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“You’re sure?” I ask because I can’t help but prod a little to see if there’s even a hint of a chance I can change her mind.
“Brielle has a test,” she says before turning around and walking away.
She’s stubborn enough to try and walk, so I know better than to just let her go.
As annoyed as I am at myself for not being a good-enough man to keep her here, it doesn’t stop my eyes from following the sway of her hips as she walks in front of me.
The front door opens before she can reach out for it, and I frown at the sight of Rocker, my team leader, entering the clubhouse.
He lives off the property in a house right next door to Jinx and his wife. He’s normally only here when we’re working, have a meeting to prepare for work, or if there’s some sort of scheduled gathering.
“Morning, Beth,” he says to her before locking eyes with me. “We have a meeting.”
An audible sigh of frustration comes from my wife’s lips, but she doesn’t say anything as Rocker heads toward the conference room.
Disappointment fills her eyes when she faces me.
“I can’t miss the meeting,” I tell her.
She doesn’t seem at all surprised.
“I know.”
“Let me find someone who can take you,” I say, because I know what happened the last time she was asked to wait.
I may not be able to keep the woman from leaving me, but I can do everything in my power to make sure she’s safe while she’s still in town.
I hold up a finger. “Just give me a minute, please?”
She dips her head in agreement before I turn back and go into the conference room. Instead of looking around to find someone who I can ask, I go straight to Kincaid.
“Beth needs a ride to the shelter,” I tell my boss.
He searches my eyes for a few seconds and I know the man knows everything that happened yesterday. I don’t think there’s a single thing that goes on with his club or its members without him being privy to it.
“Newton, can you give Beth a ride to the shelter?”
I turn to face my teammate, and although he doesn’t look exactly happy, he stands from his spot at the table and nods.
“Thank you,” I tell Kincaid before following Newton from the room.
“Hey,” I tell him, trying to grab his attention. “Keep an eye on her.”
“I know how to do my job,” he says, holding his injured hand up. “Despite what this looks like.”
“She’s my wife,” I say, needing him to know she’s more than just a job.
“And I’d protect her with my life, man. Don’t worry.”
Don’t worry.
I’ve always hated those two words together. I know all I’ll ever do is worry.
I follow him out into the hallway, but I know I can’t go far. Jinx is standing in the open doorway of the conference room. Since it looks like he’s getting ready to close the doors, it tells me that they’ll all be waiting on me.
Beth smiles at Newton when he approaches, but she doesn’t even bother to look over his shoulder at me. It seems she’s well and truly done with whatever we were.
I head back into the conference room, wanting to burn the damn world down. From the grim look on Shadow’s and Kid’s faces, as they stand at the front with their arms crossed, it seems I might just get my chance. Our job is never rainbows and butterflies, but it isn’t often that men who have literally seen every kind of depravity look like they’re at risk of losing their breakfast.
“We knew that we didn’t get them all in Quito and Tumbaco,” Kincaid says the second Jinx pulls the doors closed behind me.
Max types away on his computer until the screen behind the guys fills with a horrific image—a pile of bodies, all small children, all naked, all bloody and bruised.
“The ones who were left behind did this in retaliation,” Kincaid says, throwing a thumb over his shoulder toward the screen.
I keep my eyes on the dead children. They deserve the attention, and it feels disrespectful to look away. People have been turning away from these situations for far too long. The whole it’s not here, it doesn’t matter because it happens in South America bullshit is disgusting. I know most people don’t know that what happens in other countries is becoming just as prevalent within our own borders, and the threat of it getting worse is very real. It’s only a matter of time before sex trafficking touches every single person in some way or another. Either someone they love will disappear or someone they at least know will.
“Local police blame us,” Shadow says. “The cartel retaliated against all the people they paid to keep an eye on the house they were operating out of. Each one of those kids was connected to a family in that same neighborhood.”
