On Edge and Surround by Scum

Nexus stared at me with a raised eyebrow and a smile in his eyes, and I shook my head at him with a flap of my hand.

"I need your help. Can you bring your best team of lawyers and therapists that specialise in sexual assault, prostitution, and human trafficking," I spoke in a low tone as my guys and their sister got blankets for the women and started taking the details of those on the side that wanted to go home.

"What have you done to need to contact us for this after so many years?" My aunt replied sadly, clicking her fingers, likely at my uncle, and tutting dramatically.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed indignantly, "I promise you, I'm doing a good thing, but I sort of brought down a gang in town, and she specialises in that," I sighed, dying to rub my temples, but I can't reach them around this mask.

'Daria, she's behind you!' Adam alerted.

My body straightened, and I turned in my chair to grab Ferona's hand, but Rain and his aunt beat me to it.

She's a fast one. Wasn't she over the other side of the room with her brother?

"Why do you think you can touch her?" Rain growled, shutting the entire room up and focusing their attention on us.

"I—I was just going rub her temples," she stuttered with wide eyes and tried to yank her wrist from his grip.

"You don't fucking touch her," Nexus hissed from ahead of me.

The heat of his body washed over my legs, and he stepped close enough that my legs pressed against him.

"Little niece?" A worried voice came from my phone, and I raised it to my ear while watching Ferona with weary eyes.

'She can't hurt you, but I don't trust her, even less than Rain,' Adam grumbled.

"I'm okay. How fast can you get to The Open Leg?"

"We will be there in twenty minutes."

"Thank you," I sighed.

"No need for that. See you soon."

I ended the call and turned back to the room. Devon and Orion were a few feet away, talking to the girls, and now they were behind Nexus with a group of women narrowing their eyes on her.

Did I miss something here?

Rain had pushed Ferona to the far right of the room, and Nexus slowly moved away from me and checked on his sister.

"I'm fine. Stop fretting. I've built up many self-defence skills," she waved off, her piggy tail swishing into her face and growled angily.

I blinked in surprise, and she yanked the bobbles out of her hair in anger and shook her hair out.

Woah. That was just about the weirdest transformation I have ever seen.

She's aged at least five years.

I need to get them clothes, holy fuck.

I pulled out some of the outfits I had in my inventory and gave them to her. I stood up, and we walked over to one of the doors on the right, which opened into a bathroom big enough to be a bedroom. I rolled my eyes and let her go in and lock the door. I kept watch to ensure none of Ferona's weird gang members made a move, but then I found myself frowning at their high levels of compliance.

I narrowed my eyes at the guy that was behind me and saw that he looked stressed and was whispering about his family dying. I straightened against the door and tried to read his lips, but unfortunately, it wasn't one of my skills. Their sister came out of the room in her own army-style clothes, and I pulled her behind me and walked up to the guards.

"Where do you live?" I asked the one that was the most nervous.

"We… we live here," the guard said with a small voice.

This one is giving me those sweet-on-the-inside vibes. What is he doing here working for this fucking fool?

"You live here? Do you get bedrooms up here to be close by?" I asked in surprise.

I stayed still and waved Rain off when he leaned closer to my ear.

"There's a bunker under the basement," he whispered like an eerie wind. My jaw dropped, and my eyes contracted, making the room around me blurry. When he leaned back, he nodded slowly, "We all live there."

I blinked a few times and shut my mouth.

"All?" I raised my eyebrow and glared at Ferona.

"The guards and the men," he mumbled, a glint surfacing in his eyes as he watched her, "she's locked our brothers down there to keep us docile," I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"I will get them out," I promised, and his eyes lit up.

"Thank you. It's Aaron," he smiled and stepped back to stand with the other relieved and happier guards.

Orion disappeared from the room, and I dropped back in the chair and started pulling out the clothes for the girls to line up and change into. It took a while for the girls to get ready, and the timing converged when Orion returned with my aunt and uncle dressed in a sharp suit and a black-and-white dress. They're darker than me, but you could tell they were my father's siblings when we would stand together. Her heels clicked faster when they saw me, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering if I was that recognisable in the mask.

I stood as they approached me, squeezed her outstretched hand, let go, and smiled at my uncle with a slight nod. My Aunt Cora and Uncle Dean were incredibly different from my parents; we only saw them on special holidays. They tried to have children… oh my god… the kids would be safe with them, and they are lawyers, but they live in the city. I wonder if they'd move to my zone to keep them safe and close by in case they're found.

I'll have to sort that out at another time. They had come with a bright group of women; the only man was my uncle. He stayed close to me with a clipboard of information. His eyes narrowed on Nexus when he walked towards me, but they faded quickly when I smiled and asked if he was hungry.

"I should have grabbed the sandwich you gave me," he grumbled, his eyes holding frost.

I laughed so loud that I caught the attention of the counsellor team as they gave the girls a card and blankets of information about what they had been through. When the police arrived, everyone nearly had a panic attack, and I had to jump from my chair with my uncle following behind. When I managed to get to them, most of the room stood in a way that looked like they were all hiding behind me. Orion and Devon stepped up past me to explain the issues with the police and why we looked like we were part of Ferona's disgusting gang.

When Nexus stepped up next to me and they saw him, the surprise in their eyes turned into happiness when they realised, he was no longer missing. A policewoman had pushed her way through and started crying as she jumped into his arms and cried into his shoulder. It took everything in me not to get sent to jail for beating an officer of the law in front of her other officers of the law.

Nexus turned to me with a look in his eyes that said, please don't kill me later. I swear she's not my little girlfriend or something.

"We thought they had disappeared forever, and we were going to find your dead body," she cried pitifully and let go of him; then she pulled up a phone and called someone, handing the phone back to him when someone answered.

"Hey Annalyse, sorry you had to hear this from your sister's phone, but I was just rescued today," he said the last sentence while raising his eyebrow at the policewoman's shocked eyes.

"Oh my god, Nexus. I haven't left the house since that day. Reece has had to stay with me the entire time. He's a great cook, though, and I think I love him, so I have to thank you."

Nexus burst out into loud laughs he hadn't done yet, and I smiled happily and refrained from clapping my hands around like a Victorian Princess. Instead, I pulled some Skittles out and let everyone but me do the work. I liked it that way. I dragged their sister to the chair to watch the wonder.

"So, what can I call you because Nexus' adorable big sister is a little bit too long for me to think all the time?" I smirked to match her own.

"Sophia," she repied.

"Ahh, that makes sense," I said, pulling her onto my lap while I played with her hair.

She blinked up at me with wide green eyes and settled on my leg to get comfortable.

"Will I know your name?" she said with a tilt of her head.

"Of course, when we go home."