CHAPTER NINETEEN
Seth
When I saw Cat in the line of girls waiting to be purchased, my entire world stopped. When I saw the man rub his hand on her beautiful face and grab her number, I thought I was going to explode. When I barged into the room where he’d dragged her, and she was stripped of her underwear, his hands on my girl—my pussy, I thought I was going to turn into the Hulk and rip him to fucking shreds. But seeing a gun to her head was far worse. Sure, I’d been in hostage situations before, but not when it was the woman I wanted to marry. The one I loved more than my next breath.
My heart raced, my blood rushed through my veins, and I started to shake out of anger. I couldn’t pull the trigger. What if I missed and then Tony pulled his trigger? What if I hit Cat and killed her? I couldn’t let that happen, and I couldn’t let Tony take her from me either.
“If you don’t let her go, I will blow your fucking head off!”
Tony smirked. I knew he was about to pull his trigger. What sick bastard wouldn’t? But then, in my peripheral vision, I saw Bryce moving slowly toward him. Was he going to shoot me? Was he going to shoot Cat?
The familiar pop came from a gun, blood splattered everywhere, hitting me in the face, and Cat screamed. I rushed to her, ready to pull her from Tony and then shove my gun between his eyes and pull my fucking trigger—end this motherfucker once and for all. Before I could get to her, there was another pop of a gun, and I watched as Cat went flying toward the couch. I moved that way, knowing that I needed to stop any bleeding to try and save her.
“This is for my sister!” Bryce roared.
Pop.
“This is for my mother!”
Pop.
“And this is for me!”
Pop.
My body covered Cat’s as I looked over to see Bryce standing above his father, a gun pointed at Tony’s head—or what was left of it. Tony and the man who had bought Cat lay on the floor, bleeding and not moving.
Paul rushed to me. “Is she hit? Are you hit? Where the fuck is Joss?”
I pulled back from Cat and scanned her body. The only blood I could see were dots from the residual red spatter. “Were you hit, baby?”
Her chocolate eyes that were fresh with tears looked up at me. She shook her head then buried her head in the crook of my arm.
“Are you hit?” I asked Paul.
“Nah, Bryce did all the shooting.”
The cavalry moved in, handcuffing Bryce, and then Joss was at my side. “What happened?”
“Get me a blanket or something to cover Cat up,” I ordered. I wasn’t going to tell Joss anything with Cat half-naked in my arms and a swarm of men piling into the small room.
She snapped her fingers, and I assumed that meant she told someone to get us a blanket. Bryce passed us as he was being escorted out. Joss stood and wrapped her arms around her brother and whispered in his ear. I couldn’t hear what she’d said, but he nodded and then he was gone.
Before Joss could ask me again what had happened, I asked, “What took you so long?” The moment I’d turned around and realized Cat was missing, I’d told Joss it was go time, and then I was running after her in the direction the man who bought her went. I went on my hunch that it was through the open door, and thankfully, I was right.
“Did you see all those pimps? It took us a few minutes to get them all in cuffs. They’re still working on it now.”
I nodded, still holding Cat tight against me.
“Are you okay, Cat?” Joss asked, and reached out to rub her hand on Cat’s head. Cat nodded, not saying a word.
“She was almost raped and shot, Jossie. Give her some time.”
“Okay.” Joss stood and reached for a blanket that someone had handed her. She handed it to me, and I wrapped it around Cat. “Are you okay? What about you, PJ?”
“I’m fine,” I muttered and held Cat closer to me.
Paul grabbed Joss’s face and stared into her eyes. “This ain’t nothing compared to what I’ve seen, gorgeous. The question is, are you okay? This is the man—”
“I know,” Joss cut him off. “If he was breathing, it would be a different story. I’m just not looking at him.”
“I’m gonna get you out of here. Okay, Kitty Cat?”
She nodded, and then I scooped her up in my arms and far away from the two dead bodies.
“I’m gonna get you in the shower and wash the blood off of you, okay?”
Cat nodded. I knew she was broken, who wouldn’t be after being sold and almost raped and then almost killed, but I longed to hear her voice again. I wanted her to tell me she was okay because her actions said she wasn’t. I knew that actions spoke louder than words, but if she’d at least speak, then it would make me feel better because I’d know we were on the right track.
After turning on the water and getting it the correct temperature, I discarded my suit, the blanket, and Cat’s bra, tossing everything into a heap on the floor. Physically, Cat looked okay besides a few light bruises on her arm and around her neck. Mentally, I knew she was replaying everything over and over in her head.
It had been a long night. After a paramedic examined Cat, I brought her back to Joss’s. I had a lot of shit to do that involved the case, but my only priority was getting Cat out of there. She hadn’t uttered a word as a patrolman drove us to Paul and Joss’s house. The entire time I held her in my arms. When the cop pulled into the driveway, Paul rushed to unlock the door and I carried Cat into the house and to the guest shower. Paul didn’t question me. He was there when I told Tony Cat was mine and I was going to take care of her.
“Wanna talk about it?” I asked while I made sure the water was still the perfect temperature.
She shook her head.
“Okay. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I reached out my hand and guided her into the shower. As I washed her body, I spoke, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t drive you to the airport. If I had—”
Cat turned in my arms and placed her hand over my mouth. “It’s not your fault.”
A lump formed in my throat as the adrenaline of everything was settling down. “It is my fault.”
“No. Neither one of us knew that cab driver was working for Tony. I’m just lucky it was your case.”
A tear slid down my cheek. “What if it wasn’t? What if you were still—what if you were out on the street right now? Over three-thousand women are kidnapped and put into sex trafficking every day. That was you.”
Her wet body pressed against mine, and she wrapped her arms around my middle, resting her cheek on my chest. “Was me. I’m safe now.”
I chuckled slightly. Cat had just gone through a whole ordeal, and now she was the one consoling me when it should have been the other way around. “I can’t lose you again, Kitty Cat.”
She tilted her head up, and I looked down into her eyes noticing that she too was tearing up. “You won’t.”
“My job is dangerous.”
“It is, and I should be the one to worry about you, not the other way around.”
“Yeah, but my job put you in danger.”
Cat shook her head. “No, it didn’t. Stop beating yourself up.”
I sighed. “I just can’t grasp the thought of you being in danger or you not in my life anymore.”
A smile split her lips. “You have me naked in the shower, and you think you’re going to lose me?”
“I better not.” I pressed my lips to hers finally. I didn’t know how her spirits would be after tonight, but for her to crack a smile, I knew we’d eventually get passed this.
Cat squeezed me again, and after we’d held each other for some time, I stepped back and said, “Let’s get cleaned up and get you in bed.”
Since Cat had no clothes, I gave her a black T-shirt of mine that hung just above her knees and a pair of plaid boxers. She was beautiful and I wanted to do nothing more than make love to her, except now wasn’t the time. After crawling into bed, I pulled back the corner of the comforter and motioned for her to get in. She did, and I wrapped my arms around her, her back to my front, and held her. I’d thought she had fallen asleep, and I was about to get up to wait for Joss to discuss things, but Cat spoke.
“When I close my eyes, I see Tony.”
My body went tight. “What did he do to you?”
“Nothing physically, but he’s the only one I saw that was involved in everything I went through tonight.”
“You don’t know what the guy looks like that bought you?”
“No,” she whispered.
“That’s a good thing, Kitty Cat.”
“I know. That’s why I did it, but I still see Tony.”
“Tony’s no longer breathing, baby. He ain’t gonna hurt you or Joss again.”
We were silent again, and I knew by the way she was breathing that Cat wasn’t falling asleep.
“I have an Ambien. You want to take it?”
She nodded.
“I’ll be back.”
After I ran down the stairs to grab a glass of water, I went back up and grabbed a pill from the bottle. I had a prescription because there were nights I couldn’t sleep because of what I saw in my line of work. Tonight would be one of those nights, too. I’d replay everything over and over and over again. I’d think about how things could have gone wrong. How Cat could be the one dead and not Tony and some pimp.
And I’d think about how, if it were any other trafficker, that Cat would still be missing.
“How is she?” Joss asked, walking into the kitchen with Paul.
I looked to the stairs that led to Joss’s bedrooms and where Cat was currently sleeping. “Gave her an Ambien and that put her to sleep.”
They sat in front of me at the kitchen table where I was nursing a glass full of tequila on the rocks. After the night we had, they were lucky I was sharing the bottle and not drinking straight from it.
“Thank you.”
I looked up at Joss. “What?”
“If it wasn’t for both of you, I don’t think we would have—”
“We didn’t,” I corrected. “Your brother did.”
She swallowed. “I know. But if you weren’t there—”
“If I weren’t here, Cat would never have been kidnapped,” I snapped.
Joss blinked. “Why are you blaming yourself?”
I huffed and looked up at the stark white ceiling, shaking my head. I’d blame myself until the day I died because it was me who watched her drive off in that yellow cab. “I put her in the taxi.”
“I thought—”
I righted my head. “We were going to tell you together. Tell you when all of this was over and we’d figured out how to be together.”
“Together?”
I took a deep breath. “I’ve loved her all my life.”
Paul nodded as though I’d confirmed what he already knew. He was probably dying to ask me. He struck me as that kind of guy who liked to be all up in everyone’s business.
“Yeah? I love her too,” Joss said.
Paul poured him and Joss a shot of the tequila.
“No,” I shook my head. “I’m in love with her. Have been since we were kids.”
Joss stared at me for a beat. “In love with her?”
I took a sip of the Patrón, and it burned as it slid down my belly. “Cat and I have a lot of history together.”
“History—together?”
“When Cat came to visit us the summer after she graduated high school, she and I started …” I paused trying to come up with the words of what we were back then. “After that trip, I thought we’d do the long distance thing for a year while she went to school, and then I’d convince her to move to D.C.”
“But that didn’t happen.”
I took another sip of the tequila and shook my head. “Nope, because a few weeks later she came back to surprise me and saw me on a date.”
“Seth!” Joss shouted while Paul muttered, “Shit.”
“Shh,” I scolded. “Don’t fucking wake her up.”
Joss leaned in and whispered, “You were playin’ my best friend?”
“No,” I hissed. “I was doing what I needed to do to keep Gibbs from coming clean about me bringing you in the cruiser when you showed up at my precinct.”
“What do you mean?”
“Gibbs made me go on a date with his sister. It was just a one-time thing. Except Cat walked in and thought I was cheating on her—”
“That sucks, dude.” Paul threw back the agave goodness.
“That’s why we never saw her again?” Joss asked.
“She wouldn’t let me explain. Never spoke to me again until the night of your wedding.”
“Wait.” Paul looked at his wife. “Didn’t you tell me that she used to visit you guys in D.C.? In fact, I think you said she’d specifically visit Seth.”
Joss bit her bottom lip. “That day when we went hiking, I was trying to open up to you. I wanted to open up to you because what I was feeling for you was real even though Andi wasn’t. But I didn’t want you to know the real me. The me who shut everyone out because of what happened to me on my seventeenth birthday.”
“You didn’t shut Seth out,” Paul corrected.
“Because I was living with him for a long time. You should know how hard it is to ignore a roommate.”
Paul smirked. “Especially those I run into naked in the hall.”
“Whoa!” I threw up my hands. “This conversation is going south fast.”
They chuckled.
After a few beats, Joss asked, “How did you get Cat in a taxi here if she has a boyfriend?”
I chuckled. “He ain’t her boyfriend. Nathan’s her gay friend that she made come with her because she thought I’d be with someone.”
“I knew there was something going on there. They didn’t even touch in the limo on the way to Mark’s.”
“Good,” I stated. I didn’t give a flying fuck if he was gay or not. No man was touching her again.
We sat around the table, all of us drinking the tequila when I finally asked, “So, Bryce?”
Joss turned to Paul, and he raised his hands. “I know. That’s my cue to leave. Just don’t be long, I’ll be naked and—”
“Paul!” I snapped. “I know you two are in the honeymoon phase, but if I hear you fucking, I will shoot you.”
He smirked. “Hearing someone fucking in the next room is a turn on, bro. Gabe and Autumn used to go at it like fucking—”
Joss shooed him away. “I don’t need a visual about our friends, PJ.” He went upstairs muttering to himself. “We can make this fast,” Joss stated to me. “You’ll be briefed tomorrow at headquarters.”
I nodded.
“Long story short, everyone was arrested. Tony and that Reggie guy are dead, and Bryce was booked for a double homicide.”
“Fuck,” I breathed. Yes, Bryce had killed Tony and the pimp who had bought Cat, but he saved her life. Probably saved mine and Paul’s too.
“Charges won’t stick.”
My eyes darted to hers. “It won’t?”
“Somehow the feed of him pulling the trigger got interrupted, and it just shows Tony with a gun to Cat’s head and then you rushing over to her.”
“Interrupted how?”
She shrugged as though she had no idea, but by the smirk on her face, I knew she’d made that happen. “Even his prints were wiped.”
I snorted. “So what will happen to Bryce?”
“Well, since he was our informant on the case, he’ll either get probation or one to five for soliciting prostitution.”
The FBI had authorized informants to break the law over twenty-two thousand times in a four-year stretch a few years back. I didn’t know if that meant murders or what, but given that Joss was in on the case, I was sure she had pull of what would happen to Bryce.
“Why did he kill Tony?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” she sighed. “I wasn’t able to talk to him, and probably won’t be able to because it’s a conflict.”
“You really doing okay after all of this?”
Joss nodded. “If it weren’t for Paul, my answer would be no. But having him with me and loving me, makes me feel protected. Crazy as it sounds, I feel safer now with him than I ever did with my training.”
I sighed. “I hope that’s the same for Cat with me.”
“Are you going to move to Florida? Is she going to move to D.C.?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but it will be a long fucking time until I’m ready to have her out of my sight.”