Crossroads

by Chantal Fernando

  She nods. “Yeah, I am.”

  “I’m clean,” I tell her, hoping that she’ll let me fuck her bareback. “And I got tested and haven’t been with anyone since.”

  “Okay,” she says, reaching behind her to stroke my cock. “I want you to fuck me, Ranger. I trust you.”

  Those words are like music to my ears.

  Turning her head toward me, I kiss her again, while my hand wanders down and starts to play with her clit. She’s still wet, dripping from her orgasm. I take my cock in my hand and gently slide into her from behind, my lips still attached to hers. I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so much before, which is new for me. I don’t usually kiss that much during sex, because it feels too personal, but with Jo, there’s no such thing. I want to be as close to her as possible. She feels amazing, her pretty pussy squeezing my cock as I slide in and out. She moans into my mouth as I continue to play with her clit, wanting her to come, over and over again. I slide out of her and lay back, pulling her on top, wanting her to ride me so I can watch those tits and stare at her face. I want to take her in every position possible, and I plan to by the end of the night.

  She takes my cock and slides herself down on it. I sink my teeth into my lip, watching her as she lifts her hips up and down, owning it. I sit up and take her face in my hands, kissing her lips and thrusting upward, fucking her. She feels so fuckin’ amazing, and now that I know what I’ve been missing out on, I know I can’t . . . no, I won’t, give this up. She comes again, and I can feel it, her pussy squeezing even tighter, the ecstasy playing on her face turning me on even more. When I can see that she’s come back to herself, I roll her over onto her back with me still inside her, and thrust in and out, deeper and harder, until I come, my face buried in her neck as I whisper her name. I wipe the sweat from her brow and kiss her lips gently, then the apple of her cheeks. I take in her expression, and something inside me does a little flip when I see the small, sleepy smile on her face.

  “You okay?” I ask, sliding out of her.

  “Perfect,” she replies, pulling me back down so I’m pressed against her. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  “I wasn’t going to,” I say, already wanting her again as her nipples touch my chest. “Do you want anything? Some water?”

  “No,” she says, placing a kiss on my neck. “I’m okay. I don’t want to move right now.”

  “You don’t have to, because I’ll get whatever you want for you.”

  “The only thing I want I already have,” she says, yawning. “Which is you right here.”

  Fuck.

  She falls asleep soon after that, but I stay wide-awake, replaying those words over and over in my head. Did she mean them? Does this mean that this is more than a onetime thing? Or will she wake up and turn ice-cold? Or worse, what if she regrets us being together? I don’t know how I’d take that, to be honest. I might not have known this woman long, but I’ve been drawn to her like no other from the very beginning, and every new thing I find out about her I like. I want to know everything about her. I want to protect her, and I don’t want another man even fuckin’ breathing in her direction. I’ve never felt possessive about a woman in my life, and I don’t really know how to handle it, but she’s just going to have to deal.

  She’s mine, and I don’t fuckin’ care what I have to do to keep her.

  I exhale as I let that sink in, realizing that that’s what I’ve decided.

  She’s mine.

  I kiss her forehead, and eventually fall asleep with her wrapped safely in my arms.

  • • •

  The next morning, when I open my eyes, Jo is gone from the bed and I can hear the shower running. I woke her up early in the morning with my mouth on her, and then fucked her until we both came before falling asleep again. Curious to see how she’s going to react, I get out of bed and walk into the bathroom, taking the partially open door as an invite. I just watch her for a second, water cascading down her body, her blond hair stuck to her face. I love the shape of her figure, and I harden at the sight of her. Fuck, I hope she has no idea just how much I want her, because I fear the intensity will scare her. It fuckin’ scares me. I’ve never cared before, and, for the first time, I don’t know how to deal with this. I really just want to go caveman on her ass, throw her over my shoulder and take her back home, but we still have Elizabeth to save and a fuckin’ operation to take down.

  “You just going to stand there watching me, or are you going to join me?” she asks without turning around. I open the glass door and step inside—the hot water on my skin just what I need. Jo moves over, my large presence shadowing her body. Silently, I reach for the soap and wash my body, then wash hers too, any chance or excuse to touch her.

  She calls me out on it.

  “If you want to touch me you can, you know,” she says in a husky tone. “You don’t have to wash me.”

  “I like getting you all soapy,” I tell her, which is the truth. We don’t really have time to be messing around like this right now, but it’s 5:00 a.m., and we’re running on practically no sleep, which is our fault and no one else’s, so we need to suck it up today and be on the ball. When we leave this shower, reality is going to hit. Everything about us is going to have to be pushed from our minds, our focus on Elizabeth, so I’m going to enjoy this moment while I can.

  “I wasn’t sure how you were going to act this morning,” I admit to her. “I didn’t know if you were going to regret what happened.”

  “What? You fucking my brains out last night and giving me four orgasms?” she says, turning her head to me and flashing a cheeky smile. “I don’t regret anything, Ranger. And I’m not going to regret anything else we do together.”

  I grin. “Good, because I’m going to want you again. And again.”

  “Me too,” she admits, running her fingers down my wet chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Me either,” I say, running my thumb along her plump lower lip. Water from her hair drips down her cheeks, and I wipe it away. “I want this. I want you.”

  “You have me,” she breathes, and in this moment I think she knows what I’ve known all along.

  That she’s mine.

  We finish up in the shower, and then I do a run to my room in a towel to brush my teeth and get dressed.

  Time to be badass.

  FOURTEEN

  “JO,” I say quietly, nodding my head at the man standing in the corner of the room, a black hat on his head.

  “I know,” she replies, not looking up. She keeps her eyes on her drink. “How do you want to handle this?”

  I look around the bar, taking in the exits and playing out the possible scenarios in my head. “I think you should go to the bathroom, or out the front, and call for backup. If he tries to leave, I’ll stop him.”

  “Okay,” she says, waiting a few moments and setting down her untouched Scotch-and-Coke before standing on her tiptoes and kissing me, then casually walking to the ladies’ room. I keep an eye on our suspect without making it obvious, nursing my own drink, pretending I’m here just for that.

  We’ve been tracking this man all day. We got an anonymous tip that he was staying in a house just down the road. Now all we have to do is get him before he escapes again. I won’t admit it to her, but I’m concerned Jo will get hurt when we try to bring him in. I mean what if he tries to take her as a hostage or something? Fuck. So this is what the men have to put up with every time something goes down, the fear that comes with caring about someone? I don’t know how they deal with it. How did Sin keep it together when Faye was kidnapped?

  A woman in a red dress approaches me, and it honestly can’t be at a worse time. I don’t want to draw any attention to myself right now, and if I reject her, she might do just that. I can’t lose visual of the suspect.

  “Hello, handsome,” she purrs, scraping her teeth up her bottom lip. I notice that she has red lipstick on her teeth too. “How about a drink?”

  Women don’t even wait for men to offer t
o buy them a drink nowadays; they just suggest it, apparently.

  “I’m actually here with my girl,” I tell her, forcing a smile. “You are very pretty, but I’m going to have to decline.”

  I glance back at the corner of the room. He’s still here. Unfortunately for me, so is the woman.

  “Where is she, then?” she asks, running her hand down my arm. I stare at it in distaste. I really, really don’t want to be dealing with this right now.

  “Right there,” I say, nodding my head toward the bathroom as Jo reappears, heading straight for me. The woman pouts, then walks away, and Jo quickly reclaims her seat next to me.

  “A fan of yours?”

  “Something like that,” I tell her, waiting for her to instruct me on how we’re going to handle this.

  “They’ll have the place surrounded within minutes,” she says, looking straight forward.

  “Are they coming in or are we taking him down?” I ask, placing my hand on her nape and squeezing gently. “Tell me what to do here, Jo.”

  I’m not letting this man go. He’s our only lead right now, and I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my fingers.

  “We don’t move until they come in,” she says in a calm voice. “We don’t want him to grab someone as a hostage, or anything like that. The squad is going to come in and take him down.”

  She’s only just said those words when the door opens and eight police come storming in, guns in their hands. Everyone drops to the ground. Jo and I move toward the door, behind the men, watching while the suspect is arrested. I have to admit that it feels like I’m doing less than I could. Yes, we’re the ones who located him, but we could have taken him down ourselves just as easily. This way is safer though, and I guess they know what they’re doing. We watch him being put away in the cop car and then drive back to the police station ourselves.

  “I have a good feeling about this,” Jo says, nodding. “He has to give us something, anything that can help find her.”

  “We’ll find her,” I say, reaching my hand out onto her thigh. “Don’t worry about that.”

  She turns her head to me, her eyes smiling. “I sure hope so, Ranger. I sure hope so.”

  • • •

  I kick down the locked door and walk into the house, looking left and right. I turn into one of the hallways, opening and searching each room as I go. I find her in the third room. There are eight women in the room, all huddled together in the corner. I see her straightaway, right in the middle, dressed in a white nightgown that leaves nothing to the imagination. They’ve obviously tried to give them a virginal, ethereal appearance, although the look on their faces is anything but. They all stare up at me with scared eyes, staying silent, waiting to see what I want. I can only imagine what they’ve been through. Elizabeth has a black eye, and I want to kill whoever has struck her. The police step in behind me, taking in the scene, and I feel Jo’s presence at my side; I hear her gasp. I know the police didn’t want me here, but I walked in anyway, before them. If they want to give me shit for it afterward, I don’t give a fuck; they can shove their protocol right up their asses. I take a step toward Elizabeth, who seems to be seeing me but not really seeing me. I say her name, and she shakes her head as if clearing it. I come closer to her, and the other women move backward, up against the wall, away from me.

  “Elizabeth,” Jo whispers, stepping forward and crouching down in front of her cousin. She reaches out her hand but Elizabeth moves away. It’s like she doesn’t recognize her own family, like she doesn’t know where she is or who she is anymore. She’s locked in her own hell. They’ve broken her.

  The police start going to the women, assuring them that they’re now safe. I lift Elizabeth in my arms—she comes willingly—and carry her outside to the waiting ambulance. Jo is crying silent tears next to me. I know she just wants to hold her cousin, to be there for her, but right now she’s not in a good state. I wonder if they’ll let us take her home after she’s checked out by a doctor. I don’t know what the protocol is, and I don’t know what will be the best course of action for her either. On the bright side, we found her, and she will never have to experience anything like this again. I look down at her face to see her looking up at me, and she mouths one word.

  Cam.

  “I’ve got you,” I tell her softly, pushing her long hair off her face. “The doctor will have to look at you, okay?”

  No reply, but she doesn’t object as she is placed on a stretcher. She does, however, grab hold of my arm so I can’t move very far. Jo stands on the other side of her, speaking soft words to her, and I feel like I’m intruding on a moment.

  “You’ll have to go to the hospital and wait until the doctor has seen her,” the medic tells us, wheeling the stretcher into the back of the van. I look to Jo, seeing how she’s taking it, and as soon as the van doors shut, she melts into my arms. She’s shaking. I don’t know if it’s relief that her cousin has been found, or if she’s sickened with what she’s witnessed today, but I lead her to our rental car. We need to get to the hospital, because Elizabeth needs to be around people she knows, she needs her family and friends to support her.

  “I’ll drive,” I tell Jo when she tries to slide into the driver’s seat.

  She nods absently as I lead her to the other side and open the door for her. She gets inside the car and I close the door, then get in and head to the hospital.

  “How are you feeling?” I ask her, running my thumb along her knuckles. “Are you okay?”

  “Did you see how they were all sitting there?” she asks, looking straight ahead. “On the floor. Wearing the same white dresses. How sick are these people?” She turns her head and looks at me. “Do you think she will ever get past this?”

  Probably not right away, but I don’t say that. What I do say is, “She’s strong.”

  “Yes, she is,” Jo murmurs, leaning her head back against the rest and closing her eyes with a sigh. “It’s over, yet at the same time, the battle is just beginning.”

  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  Who knows what they subjected those women to? The thought makes me want to beat the shit out of something, or someone. The fucked-up thing is there will always be operations like this around, and if one is taken down, another will just start. Elizabeth was all sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies, but the Elizabeth I saw today has a hollowness in her eyes that sent shivers down my spine. We found her, but she might already be lost, and I think that that’s something Jo needs to be ready for. You don’t come out of something like this the same person. She was kidnapped; taken across country and held captive, like a slave; locked in a room. They made her not a person but a possession. And I refuse to think of the other fucked-up things they may have done to her, because I will end up in prison for murder.

  FIFTEEN

  Johanna

  THE pain, the tightness in my chest won’t ebb. I always knew I’d find her, but I never thought about what it would be like when I did. I hope she’s okay. I hope she will be okay. My heart is broken for her, and I just don’t know what to do in this situation. What if she doesn’t want me to stay with her? I take comfort in Ranger’s hand in mine as he softly runs his thumb over my knuckles and down my fingers. I don’t know what I would do if he wasn’t here, if I had to do all of this alone. I’d probably be more of a wreck right now, if that’s even possible.

  “What do we do now?” I ask him, puffing out a breath. “Wait until she’s allowed to leave, then take her home to heal? I need to call my family, they’re all going to want to fly here as soon as possible.”

  “I think that’s probably the best,” he tells me, tone gentle. “She will need everyone she loves around her right now. If they can get here on the next flight, that would be good. I think she might need some time to deal with what happened. I don’t know how she will react. I guess we’re going to have to wait and see, but either way, yes, her immediate family need to be here.”

  I pull out my phone and sen
d out a few texts, telling everyone that we found Elizabeth and they need to get here as soon as possible, and to call me if they want any further information. When we get to the hospital, it’s hectic. There are people with cameras out front; I have no idea how the media found out about this so fast, but they’re really on it.

  “This will be the hot story for the week,” I say in a dry tone, not liking that this whole thing is going to go public. Not only will Elizabeth have to handle so much, now she’s going to have to deal with the media backlash, and the fact that everyone will know she was kidnapped and sold into human trafficking.

  “Come on,” Ranger says, taking my hand and leading me through the doors, then down the hall to the emergency room. “Do you think they’ll even let us back there right now?”

  I look around, at all the medical staff rushing around, and wonder the same thing.

  “I’ll go ask about her at the front desk,” I say, letting go of his hand and approaching the receptionist. I can feel Ranger at my back as I give Elizabeth’s full name and ask when I’m going to be able to see her.

  “Are you her family?” the lady asks, looking over some documents.

  “Yes, I’m her cousin.”

  “She was only just brought in,” the lady tells me, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “You can take a seat, but it’s going to be a bit of a wait. The doctor needs to see her, run some tests, and run a psych evaluation on her.”

  “Is that necessary?” I say, even though I know it is.

  She nods. “It just depends on your cousin and what she wants and needs right now. I don’t think they’ll let you in there for a while, unless she’s demanding to see you.”

  “We’ll wait,” Ranger says, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Let’s go sit down, yeah? I’ll grab you some coffee and something to eat.”

  I don’t feel very hungry, but coffee sounds amazing. He leads me to a vacant seat, and I practically drop into it.

  “Any requests?”