Tug, page 15
part #10 of Cerberus MC Series
Well, not everyone. Not one Cerberus guy is around, so either they’ve been run off, or they left town. The fear that Max once talked about feeling when Kingston was deployed hits me in the chest for the first time. It seems no matter how much I want to distance myself from everything involving those two men; my heart just won’t let me.
“You don’t seem very happy to see us,” Camryn says as she pats the sofa cushion right beside her.
“I came to help take down the decorations,” I lie as I cross the room.
“If that were true,” Ivy begins, “you would’ve been here yesterday.”
“Exactly,” Camryn says, pointing at Ivy.
“Where’s Jameson?” I ask Gigi.
She raises an eyebrow at me, and I realize I must be as transparent as glass.
“You mean, where’s Tug?” Gigi counters.
“Umm…”
“If you gals are going to start talking about girly shit, then I’m leaving,” Cannon complains.
He looks around the room for support, but Griffin and Samson don’t seem as eager to leave their girls.
“You wouldn’t believe how fun it is,” my sister says as she and Izzy walk toward us from the kitchen.
“You’ll have to shoot me a link,” Izzy tells her with a smile.
The grin on my sister’s face falls the second she sees me sitting on the sofa. Her arms cross over her chest, and I glare at Cannon when his eyes focus on the way her stubborn stance is making her breasts lift higher.
“Chill,” Griffin says as he lifts his leg and strikes Cannon’s shin with the tip of his boot.
“Fucker,” Cannon hisses, but at least he pulls his eyes from my baby sister long enough to pull up the leg of his jeans to inspect for damage.
“We need to talk,” Sophia says as she plops down beside Gigi.
“Should I go?” Izzy draws everyone’s attention when she speaks and hitches her thumb over her shoulder.
“Stay,” Sophia says without pulling her eyes from my face. “We’re all adults here. Go on.”
Sophia’s eyes urge me to talk, but I wouldn’t have this conversation with her alone much less in front of all of these people. Has she lost her damn mind?
“The wedding was gorgeous,” I say instead.
“It was beyond magical,” Camryn agrees. “Delilah knew exactly what she wanted, and I’m so glad everyone was able to make it happen for her.”
“Where did they go for their honeymoon?” I ask.
“They’re spending a week in Denver but have plans for a longer vacation in the summer after she graduates.”
Gigi chuckles and Griffin does just about the same thing only the sound comes out in a rush of air from his nose. These people aren’t idiots. They know what Camryn and I are trying to do. I would wager they were all talking about what happened last night within minutes of Kingston, Max, and I walking out of here.
“I’ve got all damn day,” Sophia spits.
Even Cannon looks across the living room at me with a salacious smile on his face. He doesn’t seem too eager to scurry away now that two single and gorgeous women have joined the group. He’s as hungry for the gossip as everyone else, but what they don’t understand is that while they speak amongst themselves about this kind of stuff, I was never a part of this group. There is too much of an age gap. Even if my extracurricular activities have brought my business a little closer to home, it doesn’t give them the right to demand the details.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” I tell my sister.
“Mom and Dad had plenty to say when they got home last night.”
My eyes narrow. She’s drawing me in. She’s an expert in this tactic. She knows I want to know what people say about me, and this little crumb is enough to pique my interest.
“What did they say?”
Sophia looks around the group as if she’s questioning me if I want her to say the things out loud in front of them. She thrives on fear, so I cock an eyebrow in challenge.
My demeanor is in contrast to the pounding in my heart. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done with the guys. If it were just Camryn and me, I’d go into as much detail as she wanted, but even though we grew up together, this isn’t my group of people. Hell, maybe they are. I don’t really have a group of people. Most of my free time the last couple of years has been spent at sex clubs and in anonymous encounters with men I only see once or twice.
“They were both extremely shocked to bust in on you while you sucked two guys off,” Sophia says. At first, I think she’s angry, but the tone of her voice tells me she’s more intrigued than anything else.
“Nice,” Gigi says with a wide smile.
“Really?” Cannon’s eyes dart down to my tight t-shirt before finding my eyes again. As hard as he tries, his gaze settles on my mouth.
“Umm…” It’s clear that Ivy isn’t as comfortable with this subject.
“I forgot I have laundry to do,” Izzy says before she darts out of the room.
“Cannon, act like an adult, or leave the room,” Griffin warns.
“Seriously?” I huff. “This isn’t any of us acting like adults. Grown people don’t sit around and talk about their sex lives with their friends.”
I look to Camryn to make sure she has my back, but her lip curls up in disagreement.
“Really?”
Everyone nods, Cannon more enthusiastically than everyone else.
“Did you and Tug have something going on before you went to the club?” Sophia asks.
“No,” I answer before I can stop myself.
“I can’t wait to go,” my little sister says, wistfully.
“What?” Ivy gasps. “You wouldn’t.”
Cannon rubs his hands together like an evil mastermind.
“Of course, I would,” Sophia assures Ivy.
“It’s a pretty fun place,” Gigi adds. “I hear Gus is running things over there right now.”
“Impossible,” I argue. “There’s no way Denver Police Lieutenant Kaleb Perez would allow his firstborn son to run a sex club.”
“Allow?” Gigi says. “He’s Griffin’s age. A grown man already out of college. I’m sure it’s a lucrative business. His dad should be proud.”
I frown at her after realizing another damn judgmental stereotype just came out of my mouth. How can I expect people to be okay with my lifestyle when I always seem to have a negative opinion about what everyone else is doing in theirs?
“He’s sexy as sin is what he is,” Sophia says. If we were in the middle of a cartoon, she’d have little pink hearts floating about her head.
“And he’s your fucking cousin,” Gigi reminds her.
“So?” Sophia counters. “I can still appreciate his good looks.”
“Shouldn’t do it out loud,” I mutter.
I didn’t have a damn clue that Gus was running things over there. If I had, I probably would’ve avoided the place. Wouldn’t want to chance hooking up with family. He’s only related to me technically by marriage, but still, the thought of touching him sexually makes my skin crawl.
“Dylan is the sexiest one there,” Gigi adds.
“The bartender?” I ask, fine with the direction this conversation is going.
I’m okay talking about the club in general; I just don’t want to speak of my time and activities there.
“Yeah. Rosco is pretty hot, too.”
“Rosco?”
“The guy at the front.” Gigi leans in closer to me. “What color bands do you get?”
“You first,” I challenge.
“Purple,” she says with a shrug. “Jameson would throw a fit if I even hinted at wanting something else.”
“Do you?”
Her head shakes, and it’s then that I realize how in love those two are. Many people can have a baby together and it would only weaken their bond, but I have a feeling that although Amelia is a blessing, their forever was written in stone before the two lines showed up on the pregnancy test.
“Spill.” Gigi kicks her leg back at me, refusing to let me get away without answering.
“Green and purple.”
Her eyes close as her lips move. It’s as if she’s running the list through in her mind.
“Oh!” she squeals. “So that’s how you ended up with two.”
A wicked smile plays at her lips, and it makes me feel like a jerk all over again. This woman has found the love of her life, but she has no problem, no judgment being excited that I found something that doesn’t look exactly like the cookie-cutter relationship that she has.
“So green is for a threesome? What is purple for?” Sophia asks.
I’d refuse to answer her, but Camryn leans a little closer to hear my answer as well.
“Purple is for exhibitionism,” Gigi answers. “It means people like to be watched while messing around.”
“I can’t believe Jameson allows that,” Griffin grumbles as he pulls Ivy closer to his chest.
That action alone proves that the man would never be okay with anyone seeing his girl in such a passionate, vulnerable way. To each their own.
“And green?” Sophia repeats.
“Green isn’t for threesomes,” I begin, “it’s for group sex.”
It’s comical the way my sister’s jaw nearly unhinges. “Group? As in more than three?”
“My dick’s hard,” Cannon whispers.
“For fuck’s sake,” Samson says, throwing an empty water bottle at Cannon’s head.
“Language,” Griffin snaps at his best friend.
Not all Marines are created equal, I guess. Kingston wouldn’t bat an eyelash at the filthy talk. Hell, he’s a fan of it himself, and I have to say the way he’s spoken to both Max and me on occasion makes me want to clench my thighs together. My heart is wanting to put up walls to keep them both out, but my body knows exactly what it wants from both of them.
Chapter 26
Max
“I feel helpless,” I confess in a whisper to Kingston.
“Me too,” he says.
We have hardly spoken to each other since we had the fight yesterday morning back at Jasmine’s apartment. I don’t blame him for being angry with me. I acted like a child, even though it was much the same way I acted when we were kids, and he’s doing exactly the same thing. He’ll keep his distance, punishing me for having an opinion about the situation until he thinks I’ve had enough.
I’d planned to apologize last night, but Cerberus put me up in a room alone while Kingston was with one of the guys on the infiltration team. Kincaid, Dominic, and Shadow have accompanied us, something I take as unusual these days. Kingston seemed shocked when they climbed into an SUV to caravan among the others to the private airstrip on the other side of town.
I don’t know whether to be glad to have the additional support or be concerned that the situation is so bad they feel the need to tag along. It’s just one more thing I haven’t had the chance to ask Kingston.
“Forty-five seconds,” Shadow says. “Godspeed, guys.”
I see the leader of the line using hand signals to instruct the men behind him. They’re each wearing a ton of gear and cameras on their helmets. Even though we’re standing in the command center a few blocks away, it’s almost as if we’re there with them.
The shuffle of their feet is nearly silent as Cerberus makes it past the four guards at the front gate without so much as a grunt from any of them. They keep to the shadows before spreading out to cover the different points of entry.
My foot taps an anxious rhythm until Kingston presses his warm palm on my knee.
“Maybe you should step outside,” he suggests, but I can’t take my eyes off the screen.
I thought watching and not arguing to be there would give me the distance I needed to prepare me for the worst in case things don’t go the way we want them to, but the technology is just too good.
“I’m fine,” I assure him, but I can tell by the way his fingers clench my kneecap that he knows I’m full of shit.
“Kitchen and dining room clear,” one of the guys says into his mic.
The next couple of minutes are spent suspended in anticipation as they make their way through the compound.
Periodically, the sounds of a scuffle are heard, but the targets are taken out systematically.
“What the fuck?” comes from one mic as one of the Cerberus guys pushes open a door.
His camera focuses on the biggest man I’ve ever seen as he shoves his hips forward and back.
A muffled shot rings out, and the beast of a man falls to the floor. The camera then angles down as the Cerberus guy checks for a pulse. His hand stops before reaching her skin. It’s clear the woman has been dead for a while.
“He was fucking a gash in her side,” the Cerberus guy says.
“That was Miguel ‘Toro’ Montoya,” Shadow says into his mic at the back of our room.
“The Bull,” I mutter. “Who was the girl?”
“Keep moving, Jinx,” Shadow urges the guy we’ve been focused on.
The camera shakes up and down as if the guy is nodding his assent.
I can’t take it anymore. The woman on that table could easily be Mia. I’m walking toward the door to exit the command center when there is a rash of yells and curses.
More shots ring out as I turn to look at the eight screens displaying what each Cerberus member is seeing and going through.
“Rocker’s hit.” That’s Scooter’s voice, and he’s calmer than I could ever be in this very situation.
“Report,” Shadow demands.
“H-hit my vest.”
“Lay low, Rocker. Let them finish this, and then we can get you out of there,” Shadow instructs.
Another barrage of bullets fly and it makes my skin crawl. Our guys’ weapons don’t sound like that. They’re taking on heavy enemy fire, but as soon as it starts, it’s over.
A door shoves open on one of the screens, and more than a dozen women crouched in fear come into view. They whimper, but none of them scream at the men walking into the room in full combat gear. The things these women must’ve been through.
One by one the other cameras focus on the women, but they’re all filthy, damn near starved to death and huddled so close to each other that you can’t tell one person from the next.
For the next half hour, we don’t hear shit. Kingston tries to explain that this is part of it.
“Even pulling the women out of there doesn’t mean that they will talk to us. Sometimes it takes weeks before we’re able to get proper identification on them. They’ve been to hell and back, and trust is something they no longer have. Even when the guys in the white hats show up.”
The cameras are still running, but I had to turn my back on the visual a while ago. As someone with a more technical background in the FBI, I normally only heard of places like this. I’ve never watched this kind of thing in my life. I can’t even begin to imagine what these women will go through, even after being rescued.
“Mia?”
“Scooter, do you have her?” Shadow asks. He hasn’t taken his eyes off the screens even though the guys were safe and beginning to escort the women from the premises.
“Mia Vazquez?”
Hearing my sister’s full name has me turning to face the screen once again. The woman on Scooter’s camera no longer looks like my sister. The long, dark, gorgeous hair she always had in a messy knot on the top of her head is cut short, sheered to the scalp in places. She’s covered in more filth and grime than we managed when Ma and Pa let us play in the mud when it rained as kids. Her arm, although bandaged is clearly broken. All of that is awful, but it’s the deadness in her eyes when Scooter bends down to get eye level with her that breaks my fucking heart.
“That’s her,” I sob. “That’s Mia.”
“I’m going to pick you up, Mia,” Scooter says as he reaches out his arms to her.
She doesn’t flinch or try to shy away. She’s a stone, a block of ice with no emotions as he lifts her and turns to carry her out of the room.
“I have to go to her.”
A strong hand clamps on my arm. “She’s going to need medical attention first.”
I turn to face Kingston. His face is ashen-white, having seen what I just saw.
“She’s dead inside,” I tell him.
“A lot of them are by the time we get to them,” he confesses. “Let the medical personnel take care of her. We have to address her physical injuries before we can even begin to work on the emotional and mental aspects of what this has done to her.”
It’s the last thing I want to do. In my mind, just rushing to her to let her know that I’m going to be there for her every step of the way will be enough to bring her back to the land of the living. But deep down, I know better.
“Let’s head to the hospital,” Kingston suggests. “That way we can be close when she’s ready for visitors.”
I nod, letting him guide me out of the command center to an SUV.
Even at four in the morning, Miami traffic is a headache. The hospital the women are being taken to is on the opposite side of town from where the compound is. Cerberus didn’t want to take any chances that Jiménez had connections that would cause problems at the closest medical center.
“She has to be okay,” I say more to myself than to Kingston.
He doesn’t respond, doesn’t placate me with words of support or fake assurances that everything will be fine. Neither one of us knows that for sure.
“We’ll do everything in our power to make sure she’s okay,” he says instead.
Tears stream down my face as we park outside of the hospital. I don’t make a move to get out of the vehicle, well aware that we will have hours of waiting ahead of us before we’re given a chance to go to her.
“Come here,” Kingston says as he shoves up the console between us.
I don’t hesitate for a second before sliding into his arms. The warmth of his body only makes the sobs grow in strength. Guilt barrels over me, knowing that I led those sick bastards to my sister’s doorstep. If I hadn’t been greedy in keeping such a close eye on her, she would still be at home planning her wedding.
“I wish she were here,” I whisper into his neck.
“Me too,” he responds, somehow knowing that I’m talking about Jasmine. “We both owe her an apology.”
