“Because I’m so damned glad to see you.” He hugged her tight. “Christ, Cady, those poor women.”
Slightly alarmed by the stress she could hear in his voice, she tugged him over to the living room sofa.
“Can I get you something to eat? Drink?”
“A whiskey would be good. I can’t eat right now.”
She poured out two glasses of whiskey at his small bar, carrying them over to where he sat back on the sofa with his eyes closed.
“You need some sleep,” she said as she sat beside him.
He gazed over at her, running his thumb under her eye. “So do you. You were supposed to be resting.”
Cady shrugged. “Guess I sleep better when you’re here.” That was no lie.
He brushed his thumb down her cheek. “I love you.”
She smiled. “I love you, too.” Cady snuggled in next to him and took a sip from her glass. Hunter placed his arm around her shoulders.
“We had to go in tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“Stanson’s man got into trouble. He was doing some snooping around in the manager’s office when Laurenson came in with one of the girls. Our guy hid, but Laurenson, he, fuck, he started to beat the woman. With a whip. She was screaming, begging him to stop.”
“Oh God, and you could hear this?” Cady knew the inside guy was wearing a small wire. It looked just like a skin patch. When you put it on you couldn’t even see it.
“Yeah, fuck, it was all I could do to hold Gray back. Hell, to hold myself back. Then he started to rape her.”
“Oh my God.”
“Our guy was hidden in the same room. He couldn’t take it.”
“He blew his cover to save her,” she said with understanding.
“Can’t blame him. I’d have done the same. As soon as we realized what was going on, we went in. Fuck, Cady, that place…” He shook his head and took a sip of his whiskey. “All of those women. Some of them were just teenagers. Looks like they’re all illegals, they’re so scared that most of them won’t even talk. Connor’s still going through Laurenson’s office. Laurenson lawyered up immediately.”
Cady hugged him.
“I’m going back in tomorrow. It’s going to take a while to sort through everything.” He kissed her forehead. “First, though, I need some sleep. Come to bed with me.”
He stood and held out his hand. She followed him into the bedroom. She glanced at one of the drawers he’d cleaned out for her to put her clothes in. She’d stuffed the envelope of photos in there. She should tell him.
But not tonight.
***
Eight days later, Cady smiled at Hunter as he pulled out a chair for her. He took the one beside her as the others entered the conference room. She’d barely seen Hunter this last week since the raid on The House. He’d left early each morning, coming home late at night. He looked thinner, exhausted and she knew she didn’t look much better.
She’d spent this week constantly looking over her shoulder, jumping at things; she’d nearly taken Tiny’s head off when he’d walked up behind her. She couldn’t keep going this way, but she hadn’t found the opportunity to talk to Hunter.
He’d had his own demons to face.
The last to arrive was Stanson. He nodded at everyone before taking a seat.
“First, I just wanted to say thanks for all your help over the last week. We’re by no means finished processing through everything, but I wanted to update you all.”
“That means thanks for your help but you can fuck off now,” Jaron said. The others laughed.