I crooked an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to directly send them home?”
She sighed as Angel headed toward the women. “What you come to find in my line of work is that most women who end up with me are there because they can’t go home. If some of those women want to go home, I’ll make sure they get there. But if they don’t want to go home? I’ll find another life for them to lead here.”
I nodded. “Well, if any of them want to stay here, let them know that once we rebuild the clubs, they’re more than welcome to interview for jobs.”
She smiled. “I’ll definitely let them know. Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary,” I said as I stared off toward our white van, “just make sure they’re okay.”
However, even as I started toward the van that safely held the woman I couldn’t rid from my mind, three men approached me. They slid in front of me, stopping me right at the end of the dock, and I had to resist the urge to reach for my weapons.
Especially since they were the three dockhands that had helped us set things up.
“We’re so thankful for you,” the spindly one said.
He reached out and shook my hand before the other two followed suit.
“Hey, we couldn’t have done it without you guys’ help,” I said.
The bigger one sighed. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“I take it they were pretty rough on you guys?”
The one in between them nodded furiously. “When we wouldn’t take their money, they went out of our way to make our lives miserable.”
“Yeah,” the thin one said. “They placed calls to get our hours docked. I damn near lost my house because of it.”
The bigger one raked his hands through his hair. “They stalked my daughter at her school for a while. My wife almost convinced me to uproot our entire family and leave to start somewhere else.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do for either of your families to help you guys get through this, let me know. And expect a very large payment headed your way soon.”
“Wait, really?” the middle one asked.
I chuckled as I slid my hand off the man’s shoulder. “Give us a week, and I’ll be back around with checks cut specifically for you guys. Okay?”
The men beamed with pride before the chunky one spoke. “Sounds like a plan to us.”
“Good,” I said as I walked in between them. “Now, go home. Go be with your families and give us the evening to clean things up here. By the time the dock opens at sunrise, it’ll be like this place was never touched.”
“Actually,” one of the guys said.
I peered over my shoulder at the thin one. “You called the police, didn’t you?”
The middle one sighed. “We didn’t call. But after that third explosion, we had someone radio in from our northern dock to let us know that they’d already called for us, and to just hang on.”
Sirens whooped in the distance.
“Guys,” I said as I pressed my fingers to my earpiece, “we’ve got incoming.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Reaper said.
“Angel, how are the girls coming along?”
“Almost got them loaded up. We need about five more minutes.”
“Shit,” I hissed.
Bender jogged past me, most likely to go help. But my brain was running a million miles a second.
