DELIVER(75)

A deep inhale billowed Liv’s breasts above the cups of her bra, and a quiver skipped over her arm. “No, Kate. We are all here.”

We. They were all free, yet Liv was still a prisoner.

Liv smoothed Kate’s hair from her face and spoke to her in a low, rushed tone about her mom and daughter, the significance of the other slaves being there to help her, and why she does what she does. The whispered conversation went back and forth for a moment longer, and Liv turned Kate toward Camila. “I trust them with my life, Kate. They’ll protect you with theirs.”

Camila embraced Kate in a hug. “Finally, a girl. And blond?” She glanced at Liv. “Still hunting in the border towns?”

“Until Josh.” Liv moved to the hood of the sedan and picked through the cash, weapons, and phones that had been gathered from the dead men’s pockets. “Kate’s buyer wanted blond and innocent. Took Van a year to find her in the southern slums.” She turned toward Kate. “Your brothers were protective of you, but they’re drug dealers, and they’re involved with some really bad people.”

Kate’s face pinched. “I know.”

“It’ll be fine.” Camila grinned and waved a hand at the men. “You can help me air out the testosterone in our house.”

Josh startled. “You live together?” Were they still considered missing?

Ricky strode around the buyer’s sedan and shoved a lolling arm into the trunk. “We come from broken families and ghettos who wrote us off as runaways.” He slammed the lid shut. “If we return to our hellholes, it might initiate investigations that led to Liv.” He walked back toward the group, eyes on Kate. “You can’t go home.”

She stepped away from Camila’s embrace and rubbed her head. “I…I know.”

Martin pointed a finger at Tate. “You know, that guy threw a fit when we told him he was stuck with us. Look at him now. He’s been trying to f*ck me since he moved in.”

Hands laced behind his head, Tate glared at him. “I come into your room at night, because the entire house can hear you shouting Liv’s name while you’re jerking off. You need to get over her, man.”

Martin flipped him off. “Fuck you.” His eyes lit with laughter then shifted back to Liv with unmistakable longing.

Liv’s shoulders squared under Martin’s gaze as she blinked up at Tate. “You look well.” She smiled. “Happier.”

“I am happy, Mis—” He coughed in his fist. “Liv.”

Tate was number six, so he would’ve been her last delivery, which she’d said was eight months earlier. Thick black hair and one of those boxy jaws women love, he smiled like he was posing for a camera, but it was warm and sincere when he regarded Liv. Josh believed she’d never had sex with him, but she knew him intimately. She knew all of their bodies intimately. With her hands. And her mouth.

Jealousy surged through his lungs and tightened his muscles. It was ill-timed and immature, but it couldn’t be helped. His fists clenched, itching to drag her away and pretend that none of this existed.

Ricky nodded at him. “Liv, your boy’s about to pop a vein in his forehead.”

She closed the distance, her shadowy gaze caressing his face, her nearness replenishing the oxygen in the air. She clasped his fists and uncurled his fingers, her hands sticky with blood.

“Why’d you free him without a transaction?” Martin crossed his arms over his chest.

Her eyes didn’t waver from Josh. “He’s stubborn, disobedient, and untrainable.”

He saw so much behind those words. Her spine straightened defensively, her lips flattened with fear, and her eyes hooded with affection.

“He failed the buyer introduction.” She raised their laced hands to her chest. “You would’ve failed the next one, too. It was only a matter of time before Mr. E and Van saw this—” Her lashes lowered, her gaze on their hands, and fluttered back up. “They would’ve killed you.”

A mass of regret clotted his throat. He didn’t mourn loving her, never that. But he wished he was smarter. There had to be a safe way to end this with her family protected, but he couldn’t see it.

The guys continued their road cleanup, but their attentions lingered on Liv. Without hesitation, his possessive heart led his lips straight to hers. With a hand on her neck, his other clasping hers against her chest, he kissed her deeply, nipping, licking, stealing her breaths, swallowing the hum in her throat. She was his, and he owned her mouth with a kiss that would leave no misunderstanding.

When he released her lips, her eyes clung to him, dark and hungry. Exactly how he wanted her. After all his questions were answered. “You freed me. Freed Kate. How does this save your mom and daughter?”

Camila paused in her effort to kick gravel over a patch of blood-stained dirt. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”

The red slicking Liv’s cleavage gleamed in the headlights as her chest heaved. She unwound their hands and walked toward the van. “We need to wrap this up.”

He shoved his fingers through his hair, watching the uncharacteristic wobble in her retreating strides. “Camila, why didn’t she tell me about you? About this?” He gestured at Ricky and Luke, who were pouring jugs of acrid-smelling vinegar over the crime scene.