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“By the way you’re looking at me, I’m taking that it’s not good?” I try to mask the pain already forming inside my chest.
“It was informative,meu amor, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
“Alright, let’s rip this band-aid off then.” I try to keep my tone light, but Thiago reads my every move.
Pulling me in deeper, he puts his hands on both sides on my face, locking his eyes with mine. I can feel our energy buzzing around us as he finally whispers, “We will find her. I’ll never stop fighting to find her. Even if it kills me, I would lay my life on the line for you.” He leans in, giving me a deep kiss that I can feel all the way in my center. His pace is slow, as if we have all the time in the world. The intensity of my love for him consumes me as our tongues meet, creating an overwhelming uproar to my senses.
When we finally break apart, I momentarily forgot all of the things we need to discuss. “I love you, Thiago.”
“I love you too, Lya.” He kisses my forehead, grabs my hand and we head downstairs to meet the other guys.
Walking into the kitchen, I see Zep and Rian standing by the table looking down at their new inventory of weapons. They are talking in soft voices, making it hard for me to hear their conversation. Zep looks up at me, giving me a soft smile that barely touches his eyes.It must have been pretty bad today.
“I see you got your new toys,” I say with a strong voice.
“I did. Thiago and Rian made sure we got a good deal on them.” I’m sure he means they all intimidated the hell out of the seller.
“We met with that slimy fucker Jack Arivette, this afternoon. He tried to extort money from us before he would give anything up, but we quickly beat the information out of him. He gave us information on a guy who used to frequent an underground club in the East Side of Craibridge called Darkest Desires. He said this guy used to put feelers out in the club for elite men looking to buy young, virgin girls. He initially wouldn’t cough up a name, but Zep made sure we got one from him. We’ll see if we can set up some form of sting there as well,” Rian states.
“What did you do to him?” I let my voice trail, lingering between the three, as I nervously twirl a piece of hair around my finger.
“We left him alive, don’t worry. He’ll have a hell of a headache tomorrow and his body will be in pain for a few weeks, but he’s fine. We might need to get more information out of him later, so we let him know he should stay put until we say so. Not going to lie, he was a lot more stubborn than we all thought. We’d placed bets on how long it would take him to crack and he exceeded our guesses by two hours. Eventually, he gave us the name of a guy at the club, some guy named Latonieo Haskins. We can look into him to see where we can find him, my guess though is that he’ll be at that club.” Zep says like it’s an everyday thing that they beat a guy within an inch of his life. The thought of them beating this fucker should probably disgust me, but it doesn’t.Does that make me sick?
“Hmm, alright. Did he say anything about my sister or know any information on that?” My stomach twists in anticipation of their next words.
“I’m sorry, babe. He said he never met her and never saw her, but we will get there. He did say that there are warehouses in Craibridge that were used for holding the girls, but he’s unsure if they are still used for that, due to the move to Darkest Desires,” Zep says as he approaches me, pulling me in for a deep hug.
“Did he give the locations for the warehouses?”
“No, but we’ll check out warehouses in the area to see if they are or were linked to any operations.”
“How many warehouses are there in Craibridge? The city isn’t small, so there has to be quite a few. I can start looking into them tonight.” My words rush out as anxiousness consumes me.
“How about we just take a moment to relax? We just got back and need to put up these weapons. I’m sure you had a busy day at work as well. Let’s eat some dinner, then we can talk about this more. Okay?” Zep places his hands on my upper arms, squeezing them gently to make me calm down.
I know Zep is right, I’m getting too worked up about this and need to take a step back and relax. Nodding my head, I thank them for everything they did today, even though I feel defeated and lost. Without them, I wouldn’t have gotten most of the leads that we’ve tracked. Instead of saying anything else, I head to the kitchen to start working on dinner.
* * *
Tonight,it seemed like we could all go for some comfort food so I made my homemade chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and country gravy. It’s one of their favorites and I had all of the ingredients I needed so it felt right.
As we all sit down at the table, all I can think about is the encounter I had with Greyson today. How he almost kissed me and how I almost let him. If I would have let it go any further, I’m not sure how my guys would have reacted. Honestly, I’m not sure how they’re going to react when I tell them that I’m feeling something toward him. Deciding it’s probably time to get it all out there, I suck in a deep breath.
“So I need to talk to you guys about something.” I try to gauge all of their reactions, but I’m met with suspicion. “Umm, I need to talk to you guys about Greyson. We all promised to be open and honest with each other and I never want to hurt you guys.” Starting to get nervous, I twist my hands in my lap, waiting for one of the guys to say something but nothing comes. As I’m about to explain, Thiago breaks the tension.
“Okay...? You’ve got me a little worried,meu amor. Did he do something? Did you decide not to take on his app? Do I need to beat someone up? Did you beat him up? No matter what you have to say, we will still love you. You could set us all on fire and we would still stand by your side,” Thiago says, as he spouts off fifty questions. That guy is always so inquisitive, but never lets me get in a word before he asks a million questions.
With the reassurance I needed from him, I start again. “No, we don’t need to beat anyone up... yet. And I didn’t beat anyone up either, but when I went to have lunch at Tara’s today, Greyson showed up.”
“What do you mean he showed up? Did you have a meeting with him?” Rian says quickly.
“No, I didn’t have a meeting with him. I was having lunch at Star of India, waiting for Tara to finish some work for the restaurant so we could spend some time together. While I was waiting, Greyson came in and sat down at my table. He said he was meeting a friend in the area who recommended Star of India to him. We spent some time talking over lunch and when we finished, I walked him to his car. When we were outside, he tried to kiss me. I’ll admit I did pause and consider it for a second, but in the end I stopped him.” I look down at the floor, not ready to witness their reactions.
Silence fills the room.
I gulp loudly, trying to find my courage to speak again. “Greyson makes me feel something that I can’t really explain. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I don’t want to keep you all in the dark. I would never want to hurt you, but I think I want to see where things could go with him too. I don’t want you to feel that you guys aren't enough for me or anything like that. You are all my world; the air I breathe. I... It's just... I feel some sort of connection to him. It’s completely different from all of the connections I feel with you, so I feel like I have to look into it or see why I feel this way. However, if you guys are not okay with that, then I won’t pursue it. We are a team and I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a say in this too.”
I wait for what feels like forever and no one says anything. Zep looks deep in thought. Thiago is just staring at me, looking a little confused. Rian looks like I’ve just ripped him into a million pieces. As I go to speak again, Rian storms out of the room while the other two stay firmly planted, watching him leave.
