“Sure, but Drifter had that under control. And worst case, Relay could’ve handled it himself.”
I didn’t say anything because she was right.
“You had to leave Merc behind to watch over me and that put you a man down when you were facing unknown numbers. Relay might not have been shot at all…”
Again I kept my lips sealed. She was on a roll and honestly, I would just say the wrong thing and piss her off. I really didn’t want to do that. But she seemed to be done. “You don’t know that. Besides, we really didn’t mind having you with us,” I told her.
“And I appreciate that. But I’ll find another way to help you guys. Or wait until Ryan and Teddy are home and help them then. For now, it would be best if I stayed here, where you already have people designated to watch over us. I don’t want to deplete your numbers and get you guys into any sort of trouble.”
Well, shit. “Thanks,” I told her. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy to admit.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she said with a sigh. “But it’s the truth. And I couldn’t live with myself if I was the cause of one of you being hurt.” She paused, then spoke again. “Relay-”
“That wasn’t on you,” I told her again. “Didn’t matter if Merc had been there or not, he probably would’ve still ended up shot. Couple of the bastards snuck up behind us while we were clearing out a dark corner. One more man wouldn’t have mattered.”
“Well, that makes me feel a bit better,” she admitted. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I jerked as the curtain whipped back again and this time a wet Rue was plastered to the front of me as she wrapped her arms around me. “Now you know how I felt when I told you that.”
“I do,” she said into my neck.
“Great. Shower’s done,” I told her, banding an arm around her so she couldn’t escape. Reaching out I turned off the water.
“I wasn’t done.”
“You are now.” Bending my knees, I leaned down and then tossed her naked over my shoulder. I smacked her ass as she squirmed. “You had your chance. Now it’s my turn.”
“Your turn for what? OD!”
“You’ll find out,” I told her, stalking back into the bedroom. I knew before her admission that I wanted to keep her. But after all that? No way was I letting this woman slip away from me.
And one thing I’d learned over the years, if you kept a woman’s knees weak with multiple orgasms they had trouble running anywhere.
CHAPTER 24
Rue
The guys managed to get Relay to sit still for a week. Then he got restless. And the others were struggling, too. They all wanted to go after Carrick.
I wished there was a way to get Ryan back without having to confront an organization like The Collective. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started trying to find my brother. The MC coming into my life had certainly saved me. There was no way, even if I’d managed to escape Rhino, Carrick would’ve allowed me to walk away. Not with what I knew. It didn’t matter that it hadn’t been much at that time.
But then I remembered that there were so many others being victimized, other than Ryan, other than Teddy, and I knew this needed to be done. It wasn’t enough to just save Ryan, they preyed on kids like him. So many runaways, orphans that needed us to step in. It just worried me to have people I’d grown to care about be those who had to go clean things up. I still felt,partially, that this was my fault. I knew it wasn’t, but tell that to my conscience.
I wished I was some badass fighter who could go along and have their backs, but that wasn’t me. I was super useful when someone was hurt. I knew my strengths and that was where I excelled. And I was okay with that. I felt a moment of guilt there, too. I didn’twantanyone to get hurt just so that I could be useful, I just wanted tobeuseful.
So I was sitting here with Mercy, watching my—and Ryan and Teddy’s—favorite trilogy, eating popcorn, and trying not to worry now that the majority of the club had walked out the door.
“Those barrels wouldn’t have stayed upright like that,” Flir pointed out, motioning toward the screen.
Strike looked over at him in disbelief. “There are dwarves riding in the damn things, orcs trying to kill said dwarves, and two elves saving their asses as they annihilate the orcs.”
“Don’t forget the hobbits,” Code added.
“So?” Flir asked, ignoring Code
“So the authenticity of the barrels is what you have a problem believing here?” Strike asked him.
Flir considered that, then shrugged. “The premise of the movie is that these beings exist in this universe. Nowhere does it explain that barrels are any different than they would be in our world.”
