I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved by her comfort.
“If he is out there when you leave, I will go to his car before you take off and talk to him so he cannot follow you. Know that we here at Quickie Stock take this very seriously, and it will be discussed and rectified.”
I really didn’t know what that meant. Fired? Hopefully. Maybe disappear.
Sure enough, Danny was still waiting in the parking lot. He'd pulled his beat-up old truck next to my Impala. “Great,” I muttered.
“You know the plan,” Ms. Brashers told me, and I nodded.
The tension was thick. I had no idea how Danny would react or what he would say, but I didn’t stick around to find out. I got in my car, started her up, and darted home. As soon as I was locked in my apartment tight, I called Ms. Brashers, and she told me that Danny wouldn’t be in for the rest of the week.
It was something, at least.
11
DRYERSON
It’d been a week too long since I’d seen Katie. Ravage business was still hot, but I wanted to see her. Hell, needed to see her. My mom always said that if you want to see someone, you find the time no matter when to see them. Never push them off. I took that to heart.
I'd texted her a few times, and it took her hours to respond. She probably didn’t even know how to respond, and it took her that long to type it in.
She was drifting away with each day. It was what she had done ever since I'd pulled her out of that dreadful place.
The sounds of crying could be heard from the tunnels as we moved quickly. My eyes went right to Katie as I hustled toward her naked body. The straps holding her down were biting into her skin, and blood was streaming down her arms.
Those fuckers.
I stood in front of her, my back to her as a shield. Not to mention I needed to scope out the damn room. In the blink of an eye, Ensley was behind me as well, and I could hear her undoing Katie’s straps.
“Where’s Micah!” I screamed as the men advanced on us. I had an extra clip in my back pocket, but even with it I couldn’t take them all out while keeping Ensley and Katie safe.
“Ahh…” I heard Katie scream behind me.
“What happened?” I asked, still trained on the room.
“She fell, but I’ve got her,” Ensley replied. I could hear her struggling, but the men were approaching fast.
The sounds of scraping on the floor behind me alerted me that she didn’t have her. Fuck.
“Down!” Micah yelled. I dropped just as gunshots rang out and fired off a few rounds.
Once the brothers came in and took over, I raced to the girls. Ensley was on top of Katie, protecting her, and Katie had tears running down her face.
“Let me have her,” I ordered Ensley who looked at me, terrified and worried about her sister too. “I’ve got her.”
Only then did she move off of a naked Katie. Her body was covered in blood, dirt, and bruises. Cradling her in my arms, I held her face to my chest. She sobbed the entire way out of that damn place.
Getting to the light, Katie curled tighter into me.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
My words didn’t seem to help because she sobbed harder.
In the truck that day was the last time I’d held her in my arms, until Remy’s birthday.
Entering the store, I didn’t see Katie right away. It was set up to come in on one side, then had a large barrier, making you walk around it to the cashiers.
As soon as I made it around the corner, Katie’s back came into view. Her silky brown locks hung low in a ponytail down her back. She turned around, her hands moving slowly as she scanned each item. She hadn’t looked up to see me yet.
I got in her line and waited as she rang up the two peoples’ groceries ahead of me, greeting them by name. Ms. Gomez and Ms. Smith. How she remembered their names, I had no clue.
She hadn’t seen me yet, but in assessing her, she didn’t have a good color to her skin. It was paler than normal with an ashy tone to it. Her eyes were tired and even drooped down a bit at the corners.
She swayed on her feet twice. Yes, I counted and didn’t like it one damn bit.
“Katie,” I called out, her head coming up and glassy eyes right to me. They were red rimmed, and the bags under her eyes would hold this entire grocery store. They were gray and angry.
“Hey,” she replied quietly and went back to ringing up the food. Once it was my turn, I stepped up close.
“Are you okay?” I asked, already assessing she wasn’t.
“Yeah.”
“Bullshit. You get your stuff. You’re goin’ home,” I ordered, meaning every word. She needed to rest, but knowing Katie, she was going to put up a fight.
“I can’t leave. I have two hours left on my shift.”
I turned around to the people behind me then to the last one. “You’re it. You tell anyone else who gets in this lane it’s closed.” The guy at the end nodded.
“Dryerson,” Katie snapped, a bit more of herself. “You can’t just order them to go somewhere else.”
The fuck I couldn’t. Watch me.
“Who the fuck are you?” a guy who was bagging groceries said to me. His tone immediately pissed me off and put him on radar.
“None of your fuckin’ business.”
He eyed me up and down. I took a step forward, ready to punch this guy out cold.
“Yeah, Katie’s my business,” he fired back. The man had a death wish.
“No, Katie isn’t your business. Because she’s mine. You touch her, fuck with her in any way, then this face will be in your nightmares.” I said this pointing to my face, wanting him to get a good look.
“You can’t threaten me.” The guy was seriously stupid. I could kill him with a flick of my hand, and he was still pushing it.
I turned to the people in line. “Did I threaten him?”
There were several grins and several ‘no’s’.
“Exactly.” I turned back to asshole guy.
“Dry, it’s okay,” Katie put in, but her words were hoarse like she had a sore throat.
“Fuck no, it’s not okay.”
Dismissing the guy, I went in search of the boss or manager who was in the office right off the side of the checkouts. It was a half wall and no glass. She was typing on the computer and turned to me with her brow raised.
“Katie’s goin’ home. She’s sick.”
The woman looked me up and down and grinned. “So you’re the man?” She stood, coming closer.
“Yeah, and she’s sick. I’m takin’ her home.”
The woman looked over my shoulder at Katie. “She’s gotten worse in the last half hour. I’ve been keeping an eye on her.”
“Well, the eye is over. She’s leavin’ with me.”
A small grimace came to her lips, and she paused as if she were thinking. “Danny has a thing for Katie.”
This caught my undivided attention. “Who the fuck is Danny?”
“The bagger at the end of her lane. She didn’t tell you?”
My brow quirked. “Obviously not. Go on.”
“He’s been coming onto her like mad. He asks her to dinner every time they’re working together. He waits for her to get off work and follows her to her car. I’ve had to start walking her to the car to get rid of him.”