Bubbles

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I’d like to say I didn’t plan it, but even if I wasn’t going to fuck her six ways to Sunday, I wanted to wake up with her in my bed.

For such a tiny human, she could go through some beer, but I’d known she was close to falling asleep, and I’d stroked and petted her to make sure she snuggled against me. I wouldn’t break my word to her sister — unless my little Half-pint offered herself again, she was off limits for sex.

But I’d never promised not to hold her and pet her.

I’d turned the light off when I brought the popcorn, so I only needed to turn the television off before sinking down beside her to hold her while she slept.

Lexi’s phone was in the other room when it went off hours later, but it was loud. Too loud. She jumped up and ran to it, and I missed her warmth.

However, all thoughts of how cozy my little Half-pint had been in my arms fled when I heard the crying woman begging someone not to hurt her.

A man’s voice came onto the line, and I recognized it right away — Fury, the fuckwad from the parking lot.

“Get yo ass here in twenty minutes, b’fo I start cuttin’ pieces off yo junkie-hoe mama. Alone, little cunt. I’ll kill yuh mama dead if you bring that mothafuckin’ redneck biker.”

The phone went dead, and Lexi looked at me in horror. “I have to go home. You should stay in bed.”

“What’s happened?” She had no idea I’d heard both sides of the conversation.

She shook her head. “My mama needs me.”

At least she hadn’t lied to me, but I’d hoped she’d trust me enough to tell me.

This wasn’t the time for games, though, so I sat up and told her, “I heard, Half-pint. You can’t go by yourself. Your car isn’t here anyway. Someone will have to take you.”

The scent of her fear permeated the house, and my wolf wanted to eat whoever had scared her. I agreed, but needed to hold my temper.

I was in boxer briefs and shirtless, she was in skimpy shorts and a t-shirt.

“Change into jeans and tennis shoes. Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

She nodded, and I picked up my phone. Duke and Gonzo were both home, and I started with Duke.

Ten minutes later, Lexi had an inside-the-pants holster with a three-eighty, and we were in Dozer’s extended cab truck so we could fit four bikers and a Half-pint. Three of us would get out a half-mile from her apartment and let her drive the rest of the way in, but she wouldn’t be alone.

Still, watching her drive away was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. We had a straight shot down an embankment, and she had to circle around, so we’d easily be there when she arrived. Dozer, Gonzo, and I went up the stairs, and I smelled multiple Playas without even opening the stairwell door. We were outnumbered, but it wouldn’t be the first time. My plan was to take them out before Lexi arrived, though she thought we were just going to be close in case she needed rescuing.

No way in hell was she walking into that apartment by herself.

Dozer hadn’t been at our little meet-and-greet, so there was a chance they wouldn’t know he was with us. He walked down the hallway, and listened and smelled for clues to what was happening. I was ready to sprint to his aid, but I hoped Dozer could get in and make sure Lexi’s mom was safe before we stormed in.

Gonzo put his hand on my arm, and I nodded. It wasn’t time yet.

“Why are ya’ll outside Miss Tamara’s apartment?” Dozer asked. “I need to pick up a package.”

“She don’t have nuttin’ for you. Run along. We conductin’ bizness that don’t concern you, white boy.”

I heard a fist impacting a face, but I stood still. If Dozer could get in without us, we had the best chance of keeping Lexi’s mom from gettin’ hurt.

The door kicked in and I stepped into the hallway. Two men were on the floor, out cold, and Dozer was in the apartment. I raced to the doorway and peeked around the door. Two men were in the living room looking lost, and I heard an unseen Dozer asking, “Miss Tamara! Are you okay? Why do you have Miss Tamara tied up?”

One of the men in the living room said, “He told Snake he was here to pick something up. Might be we should search for product.”

Dozer said, “Clear!” and I raced in with Gonzo on my heels. I took the guy on the right, he took the one on the left, and we were in the bedroom within seconds.

“You crazy mothafuckin’ whiteboys coulda got me kilt! They told Lexi to come alone!”

Talk about mother-of-the-year. Fuck. I stood over her and said, “No way in hell was she walking into this by herself. Do you have any idea what an innocent your baby girl is, or what they’d have done to her?”

“They weren’t gon kill her no how — she just need tuh learn a lesson. That girl too damned uppity for her own good.”

I looked at the asshole on the floor, knocked out cold. I could hear his heartbeat, so Dozer hadn’t killed him, unfortunately. I wanted to punch Lexi’s mom, but this was between mother and daughter. For now, anyway.

I met Lexi’s mom’s gaze until she was afraid of me. It’s a gift. “You’ll stay with your business partner until we get this sorted. If that isn’t possible, we’ll work somethin’ else out to keep you safe, but you will not put your daughter in danger again.”

Lexi ran into the apartment with Duke right behind her. “Mama! You okay?!”

“What the fuck you thinkin’, lil girl!? Lettin’ these white boys come when you were s’posed tuh come alone!”

Lexi glared at me and told her mother, “They were supposed to let me come in and just keep watch. I didn’t know they were going to do this, but…” She looked at the bodies on the floor and shrugged. “It seems to’ve worked out okay.”

I stepped to her and put my hand on the back of her shoulder. “Your mother’s going to spend a few days with her business partner while we get this sorted.”

“I called Marlin,” Duke told us. “He’s on his way.”

“I dragged the assholes from the hallway into the living room,” Gonzo told us from the other room.

I leaned down, hogtied Fury with zip strips, and carried him into the living room. They’d already done the same to the men in there. Two were conscious but not talking, the other three were still out cold.

A table and lamp were broken — the guard I’d punched had fallen on top of it on his way down — and Lexi’s mom went on a rant about it the instant she saw it. Instead of arguing or apologizing, I pulled my wallet from my pocket, counted out five twenties, and handed them to her. She’d be able to replace them for ten bucks at Goodwill, but whatever. I just wanted to shut the ungrateful bitch up.

I looked at Duke. “The Half-pint’s gonna pack a few more things. We’ll be in her room until Marlin gets here.”

It was a small, two-bedroom apartment and we’d been in her mom’s bedroom, so figuring out which room was Lexi’s wasn’t hard. She followed me in and I closed the door.

“Will your mom be safe with her business partner?”

“Yeah, but she’s gonna be pissed at me that you know she has one.”

“Sorry. Just tryin’ to keep everyone safe.”

“You shoulda told me the plan.”

I sat on her bed so we were eye-to-eye. “I wanted to, but I worried you’d get hurt if you went running upstairs ahead of us. Would you’ve trusted us to keep her safe?”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’d have argued with you, but…” She sighed. “I’ll trust you for sure if something else comes up. Don’t lie to me again.”

I considered what I could promise before saying, “I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll do my best to keep from lying to you about anything that involves you or your family.”

She held her hand out, and I shook it, but then pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her. “I liked havin’ you in my bed, Half-pint. Let’s finish up here so I can get you back home. You can sleep wherever you want, but the offer to sleep with me — with or without sex — is there. Your choice, you just let me know what you want.”

She nodded, pulled out of my arms, grabbed a large paper shopping bag out of her closet, and began putting more clothes into it. “Etta has all kinds of reasons for me to stay away from you.”

“And I’m sure every reason is a good one.”

“Most of them.” She glanced at me and sighed. “You’re only three years younger than my mama, but you look at least twenty years younger.” Another sigh. “You don’t look much older than me.”

“Your mother isn’t aging well. Look, your sister isn’t wrong, and yet…” In for a penny, in for a pound. “I like you, and that hasn’t happened since before I went inside. I can also promise you I’ll do everything I can to make sure you finish school, land whatever job you’re hopin’ for, and then stick with it and succeed.”

“I want to work in a salon that specializes in crazy colors and fashion-forward cuts. The tattoo place where I work is about to expand into a bigger space, and they’re talkin’ about having a salon with the same name right next door. Health codes won’t let them do both in the same place of business, but they could put them next to each other and still share clients.”

Logic told me I was crazy for makin’ this offer, but I liked having her in my house. I put my mouth to her ear. “Move in with me, and you’ll get a spankin’ for every grade below an A — whether it’s homework, a quiz, or a test will determine how bad the spankin’ is.”

Her arousal blossomed around me like a flower opening and the pollen swirling out. My brothers would smell it, but I didn’t have secrets from them.

“I got a B on my test Friday.”

I hadn’t planned to make the ruling retroactive, but she was practically begging for a spanking. “Okay then. Since you didn’t know the consequences when you took it, we’ll make it a low-count spankin’ over the top of your jeans. Finish packing, Half-pint. Marlin’s here.”

The knock on the door came seconds later, and she looked at me in wonder but didn’t ask how I’d known.

She filled the bag, opened the door, and I followed her out. I smelled her fear, but she still went first. She might be tiny, but she had spunk and wasn’t going to show her fear.

Duke started the conversation by pointing out Marlin had assured us he’d handle the situation, and Marlin was explaining that he hadn’t been able to find Fury to talk to him after our meeting.

“Check his phone. I texted him not to do nothin’. I tole him the girl was off-limits!”

I fished the asshole’s phone and wallet from his pocket, and ran his right pointer finger over the scanner to unlock his phone.

Sure enough, he had texts telling him the girl was off limits, and warning Marlin would cut Fury’s dick off if he messed with her.

Worked for me.

“This tells me your men don’t believe your threats hold water,” I told Marlin, “We’ll stay and watch while you follow through.”

Marlin is dark, dark black, but I’d swear he went pale at my words. I didn’t give a shit.

“You don’t do it, I will.”

Duke gave me a questioning look, and I handed the phone to him so he could see.

Marlin crossed his arms. “You have my blessin’, but he need to be somewhere so we can stop the bleedin’.”

I looked at Gonzo, who’d been close enough to me to see the texts. “The drugstore on McCallie — a few blocks from the hospital — is open twenty-four hours. We need styptic powder.”

Fury had seen the texts and he knew what was comin’. He started fightin’ the plastic zip ties, but I’d bound him well and no way was he getting out of them.

“We’ll leave your balls,” I told him. “But they’ll come off if you mess with her or her family again. Are we clear?”

“You can’t take my dick, man! Fuck, you’re insane! You can’t just cut it off!”

I ripped his shirt off and stuffed it in his mouth. “You’re making this much noise now, I can’t imagine how much you’ll cry and beg once we get started.”

“Bubbles.” Her voice was so soft, I probably wouldn’t have heard her if I didn’t have werewolf hearing. I looked at her, and she mouthed. “You can’t.”

“When Gonzo gets back, I’ll ask him to take you to my house and hang out with you until I get home.”

“Bash is on his way with more backup,” said Duke. “Knife and Razor for sure, I don’t know who else. Let’s see who he brings and then decide who gets the women out of here.”

“You don’t have to watch,” I told Lexi, “but he was gonna hurt you and I can’t let that stand.”

She crossed her arms and looked at the floor. I smelled conflict and dread, but she didn’t argue. I walked to her, put my finger under her chin, and tilted her head up until she was looking into my eyes.

“You grew up here. You know how things have to work. Marlin warned him that if he came after you, he’d cut his dick off.”

“He didn’t mean it literally and you know it.”

He should’ve, but I wasn’t going to get into that. “Doesn’t matter. Marlin’s on board with it, and is even gonna let me do it instead of insisting it be from his hand.”

I opened the asshole’s wallet and pulled his driver’s license. “Walter Matthews. No credit or debit cards, and seven dollars to your name. Are you really that pathetic?”

He glared at me, his mouth still stuffed full of his t-shirt, and I chuckled. “You’re about to be dickless, too. Sucks to be you.”

Marlin crossed his arms and sighed. “Can we find another way to handle this, Duke?”

Duke met my gaze and looked back to Marlin. “What did you have in mind?”

“Beat him the hell up, or pull a few teeth. Pretty much anything else.”

“No.” I spread my feet a little, crossed my arms, and glared at Marlin. “He knew better. He has the consequences written out for him in black and white. If he didn’t believe you, that speaks more to your weakness as leader than you probably want to admit, doesn’t it?”

“Ya’ll gonna cut his dick off, do it in the damned bathtub,” Lexi’s mom said. “Don’t go gettin’ blood all over my crib.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I told her. “If you can show us where you keep the bleach before you leave, we’ll clean up as well as we can when we finish.”

Bash showed up with Razor, Knife, and Horse. Duke told Horse to drop Lexi’s mom off wherever she told him to, and then to take Lexi to my house and hang out with her.

“Gabby’s at the apartment in the city. I’ll take Lexi there so they can talk, and you can pick her up when you finish,” Horse told me.

I nodded agreement, kissed Lexi on the forehead, and told her, “Horse will keep you safe, and you’ll like Gabby.”

Gonzo returned with styptic powder and opened the package. I had history with Gonzo — we’d been close in Atlanta before I’d gone in, back when he was still figuring out how to live as a shapeshifter. Razor was relatively new, but it didn’t matter. He had my back, too, and I accepted his knife when he offered it. I carry a sharp blade, but Razor’s known for his being sharp enough to perform surgery.

Bash carried Fury to the tub and situated him — his hands and feet had to be uncomfortable behind him in the hogtie, but the position pushed his hips up and out, which would make this easier. Bash, Gonzo, and Dozer held him while I sliced the asshole’s jeans and underwear away with my knife. I used a piece of the cut away denim material to hold the dude’s oh-so-shrunken dick and pull it away from his body, and then used Razor’s knife to cut all but about an inch of it off. No drama, no more talk. One slice and it was done.

Bash was holding the shirt in Fury’s mouth to keep his screams from being so loud, but I completely ignored him. I walked to the toilet and flushed the asshole’s dick, wiped the knife on his jeans, closed it, and watched while Razor finished applying the styptic powder, which I knew from experience burns like the fires of hell. It stops the bleeding, but it feels like pure acid on an open wound. Dude was still screaming and thrashing, and Bash was still doing his best to mute the asshole’s shrieking and yelling.

When Razor finished, I handed his knife back to him with a, “Thanks, brother.”

Marlin was leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, and Duke stepped in front of him. “Are we good?”

Marlin nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be clear no one’s to retaliate. Fury fucked up and had to pay the price. We’re good.”

“You’ll want to boil a heavy-duty straw and stick it in the hole, so it doesn’t swell closed. Also, antibiotics would be good,” Razor told Marlin. “Otherwise, he’ll just need to heal.”

I’d managed to handle the whole incident without getting blood on me, and I noted Dozer was wiping the splatter zones with bleach. I stepped out of the bathroom to keep the smell from burning my throat and lungs, and went to the kitchen to wash my hands despite the fact I hadn’t actually touched the asshole’s dick.

The men still hogtied on the floor were awake, and I told them, “You heard what Marlin said? We’re even. No more blood. If one of you even thinks of hurting one of us, someone we care about, or someone they care about, you won’t like the consequences.”

Marlin sounded tired, but his voice came from the bathroom door to tell them, “You’ll answer to me if you go after them.” He came around me, pulled his knife, and cut them all loose. “Ya’ll get Fury so we can get the fuck outta here. He ain’t bleedin’ no mo and he didn’t lose much blood before they stopped it, but he passed out. Someone’ll have to carry his black ass.”

My brothers and I all trooped out of the apartment and down the stairs, got into our vehicles, and left. No one was on bikes, and no one was wearing a cut. No neighbors had come into the hallway to see us, and no one was in the parking lot. No one had called the cops, either. Everyone minds their own business in this part of town.