Better when He's Bold

I looked up as Bax made his way back to where I was waiting. I was going to give him shit for groping my sister in broad daylight, but didn’t get the chance because my phone rang. I didn’t want to answer it when I saw it was Nassir, but I did anyways. Business was business after all.

“What’s up?”

“I need you to get your ass to the District.” He sounded furious.

“Uh, why?” I motioned to Bax to hold on for a second. He leaned on the opposite fender and stuck a smoke in his mouth.

“Because someone kicked the shit out of Roxie and told her to give us a message.”

I felt my eyes get big and I looked over at Bax. Roxie was a girl who got around and made a good living at it. She and Bax went way back, well before she started making her living rolling around the sheets. He hadn’t kept in touch with her since he and Dovie became a thing, but this was going to piss him off big-time.

“What was the message?”

Nassir swore and I heard someone moan low and painfully in the background. He barked at Chuck to find out what was taking the doctor so long, and then came back on the line.

“That this is just the beginning.”

“Fuck. Did she have any idea who it was?”

“She can barely talk. It looks like someone stomped on her face. All I could make out was that she had a normal client, a regular, and when she went to answer the door, it wasn’t him. Whoever did this wasn’t fooling around. She’s a mess.”

No one deserved to suffer like that, even if they had a job that was risky.

“I thought you were watching the girls who worked for you, Nassir. How did this happen?”

“Don’t even start thinking you can question how I manage my business, Race. I do have people on the streets keeping an eye on the girls. If they take new clients, if they get bizarre requests, if they think something seems funny, I don’t let them do anything that might put them at risk, or the operation at risk. Like I said, Roxie said this was a routine date, there were no red flags. Whoever this guy is, he knows how places like the District work. He knew she wouldn’t see a new client alone.”

I swore again. “Who was the original date with?”

Nassir went quiet and I heard him ask the question into the room. There was more moaning, then a sharp female voice telling him he was a bastard. That had to be Honor, no one else had the balls to talk to Nassir like that.

“I think she’s trying to say Marcus something.” Well, shit. Marcus was just making all kinds of friends lately.

“Marcus Whaler?”

Nassir repeated the question and then got distracted as the doctor apparently showed up. “Yeah.”

I blew out a breath. “Marcus Whaler is in a hospital bed right now because I took a tire iron to both of his kneecaps last weekend. What in the holy fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know, but it needs to end now.” Nassir went from furious to deadly cold. That was when he was at his most terrifying.

“Bax is with me now. I’ll make a stop and see what Marcus has to say. Do you think this is tied to Novak? Could it be one of his guys the feds missed?”

“I don’t give two fucks who it is. This is our town now, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect it.”

I didn’t disagree with him. “Shoot me a text and let me know that she’s okay.”

I hung up and looked at Bax. His shoulders had tightened up and his dark eyes had deepened in a way I knew meant he wasn’t happy.

I put my phone away and lifted a hand to rub the back of my neck. “Roxie got beat up. Nassir has her down at Spanky’s waiting on a doctor. He says it’s pretty bad.”

He flicked his cigarette away and pushed off the car.

“One of her johns?” His tone was as hard as the look in his eyes.

“No. It sounds like someone set her up to send a pretty clear message to me and Nassir. She said he told her to tell us ‘this is just the beginning.’ ”

He just stared at me for a minute and made his way to the other side of the car. “That’s the thing about trying to get the upper hand in a place like the Point: it always fights back, and more often than not, it’s the innocent that end up getting hurt.”

I got into the car and looked out the window as he pulled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.

“Head to the hospital.” He didn’t respond as the car raced through traffic. “The guy she was supposed to hook up with is there. I want to talk to him.”

“Talking is overrated when a girl gets hurt, Race.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and told him, “It’s the same guy who tried to get out of his debt by hiring the muscle to work me over. He’s not going anywhere, Bax. I shattered both of his kneecaps after I got rid of the thug.”

He turned his head to look at me and I saw the edge of his mouth quirk up in a slight grin. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”

I snorted at him. “Really? Your wrist didn’t snap itself the night we met, now, did it?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, that did surprise me. I thought you and all that blond hair and sissy-rich-boy attitude you were prancing around with was going to make for an easy mark. Funny, with you nothing has ever been easy.”

“No, it hasn’t. Do you think it’s worth it? After everything we’ve been through?”

He lifted a shoulder and let it fall as he pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. “Your sister is worth it. The garage is worth it. Novak being gone is worth it. You and Titus making it out of that shit storm of beatdowns and bullets is worth it, so I guess it’s all in how you look at it. I’ve been here too long to think it’s ever going to get easier, but now being in the thick of it means something different. I have a reason for doing what I do.”