Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SLY
“Oh my fucking god, she’s adorable,” Dex whispers, staring down at her with wide, besmitten eyes.
“Shh, you’ll wake her,” I hiss, as I beckon him into the vehicle with us. Jagger climbs into the passenger seat, and I think I see his lips quirk in amusement when he takes in her sleeping form, her head against my chest as soft snores escape her luscious lips.
It hasn’t escaped my notice that I’m the only one she hasn’t kissed yet, but I’m not worried.
I’m jealous. The sole thing restraining me from sweeping those three fools aside and claiming her for myself was the knowledge that it would upset her, and the growing certainty that she needed all four of us to stay safe.
That is, if we could figure out a better way to work in a unified fashion.
When I woke up and found her missing, I searched the entire apartment before even thinking about waking the others. That lost us precious seconds. As soon as I did, Pete and Dex tried to charge out of there.
I tried to tell them we needed a plan, but they insisted on speed. Jagger tried to sign something to us, but everyone was freaking out, and it was hard to think straight. We didn’t wait to pack our stuff; we just armed ourselves with what we needed most.
That’s when the door burst open, and four men in black came charging in, guns aimed at us in an instant. Luckily, they had been too distracted by me and Pete that they hadn’t seen Jagger or Dex standing by the door. They took out the first two as we dove to take cover.
Between the four of us, we quickly overpowered and disarmed the last two threats, turning their silencers on them.
After that, we took off quickly before anybody else in the hotel came out to see what the noise was about. I only realized how fucked we were when we got in the SUV and Pete asked, “Which way did they take her?”
But Jagger had pulled out a cellphone I’d never seen and shown a map with a blinking dot on it, moving down the highway.
“Did you take this from one of the men upstairs?” I had asked in surprise. “I suppose they had this so they could follow.”
“Seems like they could have just told them which way to go,” Pete had said with a frown. “It’s mighty convenient for us. What if it’s a decoy or a trap?”
In the end, we decided we had to follow it; we had no other choice. I held my breath when the blinking dot stopped moving, and we pulled into the truck stop and found the van parked in the far corner. We moved in silently, unsure what we’d find. We’re lucky we got there when we did.
But we had agreed to wait and assess in case they had guns. We didn’t want Wren getting shot if we ran in head first. But fucking Dex and his rage issues forgot all of that the moment he saw her get hit.
I couldn’t exactly blame him. When I heard what he was saying to Wren, I was ready to rip his tongue out myself. But we had agreed to wait. Dex’s rage was a liability. If we couldn’t function as a proper team, then we had little hope of keeping Wren safe.
“How did they find us?” Dex asks as Pete pulls back onto the road.
“I’m not sure,” I reply quietly.
“Dex?” Wren mumbles, her eyes squinting open as she tries to lift her head.
“Yeah, baby. I’m here.” He reaches out and squeezes her hand, and I feel her shoulders drop as the tension leaves her.
“And Jagger?” She tilts her head to the front as Jagger reaches back and squeezes her knee in reassurance. “Thank you all for coming to get me,” she whispers, her head dropping back down to my chest as a big yawn escapes her.
“We’ll always come, little bird,” I tell her with a reassuring hug.
“I know,” she mumbles right before her eyes close and a soft snore escapes her again.
“Is she already asleep?” Pete asks in amusement. Another snore fills the SUV, and I try to hold in my smile. Her snoring is pretty adorable.
“It’s probably the adrenaline crash.” I place my hand on the side of her head, reveling in the fact that she’s safe in my arms again. I can’t believe they took her from us so easily, how close we came to losing her.
“I’m getting her a damn leash,” Dex says, as if he’s having the same train of thought as me.
“I guess we won’t be getting all the stuff we ordered yesterday,” Pete says, and I swear.
“Fuck, that’s right, plus everything we left back there.”
“At least she has her letters,” Dex says, tapping the bag between us with his foot.
“And the money,” I add, since the money is the most important thing we have to keep us alive right now.
Everyone is quiet, and even though we have no idea where we’re going, anywhere away from here is a good enough direction for now.
I nod off to sleep and awake to the crunching of gravel under the wheels, surprised to see its light out. Glancing at the clock, I see it’s after eight a.m.
Dex and Jagger shift in their seats and stretch, obviously having been asleep, too.
“I need to take a piss,” Pete says as he pulls into a parking spot.
“Do you know where we are?” I ask, stretching my neck from side to side.
“No idea, I just took random roads, but kept to highways.”
“I need to pee,” a sleepy Wren grumbles from against my chest. I help her sit up as she rubs the sleep from her eyes and yawns.
Pete and Jagger get out of the SUV as Wren looks out the front window with interest. “Where are we?”
“Not sure,” I tell her as I reach for the door handle.
“Uh, Sly?” She sounds nervous, and when I look at her, she bites her lip. “I don’t suppose you guys grabbed any clothes for me to wear?”
My eyes trail down her body, realizing that while we took the time to get ourselves dressed and armed, she’d be taken in what she was sleeping in, my T-shirt and a pair of panties.
The way she ground herself on Dex until she orgasmed suddenly plays on repeat in my head as I stare between her legs. Very dirty panties.
The door beside Dex opens, and Jagger reaches around to the back and pulls out one of the backpacks we had purchased to carry our stuff. When did he have the chance to grab that?
He passes it to a very interested Wren, and when she opens it and sees her clothes, her eyes light up with happiness.
“Thank you, Jagger!” He smiles, then motions for Dex to get out. He grumbles but reluctantly climbs out of the SUV, leaning his back against the door, arms crossed over his chest.
“I’ll stand guard on the other side so you can get changed in privacy.” She nods, and I kiss the top of her head before mirroring Dex on the other side.
I glance around at the restaurant we’re parked at. It looks like a classic American diner. My stomach rumbles, excited at the thought of food. Pete comes jogging out the door and back over to us. He tries to look inside the SUV, over my shoulder, but I shove his head to the side.
“She’s changing, perv.”
“What? Like you didn’t peek?”
“I did no such thing.”
“Your loss.”
“Don’t make me stab you, farm boy.” I flick open my pocket knife to let him know I’m serious. “Disrespect her, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”
The door behind me opens, and I quickly flick my knife closed and shove it in my pocket before I turn to help her out.
She’s wearing her ripped black jeans and a loose black crop tee.
And that damn choker. Every time I see it, I picture my hand replacing it, feeling what it’s like to have my hand around her throat and under my control.
Not to hurt her, of course. I’d never harm her.
But to bring her pleasure. To fuck her while having her under my control, having her trust me with her life like that gets me hard every time I see that strip of black fabric across her throat.
I subtly adjust myself as the others join us.
“Shall we grab breakfast?” I ask the others as her hand slips into mine.
I look down at her in surprise. Normally, we’re the ones to grab her hand first, but the fact that she feels comfortable enough to do it now makes my heart hammer in my chest like a fucking teenager with his first crush.
What I felt for my little bird was no crush, though, far from it.