Page 103 of Lucky's Trouble

“Thank you,” he says.

I nod. “I’m looking for my girl. She’s short, has blond hair with pink streaks, runs her mouth a lot. You seen her?”

He glances at Rigger’s guy, then back at me. “She come in yesterday?”

Hope blooms in my chest. “Yeah. Where she at?”

“Downstairs with him,” he says, but there’s something in his expression that makes me uneasy.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“There are three more girls down there,” Rigger’s guy says.

“What’s he doing with them?”

My guy winces. “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to shoot me again.”

I tuck my gun away. “What?”

“He’s into some pretty kinky shit. Like S and M, chains and whips, that kind of thing. Your girl just got here, so she’s okay, but the other three? They’ve been here so long they think they’re in love with the guy. It’s wild.”

“Is he armed?” Rigger asks.

“He’s always armed, and there’s a guard outside the door,” Rigger’s guy says.

“Thanks.” I stand, pulling my gun back out.

“What about my leg?”

“I’ll make sure you get out of here before we leave,” I say, already walking back from where we came. There was a staircase going down from the foyer, so I’m assuming that’s where we need to go.

“I can take the guard outside the door. You go in and get your girl.” Rigger takes the lead, but when we reach the foyer, Riot and Dutch are standing near the stairs with a female guard who’s already cuffed.

“She told us your girl’s down there.” Dutch points. “Thought we’d wait for you to go down.”

There’s a commotion coming from the front door, and we turn to see Cy with Raunchy’s arm over his shoulders, helping him walk.

“What the fuck happened?” Rigger asks.

“Just a graze,” Raunchy says, lifting his pant leg to show us the good bit of skin and flesh missing from his outer calf. “Don’t worry. I got the asshole back by shooting him in the ass when he tried to run away. This fucker must be confident his money will keep him safe because these guards ain’t worth shit.”

“Shit. We better end this now.” I walk over to the staircase with Rigger close behind. We creep slowly down, listening for anything that could tell us what to expect, but it’s silent. Surely, Jeremiah knows his house is being overrun. The gunshots echoed loudly throughout the whole house.

There’s a hallway to the left and one to the right, and right in front of us is a red door. Instinctually, I know she’s in there the same way I always know when Tinleigh is close by. My body heats, and I feel an awareness, a physical reaction I haven’t experienced with anyone else.

“Let me this time.” Rigger stops me just before I kick in the door.

Adrenaline has my heart pounding as he rears back and sends his foot into the door. The wooden frame splits, and the door flies open. I walk through first but instantly freeze when I see what’s before me.

The deep red room lit only by a few candles and lights on the wall or the crazy implements and furniture I know well from hours of watching porn and a little personal experience, isn’t what makes me stop short. None of that is a blip on my radar. It’s the nearly naked woman with crazy eyes holding a gun to Tinleigh’s head at the far end of the room that has my asshole clenching.

Our eyes meet as I assess Tinleigh from head to toe. She might as well be naked since all she has on are crotchless red leather panties and a matching corset that frames the underside of her breasts and the center of her chest but provides no cover. Her hands are trembling at her sides, and her eyes are impossibly wide.

My focus snaps to the corner of the room when a man says, “Nice of you to join us.”

I hadn’t noticed him before now, my attention laser-focused on Tinleigh, but the motherfucker has all of my attention now. Sitting on a chair fit for a king with two more naked women on his lap is Jeremiah, looking completely unbothered.

Shit.

---