I stole a look at Rogue, but he and the other guys were watching Rocco, each of them wearing their stony, expressionless masks. But everything was snapping into place for me, for why he’d coordinated to ambush whoever showed up for this fake clean up job. He must’ve found out that we had the photographs of Johnny Jack’s kidnapped girls. My stomach tightened at the thought of one of those girls being Rocco’s daughter.
“What do we get in return?” Rogue asked. “Can your men offer us protection? Because Johnny Jack has already made it clear that he’ll take us out if we don’t give him what he wants.”
I bit my lip nervously, waiting for what Rocco could say. Maybe he could help us, and we could actually get out of this fucked up situation.
Rocco laughed. It was like a hacking wheeze, filling the space with his dark chuckles. “Boy, I couldn’t even save my own daughter. What makes you think I can save you? I’m not here to help you. I’m here to get my Rachel back.”
I moved to place the marble queen back on the chess set, but Rocco stopped me. “Keep it,” he told me, before turning back to the guys. “You have one week to get me the evidence. If you don’t, I’m afraid our next meeting won’t end well for you,” he threatened. “I have no problem burning all of Savannah to the ground to get my girl back.”
He started walking toward the door, and all of his men trailed after him. Cigarette man set a burner phone down on the chessboard before following after his boss. Rocco stopped at the door and pointed at the Heirs. “One week, pups. And if you give that evidence to Johnny Jack’s men, I won’t hesitate to end each and every one of you. I don’t care if you are the Heirs of Savannah,” he said darkly. “I’ll be in touch.” He nodded once at the burner phone and then disappeared behind the plastic partition.
Once we heard the sound of the cars start up and the engines fade in the distance, I finally let go of the breath I’d been holding.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The five of us stood outside the abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch black besides the single lantern hanging on the wall and the stars above us. It would’ve been peaceful, if it weren’t for the fact that we’d just been kidnapped and abandoned.
Godfrey and Luis did one last sweep of the building, but there was nothing to find in there. Using the burner phone, Rogue quickly sent our coordinates to his driver to come pick us up. We were way outside of Savannah, so that meant that we were stuck here for a few hours. I sat on the dirt with my back against the splintered wood of the building with Rogue settled on my right.
He hadn’t vacated my side since Rocco’s men left. I kept shaking slightly, both from the chill in the air and from the adrenaline that was now crashing down around me. Being ambushed, kidnapped, groped, threatened, and then watching a guy get his cheek blown off would do that to a person.
Luis pulled out a joint and a match from his shoe. I wasn’t surprised, but I was grateful that he’d managed to keep it on him, because if we ever needed to mellow out, now was the time. He lit it up and we all passed the joint around quietly. When it was my turn for a hit, Rogue took it from his own mouth and with a hand on my neck, turned my face toward his. He blew a stream of smoke against my mouth, and I breathed it in, breathed him in, until I could feel him permeate every hidden part of me. Then he took the joint and held it in between my lips for me, our eyes locked while I inhaled. I held it, closing my eyes a bit before blowing smoke back out. Rogue kept watching me with an anxious expression on his face that I’d never seen before. When I shivered again, he passed the joint to Bonham and then reached over and pulled me onto his lap. He wrapped his strong arms around me and I rested against him, soaking in his warmth as I sunk into my high.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, watching as Bonham took a drag and then passed it to Godfrey.
“This is actually perfect,” he said, blowing out smoke in lazy little rings that filled the air around us.
“What do you mean?”
Godfrey shrugged. “We’ve been looking for an out,” he said. “This is it. I say we do it. Give it to Rocco.”
“And if shit goes bad and comes back on us?” Luis asked.
Godfrey shrugged. “We’ll be in no worse position than we were already in. Johnny Jacks’ men are already breathing down our necks. Their next step is to take someone close to us to show they mean business. The only reason they’ve waited this long on threats alone is because of who we are. They have to play this right, but they’re circling. We have no other move.”
“We’re stuck between the twisted fucks of Johnny Jack and now this fucker Rocco, who’s looking for revenge for his daughter,” Luis groaned as he rubbed a hand down his face. “This isn’t gonna end well.”
“We just have to be smart,” Bonham said. “If we play this right, we might actually make it out of this alive. Becoming allies with Rocco is our best bet.”
The five of us grew quiet, no doubt thinking about everything that could happen. There were a million what-ifs. No one spoke again until Rogue’s driver finally showed up hours later. I’d dozed off against Rogue’s chest, barely feeling it when he lifted me in his arms and walked me to the car. He sat in the backseat with me, never letting go.
When we got to his house, we all trudged inside the empty estate. The other guys broke off to their respective guest rooms, while Rogue led me up to his room. He’d been quiet ever since Rocco’s men had left us. I didn’t know what was going through his mind, and that worried me. Would he push me away again? Start up his cruelty for the sake of saving me? Everything that had just happened was a major mind fuck, and I wouldn’t blame him for feeling cagey, but I would fight through his instinct to distance himself.
Once we were inside his room with the door closed, he took hold of the hem of my shirt, but before he took it off, he stopped to look at me first, waiting for permission. “This okay?” he asked with a tentative look.
It surprised the hell out of me, so it took a few seconds for me to react. I lifted my arms for him, wordlessly giving him the go-ahead. He lifted the dirty shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor. When he knelt down in front of me to unbutton my jeans, I placed my hands over his. “I can do it,” I said quietly.
His turned his head up to look at me, and when I saw his anguished expression, my heart stopped. “Just…let me do this. Let me take care of you. I need to,” he admitted hoarsely.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, watching as he peeled off my jeans and underwear. It wasn’t sexual. Not even when he unclasped my bra or led me into the bathroom. He was radiating male protectiveness and providing me with a tenderness that made my whole body feel tight with love. He turned on the spout to the jacuzzi tub, carefully adjusting the water temperature and then filled it with minty-smelling bubbles. With a hand on my arm, he helped me inside.
“Just relax. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded as he turned and left, taking a moment to breathe out a shaky breath. This was new territory, and I wasn’t sure how to navigate. I’d known Rogue as a friend, then as an enemy, and then as an aggressive sex partner, but this was different. This showed me how much he really did love me. I knew he’d been scared for me when we were kidnapped, and when control was taken out of his hands, it cost him dearly. He needed this—he needed to take care of me to reassure himself that I was okay.