Page 13 of Nitro

I understand why Rooster is so paranoid though, the man has a no-nonsense air about him. As if any minor mistake is enough to be killed in the most horrible ways possible. I can feel the manic energy rolling off Rooster as Yemen talks to his guards. I have no idea what the hell is supposed to happen at an auction, but I’m assuming that it has something to do with making sure your clients are comfortable.

“Sir, is there anything else that I can get you?” I step closer to him and ask.

“Yes, some wine will do.” He answers and looks away from me like I’m a fucking fly on the wall. That’s fine. I don’t need to be around him any longer than that.

I walk over to the kitchen and see the one bottle of wine that is in the fridge. I’m sure we’re going to need more than that.

Just as I start looking around, I feel my phone start to vibrate in my pocket. Shit the only person that calls me is Shepard.

“Rooster, I’ll be right back. I’m going to check for more wine downstairs.”

He barely acknowledges what I’m saying.

I walk as quickly as I can down the stairs and fumble in my pocket for the phone.

“Hello?” I say the second I get down.

“Ni… you… th ... ere” The phone cuts in and out like I am losing my signal. I’m sure that it's from being in the basement, but I can’t afford to go back upstairs and let them see me on the phone.

“I’m here, Shep, can you hear me?” I move over into another corner hoping to get a signal there. When the phone beeps to let me know that the call has officially dropped, I feel the frustration begin to build inside of me.

“Motherfucker!” I slam the hand that doesn’t have my phone against the wall.

“Problem, VP?”

I turn around just as Rage comes into the light.

“What the hell are you doing down here skulking around?” I ask doing my best to keep my breathing normal. I thought I was down here alone.

“Just checking on things. Everything okay with you? Seems like you needed to take that phone call.” He tilts his head and walks closer to me, “It might have just been my ears, but did I hear you say, Shep? I didn’t think we’re still in contact with him. Didn’t Rooster say he was our enemy now?”

Fuck, I’m caught, “You don’t know what the fuck you heard.” I get closer to his face hopefully to get him to back down.

“I think I do. I think it sounds like you may not be all in for Rooster like you make it seem.”

I put my hand on the butt of my gun, if I can’t get him to drop this, I’m going to have to kill Rage. “Question my loyalty to my patch again and see what the fuck I do to your face.”

“Easy, Nitro. You know I would never question your loyalty I was just trying to figure it out.” He puts his hands up and walks away. I wait for him to turn back and say something, but he just walks on.

I turn to look around the depressing area hopefully there isn’t anyone else in here that is going to try and spy on me. When I don’t see anyone else around, I put my phone into my pocket and walk to the back of the large space to get what I came down here for in the first place—the alcohol. I pick another bottle of wine and a twenty-four pack of beer. Surely, it’s not the best that these guys ever had, but it's the best we have.

On the way back to the stairs I look in the small opening in Tink’s door, it’s what we are supposed to use to feed the girls while they are here with us. What I see inside squeezes at my heart.

I open the door without bothering to ask if it's okay for me to come in. She startles and tries to wipe the tears that are streaming down her face.

“What the hell! What are you doing in here?” She tries to sound hard, but I can tell that she’s seconds from breaking down again.

“Hey, what’s going on? Are you hurt?” My mind immediately goes back to what Cyrus was doing to her earlier. Maybe she's more hurt than what she'd said.

“I’m fine, just leave me alone.” She tries to push me away, but I don’t let her.

“Hey, don’t do that. Tell me what’s going on.” I stare into those beautiful wide eyes and part of me wishes that we weren’t stuck together in this shitty situation.

“Fine you want to know what’s going on? I feel like I just sold them out. That I just helped them get taken by the enemy all because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. I’m all they had and I just abandoned them.”

She ran her hands through her short hair. I feel like there is nothing that I can control, but having her beat herself down like this isn’t something that I can just let go on. I pull her into my arms and at first, she stiffens until she just relaxes into my body.

“Don’t you fucking do that. You are doing the very best with what you have. You’re the one that is giving them a chance. Do you think any of those girls would have made it this far without you behind them telling them to be strong? It’s because of you they are even going to be able to get out of here.” I do my best to give her a bit of comfort.

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