Free The Price We Pay by Alora Kate

deal?”
    Latch jerked his chin to me and then Laken looked at me. She studied me for a few seconds then grabbed my hand hooking our pinkies together. “Pinky swear. Tell me. Pretty please, just tell me what’s going on.”
    “Hold on a minute,” Jaxon said and Latch’s window went up.
    They talked and she was giddy with excitement as she dropped our hands. She kept hers on top of mine and flashed her eyes to me. “Thanks for going tampon shopping with me.”
    “Anytime.”
    “I’ll remember that.”
    She slowly slid her hand from mine and kept her eyes on the van. She looked so anxious to find out what was going on. Hell, I wanted to know what was going, and I didn’t even know this Marvey chick.
    The window went down. “I’ll text you in a few hours and we’ll meet up later today.”
    “Yay!” she squealed.
    “Sorry Pace, I love you man, but you can’t come with,” Jaxon told me and Laken got pissy.
    “We pinky swore!”
    “No. There are too many people involved already and I’m doing this against my better judgment.”
    “I’m good,” I told her and grabbed her hand back. “I’m good.”
    She huffed, “Fine.” She looked back to Jaxon. “You better text me!”
    “Goodnight,” he said as the window rolled up.
    “I had a good time tonight,” she said moving back over to the passenger side.
    “I did also.”
    “The next date will be better.”
    I smiled. “I thought you said it wasn’t a date.”
    She gave me a sweet smile. “I changed my mind.”
    I liked that she changed her mind and for the first time in my life, I forgot to count the light poles as I drove her home.

Chapter 6 - Latch & Marvey
     
    Latch
     
    When Jaxon and I got back to the house I grabbed the bags that Laken got for the girls and headed inside. I had no idea if anyone was awake or what room they’d be in, but I got lucky when Randy stepped outside and met me on the porch.
    “The girls are in the master.”
    The master bedroom had a larger bed and small en-suite bathroom. They probably felt more comfortable being together.
    It was also my room.
    “Sofia showered. I gave her one of my shirts and a new pair of boxers to wear. That poor girl had to roll them up a few times just so they wouldn’t fall right off her.”
    Sofia and Harper were around the same size and Marvey was the one blessed with the curves. And ass. And tits.
    “Thanks, Randy,” I muttered and headed in.
    “I tried to wash the dress but she tossed it out.”
    I kept walking.
    “They can stay as long as they like.” I heard him yell one last time behind me. I smiled at that. At least something was going right, kind of.
    Jaxon was already drinking a beer and staring at whatever movie was on the TV.  I went down the hallway that used to be lined with family photos and took a right at the end of the hall. This used to be my grandparents’ room. The bed was brand new, and I had the room repainted gray and tan, something the designer picked out and I ended up liking.
    It was simple and looked clean, which was good enough for me.
    I gently knocked on the door and heard nothing. My plan was to leave the bags just inside the door and they’d see them when they woke up. I didn’t want to wake anyone even though I wanted answers. I was going to take a step back and see if Laken could talk some sense into her. Besides, we all needed rest. Jaxon and I needed to get our shit together and make sure the girls stayed safe while we finished this job with the Invisible Demons.
    We checked on Kennedy and he was fine after his minor surgery.
    I twisted the knob and it was locked.
    A part of me was happy that the door was locked. It was the smartest thing they’ve done since this whole thing started. They didn’t know us or Randy.
    This whole situation was all kinds of fucked up, and I wished that it wasn’t taking so long to get to Carlos. The drugs were bad enough, but we knew he was also trafficking women and we needed to get that shutdown. That was our