Through Fire (Portland, ME #3) (31 page)

I watch, my own tongue about hanging out, as she slides her mouth over my rigid length. Massaging it in tandem, with the pressure on that spot below my balls, as she slides her hot mouth up and down. “Christ, Ruby...so good,” I groan when she takes me deep and swallows on my tip. “Please let me come inside you,” I plead, completely at her mercy as I feel the tingle start in my lower back. “
Please.”
I have no shame, I’m her slave. I have no control over my body.

A soft plop sounds as she releases my cock from her mouth and braces her hands on my thighs, only to use her soft body once again to tease the now super-sensitized area between my legs. She rubs my length with her tits and stomach as she leisurely crawls up my body.

When her mouth reaches mine, she licks at the seam of my mouth. I willingly open, and not unpleasantly, taste myself on her lips. As our tongues tangle, I can feel the wet slide of her pussy against my stomach, where she is softly rocking, her legs on either side of me.

Unable to hold back any longer, I pull my hands from behind my head and grab her hips. My fingers bury in her flesh, helping her move. Preferably onto my waiting cock.

For a long moment she poises herself above me, my length throbbing in her hand as she plays the head through her slick lips. Reaching a hand behind her, she takes a gentle hold of my balls as she slams herself down on my erection.

“
Son of a fucking bitch!
You’re killing me, Ruby...” The half-yelled, half-whispered words keep tumbling from my incoherent lips, as she simultaneously tugs at my balls and rides me hard. My hips surge off the bed, chasing the warm vice of her body. I swear my heart stops when I feel my hot seed surge from my body into hers.

Ruby is undeterred in her movements, her eyes sharp on mine as she uses her body to milk me dry. Panting with the strain to reach her own completion, I press my thumb hard against her clit and roll it, while the other hand holds her hip firmly.

“
Madre de Dios!”
she exclaims as she throws her head back. With her hair wild around her face flush with climax, and her lips still swollen red, she is absolutely the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen.

R
uby

“Orange juice or coffee?”

I still can’t look Mark straight in the eye to his great amusement, apparently.

We’d been loud. I mean...
really
loud. Not once had it occurred to me, once I got swept up in what we were doing, that someone else was here. The only people in that moment were Tim and I, and it was unbelievable.

Until we walked out of the bathroom about ten minutes ago, after taking a nice long shower together, and Mark very pointedly, pulled two wads of tissue from his ears. I could’ve died.

“Boop?” Tim nudges me.

“Orange juice, please.”

Very thoughtful of Mark, to provide some much needed
‘sustenance’
as he jokingly called the order of breakfast he’d apparently just put in. I have to admit, the rolling cart that was wheeled in minutes ago, loaded with just about any item he could find on the menu, made my mouth water. I’m starving.

I’m shoveling my third pancake in my mouth, when the hotel phone rings. Mark’s closest and snatches up the receiver.

“Hello?—Morning to you.—Just finishing up, actually. Come on up.” He returns the phone to the cradle and sits back down. “Mike’s on his way up,” he says to us, before taking a bite of his toast.

I set my fork on my place, my appetite instantly gone.

It doesn’t take long before there’s a knock and Mark goes to let Mike in. After an exchange of greetings and a fresh round of coffees, Mike turns his attention to me.

“We’ve run into a bit of a problem,” he says, his face serious. “We discovered where Lima had been holed up. His sidekick was the first to start talking last night, leading us to a small warehouse on K Street in South Boston. We organized a raid and apprehended two armed men, guarding a truck with two young women chained in the back early this morning. We were able to get them free and off to receive medical care.” An inadvertent cry escapes me and Tim is immediately there, putting his arm around my shoulders. Mike looks slightly chastised when Tim throws him a dirty look.

“I’m sorry, Ruby. I wouldn’t have put you through this if I didn’t feel you could be of help.” His regret seems genuine and I give him a nod to continue. “Lima had a room with a cot in the back. When agents came in, they found a girl shackled to the pipes in an adjacent bathroom. They weren’t been able to get near because she kept slamming her head against the sink the moment they’d try to cut her loose. Finally with the place cleared, and the EMTs able to come in, they managed to subdue her and take her to the hospital.”

“Oh my God,” I whisper. “That poor little thing.” I’m sick to my stomach at the fear she must’ve felt. I can still remember the acrid taste of it in my mouth.

“She won’t stop fighting though. She’s maybe thirteen, or fourteen. The other girls have been talking a little, told us her name is Nina and she was apparently Eduardo’s favorite. I was hoping maybe you—”

“No,” Tim interrupts. “Hasn’t she been through enough already? Christ, two days ago she ripped open every old wound to help your investigation, bleeding herself empty for six goddamn hours. Now you want her help again? Fuck no!”

“Tim,” Mark says in a conciliatory tone.

“Dammit, Mark. Enough is enough!” He jumps up, walks over to the window and leans his head against the cold glass. I slowly follow, running my hand from his side to his front as I press my body flush against his back, embracing him from behind.

“Remember the girl I mentioned? The one I couldn’t save?” I mumble in a low voice against his back. “
Mi vida
, what if I can help this little one? What if by helping her, I can help myself?”

Gradually I feel his body relax. He turns to face me, looping his arms around my neck and lowering his forehead to mine.

“Let me try. Let me see if I can reach her. Who better than me?”

He slowly rolls his head from side to side, keeping our foreheads connected. “You blow me away,” he mutters under his breath, then a little louder, “Are you sure?”

I lift up on my toes and press my lips to his, giving him a soft, grateful kiss. “Positive.”

-

I
can hear her screams from the end of the hall. The sound cuts me deep.

A rumpled nurse comes out of the room and shakes her head at our little group. “She’s a little wildcat,” she says as she passes me, and I can’t help myself. I grab her by the arm and spin her around.

“She’s a little girl, who was ripped from her family. Maybe even witnessed their murder. She was more than likely raped repeatedly, and in just about every possible way by evil, horrible men. She is traumatized and scared out of her mind. Show some fucking compassion!” My voice has gradually risen from a barely contained angry whisper to a full out yell, and it looks like I’ve drawn a crowd. 

An older man in a white coat, probably a doctor, walks up. I fully expect to be thrown out and hang my head. I haven’t even seen her yet and already I’ve failed her. Tim’s arm slides firmly around my midsection, sending a clear message to me, and everyone else, that he has my back. Instead of questioning me, the older gentleman pulls the nurse aside and demands an explanation from her.

“Remind me not to piss you off,” Tim whispers in my hair. “You are scary when you go momma bear.”

I try to hide the smirk, but appear not to be to successful, since a quick glance at Mark from under my eyelashes shows him grinning widely. Even Mike has trouble containing the twitching of his mouth.

Oddly, the screaming from the room seems to have stopped, and I clearly hear the doctor’s steps coming in our direction.

“I’m sorry for that.” He vaguely waves at the nurse’s retreating back before zooming in on me. “I’m Dr. Ambrose. Are you a relative?” he asks. I can see why he might think that, but I’m afraid to lie. Mark has no such compunctions.

“Absolutely. Her aunt,” he says with a straight face, earning a raised eyebrow from Mike and a soft chuckle from Tim, who’s hiding his face in my hair. It’s clear the doctor doesn’t believe him for a minute and turns his eyes to Mike instead.

“Agent Carmello?”

Mike shrugs his shoulders. “What he said,” he says, tilting his head in Mark’s direction.

“Hmmm.” The older man looks from one to the other before his eyes find mine again. “All right. I’ll give you five minutes,” he says, turning on his heel and walking away, shaking his head.

I struggle from Tim’s hold and beeline it to the door the nurse came out of.

“Ruby, wait,” Tim calls after me, but I stop him with a hand in his chest when he reaches me.

“You can’t come in, honey. As far as she knows, you are no different then any of the men who’ve hurt her so far.”

He hangs his head, but nods in understanding. He slips his hand under my hair and tilts my head up for a kiss. “Careful in there,” he says with a wink, before turning to join his brother and Mike on the chairs along the wall. Taking a deep breath I push open the door.

-

S
he’s tiny.

The moment I step in the room and let the door fall shut behind me, she starts struggling against the restraints. It stops me on the spot. I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is, and for a few minutes I stand there, helpless to do anything as her whimpers grow louder. The sheet, that at some point must’ve covered her, slips down the side of the bed, and I wince at a familiar sight. Almost instantly an idea forms.

I shuffle along the wall, making sure I don’t get any closer to the girl, whose terrified eyes are now following my every move. Mike was right, she can’t be more than maybe thirteen years old. When I reach a point where she can easily see all of me, I take a deep breath in. With shaking hands, I unbutton my jeans and slide down the zipper, making sure not to make any moves toward her. The fear is not gone, but her struggles still as she follows every move I make, until I lift my feet from the jeans, now pooled at my feet. Confusion marks her face as she looks up from my naked legs to my face. I hope to God no one barges in right now. I lift one foot on the chair against the wall and turn my knee out. Giving myself a little modesty with the hem of my sweater, I use my other hand to frame the brand burned on the inside of my thigh. The same kind of brand I noticed on the inside of hers.

It’s clear she sees it the moment I hear her sharp intake of breath. Her eyes stay focused on the mark on my leg for a while, before her eyes lift to mine. I swallow hard when I see her lips start trembling and big fat tears begin to roll down her face.

“Nina?” I ask her softly, gently lowering my leg so as not to startle her and start pulling up my pants. Her eyes never leave my face. “
¿Su nombre es, Nina?
” I try again. I almost cry when I see the tangled of curls bob on her head as she nods sharply. I take a careful step closer, but she immediately freezes in the bed. “
¿Puedo venir más cerca?”
This time I ask her for permission to approach her and wait patiently while a war seems to be waged on her face. Finally she gives me another little nod, this one a bit more hesitant. I have to be careful not to push.

“
La misma marca,
” she whispers in a tiny little voice.

“
Si, mi pequeño,
” I reassure her, as I carefully pull up a rolling stool and sit down, careful not to touch her or the bed. Not yet. I let my eyes wander over her face, seeing the cut at her hairline, probably from her banging her head against the sink. It could use a few stitches, but we were told when we arrived at the hospital that they didn’t want to traumatize her even further, if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

“
¿Estás herido?”
I ask her, needing to know if she’s hurting anywhere else. She breaks my heart when her eyes fill with tears again as she nods.

No longer able to keep my distance, I carefully reach out and brush the pad of my thumb under her eyes. “
Estara bien.
It will be okay, Nina,” I whisper softly, as she turns her face into the palm of my hand.

T
im

“What will happen to her?”

We’ve been sitting in the hospital hallway for half an hour. That doctor’s five-minute limit had long since passed. Mark had gone to grab us some coffees from the Starbucks in the lobby, but other than that, we’ve been sitting here, each to our own thoughts.

Mike turns his head to look at me. “Depends on how old she is, and what we can find out about where she comes from. Worst case scenario, if she has no one waiting for her back home, she will likely be placed in foster care here. I’ve been able to hold off, but CPS will have to be contacted.”

Suddenly the door opens and Ruby sticks her head out. I jump up and rush over to her, but the moment my eyes scan over her head into the room, she gives me a firm shove back. “Careful,” she hisses. Then she easily puts on a smile and turns her face into the room.

“Está bien, Nina, él es mi novio.
I’ll be right back.
”
She steps out and closes the door behind her, but my eyes are still focused over her head, where the large-eyed little girl seemed only a blip on the bed. “You okay, Tim?” Ruby asks and I slowly drop my eyes to her face.