Page 46 of Enemies with Benefits (Finding the Right Brother #1)

"We had reports of a child screaming their head off from this apartment," I told her gruffly, not bothering to beat around the bush and pretend any feigned concern for the residents.

Her brow wrinkled. “Who?"

"What?"

"Who called?"

"No idea, and if I knew, I wouldn't be able to tell you," I told her.

I still had no idea why people thought we'd tell them who had ratted them out.

All that did was result in another call when a pissed off person decided to confront the reporter, and result in people calling us even less. "Do you mind if we come in?"

"You ain't comin' in," she said in a rougher voice, shedding the sleepiness and instead sounding scared. "We're sleeping."

"Ma'am, we need to confirm that the child?—"

"There's no kid here."

I glanced past her, her skinny frame only allowing for so much coverage, and I could see a pair of small, battered shoes sitting on the floor behind her. "Really? Because you must have awfully tiny feet."

She twisted, accidentally pulling the door open more as she looked behind her.

I could see straight down the hallway behind her now, into a living room with a ratty, worn loveseat, and a few folding chairs that made up the sitting space around what appeared to be a large spool used by utility workers for wires as a table.

The surface was littered with trash, and I thought I could see the plunger end of a needle sticking out of a plastic container amidst the beer cans and fast food bags.

"Musta been from my sister's kid," she grunted, turning back and glaring at me. "Ain't nothing for you in here. Go away, pig."

"Ma'am," I ground out because using any respectful term was becoming increasingly difficult.

Sure, it could be a case that someone had heard a kid from the wrong apartment, but it was just as likely, if not more, that the woman was lying to my face.

Junkies might have sad stories to tell, but in my experience, they were also some of the worst people in the city, and it didn't matter if kids were involved; all that mattered was the next fix.

My gut told me she was lying, but my gut didn't matter much when you didn't have something definitive to move on.

Well, sometimes there was some wiggle room you could get away with, but considering I had pretty much been on probation for months now, playing by the book was a lot more necessary.

I knew there was a problem in there that could be really bad if I didn't interfere, but without a reason to step in and take charge of the situation, I was helpless and?—

A crash from inside the apartment made me tense, and the woman jerked, stepping away from the door and yanking it open just in time for me to see someone come stumbling from somewhere deeper in the apartment.

It was another woman, I only saw her face bloodied and bruised before she doubled over and gave a heave, her voice choked before expelling the contents of her stomach on the floor, which turned out to be little more than yellow bile before she lifted her head, eyes rolling to the back of her head and collapsing.

"Shit," I snapped, pushing the door open and glancing back at Kayden, who was already hot on my heels. "Call the EMTs."

His hand went to his radio as he stepped in with me, rattling off the call and keeping his eye on the first woman who was already protesting loud enough to wake the next three buildings over.

I ignored her as I rushed to the woman who had collapsed, careful to stay out of the sick.

As I knelt beside her, I kept her on her side in case there was more coming and checked her vitals.

They weren't great, but I wasn't expecting much more.

"What did she take?" I asked the first woman, who looked to be trying to figure out how to get Kayden back into the hallway since he was closest to the door, but not daring to put her hands on a cop.

In many ways, it would have been easier if she had put her hands on him because she would have been taken out of the equation with handcuffs.

"She didn't take nothin'," the woman snapped, glaring at me.

"Sure," I said with a roll of my eyes, looking around.

There was a doorway leading to where the woman had come from, and a second doorway leading into another room.

It wasn't the trash littering the floor that caught my attention, but the naked lower half of a man sticking out. "Fuck, Kay, there's another one."

"No!" the first woman shrieked as I stood up, but I ignored her. We already had one person down, an overdose, if I was right. The last thing I cared about was her being pissed that I was 'invading' her place when there could be another person down.

Stepping closer, I took in the sight of the man's naked body, alarm bells ringing through my head when I saw the bruising and dried blood on the one hand in sight.

There were also a couple streaks of blood on his groin, and while it was pretty obvious he was the reason for the second woman's face, the second batch of blood didn't make sense.

My hand went to my holster as I heard Kayden trying to subdue the original woman.

As I stepped into the room, the man began to stir, groaning and bringing one bloody hand to his face.

He was wearing a stained shirt and nothing else, but his reaction told me he wasn't an immediate concern like the second woman.

My eyes swept the room, and my heart dropped to my stomach when I saw another person.

She couldn't have been more than twelve, but it was hard to tell from her slight frame, which could have been a product of genetics or a lack of food.

It wasn't the dirty blouse or skirt that made the panic soar; it was the angry marks on her skin, little pricks that were still bleeding.

It was also the sight of the needle next to her body as she lay there, the only sign of life was the flutter of her eyelashes, and as I drew closer, I could see her chest rising and falling.

Fuck, they'd drugged her.

"We got a kid in here, they gave her that shit!

" I snapped, kicking the guy's legs aside as I made my way over to the mattress on the floor that he girl was curled up on.

Gently as I could manage, I pulled her onto her back and checked her pulse and breathing as best I could.

Everything was still there, but the pulse was quiet, not weak, but definitely not what it should have been.

"How…ow!" Kayden snapped, and I heard something heavy hit the wall or floor. "Hold still! You've got a kid in there with drugs in her system, you know damn well your ass is under arrest!"

"I didn't do shit!" the woman shrieked, and I didn't bother to check to see how they were doing, if Kayden needed help, I'd know, and if I misjudged, he'd be quick to let me know.

"How is she?" Kayden called again over the noise the woman was making.

"She's breathing, not great, but not..." My voice trailed off as her skirt shifted when I moved her, and my attention locked onto the blood on her thigh. It was such a small thing, just a streak that went further up her leg and out of sight. But there was the blood on the man?—

"Jace?" I heard Kayden call from the next room, but it was like someone had dialed down my ears, everything sounding murky and muted.

That was until I heard a masculine groan behind me and heard him speak. “The fuck are you bitches doin'? I'm tryin' to sleep!"

A haze wrapped around my senses, something inside me cracked right down the middle, and I was moving before I knew what was happening.

I was yelling something, but what really stood out was the repeated blows of my fist, radiating up my arm.

I could see blood splattering the floor and my hand, and I could hear the cries of the man as I savaged his face.

But that wasn't a problem for me, in fact, it was right .

I was causing the man a great deal of pain as I drove my fist into every part of him I could find, and that was pleasurable, that was good .

Well, it was good, until I felt more than one pair of arms wrap around me and pull me back from the bloodied, unrecognizable face of the man on the floor, who I saw was still stirring despite the beating he'd taken from me.

The haze around my thoughts grew thicker, hotter, and I lashed out, bringing the heel of my boot down onto his groin savagely, once, twice, and a third time before I was yanked out of the room.

It wasn't right that I was taken away before I was done, but I had seen his face, and I had seen his groin, and I bet even surgery wasn't going to fix the damage I'd done using all the strength I could muster with my booted foot.

Someone was screaming about the little girl, the sound raw and horrible, filled with a rage and a pain that I understood completely.

The first woman was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, and I knew she’d been as much a part of it as the bloody man still on the floor in the bedroom.

Her eyes were wide, but there was no horror, no disgust at what I had discovered, only fear.

Fear for herself and what was going to happen when we were done.

She found herself with a lot more than bags under her eyes when I lashed out, boot finding her face and sending the most wonderful cracking sound through the air, blood spurting down her chin.

Her head was shoved through the thin drywall, but before I could get more than a cry of pain from her, I was yanked back again.

"Stop! Fucking hell, just stop!" a strange voice shouted at me. "Make him stop!"

"You fucking do it, he's not listening!" a more familiar voice snarled back. "Jace, buddy, you have to…ow! Fuck, I swear to God, if I have a black eye tomorrow, I'm pissing in your boots!"

“Kayden?”

"Yeah, dude, it's me. You have to stop."

“I said that out loud?"

"Mm...yeah, you did."