by J. M. Dabney
"What would my Daddy be like?"
He knew it was different for everyone. Pelter was the sweet and compassionate one with his boys. He made sure Sin and Saint were always happy and content. Bull tended to be heavy-handed with Gregory, but that was only because Bull’s husband liked it. Livingston took complete control of Fielding, Liv made all decisions in their marriage, but that’s what Fielding needed.
He was intrigued by giving up that control. His life was mostly lived through the scope of his sniper rifle. Everything within that small frame he could count on. His peace was measured in velocity, airspeed, and feet per second—everything else was an unknown variable that he couldn’t account for—that was the part of his life that terrified him.
"Well, it depends on what kinda Daddy that you're drawn to. But in the end, it’s up to the boy on what Daddy he needs. Derrick needs me to be loving but forceful, to make sure he’s always safe and loved. He needs to be grounded, and when he disobeys, he needs me to take him in hand and instruct him.”
“What kinda Daddy would I need?” The question fell unsteadily from his trembling lips. It was the question he had feared but always seemed compelled to ask.
“Caring and compassionate, one to love the shadows from your eyes. If anyone took the time to look, they’d understand you were hurt before you came to them. And while you’re bruised a bit, a little TLC can make you beautiful.”
He bit his lip shyly at being called beautiful. Men weren’t supposed to be that, but all the Daddies called their boys that.
“Pure, if you name it, it no longer has power over you.”
He didn’t know if he believed Gage. His brain wanted to ignore it, pretend it never existed, and go on with his life as is. Did he want to trust Raul that much—could he? But what if Gage was right, just saying it could help him move forward.
“I allowed myself to be—”
“Boy, you’re not mine, but I will put you over my knee if you finish that.”
He steadied his voice. Brought his thoughts down to the squeeze of the trigger and breathed the truth aloud for the first time in years. He closed his eyes and just said it. “I was raped.”
When he opened them to look at Gage, he didn’t see judgment or pity.
“And that had nothing to do with you. The fucker wanted control and power…to break you down. It’s your choice in life whether to allow a single man to destroy you. Love allows us to transcend all the darkness that we pull around us to protect ourselves from the unknown. Love is your unknown, Pure. You were unable to allow yourself to be seen as a being that requires intimacy.”
“What if it hurts?”
“Pure, listen to me very carefully. Your Daddy will want nothing more than your pleasure. And if he doesn’t, then he’s not the one for you. You will discuss your limits. You will be honest about what is acceptable for your body and comfort. If he doesn’t want to adhere to those and doesn’t give you a safe word, then walk away. The boy has all the power. With a single word, a boy can make his Daddy heel. And if he doesn’t, I’ll teach him very clearly what safe, sane, and consensual means.”
“What if I can’t just let go?”
“Pure, any man, Daddy Dom or not, will respect your limits. I will say it again. The sub will always have the power. Just because a man claims to own you doesn’t mean you have to follow blindly.”
“But I’ve said horrible things and treated y’all differently for what you do, I feel like a hypocrite.”
“We’re all about forgiveness. Mistakes are made. It’s how we grow from them. I treated my boy horribly, but he saw past all the barriers I threw up. Raul—”
“What’s this have to do with him?”
Gage’s deep chuckle filled the office. “Boy, you can’t hide that you were asking because of your partner. We’ve all seen it over the years. You have to be open and honest with him. While I’ve assumed your inhibitions were more than just saving your first time for the right man, I’m not sure that anyone else noticed or delved any deeper than that.”
He was about to open his mouth and deny it until the banging on the office door had him jumping.
“Conference room now.” Livingston’s voice boomed easily through the heavy wooden door.
Then they were in movement and jogging from the office and down the hall to the main conference room. Gage and he were the last ones to enter. Linus’ expression cut off any line of questioning. The look on Peaches’ face especially said that something bad had happened. His stomach churned as he realized the only member not there was Raul, but he wasn’t due back from Texas until the following day.
“Before everyone loses their shit, I’m taking care of it, but we have to discuss what is going on. You’re a tight crew. You’ll want to run in and save the day. All that will do is make the situation worse.” Peaches spoke as Linus stepped to the side to allow her center stage.
He wrung his hands as he waited for the news.
“Raul has been charged with first-degree murder and was arrested three hours ago at his motel room.”
He opened his mouth to demand more information, but she held up her hand, cutting him off. Her look freezing him in place. That silent order was only for him.
“All the evidence at this point in the investigation is circumstantial but strong enough for them to issue a warrant. We have twenty-four hours before Texas Marshals arrive to extradite him back for his arraignment. What we know is that the victim was a twenty-five-year-old bartender who Raul was seen speaking to and possibly flirting with.”
He tried not to be hurt, Raul wasn’t his, but it wouldn’t be the first bartender Raul had taken home after an assignment.
“His body was found in Raul’s room by the motel manager. It appears the victim was beaten to death. Another guest called in a noise complaint, and when the manager arrived, a male fitting Raul’s build was seen exiting the room. I’ve already talked to a friend in Texas who’s going to meet us there.”
“What the fuck do you mean, meet us there? No fucking way am I letting him—”
“You’re officially off this assignment, Pure.” The order was clear in Linus’ tone.
When he started to argue, Gage grabbed his bicep and ordered him to stand down. He didn’t want to remain calm. They couldn’t let Raul leave the state.
“We just have to wait and see. You’re too close to this one, Pure. We want you out of this. If you even try to put your nose into this, I will fire you.”
He opened his mouth to tell Linus to fuck off, but Gage’s grip became painful. If they threw him out, he’d be out of the loop completely. He needed details, and his time was limited. Twenty-four hours wasn’t long enough to come up with a plan.
“Right now, I’m using a stall tactic. I can fight the extradition. I’ll lose, but it’ll earn us some extra time. We’re headed to the Sheriff’s station in order to check on him and start the process of his defense. I can’t have y’all showing y’all’s asses, I need to know what they have.”
Peaches talked out what they were going to do and filled them in on the attorney who would handle things outside her jurisdiction. She was ready to travel at any time, but until then, she’d fight to keep Raul in Georgia. He didn’t give a fuck if they needed to wait and see, that was utter bullshit, and he wasn’t going to sit still. He’d sit in on the meeting, but as soon as that happened, he was on his own. He wasn’t going to let his partner and spotter be taken down. First, he needed to figure out why, and be prepared to take the kill shot.
RAUL'S FATE AWAITED
He paced the small enclosure of his cell and tried to ignore Pelter watching him. A transport was coming the next day to take him back to Texas. He still couldn’t get over them arresting him at his motel. When the Crew arrived with Peaches, Pure’s gaze had met his through the aged-stained glass, and when he’d stepped out of the interrogation room, everything came down to just Pure. He swore Pure was about to guard him when the man’s hand went for his sidearm. Gage had whispered in
Pure’s ear, and the man relaxed, but that intense focus never left him.
“I didn’t do this, Cam.”
“Not at any point did I believe you did, but the evidence is more than circumstantial.”
“I can account for every step I made while I was there. Except for the night I left to head home. No one saw me for the last five hours of travel time.”
When he’d left, his room was almost like he hadn’t been there at all. Whoever did this would’ve had to wait for him to leave. What if he had stayed the night? Would his body have been found along with the victim? When the cops had questioned him, he’d recognized the kid in the photos. Even covered in blood, he recognized the beautiful face of the bartender from the restaurant he’d eaten at a few times.
He’d flirted, and the kid had even given him a napkin with his number on it. The flirting had been innocent enough, but not once had he thought about asking the young man back to his room. He’d stopped hooking up a year ago, when he’d only signed on as freelance with Trenton, it had been easier to ignore his attraction.
“Someone saw me talking with the kid, but I don’t know why anyone would want to jack me up with fake charges. I was on the road to come home.”
“Did you talk to anyone? Your cell records would give locations.”
“No, it was late, and I drove straight through, took a break for a power nap when I wasn’t in traffic due to accidents and stops for coffee. I wanted to get back.”
“Anyone stand out?”
“No, I mean, I get threats all the time. I take down people on the run. The list is long.”
“Peaches will take care of it.”
“She’s not licensed to practice in Texas.”
“That hasn’t stopped her before, and she has a lot of friends, and she told you she already arranged for an attorney.”
She had and an entire list of other things. The last twelve hours was a haze of panic and worry. It was like Raul’s world had shrunk down to a single focus, but there was something—someone—more important.
“Is Pure okay?”
“He left town.”
“Where the fuck did he go? Linus better not have sent him on a job without me.” He wrapped his hands around the bars and squeezed until his knuckles turned white. Pure never went out on his own. It was the one thing he’d demanded when he’d signed on full-time. No one else would act as the man’s partner, which was kind of shitty on his part because he’d gone on plenty of assignments without Pure. Those were mainly made when he needed a break from controlling himself around the younger man.
“Calm the fuck down. He’s not handling the plans well, and he went home to his mom’s. Pure wasn’t agreeing with the setup to let you be taken back to Texas. He thought they should fight harder to keep you here until more evidence came in.”
“More evidence? They found a murdered young man in my motel room with witnesses that said me and the vic were getting cozy. They might as well strap me in for lethal injection now.”
“Knock it off. Shit, you gotta keep your head on straight. You lose it, and Pure will too. You two are linked or something.”
They’d always worked as a seamless unit. They could go carry out a complete operation without uttering a single word. He had to keep fighting because his beautiful partner needed him. Being on the inside would leave Pure vulnerable.
“He just left?”
“Let’s just say it wasn’t easy. I think they threatened to fire him, so they called Jenn to order him home.”
In the years they’d been partnered up, Pure had never introduced him to his mother. It wasn’t until he’d gone to Pure’s house that he’d learned what the woman looked like. He wondered if there was a reason for that. He could understand keeping a separation between work and personal, but in the Crews, lines were crossed all the time.
“Do you think he thinks I did it?”
“No one thinks you did it, man, especially not Pure. He doesn’t let anyone at his back, and I’ve seen you two work together. The trust is right there in your face. I think he feels powerless because he’s been ordered not to help. They didn’t even want him in on meetings. At this point, that boy is ready to take everyone out. Him and Liv tangled, and I think shots were almost fired. At that point, they called his mama.”
He didn’t like that he was making Pure lose his calm. He’d found the act of Pure lining up a shot the sexiest thing in the world. The focus and serenity—that single soft exhale as Pure gently squeezed the trigger. It was almost like meditation for Pure. In the moment Pure fired, he was at his most confident—his place of peace. The shy man he wanted to dominate turned into a brutally constrained killing machine. The dichotomy of Pure’s two halves were the first things that drew him.
He hugged the bars and leaned his forehead on two of them. He should be worried about spending the rest of his life in prison—maybe dying for a crime he didn’t commit, but his thoughts were as they always were—focused on Pure. He couldn’t leave his boy alone. He couldn’t allow someone else to protect him, but he didn’t have a say in what happened until he stood before a judge, and his bail was decided.
His background and job made him a flight risk, not to mention he was charged with a viciously violent crime. Beating someone to death wasn’t a few shots center mast or a slit throat, a physical altercation meant a crime of passion. An intense hatred or just an unknown person who took pleasure in the pain they inflicted.
Keeping Pure away from this was best, he agreed with Linus and Peaches’ logic, but that put Pure out in the cold with no one to watch his back. That was his job. He was always supposed to keep his boy safe and unharmed, but being locked up put Pure in danger.
He felt regret for not keeping his promise to always protect Pure. He’d left the road behind to exist in Pure’s presence, not even to possess him. He craved being there in his space.
“He’ll be fine, man. You’ll be back home before you know it.”
“I’m not so sure. Someone really did a number, and I have no fucking clue why. Yeah, I’ve earned some enemies…but why the fuck would they go to all this trouble?”
“Maybe it’s not even that. Could be someone wanted to take you out and an innocent got in the way. It wasn’t a secret where you were staying, someone could’ve been waiting for you and when he knocked, attacked before—”
“I’m at least fifty pounds heavier than that boy. There’s no mistaking a twinky white boy for the big, mean-ass brown man. They knew what they were doing, I don’t know why, and that’s what’s bugging me the most. I can get someone wanting to take me out. It’s part of the gig. That kid didn’t do shit but show me a little too much attention in the bar.”
“Then fight to avenge him. I checked, and no one’s claimed his body yet.”
“Tell Peaches to take care of that. Linus has access to my accounts. Have him pull the money. Make sure it’s done up all nice for him.”
“Will do.”
The kid deserved someone to mourn him. Stand by his grave and acknowledge that he existed. He had seen too many people die alone, unloved and forgotten, a numbered marker in a shitty corner of a graveyard. That wouldn’t happen on his watch. Someone had used an innocent as a pawn in the plot to take him out. When he was exonerated, he’d make it his mission that the people to blame paid for it. If they wanted to add a body count to his back, then he’d make sure the fucker who beat an innocent kid to death was the first one to go down.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
P ure braced the barrel of his sniper rifle on the safety frame of his tree stand. Two days ago, he’d prepared and had kept all the details to himself. Raul wouldn’t make it through one night in jail. He’d already heard the rumors. Whoever was after Raul posted a hell of a bounty on his head. The vehicle he’d borrowed was parked two miles away, and they’d have to double-time it to make it before reinforcements converged on the location of the accident. Although, that wouldn’t happen until they were on their way to freedom.
He placed signal blockers that would cut all radio and cell communication. Working for Trenton Security had led him up to this moment and had taught him the skills he needed. Raul was his partner—spotter—the man who he’d always trusted at his back. He wasn’t going to let some unknown force take Raul down. He checked the display on his forearm that told him he had ten minutes until the prisoner transport broke the point of no return.
Everything he’d purchase for this operation was fresh out of the packaging or provided from shady contacts. All bought with cash and in another town. He hadn’t left anything to chance. His mom was ready to cover his whereabouts at the time of the escape. She was the only one who knew what he was doing. His involvement wouldn’t stay a secret to his former team for long, but she’d called in an emergency three days ago telling him he needed to come home.
He breathed evenly, found his center—the place he was calmest. Peering through his scope, he spotted the van. Raul was the only prisoner inside. He wouldn’t have gone through with his plan any other way. They’d scheduled Raul’s pick up to transport him to Texas. While being a part of Trenton had its perks, it also came with a lot of distrust from law enforcement agencies.
He’d seen Raul’s face when they’d showed up at the department after the meeting. The uncertainty was clear, and there was no way he could let the other man go down on bogus charges.
He mentally counted down, gently tapped the trigger as he took a deep breath through his nose. On his exhale, he squeezed the trigger and the tire exploded. The van lurched, the driver overcorrected, he aimed again, and as he took out a second tire, the van flipped.
He watched the chaos he’d caused below through his scope as one of the men inside kicked out the windshield. The man staggered as he attempted to try and assess the scene. Pure slung his rifle strap over his shoulder, stood and grabbed the rope as he rappelled to the ground. He took enough time to place his rifle next to his dirt bike. He removed his forty-five caliber from his thigh holster and made his way through the woods then into the clearing. He compressed the trigger to catch the man’s attention—his shot connected between his feet.