He took a shaky breath. "We can't storm the place. We have to wait until they move you. We were afraid we were too late already, we've been hitting as many trucks as we could..." He wiped tears from my eyes that I didn't even know were there.
"Everyone's looking for me?"
He nodded. My heart swelled. They didn’t forget about me. I just have to hang on a little longer. "All I know is that they’re moving me to the east coast in the next week or so. That guy - Viper - he's obsessed with killing Theo. I doubt he'll leave here with him still alive."
"Theo. Fuck, he's gonna kill me for this."
I froze. My hands gripped his shoulders tight. Irish gently stroked my back.
"He's been out of his mind over you," he said softly. "He'd tear this place apart with his bare hands if we weren't holding him back." A sad smirk quirked his lip up. "Dawn, too."
I rested my head on his shoulder. My friends. Theo. I have to get back to them. "What do we do? What can I do?"
He took off his watch. "I'm gonna put this in your hair. Er, sorry." He gently tugged my head back by my ponytail and planted his mouth on my neck. The warmth between my legs burned hotter at the touch of his lips. Sex with Irish had always been uncomplicated. Not wild enough for my tastes, but he was always quick to make a joke or laugh at his own expense. But now I'd had more than my fill of rough and crazy; his soft touch was a comfort, and I held his head to me as he wrapped his watch inside my hair tie.
I pulled him up for a kiss, hungry and desperate, and began moving with more urgency in his lap again, his cock still rock hard and straining inside me.
"Oh girly, I'm so sorry. We're gonna get you out of here. But I have to go." He tried to push me away, but I clung to him and rocked my hips. He groaned. "What about Theo?"
I laughed bitterly. "I'm fucking his sworn enemy for hits of H."
"Fuck."
"Give this to me, Irish. I don't know if I'll ever even see him again."
His voice was fierce. "You will." But he obliged. He laid me out on my back along the booth's seat so we were partially blocked by the table, then climbed between my legs. He slid inside me with a slow, sure stroke.
Then he smiled. "Dawn will kill me, too."
I clapped a hand over my mouth. "She's finally realized that you exist?"
He shrugged. "Still calls me Prospect. But yeah."
"Oh, God. I can't even believe it." I drew him close and whispered, "Fuck me, Irish. She'll forgive you. We'll pretend this is that time at the bar, when we found that expensive bourbon and thought Nella wouldn't miss it."
With a hand on my cheek and a thumb on my clit, he obliged. He picked up his slow pace and pounded into me, keeping his eyes on mine, and I pretended I was with him back at the clubhouse. He was more sure of himself now, working my sensitive button with gentle circles, slowly increasing the pressure even as his cock slammed home over and over. My friend.
He kissed me as I came, muffling my soft cries, inhaling my staggered breaths, until he came, too, with a strangled groan.
I stood and let him rearrange his pants. "Tell Theo I'm okay," I said, my voice small. "Don't tell him about Viper or the drugs. I don't want him to worry. I don’t want him to get reckless."
He looked doubtful, but he nodded. "Just don't lose the watch." I walked with him part of the way to the front door, but broke off and joined Viper at the bar. I felt stronger. Braver. The troops are mobilized.
"That took fucking forever," he sneered.
"Kid couldn't keep it up," I scoffed. "Said I look like a corpse up close. Couldn't deal with it."
He sat back and looked me up and down. "You could use a sandwich."
I flipped him the bird when he turned his back.
There was talk of moving me not long after. Viper complained that the heat on the place was too much. He talked about shutting the strip club down completely despite not having the authority to do so. At the very least he was sending "his girls" away, myself amongst them.
I expected some sort of James Bond spy device in my hair for some reason. It wasn’t quite so exciting, but it was a pretty smart little gadget - a gps watch, the sort that runners used to track their speeds and distances. I'd have to upload my route - it didn't transmit it automatically. There would be a delay between the information I sent and my real-time location, but it would be close enough.
The trick would be using it without getting caught.
Viper had me brought to his room the day we were due to move. The euphoria of the drugs was wearing off but I wasn't feeling sick yet. "These Eagles have gone soft," he griped. "I'm going to have to take Theo out myself."