“No,” the one that looked like he didn’t belong said. “Boss wants this one untouched. Cop bitch is going to pay, and he’s going to be the one to make her pay it. That means that she can’t be ruined by you.”
The gross man that I’d dubbed ‘Eww’ sighed, long and loud.
“This is ridiculous. He doesn’t usually care if we sample the product before we deliver it,” Eww replied.
“Listen,” the man who didn’t look like he belonged said. “You can touch her, but you can’t fuck her. Okay?”
Eww looked at me with a leer in his eyes. “Okay.”
CHAPTER 24
I do what I want, when I want, where I want! Except, I gotta ask Beckham.
-Text from Trouper to Sammy
TROUPER
I walked over to my wife and pulled her into my arms.
Behind me, Blake spoke softly to her man, and Louis stood at the door looking as if he’d been punched in the gut.
None of that was my concern at that moment in time, though.
My concern was my wife, who hadn’t stopped dry heaving in two minutes.
“Every single one of those motherfuckers are dead,” I told her as I pulled her into my arms, still dry heaving. “Dead. Every single one of them.”
She shuddered in my arms.
“I’m here. You’re safe. Nothing ever again will touch you,” I promised.
She drew in a shaky breath.
“Y’all got there in time,” she whispered.
I’d never heard the whole entire story from her kidnapping.
First, she hadn’t remembered it.
Then, when she had remembered it, she hadn’t wanted to talk about it.
Now, I was deathly afraid that if I did hear it, I’d hate myself for not protecting her from a friend that she’d come to trust.
I knew the gist of what had happened. She’d shared just enough that I could piece things together.
But I didn’t know the whole story, and I had a feeling I would never know, because she wanted to protect me.
“There was a knock on the door right as he was about to start doing the really bad stuff,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes as emotions rolled through me.
“I’ll never, ever let that happen again, baby,” I told her. “Not ever.”
“If those women, Cannel, went through even a tenth of what I went through, then I’m not sure, even if we get them back, that they’ll be fixable,” she whispered.
I had a feeling that she was right.
But I wouldn’t stop helping her look for them. Not ever.
• • •
“You mind if I talk to you outside?” Foster asked carefully.
I stood up, Hiro in my arms once again because that was where he for some reason continuously fell asleep, and made my way outside while Beckham slept exhausted on the couch.
When I looked back at her, it was Blake who smiled softly and said, “I’ll watch over her, I promise.”
I nodded once, stomach still tightening the farther I got away from her.
And not all of that was because of what she’d gone through today.
Some of it was due to the fact that I’d had to walk away from her too many times over the last year.
Or hell, if we wanted to get technical, the last nine years.
I always seemed to be walking away. Never staying.
This time, I knew that I’d be reversing my usual role in her life. I would be staying.
There was no more trying to push her away.
She was it for me, and I was it for her.
That was final.
When the door closed softly behind me, I walked to the swing that was set up on her parents’ front porch and took a seat.
Foster leaned against the railing about four feet away.
He looked at the baby sleeping in my arms.
“Beckham used to do that,” he said softly. “Fall asleep any time that I was holding her. Used to drive Blake crazy. But I couldn’t stop myself from holding her while she slept.”
I looked down at Hiro, then raised a hand and ran my fingers over his hair.
“I love her,” I told him bluntly.
“I know,” Foster sighed. “I’ve known that for a very long time.”
I blinked and looked up at that.
“At first, my annoyance with you was the fact that you were a seventeen-year-old kid, living on his own, and taking an interest in my baby girl,” he explained.
My lips twitched. “At this age, I can see how that was rough for you.”
Foster rolled his eyes. “You won’t have any clue how it feels until you have a little girl.” He shook his head. “But you grew on me, kid. That time where you protected her