”

  She held her hand out, and I shook it, but then pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her. “I liked havin’ you in my bed, Half-pint. Let’s finish up here so I can get you back home. You can sleep wherever you want, but the offer to sleep with me — with or without sex — is there. Your choice, you just let me know what you want.”

  She nodded, pulled out of my arms, grabbed a large paper shopping bag out of her closet, and began putting more clothes into it. “Etta has all kinds of reasons for me to stay away from you.”

  “And I’m sure every reason is a good one.”

  “Most of them.” She glanced at me and sighed. “You’re only three years younger than my mama, but you look at least twenty years younger.” Another sigh. “You don’t look much older than me.”

  “Your mother isn’t aging well. Look, your sister isn’t wrong, and yet…” In for a penny, in for a pound. “I like you, and that hasn’t happened since before I went inside. I can also promise you I’ll do everything I can to make sure you finish school, land whatever job you’re hopin’ for, and then stick with it and succeed.”

  “I want to work in a salon that specializes in crazy colors and fashion-forward cuts. The tattoo place where I work is about to expand into a bigger space, and they’re talkin’ about having a salon with the same name right next door. Health codes won’t let them do both in the same place of business, but they could put them next to each other and still share clients.”

  Logic told me I was crazy for makin’ this offer, but I liked having her in my house. I put my mouth to her ear. “Move in with me, and you’ll get a spankin’ for every grade below an A — whether it’s homework, a quiz, or a test will determine how bad the spankin’ is.”

  Her arousal blossomed around me like a flower opening and the pollen swirling out. My brothers would smell it, but I didn’t have secrets from them.

  “I got a B on my test Friday.”

  I hadn’t planned to make the ruling retroactive, but she was practically begging for a spanking. “Okay then. Since you didn’t know the consequences when you took it, we’ll make it a low-count spankin’ over the top of your jeans. Finish packing, Half-pint. Marlin’s here.”

  The knock on the door came seconds later, and she looked at me in wonder but didn’t ask how I’d known.

  She filled the bag, opened the door, and I followed her out. I smelled her fear, but she still went first. She might be tiny, but she had spunk and wasn’t going to show her fear.

  Duke started the conversation by pointing out Marlin had assured us he’d handle the situation, and Marlin was explaining that he hadn’t been able to find Fury to talk to him after our meeting.

  “Check his phone. I texted him not to do nothin’. I tole him the girl was off-limits!”

  I fished the asshole’s phone and wallet from his pocket, and ran his right pointer finger over the scanner to unlock his phone.

  Sure enough, he had texts telling him the girl was off limits, and warning Marlin would cut Fury’s dick off if he messed with her.

  Worked for me.

  “This tells me your men don’t believe your threats hold water,” I told Marlin, “We’ll stay and watch while you follow through.”

  Marlin is dark, dark black, but I’d swear he went pale at my words. I didn’t give a shit.

  “You don’t do it, I will.”

  Duke gave me a questioning look, and I handed the phone to him so he could see.

  Marlin crossed his arms. “You have my blessin’, but he need to be somewhere so we can stop the bleedin’.”

  I looked at Gonzo, who’d been close enough to me to see the texts. “The drugstore on McCallie — a few blocks from the hospital — is open twenty-four hours. We need styptic powder.”

  Fury had seen the texts and he knew what was comin’. He started fightin’ the plastic zip ties, but I’d bound him well and no way was he getting out of them.

  “We’ll leave your balls,” I told him. “But they’ll come off if you mess with her or her family again. Are we clear?”

  “You can’t take my dick, man! Fuck, you’re insane! You can’t just cut it off!”

  I ripped his shirt off and stuffed it in his mouth. “You’re making this much noise now, I can’t imagine how much you’ll cry and beg once we get started.”

  “Bubbles.” Her voic
e was so soft, I probably wouldn’t have heard her if I didn’t have werewolf hearing. I looked at her, and she mouthed. “You can’t.”

  “When Gonzo gets back, I’ll ask him to take you to my house and hang out with you until I get home.”

  “Bash is on his way with more backup,” said Duke. “Knife and Razor for sure, I don’t know who else. Let’s see who he brings and then decide who gets the women out of here.”

  “You don’t have to watch,” I told Lexi, “but he was gonna hurt you and I can’t let that stand.”

  She crossed her arms and looked at the floor. I smelled conflict and dread, but she didn’t argue. I walked to her, put my finger under her chin, and tilted her head up until she was looking into my eyes.

  “You grew up here. You know how things have to work. Marlin warned him that if he came after you, he’d cut his dick off.”

  “He didn’t mean it literally and you know it.”

  He should’ve, but I wasn’t going to get into that. “Doesn’t matter. Marlin’s on board with it, and is even gonna let me do it instead of insisting it be from his hand.”

  I opened the asshole’s wallet and pulled his driver’s license. “Walter Matthews. No credit or debit cards, and seven dollars to your name. Are you really that pathetic?”

  He glared at me, his mouth still stuffed full of his t-shirt, and I chuckled. “You’re about to be dickless, too. Sucks to be you.”

  Marlin crossed his arms and sighed. “Can we find another way to handle this, Duke?”

  Duke met my gaze and looked back to Marlin. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Beat him the hell up, or pull a few teeth. Pretty much anything else.”

  “No.” I spread my feet a little, crossed my arms, and glared at Marlin. “He knew better. He has the consequences written out for him in black and white. If he didn’t believe you, that speaks more to your weakness as leader than you probably want to admit, doesn’t it?”

  “Ya’ll gonna cut his dick off, do it in the damned bathtub,” Lexi’s mom said. “Don’t go gettin’ blood all over my crib.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I told her. “If you can show us where you keep the bleach before you leave, we’ll clean up as well as we can when we finish.”

  Bash showed up with Razor, Knife, and Horse. Duke told Horse to drop Lexi’s mom off wherever she told him to, and then to take Lexi to my house and hang out with her.

  “Gabby’s at the apartment in the city. I’ll take Lexi there so they can talk, and you can pick her up when you finish,” Horse told me.

  I nodded agreement, kissed Lexi on the forehead, and told her, “Horse will keep you safe, and you’ll like Gabby.”

  Gonzo returned with styptic powder and opened the package. I had history with Gonzo — we’d been close in Atlanta before I’d gone in, back when he was still figuring out how to live as a shapeshifter. Razor was relatively new, but it didn’t matter. He had my back, too, and I accepted his knife when he offered it. I carry a sharp blade, but Razor’s known for his being sharp enough to perform surgery.

  Bash carried Fury to the tub and situated him — his hands and feet had to be uncomfortable behind him in the hogtie, but the position pushed his hips up and out, which would make this easier. Bash, Gonzo, and Dozer held him while I sliced the asshole’s jeans and underwear away with my knife. I used a piece of the cut away denim material to hold the dude’s oh-so-shrunken dick and pull it away from his body, and then used Razor’s knife to cut all but about an inch of it off. No drama, no more talk. One slice and it was done.

  Bash was holding the shirt in Fury’s mouth to keep his screams from being so loud, but I completely ignored him. I walked to the toilet and flushed the asshole’s dick, wiped the knife on his jeans, closed it, and watched while Razor finished applying the styptic powder, which I knew from experience burns like the fires of hell. It stops the bleeding, but it feels like pure acid on an open wound. Dude was still screaming and thrashing, and Bash was still doing his best to mute the asshole’s shrieking and yelling.

  When Razor finished, I handed his knife back to him with a, “Thanks, brother.”

  Marlin was leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, and Duke stepped in front of him. “Are we good?”

  Marlin nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be clear no one’s to retaliate. Fury fucked up and had to pay the price. We’re good.”

  “You’ll want to boil a heavy-duty straw and stick it in the hole, so it doesn’t swell closed. Also, antibiotics would be good,” Razor told Marlin. “Otherwise, he’ll just need to heal.”

  I’d managed to handle the whole incident without getting blood on me, and I noted Dozer was wiping the splatter zones with bleach. I stepped out of the bathroom to keep the smell from burning my throat and lungs, and went to the kitchen to wash my hands despite the fact I hadn’t actually touched the asshole’s dick.

  The men still hogtied on the floor were awake, and I told them, “You heard what Marlin said? We’re even. No more blood. If one of you even thinks of hurting one of us, someone we care about, or someone they care about, you won’t like the consequences.”

  Marlin sounded tired, but his voice came from the bathroom door to tell them, “You’ll answer to me if you go after them.” He came around me, pulled his knife, and cut them all loose. “Ya’ll get Fury so we can get the fuck outta here. He ain’t bleedin’ no mo and he didn’t lose much blood before they stopped it, but he passed out. Someone’ll have to carry his black ass.”

  My brothers and I all trooped out of the apartment and down the stairs, got into our vehicles, and left. No one was on bikes, and no one was wearing a cut. No neighbors had come into the hallway to see us, and no one was in the parking lot. No one had called the cops, either. Everyone minds their own business in this part of town.

  7

  Lexi

  * * *

  Horse seemed nice, and I liked Gabby, but I was a wreck while I waited for Bubbles. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he intended to follow through, and the thought of him slicing someone’s dick off for retribution horrified me.

  And yet, the knowledge he’d go to that extreme to keep me safe was also kind of a turn-on.

  “You’re safe here, Lexi,” Gabby assured me for probably the tenth time, and she looked at Horse in consternation. “What haven’t you told me?”

  He sighed and sat down beside me, so I was between the two of them. “When we left, Bubbles was waiting for someone to return from the store with styptic powder, so Fury wouldn’t bleed to death when Bubbles cut the asshole’s dick off.”

  Gabby wrapped her arms around me. “Oh, fuck. No wonder you’re upset, but you have to know the club will do whatever it takes to protect someone once they’ve assured them of safety. Also, they know what they’re doing, so if they don’t mean to kill him, he’ll most likely live.”

  Horse chuckled. “I don’t think you’re helping, Gabs. Also, just so I don’t forget to tell you later, I should let you know that Lexi’s sister works for us in the hotel in North Chatt. That’s how we ended up coming to her rescue — her sister called in a favor with Bubbles and Slick.”

  Gabby hugged me a little tighter. “It’s good she could call in the favor. Are you and your sister close?”

  “Yeah. Etta’s only a few years older than me, but she raised me more than our mama.”

  “Some of the other ol’ladies might give you grief over that connection, but you won’t get any grief from me.”

  I nodded. “I met Gen and Harmony earlier, but I don’t think Gen knows.”

  “I love Gen like she’s my own sister, but she’s a prude about the workin’ girls.” She rubbed my back. “I hear Dozer’s truck. Let’s walk you out so they don’t all have to come in. I can tell you’re tired.”

  First, it’d seemed Bubbles heard stuff I couldn’t, and now Gabby. Did I need to get my hearing tested?

  Gonzo was driving, and Duke was in the passenger seat. A back door opened, Bubbles got out, and I thanked Gabby and Horse
again before practically running to Bubbles. He picked me up and put me in the truck, thanked Horse and Gabby for taking care of me, and then he was back in the truck, checking my seat belt.

  “I know how to fasten a seat belt,” I told him, my voice grumpier than I intended.

  “You’re tired. We’ll get you home so you can sleep.”

  Not my home. His home. But I didn’t correct him.

  “I’ll patrol the neighborhood until daybreak,” Dozer told him. “Just to be safe.”

  “Thanks, brother,” said Bubbles. “I was going to suggest we pull someone in, but if you’re up for it, I’ll sleep easier knowing you have my back.”

  It’s only a ten or fifteen minute drive back to Bubbles’ house, but I guess I was more tired than I realized, because the next thing I knew, Bubbles was carrying me into his house. I woke up enough to realize it, but his arms were so warm and cozy, I dropped back off to sleep.

  And awoke an unknown number of hours later in Bubbles’ bed, with his arms around me, his front to my back, and at least one part of him very awake.

  I went stiff a split second, but forced myself to relax. My hips wanted to scoot back against his cock, but I concentrated on staying still despite the fact my blood pulsed into my clit and my heart raced. Fuck, but I wanted this man to take control of me.

  But he’d said I had to ask for it, and I was mortified at the thought of asking again. It’d been hard enough to do it once.

  “I know you’re awake.”

  I took a deep breath and it turned into a yawn. I was awake, but still tired. “What time is it?”

  “Close to noon. I have room darkening shades in here, and I pulled them before I went to sleep.”

  “Were you serious about spanking me for the B?”

  “Ordinarily, no, because creating rules for punishment after the deed’s been done ain’t exactly fair.” He sighed and rubbed his hand down my hair. “I worry you’ll make yet another B just to test me, so I kind of think we have to address the one you’ve already made.” He stroked my side. “After your shower, before breakfast. Not yet.”