“Porter, please,” I begged.
The second his hands slipped between my trembling thighs, though, my phone rang. I heard my purse vibrating and dancing around on the floor as the soft, soothing tones of Josie’s ringtone filled the space beneath the table. Porter paused his movements as I groaned, pressing my hands against the kitchen table.
And when I lifted myself up, he helped me upright.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
I reached for my purse. “Just like you pick up for Brooks, I always pick up for Josie. And it’s weird for her to be calling me so early. She should be asleep.”
“Why’s that?”
I pulled my phone out of my purse. “She’s a stripper, and I know she just came off a shift last night.”
I answered the phone call and turned around, leaning against the kitchen table. But the second Josie sniffled, I pushed away from it. Porter’s eyes grew serious as I snatched my purse up from the floor, and when I dug my keys out I dangled them in front of his face.
He nodded his head as Josie continued sniffling in my ear as the two of us booked it out the front door.
“Josie, what’s wrong? Where are you?” I asked.
I tossed the keys to Porter and he unlocked the car before opening the passenger door for me.
“I—I-I-I--don’t know what ha-happened, Astrid.”
I dropped into the seat as Porter jumped over the front of the car to get to his door a bit quicker.
“Josie, just take a breath and tell me where you are. Porter and I are coming to get you.”
She drew in a broken breath. “I’m—uh. You know where, uh…”
Porter cranked up the car. “Where we headed?”
I held up my finger, telling him to give me a minute. “Landmarks. Give me landmarks.”
Her trembling voice filled my ear. “Urgent Care. I’m at the urgent care across from… uh, Macky’s Diner?”
I turned to Porter. “Downtown Urgent Care off 5th. And step on it.”
He nodded and cranked the engine before speeding out of the driveway. I knew my car would groan and complain the entire way, but I didn’t care. I sat on the phone with Josie as we soared across town, listening to her cry and slowly choke out what the fuck had happened.
But when she uttered that one phrase, I was ready to pop off shots.
“I was beat up at the strip club, Astrid. And I don’t think it’s safe there for me anymore,” she said through her sobs.
Twenty-Four
Porter
“Astrid, wait up!”
She practically threw herself out of the car as I rounded to the front of the urgent care. I cursed beneath my breath as I parked the car, hoping to hell on high that shit didn’t get towed. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my gut about this, though. The shock in Astrid’s voice as she talked with her friend told me this hadn’t ever happened before, and with her friend being a stripper, I wasn’t sure what kind of chaos we were walking into.
But nothing prepared me for when we got up to the front desk.
“Josie Raquel, where is she?” Astrid asked.
The nurse looked at the two of us before she came out from around her desk. “You two follow me and quickly.”
Astrid gripped her arm. “Is it that bad?”
The nurse looked up at me and sighed. “Maybe you guys can convince her to go to the hospital, because that’s where she needs to be right now.”
“Fucking hell,” I murmured.
“Take us to her,” Astrid said.
The nurse wove us down an intricate set of hallways before bringing us to a door on the left that sat right by a back exit. I peered out the window to clock where this exit was because I had a feeling I’d have to pull the damn car around to pick her up here. Nothing prepared me for the shriek that came out of Astrid’s mouth when the nurse opened that door, though.
And when I saw her friend sitting there, I blanked.
The last thing I remembered was setting eyes on her hands. Josie’s fucking hands were bruised and bloodied, and a couple of her fingernails had been ripped straight from their beds. And when my memory jogs again, the three of us are in the car speeding to the hospital. I raced across town, making sure I got this woman to the best hospital this town afforded before I carried her inside.
And the second nurses laid eyes on her, it was all hands on deck.
“Set two I.V.’s,” a nurse barked.
“I need her pulse. Get me her heartrate now,” a doctor demanded.
“Oxygen. She’s struggling to breathe.”
“Astrid,” Josie wheezed.
Astrid took her hand. “I’m right here. It’s going to be okay. I’m right here with you, Josie.”
I gripped the white coat of a doctor walking past me and I yanked him to my face. “You admit her now, and you give me the bill. Got it?”
He nodded quickly. “I’ll have you talk with billing. But for now, we have to get her into a room.”
“A private room,” I glowered.
He nodded quickly again. “Of course. Yes.”
I shoved him away and raked my hands through my hair. I walked beside the stretcher they had Josie on while Astrid blinked back her tears as she wiped away her friend’s. Whoever did this to my woman’s best friend was going to die. I didn’t care who it was or what their relation was to anyone in this situation. No one beat on a woman the way Josie had been clearly beat up on.
To be honest, it looked like more than one person had their hands on her.
We flew past all of the E.R. rooms and went straight to the elevator. Up we went, soaring all the way up to the seventh floor where even more nurses were ready to receive Josie. One of them was wiping away the sheer amount of blood still caked on her face. Another nurse checked her teeth, of all things. And as we all swung into a corner room that only had a set-up for one person, I ripped my phone out of my back pocket.
Before dialing Brooks.
“Yep?” he asked when he answered.
“Dude, we got an issue,” I murmured.
I walked off into the corner as Astrid rattled off questions.
“What? Is it my sister? What did you do?” he barked.
I growled. “Would you shut the fuck up about your sister for one second and listen to me?”
He paused. “What’s happened? Astrid’s okay?”
I peered over my shoulder, watching her keep herself together despite her shoulders jumping with unshed tears.
“We’re at the hospital with Josie, and she’s been beat up,” I said.
Shuffling sounded on Brooks’ end. “What hospital are you at?”
“The one closest to the clubhouse. It’s the best one in the area.”
“Where are you going?” Raven asked in the background.
So, I interjected. “No, no, no. I’m at the hospital with them. What I need from you is to figure out what strip club Josie works at and figure out who the fuck did this to her.”
Brooks paused. “Wait, Little Jo’s a stripper?”
I snickered. “Yep. Times change, I guess. I know she works in town, but that’s all I know. We gotta figure out who did this to her, Brooks. She’s really bad off.”