Wild Aces (29 page)

“I don’t care.”

“If I got caught, I would go to jail for a long fucking time. If you got caught here or if they thought you were associated in any way, you’d be in a hell of a lot of trouble, too.”

“I don’t want to get in trouble, and I don’t want to go to jail, but you’re giving these kids a chance at life, and I support that. I support you. And I want to be a part of all of it.”

Before I could say another word, his lips were on mine.

Trapper

When Adrianna gave me a heads-up that Jameson was in the transaction room, I took Brea around the back of the building and toward the private entrance.

We’d been hanging out in the kitchen for the last hour since she refused to go to the playroom. I didn’t blame her; it was a hard thing to see once you knew what had happened to the imports. But that wasn’t her reasoning. She’d said she didn’t want to hurt them, and it made me real happy to hear that. She got it all—the information I had thrown at her and my role in it. Bringing her here was the right thing to do. She didn’t judge me, didn’t act scared, or didn’t shy away. She handled it better than I could have hoped for.

And once she learned it all, she wanted to kiss me. Didn’t I want to give her more of my fucking tongue, too, and take her into my office in the back, strip off her clothes, and eat my way across her body to make up for the days she’d wanted space. But we only had an hour, and that wasn’t nearly enough time.

When we got to the back door, I punched in my code and opened it for her.

“All the doors require codes?” she asked.

“Yeah, and all the entrances have double doors and different codes for each to add more protection. Windows minimize the level of security, so we didn’t add many.”

“You thought of everything.”

“We had to.” We approached the second door, and I typed in my code. “I’d been thinking about the compound for years before I had it built. Then Adrianna added in everything she knew from all her years of experience. It took a while, and we had to be careful.”

This part of the building was a little larger than a family room. Jameson and his wife were sitting at the table with Adrianna. On the other side of the room, near the couch and toy box, Adrianna’s assistant was playing on the floor with the import.

Brea pointed toward the floor. “Oh my God, it’s him.”

“You saw the bad that night. Now, I want you to see the good.”

When I found out Jameson was adopting the import we had picked up from that junkie’s apartment, I wanted Brea there to witness it. It would give her closure and hopefully confirm that something special happened because of it.

“Trapper, my man,” Jameson said as we got closer to the table. We shook hands and slapped each other’s shoulders as we hugged. “This is my wife, Rachel.”

I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Rachel.”

She smiled. I knew the look so well. It was the same one all the women wore whenever they were in here—emotional, even a little shy, with quick glances to the other side of the room, looking at the import who she would soon be calling her child. It was a lot to take in.

“Jameson, Rachel, I want you to meet Brea,” I said as she shook hands with the both of them.

“It’s a pleasure, Brea,” Jameson said.

Brea smiled and nodded at them both.

“They’ve signed all the paperwork,” Adrianna said, causing everyone to look at her. “Funds have been processed. Now, it’s time.”

“Time…to?” Jameson asked.

“Meet him,” I said, pulling Brea closer to the wall so that she could get a better view.

Adrianna moved to the other side of me. “Go ahead over there.”

Jameson grabbed his wife’s hand. “You ready, baby?”

Her chest was rising and falling so damn fast. “I think so. He’s so beautiful, Jameson.”

They both looked toward the other side of the room. Every time one of the blocks dropped from his stack, the import would laugh and shake his butt on the carpet.

“He’s ours,” Jameson said. “He’s what we’ve always wanted.”

She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. “I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe, after the doctor told us no so many times, that we’re here now and that we’re finally getting our baby.”

Jameson looked over at me, his eyes thanking me.

“Go meet your son,” I said.

Brea squeezed my hand as they walked to the other side of the room. They both got on their hands and knees. Rachel lifted one of the blocks and handed it to him. He laughed, and she did it again. Jameson took the blocks and helped him build a tower, which he knocked over, and then Jameson built it right back up. He was bonding with his son already. Rachel was rubbing his head and kissing the top of it.

Adrianna gave a signal to her assistant, and she got up, leaving the three of them alone on the rug.

“I can’t believe I’m getting the chance to see this,” Brea said.

“I still feel that way after all these years,” Adrianna said. “Look at them. Look at how happy those new parents are.”

“Look at how happy
he
is,” I said.

That was what I saw every time—not the parents, but the import. He was too young to know what was really happening, but I wasn’t, and I was appreciating it enough for the both of us. All the risks, all the illegal operations, were worth it once I saw his smiling face.

Brea leaned into my side, and I wrapped my arm around her.

“I want to work here, Trapper.”

“Do you know what you’re saying?” I asked. “Do you know how much trouble you could get in if we got caught? I’m not doing that to you.”

She looked up at me. “If I can help make these kids’ lives better, I need to be a part of it. Especially after what I saw at that apartment…”

She shivered, and I pulled her closer.

“Are you absolutely sure about this?”

She didn’t even hesitate. “Yes, I am. Can you find a place for me? Even if it’s something small and not with the kids, just paperwork or filing or something, I want to help in some way.”

I gave her a half-smile. I didn’t want to put her in danger; the thought worried me like hell. But the look in her eyes was the same one Adrianna, her assistant, and everyone else who worked here wore. I understood it real well.

“I’m sure we can find you something.”

“Good.” Both of her arms were around me, hugging me like there was no way she’d ever let go. “Now, I think it’s time for you to take us home.”

Brea

Trapper and I jumped onto my bed, naked and breathless from sexing our way through every room in my townhouse.

The anger, the confusion, the tension that had been eating at me for days were gone. In its place was the most intense, fulfilling emotion. I felt like I finally knew who he was, what drove him, what pleased him, what hurt him, and what hadn’t weakened him.

For everything he had gone through, Trapper wasn’t weak. He wasn’t frail, and he wasn’t soft. He was masculine and delicious, strong and powerful. He was sexy as hell. But he had a sensitivity that his hardness wouldn’t allow through unless it was absolutely necessary. I imagined he didn’t reveal it to many people, and he had to really trust them first. It made me feel honored that he trusted me.

And it made me want to fuck him even more.

I rubbed my fingers over his stomach, past the deep grooves of his abs that were still hot and slick with sweat. “There’s something you didn’t tell me today.”

“What’s that?”

I rolled onto my side, so I could face him, and I continued running my fingers over his stomach. “Who adopted you?”

He took a long deep breath. “I was twelve when they pulled me out of the foster home I’d only been living at for a few weeks. The place wasn’t all that bad—a few punches to the gut, but nothing too serious.”

It broke my heart to hear that being punched wasn’t all that bad to a twelve-year-old.

“I was sent back to the group home and was only there for a day before a lady stopped by and wanted to adopt me.” He rolled onto his side, and my hand moved to his neck. “I’d met her a few weeks before at a bus stop. She’d handed me a wad of cash. She felt bad for me…I wasn’t looking so good that night. I’d been beaten pretty badly at a different home I was in. Jesus, I lived in so many places…”

When he hesitated, I gave him my lips, just a small peck so that he knew how much I cared.

“There was something about that lady’s face that made me feel comfortable about her adopting me. I’d seen her not too long before, and she’d been so nice to me.”

“Was she looking for you and found you at the group home?”

“Nah. I think seeing me made Vera realize she wanted to help a kid who needed it, and I just happened to be at the group home that day. Anyway, she waitressed at Aced, the poker club I play at, and brought me there to bus tables. Roman, the owner, took a real liking to me and taught me everything I know about cards. That’s how I started playing.”

“Vera’s still in your life?”

“Oh, yeah. The people I’ve let in, I never let out. Not to scare you, but it’s true. Adrianna, Roman, Vera—none of them are going anywhere. I guess I’m just like those imports in the playroom. You give me a little attention, and I never let you go.”

“So, are you telling me that one of your exes—assuming you have one—is going to show up in your bedroom and pull me out by my hair someday?” I teased.

“Fuck no. My ex isn’t allowed anywhere near my bed. Or my house. Or you.”

I smiled. “So, you can let go of people then.”

“Just the ones who don’t deserve to stay.”

“Then you’re different from those kids. You hold on to what matters, like Roman and Vera and Adrianna, and you let go of the rest.”

He leaned forward and kissed me. It was soft but so sensual. “I guess you’re right.”

We inched up higher to the top of the bed, resting our heads on the pillows and covering ourselves with the blanket.

Several minutes of silence passed before he asked me what I was thinking about.

“Honestly,” I told him, “I want to know…what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen.”

“You really want to hear it?”

I turned my head and looked him in the eyes. “Yeah, I think I have to hear it.”

“I saw a kid get raped.”

A knot lodged in my throat.

“A boy, same age as me at the time. His dad was behind him, holding the back of his head so that he couldn’t move. The kid didn’t scream. Didn’t cry. Didn’t even fight to get his dad off him. When it was all done, the dad went back to bed, and the kid fell asleep. We shared a room, and in the morning, I saw blood on his sheets.”

I was crying without even realizing it. “Oh God, that’s so awful.”

I’d learned so much about Trapper in just a day. It was hard to believe he had survived all he’d been through, everything he’d witnessed, and that he was even able to talk about it.

“I really hope that dad is in jail…or dead.”

“I don’t know where he is, but I know he won’t be doing that to anyone else.”

I sat up, resting my chin on my palm and putting the weight on my elbow. “What did you do?”

He shrugged and stretched his legs out as he slowly came around to answering me, “I made sure the guy got into an unfortunate accident with a nail gun.”

“No!”

“I didn’t pull the trigger or anything…but I might have tied a string around it and made sure it would go off when a certain door was opened. And I might have pointed it in a certain direction, so it would hit him right in the balls…at least four or five times.”

“Wow. You really are a hero.”

“No,” he said. “A hero would have grabbed the guy by the neck while he was raping his son, pulled him off, and made sure he never did it again.”

“You were just a kid, Trapper.”

“I was a witness. I knew what was happening, and my age isn’t an excuse.” Even with all he’d done to help those other kids, he still had so much guilt. “I was too scared he would kill me or try to rape me,” he continued. “So, I did as much as I could at the time. I got revenge.”

“You’re still a hero to me, and I guarantee, if those kids you’ve saved at the compound knew what was going on, they’d absolutely agree.”

His thumb brushed my lip before moving on to my cheek. “What about you? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?”