Escape

by Jay Crownover

  “I already sucked cock and fucked for money. I didn’t see any difference, and the website was nice. Flashy and sophisticated looking. The site and the kid with the BMW promised a fancy apartment in Vegas, a whole new wardrobe and the kind of money I only dreamed of making. It was all pretty upfront, or so I thought. It was clear their business was sex for money, besides being an escort, they also expected applicants to perform on camera. I was never quite desperate enough to get caught up in porn, but if it got me off the streets, I was willing to do just about anything. Once I filled out the application and uploaded a video, they would send someone to meet me for a face-to-face interview.” The teen leaned into my touch like a kitten seeking warmth and comfort. “I heard back from them the same day I filled out the online form. They sent the guy in the RV the same week to pick me up from the fleabag motel I was camped out at in LA. He told me my interview was to have sex with him and if he decided I was good enough and he thought I would make the cut, he would take me to Vegas. I must have passed because I was in the RV later that day, only something wasn’t right, and I knew it. Why would a company that promised a penthouse apartment and a designer wardrobe send a busted-up RV to take me to Vegas?” He turned his face, and I brushed my thumb over his banged-up cheekbone.

  “I told the guy I wanted out, that I didn’t want to go to Vegas anymore and he laughed at me. He told me his boss already had a buyer for me, and that scared the shit out of me. I tried to get away. We stopped at a McDonald’s, and I tried to run. That’s when he beat me up and locked me in the bathroom. I kept trying to get away, I almost did at the campsite in the desert, but I hadn’t eaten anything in days. I ran out of steam, and he caught up to me. That’s when I got this.” He lifted his hand with the cigarette burn and let it fall. “Mikey just turned eighteen. He told me that he’d moved out and promised I could stay with him. I haven’t seen him since I left home, but I have a few regular tricks who let me use their phones so I can contact him.” A sad smile moved across the kid’s face, but his eyes remained closed. It was the same expression I got when I thought about Opal.

  Lane cleared his throat roughly, and the hand that wasn’t resting on the steering wheel clenched into a fist. “Would you mind letting me talk to your brother, kid? I’ve got two older brothers myself, and I know they would do anything for me, so if your brother is the same way, I can drop you off in Denver with a clean conscience. It won’t keep me up at night for the rest of my life.”

  Bauer nodded under my palm, and I could feel some of the tension drain out of him. “I don’t have a phone. If you let me text him from your phone, I’ll have him call you when we get wherever it is we’re going.”

  I let go of my hold on his head and turned to look out the windshield. I exchanged a knowing look with Lane and shifted uncomfortably on the leather seat.

  I tugged on the ends of my hair and told Bauer, “We’re headed to Vegas. We’re on our way home to Wyoming and were going to hit all the hot spots along the way. We already have a couple of rooms reserved, but we can skip staying in the city if it’s going to be painful for you or if it freaks you out. We’ll skip the Grand Canyon and power through to Colorado instead over the next few days.”

  He was quiet for what felt like a long time, and I could feel something that felt like anxiety practically vibrating off of him. “I’m not going to have to fuck either one of you or both of you if I let you take me to a hotel, am I?”

  I gasped, and I was sure my face resembled a fish out of the water as I blustered and blundered to answer him in a way that would reassure him down to his bone. I didn’t need to worry about it; Lane had it covered.

  “Kid, this entire trip was her and me trying to figure out if we could still be friends while working together and sharing the same house if we ended up in bed together. That’s complicated enough without dragging someone else into the mix. All we’re interested in is helping you out. We’re both familiar with what it feels like to end up backed into a corner with nowhere to go. I know it’s probably hard for you to believe after all you’ve been through, but there are good people in the world.” Lane sounded so ernest and sincere it was hard not to have faith in every single word he said.

  The teen was silent again clearly trying to make a better decision than the last one that put him on the road to Sin City.

  When he spoke, he sounded so young and wistful it cracked my already fragile heart into a million pieces.

  “Is it a nice room? I can’t tell you the last time I spent the night on clean sheets.”

  Lane coughed to cover a dirty word and nodded even though Bauer could only see the back of his head. “We got adjoining suites. Five-star all the way. You can have Brynn’s room, and we’ll bunk together. You can order anything you want from the room service menu, and we’ll find a shop to get some clothes that fit you. Typically, I’d never let a teenager loose in a swanky hotel on the Vegas Strip, but you make me feel even more small-town than I am, kid.”

  “How can you trust me and want to do something nice for me after everything I told you? You know I don’t deserve it. You know there’s a good chance I’ll be gone in the morning.” He sounded so resigned, and I wondered if that was how I sounded every time I had to go back home to my mother and her mistakes.

  Lane waited until the teenager met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “I told you there are good people in the world. I choose to believe you are one of them. Nothing you told us makes me think you’re a bad kid, and none of it was anything you wanted to do. You did what you had to do to survive, and you did it when most kids are just figuring out who they are and who they want to be. What we do during desperate times isn’t who we are, that’s the worst version of us. What you do when you have the option to make better choices is the man you’re going to be judged by.”

  Bauer seemed to process Lane’s words. I could almost see him weighing the authenticity of the man before him against all the other men who had used and abused him in his young life. I wondered if Lane was ready to take his own advice. What I did when I had no other choices, wasn’t who I was. That girl had nowhere else to go and nowhere else to turn. It was the woman I was now I needed him to see. I wanted desperately for him to understand now that I had choices, lots of them, many of them great and promising, that he was still the one I wanted. He would always be my first choice.

  To break through some of the emotionally thick atmosphere that permeated the small space, I dug around on the floorboards by my feet until I found the bag of snacks I’d picked up at the gas station. I held up the bright yellow and green bag containing Lane’s favorite junk food and offered it back.

  Bauer screwed his thin face up into a look of utter disgust and flatly informed me that Funyuns were gross.

  His reaction made me laugh and forced Lane to chuckle as well. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to put us all on even footing and for me to feel like we’d gained some footing where this young man was concerned.

  As soon as we got to the hotel, I was raiding the minibar and crying myself to sleep, so I didn’t have to think about all the horrible things that brought the boy into my life. It made me wonder if Lane had to do the same thing when it came to me. Was every thought he had about me punctuated by the memories of why he couldn’t separate his life from mine? Did he still see the little girl with bumps and bruises, or did he see the woman who had learned to take care of herself?

  The thoughts twisted and turned until my head started to pound in an insistent throb.

  Screw the minibar, I was ordering a bottle of top-shelf whiskey from room service and passing out before I had to worry about spending another night within touching distance of my favorite blue-eyed cowboy.

  Chapter 9

  Lane

  Hard or Soft

  “I understand that you’re just trying to help the kid out, but I don’t think you’ve thought of all the ramifications of picking a runaway up and taking him across state lines.”

  Cy’s voice was infinitely pati
ent, but I could hear his concern for the teenager he hadn't met in his tone.

  “And what if you get to Denver and the brother doesn’t have his shit together. Eighteen is pretty young to take on raising someone else.”

  I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead to the glass window. Down below, the lights of Vegas glittered like a piece of gaudy jewelry. I was glad I was so high up and separated from the noise and chaos that spilled out onto the Strip. Vegas was the opposite of what I was used to, and I was man enough to admit that I found all the people and noise intimidating. This city moved at a pace I’d never seen before, and the rush of it all made my head hurt.

  “I can’t even put words to what this kid will do if he runs again, Cy. People have been taking advantage of him and using him for so long. He doesn’t know anything else. I can’t be the one to force him back to the streets. I just can’t.” Not to mention Brynn would rip my nuts off and feed them to me for breakfast if I so much as suggested going to the authorities behind the kid’s back.

  “I understand, Lane, but I think you’re missing the big picture. What about whoever set the kid up?” Forever the big brother looking out for me. Of course, Cy didn’t want me embroiled in something bigger than I could handle. “They sent out that other kid as bait. They have a fucking website to lure unsuspecting victims in. They sold that kid like he was property. This isn’t one man in a beat-up old RV, this is a corporation and like any business, whoever is at the head of the table won’t like losing money. I know you can watch your own back, but you’ve got Brynn and now this kid relying on you too. That’s a lot for anyone to manage.”

  I didn’t bother pointing out when he first met Leo he was guiding not only her but two other men unfamiliar with the Wyoming wilderness to safety with armed drug runners on his tail. I never doubted for a second that my older brother would get everyone out alive. I was a bit disappointed he didn’t have the same faith in me.

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to them. I’m going to get everyone home safe and sound.” I wanted to sound as confident as I felt, but there was a waver in my voice and one in my self-confidence when the ramifications of what was at stake started to settle on my shoulders. I had no idea how Cyrus held the whole world up. I only had a portion of it, and I was already exhausted from keeping the weight from dragging me down.

  “Lane.” Cy swore, and I could practically see him dragging his hand over the salt and pepper scruff that covered his face. It was his signature move when he was stressed out, or when Sutton ended up in a situation no amount of brotherly love and concern could get us out of. “I know you would die to protect anyone who you think is your responsibility. I thought you were going to die in my arms waiting for the search and rescue copter when you got shot trying to protect Daye. What I don’t want is you in a situation where you have to prove that. I’m getting married soon. I can’t have a wedding without both of my brothers as my best men.”

  I didn’t tell him about the guy with the RV pulling the knife on me in the parking lot, but it was like he already knew. He always seemed to know when I was in over my head.

  “I’ll be careful, and I’ll give Webb’s brother a call and see what he has to say about the website and whoever might be behind it.” Webb had taken over Sutton’s position on the ranch when my brother left for California. He was also one of the people Cy had led through the woods that fateful week he met Leo and when Em came into Sutton’s life, in order to find his missing brother, an older brother who just happened to be a DEA agent. The Bryant brothers couldn’t be any more different from one another if they tried, but the cop and the criminal were as close as us Warners were. “If things feel off once we get to Denver, I promise I’ll get the authorities involved. I need this kid to feel safe. And Brynn really needs to be the one to give it to him.” And I would stand between them both and whoever tried to stop that from happening.

  “How is she?” Both of my brothers considered Brynn family and loved her in a different way than I did. It would devastate them if I made the wrong call and something happened to her. “How are you?”

  I let out a bark of laughter and glanced over my shoulder to where Brynn was sprawled across the bed, her feet on the pillows where her head should be. On the floor near one of her limp hands was a half-empty bottle of Booker’s Rye. The booze cost more than one of my truck payments, but Brynn seemed determined to lose touch with reality for the evening. She spent a good chunk of the afternoon putting Bauer back together in the privacy of the room I insisted he take for the night. When she came back to the suite we were sharing, I asked how the kid was doing and how extensive his injuries were. All she could do was shake her head and tell me it was too hard to talk about. She ordered the bottle of whiskey a few minutes later and proceeded to put a solid dent in it all by herself. I tried to get some dinner in her but was waved off. She didn’t even offer to share, which told me whatever injuries I could see on the kid, was just the tip of the iceberg.

  “We’re both doing the best we can. We’re finally being honest with each other about what we want and talking about how we got so far off track. The way I was hurting when she turned down my proposal was so big and took up so much room that I couldn’t see around it. I had no idea the way she hurt felt as huge as mine did to me.”

  “It’s amazing what you can learn when you take the time to talk things out.” I rolled my eyes at the humor in his tone.

  “It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say.” I also needed time to figure out how to say it without sounding pathetic and pitiful. No one wanted to admit they’d let their fears get the best of them, that they had been a coward.

  “It’s worth the time it takes to get it right. Keep me updated on your progress home and don’t hesitate to call if you need anything. Keep your eyes open and don’t let that soft heart of yours get you into trouble.”

  I promised him I would do my best to stay safe and assured him I had no illusions about what Bauer was capable of even though he was so young. The boy had lived a thousand lives already, and none of them were anything good.

  I dropped my phone on the ornate desk and moved over toward the bed. I had pulled Brynn’s boots off of her feet before she passed out, but there wasn’t much more I could do to make her comfortable. Sighing, I ran my hand over the silky fall of her hair and wished there was more I could do to take care of her. She was going to have one hell of a hangover when she woke up, and none of that was going to do anything to erase the images she now had of what Bauer had been through.

  I pulled my hand back when her dark eyes suddenly popped open. It was obvious she was still out of it by the way she squinted up at me and frowned in confusion. She flicked her tongue out to lick her lips and my dick instantly hardened. There was a steady throb that had been pulsing in my blood since our heated kiss. A taste of her was never going to be enough. It was a tease to my senses that had lust and desire threatening to overtake all the other things she forced me to feel. She pulled her hands up and folded them under the cheek that pressed to the mattress. She blew out a shaky breath and asked, “Do you know how easily it could have been me in that RV? I was so close to ending up exactly like that kid, Lane. So fucking close.”

  I put my hand on the back of her head and sifted my fingers through her hair. The coppery strands slid across my knuckles, and I felt the impact of that barely-there caress all along my cock. The sensitive flesh thickened behind my zipper and I lost myself in the image of what it would be like to have that soft, silky hair rubbing against the inside of my thighs and slithering across my balls.

  It wasn’t an appropriate reaction to what she was telling me, but there was no controlling the longing now that I had embraced it and called it what it was.

  “But you didn’t, and now you’re giving him a fresh start. That’s what you need to focus on.” I brushed a thumb along her cheekbone and bit back a groan when she leaned lazily into the gentle touch like a cat stretching in the sunlight.

  “
Do you know why my mother stopped bringing her men home once I agreed to marry Boyd?” There was pain speared through every word of that question. It was more noticeable than usual because of the care she was taking to keep from slurring and sounding sloppy.

  “No. I don’t know much about what happened after Dad asked you. I didn’t like to think about why you told him yes when you had told me no. It was selfish and immature, but now I can see how much I missed by thinking that way.” It was true. There was an entire chunk of her story I hadn’t bothered to read. I loved the beginning where it was her and me against the world, but I skipped the entire middle part of the book when things got hard.

  “She stopped bringing her mistakes home because your dad paid her off. Every single month like clockwork he gave her two thousand dollars. He threatened her. He tried to get Opal out of the house as well. He offered to double the amount if she would let my sister leave with us, but Mom refused. Partly because she didn’t want to be alone in that musty trailer surrounded by people who were disgusted by her, but mostly because she gave Boyd an outrageous figure he refused to pay. He agreed to pay the protection money, and he told Mom that if Opal got so much as a hangnail the money would stop. He promised that he would be checking in on them and touching base with Opal’s teachers once a week. He ordered her to keep her men away from the house or else he wouldn’t pay anymore. All my mom ever wanted was someone to take care of her. She wanted to be kept. She stopped putting us in danger because she got paid to put us first for once. Not because she loved us, or cared about us. Your dad bought my freedom and my little sister’s safety.” Her eyes drifted closed, and her shoulders shook in such a way that I knew she was fighting to hold back her tears. “I keep paying her now that Boyd is gone, and I’ll keep it up until my sister is eighteen and can get out of that house the way I did. Once Opal is an adult I’m writing my mother off. I won’t have anything to do with her or her mistakes ever again.”