“Thanks for coming, man. She wasn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow, but her old man beat her up bad enough last night for her to leave earlier, and I just want to get her out of town as soon as possible,” the guy said to Kick.

“No worries, Brian, I’m just fuckin’ glad she’s finally decided enough’s enough. And King will be, too.”

Brian eyed me over his shoulder and then looked at Kick. “This your woman?”

“Yeah, eyes off,” Kick replied firmly, his message loud and clear.

Brian held his hands up. “Hey, no problem, I’ve got enough to worry about with my old lady. I got no clue how men handle more than one woman at a time.”

Kick chuckled, but all traces of humour were gone when we made it into a bedroom at the back of the house. Sitting on a bed was a woman who looked to be just under thirty. I sucked in a breath at the sight of her face. Her old man had done some serious damage; she could hardly see out of one eye and the rest of her face was heavily bruised, as was her neck and upper chest area. I shuddered to think what her clothes hid.

Kick knelt in front of her, his face a mask of anger. “Fuck, Jen . . .” His voice trailed off as he took in her bruises.

She winced as she tried to speak. “I’m here now, yeah?”

He nodded and swore under his breath again. “We’re getting you out of Sydney today, and I don’t want to ever see you back here again.”

She agreed, and Kick stood. He walked out of the room, and after Brian spoke to the woman for a couple of minutes, he followed Kick out.

“You’ve told King she’s here?” Kick asked as he pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Brian.

“Yeah, he’s going to swing by a little later today to see her before she leaves,” Brian answered, opening the envelope and flicking through the wads of cash inside.

I was stunned. There had to be thousands in that envelope.

Kick frowned. “It’s all there, as promised,” he muttered.

Brian shoved the envelope in his pocket. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“I’ll let you know when I have more,” Kick promised, and then grabbed my hand and led me out of the house.

I was glad to walk outside. Not only was that house rundown, it felt depressing inside, with old furniture and little decoration. Kick seemed on a mission to get back to his bike, but I tugged on his hand to slow him down. When he looked back at me with a questioning glance, I asked, “What was that about?”

He stopped walking and turned to face me. Jerking his chin towards the house, he said, “That’s a safe house for battered women, and we help them escape their motherfucker husbands and boyfriends and get them out of Sydney.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“King, Brian and me.”

“And where did you get all that money from?” I asked the question I figured he might not answer, but there was no harm in trying.

He sucked in a breath and avoided my eyes for a moment, but he surprised me when he looked back at me and said, “I got it off a druggie scum-of-the-earth asshole, and trust me babe, you don’t want to know what happened to him, but let’s just say the earth breathed a little easier that day.” He finished talking and then waited for my reply, his eyes wary. He had no need to worry, though, because I had no problems with the earth breathing a little easier.

I gave him a smile that I hoped told him how I felt. “So you were just redistributing the wealth, so to speak?”

He stared at me for just a moment longer with that serious gaze, and then broke out in a smile. I watched as his shoulders loosened and his breathing evened out. “Yeah, you could say that. King leaves me in charge of financing the operation so whenever we come across extra cash, I put it aside.” He paused for a moment before giving me a regretful look. “I wish I could have given you that money to bail your Dad out, but it was already promised to Brian by then.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself, Kick. And besides, you found another way to help.”

He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Who was that woman?” I asked quietly. I had the sense she was more than just a stranger who needed help.

“Jen is an ex of King’s. They dated a long time ago, and she left him for the asshole who nearly ended up killing her.”

I had never met King before, but he sounded like a good guy if he still looked out for an ex, as well as all these other women who needed help. “I’d like to meet King one day,” I said softly.

He smiled again. “I can organise that, baby,” he said, giving me something I had wanted for a very long time.

He’d given me a piece of himself he’d kept hidden for so long by promising to introduce me to his friend.

“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling like we’d just taken another huge step towards our future.

***

“What are you doing home alone? I thought you and Kick couldn’t get enough of each other these days,” Maree said into the phone.

I tucked the phone between my ear and my shoulder to free my hands. “We were going to spend the afternoon playing with his toys but he had to do some club work,” I said as I grabbed the ice cream out of the fridge.

“Fuck, you’re a lucky woman. What kind of toys are we talking here? And shit, it’s nine pm babe, why isn’t he back yet?”

I laughed, scooping ice cream into my mouth. “I think he meant his remote control car, shit like that,” I joked with her.