Chapter 23
Georgia
As I listen to Lazlo tell Rafael what happened last night, I’m dreading the result.
I know what I promised Rafe. What I did broke that promise.
Though I still think I was right. I still fear the result.
What hope do we have of succeeding at this, finding the murderers and surviving?
Even with this CNC Fraternity behind us.
He’s run out of words, has said what he wants to and is waiting for Rafe to answer. Me too.
Me too.
I peek through the dangling locks of my hair. I’m naked, vulnerable, stuck in a room with two men, and though they won’t hurt me for this, physically, sending me off to a stranger might accomplish exactly that.
I won’t let you, Lazlo said. Can that be true? Does he mean it? Who has the final say here?
Rafe eyes me. “Okay. So, why do you want me to keep her, Lazlo?”
“What else can we do? And it is we.” He opens his hands, then slips his arm behind my back and pulls me into him. It’s the gesture you’d expect from a kindly man, but I know he is not that. Last night I learned how badly wrong I was.
“If you give her away for fear she will run, we have nothing to go on, no further leads. And I… Want… Answers.” He taps out the pauses with his hand on his knee. “Sir Ben wants them, and Georgia may have them. Or leads that take us to them.”
“I know that.” Rafe laces his hands behind his head, closes his eyes for a second.
“If she tells her story to news outlets or the police, there are penalties the fraternity can inflict that I and my family will suffer. And things could affect the fraternity, if word gets out about what the members do. You know this. I’m sure I told you. ”
“Yet if you keep her, you get benefits. So she broke a promise.” He shrugs then smacks my butt. “I will help keep her in order. Already did, last night.”
He hasn’t said he fucked me and almost broke my vagina, but I send him a side glance packed with serious critique. He’ll know what I’m thinking.
“Lazlo said you’re worried someone will kill us if we chase this up and get close to whoever was responsible?
” Rafe asks me. I nod. “Have you not thought about what happens if you go away and let the police or whoever try to protect you instead? Legal procedures easily slip up and fail, especially if they don’t realize the magnitude of what you’re facing.
Don’t you think these people will still want you dead?
They already tried, and they won’t stop trying to kill you if you leave the protective wing of the fraternity. ”
Crap. I can see the logic in this. I wince. “Oh.” He’s right. I clasp my hands in my lap to stop them shaking. “Damned if I do,” I mutter. “Damned if I d—” Lazlo places his hand over my mouth.
“Not. Damned,” he insists. “If you stay with us. Though Rafe is right. They might double their efforts.”
“Definitely worth an oh.” Rafe half-smiles then crouches before me. The effect of that, a muscular man before me all nekkid and looking sympathetic, it’s more than I expected. More than I deserve. “I thought we were doing okay?”
Do I have to explain my reasons? I close my eyes and press my fingers to my mouth. They’re trembling. “I panicked. I just saw how dangerous this could be. Before this I planned to stay until we got them. I thought I could do that. Now. I don’t know. Everything is upside down.”
I’m not Juniper. I don’t think I can stamp someone’s guts with a spear, and I’m imagining a whole nefarious organization, not just one man. “I panicked,” I repeat.
“I see my mistake too. Before, I offered a threat to make you stay. Now I’m offering you protection. Safety. Lazlo and I and the whole weight of the CNC Fraternity. You’re not alone.”
“Okay.” My mouth tweaks upward nervously as I sweep my hair aside and behind my ear. “Safety is a big plus. Teach me how to defend myself?”
That steady regard of his bathes me, assesses me, but which way will his decision fall? The seconds tick by.
“Sure. I can do better. I can teach you how to shoot a gun. Hell, I can teach you to fire a missile. The Docks convention is winding up and they have VR for that. I think I can get you in to where the Navarro truck is parked, the one holds the gear for it.”
I was meaning martial arts, but holy crap. A missile?
Not sure that qualifies as personal security but even so. I expected him to boot me out the door instantly, or as fast as the frat can get things processed and give me away.
I’ve still not confessed I can shoot to either of them. Though it was years ago that I learned, when dad was alive. Firing at tin cans on the fence on Yaralumma, with dad showing me how to hold the rifle and how to aim. It’s one of my cherished memories from when he worked on the sheep station.
Rafe said, sure, as if it weren’t a big deal. I know I shouldn’t ask this but… “Aren’t you worried I will shoot you?”
His answering look is also long and judgmental. “No. I feel I know you well enough, Georgia. You might run away, and you want to do bad things to those who hurt you, but you won’t shoot me.”
That is trust, and it’s such an unexpected gift. It zooms straight to my heart, like I’m cuddling with him in bed on a long, snowy night.
How can I confess I know something about guns, now? It’d shock Lazlo, because I implied I knew nothing about them when he showed me that shotgun. Lies are tricky to retract.
Does it even matter? It does, it does.
“Guys, confession here. I know how to shoot a rifle pretty well. Dad taught me when I used to live with him as teenager. Forgive me? Please?” I have one hand on my heart, the other at my mouth.
“Doesn’t worry me,” Lazlo says, after a long moment that stretched into infinity for me. “You told us, this is what we are doing here. Doing the truth. It’s a good thing, really.”
“Uh-huh.” Rafe narrows his eyes. “But you asked me to teach you how to defend yourself?”
“I meant like judo or whatever. I also know a little of that. Like this much.” I hold up my finger and thumb to show how little.
“It’s okay. You didn’t lie. Still want to try VR at the Docks?”
“Thank you.” I sniffle back the tears I had welling up. “If you want to show me that, yes.”
“Great. Though I doubt we can drop a missile on residential suburbs, even one with a villain. A pity, that.” He smiles then looks to Lazlo.
“I’m willing to keep going, Lazlo, if you’re helping.
And Georgia, I also need you to say that you will help us and not lie.
What I will do is promise to protect you and provide as much security as I can while we work out if there are any leads to follow.
Okay?” He takes one of my hands and I watch him caress my fingers then turn my palm over and kiss it.
“We’ll keep you safe but you have to trust us. ”
Damn. Him kissing my palm sent another warm, cuddly arrow through my heart. And he’s still holding my hand while his eyes look gentle as fuck. If he does it again, kisses my palm, I might melt.
“I will promise all that. And no lying,” I say it quietly.
Trust Lazlo and Rafe. Again I glance at Lazlo. He neglected to say everything that happened and that is a bad way to start this. My nitpicking, almost-lawyer-ish side makes me want to reveal his omission. Why didn’t he? Jealousy? Surely Rafe wouldn’t be jealous…or would he? Am I missing something?
“He didn’t tell you everything about last night. Trust goes both ways. Three ways in this case.”
Tilting his head, he eyes the floor, shrugs. “Truth there. I didn’t want to confess my…my over-the-top reaction. I lost control. I fucked Miss Georgia here against the front door as…punishment.” He makes finger quotes. “I feel I should say sorry to you, Rafe?” That comes out like he means it.
What?
Why is he sorry?
“He just about wrecked my vagina,” I blurt out. “Why is this a sorry to him? What about me?”
Rafe, I suddenly realize, is laughing. A moment later he overbalances and topples backward and rolls onto his back. And still he laughs.
“Am I allowed to kick him?” I ask.
“No,” Lazlo says. “It’ll wear off. Seems like I was wrong. Don’t you care about her pussy?” He laughs too. “Disappointed in you.”
Rafe eventually stops laughing, sits up, wipes his eyes.
“Today we’re going back to London. I show you the con, we walk around the dock where the boat departed.
And if we have time, a VR missile lesson.
At the least we can see the new Navarro armored car at the con though there is nothing active allowed in there. ”
“That would not be a fun con, if they fired live ammo.” Lazlo crooks a hairy eyebrow.
“It would be a sure way to scare away our clients. There is a range an hour away but that’s hard to get civilians into without fancy permits.”
I’m not sure when I would ever need to shoot anyone with an armored car but it’s a start.
“Now about that bath. You still need one, miss, before we get into that BMW together.” Lazlo thumbs backward at the tub. “In.”
When I go to climb over the rim into the water his eyes follow my legs and then zero in on my pussy. “And—” he begins.
“No.” I pause where I am and shield myself with my hand. “I am so sore and it’s your fault.”
His smirk oozes pride. He adds quietly, with his hand stroking up my thigh then over my ass, “But you never came. I can fix that.”
Damn him. Way to make my toes curl and my clit take notice. “No.”
“Leave her be. You had your turn. Get in and get washed,” Rafe says.
We all end up in there. I scrub clean then exit first, but I can’t dry myself fast enough to avoid them both, for Rafe has climbed out.
Grabbing a towel, he ambles over, swiftly drying himself, hair dripping, his feet making puddles on the floor.
The moving muscles of his stomach and heavy legs are, to put it plainly, fucking awesome.
His stiffened cock leads the way. I back up a step, two, look around for fresh clothes, then realize they’re in the bedroom. Behind Rafe, Lazlo has also climbed out of the tub and is drying himself. I start backing again, heading for the door and the bedroom.