Thumper (Cerberus MC)

“You piece of shit,” he snarls. “I watched it when it was fucking happening. It was streamed to the entire house like you were proud of what you were doing.”

“But there wasn’t sound.”

I hit a key on my keyboard and the office is filled with the sound of my hips hitting Lauren’s ass.

“You think the soundtrack to your depravity is going to help—”

“Fuck, Javi, I’ve missed you. Hard. God, fuck me harder.”

His eyes dart to the computer screen.

“It’s been too long, baby. There, fuck, right there. I’m going to come so hard.”

I look up at him and watch his face. I don’t want to see this shit. Hearing her voice, knowing I lived that experience with her does nothing for my libido.

“Tighter, grip me tight, hands around my throat.” I don’t have to look at the screen to know that my hands move from being tangled in her hair to circling her throat. My hips never stop moving.

“Did I feel like a piece of shit for singling her out when they first arrived. You bet I did. Is there any excuse for my behavior other than not wanting to end up in a puddle of blood at Berto’s feet? No. But I will tell you, and I’m not saying this in any way to degrade Lola, but she came hard on my cock outside. We’ve known each other for a long time, and she’s into that sort of shit. I didn’t come then, not that it makes any difference. I don’t rape women, Angel, and I have no idea what I would’ve done if she hadn’t been in the group that arrived. We’d probably both be dead if I had to make that same choice and she wasn’t here.”

The gun lowers, and even though it wasn’t touching me, I feel the drop in pressure on my forehead.

“This is so fucked up.”

“Beyond fucked up,” I agree as he plops down in the chair across from my desk.

He tucks his gun back into his waistband.

“I was wondering if my confession and the truth was going to calm you down or make you pull the trigger faster,” I hedge because the man still hasn’t admitted that he’s not here to sell women. “I explained why I’m here. Why don’t you do the same?”

His jaw ticks again, and I know he’s trying to decide whether he needs to lie or not.

So, I decide to give him more. “The first girl that left, Lisa? She was transported to an intake station in El Paso and returned to her family a day later. The man who picked her up was another FBI agent.”

He mulls over this information.

“I know you’ve noticed that Megan has been starving herself, and I’ve finally gotten the go-ahead to remove her as well. What happened to her—”

“Was my goddamn fault,” he hisses. “If you weren’t going to kill Juan, then I was going to do it myself. If this is an FBI operation, then why is it taking so long for these women to get released?”

“You know why.”

He nods. “The people working here aren’t the end goal.”

“And something tells me it isn’t yours either,” I say, opening the door for him to explain once again.

“I’m still going to be known as Angel, but I work for a mercenary group. I’ve been hired by a man to track down, torture, and kill the men responsible for raping and murdering his fifteen-year-old daughter. He contacted a group in New Mexico, but they don’t do retaliation.”

My throat threatens to close. “Cerberus.”

“You’ve heard of them?”

I almost open my mouth to tell him that I was a member of the team, but it’s a lie. My entire time there was a lie. “I trained with them for a while. They think I’m Javier Nolasco, sex trafficker. That story was put in place by my handler. I’m certain they’re trying to track me down to put a bullet in my head.”

“That’s bad news.”

I can’t help the chuckle that bubbles out of my throat. Leave it to a mercenary not to get emotional about a bounty put on someone’s head.

“Yeah, so about Megan. I’m going to need you to go back down to the basement, pull the women out and keep them distracted while I extract Megan. I know it’s going to upset them to notice she’s gone, but it’ll be worse to see it actually happen.”

“Why not release all of them?”

“I don’t trust anyone else in the house.”

“You shouldn’t. I still don’t know if I can trust you. Do you know how many times over the last week I’ve almost killed you in your sleep?”

“I’d have to actually be able to rest for that to happen. This is the worst fucking job I’ve been on.”

Angel continues to watch me but doesn’t commiserate my situation.

“We’re waiting because we have to verify that we aren’t sending these women back into the same situation that got them here in the first place. Every one of them lied on their paperwork, which is smart, but it makes my job harder. Megan’s brother sold her in exchange for some drug debt, but we can’t wait to move her. She’s going to end up killing herself. We managed to track down an aunt on the other side of the country that we feel she’ll be safe with. Penny’s stepdad sold her and killed her mother the next day for life insurance money, and we’re struggling to find someone we can depend on to help her.”