by Vivian Wood
Rose picked up the lighter pink shirt with a flourish and held it against her body to show off first the front and then the back.
Ashleigh gasped as she read the words printed on it. The front read ‘I’m almost Mrs. Roman,’ while the back read ‘Bride-to-be.’
Rose tossed the shirt at her and then each of the girls reached for one of the darker pink shirts that read ‘Bridesmaid’ on the front and ‘Team Bride!’ on the back.
Remy blushed as Ashleigh read the words, but grinned when she saw Ashleigh’s lips turn up into a huge smile.
“Really?” she exclaimed. “You’d be my bridesmaids?”
“Of course, silly! We’d love to, if you’ll have us?” Rose said.
“Of course!” Happy tears pricked the back of her eyes. She’d never imagined that she’d actually have girls who’d want to be her bridesmaids.
“Well good,” Remy said. “'Cause we already helped you plan the wedding, organized the bachelorette party and ordered our dresses -- just in case.”
“Thank you, thank you so much. This means…” She trailed off, unable to find the right words.
“It’s our absolute pleasure, Ash,” Rose said as she hugged her. “Now get dressed, ladies, let’s get this show on the road.”
Ashleigh smiled as Rose unknowingly repeated Colt’s exact words from earlier. She hoped that she and Walker would be that in sync one day.
Each girl pulled on her bridesmaid shirt and then clucked around Ashleigh, doing her hair and makeup and finally placing the tiara on her head with so much fanfare it was like they were bestowing some huge honor on her.
In a way though, they were. They were welcoming her to their family. It made her heart swell and sing in her chest, and she couldn’t stop smiling.
They were halfway to New Orleans before her smile faltered at the realization of their destination.
The girls were chattering excitedly about their plans around her and thankfully didn’t seem to notice that she was less than enthusiastic now. She’d thought they go to the bar in town or perhaps even just a restaurant nearby for lunch. She’d never imagined that they were going full on New Orleans bachelorette party, though she shouldn’t have been so surprised. These girls didn’t half-ass anything.
The day passed quickly and while her guard was up all the time, she found herself occasionally relaxing and having fun.
The girls attributed her apparent nervousness to pre-wedding jitters and told hilarious stories about their own pre-wedding jitters.
Shelby regaled them with tales about the crazy things that some of her friends from town had gotten up to in the final days before their weddings, and she had them all clutching their stomachs and wiping tears of laughter from their eyes -- Ashleigh included, until she grew somber each time she remembered where was.
“Then there’s the best story of all, I thought Remy was suddenly crazy nervous about the wedding, what with the secret vomiting and all.”
Remy shot her a sideways look. “You knew?”
“About the vomiting, of course I knew.” She giggled.
“Turns out, she was just pregnant again! I must admit, I didn’t see that one coming.”
Remy swatted Shelby’s arm as she started making inappropriate comments about Remy obviously seeing Sawyer coming, and Rose howled with laughter.
Ashleigh continued to alternate between laughter and anxiety, fun and fear as the girls took her to a place that served what Rose referred to as a ‘wicked’ seafood gumbo and plied her with margaritas.
She tried her best to have fun and focus on the laughter instead of the fear, but couldn’t keep it from bubbling up every once in a while. She took solace in the fact that their little restaurant was miles away from the Bourbon Street strip club she used to work at before she’d been moved to one in Baton Rouge.
It belonged to the same owners, and she knew that Dimitri split his time and resources pretty evenly between the two.
“So, where are we going next?” Remy asked as the server cleared their plates and the last sips of their margaritas had been taken.
“I wonder what the men are up to?” Rose mused.
“Oh no you don’t!” Shelby ordered, holding a stern finger up to Rose. “This is a bachelorette party. The men are at a bachelor party. Please tell me you lovesick lot can spend a single bloody day apart!”
“Wait, they’re here, too?” Warmth flooded Ashleigh’s heart as Remy nodded. Walker was nearby.
As long as he was nearby, she would be safe. At least, that’s what she thought until Rose opened her mouth again.
“I’ve heard of this really cool place over on Bourbon Street,” she started, causing Ashleigh’s heart to start hammering in her chest. “It’s called The Gaol, it’s supposed to be a real thrill.”
Ashleigh’s pounding heart stammered and felt like it had stopped when the name of the place tumbled so innocently from Rose’s lips.
She felt her stomach bottom out and gooseflesh spread across her skin. Her gumbo threatened to make a spectacular reappearance and before she could stop herself, she heard a horrified “NO!” and her own voice rang in her ears.
All three girls gaped at her, along with the eyes of nearby patrons, surprised at her reaction, eyes seeking answers.
Answers were the one thing she couldn’t- and wouldn’t- give, though.
How could she tell them two days before the wedding that the bar they wanted to go to was right next to the strip club she’d once worked at, and was owned by the same people that she belonged to?
Her fear-addled mind tried desperately to come up with some excuse, but she failed to come up with anything concrete.
“I hate dancing and loud music!” she eventually blurted out.
“Oh come on!” Shelby said. “This is your bachelorette party!”
“Let’s just go check it out,” Rose echoed. “If you don’t like it, we’ll leave. Supposedly it’s all the rage right now, though.”
“I usually don’t like places like that either,” Remy chimed in softly, placing her small hand gently on Ashleigh’s arm. “But Sawyer and I heard about it from some friends, and it sounded like fun. We’re already here, so we may as well just check it out?”
Ashleigh’s limbs were as heavy as lead as she followed them out of the car and to the darkened, narrow entrance of the bar.
No matter what she’d said, they’d insisted it would be fun and had dragged her along, assuring her that they were all shitty dancers and that no one would be watching them anyway.
If only that were true, Ashleigh thought as they approached. There were several of the women she used to work with eyeing her suspiciously as the girls walked into view and disappeared into the narrow walkway that led to the bar.
Shelby, Remy and Rose oohed and aahed at the Gothic décor, their eyes wide as they entered the throng inside.
Red lights flashed and heavy music pounded as they wove their way through the crowd.
Ashleigh tried her best to blend in, but she stood out like a sore thumb dressed in white and baby pink with the shining tiara on her head amidst the darkly-clothed partygoers that surrounded her.
It wasn’t long before she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise in warning, and she turned to find Dimitri Solokov’s men making their way through the crowd, barreling straight for her. Their dark, narrowed eyes pinned to her like heat-seeking missiles to their target.
Even in the low light she saw the glint of a gun as one of the goons turned and his leather jacket fell open.
Ice flooded her veins and she thought of the girls, the hundreds of innocent people that would get hurt if he opened fire in here.
She knew she had to get away, and her resolve to keep the others safe drove her numb body into action. She turned toward a narrow hallway and thundered down it as fast as her legs would carry her.
The passage twisted and turned and carried her deeper into the building, or perhaps the adjoining one. The confusing, interconnected hallways made a
bsolutely no sense to her but she kept up her pace, her mind focused only on getting away from the gun-toting Russians.
The hallway opened into another loud room, and she spotted the entrance to another passage off the side of the room.
She turned her head briefly to see if the Russians were catching up to her and ran smack into a hard, muscled body. Strong arms caught her by her shoulders to keep her from falling over.
She lifted her head to thank the stranger, already wondering where the next passageway would lead and if it would provide her with an escape.
“Ashleigh?” She heard Walker’s stunned voice in her ear. She looked up into his gorgeous face, and relief flooded through her. The expression he wore was one of absolute confusion, his eyebrows were knitted, his strong jaw was set and his forehead was furrowed as his hooded eyes bore into hers.
Seeing those eyes made the danger she was placing him in with her nearness to him feel almost palpable, so she turned and continued to run.
“What the fuck, Ash?” she heard him cry out in surprise as she spun away and streaked down the passage.
She didn’t slow, didn’t turn around. She only hoped like all hell he wouldn’t follow her. No such luck though. She heard his heavy footsteps draw up behind her quickly, and he stayed rooted firmly to her as they finally burst through an exterior door and ran up an alley and around the corner.He grabbed her wrist and forced her to stop running, pulling her close to him instead and holding her there.
“What’s going on, Ashleigh? What’re you doing here, and why did you run away from me?” His voice was low and his tone serious, dangerous even.
Though he didn’t scare her, she knew he would protect her and would never hurt her. She knew he would get hurt, or maybe even worse if he didn’t leave her immediately, though.
“Dimitri Solokov’s after me, with his goons. They have guns. They’ll fuck you up for taking me from them, for hiding me, Walker. You have to get away from me!” She tried pushing him off, but his posture had gone hard and he kept a firm grip on her.
“Let them fucking try,” he hissed confidently, turning when he heard heavy footsteps rounding the corner.
She didn’t understand why he wasn’t letting her go, why he had relaxed when he’d first heard the footsteps.
She understood a moment later as Colt and Sawyer rounded the corner, their eyes immediately finding Walker’s and seemingly assessing whether he’d been injured in any way.
Finding him and Ashleigh both in one piece, their postures relaxed only fractionally as they squared their shoulders and narrowed their eyes as they approached, both focused intently on Walker.
They look every bit like the SEALs that she knew them to be right in that moment, looking like a unit trained to kill, or at least maim, as they stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight triangle around her.
Walker gave a curt nod in answer to an unvoiced question and kept a tight grip on her hips as he started, giving her a quick kiss at the back of her head and squeezing her hand reassuringly every so often as he gave his brothers the Cliffs Notes version of her story. He told them everything and despite the imminent danger, Ashleigh felt her whole body burn in shame.
Neither of them interrupted Walker once as he spoke, and neither looked at Ashleigh in disgust. Nor did they demand that he leave the good-for-nothing strip club waitress behind.
In fact, it seemed as though their resolve was strengthening somehow with every word from Walker’s mouth and in the end, Sawyer even gave her a reassuring smile.
The three of them looked at one another briefly, then each face turned hard as steel, each jaw locked tightly and all eyes narrowed on the gleaming lights of the club but a few yards away.
“We’re SEALs, we’ve seen a million times worse,” Colt said, cracking his fingers and his neck as though he was rearing for the fight.
“We’re ready to go, Walker.” Sawyer nodded at him. “You said to be ready at all times, so we are. We just need to get to Colt’s truck, but its right over there. I don’t like the numbers, though.”
Walker’s jaw twitched, but his resolve never once faltered as they jogged lightly to Colt’s truck. “I know who to call.”
He pulled his phone from his jeans and placed a quick call to someone, talking in a low voice only a few yards away from her and keeping his eyes riveted on her.
While he was on the phone, Sawyer and Colt started pulling firearms out of a weapons bag they’d retrieved from somewhere.
Both men had already phoned their wives and told them to get the hell out of the club and head to a nearby hotel immediately and from the looks on their faces, she knew that at least the girls would be safe.
24
Walker felt a familiar rush as they moved toward the back entrance of the strip club Ashleigh had told them about. He’d been right when he’d calculated that Ace, Carter and Ronan would still be in town after their visit to Randall’s grave and as luck would have it, they’d been at a bar nearby.
There were two burly bouncers guarding the entrance, but all was quiet in the alley and Walker felt secure in the plan that the six of them had come up with in the space of minutes with Ashleigh’s help surrounding the layout of the club.
Even Walker had to admit that Sawyer, Colt, Ace, Carter, Ronan and himself made a formidable team.
Sawyer and Colt may have never met the guys from his old unit before, but it already felt like they were moving like a well-oiled machine.
They performed a last check of their weapons and then moved stealthily toward the brawny bouncers, communicating only by hand signals now.
Colt and Ace each took down one of the bouncers so fast and with such precision that Walker almost felt sorry for the men. Almost, but not quite.
They worked for a slimeball coward who wanted to sell Ashleigh to a sheikh over some bullshit debt that wasn’t even real, and who had kept her enslaved in places like this for almost a decade. They deserved whatever injuries the boys may have inflicted, and probably a hell of a lot more as far as he was concerned.
Walker took point and Sawyer and Carter flanked him, the others bringing up the rear after hurriedly stashing the bouncers’ unconscious bodies behind a dumpster.
Walker kicked in the heavy door, rage and adrenaline coursing through his veins as he signaled the others inside after a perfunctory check that the coast was clear.
They moved soundlessly down the hallway to the right, toward where Ashleigh had explained Solokov’s office was.
Electronic music pounded in their ears, but none of them even seemed to notice the entrancing music.
They encountered several more bouncers standing guard outside private rooms off the hallway just as Ashleigh had warned them there would be, and they took them down almost as efficiently as they had the first two.
One prick had managed to reach his gun as they approached, but Walker had him pinned to the ground, writhing in pain as a bone in his arm audibly snapped before he could even think about taking aim or squeezing the trigger.
Ronan gave the guy a swift kick to a strategic place on his head, rendering him unconscious as they dragged his hulking form into a closet off the main hallway.
Finally, they reached the hallway that led to the outer doors of Solokov’s office and the bodyguards stationed there.
Given as it was a straight hallway with nowhere to hide as they approached, they regrouped before rounding the corner.
So far, all of Ashleigh’s information had proven correct and Walker’s heart swelled with pride at his observant girl, even if it had been years since she’d worked at this particular club.
They’d been worried about cameras at first, but she’d assured them that Solokov kept the cameras trained at where cash was exchanged and where the girls were supposed to be -- monitoring their every movement, and trusting his men to take care of the hallways and landings.
There were, however, cameras on the exits, which was why it had been so important to disable the bouncers and get in the
door as quickly as possible.
He was fairly certain that whoever was watching the cameras had missed the seconds it had taken them to get inside, judging by the lack of men bearing down on them.
Likely, Ashleigh had told them, it would be one of the lowly foot soldiers who would either be ogling the girls he was meant to be monitoring, or jerking off to what was happening in the private rooms that the goons had been guarding.
Solokov had maintained this stronghold for years and since no one had messed with him in ages, his cash and the girls who generated it took priority over the exits. He was more concerned with one of his girls leaving than with any outsider threats.
Walker could smell the stench of stale cigarette smoke mixed with the fresh smoke that was wafting to his nose. The carpet under his feet had at least a decade’s worth of dirt caked on it, and there was a pungent scent of vomit and alcohol that permeated the place.
His heart wrenched at a young Ashleigh who had been trapped here for years, being exposed to this god-awful club on a daily basis.
It was no wonder her self-esteem had been so low when he met her, that she still struggled to believe that she was free…
He didn’t have time to dwell on that thought though and he turned to focus on his unit, the men who were helping him ensure that she would be free forever.
He pointed toward his own chest and to Ace’s. Ace nodded and got into position, followed by Carter and Ronan and finally by Sawyer and Colt.
Walker and Ace rolled into the hallway, sprung to their feet and charged at the confounded bodyguards who fumbled to get their firearms out of their holsters and were even more surprised when Carter and Ronan followed suit, zigzagging behind Walker and Ace.
Since they had no element of surprise as they made their way down the hallway other than their sudden appearance, they had decided to play said appearance for all it was worth, hopefully keeping the guards occupied for the seconds it would take Walker and Ace to reach them and disable their weapons.