by Susan Stoker
Felicity grinned. Her earlier fears that Dave could be a hit man had disappeared from almost the moment he began speaking. He had a low, rumbly voice, and he was large, really large, but he acted more like a big kid than a rough-and-tough bartender. She nodded to his arms. “I like your ink.”
Dave beamed and held out an arm. “Thanks! Got my first one the day I turned eighteen and haven’t looked back since. Every time I get a new one, the artist tries to talk me into throwing some color on there, but I like the black. Don’t need no red, blue, or yellow messing up what it’s taken me years to accomplish.”
“The guys in the back?” Ryder asked as if he was used to Dave’s random comments. He put his arm back around Felicity.
“Yup. They’ve been waiting for you to get here.”
“Great.” He looked down at Felicity. “What do you want to drink, love?”
“Just water . . . if that’s okay.”
Ryder kissed her temple, then pulled back to look at her. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Felicity shrugged. “We’re in a bar. Water’s not exactly standard fare.”
“Fuck standard fare. You want to drink Kool-Aid, I’m sure Dave would find a way to make that happen.”
“Damn straight,” Dave piped up from behind the bar. “Don’t have any sugar powder right now, but I can make sure to have it next time if you want it.”
Felicity smiled at him. “Thanks, but just water is great.”
“You want it in a glass to make it look like it’s alcohol?”
Felicity tilted her head in question. “Why would I?”
The bartender shrugged. “Sometimes it keeps others from being nosy and asking why you aren’t drinking. There are a few recovering alcoholics who like to shoot pool that do that. It lets them blend in and play pool in peace.”
“I’m good. A regular glass is fine. Thanks.”
Dave shook his head. “Ladies in his bar don’t get water in a glass unless they specifically request it.” He reached under the bar and came up with a bottle of cold water, still dripping from the ice in whatever cooler he pulled it out of. “It’s much harder to slip something into a capped water bottle than an open glass.” He broke the seal on the plastic bottle, but kept the cap on, before handing it across the bar to Felicity.
“I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Ace?”
“Whatever’s on tap is fine.”
Within seconds, Dave set a pint on the scarred bar for Ryder.
“Later, Dave.”
“Later. It was great to meet you, Felicity. Don’t be a stranger,” Dave called as Ryder steered them toward the back room with all the pool tables.
She waved with her free hand, then looked up to Ryder as she heard him chuckle. “What?”
“He likes you.”
“Cool. I like him too.”
They entered the large room in the back, and Ryder immediately turned to the right. There were a few tables set up around the room around the pool tables. There were a few groups playing pool, but it was the table with six men sitting around it that immediately held Felicity’s attention.
She suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted to meet Ryder’s friends. She could tell with one glance the men at the table weren’t your average Joes. As she and Ryder walked toward the table, they all stood. Felicity gulped and stopped in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Ryder asked, looking all around them for whatever had alarmed her.
“I think I changed my mind,” she said softly. “Maybe I’ll go talk to Dave while you have your meeting. You can catch me up on the way back up to Castle Rock.”
Ryder looked from her to his friends, then back down at her. He smiled. “They’re harmless,” he soothed.
“Harmless my ass,” Felicity muttered under her breath.
But of course Ryder heard her. His smile grew wider. He moved until he was standing in front of her and blocking her view of his friends. He took her head in both his hands and tilted her face up to his own. “What happened to my badass, not-scared-of-anything Felicity?”
“I’d be stupid not to be scared of a group of men who look like your friends.”
Ryder moved and grabbed the hand that wasn’t holding her bottle of water. He held it up between them and fingered her pinkie. Then he looked into her eyes and said, “You’ll have them wrapped around your little finger even before you open your mouth.”
Felicity shook her head and bit her lip.
“You will. And you know why?”
“Why?” she whispered, loving the feel of his calloused fingers against her own.
“Because you’re with me.”
“And that’s all it takes? Do they like all your female friends?”
“I’ve never brought another woman here before, love. You’re the first.”
She gaped up at him.
“But that’s not the only reason they’ll bend over backward to do whatever it takes to put you at ease.” He didn’t give her a chance to ask why. “Every single man at that table abhors violence against women. They’d sooner hurt a puppy than do anything to make you feel uncomfortable or out of place. Trust me, Felicity.”
She swallowed visibly, then nodded.
“But, with that being said, if you feel as if the conversation gets too intense, or you don’t want to hear anything more about Joseph, all you need to do is let me know. Then you can go and sit with Dave until we’re done. He’ll make sure you’re safe.”
And that made Felicity’s back straighten. She wanted to know what they knew. Needed to know. These were Ryder’s friends. She was safe here. “I’m good. Let’s go see what they have to say.”
Ryder didn’t pull away immediately. He continued to stare down into her eyes.
“What?” Felicity whispered.
“When I made the decision to meet my half brothers, I knew my life was going to change, but I had no idea how much. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for you. That everything I’ve done, the person I became in order to do my job as a mercenary was so I could be right here, right now, to protect you.”
“Ryder,” Felicity protested.
“I’m standing here, about to meet with a group of men I’ve known for years, trust with my life, who I haven’t seen in a while. And all I want to do is throw you over my shoulder and take you back to the gym and lock ourselves in your room and bury myself inside your body so far that neither of us will be able to remember a second we weren’t together.”
Felicity felt her body weep for the man baring his soul in front of her. “Yes,” she whispered, not able to get any other words past the lump in her throat.
“Tonight,” Ryder said firmly.
“Yes,” Felicity repeated.
He didn’t move for a long moment, but simply stood in front of her as if memorizing every feature on her face. “No matter what we find out when we go home, you’re going to be mine tonight. In every way.”
He wasn’t asking, but Felicity answered anyway. “Yes,” she said for the third time. She didn’t like the “no matter what we find” thing, but she knew that being away from the gym meant Joseph could leave another nasty surprise for her. But fuck him. For once in her life she was going to take what she wanted and damn the consequences.
Joseph Waters wasn’t going to win. No way.
Chapter Thirteen
Ryder stopped short in front of the table and gave a general chin lift to his buddies. He pulled Felicity to his side and wrapped an arm around her waist. He tugged her into him, and she stumbled, turning sideways to keep from falling, not that he would’ve let her. Her front was plastered to his side now, and he could feel her quick breaths on the skin of his neck.
“Felicity, I’d like you to meet my friends.” He nodded at each man as he introduced them. “Gray, Meat, Arrow, Black, Ball, and Ro.”
Each of the men in question smiled at Felicity and gave her a small chin lift.
“Hi,” Felicity said softly.
“It’s good to meet you all.” Then she looked up at Ryder. “Please tell me those aren’t their real names.”
He chuckled. “No, love. But it’s what we call each other.”
She scrunched up her nose and looked at Meat. “I don’t care what you and Ryder call each other, but I cannot call you Meat. I just can’t.”
Meat snorted. “You can call me by my real name, Hunter.”
She pantomimed wiping her brow. “Whew.”
Ryder smiled. As the group sat back down, he introduced his friends using their given names this time. “You can call them whatever you’re most comfortable with, love. Gray is Grayson. You know Meat is Hunter. Arrow is Archer, Black is Lowell, Ball is Kannon, and Ro is Ronan.”
He watched as Felicity thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I can manage Gray, Arrow, Black, and Ro. But it’s gonna have to be Hunter and Kannon for you two, sorry.”
It was obvious his friends thought Felicity was hilarious by the grins he rarely saw on all of their faces.
Gray leaned across the table and speared Felicity with his gaze. “It’s good to finally meet you. Ace has been telling us about you since the night he met you.”
Her surprised gaze turned to Ryder. “He has?”
“Yup,” Meat said. “First call I had with him, he told me he’d met his future wife.”
Even as Felicity blushed, Ryder warned, “Enough.”
Arrow shrugged. “You have to understand, Felicity, we aren’t easily impressed. We’ve seen and done too much. So for you to have made such an immediate impact on Ace, we knew you were special.”
“I said, enough,” Ryder growled. “Fuck, you keep this up, she’ll be running screaming from here wondering what in the fuck she’s gotten herself into.”
The guys all laughed, and Ryder ground his teeth together. His friends were going to ruin his relationship before it could even start. Just as he was about to stand up and haul Felicity out of there, regardless of the fact they hadn’t talked about her situation yet, he felt a slight pressure on his thigh. He looked down and saw Felicity’s hand resting there.
He glanced up at her face and saw she was smiling.
Relieved, he covered her hand with his own.
“Not that I’m not enjoying your amusement at my expense . . . but can we please get the topic of Felicity’s asshole stalker out of the way before we continue talking about my love life?”
The men around them sobered at the reminder of why they were there.
Ro leaned his elbows on the table. “Joseph Waters. Thirty years old. Grew up in Chicago. Got his business degree from Northwestern. Six feet tall. Never been married, although he’s dated a lot, and more than one girlfriend has disappeared.”
Ball took up the narrative. “We haven’t been able to track down his parents yet. We think they must have different last names.”
Felicity spoke up then. “His dad is some sort of bigwig in Chicago. I don’t know his name, but my old roommate told me that he had a lot of power.”
“Joseph has been a person of interest in two disappearances, but both times he was cleared by someone in the Chicago PD, and the cases still haven’t been solved,” Black noted.
“He’s on the payroll of a company called Tyson Enterprise in Chicago, but I haven’t been able to find exactly what it is that he does there,” Arrow added.
Right then, Ryder’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked down. He held it up and said, “Rex.” Then he clicked it on and placed it in the middle of the table.
“Hey, Rex. This is Ace. The rest of the guys are here. And Felicity too.”
“Hello, Felicity,” a melodious and deep voice from the phone said. “I’m sorry to make your acquaintance this way, but it’s good to meet you.”
“Same,” she replied.
“Did you find out anything more about Joseph Waters?” Ace asked.
“Joseph Waters,” Rex began in a tone that was decisively colder than a moment ago, “is the son of Garrick Watson. The man claims to be a Mob boss, but he’s really just a big fucking bully.”
“Why haven’t we heard of him?” Ro asked.
“Because he mostly keeps to himself in Chicago. Hasn’t tried to branch out, and sticks to intimidation of the local businesses and running guns and drugs. He’s worked with a couple of local biker gangs, but thus far hasn’t dipped his toes into anything that would put him on my list.”
There was silence around the table, and Felicity leaned into Ryder and said quietly, “I don’t understand. What list?”
Rex answered her question. “We’ll never get all the illegal drugs or guns off the street. Intimidation isn’t good, but it’s not as bad as human trafficking. Or kidnapping. Or stalking. Or pimping. Women and children are what my mercenaries are concerned about, Felicity. Taking down the assholes who seek to abuse and exploit the fairer sex. If men want to shoot each other over some stupid dispute over territory, that’s their issue. But I cannot overlook violence against children. And using a woman for their own pleasure without her consent is weak and disgusting.”
Ryder could see the confusion in Felicity’s eyes. He tried to clarify. “Mountain Mercenaries only takes jobs involving women and kids, love.”
“But, men are abused too. Look at your own father.”
Ryder pressed his lips together and fought to figure out how to respond to her in a way she’d understand. Black came to his rescue.
“It’s not that we don’t care about men being hurt and abused, Felicity. For example, if we get sent in for a hostage recovery and there happens to be men there as well as women and kids, we’ll liberate them too. But, Rex has made it clear what his operation concentrates on. He’s gotten a reputation, and many times he’s the first person who is contacted when a situation arises. The government, the wealthy, the politically motivated, they all contact Rex when we’re needed. But there are plenty of other mercenary groups that aren’t as picky and will hire themselves out no matter what the job, but not us.”
“As I said,” Rex continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “I keep my eye on Garrick Watson, but he hasn’t given me any reason to care one way or another what he does in his corner of Chicago.”
“Until now,” Ryder said succinctly.
“Until now,” Rex agreed. “The man has no use for women. He runs his operation with his brothers. None of them are married. He doesn’t sell women, isn’t involved in trafficking, and even though he’s a mean son of a bitch, and ruthless, he doesn’t use children or families as leverage when extorting money from local businesses. When he was twenty, he was married for a short time. His wife had a son, but unfortunately, died in childbirth.”
“Joseph,” Ryder said.
“Yes. Joseph Waters. He was given his mother’s maiden name as an added layer of protection. Garrick knows that many of his enemies wouldn’t hesitate to use the boy against him. Joseph was raised in the family. Was taught the ways of their local empire, but somewhere along the line, he went off the rails. Garrick is not happy with his son. More than once he’s had to bail him out of trouble, both figuratively and literally. Rumor on the streets is he’s ready to wash his hands of his son, once and for all. He’s brought too much negative attention to Garrick’s operation and doesn’t seem to grasp the basic tenet of the entire operation.”
“And what’s that?” Felicity asked quietly.
“Discretion,” Rex said. “I’ve only talked to Garrick once, in regard to a mission I was considering taking on. There was a rumored shipment of women from the Philippines that was supposed to arrive via truck in his area. I contacted him and strongly suggested that he might want to make sure it was diverted. I managed to convince him that if his goal was to be discreet, that wasn’t the way to do it, as I would make it my goal in life to bring down everything he’d worked so hard to build up.”
“Holy shit,” Felicity breathed. “What happened?”
“He gave me the particulars of that shipment and where my
men could intercept it. We haven’t talked since, and I’ve left him alone. He knows where I stand on the subject of the abuse of women and children and hasn’t attempted to cross the line. As I said, he doesn’t want any attention brought to his little operation. He’s a big fish in his small pond of Chicago and has no ambition to expand . . . or get on my bad side.”
“So . . . Joseph Waters?” Ryder asked. “He’s in Castle Rock and gunning for Felicity.”
“Yeah. I’ll be having a word with his father,” Rex said in a deadly tone.
“That’s not good enough,” Ryder said hotly. He knew Felicity was looking at him with wide eyes, but he continued. “Talking to Daddy isn’t going to make his son back off. He’s obsessed. Dangerous.”
“I’ll excuse your tone this time, because I know you’re worried about your woman, but be careful, Ace,” Rex warned.
Ryder struggled to keep his temper in check. In all the years he’d been working for Mountain Mercenaries, he’d never spoken to his handler with the kind of disrespect he was showing right now. He took a deep breath. “My apologies, Rex.”
Not acknowledging his words, Rex simply said, “Do what you’ve been doing. Stay close to Felicity. Stay alert. Garrick isn’t going to be happy that he’s on my radar again. He’ll rein in his son.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Ryder asked.
“Then Garrick will find out what having me up in his business means. I’ll ruin him. He won’t have a penny to his name, and he’ll be run out of Chicago faster than you can snap your fingers.”
“Can he do that?” Felicity mouthed to Ryder.
He nodded. “You’ll let me know if you find out any updated information?” Ryder asked his handler.
“Of course. Felicity?” Rex asked.
“I’m here,” she said.
“I’m sorry for what you’ve been through over the last decade. No woman should feel so threatened that she has to leave everything she knows. I hate that you’ve been on your own for so long, but you aren’t anymore. Ace is a good man. He’ll keep you safe.”