She hummed her agreement or comfort; he wasn’t sure which. With her body curled up into his, he wrapped himself around her as much as he could. It was only a couple of minutes later, and her breaths evened out. Her body going completely slack with exhaustion.
As soon as he was sure she was in a deep sleep, he grabbed his phone, needing to find out as much as he could about this Marcus character. Lucky for him, while he was laid up after his injuries, he discovered he had a gift for hacking and tracking digital trails. Even from his phone.
Doing a quick google search, Case found that Marcus had begun peddling drugs when he was just twelve years old for one of the worst gangs in Maryland, the Paxton Crew, who dealt mostly in prostitution and selling drugs to school kids. By the time he was eighteen, he had one murder under his belt that was never proven so he didn’t served time for it and a rap sheet longer than he could fathom.
Discovering that at twenty-five, Marcus had taken over the entire gang after the old leader had mysteriously disappeared wasn’t shocking at this point. Done with Google and needing more detailed and personal info, he went to the Baltimore Metro headquarters site. After spending ten minutes hacking in and covering his tracks, he was able to find out that Marcus had over two hundred known members of his gang with just about as many prostitutes. Some he noted were willing but most were forced as payment for drugs they or someone else couldn’t afford.
Seeing the bruised and battered females this scum had beaten into submission had his stomach twisting in anguish for them. He’d turned what were once young and vibrant women into strung out junkies. With his ire rising, Case kept reading, needing to know the most recent information. The more he uncovered, the worse it seemed to get, and he had a suspicion that the other man might have started dabbling in human trafficking.
“Fuck,” he cursed when he saw Ev’s sister’s name pop up in association with him. It was about her first arrest for prostitution just over a year ago. Not long before Ev found her. Clicking on the link for the social worker’s file on Lacey, he read a tale of woe from the government employee. Knocked up and abandoned, she turned to drugs to cope which soon led her into debt, and ultimately, put her in the position of belonging to Marcus.
Pictures showed what happened to her when she tried to leave nearly eight months ago. He had to find out when Marcus had started showing up around Ev’s apartment. He had a feeling the scumbag might have been trying to sell her.
As he was reading more into Lacey’s file, his phone began to ring silently, Dom’s name lighting up the display.
“Yeah,” he answered quietly.
“She alright?” he asked.
Looking at the woman sleeping peacefully in his lap, he ran his fingers along her delicate neck, marveling at her beauty. “Not even close, but she’ll get there.”
“Fuck, she need anything?” he asked.
“I need to find her sister and nephew. Did Dee see them at Mommy and Me today?” He knew she would worry if she didn’t know they were safe.
“Hang on, I’ll ask her.” Dom must have muffled the phone because Case could hear them mumbling. “Hey, yeah, that’s why she was so pissed today. Lacey was bitching about Evelyn stealing her man, so she packed up and left, knowing not seeing Andy would hurt her.” Anger colored his words.
“Fucking cunt.” Casey was fuming with anger that she would be so fucking selfish.
“Dee also said that she was talking about getting clean. There was a facility that would take her and Andy. You hear of anything like that?” Dom asked him.
“No, I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there. Could be an underground thing.” Pondering the idea, he wondered if it could be like a version of the battered woman’s line. An initiative set up to keep children with their parents while they got clean.
“I’ll see if Ace can find anything on her since his ass seems to be bored as hell,” Dom suggested.
Knowing he needed to apologize for what he’d done that morning, Case said to him, “Look, about this morning– “
Dom interrupted, “Don’t even, man. I’d have done the same thing, and you know it. I’m just glad you’ve got her safe now.” He was thankful his friend understood some of his pain.
“Just don’t fuck it up!” he heard Dee yell in the background.
“Tell her I won’t. This woman is my fucking everything,” he told his buddy. “She’s my person.” He whispered the last part more to himself than anything.
A mixture of beeping, clicking, and grunting woke Evelyn from the best sleep she’d had in… forever. She felt at home for the first time in her life. Falling asleep on Casey’s chest while listening to the steady powerful beat of his heart lulled her into a deep dreamless state.
She didn’t know how long she’d crashed for, but the growl of her stomach and the dryness in her mouth suggested it might have been for a while. Stretching as she stood up, her back po
pped from being prone for so long. A quick look around showed that Casey wasn’t in the room and that the sun had begun to rise if the orange and yellow glow through the window was any indication.
She didn’t remember much of when Case brought her inside, so she had to feel her way out of the room and down the hall until she found what she was looking for. After three failed door openings, she finally found the bathroom just as Casey rounded the corner from wherever he had been, standing on a pair of crutches rather than wearing his prosthesis.
“Hey, Kitten.” He smiled softly at her, a shiver of awareness slipped through her body making her break out in goosebumps. He, of course, noticed her response and smirked at her inability to hide her reaction to his body.
“How long was I out for?” she whispered, not wanting to break whatever moment they seemed to be having.
“Just about twenty hours.”
“Holy shit,” she murmured.