Free Sin's Haven by Carlene Love Flores

when Ben told Stefan it was gonna cost him.
    Luckily, Ben
heard Stefan laugh on the other end.
    “Okay, shoot.
What’s your price?”
    “I need your
advice. About a woman.”
    “You finally
hook up with Erby ?”
    “Not
exactly.”
    Ben filled
Stefan in on his Haven dilemma.
    “So, walk her
home when she finishes up. Treat her nice. And don’t fucking get drunk this time.”
    Spoken how only
Stefan Calderon could put something.
    “Yeah, thanks. But what about the other night? How do I bring up the fact I
didn’t cover up my stuff?”
    “Benny, that was
very unwise my friend, but it’s done. Look, you’re a good guy. I know you’re
worried about that. But I guarantee you a grown woman like this Haven of yours
is probably on the pill or she wouldn’t have left you a note saying you fucked
her good. She enjoyed it, brother. Which means she’s not hung
up on the fact you weren’t covered up. ”
    “That’s not exactly
how she put it.”
    “Okay, that’s my
version of it. But do you see what I’m saying? She didn’t sound too worried
about it so you shouldn’t be. And your worst case scenario isn’t that bad.
You’ve got Daddy Material written all over you, big man. Kids love you.”
    Even though most
of what he’d said was all kinds of jacked up, Ben was glad Stefan had called.
He was right. Ben had to deal with whatever might come which was why he had to
be here in person to meet with Haven. Speaking of dealing with things, his
stare-down buddies were walking his way. They continued past his car to the
less used side entrance of Haven’s club by the dumpsters. Ben’s protective
instincts kicked in and he wanted to get out of his car and be there to meet
Haven at the door before these stellar fellas did.
    “Hey Stefan, I’m gonna let you go. I’ll remember what you said.”
    “Alright,
brother, be well and thanks for taking Jaxon’s wrath for me. I owe you one.”
    Ben put his
phone to sleep and stepped out of then locked his car, looking at his watch.
These places usually closed up shop by two a.m. He didn’t know how much longer
Haven would take but she and Manny appeared to have more things to take care of
inside. Maybe back office stuff since he didn’t see either of them through the
windows.
    One of the trio came up to him just then and asked for a light which
Ben didn’t have.
    They made eye
contact and Ben’s adrenaline responded to the glare, giving his heart a start.
Crap, it wasn’t a friendly one. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered. Of
course this would happen when he was alone.
    The other two
came up behind Number One who asked, “What did you just say?”
    “Nothing man. No
worries. I don’t have a light.” Self-preservation told him to tell these guys
that he was waiting on friends inside who would be out any minute but he didn’t
want assholes One, Two and Three knowing anything about Haven’s whereabouts. Now
if Manny chose to step outside right about now, that would be awesome.
    In a slur, the
one who’d asked for the light said, “You ain’t from
around here, are you?”
    Here
we go.
    Ben refrained
from calling him Captain Obvious like he wanted to. “Nope,” he said instead,
hoping they’d just walk away or return to their alley if he didn’t give them a
reason to stick around.
    “Well, that
sucks for you.”
    Ben thought he
heard a noise behind him and turned away to see what it was when he felt a
sucker kick to his back. It knocked him forward just as he was facing the hard
wall of the club. His face met up with the solid, black, bricks. His only view
being of wall right now, Ben tried to push away from it but his back muscles
stung like they’d been ripped.
    Why was this
happening? Sometimes he hated being so big.
    He sucked in and
forced himself to turn around and face the jerks but they were already walking
away. Ben tasted blood on his tongue as he dragged it over his bottom lip. One turned
and said, “My bad,” as his buddy offered him a