Chapter Thirty-One
It was a little after two a.m. by the time Roadkill drove the four of them to the house Hex had given them. Lacey had done amazingly well while Bones had checked her out, though she’d never released her hold on Joker. She was walking on her own now, but held on tightly to Joker’s hand.
From the fierce look on his brother’s face, the only person who would get him away from the girl was Lacey herself and if anyone else tried, they might end up pulling back a bloody stump.
Almost as soon as they stepped into the house, Jenna suggested Lacey would feel better after a shower.
The girl’s eyes went wide. Roadkill wasn’t certain but he thought he saw panic there.
Probably at the idea of letting go of Joker.
She’d kept at least some contact with him since they’d arrived.
His mind raced as he tried to find a way to let the girl shower but also not let the panic overwhelm her.
“I know you don’t want to be far from Joker,” he said.
“But you can’t wash with him attached to you like that.
How about we leave the bathroom door open and he sits outside.
He can talk or sing or whatever, so you know he’s there.
We don’t have clothes for either of you, but I’ll grab some of my sweats and a t-shirt until some new things arrive for you in the morning. ”
At the word sing, Joker glared at him. Roadkill ignored the look.
Lacey was silent for nearly a minute. “All right. But not your clothes. His.” She lifted the hand that still held Joker’s.”
“Whatever you want, squirt.” Joker looked around. “When you’re ready, you go in there and clean up. I’ll sit right here.” Joker pointed to the floor to one side of the bathroom door. “Tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen.”
“Can you stay with me tonight? Not just until I go to bed, but even then?” Her voice was so soft Roadkill almost didn’t hear her.
“Whatever you need,” Joker said.
She didn’t say anything but watched his face for several seconds before nodding and disappearing into the bathroom. Joker sat on the floor, his back to the wall and pulled out his phone. He hit a few buttons and put the phone to his ear.
“Bobby Lee, where are you?” Joker said into the phone. “Good. I need you to go up to my room, grab a couple sets of clothes, sweats not jeans. I’m not worried about shoes but skin out. I need you to bring them to Roadkill’s new place and I need them ASAP.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” Roadkill asked, keeping his voice low so he didn’t upset Lacey any more than he had to.
“You can tell him, Zach, all of it if you need to, but I need you to talk loud enough I can hear you. I need to be able to hear your voice,” Lacey said from in the bathroom.
“They’d just hit international waters when I reached them.
” Joker shook his head. “They slowed down as soon as they thought they were in the clear. When I climbed on board, I found they’d stripped her to her panties, tied her up and dumped her in the floor of the boat.
There was one man at the wheel, and the other had just finished jerking off.
On her. From what they were saying, they were about to trade places.
Both of them were telling her what they planned for her.
The fuckers were getting off on her terror.
” He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, as if he needed a moment to maintain control of himself.
Jenna was somewhere close, he knew she would have heard that and would likely find a way to blame herself.
“I knocked them out and secured them, then gave her my shirt and turned back toward Mobile. Once I had us headed back, I decided they weren’t worth the ride back and tossed them into the water.”
“Did you bother untying them?”
Joker didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. The single brow he lifted as he looked at Roadkill silently asked what he would have done. Roadkill shook his head.
“That wasn’t the shirt you gave her then, it’s too dry.” Roadkill went back to what happened.
“I gave her my clean one when we got back to the truck. She used the wet one to clean up some.”
“Did you get rid of it? We’ve already let Sheriff Rigsby know we’ve got her. He’ll agreed to wait until morning before he comes to talk to her. He’ll probably want that shirt too.”
“I tossed it in the bed of the truck. I don’t know what good it will do anyone. It’s not like they’ll need it to prosecute.” Joker lifted one shoulder and let it fall.
Roadkill scraped his teeth across his lip. He couldn’t blame Joker for what he’d done, but he didn’t want to think about what kind of trouble it might bring to the club.