They walked past me to his room, right across the hall from mine, slamming the door behind them. My favorite brother wasn't kidding.
Having the Prez involved with these girls in any way, shape, or form was an express train to hell. I had to get their attitudes checked and work on shuffling them out as soon as I could. Shit was guaranteed to get more heated with the cartel soon, and then there'd be zero tolerance for loose ends.
They were sprawled out on my bed when I got back. The little one must've been knocked out after eating, but Missy was awake, bathing me in that guilty fire spilling out her eyes.
“It's been a long night. Go ahead and get some sleep,” I said. “I'll be right here on the floor if you need anything.”
She rolled over without saying anything. Should've given myself the same damned advice. It had been a long night, and it was about to get a whole lot longer.
I slept with one eye open the entire time, running my brain through cash flow, consequences, and choices. If I didn't have to worry about them flipping and running to the police, I had enough to stick them up in a hotel 'til I could find something better, maybe a crappy apartment.
Club business was too serious to keep them under lock and key forever. There had to be a balance, somewhere between covering my ass and doing what was best for them. There had to be some way outta this damned quicksand I'd landed in with both feet.
I pushed my face into my sleeping bag, muffling a growl.
One thing, I had no doubts about: if I didn't get Missy outta here soon, I wouldn't be able to keep my dick zipped up while it strained against my jeans every time I looked at her. And if she kept sassing me with those spitfire lips...
Fuck. If that happened, throwing her down, spanking her ass raw, and fucking some respect into her was as certain as the moon hanging in the sky while I nodded off to sleep.
III: Many Kinds of Ransom (Missy)
The first three days were hell, and they were the ones where we sat in his crappy room by ourselves, alone while he went out and did...I didn't really know what, but it must've been terrible.
This club, this man, this place – they were all so close to hell I could practically smell the sulfur dripping off the walls. I seriously wondered if Jackie and I died with daddy, and now we were all paying for his sins.
Escape? It wasn't even an option.
The first day he was gone, I found out fast the door was locked from the other side. Even if we'd somehow made it out, the place was always swarming with them.
Big, brutal men stomped around outside, as dangerous and foul tempered as the grizzly bears they wore on their leather vests. Sometimes, I heard them fucking their women through the walls. The girls screamed so loud I couldn't tell if they were being ripped apart by pleasure or having the life torn out of them.
Jackie ate, slept, and took long private trips to the bathroom, avoiding me so I wouldn't see her crying. Watching her kill herself to stay strong really hurt.
I was the fuckup. I'd accepted a bundle of miracle money I knew nothing about, and I'd landed us both here.
Jesus, if only I'd taken a fistful of money and woken Jackie up. We could've left that night while we sorted it out. We could've gotten away, stayed in a hotel, avoided all this. If only I'd stopped to think there'd be others after the fortune daddy left behind in vain.
Now, it was gone. Gone forever, just like any shred of hope that we wouldn't just move from one rung of hell to the next. And that was if we were lucky enough to get away from these monsters.
I was skeptical Brass had done anything more than delay what those rougher, darker men wanted to do to us in the basement. Why he'd decided to delay our doom, I couldn't figure out.
Did he really have a heart? Or was he just another demon, driven by something different than money and blood, but just as selfish?
The third evening, he came in carrying burgers and fries. I could've killed for something leafy and green, but my stomach was so empty and unsettled it wouldn't let me resist anything I shoved in my face. My stomach rumbled hard when I smelled the greasy, delicious food.
“Dinner,” he said, passing me a burger. “Try to finish it up fast because we got shit to do tonight.”
I raised an eyebrow, making sure Jackie got into her food first before I began to eat. She hadn't lost her appetite through all this by some miracle, but I wasn't taking any chances.
Little sis had me to look out for her now. Me, the big sister who'd failed to protect her, and nobody else.
“Yeah? What's that? Spraying us down with Febreze while we're rotting away in here?” A little more venom in my blood replaced the fear the big biker originally inspired every day.
He shook his head. “I'm taking you two to your new place. You've been cooped up in my room long enough. If you think it's been fun for me sleeping on the floor, you're a fucking –“