Unfinished Hero 02 Creed (21 page)

He jerked up his chin, holstered his weapon and settled back.

I holstered my weapon and bustled in.

“Sylvie,” she whispered through cut, swollen, bleeding lips as she looked up at me through slitted, nearly swollen shut eyes.

“Here, babe,” I whispered, moving quickly, gently, efficiently, pulling the bloody sheet around her naked body. “Baldy’s on his way. Knight knows what’s happening. I’m here with my partner. His name is Creed. He’s a good guy. In a second he’s gonna come in. Let’s get you decent.”

A whimpering sob slid past her lips as I tucked the sheet around her bruised, bloodied, abused, violated body.

When I was done, I asked, “You okay for Creed to join us?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

I felt him move in and looked up at him as I sat on the bed and pulled her hair away from her face. “Ice, wet washcloth,” I said softly, Creed’s heated infuriated eyes moved from Serena in the bed to me, he jerked up his chin, turned and disappeared.

I bent over Serena. “We’re here. We’ll take care of you, babe. We’re here.”

Another whimpering sob.

I heard a low whistle, my head came up and Creed tossed a wet cloth to me. I nabbed it and he disappeared again.

I folded it, pressed it light against her eyes and got another whimpering sob.

“We’re here, baby,” I whispered, stroking her hair.

“There’s nowhere I don’t hurt,” she whispered back and rage tore through me as blood rushed in my ears. It took effort but I fought it back.

“We’re here,” I whispered. “You’re not alone, Serena. We’re here, baby.”

After a short while, the door opened, I looked to the opening of the hall and Creed filled it, ice bucket in his hands. He stopped close to me, handed me the bucket but held my eyes.

“Check it,” he mouthed.

I nodded.

Then I checked it.

Then I bent back to Serena.

* * * * *

I paced the hall outside Serena’s room but while I moved, my eyes were locked on Creed who was on the phone with Knight. Baldy, or Dr. Baldwin, a good doctor, a good man but one who accepted cash and kept his mouth shut, was in with Serena as was a nurse he’d called in to assist him.

I’d heard Creed’s side of the conversation and got from it there were two other girls who had since called in, both newish, both with all-nighter clients, both messed way the fuck up.

Pre-emptive strike. We fucked up.

“Right, Sylvie and I will take the girls,” Creed said into the phone, eyes to me.

Oh no.

Fuck no.

That meant Creed and I were on check and security detail and would miss the action.

Again, fuck no.

I stomped to him, reached high, snagged the phone out of his hand and put it to my ear.

“Do not fucking bench me,” I snapped into the phone.

“Sylvie –” Knight started.

“Offensive, Knight and you fucking know it. Finesse is done. These assholes pay. Find Live. Find out where the fuck Amy is and I’m all over that fucking bitch until she talks to me.”

“Babe, you know I trust you but this kind of shit, you got a hot head. Give the girls your touch, keep them safe and –”

“Bullshit. I got more control than you
and
Rhash put together when shit like this goes down.”

“I know you, remember?” he asked softly. “I can hear it in your voice. Your control has snapped, Sylvie. Rein it in and look after the girls.”

“She told me there was nowhere that didn’t hurt,” I hissed and Knight was silent. “Don’t bench me,” I repeated.

Knight took a beat then, “Don’t make me regret this.”

I lifted my head and jerked my chin up at Creed. He turned to Serena’s door, used the keycard and went through probably to brief Baldy we were leaving.

“You won’t regret it,” I promised Knight. “Get me the details on Amy. Two minutes, Creed and I are on the road.”

I disconnected and Creed came out.

His eyes caught mine.

“Let’s move,” he grunted.

We moved.

* * * * *

I stood in the stall in the bathroom, peering out a small opening of the door.

Amy was having a martini lunch with her girls who also lived off a man’s back. We clocked her, Creed told me he’d get her to the bathroom and my objective was to clear it so we could do our business there.

Luckily, no one came in while I waited so when she did, red wine stains down her dress, a pissed off look on her face, I had her.

Seriously, Creed was genius. I didn’t know he managed it, probably bribed a waiter, but not only would red wine down your dress send you straight to the bathroom, it’d also leave a nasty stain. Amy deserved more than red wine stains on her dress but that was where I came in.

“I cannot believe this
shit,
” she hissed at the mirror, flipping her arms down, eyes to the stain reflected in the mirror.

I walked out of the stall and she turned to me then blinked.

“Wow, Sylvie. Hey,” she greeted.

I glanced through her, walked to the door, rapped on it once and Creed slid in, closed the door and leaned against it.

“What the fuck?” Amy asked and I turned back to her. Her eyes went from Creed to me. “What’s going –?”

I moved and, in a flash, I had her against the wall, my hand to her throat, my body pressed into hers. Her face had paled and her eyes were wide.

“The blowjob you gave Drake Nair pay for that dress or did you get it off Live’s back?” I asked and her eyes got wider. “Oh yeah, bitch, we know. Mark this, Amy, you fucked up, not getting your name on the lease. Live, right now, is packing your shit up. You got the choice, you talk, I let you go and you go home and you’ll find your shit in boxes or you don’t talk, I let you go and you find your shit all over the goddamned grass.”

“I…” her eyes shifted side to side as her hand lifted to try and pull down on mine but I just pushed her deeper into the wall with my hand and body. Her gaze came back to mine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’ll refresh your memory but I’ll do it by posting pictures of you on your knees, his dick in your mouth side by side with pictures of you taking a roll of bills to every social network I can find and I’ll tag you in it. By the time they take it down, it’ll have gone viral, there will be sites it hits that
won’t
take it down and thousands of people will see you sucking cock for money. You’ll walk down the street and never know when someone will recognize you. That’s not enough, copies get couriered to your folks. Wonder what Daddy will think of seeing his girl getting her face fucked for cash.”

Her eyes suddenly went hard and she bit out, “Fuck you, Sylvie.”

“Wrong answer,” I whispered, let her go but grabbed her wrist, flipped her around and shoved her face first into the wall, yanking her arm up. She cried out, I got close and snarled in her ear, “Talk.”

“I’ll scream.”

“Do it,” I invited. “See that big guy against the door?”

She didn’t answer.

I didn’t wait and went on, “Well, that’s my man and no one out there saw him or me. You scream, we vanish. You report this to the cops, we both got alibis. But you,
you
live with Knight Sebring’s wrath breathing down your neck and everywhere you go, every minute of the day, you fear the day he unleashes that wrath. If you can live down the blowjob pictures, you still got Knight to deal with. You talk right now, you’re homeless and without a man to lead around by his dick. You don’t, you bought yourself a life full of fear.”

She didn’t say anything.

I yanked up on her arm hard.

She whimpered.

“Don’t test me. I might be small but I’m strong and I’m pissed. I’ll snap it,” I whispered in her ear.

“He… he, I don’t know much about it,” she whispered back, straining against my hold, lifting up to her toes in her high-heeled shoes to alleviate the pain.

“Share what you know,” I invited.

“Let go,” she demanded.

“Not until you share.”

“Not until you let go.”

I yanked up again and she cried out.

“I got all day. You got a martini to get back to,” I told her.

“I…
fuck,
” she snapped. “He wants Knight’s girls. Thinks, if they don’t think they’re safe, they’ll defect. If it’s bad enough and they just quit, he’s fine. Just as long as he shuts down Knight and his girls.”

“You know Nick?” I asked
.

“Who?” she asked back.

“He work with a man named Nick?”

“No. I don’t know. I never heard that name.”

“Those clients last night, Amy, they weren’t new,” I told her.

“He’s been planning this a long time,” she told me.

“Are there more men in the system we gotta worry about?” I asked.

“I… don’t know.”

“How many men are there, Amy?” I pushed.

“I don’t know,” she repeated.

“Three men worked girls over last night. Are there more?”

“I don’t know!”

I yanked up her arm and shoved her so deep into the wall, her face smushed against it.

“Now is the time to share,” I advised softly. “I find out you withheld anything, Amy, this will not make me happy and I’m a girl. Girls know girls. I’ll know
exactly
what’ll cut deep and I’ll do that to you. You get me?”

“I don’t know!” she snapped. “I just told him what Live told me about the new girls. He wanted to target the new girls. The other ones, the ones that have been around awhile, they were in the business, defected to Knight for protection and know the score. They wouldn’t blink. The new ones would freak. He knew that. So I gave him their information.”

Stupid, useless
bitch.

“Do you know what else he’s got planned?” I pushed.

“No!”

“You sure about that?” I prompted.

“I just told him about the new girls. That’s it!”

I whipped her around again, grabbed both wrists and cocked her arms, shoving them into her chest and her back into the wall so hard her skull cracked against it. She blinked and winced in pain but I got in her face.

“He beat her bloody, split open and swollen. He raped her between her legs and up her ass. He did the deed but
you
did that to her, too. He’s a man and men can be animals. You’re a woman and we gotta look out for each other. What could bring you to do that to a sister?”

Her head tipped slightly to the side and her face got snide. “Can you rape a girl like that?”

Blood roared in my ears and it took everything I had not to spit in her face.

“You sucked cock for money,” I reminded her, she flinched and I leaned in. “And you spread for Live for the same reasons. He might not have handed over cash direct after the act but those girls got one on you, bitch, in a way that makes them so many steps up from you it isn’t even funny. They’re honest about being whores. You’re just kidding yourself that you aren’t one.”

I shoved her against the wall and stepped away.

Her hands went to her wrists and rubbed.

“I don’t see you again,” I whispered. “You see me, you disappear. Do you understand?”

“Fuck you,” she whispered back.

“Blowjob pictures, Amy.”

She scrunched her face up and glared at me.

I continued, “I do not see you. I do not hear about you. Live doesn’t. No one does. You have ceased to exist on the club scene in Denver. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she snapped.

I was done so I turned away from her to see Creed watching me blank-faced, arms crossed on his chest. He moved away from the door and opened it for me. I walked right through and we moved down the hall, through the restaurant, out and to his truck.

I called into Knight what I knew. He reported back they’d picked up Nair. I told him we’d be there in thirty.

I disconnected, filled in Creed and suddenly, he pulled into a parking lot, drove to a section far away from the store without any cars around, stopped the truck and switched off the ignition.

I turned to him. “What –?”

He’d already unbuckled his belt, he hit the release on mine and before I knew what he was doing, he’d shoved his muscled bulk between the seats, reached through and yanked me between. He had me on my back across the seats, his mouth on mine and his hand went down the front of my pants, scraping past belt and straight into panties.

I gasped against his tongue and when his finger slid hard across my clit, I moaned.

He broke the kiss and his lips didn’t leave mine as he muttered, “That was fuckin’
hot.
”

Maybe, but this was way hotter.

“Glad you approve,” I breathed.

“Give me room to move, baby,” he ordered and my hands went directly to my jeans, I loosened the belt, unbuttoned the button and slid the zipper down.

Then my head shot back when Creed got room to move.

His mouth worked my throat, his hand worked my pussy and my hands clutched his shirt. He didn’t mess around and I came for him within minutes. As I came down, his mouth was still working my neck as his fingers slid, gentle and tender, through the wet between my legs.

His lips glided up to my ear as his fingers kept toying between my legs and he whispered, “You, sittin’ on the end of the pier. Your sixteenth birthday. You got the same thing every year for ten years but you acted every time like I didn’t hand you some shit necklace but the moon. I looked at you and it hit me it was you. It hit me that it could be no one else but you. You were born to be mine. I was born to be yours. And it hit me that it sucked huge I had to wait at least two years to make my move to claim you.”

I closed my eyes, turned my head and pressed my face into his neck.

“Watchin’ you work back there,” Creed went on, “I get you. Huge parts of that Sylvie are gone. I loved them but they’re gone. But, baby, know this, the new parts of Sylvie that took her place are fuckin’
amazing.
” My heart squeezed and Creed lifted his head to grin down at me. “Seriously. I had to fight against gettin’ hard, watchin’ you work that bitch.”

“I didn’t even give her my good stuff,” I informed him through my own grin and his fingers slid around and in, driving deep.

My lips parted and Creed’s dropped to brush them as he spoke.

“Then, baby, partnering with you is gonna be all kinds of good.”