I turn around. “Get on.” I don’t give a fuck how tired I am. If I can take an ounce of pain from her poor feet, I will. I hear her sigh and expect her to argue more, but her little hands latch onto my shoulders. She jumps up and wraps her legs around my waist, so I tuck an arm under her to hold her on. Once she wraps her arms around my neck, and I know she’s securely in place, I take off toward the road, staying within the trees. We walk about two miles before the road starts sloping down, bringing us closer to the city lights below, and I realize where we are.
“We’re in Abandoned Hills,” I tell her, looking around, trying to figure out which way to go now.
Les squeezes my neck. “If we keep going down, we can go to Concrete Row.”
I stop walking. “You want to go to gang territory in the middle of the night?” I ask and realize how stupid that is. Les leads those gangs. “Never mind.”
She breathes, and I swear it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Did you forget who I am?”
Sort of.“No. Which is the best way?”
“Let me down,” she says, wiggling on my back, and I reluctantlylet her slide to her feet. “That way,” she says, pointing down the hill. She tugs my hand, and I feel relief wash through me.
If we can make it there, we can call for backup.
“Ghost’s poolhall is right around the corner,” Les whispers from our hiding spot. She waited until we were in themiddleof Concrete Row to tell me that some of these gangs weren’t hers, and they weren’t fans. And here I am, waltzing her into the middle of it in nothing but a nightgown that’s practically see-through. We creep to the corner she was pointing at, and the pool hall comes into view, still lit up, but the closed sign on. “That’s his car,” she whispers, indicating the blacked-out Dodge Challenger sitting to the side.
“I don’t like this,” I repeat for the millionth time.
“What else are we supposed to do?” she asks and tugs my hand. “He’ll help us.”
“I’m a fucking cop, Les,” I hiss.
She stops and turns to me, taking both my hands. “He won’t hurt you without my word.” She squeezes. “I wouldn’t be here without you,Tesoro.”
She starts tugging my hand again, and I follow behind her. Walking around the back of the building, we find a door; she takes a deep breath, bangs on it, and then steps back. It takes several times banging on it before it’s finally shoved open. A blonde guy about three inches taller than me narrows his eyes before they widen when they land on Les. “Alessa?”
She nods rapidly. “Hey, Ghost.”
“Holy shit. Get in here,” he says, opening the door wider. I follow close behind her, trying to stay with her, so he knows I’m not letting her walk in alone. He looks at me with a glare but doesn’t say anything. He jerks off his button-up shirt and silently hands it to Les. She takes it with a shy smile and pulls it on. It swamps her, fittinglike a dress, but it does the trick of covering her; he gets major points for that.
He walks us into a backroom with a large table in the middle full of gangbangers who know exactly who I am. When they spot Les, they all jump to their feet, mostly out of shock and respect. Ghost leads her to a chair at the table, and she sinks into it with a grimace; I sit beside her, her hand still tucked into mine.
Ghost rounds the table and sits in front of us. “What the fuck? I feel like I’m staring at an actual ghost.”
She smiles, but it’s wobbly. I know she’s trying to hold back tears in front of these guys. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ll call Ryder,” Ghost says and jerks his phone out of his pocket. As much as I’m glad she’s safe, I dread what happens next. “Man, I need you at Shooters. Now.” He listens to whatever Ryder says. “I’m staring at Alessa.” Ghost nods and hands the phone to her.
“Ryder?” she whispers, and she can’t stop the tears from falling. “It’s really me.” She listens to him with tears streaming down her face. “I love you too. So much,” she says, then hands the phone back to Ghost. “They’re on their way.” I can’t imagine the relief he just felt.
“Damn,” Ghost says, running his hand through his shaggy hair. “They busted up that house today looking for you. They’ve been searching around there for you all night.”
“We got out this morning,” I answer when she starts crying harder. I pull her to my chest and ignore his narrowing eyes. “Can you tell your boys to stand down?” He looks at Les for her answer; no way he’ll listen to me. When she nods, he waves his hand, and they all sit back down. “Thanks,” I grit out. I’m so fucking uncomfortable. Most of these guys I’ve arrested at one point or the other. I’m not their favorite person. “Do you have a first aid kit?” I ask. I need to look at her poor feet.
He nods before standing from the table and striding to a row of cabinets. He walks back over and hands it to me. I turn my chair around, then hers. Pulling her feet gently into my lap, I wince at the sight. They’re cut, bruised, and bleeding. One of the other guys hands me several cleaning wipes so I can clean the dirt as much as I can.
“You need to do something about that chest,” Ghost comments sitting back down.
I glance down and shake my head. “I’m not worried about me.”
Ghost grunts, so I focus on Les. She’s holding her breath, but I occasionally hear her choke back a whimper. I get most of the dirt and blood off before digging in the kit for antiseptic. “I’m sorry, Beautiful,” I apologize before swiping it across her feet, knowing it will sting like hell.
“It’s okay,” she says quietly.
I put thick gauze on the bottoms of her feet before wrapping them in bandages to hold them on. It isn’t perfect, and she needs a professional to look at it, but it’ll hold until that can happen. I rub her ankles and sit her feet back on the floor. “Thank you,” she whispers.
“Anytime, Beautiful”
