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The streets were busy. People were everywhere, and we were fighting against the crowd. Levi with his hand on my back, pushing my body forward while Skins was fighting a battle of his own. And even though Dakota was tiny, she wasn’t exactly easy to carry while trying to haul ass down a busy street.
“Meyah!”
I could hear my name being called from behind me, but I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t risk being trapped.
“This place!” Levi practically picked me up off my feet, shouldering the swinging door and holding it while Skins dove through with Dakota. The receptionist lady screamed, and several people stepped away.
I waved. “Sorry. My friend got a little too drunk,” I tried to play it off as Levi shoved me in the direction of the elevator, reaching out and pressing the button over and over again like that was going to make it come any damn faster. The moment we got inside, and they slipped closed with a ding, Levi hit the fourth-floor button and I sunk to the floor. That’s when the tears began to roll down my face.
Skins was heaving, trying to catch his breath.
“Give her to me, man,” Levi offered, walking over and taking my tiny best friend into his arms while Skins sunk to the elevator floor beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
I turned my head, wiping my tears on his shirt, trying to stop myself from wanting to be sick all over the place.
“You’re okay,” Skins tried to soothe me as he took long steady breaths in and out. His heart was pounding in his chest, and I could feel it against my arm.
The elevator stopped, and the door dinged open, the both of us fighting exhaustion to get to our feet and following Levi down the hall. He stopped and kicked against the room 405 door then stepped to the side, nodding at the doorway.
The hotel room door opened, and I didn’t even need to wait for him to come into focus before I threw my body forward. He caught me, his arms going around my waist and lifting me off the floor before backing back into the room.
I couldn’t stop the sobs at that stage. I felt like I’d done pretty damn well until then to keep some sort of sanity, even after being attacked byAsshole One and Two.Then having to look away while Levi killedAsshole One and Two.Then realizing I didn’t fucking care they were dead because I’d imagined how many girls they had done that too, and damn-well succeeded. It made me feel physically ill just to think about it.
“It’s okay, fury fists,” Ham soothed, burying his face in my neck and my hair, nuzzling me like a cat would when it wanted to leave its smell on something, so everyone knew they owned it. “You scared the fucking shit out of me.”
I heard his voice shake. That was something I wasn’t used to from him. There’d only been one other time, and it was after the run-in with the sheriff.
My heart knew where home was. The second he had a hold of me, it was like nothing else around us mattered. I hadn’t been attacked. I hadn’t watched my best friend be beaten and sedated. I hadn’t stood there while Levi murdered two people in order to save us.
In his arms, I was safe from that. That shit didn’t matter because he would protect me.
“Wanna tell me what the hell you were doing in that place?” a deep voice snapped from behind me.
Ham growled low in his throat as he slowly placed my feet on the ground. “Leave it alone, Romeo.”
“Leave it alone? Do you realize how close your Old Lady just came to being on Isiah’s latest menu?” Romeo proclaimed his voice at a tone and level I hadn’t heard from him before. I clutched onto Ham a little tighter realizing he wasn’t wearing his club cut.
Wait!Why the hell were they here in Las Vegas?
I pulled back, looking up at Ham, my eyes blurred and watery. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Saving your ass apparently,” Romeo interjected before Ham could even open his mouth.
I spun around. “I get it, okay. You can’t trust guys in a nightclub. We made a mistake.”
The dark laughter that dripped like acid from his lips actually scared me. He braced his hands on the small hotel dining table in front of him, looking at me as if I was nothing but an annoyance—a fly that was buzzing around his head that he’d like to swat.
It gave me the chills.
Romeo and I had gotten close, even up until recently when he’d been the only one who stuck up for me, who helped me to see Ham.
Now, suddenly I was a piece of shit?
“Do you have any idea what goes on in that place?” Romeo snarled. “Do you realize how close you just came to being someone’s slave for the rest of your fucking life? How close you came to being tortured, and drugged, and rap—”
“That’s enough,” Ham spat, pulling my back against his chest. “How the fuck was she meant to know? It’s not as if he has a sign outside that screams ‘I steal women.’”
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” I demanded, turning in Ham’s arms to face him and searching his eyes. They were full of worry, and honestly, what looked like fear. “What are you guys doing here? How did you know we were in there?”
