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Nick
Allie looksat me with those wide-set deep green eyes, and they’re filled with questions. I fight down the need to show her exactly how much I want her, but I’m not interested in the short game. If it wasn’t clear before coming to the club, or envisioning her under another dominant’s direction, it is more than crystal clear now. Allie belongs to me. But it’s too early for her to know that. Way too early with all of her trust issues. She’ll need to learn to trust me both as a protector and a dominant first.
I take Allie’s hand and lead her from the water before wiping her dry with a towel from the warming station. “Get dressed, love.” I grab another towel and make quick work of getting myself ready while she gets dressed.
“I brought the Range Rover and parked in the back,” I tell her knowing just how fortunate and upscale this club is to have a parking lot in this prime piece of the city.
Allie is quiet and contemplative on the way home. It will take her time to explore her feelings and needs before she’s ready to open up. I have all the patience in the world, even if my dick throbs painfully in disagreement. When we get to her apartment, Trent and Liam pull up behind us. They make sure we get in okay and will wait until I get ahold of them with the security plan for the evening before switching with the other crews for the night.
We walk up the stairs, and it’s with an effort that I don’t touch Allie in any way. She needs to feel the change and the difference between how we interact here and in the playroom.
Allie flips the light switch and heads for the refrigerator, then rummages around and brings out a jar of what looks like homemade salsa. “Tacos should be here shortly.”
The doorbell rings, and I get the delivery while Allie sets our places.
She doesn’t say much as we eat the heated fare, but after a while, she looks up. “So, about the security. I’m sorry I overreacted. Let’s give it a try, keeping it the way you had planned with Trent and Liam on backup. We can always change it if we need to, right?”
“Sounds good, Allie.” I go back to eating and feel the heat of her stare on my skin. I glance up, and she’s giving me that wide-eyed stare that usually means she’s waiting for something else.
“Is that all you intend to say about it?”
I grin. “Well, I could remind you of the security rules if you think that’s necessary?”
Her eyes narrow at me from across the table as she eats.
“What do you want me to say, Allie? It’s done, finished, and the issue’s been resolved.”
“Well, that was certainly easy. I wasn’t expecting that.”
I shrug. “The important thing is that you have security, and the reality is that whether it was me, Trent, or Liam with you tonight, you would be safe.”
She narrows her eyes again. “So, it doesn’t matter to you if you’re the one protecting me or not? Is that what you’re saying?”
Allie’s watching me intently while twirling a chip in the salsa, looking for something, a reaction. She’s trying to see if I’ll stay the course and keep the dominant and protector roles separate. A test that she isn’t even aware of. “As your security detail, that’s my main objective, your safety, and it doesn’t matter to me how it happens. But since it is me and I have a lot to do, you’ll have to excuse me. I need to get some things in place before the men arriving in the States get off that plane.”
Allie lowers her eyes and picks at the remainder of her meal and then her pager goes off. She makes a call and listens, nodding her head. “I’ll be there,” she answers, disconnecting and looking up at me. “Plans changed. I’m going to need to be on swings instead of days this coming week. The good news is that I don’t have to be to work until three p.m. tomorrow. I’ll probably catch up on some emails and read for a while tonight instead of going to bed so early, so I’ll be tired enough for a nap before I go in tomorrow.
I nod, rinsing my plate and putting it in the dishwasher and returning for hers. “What time do you want to leave in the morning?”
“Let’s get in a nice long run. What about nine?”
“I’ll be ready; will you be ready?”
“Yes, sir.” She turns a pretty shade of red. “I didn’t mean for that to come out like that or the way it may have sounded. I was just being my sassy self.”
“No problem. Good night, Allie.”
When she’s finished in the bathroom and shuts her bedroom door, I put on my headphones and open up my laptop to join the video session that’s already started. Liam and Trent are giving Cole and Scottie an update when I sign on while Sheldon listens. “Glad you could join us, Nick,” Scottie remarks. “I have a little intel for the group now that everyone is here.”
“Let’s hope it’s good news,” Sheldon says.
Scottie’s eyebrows raise. “Wish that it were, lad. We were able to get a line on the men heading this way. At least right now, it seems that the connections these guys have to Alfreita are completely unrelated to us; they’re friends of Darwin. It has nothing to do with our previous interactions with that bloke or his family. Unfortunately, though, they are most definitely coming for the girls, and that means that while we’re not after Alfreita for this, there’s someone else pulling the strings of these lads. You should also know there’s a shipment due to leave port carrying hundreds of women and a couple hundred of those are stashed in a warehouse somewhere.”
“Fuck!” Cole shoves a piece of paper across the table he’s sitting at, and his eyes have gone dark with unleashed fury. The same reaction occurs any time a woman is put in harm’s way and way worse when it has anything to do with trafficking.
Scottie’s voice is even and reassuring. “I feel the same, lad. We all do. We don’t have any details yet, but we’re going to dig in with every available resource. Hopefully, we get the information sooner than later, though. They have to have the women stashed somewhere in the city, and my guess would be somewhere close to a port so they don’t have to transport far, but I’ve been wrong before. The men had a layover in Germany and met with three others before re-boarding. We ran their faces through the system and came up with more of the same. They’re all known associates of Darwin, and ten to one all of them are working for the same man at the top. We’re getting more intel on the other three as we speak.”
My jaw clenches tight because nothing about this operation sounds like we thought. This isn’t three men just coming to tie up some loose ends for a friend. Darwin’s organization is larger than we thought, with a far greater reach and a puppet master we don’t yet know, which gives him the advantage.
