by Nina Park
Relief washed through me as I realized the voice in my ear belonged to Bianca. Suddenly, I noticed the thinness of the arm around me and the tremble of the body it was attached to. She was terrified.
“I came back to save you,” I replied. I’d expected the girls to be wary, but I hadn’t expected them to be this afraid of me. “What do you think I’m here to do?”
Bianca still had her arm wrapped around my neck, but I looked up and saw Angie peeking over the side of her bunk, her round eyes reflecting the small amount of moonlight coming in through the barred window.
“You came back?” she asked, her voice quiet.
“Of course I did. I promised I would.”
I said it as though I always knew I’d come back for the girls. When the truth was, I hadn’t been sure. As soon as I’d walked inside Cade’s apartment, I’d been met with the overwhelming urge to never leave again. There was a part of me that wanted to forget about Angie and Bianca, forget about Marco Santorelli and the auction. I’d just wanted to move forward. However, that wasn’t possible. I’d seen the hopelessness on their faces, and I knew I had to help.
Bianca slowly released her arm from around my neck and stepped back. Angie sat up fully in bed, taking in the scene. I watched as realization washed over them. They were going to be free.
“I’d love to stand here and chat,” I said, moving towards the door. “But I’m afraid we don’t have much time. If you want to leave, we have to go now.”
That seemed to wake them both up. Angie crawled down out of the top bunk and Bianca moved to the door, her hand hesitating over the space where the knob would have been.
“Did you kick the door down?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
It was strange to see Bianca’s face so expressive. I’d become used to her deadpan looks and eerie silence.
“No, that was Cade.”
“Cade’s with you?” Angie asked.
I nodded. “I told you. He’s one of the good guys. He came back to take down Marco and help you both escape.”
Bianca still didn’t look convinced, but she pulled open the door and ushered us both outside.
The warehouse was still dark, and aside from the shuffling of feet in the distance, silent.
“They’re fighting with Marco?” Angie asked dubiously.
I shared her doubt. It was way too quiet. “I don’t know what’s happening over there, but Cade told me to lead you both to the dock out back, and that is where he’ll meet us. That is all we have to worry about.”
No one spoke again as we moved into the balmy night and towards the water. I didn’t know whether Cade had planned it or not, but the lights over the dock were out, and the end of the wooden platform disappeared into darkness. We moved slowly down the dock, careful not to take a misstep into the water, and it wasn’t until we were near the end that I saw a shadowy figure moving.
Water lapped against the boards and rocked the small dock from side to side. I continued moving, thinking it must be Cade ahead of us.
“Who is that?” Angie hissed, grabbing my arm.
“Is that Cade?” Bianca asked.
I was about to answer them when the figure turned, grabbing a large bag from the dock and chucking it up into a waiting boat. The moonlight caught the sharp angle of his chin, and I recognized him instantly.
“Marco,” I whispered.
All three of us froze at the same time, watching for a few seconds as Marco continued to throw bags into the boat, no doubt making a break for it. He must have heard about the raid and planned to make a break for it, which only went to prove Cade and Guts correct. Marco’s operation was a joke. All it had taken was one club to revolt against him, and he was ready to set sail.
I was about to turn and push the girls back down the dock, but Marco looked up at the last minute, and I knew it was too late. He’d seen us.
His jaw clenched, and within a matter of seconds, he was moving towards us, gun extended in front of him. I hadn’t even seen him pull it out. Perhaps he’d been expecting an attack and had decided to hold onto it until he was safely in the water. Either way, it was pointed at me now.
“I was just thinking how disappointed I was that I didn’t have time to take you sluts with me,” Marco said with a clack of his tongue. “And now here you are. Dreams really do come true.”
Angie whimpered behind me, and I saw Bianca slouch forward out of the corner of my eye.
Marco focused in on me, his eyes pinpricks in the darkness. “And I see you’ve decided to return. Were things not working out with Cade? Did you decide you wanted a good fuck from me after all?”
Marco was acting tough, but he kept looking past us back towards the warehouse. No matter how brave he tried to look, he was afraid.
“We aren’t leaving with you,” I said firmly. “Your control over us and this city is over.”
Marco laughed, and the sound sent shivers down my spine. “Nothing is over. The Stone Devils surprised me tonight, but they don’t know how far my reach extends, how many people I have working under me. They’ll get what is coming to them, and I can’t wait for that day. Until then, I’d love for you three to board the boat so we can get out of here.”
“We aren’t leaving with you,” I said again.
Marco waved the gun back and forth. “I’m not sure if you remember, but I’m the one with the gun.” He leveled the gun at my face, taking a few more steps forward, so we were less than ten feet apart. “Get in the boat.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Angie cut me off.
“No!” she shouted, hurling the word at Marco like a bullet.
His jaw clenched, and one of his eyebrows raised. He was becoming angry, and from everything I’d experienced and heard about Marco, he was unpredictable. It was very likely he’d decide we weren’t worth the trouble and he’d shoot us all right now.
We could run away. The dock was narrow, and we’d be easy targets with our backs turned. Jumping into the water would have been a good idea if there wasn’t a ten-foot high stone wall blocking the water from the land. We’d be lost in the darkness and drown before anyone could find us. The only solution was to talk Marco into lowering the gun or kill him, and I didn’t see how I’d manage to do either.
“I really don’t have much more time to waste talking with you three,” he said. “Get in the boat, or I’ll shoot you. It’s as simple as that.”
“I’m afraid it’s not so simple,” a voice called from behind us.
Marco’s eyes went wide, and he repositioned the gun, aiming over my shoulder. I turned to see Guts moving towards us down the dock, a sawn-off shotgun in his hands. No one had planned on Guts showing up. He’d signed off on the raid but never took part in them. I had no idea why he’d decided to follow us to the warehouse, but I was so grateful he had.
“Lower the gun, Marco,” Guts called. “Let the girls go, and I’ll let you board your ship and sail off to whatever private island you have waiting for you. Lower your weapon, and we’ll all forget this ever happened.”
Marco had been reserved while talking to the other two girls and me, but it was obvious now that he was enraged about what the Stone Devils were doing. His eyes were animalistic and wild, the gun shook in his hand as he twisted his mouth into a frown.
“You think I’ll ever forget how you ruined me, you son of a bitch?” Marco called, finally revealing his true feelings.
“You ruined yourself, Marco. Put down the gun and let’s talk,” Guts said, though there was no conviction behind his words. We all knew Marco couldn’t be talked back from the ledge he was standing on.
“I’ll kill you or die trying.” Marco rais3e his gun with renewed vigor.
The next few seconds happened both quickly and in slow motion. Marco was moments away from pulling the trigger and shooting at Guts or one of us, I couldn’t tell, when Bianca flew past me in a shadowy blur. An animalistic scream tore from her throat. It was as if she released in one yell all of the trauma, torment, and terr
or she’d experienced over the last several months. It was a heartbreaking sound.
Her arms were outstretched, reaching for Marco’s throat when the sound of gunfire cracked through the air. I covered my ears and turned to try and shield Angie, who was already folding in on herself as well. Marco screamed, and I looked up just in time to see his arms wrap around Bianca’s waist.
They collided while Bianca was still in the air, and she hit him with enough force that he stumbled backward. One second, they were on the deck wrestling, the next they were in the air over the water.
I watched as they twisted and turned, and then winced as there was a sickening crunch followed by a splash.
No one said anything for a few seconds. Everyone was tensed, prepared for one or both of them to rise up out of the water. Guts leveled his gun at the rippling water where they had gone under, and Angie crawled forwards to peek over the edge.
“Where are they?” she asked.
Just as the words left her mouth, a body floated to the surface.
It was Bianca.
Angie gasped and grabbed Bianca’s shirt, pulling her back towards the dock. I grabbed hold of her arm, and we flipped her over.
Blood covered her shirt, and there was a perfectly round hole just over her heart. Marco had shot her in the chest at point-blank range, and he’d hit his target perfectly. Bianca was dead.
“Oh my God.” Angie cried, pulling at Bianca’s arm, trying desperately to haul her onto the dock.
Guts lowered his gun and helped us lay her flat on the wood. I reached out and felt her neck for a pulse, but I knew it was pointless. She was gone.
I wrapped my arm around Angie’s shoulders and pulled her into my side. “I’m so sorry, Ang.”
She buried her face in the crook of my arm and sobbed.
“Where’s Marco?” I asked, turning to Guts.
He had moved to the other side of the dock, and just as I asked the question, he bent down and fetched something out of the water. He lifted Marco’s body out of the water just long enough to point to the deep gash in the back of his head. The crunch we’d heard as he and Bianca fell into the water had been his head cracking against the dock.
Guts threw Marco’s body back into the water as though it were a piece of trash and wiped his wet hand on his jeans.
“Falyn?” I turned to see Cade running towards us. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw Guts standing there with a gun, but then his attention flashed back to me. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I explained that Bianca and Marco were dead, leaving out everything except the most important details. By the time I finished, I was fighting back sobs. Cade ran a hand along my cheek, brushing away tears I hadn’t realized were falling, and then jumped into action.
He asked Guts to help Angie while he wrapped his arm around my waist and practically carried me to the car. While we walked, he explained that the warehouse was empty. Marco had been expecting the raid and had cleared the place out. They searched the whole building and were just finishing when they heard the gunshot.
“I ran out here as fast as I could, but I guess I was too late,” he said, hanging his head.
“You couldn’t know he was out here,” I said. “It’s not your fault.’’
“I should have stayed with you like you wanted. I should have made sure you were safe before looking for Marco.”
I grabbed Cade’s arm and stopped him, turning him towards me. I looked up into his impossibly blue eyes and pressed my palm to his face. “You saved me. You saved Angie. You saved countless other women who would have been forced to work for Marco. You did a good thing, Cade Dickinson. Don’t ever feel bad for it.”
Cade turned his face and kissed the palm of my hand before looking back at me. He reluctantly nodded.
“Thank you,” I said, pouring as much emotion into the single word as I could.
He gave me a small smile and wrapped his arm around me. “Let’s go home.”
I burrowed into his side and nodded in agreement. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Falyn
It seemed strange how quickly life returned to some semblance of normalcy. In the days after the raid on Marco’s clubhouse, I slept a lot and avoided leaving Cade’s apartment. But within a week, I felt stir-crazy and desperate to get out.
I went to Lacey’s apartment first. She’d been worried about me when I didn’t return to her apartment after our night out, but she didn’t report me missing or even call around to see if any of our friends knew where I was.
“I assumed you finally went home and would call me when you were ready,” she said with a shrug when I showed up to collect my clothes and belongings.
I decided not to tell her the truth. It would only scare her.
“I met someone,” I said. “I’ve been staying with him.”
“Do I know him?” she asked, acting as though it had only been a few hours since we’d last spoken rather than a few weeks.
“It’s the guy from the club. The guy I danced with.”
“Wow, and you immediately moved in with him?” Her face was pulled back in a grimace.
I just nodded and continued gathering my things. There was a time where I would have cared about her opinion more than anyone’s in the world, but now I couldn’t muster the energy. I just wanted to grab my things and get back to Cade.
It was his idea for me to move in. I’d told him I could find a job and get my own place, but he insisted he wanted me to live with him.
“The apartment is too quiet when I’m all alone,” he said one night, kissing my neck as we laid in bed. “I have always wanted a roommate, but I never found anyone I wanted to live with.”
“So, you want me to be your roommate?” I asked, rolling over, pressing my bare chest against his.
He smiled and kissed me, biting my lower lip. “Yes, please.”
“I don’t have a job yet. I can’t help with rent or anything,” I admitted.
“I think I know a few ways for you to pay me back,” he whispered, his voice rough. “Besides, I make more than enough money to cover rent on my own.”
Guts had asked Cade to manage the gun store, and business was booming. They were making more with their legal business than they ever had with the black market. It was doing well enough that Guts decided to hire Angie to help work the register. Angie had stuck pretty close to Guts after he saved us all on the docks, and it was clear to everyone that Guts had a soft spot for her.
Seeing Angie thriving so soon after the horrors of Marco’s clubhouse made me happy, but also made me think of Bianca. Would she have done as well as Angie and I in life post-Marco? Would she have overcome the trauma and started her life over?
I suspected she would have done well. After all, she had fought for her freedom. She’d choked me when she thought I might be there to hurt her or Angie and she’d thrown herself at Marco to save all of us. Bianca had proven herself to be a fighter, and I knew she would have fought every day for the life she knew she deserved. And now that she had given up her life for mine, I felt like I had to show that same kind of fight. I needed to enjoy life to the fullest every day in honor of her.
So, I’d moved in with Cade, and several months later, he still seemed happy with his decision.
“Oh my God.” He moaned, walking into the kitchen, his nose high in the air. “Are you baking?”
I stepped away from the stove and struck a pose in my ruffled floral apron. “Banana bread.”
He groaned and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. He’d just taken a shower, so the smell of his body wash swirled around me, and I breathed it in. It was my favorite smell in the world.
“You are the best roommate ever.”
“I try my best,” I said, pressing myself against him, so our hips were flush. I felt him growing hard against my stomach.
Cade took a few steps forward and then gripped my hips, lifting me, so I was sitting on the counter. I wrapped my legs around
him, and when his hand slid beneath my dress, I watched as his eyes widened when he realized I wasn’t wearing any panties.
I smiled and unzipped his pants. Cade wasted no time pulling himself out and positioning his length against my opening. I squeezed my legs tighter around his waist as he entered me, pulling him in deeper. It had been months, but I was still surprised by the size of him each time he entered me. I always thought I couldn’t possibly stretch anymore, but then Cade would push himself in a little further and drive me absolutely wild.
I arched my back and leaned my head back against the wall, bouncing with every thrust of Cade’s hips. We’d discovered very soon after I moved in that the kitchen countertops were the exact height of Cade’s hips, and we’d been making use of that fact ever since. I couldn’t bake anything without Cade coming into the kitchen, smelling the dessert in the oven, and then giving me a treat of his own.