Trey - Shandi Boyes Page 0,20

account hours after Kristina’s sale.”

Rico works his jaw side to side before telling me to leave it to him. “Even dead Vladimir is still fucking with Nikolai’s head.”

I jerk up my chin, agreeing with him. “There’s something murky going on here. Nikolai is—”

“As pussy whipped as the rest of us, so he’d never pay for a side-whore? Yeah, I get that.”

Although I agree with most of his comment, I scoff about my inclusion in his equation. I’m as free as a bird and itching like fuck to get back to my car to check if K is back inside.

Pretending his rile has no basis whatsoever, I play it cool while Rico guides Malvina toward the ‘dungeon’ half of the mansion. The instant he’s out of earshot, I hotfoot it to my car.

I’m not surprised to spot K sitting in the passenger seat. However, I am as smug as fuck.

With my cocky smile hidden by an angled chin, I slide into the driver’s seat of my Shelby and fire up the ignition. K keeps her eyes front and center when I tell her to put her seat belt back on, but I hear the nervous bob of her throat. She isn’t fearful she was busted being disobedient, she’s uneased about me calling her Kristina. That can only mean one thing. Either she isn’t Kristina, or she hates the name.

Whatever the reason, I won’t use it again.

Knowing her name won’t have me understanding her story any better.

Only she can do that.

We travel the four miles to Clarks in silence. It’s quicker to go over the rugged landscape than around it, but the lapse in time gives me a chance to get my head screwed on straight. Only one time have I acted this reckless. It ended disastrously, so I’ll do anything to skip another shit-fest.

When K’s body temperature notches up a couple of degrees from me pulling my car into Clarks, her unusual scent doubles. I suck in the fear bubbling in her veins like it’s a line of coke while searching for a spot to park. I don’t want to walk far while carrying dozens of bags of greasy food.

Although Clarks is newer, cleaner, and more up-to-date than the compound K was rescued from, I can understand her panic when she drinks in the modern fortress. The men here are as rowdy as they are horny. She has no reason to fret, though. Nikolai put a no-touch order on the women rescued, so unless they have a death wish, the men will follow Nikolai’s command.

“I’m just helping you take the food inside,” I assure K when a growl rumbles in her chest about me snagging the bags from the backseat. “We’ll camp out here until the heat dies down, then work out where we go from here. The rest of the girls are inside, so how about we get them the food before it’s stone-cold?”

In silence, she watches me gather up the rest of the bags before she joins me outside my car. She looks more scared than strong as we make our way inside, but I still see the tiny flicker of hope in her eyes. Her strides are as lengthy as mine, just ten times shakier.

“No one will touch you. I promise you that.” Since my assurance was straight-up honest, it sounded that way. It was also possessive, but we’ll keep that snippet of information between us. With the adrenaline high of a raid having my head teetering between the past and the present, I’ve got a set of fucked-up circumstances fueling my emotions, so a little leeway wouldn’t go astray.

Eight’s eyes lift to mine when I enter the main living area of Clarks with K shadowing just behind me. With a handful of the men sporting bullet wounds, the smell of blood is stronger than the chemicals pumping out of the jacuzzi housing half a dozen topless whores. Well, I assume they’re topless. I can’t see their lower halves, so there are no guarantees. Most of the women get around here naked. It’s how the men like it. They battled hard today, so they’ll celebrate just as intensely.

I’m usually just as eager, but my mind is elsewhere right now. Once I get K settled, I’ll work on getting my head screwed on right.

“Where are the rest of the girls?” I ask Eight, talking loud so he can hear me over the music pumping out of the stereo at his side.

Eight nudges his head toward the sleeping quarters at