by Heather Long
Making one would be the second step.
I went to touch his arm, then curled my fingers against my palm. Doc had done more than enough. Now he’d even gotten into another fight for me. “Thanks, Mickey.”
He let me get three steps away before he said, “Where are you going, Little Bit?”
“You don’t have to worry,” I said over my shoulder. “I’ll figure it out.”
His sigh followed me another three steps. On the fourth one, he was quiet. By the fifth one, I was sure he’d let me go. Yet, it didn’t surprise me to find him standing next to me when I reached the next street.
When he held out his hand to me, I stared at it for a long moment. Taking it meant going back. At least with Doc. Taking it meant trusting him.
Taking it meant taking a risk.
“It’s cold out here, Little Bit,” he said. “Let’s at least get something warmer in you again, and we’ll take some time for you to make your decision.”
“Jasper won’t like it.”
“I don’t care.” His words practically echoed Liam’s, and a small smile escaped me. “Let me help you.”
“You already have.”
“Fine,” he said with an impatient sigh. “Let me help you more.”
I blew out a breath. “I have nothing to pay you back with right now…” And honestly, I had no idea what I was getting him into if he was in the middle of all of this. He wasn’t a Vandal, right?
“Tell you what, you let me worry about me while I worry about you. Then you can focus on what you want to do next, but in the meanwhile, I got your back.”
Sometimes, you have to fall before you fly…
And every flight required a leap of faith.
When he held out his hand this time, I took it.
Chapter 2
Emersyn
Doc led me to his truck and tucked me inside, snapping the belt into place before he closed the passenger door and circled the truck to get back behind the wheel. The cold barely touched me anymore. Not saying a word, he started the engine, and then we were back on the road. He’d parked a block away from the hotel.
Traffic seemed heavier leaving than when we’d driven in. Course, it was later in the morning. Rush hour, maybe? It occurred to me I didn’t even know what day of the week it was. I’d lost all track of time and reason. I could still feel the weight of Vaughn’s hands and the heat of his kisses. I was in the passenger seat of a truck not only heading away from my own escape, but also back toward the people who kidnapped me.
Irony could go fuck itself.
I flicked a look at the side mirror and caught sight of a motorcycle behind us. Liam? I only paid attention because it was a stunning shade of blue. Pretty. Then I looked forward again. Doc left me to my thoughts. He’d taken us through another drive-thru for coffee, huge cups for each of us. I warmed my icy hands on the cup as he pressed it into them. The heat of his hands on mine lingered as he closed my fingers around the beverage.
For a split second, I glanced up to find him watching me. I licked my lips and glanced down and away. Doc saw way too much. “I suppose I should ask where we’re going.” It wasn’t really a question, it was just me giving voice to some words. I still couldn’t believe how close I’d come to walking right into my uncle.
“I’m taking you to the clinic,” Doc said. “Let you have some time to figure out what you want to do.”
His clinic. “Oh fuck, I’ve kept you from your work.”
“Stop,” he ordered in a soft voice before his hand settled on my knee. There was nothing suggestive about the contact. If anything, it was a source of deep comfort. His hand rested there, offering strength not demanding anything. “You haven’t done anything to me. You haven’t done anything to anyone. I told you I would help you, and I meant it. You got out of there on your own, but Liam’s not wrong—they are going to start looking for you the moment they figure out you’re gone.”
My stomach bottomed out.
“The clinic might be one of the places they look, but we have some time and my place isn’t far. I’d offer the apartment, but I’m doing immunizations this afternoon and I want to be there before the line starts. I can get you inside without too many eyes on you. I also want you somewhere you can feel comfortable, that isn’t another cell.” Maybe he didn’t want to leave me alone at his place in case I disappeared?
The flutters in my belly gained some altitude. I slanted a look at him and sighed. “Thank you. I really don’t want to get in the way of your work.” At least this way, I’d find out the name of his clinic and stuff. “Are you the only one who works there?”
“Most days,” Doc said easily, driving one-handed and keeping his eyes focused on the traffic. “Two days a week, I have a nurse volunteer come in so I can see female patients without them being uncomfortable. If I have one that really needs an exam, I ask them to bring a family member or girlfriend…”
I frowned and took a sip of the coffee. “Why?” The moment the question passed my lips, I shook my head. “That was stupid. You need someone there to not only make them feel comfortable but also so no one can accuse you of being inappropriate. I forget that not everyone is used to having their body on constant display.”
“Everyone should feel comfortable with their physician,” Doc informed me, and he gave me a measured look when we stopped at a traffic light. “And your body should only ever be on display if you choose to do that.”
Avoiding that knowing gaze, I glanced at the side mirror. The blue bike was visible a few cars back.
“Liam’s still following us,” Doc said. “Which means he’ll know you’re going to be at the clinic.”
I sighed. I tried to work up the energy to care… “Will Jasper really hurt Rome?”
“I can’t say for sure,” Doc answered with a sigh of his own. “Hawk’s a pain in the ass, but he means well.”
Surprise flickered through me, and this time, I half twisted to look at Doc. He flexed his fingers on my knee and chuckled in this deep baritone that I swear went straight to my cunt. His kindness alone made him appealing. The way he spoke to me and helped me, even more, the way he treated me were all alluring, but that chuckle?
It was sexy as fuck, and I sucked in a deeper breath of air, all of it filled with the scent of coffee and something far more male.
Really not the time to be thinking with my pussy.
Just, not the time.
“Seriously,” Doc continued, as if my reaction had been to his earlier statement and not to him. Probably a good thing. “He’s a good kid. Just…life hasn’t always been kind to them, and the boys look after each other.”
“He put a gun to your chin,” I reminded him. “Just because you were helping me bathe.”
“No, he put a gun to my chin because he found me with you naked and vulnerable in the bathtub.”
“But…” What the hell was with Jasper and that? I barely knew him. I mean, what I did know was hot and oddly attractive, despite his kidnapping and surly tendencies. The man had them build me a freaking studio. He’d been kinder to me in ways even the people who were supposed to love me never had been. At the same time, he was frustratingly mute on a lot of topics.
And he refused to let me go.
“Little Bit, you were in a vulnerable spot. And you were hardly in a position to fend me off if I got handsy.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not the type, but people like Jasper are why you have to have someone with you when you examine a woman.” All right, that made sense. “But he doesn’t understand.”
“He doesn’t have to understand,” Doc said with another light squeeze to my knee before releasing it. “He wants to keep you safe. They have given their word to protect you, and they take that seriously.”
“And that’s the part I really don’t get.” It sounded like everything I could have ever wanted. “I’ve never met them before and they…” I trailed off, the accusation of kidnapping dying on my tongue. I’d brought it up before, but I was
free now and I didn’t want Doc reporting this.
Of course, he hadn’t reported it.
“Are you a Vandal?” The question came out abruptly as Doc maneuvered across a few lanes of traffic to exit the highway.
“No,” he answered without elaboration. “And I can’t tell you why they made the oath, but I can tell you that they meant every word. It’s why they took your partner.”
I grimaced.
Eric.
“He was only someone I performed with,” I corrected. Was he still in that cell being tortured? A wash of heat went through me at the idea of him suffering. For all the weeks I had been there, apparently so had he, and from the state I’d found him in, they’d been generous with their abuse.
“But he hurt you.” It wasn’t a question.
I could shrug it off, but I didn’t. “Yes.”
Doc nodded. “He won’t. Ever again.”
No complaints here. Maybe I should feel some sense of guilt or remorse. No matter how terrible a human being he had been, he was still a human being.
I searched for a scrap of pity.
Nope, fresh out of fucks to give where he was concerned.
“Good.”
Another of those sexy chuckles fell from Doc’s lips as he turned. The farther we drove, the sadder the town looked. A little more rundown. A little more worn. The buildings were older. The paint chipped. It wasn’t dirty though. The streets were thick with people. Vendors. Kids were heading to school, based on their backpacks. Stores were opening.
They had a neighborhood grocer. The man was wheeling out crates of fruits and veggies to put in a stand just outside the front door. On another corner, there was a huddle of business suits—not expensive or smart, but definitely cleaned and pressed—waiting for a bus that rumbled up as we were passing.
Even though the blue bike remained in the side mirror, I focused on the people filing onto the bus. Some had earbuds in, listening to music or maybe podcasts. Others chattered. Still more just wore a resting bitch face as they climbed aboard. The light changed, and Doc pulled away, the bus vanishing behind me.
The streets were numbered in this part of town. At least all the cross streets we passed. Some of the buildings began to look a little more disreputable. The level of disrepair grew, and while there were shops, they grew fewer and farther in between.
At the next light, a mural on the wall of one of the buildings blew me away. It was a stunning painting of kids playing on a playground. It was a colorful scene with the children kicking a ball around, while another kid swung on a swing and still another jumped on the back of one. All told, there were five boys playing ball, but there were others in the background. One stood on the far side of a fence, like he couldn’t get into where the others were.
Doc pulled away before I could make out more details. We turned at the next cross street, and there was another mural. I gaped at it, and Doc slowed the truck. It was a series of dancers. They were adorable, little girls in pink tutus going through their routines. It threw me back to when dance had been fun. There was a girl in the background dancing away from the others.
That could have been me. Lots of times it was me.
I laughed.
“Rome did these,” I said as Doc put his foot down on the accelerator.
“He’s very talented,” Doc explained unnecessarily. “No one ever knows what he’s going to create. He’s done a few around town. Usually on the worst buildings or…”
“Falling apart playgrounds.”
“Abandoned ones, yeah. There’s not enough money for all the things here, but he tries to make them a little prettier. When he disappears for a few days, you can usually expect something beautiful to show up.”
Now, I kind of wanted to go hunting them. “Do you know where they all are?”
“Some of them,” Doc said with a glance at me, and then we circled a building and pulled into a pothole pitted parking lot in the back. We were the only vehicle. It wasn’t hard to believe this was the clinic, it fit right into the aesthetic of this area of town. Dilapidated, unkempt, but even if it was poor, it was lived in.
The Vandals lived here. When they’d taken me to Doc’s for the test, it hadn’t been that long of a drive from the warehouse. I wasn’t sure which way it was, but I could guess. The air was chilly as I opened the passenger door, but Doc circled the vehicle before I could slip out and then he was there offering me a hand.
His truck was parked in a shaded area, but the lot itself had a lot of rough gravel and it was definitely uneven. When I wrote his clinic a check, I was going to make sure he got this repaved. Maybe I could even fix up Rome’s park.
Would he still paint if it was fixed?
I’d have to ask.
No sooner did I take Doc’s hand than the blue bike rumbled to the opening of the lot. With his helmet on, Liam’s face was obscured. Doc followed my gaze, but he wore an unreadable expression. Was Liam planning on dragging me back, or was he just making sure Doc took me to the clinic so he could report to Jasper later?
Instead of following us though, he nodded and then rumbled away on the bike. I let out a long breath, and Doc glanced down at me. “I told you, you’re safe.”
“What about Freddie?” I asked as I let him guide me inside. He had to unlock three deadbolts to get the door open. It sounded heavy when he pulled it open.
“The guys are already looking for him.” Doc didn’t sound too concerned. “Knowing Freddie? He probably found a hookup and went home with a new pussy.”
Doc grimaced.
“Sorry…”
“It’s fine,” I said, waving off his apology. “Contrary to what the guys think, I’m not going to fall apart at the mention of a pussy, or a dick for that matter.” Doc had tattoos all down half his body to cover his scars. Did they go all the way down his leg? Did he pierce his dick too? Curiosity roused in me like a sleepy cat.
He chuckled, locking up before he led the way up a grayish white hallway. The antiseptic smell promised that despite the hints of peeling tile and cracked paint in the corners, the clinic was clean.
We passed open doors that revealed a couple of exam rooms. A third one revealed an office. The desk was neat, save for a stack of files on the corner and what looked like bobbleheads lined along the front of it, not that I got a lot of time to look. Doc guided me to a set of stairs and up.
There was a sitting room of sorts up here, or more like a living room. There were a couple of arcade games, bean bags, books, and a big television with a couple of video game consoles. The room seemed to take up the length and breadth of the clinic below, and there was a divided off area with a little kitchenette.
That was where Doc headed. He filled the coffeemaker with water and started a fresh pot. “You can make yourself comfortable here. There’s a little bathroom around the corner. It’s Monday, so the teens that use this won’t be here until after school. If you haven’t made a choice by then, I can run you back to my place or you can settle in my office. That won’t have the entertainment that this has.”
I set my coffee cup down on a table and glanced around. Arms folded, I turned in a little circle. Posters decorated most of the walls, but there was another mural. This one was all video game characters battling across different platforms.
More of Rome’s work?
Was there anything he couldn’t do?
The bean bags were a mishmash of darker primary colors. The carpet was the same. One could almost imagine if it were brighter colors, this wouldn’t look out of place in a kindergarten class, but it didn’t feel like a little kid’s place. It felt…lived in, open, and welcoming. The posters ranged from music to movies, some of them were older. There was even a…
“That’s a poster of me.” I stared at the one in the corner.
Doc glanced up from the kitchen at my whispered words, and the shock on his face wasn’t imagined. The poster was from one of my first shows. I wasn’t even prominent in it, but I was there. I was the kid in the cir
cle dangling from the ceiling.
I’d been eight.
It was my first tour.
“That’s you?” Doc asked as he joined me, his voice rough. “Which one?”
When I pointed to me in the circle, he blew out a ragged breath. When he glanced at me, he looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“Mickey?”
“It’s okay,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he had earlier. Gone was the cool assurance, and in its place was a guarded fear. Maybe not fear, but definitely disturbance. “It really is okay, Little Bit. I should have put it together. And I was at that show.” He said, indicating the poster. “Everything in here is something one of us has been to.”
He’d been at that show?
I barely even remembered where we’d been performing, but it hadn’t been here. “Oh.”
A faint smile creased his lips. “Don’t worry about it, just take it easy. Watch some television and think about what you want to do. There’s not a phone up here, but there’s a hardline in my office. I can send someone to grab a new cell phone for you, if you’d rather…” He shot a look at his watch and rubbed my arm gently before he headed for the stairs. “I gotta get this place open, you’ll be fine here.”
Not waiting for my response, he vanished down the stairs. I stared after him for a moment, then glanced back at the poster.
He’d been at the show. That had been ten years earlier.
I was more confused than ever. I dropped into one of the bean bags and ran my hands over my face.
And I still had no idea what the hell to do or who to call. Lainey’s face danced across my mind’s eye, and I grimaced. I wanted to talk to her so bad. At the same time, my uncle might have figured out about her. What if he was watching her? What if he went after her?
Right now, my best bet was the people I’d escaped.
How fucked up was that?
Chapter 3
Jasper
No one had seen Freddie. Not since we left him to look after Emersyn. No one could even tell us when he left. Not Emersyn, not the rats. I could go ask her, but Kellan and Vaughn both vouched for her not knowing anything else. Cagey bastards were hiding something. I’d deal with that and them later. After we figured out where the fuck Freddie went. The last thing we needed was someone missing while the 19 Diamonds were nursing their wounds.