“Yes,” Bulldog breaks in. Either he’s tired of me easing her into this or he’s giving me a reprieve. If he’s the one who tells her, then I’m not breaking any unspoken rule about what I can and can’t say. Probably helps that he already talked to Lady about all of this.
“The guy who’s gunning for us is a rival. He’s always had a beef with us, but we stumbled onto his business and tried to put a stop to it. Pissed doesn’t even begin to describe him,” Domino adds. I almost forgot he was here, but I should have heard the munching.
“What’s the business?” she asks.
“Human trafficking,” Bulldog says without a hint of emotion in his voice. You can’t. You have to lock it up when you talk about this. You bring in emotions and I don’t know a single brother who wouldn’t be crying out at the injustice of it. Kind of like my girl, but instead of voicing it, I see her eyes fill with tears, a few slipping out.
The bomb he just dropped on my girl has me wanting to punch him in the gut. But I should have known he would do the Band-Aid method: quick and fast, to the point. No more wasting time to ease her into it.
I take the lead, kissing her knuckles to bring her attention back to me before I use the pad of my other thumb to smooth away the tears on her cheeks. “And that’s why we need you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, babe.” I smile, but it’s not a happy one. It’s one I know she needs from me, to be her strength when she might feel like she can’t do this. But I know she can. If I knew nothing else about Bailey, I would know she’ll be strong enough for this. “This guy is going after people in our town. Redheads and kids specifically. He’s looking for those who no one would miss.”
“Oh my God.” She pulls her hand from mine to cover her mouth.
“Yeah, babe. I know.” I want to comfort her so much right now.
“But how can I help?” She’s shaking her head, already doubting that she can do anything to help.
“You work at the school,” Bass says, pulling her eyes to him. “Word on the street”—he makes a point to tilt his head to me—“is that the troubled kids usually come to you for issues. Be it ’cause they have to, like with summer school, or ’cause they want to. Either way, you’ll know better than us if someone goes missing.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She’s shy about it, probably still in shock that we’re talking so openly about something like this. Everyone might know about human trafficking, but till you’re a part of it, more than just hearing about it or seeing an ad that preaches “see something, say something,” it seems too far removed from you. Like it could never touch you, never darken your soul—till it does.
“That’s all we’re asking, babe. You see something, let us know. Don’t go to the cops.” Her eyebrows rise quick and fast to her hairline at my words, but I push forward. “We’ve got more resources than they do, and we’re working with them. They already know this is our bird, and we’re going to be the ones to take it down. If something seems off with someone, or you see someone not there anymore when they usually are, let us know. Hell, you feel the hair on the back of your neck rise, call me. Rather a false alarm and have you in my arms than not. You understand?”
She nods, pulling in her lower lip to bite on it. You know it’s bad when Bailey doesn’t talk. She only ever does that when I shock her because of how I just take the lead with her without asking. But we both knew that if she asked me to, I would have stopped or left, or whatever she needed. Now she doesn’t really get that say. She’s in it. As soon as she starts looking around for something that isn’t there, she’ll be a target, ’cause I know my girl. She’s going to start asking questions. She won’t let things slip through her fingers, especially when it relates to one of the kids she teaches.
“Good.” Bulldog stands, and so does Bass. Domino grabs another burger till Bass snatches it from him and starts tearing into it with a shit-eating grin. Domino only glares but then saunters off to another bag of food that we left on the bar. Bulldog rolls his eyes at them, then looks at the two of us. “Welcome to the family, Troublemaker. Gator, keep your dad in line.”
I huff at that. “As soon as you get a rein on your mom and tell her the same.” This is not one-sided, not by a long shot. His mom is just as much to blame, maybe even more so, than my pops.
Bass laughs as he heads toward the pool tables, leaving us to deal with a glaring VP. Till his attention turns to my girl.
“You get that we don’t do this, right? We don’t let people in when we don’t have to. Easier if you all don’t know. Only telling you now ’cause we need something, and it’s easier to protect a person who knows they’re a target than someone who doesn’t.”
My girl straightens her spine. The shock of our conversation is gone, and her backbone is back. His words are true, but he doesn’t have to be an ass about it. Not sure what Lady sees in him, but rumor has it she likes the dominant side he brings to the bedroom. Not hard to see that the VP isn’t the type to turn off telling people what to do all the time.
“Andyouget that I don’t scare easily, right? I might be short and cute, but there’s a reason he named me Troublemaker. I’m not stupid either. I’m not going to run in all gung ho if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
His lips twitch at her words, and I just get hard from them.
“Yeah, you’ll fit in nicely around here. Good luck with that, Gator.” He chuckles as he leaves.
She turns her glare from him to me. “What the hell does he mean by that?”
I shake my head as I hold her close. “Just that only a special kind of woman can get a Hound. And it takes a hell of a lot of work for a Hound to keep something special like that.”
“Oh.” She softens as my forehead touches hers. “Well then, it’s good we both have a little stubbornness on our side. Doubt a troublemaker or a gator will give up easily.”
“This is one gator who sure as hell won’t.” I pull her lips to mine and just sink into my woman. She moans into me, and I drag her onto my lap.
Fucking finally. Been dying to have her weight on me. Rather be inside her, but for now, this is all I need.
Just my girl and my club. The rest of the world can wait. Not for long, but long enough for me to claim my woman as my old lady.
“Get a room,” someone shouts, and Bailey breaks our kiss to giggle.
