Chapter Ten
Several days later Henry was standing with Caleb inside Elijah’s warehouse as they talked out distribution. The latest batch of coke had had several customers collapsing and being sent to the hospital.
“It must be something wrong with the batch,” Elijah said, looking over the police reports their friend on the inside had given. There had to be some confusion as the women who collapsed showed signs of a date rape drug being present, too.
“This is your shit that you assured us was above board. I’ve got other suppliers who don’t have their clients in the hospital or with elements of a date-rape drug. Anymore of this shit and I’ll be investigated by the police,” Caleb said.
“What about Richard?” Henry asked. He still didn’t like the seedy little bastard.
“He flirted with your woman, Henry. That’s all. Leave him be.”
“No, it’s got nothing to do with that.” Henry looked at Elijah. “We’ve been buying shit from you for months. All of a sudden we employ a guy, and we’ve got women, not men, women passing out in the club.” The more Henry thought about it, the more it made sense. “What if it’s not the coke?”
“What do you mean?”
Taking the file from Elijah, he flicked over the women. “They’re pretty girls but not striking. We looked over this. What if he’s giving them the rape drug as well as the coke? It’s one woman a night, not many. I can tell you there’s been a shitload of deals going in the club, and the whores have been snorting the shit out of it as well. Surely it has to be down to something else.”
There was a reason he didn’t like Richard, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.
Caleb looked unconvinced while Elijah took the file back to read through.
“There’s no sign of them ODing, only them being passed out. The date-rape drug is detected. She passed out and was unresponsive. The drug keeps women conscious without the ability to do anything. We passed them off into the ambulance without thought. What if he’s done this before and we didn’t know about it?” Henry asked.
“Fuck,” Caleb said. “It all fits.”
“What you’ve got to ask yourself is how many girls weren’t packed away in an ambulance?”
Henry didn’t like the way this was going. “Where’s Richard now?”
Caleb glanced down at his watch. “He’s in the club getting ready for tonight.”
Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Barry, who was one of the men who dealt with security and who they trusted. When they noticed the women passing out they’d asked for Barry to check security.
“Hello, boss,” Barry said.
“What do you have?” Henry asked. For once he’d love for their job to be easy. He didn’t like how one of their staff had been taking advantage. This was his world, and he took care of it.
“It’s not good. I recognized three women on camera who’d passed out. It was busy on a Friday night so I didn’t get to them. On the camera it shows Richard carrying them out looking like he’s helping them. I’ve just visited one of the women who was taken. She’s not been back to the club since.” Henry stared at his friend, knowing he wasn’t going to like it. “She was raped by Richard and threatened if she ever said anything he’d slit her throat. He worked for Drake, Henry. We fucking missed it. His references were all clean.”
Cursing, Henry rubbed at his eyes. “Make sure she’s compensated and let her know the bastard will never hurt her again.”
Hanging up the cell phone, he conveyed the information to Caleb.
“We’re going to the club,” Elijah said. “I deal drugs for the high not to abuse women. I want this bastard taken care of. I’ve got a fifteen year old daughter. I’m not having a monster on the streets.”
Henry hadn’t known Elijah had a daughter.
“To some you’d be considered the monster,” Caleb said.
“Don’t care. I’m a monster with morals. I don’t fuck with people who can’t fuck back.”
Leaving the warehouse, Elijah’s bodyguards followed behind him. They travelled in Henry’s car with Caleb sitting beside him and Elijah in the back.
“So, when is the big day?” Elijah asked.
He’d called Caleb up the following day after he proposed to Lydia to let him know he was going to marry her.
“We’ve not set a date,” Henry said.
“Never thought I’d see the day that the deadly duet was married and settling down.”
“Try it, Elijah. I wouldn’t change Donna for anything.”
“Married life is not for me. I’m happy with what I’ve got. I don’t need a woman bitching at me.”
“You’ve got a daughter. Shouldn’t she have a mother?” Henry asked.
“My daughter is taken care of. Her mother is a first class bitch. Believe me, she doesn’t need a mother. I’ve got a nanny taking care of her.” Elijah sat back, flicking through his phone.
They made their way across town toward Ecstasy.
Lydia was spending the day at the spa. Henry told her he was going to be at the club for most of the day and he’d see her later that evening. Henry was going to do more work on the painting while she cooked. She made him a better man, and he knew he was in love with her. From the first moment he saw her, he’d been caught in her dark brown gaze. He had been jealous of Darren who got to touch her when he couldn’t.
She was his, and Henry didn’t intend to lose her.
Entering the club, he heard a feminine whimper. He recognized that whimper. In the doorway he saw Arnold was on the floor with blood spilling from his side. The man was struggling to move, but no one was paying any attention to him.
“Let me go!” Lydia screamed.
The unmistakable sound of flesh hitting flesh tightened his gut.
“Shut your fucking mouth.”
Caleb and Elijah were at his back.
“Is that Lydia?” Caleb asked, whispering the words.
He didn’t say anything. Slowly, he entered the main part of the club. Richard was counting out money as Leon stood beside him. Bill grabbed Lydia by the hair and dragged her to her knees. The dress she wore was torn from her shoulders showing off the yellow lace underwear he bought her.
Anger consumed him as he took in the sight. The three men were standing there as if they owned this club. Pulling his gun from his hand, he clicked the safety off, drawing their attention to them. Elijah and Caleb also had a piece.
Lydia saw him. Tears fell from her eyes, but she looked so happy and relieved to see him.
“Henry,” she said, trying to crawl to him.
“No, bitch.” Bill yanked on her hair pulling a scream from her lips. It took every ounce of control for him not to simply fire at the bastard. They needed to know these three were the last men to deal with.
“What are you doing here, baby?” Henry asked.
“I wanted to come and see you. I brought you lunch, but those bastards ate it and shot Arnold. I had distracted him with a joke, and they pounced on him before he could do anything.” She screamed as Bill pulled her to her feet, pressing a knife against her throat.
Pissed, he focused his gaze on Bill.
“She’s not just a random whore,” Bill said.
“You were working for Drake,” Caleb said, interrupting everyone.
“Yeah, he got a kick out of the fact you gave me a job. He thought it was fucking hilarious,” Richard said.
“Raping the women was just for kicks?” Elijah asked.
“It was easy and fun. I always like my women submissive.” Richard pocketed the money.
“So we killed Drake leaving you three shit-heads to take his place.”
“No one was watching, and there’s more than enough room for all of us. We’re not a problem,” Leon said.
There was no way these men could take on the task of running a business. There wasn’t even a brain cell among the three of them and Elijah said as much.
“You’re all that’s left?” Henry asked. He didn’t look away from his woman, who had a knife pressed to her throat.
There was no way he’d live without her. He loved her with all of his heart, and the bastard holding her was going to die.
“We don’t need bodyguards,” Richard said, showing the fucker was dumb.
“Rule one, never give away how many people there are,” Caleb said.
“Huh?”
“Lydia, baby.”
“Yes?”
“Remember what I promised you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s going to happen now. Close your eyes if you don’t want to see it.” He fired his gun as Caleb and Elijah took out the other two.
Bill released Lydia, and she scrambled away from his hold. Henry advanced on the man, aiming his gun at Bill’s head.
“What?” Bill asked, grasping his shoulder.
Henry hadn’t had a clear aim while the bastard was hiding behind his woman. He had a clear shot now. Aiming his gun, he heard the other two men finish off Leon and Richard.
“You had no chance of winning. You touched my woman, hurt her, and now you’re dead.” He fired the bullet into Bill’s head.
Dropping his weapon to the floor he turned in time to have Lydia in his arms.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here.” He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her. He was shocked to see his own hands were shaking.
“I love you, Henry.”
Her admission completely undid him.
****
Lydia sobbed against Henry’s chest, telling him the truth of her feelings. “I love you so much.”
“I’ve got you.”
She pulled away to stare into his eyes. When she walked into the club to see Leon and Bill she’d not had the time to run away. They’d caught her before she got a chance to do anything. Throughout it all she knew Henry would come for her and she’d not been wrong.
He cupped her cheeks. “I love you, too, baby.” He pressed his lips to hers, stroking his tongue inside her mouth.
Melting against him, she accepted his kiss. She made sure not to look at the evidence of the dead bodies.
Pulling away from the kiss, she kept her eyes closed against his chest.
“I’m going to get her out of here.”
“Yeah, please, I don’t want your lovey-dovey attitude to rub off,” Elijah said.
“I’m sorry for treating you like shit,” Caleb said.
She opened her eyes to see Henry’s friend standing close. “It’s okay. I know you were only taking care of him.”
Running her hand over Henry’s chest, she looked up at him smiling.
“What about me?” Arnold asked, groaning.
Henry kept her head locked to his chest.
“Go, we’ll deal with him.” This came from Caleb once again.
Henry held her as they made their way outside toward his car. Climbing inside the car, Henry took his seat beside her.
“Are you angry at me?” she asked as he drove toward their apartment.
“Why would I be angry at you?”
“I don’t know.”
Henry grabbed her hand. “I’m not angry at you. You didn’t know they were there. I got you out of there because I don’t want you to remember shit like that. I love you, baby. I promised to take care of you, and I failed.”
“You didn’t fail. How could you have known I was going to bring you lunch?” she asked, resting her head against the chair. Should she be freaking out over the fact she just witnessed three men get killed? When she thought about Bill lying dead, she was happy about it. “What did Richard do?” she asked. She’d been surprised to see the barman taking pills and cash from Leon. None of it made sense, and she told Henry what she’d seen.
He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “He was using the club to find girls he could rape.”
She gasped. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. We just found out when we were talking with Elijah.”
Lydia was pleased Richard was dead. They were three monsters.
Looking outside, she wondered if she would have been one of the women if it hadn’t been for Henry.
Frowning, she turned back to him. “You love me?”
“You’re only just hearing that now?” he asked, glancing at her.
“You said it though. You love me?”
“I do love you, baby.” He squeezed her hand, bringing it up to his lips and laying a kiss on it.
Henry pulled up outside of the apartment. He removed his jacket and rounded the car toward her. Before she could protest he placed the jacket over her, covering her up.
Together they made their way up to his apartment. No one stopped them on their way. She snuggled against him, happy. He was in love with her, and she couldn’t find fault with the world.
Once inside their apartment, he led the way down to the shower. Without saying a word, Henry removed his clothing then hers before tugging her into the small stall.
He wrapped his arm around her, holding her close.
“I’m completely in love with you, Lydia, and I’m not going to let anything else happen to you.” He sank his fingers into her hair, making her breath catch. She didn’t know how he did it, only that she never wanted him to stop.
“I love you, too.” She ran her hands up his chest going on her toes. He gave her what she wanted. Moaning, she kissed him back.
The shower took over an hour as Henry showed her with his body rather than words how much he loved her. She’d never been fucked in the shower before, but Henry let her know what she was missing.
Afterward, he carried her to bed where she demanded he get an update on how Arnold was doing. She lay naked while he finished up the call. Running her hands over his back, she listened to him talk.
“Okay.” Henry hung up the phone.
“Well, is everything okay?” she asked, concerned.
“Arnold is fine. He had to go to surgery to repair the damage the bullet made. In a couple of days he can go home. Caleb and Elijah dealt with the other three. It turns out Elijah’s got some contacts that can dispose of dead bodies without a trace.” He cupped her cheek. “Are you sure you can handle this?”
“I want you, Henry, all part of you.” She kissed his hand. “I want to be your wife and give you children.”
“Good, because there’s no other woman I want more than you.”