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5
Jensen
Islipped in through the backdoor of the address Ian had pointed out to me. My mind was already racing as everything clicked. Why we were here. What had pissed him off so much. It was her.Shewas here, and she’d put herself in a dangerous situation. What the hell was she thinking?Goddammit. A strip club for fuck’s sake. Oh, sure, the name might’ve said Gentlemen’s Club, but if it looked like shit and smelled like shit—chances are, it was probably fucking shit. No one tried to stop me, but then again—it wasn’t like they could stop a ghost, someone well-trained in the art of going undetected.
When one door opened, I slid into the shadows and waited for whoever it was to walk by before I proceeded on my way. When I located her, I dug out my phone and jammed my thumb against the instant call button. Holding the phone to my ear, I waited for him to pick up. Soft voices reached my ears a split second before Ian’s demand filled the line. “You got eyes?”
“Yeah. She’s in with the manager.” I paused and pressed my ear to the door. “Talking about a job.”
“Archer’s out front. He’s coming in as a customer. Find him and stay out of her line of sight.”
“What are you gonna do, Boss?”
“Don’t worry about what I’m doing,” he growled. “I’ll meet you soon. Remember what I said, keep out of sight for now.”
The voices in the room got closer to the door. “Got it,” I said, ending the call. As the door began to open, the manager still talking, I slid around the corner and pressed my back against the wall. There were worse things, I supposed, than spending an evening being closer to Mare than we had been in half a decade.
So much closer, yet still so far away.
* * *
“Any word from Ian yet?”Archer asked for the tenth time in the last hour.
“Not since the last time you asked,” I said, irritation clear in my words as I lifted my empty beer bottle to my lips—the same one I’d been nursing since I’d found him three hours ago, and we’d grabbed a seat as far from our girl’s section as possible. We kept her in our sights, watching as she buzzed back and forth from the bar to her tables.
“She’s not working the pole,” Archer said.
I put my beer bottle down and punched his arm. “And that makes this shit any better?” I snapped. “She shouldn’t be in here in the fucking first place.”
“We know why she’s here. She’s struggling.” He rubbed the spot I’d punched.Pussy. I hadn’t even hit him that hard. “I wish we could have approached her sooner, we could’ve been there for her these last few years.”
“Five years is a long time to wait,” I agreed with a nod, my jaw clenching to hold back the urge to walk across the room and scoop her into my arms. Even in the depths of my anger, my lust for Mare couldn’t be severed. As I watched her move, my cock ached, straining against the tight confines of my jeans.
“Being so close is damn near torture,” Archer whispered, adjusting slightly in his seat in a way that shared exactly how he felt.
“You’re certainly not wrong there, but you know why we had to stay away.”
“Spare me your speech,” he ground out with a scoff. “I was there. She was too jumpy, too aware of what was at risk, and if we randomly showed up, she would have been gone before we could have said her name.”
“Hey, you’re the one who said spare the speech, Chatty Cathy,” I countered, remembering how hard it had been to see her so skittish when we found her. Mare more than likely knew what her father was capable of. Anyone who came from a family like that would learn pretty quickly not to trust anyone. That included us, so we decided to wait and watch, knowing that she was worth however long it took to approach her without scaring her.
Until the circumstances changed.
“Boss must be pissed,” Archer redirected the conversation, his gaze tracking our girl as she stepped up to another table.
“Aren’t you?” I gestured as Mare avoided yet another wandering hand. I was afraid if I reached for my beer bottle again, I’d shatter it across the old fat fuck’s face.
“We need to stay calm.” Archer sat back, and his eyes narrowed on the man’s face as he grinned up at our girl. Even from across the room, I could see the barely-contained disgust in her features.
“Youstay calm,” I growled. “As soon as we make sure she’s home safe, I’m coming back here, and I’m going to break the fingers of every single motherfucker that’s tried to touch her tonight.”
“You have to admit,” Archer replied, “she’s pretty fucking good at avoiding.”
“Of course, she is.” I watched her, fixating on the way she moved, hips sliding side to side as that round ass swayed. She didn’t realize it—few people did—but our girl was a dancer. Oh, not the kind that grinded against a dirty pole on a stage in front of pervy middle-aged men. No, she was a private dancer. Her movements were graceful, smooth. Everything she did was natural, instinctive. I loved watching her. We all did. We’d become her personal protection unit over the years, her personal stalkers, just to do this very thing. Follow and observe her. She was beautiful, and she didn’t even realize we were still looking after her all these years, since we’d first lain eyes on her.
I nearly bit my tongue when I saw a drunk out of his fucking mind lean over as she walked by and slap her ass.When I come back,I silently vowedI’ll break his hands first.She froze for a brief moment, her face scrunching with anger before she resumed walking, heading straight for the bar.
“Heads up, man.” Archer nudged me as the manager—Mr. Grandlen we’d learned after we’d made some discrete inquiries—said something to Mare from across the bar before heading back to the hallway that led to his office and the employees’ changing rooms. She followed not far behind. Thank fucking Christ. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand watching her ass walk around in that barely there outfit. A Catholic school girl uniform? Really? She was practically begging for Ian to put her over his knee. What she’d look like with that skirt flipped up and her ass as red as a cherry … The thought sent shivers down my spine.
