Dirty Sexy Saint (Dirty Sexy 1)

When Clay didn’t respond right away, Mason frowned at him. “You’re not t

hinking about giving him the money, are you?” he asked incredulously.

“It’s not my first option, but he threatened Samantha,” Clay told them, his stomach knotting all over again at the other man’s intimidation tactics. “Said if he didn’t get the cash by the end of the week, he’d get fifty grand from Samantha on the black market.”

“Jesus,” Mason breathed in disgust. “The fucker is now into human trafficking?”

“That’s what he implied, and we all know what Wyatt is capable of,” Clay replied.

His brothers nodded their agreement, and Levi continued to listen to the conversation in that introspective way of his. Clay had no doubts Levi’s sharp mind was working to figure out a legitimate solution to their problem, and he hoped to hell that he came up with one soon.

“Bottom line, I can’t keep Samantha locked in my apartment forever to protect her. And if I don’t give Wyatt what he wants, and anything happened to Samantha because of me, it would kill me.” Just the thought of anyone hurting her made a sharp-as-a-knife pain stab through Clay’s heart.

“Nothing is going to happen to her.” Levi finally spoke up.

Clay had always been the caretaker in the family, the protector, and for the first time ever, he found himself looking to Levi for advice, hoping and praying that his youngest sibling would truly be able to find a way to put an end to this insanity.

“What do you have in mind?” Clay prompted.

“Let me run his name through the system and see what comes up,” Levi suggested. “I’m sure he has a rap sheet a mile long, which doesn’t do us any good, but there might be an outstanding warrant for his arrest. When he shows up again, we can take him into custody and charge him for blackmail and extortion, too.”

“So he can get another slap on the wrist and be out on the streets in a few weeks?” Mason scoffed.

Understanding flickered in Levi’s gaze. “I know it’s not ideal, but give me a day to see what I can come up with, and we’ll go from there.”

“I like my idea of feeding him to the sharks much better,” Mason muttered irritably.

Clay agreed that Levi’s scenario wasn’t the permanent solution that he’d been hoping for. Sooner or later, Wyatt would get out of jail and come after Clay. Or worse, Samantha.

He glanced at Levi. “I don’t care what happens to me, but while this is all going down, I need to know that Samantha is safe at all times.”

“Consider it done,” Levi said with a nod. “I’ll get a security detail on her ASAP.

“Thank you.” Other than making sure that he did everything in his power to protect Samantha, there was nothing else Clay could do. And he hated feeling so helpless when he preferred being a man of action. The gnawing worry for Samantha was something new, too. Something, he realized, he’d gone out of his way to avoid ever feeling. But Samantha had barreled into his life, filling his dark, monotonous days with color and light. She gave him something to look forward to each day. Hope, he realized, was something new to him, too.

But, as he’d always known, she didn’t belong in his life for long. She deserved so much more, so much better than he could ever give. And hadn’t Wyatt’s sudden appearance and threats proven that in spades?

Which was why—once this mess with Wyatt was finished—the most selfless thing he could do for her was let her go.

* * *

Samantha tossed and turned in bed, mentally exhausted but unable to fall into a deep sleep. It was nearly two in the morning, and while she’d drifted off a few times since lying down, she’d been jolted awake by terrifying images of the man who’d come into the bar the previous afternoon. Horrific nightmares of him stabbing Clay in the stomach while Samantha sat helplessly by, watching him die.

After Clay had sent her upstairs and she’d called for help, she’d gone back down and listened at the door. And that’s when she’d heard the threats the man had issued if he didn’t get fifty thousand dollars—money Clay insisted he didn’t have—in the next few days. She’d been included in that threat, but she couldn’t bring herself to think about that. All she could concern herself with was Clay.

Not for the first time, tears and emotions jammed in her throat. The fear of something bad happening to Clay was real—she’d seen the evil look in the other man’s eyes. And she couldn’t just do nothing. She couldn’t risk him seriously hurting or killing Clay. Just her brief glimpse of the man from a distance convinced her he was capable of that kind of violence.

She blinked back the burn of tears, more memories returning. The cavalry had arrived soon after she’d called—Mason and Levi, along with Katrina, who’d stayed with her in the apartment and calmed her down. Finally, Clay had come up much later to check on Samantha and let her know that there was an undercover cop in an unmarked car in the parking lot outside, to make sure she was safe at all times.

He’d also informed her that he didn’t want her working in the bar for a few days, and then he was gone, storming out of the apartment and headed God knew where. After a while, Katrina had had to leave, and Samantha had spent the rest of the afternoon and evening alone, unable to even focus on a TV show, since she’d had a continuous running loop in her head that kept replaying the entire confrontation with Clay and the man. And the end result she’d conjured in her mind had her nearly sobbing every single time.

Staring at the ceiling in the dark, her mind working overtime, she finally figured out a plan. Tears trailed down the sides of her face because she knew what she had to do. The decision hadn’t been an easy one to make, because she understood what the repercussions of her choices would be. But when it came to making sure Clay was safe, she would sacrifice herself, her life, her freedom. Even her own dreams. And she didn’t kid herself that she was overreacting. Because once she asked her father for the money Clay needed, the price wouldn’t just be the life she’d fought so hard to create. The cost would be giving up Clay himself. Her father would see to that.

Another half hour had passed when she finally heard Clay come into the apartment. She waited for him to walk into the bedroom, but it didn’t happen. She gave him another fifteen minutes before tossing the covers off to take matters into her own hands.

It was obvious that he was avoiding her again, but they needed to talk about what had happened at the bar, whether he liked it or not. Harder still, she needed to tell him she was going to go home, which brought on another surge of waterworks. There was no way she could leave without him finding out, not when he had her so well protected. And besides, he’d been so good to her she owed him the truth about where she was going—if not exactly why. The fifty thousand he needed would arrive after she was gone, allowing him to get that awful man out of his life.

She couldn’t do it any other way. If she told him about getting him the money now, he’d fight her. A proud man like Clay wouldn’t like accepting a handout any more than he’d want her bailing him out. She only hoped that when he received the cash, he’d take it and know that she’d done it because she loved him.