“Pinto, get this asshole out of my face before I slit his fucking throat.” Warner held the man’s gaze and knew his words sunk in.
“I don’t want any trouble. I made a mistake,” the man said as Pinto pulled him out of the chair.
“You sure did, asshole. You just don’t realize yet exactly how big of a mistake you made messing with a man like my friend here,” Pinto told the man as he, Gemini, and the others exited the room.
Warner placed his hands on his hips, leaned his head back, and took a deep breath then re
leased it. He could have lost Mercedes again tonight. This shit had to stop.
“She’s okay, Warner. You and Kurt got to her, and we were all nearby and would have been able to intervene and stop him,” Max said.
“I understand that, but this shit has to stop. There are things going on that you don’t know, Max,” Warner said to him then looked at his friends.
“You need to tell me so I understand,” Max replied to him.
“Mercedes is being bid on,” Warner told him.
“Bid on?” Max asked.
“These men, the ones who tried to take her, wanted her so they could sell her to the highest bidder and make money off of her. Right now the bid for her is over a million dollars.”
“What in God’s name?” Leo asked and Warner began to explain about the information they had so far. Jack and Danny were furious.
“What are you going to do to protect her? Anyone, someone just like this asshole, could take it upon themselves to go after her and try again,” Danny asked.
“I know that. I need to get that site taken down. I need to locate this Randall asshole and those other two fucks that tried abducting her,” Warner replied.
“Who is this Miami person your not-so-friendly friends mentioned and seemed to shock you?” Max asked.
“Someone with enough money, power, connections, and government power to destroy an operation like this one and get Mercedes out of trouble once and for all,” Warner said.
“So that’s good then, right?” Jack asked.
“Yes. But it’s going to cost me,” Warner said and when his friends asked him to elaborate he told them he couldn’t. He’d give Miami whatever he asked for, just as long as Mercedes and his brothers were safe and they didn’t have to worry about her getting taken ever again.
* * * *
“My God, baby,” Taylor said then pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight.
He had arrived when Kurt and Max were going over what happened to her and how some guy tried taking her. He couldn’t believe what the guys said. He’d hunted her down and probably from the site men were bidding for her on. Mercedes was pissed off. He could tell. He was pissed off, too. Kurt and Warner had never mentioned the website or how serious this matter was.
“I’m okay, Taylor. I just can’t believe what I’m hearing. That there’s a website with my pictures on it and men are bidding on me.” The tears rolled down her cheeks and she shivered.
Kurt placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t think about that. Our friends are taking care of it. We’re going to keep you safe,” Kurt told her.
“For how long? Forever? There are pictures of me in God knows what on the internet. You can’t take those back. No one can delete them.” She raised her voice and stood up.
“I’ll let the four of you talk. I had some cruisers go by and check Mercedes’s place out and yours and there’s a police car out front of your places,” Max said and then exited the room.
Taylor looked at Warner and Kurt.
“You were never going to tell me about this. Tell Mercedes about this site?”
“What for? So the two of you could worry like we’ve been?” Warner replied.
“Yes. Because we’re in this together. We’re brothers. Mercedes is our woman and I have a right to know everything you two do,” Taylor told them.