Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series

by Camilla Blake

  “Fuck.” I braked at the entrance to her suburb and grabbed her by the back of her neck. Pulling her into me even more, I pressed my mouth against hers and kissed her hard. Pulling back slightly, I stared into her wide eyes and growled low in my throat. “Unless you want me to fuck you against the side of the truck in front of your neighbors, I suggest you hold it for a second. I’m barely holding on by a thread here.”

  I watched as, instead of backing down, she arched her back and pressed her chest into me. She looked like a damn cat stretching and reaching with her body like that, but it was sexy as hell. Her eyes narrowed and heat flooded the truck until it was hard to breathe. “That’s definitely not missionary.”

  I’d forgotten I wasn’t dealing with Charlotte. Charlie was a different animal, entirely. “Go back to your side.”

  She pouted, but did as she was told. It didn’t stop her from staring at me and biting her lip in ways that made me weak, though.

  I got us parked in front of her house in record time. I was ready to burst. I got out of my side and slammed the door shut. Charlie was already out of her side by the time I got to the front of the truck. I wanted to lecture her, but she was charging ahead up the steps.

  I pressed up against her back while I opened the door and wrapped my free arm around her, holding her just under her breasts. Pushing inside as soon as the door was open, I slammed in and then pinned her to the door, content on devouring her. I slid my tongue into her mouth and grabbed her ass to lift her up.

  She wrapped her legs around my waist and rocked against me, surging us both towards release too fast. Her mouth was hot against mine. She tasted like the strawberry syrup she’d had on her waffle, but her bite on my bottom lip was anything but sweet.

  I spun her around, intent on getting inside of her as soon as possible, but saw a large puddle of red goo on the floor up ahead. Freezing, I realized that my plans had just been changed.

  Chapter 19

  Charlie

  I writhed against Tucker, confused as to why he’d stopped moving, but focused on getting him where I wanted him. Which was crazy, to want him so badly, but I couldn’t help it. “Don’t stop, Tucker.”

  He pried my legs from around his waist and eased me to the floor. “Hold up, Charlie.”

  I gasped as he quickly shoved me behind him and pulled a gun from the small of his back. Following the path of his angry gaze, I spotted the puddle of what looked like blood and tensed. My body was slower to get with the program, but it didn’t have much of a choice when Tucker backed us up and started giving orders.

  “Look through the peephole and make sure there’s no one outside, Charlie. If it’s clear, open it and run to the driver’s side of the truck. I’ll be right behind you.” He shoved his keys back at me. “Take the keys. Lock yourself in the truck. If you see anything that reads wrong, you drive the fuck out of here.”

  I wanted to argue, but he yelled at me to go and then everything started happening. Before I knew it, I was locked in his truck, peering anxiously around as I watched Tucker move back inside the house.

  I had no choice but to sit there and bite at my nails as I waited for him to come back. It took too long for my comfort, but when he did come back out, he was more angry than anything.

  I unlocked the door and he opened it and stepped up to me. He rested his hand on my thigh and shook his head, his frustration radiating off of him.

  “This is fucking ridiculous. It’s not blood. It’s fake. There’s a note from Sam, claiming some more disgusting stuff.” He clenched his hand and flexed his fingers over my thigh. “Gerald was supposed to have his office’s guards watching over the house. The guard is in the back yard, smoking a blunt and watching the pool. He didn’t notice a thing.”

  “What did the note say?”

  “It’s not important, Charlie. What’s important is keeping you safe.” He looked like he was about to say more, but then his phone started ringing. “Hold on.”

  I watched as he walked away a few feet and answered. I could hear his end and it wasn’t pretty. He cursed and told whoever was on the line that he’d be there soon. He ran his hands through his hair after hanging up and then looked over at me and swore again.

  “What is it, Tucker?”

  He angrily wiped at his eyes and tugged at his hair again. “I’ve got to get to the hospital. I don’t know what to do with you.”

  His words shocked me. The harshness in them, the idea that I was like some heavy object he didn’t know where to put, it hurt me. I could tell he was too stressed to deal with any of my emotions, though, so I just shut it down and forced a shrug. “I can just go with you. I don’t mind.”

  “Fuck.” He gripped the door and frowned. “It’ll have to work. Scoot over.”

  It was a whirlwind. Going from being horrified about the blood on my floor to racing over to a hospital, for reasons that I wasn’t sure of, made my head twirl. I felt a little unimportant in that moment, but I wasn’t about to interrupt Tucker to tell him that. He had his own thing going on.

  My heart was still racing about the fake blood on my floor when we pulled up to the hospital and Tucker slid into a parking space. As soon as the truck was in park, he was pulling me out and after him. We ran to the elevator and then I was basically shoved into a corner while Tucker punched the button for the third floor. He didn’t look back at me and barely remembered to grab my arm before rushing out when it reached the right floor.

  He dragged me into a waiting room that was full of men just as large as him and a few women who looked just as worried as the men. It looked like we were the last to arrive. I stood back and tried to be invisible as they all huddled together and talked about whatever was happening.

  I caught clips of phrases about Mercer being released from jail. What should’ve been a good thing had obviously gone wrong, though, because we were in the hospital.

  Tucker wrapped his arms around a beautiful blonde and patted her on the back while she cried. It was similar to how he’d held me and it made my stomach churn.

  They were all wrapped up in each other and I was feeling more and more sorry for myself. I suddenly wanted nothing more than to muddle my feelings with chocolate. Deciding that I was just in the way, I slipped out of the room in search of a vending machine.

  I found a bathroom first, so I used it and then continued on to the vending machines. I was just bending over to grab my candy bar when I was grabbed and yanked upright.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  I stared up into Tucker’s angry eyes and frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  He pushed me against the glass of the vending machine and bracketed my body in with his. It was surprisingly gentle, especially for how angry he looked. “You just walked off. You can’t walk off, Charlotte.”

  I tried to slip away from him, but he held me firmly in place. My feelings were hurt and he was treating me like I was a little kid. “You were busy. I just came to the vending machine. Let me go, Tucker.”

  “You can’t just go to the vending machine. You have to have me with you. Someone is after you. That means you don’t do stupid shit.”

  I shoved him away from me and turned from him. It took me a few seconds to get my emotions in check, but I didn’t want to cry in front of him. “Forget it. Let’s just go back to the waiting room. You can be with your friends.”

  He stared me down, but finally rubbed his hands down his face and nodded. “Fine. We’ll talk about this later.”

  I didn’t plan on there being a later. It didn’t stop me from agreeing and walking beside him to the waiting room, though. I didn’t want to make a scene. Years of playing Charlotte, as he’d just called me, had taught me to keep my feelings in check. I could pretend that he hadn’t hurt me while he dealt with all of his stuff.

  Back in the waiting room, the group had settled into the uncomfortable-looking chairs. They all turned and looked at us when we walked in, the men with frustrated looks on their faces. It
looked like Tucker had made a big deal out of me walking away.

  Forced to say something or chance looking like a giant dickhead, I held up my candy bar and forced a smile. “Sorry. I just needed chocolate.”

  The blond woman who’d been in Tucker’s arms earlier smiled and patted the seat next to her. Her eyes were red from crying, but she was obviously in charge. “All’s forgotten if I can steal a bite of that from you.”

  I handed the whole thing over to her. “You probably need it more than me.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one with the pig in my bed.”

  Or with blood on her floor, but I wasn’t going to bring that up. “Something happened to Mercer?”

  “Yeah…” She swallowed and blinked away more tears. “He was leaving the police station today and it looks like a bunch of guys jumped him. I found him...”

  She started crying again and I saw Tucker moving towards her to comfort her, but I knew from experience that he was kind of bad at it, so I gently wrapped my arm around her shoulders and let her rest her head on my shoulder as she cried. I stroked her arm and her hair with my other hand while whispering reassuring words to her. I didn’t know if everything would be all right, but I told her it would be. That had to be better than thinking that it wouldn’t.

  Tucker stared at me and tried to catch my eye, but I acted like I didn’t see him. I was just trying to survive. If I didn’t want to break down right along with the pretty woman in my arms, I had to avoid him and his searching glances.

  While I was still holding her, a doctor came in and told them all that Mercer was going to be okay. He was beat up pretty horrifically, but it wasn’t anything serious. Unless you counted a broken arm and collarbone, a concussion, a lacerated spleen, and a fractured eye socket as serious. Which, for the record, I did. I had a feeling she did, too.

  Still, a tension had been relieved after the doctor’s visit. There were a few jokes made about how tough Mercer was and how he’d be back to fighting with Lauren, the pretty blonde, before they knew it.

  Another couple of hours and I’d finally met everyone. They’d also been allowed to go back and see Mercer, so the men were all oddly relieved. They’d apparently seen Mercer in worst shape and they were pleased that he seemed okay. Lauren, however, came out from seeing him angry. She was fuming and had to take a walk to cool off.

  I just sat there, trying to disappear into the wall behind me. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I didn’t want to remind Tucker that I was there, so he’d feel like he needed to talk to me. Not that he hadn’t been watching me. Probably trying to make sure that I didn’t walk to the bathroom again.

  After a while, Tucker stood up and told everyone that he was leaving for the night. It had gotten late and he had to get me home. A couple of the other guys stood up and made their way to the exit, too. It was obvious that Lauren was staying the night, but there’d only be space for one in Mercer’s room.

  I gently told her if she needed any help with anything, I’d do whatever I could, and then was pulled away by Tucker, who looked ready for a fight. We followed his friends out and they stood with me while Tucker got the truck. No one said anything and it was so awkward that I thought about walking into traffic, but then Tucker was there and I was in the passenger seat, buckled in and in a whole other world of awkwardness.

  I was trying to be understanding, but it wasn’t easy. Tucker was upset about his friend, of course, so he’d been short, but it was more than that. He’d shown me exactly how he really felt about me. Some stupid part of me had felt like maybe I was more important than just someone to fuck. I’d thought we were friends, at least. But now he’d made it clear that I was just a job, and an inconvenient one at that.

  It wasn’t until we were heading away from my house, in an entirely opposite direction, that I decided to break the silence. “Where are we going?”

  “My house.” He glanced over at me and then looked back at the road. “Ready to talk about it?”

  “Your house? Why?”

  “No one’s at your house. Except for Sam, it seems. My house is closer. We can sleep there tonight and I’ll take you back home in the morning.”

  I wrapped my arms around myself and looked out of the window, watching the scenery go by. “Fine.”

  “So, you’re not ready to talk about it yet?”

  I shook my head. “There’s nothing to talk about, Tucker. I’m tired, okay? Let’s just get there and get some sleep.”

  He blew out a deep sigh and slowed down to turn. “Fuck… Okay. Fine. Maybe you’ll want to talk in the morning.”

  “Doubt it.” I couldn’t help it. I was mad. It was probably selfish, but I was tired of ignoring my feelings for everyone around me.

  “Come on, Charlie.”

  “So, now I’m Charlie?” I turned to face him. “Forget it. I don’t want to talk to you.”

  He turned again and I felt the road under us turn to gravel. “I’m sorry. I was stressed.”

  I nodded. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. What’s that like?”

  He swore and hit a pothole that jarred us both. “Dammit, Charlie. I didn’t mean to call you that.”

  “What about pushing me against the vending machine so you could tell me how stupid I was? Did you mean to do that?”

  “Yes! What the fuck were you thinking? After all of this shit with Sam, you should know better. I wasn’t watching you. You could’ve been grabbed and it would’ve taken me too long to find you.”

  “Then maybe you should’ve been watching me. I’m just a job, after all. Something that you have to keep track of and find a place to put when other shit comes up.”

  He’d parked in front of a modest house and I hadn’t even noticed until then. “Is that why you’re upset? Because I had to give attention to someone other than you for thirty minutes?”

  “We were there for hours, Tucker. Don’t do that.” I shoved his truck door open and climbed out. “I wasn’t upset because of that. I was upset because I thought I was your friend, too.”

  Tucker froze and stared out at me with a clenched look on his face. His eyes flicked down to my throat and to my mouth before moving back to my eyes.

  “Is this your house, or not? I’d like to go inside and use the bathroom.”

  He shook his head and climbed out. Walking up to the front door, he opened it and let me inside. “It’s messy.”

  I looked around and grimaced. Understatement of the year. There were clothes and papers all over the place. Trash littered the countertops and there were probably enough empty beer bottles to bring some good money from a recycling center.

  He pointed towards the bathroom and started picking up, muttering to himself all the while. I used his bathroom, thankful the toilet was clean, and stared at myself in the mirror.

  In the baseball hat, I looked almost normal. My face was flushed, though, and my eyes were red. I left the hat on the counter and let my hair down. Sighing, I went back out to face Tucker.

  “I’m sorry, Charlie.” Tucker stood behind his couch, looking about as comfortable as if I was holding a gun to his penis. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and turned away. “You didn’t.”

  “Okay. I was a jerk, though. I freaked out. Mercer is like a brother to me. Someone hurt him and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just… got angry. I didn’t mean to ignore you or take all of that anger out on you.”

  “I just want to go to sleep. It’s been a long day.”

  “Charlie…”

  “No, Tucker. Maybe all of this was a bad idea. You’ve got your own stuff going on and I don’t want to take away from it. I’ve got my own shit. It was stupid to even try anything.”

  “We’ve got tomorrow, too. It’ll be better.”

  “Sure.”

  “After the morning. I have a meeting at Black Dog to talk about what happened with Mercer.” He sighed. “Fuck.”

  I laughed, even though nothin
g felt funny. “It’s fine. It’s better that this all happened before we actually had sex. That would’ve been hard to come back from. At least this way, it won’t be too weird around the house.”

  Chapter 20

  Tucker

  “Don’t you just look like hell!” Cooper looked at me with a grimace on his face and shook his head. “Brother, I don’t know what you did last night, but sleep is important.”

  I scowled. I wasn’t in the mood. Things had just gotten worse with Charlie. She’d put up a huge wall and shut me out. I’d been an ass to her and the longer I thought about the things I’d said to her and the way I’d acted, the more shitty I felt. I’d wanted to apologize again, but she was like a block of ice that morning. After insisting on sleeping on my couch, she’d woken up early to texts from Gerald and John, demanding to know where she was.

  So, even if I’d been able to thaw her out, I wouldn’t have had time to. I’d rushed her home and been met at the door by Gerald and John, both fuming. John was still playing the worried husband, throwing dark looks at me, like I’d stolen his wife. I wanted to knock his highlighter-white teeth down his fucking throat.

  I told myself that all of the shittiness I was feeling was because I’d ruined a chance at sleeping with Charlie, but I knew better. I couldn’t stop hearing the way she’d said that she thought we were friends. I’d hurt her. I’d just said and done everything wrong. Which was exactly why I didn’t do relationships. It was hard to fuck shit up when there were hardly any words exchanged.

  As it was, I left her with Gerald and John until I was finished with my meeting. A meeting that I could barely focus on.

  “Dude. Earth to Tucker.” Vince slapped me on the back and shook his head. “What’s going on with you? We’re trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Mercer? It’s kind of important.”

  I nodded and rolled my shoulders. “Of course. Sorry.”