I was getting panicked. “Lee, don’t tell Luke he touched me. It wasn’t that bad.”

His hands came out and his fingers went into my waistband. Wordlessly, he pulled me to him and then did up the button on my pants that I’d forgotten about. After that, he cinched the belt.

This was so sweet, so gentle, I had to swallow down tears again.

I put my hand on his chest and leaned into him. “Lee, you tell Luke, he’s gonna go gonzo.”

Lee nodded. “He’s gonna go gonzo.”

“Please, he just, put his hand… and then put his other hand…” I stopped. “And then he took care of himself just using me to rub against.”

God, this was embarrassing.

As I was talking I’d been avoiding his eyes. When I was done, I looked at Lee.

Oops.

I was thinking that Lee didn’t think that was any better than being raped. I was thinking that because the fury waves were pounding again and his face, which had been gentle until now, had turned hard as stone.

“You’re not gonna go gonzo, are you?” I whispered.

“I’m keepin’ a very f**kin’ loose hold on going gonzo, Ava.”

I swallowed again, this time at the anger vibrating in his tone. “I don’t want you boys to get into any trouble for me,” I told him.

“Only person’s got trouble right now is Noah Dexter or whatever that f**kin’ guy’s name is.”

“Lee.”

His hand came up and his fingers wrapped around my head and the third hot guy in a day (or a little more than one, I didn’t know what time it was, I just knew it was dark outside) leaned forward and put his forehead against mine.

Lee’s forehead lean was a lot different than Luke’s or Ren’s.

Lee’s was scary.

“You ask him to touch you like that?”

I shook my head, mainly because I couldn’t find my voice.

“So he did it against your will.”

I nodded my head.

“A man doesn’t put his hands on a woman like that against her will. A man doesn’t put his hands on a woman at all against her will, but especially not like that. A man does that, that man earns retribution. Automatic. A man does that to a woman I know, the woman of a friend of mine, a friend I trust and respect, that retribution turns ugly.”

Yikes multiplied by about two thousand.

“What are you gonna do?” I whispered.

“I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to protect Luke while he does whatever the f**k he wants to do.”

“What if I don’t want him to do it?”

His face lost some of its scary-stony quality and went slightly gentle. “Sorry, honey. You’re gonna have to let us work this out. It’s a guy thing.”

After he finished speaking, to my shock he kissed my forehead, let me go and then flipped open his phone, hit a couple of buttons and put it to his ear.

“Get cleaned up,” he murmured softly to me. Then his head came up but his eyes didn’t leave mine when he said, “Luke. I found her.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Precious Cargo

Since he lived so close, Tex was the first to arrive.

Lee sent him to help me clean up while Lee did whatever it was that Lee was doing (my guess, searching my house for rope to fashion a noose).

Tex sat me on the toilet seat and cleaned up the blood, put some Neosporin on my cut lip, took me downstairs and got me an ice pack for my swollen eye. He was mostly silent during his ministrations but his mouth was tight and his eyes were shining with what could only be described as controlled hellfire.

For your information, I didn’t look too bad except for the blood down my shirt and rimming my nostrils, my torn lip and my eye which was already bruising. In the grand scheme of things I decided to think of it as “not too bad”.

Even so, after looking at myself, I transferred my sextuple revenge from Dom to Noah, the double extra, loser, rat-bastard.

By the time we got downstairs, Lee had all the lights blazing. I suspected he did this for me since I’d been locked in a pitch black room for however many hours. All I could think was that he was definitely on the very short Good Guy List.

Matt was the second to arrive. He took one look at me and his face got red.

Lee said one word to him, “Focus.”

Matt nodded his head once and then he focused. I could actually see him focus.

Hank and Roxie arrived next. Tears filled Roxie’s eyes when she saw me and she came right up to me and grabbed my hand, holding on tight.

“Thought she might need someone who had been there,” Hank muttered to Lee.

Okay so Hank just earned a place on my Good Guy List too and, as I was being so magnanimous, Matt’s angry red face earned him a place as well.

Tex was already on it.

“How are you doing?” Roxie asked me, leading me to my couch.

“I’m fine. Everyone’s overreacting. This isn’t a big deal. I knew Noah was a jerk, he just proved it irrefutably,” I told her as we sat down.

She looked at Hank but Hank, Lee, Matt and Tex were all looking at me.

“Seriously you guys, this isn’t a big deal. It isn’t as if this is a big surprise. He had already screwed me over once,” I announced.

The door opened, I held my breath thinking it would be Luke but it was Vance.

Then I sucked in breath again when Vance got a look at me and his body went visibly tight.

I feared for my lamps because Vance looked like he definitely wanted to throw one of them (or possibly all of them). Instead he looked at Lee and said something bizarre, “I call a shot and I don’t even care if he’s conscious when I get my turn.”

At this, it was Roxie’s turn to go tight.

“Everyone’s got a f**kin’ shot on this one,” Tex said, sounding pissed off.

“Shit,” Hank muttered under his breath.

“What are they talking about?” I whispered to Roxie as I set my ice bag aside.

“I’ll tell you later,” she answered softly. “Do you want me to get you a drink? Herbal tea or something?”

“I’d love a Fat Tire,” I told her. “I’ll get it,” I got up and asked loudly, “Anyone want a beer?”

Roxie, Tex and the Hot Bunch were all looking at each other but I ignored them and headed toward the kitchen. I could swear I saw Lee’s eyes crinkle in a sexy smile that didn’t quite involve his mouth when I passed him. I didn’t know what that was about but I wasn’t in the mood to ask.

“Just me then,” I said as I hit the kitchen.