Chapter 52
Butch scowled at them all.
They decided to call him on Addie’s computer. Now, though, she was wondering why they’d wanted such a large screen, because all it did was make his scowl look even bigger.
“What do you mean, Limpy is there?” Butch demanded.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Ralen said.
“Are you getting deaf in your old age?” Cash asked him.
She didn’t think it was possible for Butch’s scowl to get any worse, but it did. Now he looked positively menacing.
“Explain,” he snapped.
Nobody spoke up. Shoot. Maybe she’d have to tell him.
But then Dotty started going through everything.
His gaze was intent on her. So intense, it was almost terrifying.
Addie knew if he looked at her like that, she’d probably pee herself from terror.
But Dotty managed to stand her ground as she told him everything that had happened.
“Are you hurt?” He snarled the words at Addie and Monroe.
Addie shook her head.
“You said that he grabbed you around the neck. Do you have bruising?” he asked Monroe.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“And you weren’t there?” he asked Dotty.
“I came after.”
“Thank God Cash and Ralen were here,” Dotty said.
Butch’s gaze moved away from Dotty and back to Cash and then Ralen. “Why are the two of you there?”
Cash crossed his arms over his chest. “None of your business, man.”
“I think it is my business if you turn up at the same time as a guy set on assaulting Monroe and Addie.”
“And what are you trying to say?” Ralen leaned his hands on the desk. “Are you trying to say that we are associated with Limpy?”
It was the same thing that Dotty had kind of suggested, although she knew her sister hadn’t really meant to.
Sometimes Dotty said things without thinking, things that could hurt other people.
She always felt terrible afterwards. People just didn’t see that and thought that Dotty had little empathy and feelings.
Butch narrowed his gaze as he took them all in. “No, don’t suppose I am. But did you know that Limpy was going to be there?”
“Of course we didn’t,” Cash said.
“So then why are you in Las Vegas? Outside their house?”
“Are you mad we didn’t invite you?” Ralen asked, leaning back with a smile.
Butch didn’t answer. Was he upset that they’d gone without him? No, that wouldn’t make much sense.
“Nope.”
“Look, we need your help,” Ralen said.
“You need my help, but you’re not willing to tell me anything.”
“We came here so I could see Addie,” Cash told him. “So I could tell her how I felt about her.”
The scowl actually lifted off Butch’s face. “Huh, didn’t think you’d ever find the balls to do that. Or the good sense.”
“Cash has plenty of balls,” Addie said.
Cash cleared his throat. “Thanks for the defence, baby.”
She nodded, giving Butch a stern look. For some reason his lip twitched. Maybe it was gas. Then he was scowling again.
“You need to question Limpy. You sure it’s him?” Butch said.
“It’s definitely him,” Cash replied. “And obviously, we know we need to question him. That’s where we need your help.”
“You need somewhere secure. How are you going to get him there?” Butch asked.
“We’ll have to wait until after midnight,” Cash said. “So that no one sees us. Then we’ll carry him out to our rental car.”
“We have a covered porch out the back door that you can drive up to,” Dotty said. “Then you can stick him in the trunk and drive him out. No one should be able to see him.”
They all turn to look at her.
“What?” Dotty asked. “It’s just logical, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Butch replied. “Are you going to get into trouble for being a part of this?”
“In trouble? Like with the police or with my bosses, because I’m a lawyer who’s taking part in a criminal activity?”
Shoot, Addie hadn’t thought about that.
“You don’t know anything, all right?” Butch told her. “You shouldn’t even be in this room. Go into your bedroom and stay out of it.”
Wow, he was bossy.
Dotty shook her head. “I’m in it now. There’s no going back.”
“I want to go with you,” Monroe said to Cash. “I should be there when you question him. This is because of me, and I should be there.”
“Absolutely not,” Ralen barked.
They all gave him surprised looks at his vehement denial. Why did he care so much?
Cash cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention away from his friend.
“The three of you need to stay here,” Cash told the girls. “Where it’s safe.”
He wouldn’t have Addie anywhere close while they questioned Limpy.
Not happening.
“What if he wasn’t alone?” Monroe asked.
“Shit,” Ralen said, running his hand over his face. “She’s got a point. What if Limpy wasn’t alone? We can’t leave them unguarded.”
“I want to go,” Monroe said.
“Me too,” Addie added.
“Yes, we’re going.” Dotty folded her arms over her chest.
Butch grunted. “Fuck. They’ll be safer with you. I can find a place where they won’t see anything.”
“No,” Cash said. “I won’t have Addie there.” He didn’t want her around him when he was like that . . . when he was working. He didn’t want her to look at him differently. And it was his job to protect her from the bad things in the world.
“We will be safer with you,” Dotty said. “And we want to be there. We’re all going. Right?”
“Right,” Monroe said, moving to Dotty’s left side.
Addie walked over to her sisters and straightened her shoulders. “Yep, that’s right.”
Cash pointed at her. “You’ll do as you’re told, Stowaway.”
She drew herself up. “No.”
“Have you got anyone who can come watch them?” Ralen asked Butch.
The other man ground his teeth together. “No one I’d fully trust with them. Fuck! Fuck. I should be there.”
“Right, because that’s what the situation needs,” Dotty said. “Another bossy male trying to tell us what to do.”
“Seems you do need that,” Ralen shot back at her. Then he sighed. “So, we’ll take the girls with us. Where do we need to go?”
Addie was so nervous. She was trying to keep herself calm, but her stomach was a bundle of nerves. She wasn’t quite sure what they were going to do with the guy that was stuffed in the trunk of Cash’s rental car.
And she had to admit, there was a strong part of her that didn’t want to know.
However, she also wanted to show Cash that she could be a part of his life, that he didn’t have to put her up on a shelf and wrap her in bubble wrap in order to keep her safe. Because she knew that he’d get tired of doing that, and there was no way she ever wanted him to get tired of her.
They pulled up outside a storage place that was filled with old shipping containers. Ralen got out and went to talk to somebody inside the small building at the gate.
When he returned, he handed a key to Cash. “Storage unit eighteen. The guy inside said he owes Butch a favor and that he never saw us. I get the feeling he does this a lot anyway. I don’t think this is the type of place where people store Grandma’s unwanted antiques.”
Yikes. Was this a regular thing that people did? She turned to look at Dotty and then Monroe. She was sitting in the middle seat in the back. Cash had actually placed her in the seat and done up the seatbelt. That was slightly embarrassing and also made her feel completely cared for.
Plus, no one had looked twice at them.
They drove up to a shipping container at the back. Cash got out and unlocked it. Ralen turned to the three of them. “You will do exactly what we say. Anyone disobeys us and I’ll spank you myself.”
Monroe sucked in a breath. “You can’t do that.”
“Watch me.”
Cash came back out and stuck his head into the car. “There’s an internal room that looks soundproofed. The girls can wait in the front room while we take him out the back.”
Ralen nodded. “Wait in here. We’ll bring him in first.”
The three of them waited nervously in the backseat until Cash came out for them. He opened the back door and Dotty climbed out.
Then he leaned in and helped Addie get out. He led her to the door of the shipping container. They were all dressed in black and she felt a bit like Catwoman, moving around stealthily. Too bad she didn’t have Catwoman’s grace. Or fighting ability.
Too bad she didn’t have any fighting ability.
Cash stopped her outside the door. He stared down at her. Taking in a deep breath, he let it out slowly. “I don’t like having you here for this.”
“It’s safer here with you, though, than back at the house.”
“It’s not that,” he said. “It’s because I don’t really want you to see this part of me. I don’t want you to think differently of me. Or to be scared of me.”
“I’m not scared of you. And you’re only doing this to get answers for us. To make sure that we’re safe. How could that possibly upset me?”
“Well, I hope it doesn’t,” he said pensively. “I don’t want this shit rubbing off on you. It’s not what you deserve. I wanted to keep this away from you.”
“You can’t keep me safe from who you are. I’m not going to break. I’m strong. I can handle this.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “We’ll see. And just so you know, as soon as this is all over, you’re getting your butt spanked.”
She let out a big gasp. “What? Why?”
“Because I don’t want you here. I don’t want you anywhere near this guy or this situation. You’re only here because I don’t have anywhere safe to stash you. Doesn’t mean that you should have argued with me over this. I’m in charge of safety.”
Sheesh.
So bossy.
But she also knew that he was worried. She’d show him that everything was going to be all right after.
Grabbing hold of her hand, he walked her into the shipping container and left her with her sisters.
“All of you stay out here,” Cash ordered them. “Don’t come in there, and don’t open that door. Understand?”
They all nodded.
“I still want to talk to him,” Monroe said.
“Maybe after,” Ralen said.
After?
Cash and Ralen walked into the room without another word, and now all they could do was wait.
Addie hadn’t realized how long it might take, but after twenty minutes, she was getting antsy. They couldn’t hear a thing. They had no idea what was going on.
“I want to go in there,” Monroe said.
“We should have just taken him to the police,” Dotty said. “They might have got the answers out of him.”