her waist, lift her off the couch, and settle her on my lap. She doesn’t resist, but her gaze drops. “You’re not pitiful. You’ve had a rough life. Let’s see what we can do to change that, okay?” I lift her chin with a finger.
She’s silently crying and also biting her lip. My undoing.
I wipe her tears with my thumb and then tug on her lip to get her to release it. I only have so much self-control. It’s hanging by a thread. “So, here’s the thing. You can’t go to work. You can’t go anywhere. No one knows you’re here, and I want to keep it that way. I’ll have someone move your car someplace secure and out of sight.”
She stares at me. It’s sinking in and she’s scared. Good. She needs to take this seriously.
“Another question. Do you by chance remember if any other women working at the Sky Lounge have gone missing recently?”
She frowns and shakes her head. “No. I mean, people come and go. They quit, but no one has gone missing.”
“That’s good.” I can’t be certain she would know for sure, but at least she doesn’t think so. Blade is also going to dig around on this subject and find out what the turnover has been. “So, you’ll stay here while my team works on figuring out how to ensure your safety. I realize it might be boring, but it’s the only way I can keep you safe while I figure this out.”
“How the hell are you going to fix this, Davis?” she asks, her voice shrill.
“It’s what I do, sweetie. I fix things. Your lucky day.” I smile at her and swipe away a few more tears. My heart hurts for her.
“You install alarms,” she points out.
I chuckle. “No. That was a favor for Cindy. I do work for a company that sometimes installs alarms, but not on that small of a scale. We protect people. We investigate and we solve problems.”
She swallows. “Is it…legal?”
I chuckle. “Yes, sweetie, it’s legal. And besides, do you really care right now? Is selling humans legal?”
Her shoulders drop. “Of course not.”
“Then I need you to trust me to figure out a way to make you safe. In the meantime, you need to stay here in my house so no one knows where you are. Don’t answer the phone or the door. Don’t even get too close to the windows. Got it?”
She glances at the windows and then flinches, her body going rigid. “It’s too dangerous, Davis. I can’t stay here. It’s too risky.” She tried to wiggle off my lap.
I hold her tighter and frown. “What do you mean? You’re perfectly safe in my house.”
“You’re not. I can’t let you get involved in this. You’re going to snoop around at the Sky Lounge and get yourself killed.”
I chuckle before I can stop myself. “Sweetie, I’m not going to get killed. I promise. I’m too stubborn. I just got out of the Army. Four tours in the Middle East. I’m a pro at snooping around the enemy and not getting killed. If I weren’t, I’d already be dead.”
That’s a lot to reveal. I don’t usually tell people about my time in the Army, but I need to impress upon Britney that I’m capable of fixing her problem. It isn’t going to be easy, but I will do it.
She gasps, but she’s still shaking her head. “No. Please. Don’t do this. If you’re really worried about me, give me money for a bus instead of clothes, and I’ll go far away where I can’t hurt anyone. I’ll make a new life somewhere.” Her hands come to my shoulders and shove.
I outweigh her by a hundred and fifty pounds, and I’m stronger. “Britney…” I keep one hand on her lower back, but grab both her wrists with my other hand, clasping them between us. “Sweetie…” I wait for her to stop fighting me.
Finally, she sits still, but her hair is disheveled and hanging around her face. It’s so long that some of it is trapped in my clasp on her back and some of it is threaded between our combined hands. I hope it’s not tugging on her head. When she gives up the fight, she slumps against me, burying her face against my shoulder.
I release her hands, which find their way around my neck. She holds me tight once again, and I love it.
I smooth my hands up and down her back, loving the feel of her silky hair and