Carl held Juliet against his chest. It hurt his arm to caress her with his hand in this position, but he didn’t care. She mattered more. She was everything to him. Her breathing still sounded shaky, and every so often she would shiver in his arms. It killed him to see her hurting like this and to know how scared and unsure she was. He maneuvered his hand under her shirt, down her backside, and to her ass. She was so petite and fragile compared to him. He could wrap his body around her in a cocoon and keep her warm and safe. He would kill the two men that did this to her.
She began to shift then jolted a little as if she was jousted out of her sleep. She clung to him as she looked up with sleepy, red eyes.
“You’re okay, baby,” he whispered, pressing his palm firmer against her so she wouldn’t try to pull away. She leaned down and pressed soft lips to his bare chest. When she slid her fingertips gently up his arm to his bandage and stared at it, looking sad, he knew he needed to redirect her thoughts. If she pondered over his injury, then she would fall further into the control of Sinclair and Mellbrook. That just wasn’t going to happen.
“Are you cold?”
She shook her head.
“Hungry?”
“I think I’m going to take a hot shower.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you downstairs. I think the others are there, and Mason, Monte, and Michael want to talk with you.”
She looked suddenly timid and afraid.
“What for?”
“Answers, baby. Ways for us to get ahold of this situation and put Mellbrook and Sinclair away for life. We can do this together.”
“Together?”
“Yes, baby, together.” He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her.
* * * *
They were standing in the living room when BJ’s cell phone rang.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, BJ, I just got a very interesting call. I think you may be interested. You’re at Carl and Richie’s, correct?” Tyler Depolis asked.
“Yeah, we are, and what was the call?”
“Apparently there’s an interested party in purchasing Dixie Chix. But instead of going through the traditional method of making an offer to the owners, they sabotage them and, I’m assuming, bail them out after they cause the destruction.”
“What the hell did this person say?”
“They offered me fifty grand to find some serious fire hazards and violations against the owner of the club. Said if I do a great job and enforce this quickly, I’d get another ten as a bonus.”
“Holy shit. Did the bastard give a name?”
“The name was Teddy but no last name and no company name. Said he would transfer the money into my savings account directly or drop off money wherever I was willing to meet him.”
“Bastards!”
“Exactly. Hey I was thinking of taking him up on his offer and extorting a bit of money for myself. He won’t need sixty G’s in the slammer,” Tyler stated sarcastically.
BJ laughed. “I don’t like the route this is going. It could cause trouble for Susanna and the women. They’re all in this together.”
“Exactly. I’m going to call some friends in the health department. Maybe you can have Susanna call her liquor supplier and cut these assholes off before they make problems for the women.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks for the heads-up. I’m going to have Monte call you and connect you with the commander so the feds are in on this. It seems these men are being watched.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you later.”
BJ explained the phone call, and Monte immediately reached out to his commander, who would connect with Tyler, hear his statement, then notify the feds. BJ turned toward the guys. “My understanding is that the feds are running with this information about bribes, murders, and the potential terrorist dealings. They’ll freeze all bank accounts belonging to both Mellbrook and Sinclair. The only problem is that they’ll either try to make a run out of the country, or they’ll retaliate. Either way, now we have the feds helping us and we’re all here to protect the women. This may be over sooner than we think. You have to talk with Juliet and see what evidence she may have. It could seal the deal with the feds’ investigation,” BJ told them, and Richie looked up toward the stairs where he knew Juliet was resting. His heart ached for her, but he would be strong and help her to pull through this.