Five

Chapter Five

Dillon

ONE THING I HADN’T been expecting to do today was go on a shopping trip for women’s clothing.

I caught the elevator back down to the parking garage where I’d left my bike. My mind was reeling. What did the Capellos want with some girl?

Why was she important enough to want to hide her with us? And I knew that was exactly what they’d done—why else would they tell us she wasn’t allowed to leave the apartment? They’d brought her to us, thinking we were small enough in the crime world not to be on the radar of anyone important.

One thing we were not used to was having a woman around the place.

The elevator opened onto the underground garage. I paused for a moment, my breath locked in my chest, my ears straining for any sign that someone might be waiting down here for me. I didn’t know who might be looking for the girl, but her being here had landed a bullseye on our backs.

Someone might easily have followed the Capellos’ men here and be waiting out of sight, ready to take back what they wanted.

But everything seemed quiet, and I could hardly hide away in an

elevator all afternoon. I needed to reach the store before everything shut. How would I explain to Kodee and Ryan that I’d failed once again because I’d been busy hiding?

Keeping my head down, I made my way to the bike. Everything seemed just as I’d left it, so I climbed on, plugged the key into the ignition, and

started the engine.

I rode out of the garage, and up onto the main street, then took the fastest route to the nearest mall.

I tended to avoid shopping malls, if I could. Too many teenagers and groups of women, all clutching armfuls of shopping bags and gossiping. I pulled the bike up and left my helmet there, and then entered the building. The familiar scent of the food court hit my nostrils, and the thump of music from the various stores blended together. Everything seemed so normal here, when, in fact, my world had just been tilted on its axis.

Doing my best to blend in, I still made sure to check over my shoulder, and in the reflections of any storefronts, to make sure I wasn’t being followed. I had the idea that the Capellos might not be done with me yet,

and they could easily have put someone watching the front of our apartment building to make sure we didn’t try to smuggle the girl out of there.

I felt bad that I’d dumped Ryan and Kodee in the shit as well. It hadn’t been a big job, just a few forged passports, and I’d stupidly thought I could do it quickly and quietly and that would be the end of it. I’d never imagined things would turn out like this.

Self-conscious, I picked a department store and headed to the women’s section. I was going to need help if I was going to return with anything even moderately wearable for Rue. I didn’t think I’d ever bought a single item of women’s clothing in my entire life, never mind an entire wardrobe. No, it

wasn’t going to be an entire wardrobe. All she needed were a few items to get her though the next couple of days until the Capellos came back for her.

I tried not to consider what might happen to her when they did. It was clear they were hiding her with us, but the question was why. I’d brought trouble to our door by doing business with the Capellos, and now my fear

was that Rue would bring trouble to our door in the form of whoever it was the Capellos were hiding her from.

I wasn’t the one who had morals, and I never pretended to be either. The Capellos had given her to me to do whatever I wanted, and there was part of me—namely my dick—who liked that idea. Didn’t every man want that, deep down? Well, maybe not Ryan, but most men who liked women. There weren’t many things I hadn’t done before in the bedroom, including fucking another man, but still my imagination swam pleasantly in the slipstream of fantasies that would be possible if she were to say yes to everything.

In the women’s department, I caught the eye of a pretty sales assistant. Her blonde ponytail was scraped back, and too much makeup hid her skin rather than enhancing it. As she stepped closer, I jerked back at the strong hit of her perfume. I tried not to let my true impressions of her show, and instead plastered a wide smile on my face, planning to win her over.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Aye, you can. This is going to sound strange, but I want to buy a

couple of complete outfits for... a friend of mine. I mean, underwear, shoes, the whole lot, and I wondered if you’d be able to give me some idea on

sizing.”

I hoped she didn’t think I was some kind of experimental cross-dresser who was only trying to get women’s clothes because I wanted to wear them myself. Good thing Rue was so slight so there wouldn’t be much chance of the pretty sales assistant suspecting I was buying the outfits for myself.

She nodded, but her eyes were a little unsure. “Sure, I can do that.” “Money’s no object, so I hope you’re on commission.”

“Oh. Of course.” Her cheeks pinked beneath the layer of makeup, and she glanced away, clearly uncomfortable to be talking about money. “So, umm, what sort of size would you say your friend is?”

“She’s slim, and a little shorter than you are.”

The woman touched her chest self-consciously. “What about bust size?” “Small, but not non-existent. She’s slender, but she still has curves.”

“A handful?” she asked. “More than a handful.”

I glanced down at my palms and tried to imagine cupping Rue’s tits. My cock jumped at the image, and I realized that was something I’d be keen to do for real. “A little smaller,” I surmised, “but not by much.”

“And where is your friend going to wear these outfits? During the day?

Out at night? To a restaurant or a club?”

I remembered Kodee’s warning about not buying her anything slutty. “Just daytime stuff. Jeans, I guess. Maybe a couple of tops. I need

underwear, too.”

“Bras and panties?” “Aye.”

She lifted one perfectly drawn in eyebrows. “Anything sexy?” “No, just the basics.”

As much as I’d have liked to see Rue in a short skirt and a pair of

stilettos, we weren’t even allowed to let her out of the apartment, never mind take her to a restaurant or club. I experience a pang of pity for the girl. Had she ever done stuff like that? Regular things most women did every day? Perhaps one of her previous owners had dressed her up and taken her to someplace fancy, showing her off as a pretty young thing hanging off his arm. It was hardly the same as choosing to go somewhere for the sheer

enjoyment of it, though, was it? I wondered how long she’d been a sold woman. Had she had a normal life before all of this? Did she have family out there who didn’t know what had happened to her? People who missed her? I knew what it was like not to have family, though I considered Ryan

and Kodee to be my family now. My parents had been killed not long after

we’d come to America from Ireland. I hadn’t had anyone back in Ireland who I could be sent back to, so I’d become a ward of the state. Nobody

wanted to take in an angry, grieving, Irish immigrant, so I’d been bounced around between homes until I’d aged out at eighteen and left to get on with things myself. It was no wonder I’d gotten into so much trouble when I was younger—not that much had changed. Seven years later, and I was still getting into trouble.

My thoughts went back to my most recent bout.

Rue was the opposite of this sexy, confident, put-together woman who was helping me now, flitting her way around the store, piling her arms high with jeans of different styles, and strappy tops and t-shirts. Rue was ratty,

and dirty, and looked like she wanted to hide away from the world. And yet something about me found that endearing. The big blue eyes that had peered at me mistrustfully beneath the straggles of dark hair. The scrap of a dress that had barely covered her ass. The bare feet. I normally went for

strong, confident people, but her vulnerability had stirred something inside me. Something more primal. Protective.

Was it possible to want to protect someone, and still want to fuck them?

I guessed so, ’cause that was exactly how I was feeling.

What about the other two, though?

It was never supposed to have been an exclusive thing, the three of us. We just kind of fell in together. Ryan met Kodee first. Ryan had been in a bad place, and Kodee had taken him under his wing. I’d been working at a printer’s, just fucking around, working to get money to enjoy my life, but I discovered I had a bit of a talent for the work. When Kodee approached me, offering me more money in a month than I’d see in my current role in a year, I hadn’t hesitated to say yes. I’d met Ryan, and the two of us hit it off, though I could always tell he was a little possessive of Kodee. I worked out why pretty quickly, when I’d walked in on them getting hot and heavy in the back office where we’d first set up. Perhaps some guys would have run a mile, but both Ryan and Kodee were hot, and sex is sex to me. When I

suggested joining them, neither of them had turned me down. Kodee had

stopped kissing Ryan for a moment and put out his hand to me, and that was the start of it all. When we’d lost our original building due to a change in tenancy, it had made sense for us all to find a place that would work for both our unusual relationship and living situation, and a workplace at the

same time. Keep everything contained. We weren’t all touchy-feely, though,

and it wasn’t as though we sat down and talked about our emotions and future. Fucking was fucking, and we were enjoying each other’s company, and that was enough for me. I knew Kodee had his own reasons for not

wanting to go back into a traditional relationship, and Ryan just wanted to be taken care of, in his own way. We’d been going along nicely like this for the past six months, but deep down I had the feeling the arrival of Rue was going to blow everything else out of the water. The best thing I could do

was figure out how to get her back out of the apartment as quickly as possible.

Oh, and do my best not to fuck her as well.

The shop assistant returned with a stack of clothing. “Okay, so I’ve got a skinny legged jean in dark denim, and more of a comfort fit with—”

I held up my hand, cutting her off. “I’ll take it.”

She glanced down at the pile in surprise. “All of it?” “Whatever you’ve chosen will be grand, thanks.”

She smiled, but the expression was wary. “Okay, sure. You’re the customer.”

“And we’re always right, right?”

The woman gave a titter of a laugh and turned to lead me toward the checkout. She set about scanning each of the items, before folding and

placing into a branded bag. The total came to over five hundred dollars, so I just handed my credit card over. I was supposed to have made money doing the job for the Capellos, but instead it seemed it was costing me money.

I guessed it was better that it was money and not lives it was costing.