Page 61 of Dark & Deceitful

Needing to be helpful, I hand basic sweatshirts, sweatpants, and rubber prison-style slides to the women. They’ll have better clothes when they’re taken to their safe house. The Sacred Sinners have them scattered all over the country. Seemingly regular people who own regular houses in regular neighborhoods house the rescues and bikers alike until they can get them into an S.S.-affiliated rehabilitation center for trafficked women, like the place most of my sisters hail from.

Two smaller boats wait for the rescues at the stern of the yacht, at the swimming platform. I lead the women down the steps, and Dark brings up the rear. Once we reach the bottom, I step to the side as men from the boats offer their hands to help the women aboard to charter them to their larger vessel floating nearby.

“Is that for everyone?” I ask Dark, making a visor with my hand and squinting to see the boat off in the distance.

“No. They’ll leave as soon as they get all the women on board. Our ride is there.” Dark taps my shoulder and points in the opposite direction to a white fishing boat rocking in the water.

Nodding my understanding, I turn to address the men loading the second boat as the first speeds away. “Take good care of them,” I order a burly man with face tattoos and gnarled scars slashed across his cheeks.

He snickers, and Dark pulls me to his side. “They’ve got this, babe.”

“They’d better,” I announce loud enough for everyone to hear.

With his palm held out to help another woman aboard, the scarred man snickers again. “You and Sunshine have got your hands full with that one,” he comments, and I glower at him for such a ridiculous remark.

Squeezing my side in reassurance, Dark joins his brother in an unspoken manly chuckle, as if he agrees with him but won’t say aloud out of fear for his life.

Ugh.

Men.

No. Not men.

Bikers.

On the boat's swimming platform, where shallow waves lick the edge, Dark and I watch the women loaded into the far-off vessel. Once they speed away, our fishing boat deploys a yellow inflatable that putters across the water faster than I expect. The single biker onboard tosses Dark the tether, and he ties it to a cleat on the yacht.

“Coal,” Dark greets, clasping his brother’s hand and pulling him from a boat that could be taken down with a prick of a needle. That’s not reassuring, but I take it in stride as Coal, Pixie’s brother, and Dark fall into easy conversation and climb the stairs back to the main part of the yacht, leaving me to bring up the rear. And boy, as much as I shouldn’t, I watch them go, their butts shifting and doing all the sexy things hot men withnice asses can do in fitted bottoms. Not that I would ever say that aloud, and neither should you. This is our secret.

To bide my time before we escape this lap of luxury, I leave the men to do whatever they gotta do and lounge by the saltwater pool, soaking up the rays in my blood-speckled dress and flats. My job is done. There’s nothing I can do here besides get in the way. So, I soak up the life of a rich man, imagining what it must be like to live as they do until I grow thirsty, and pour myself a glass of red at the outdoor bar before retaking the padded lounger, a hop, skip, and a jump away from the spot Dark fingered me yesterday. Man, that feels like ages ago now. Time has a way of going both slow and fast when working a job. Days drag on while moments, like yesterday, speed by, giving you whiplash in the process.

It doesn’t take long for me to empty my bottle of red as my mind drifts to life and how much I’ll be deconstructing the past few days for months to come.

I had sex with Dark—my ex.

Good sex.

No, incredible sex.

He cheated on his woman with me, and that didn’t seem to faze him a bit.

Given our circumstances, it might have been necessary, but what if it wasn’t?

What if, when he cheated on me with Abby, it didn’t faze him either?

My stomach sours at the thought.

What would our sons think if they knew?

What will Sunshine think?

Did he know this would happen? And if so, why didn’t he warn me?

Lost in ponderous thought, I sip the last drops of wine and stare into the pool's shimmery blue water.

Dark and I need to talk…

I have so many questions…

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