Securing Sidney

by Susan Stoker

  Groaning, Decker pulled back. “Hannah’s probably crossing her legs trying to hold it. We don’t have time to make love again right now.”

  “But later?” Sidney asked.

  “Definitely later,” Decker agreed. Then he took her hand and led her over to the shower.

  Afterward, as they ate the breakfast Decker had made for them, Sidney admitted to herself she was happier than she’d been in a very long time. Not only that, she was content.

  And with that thought, she shivered. Generally, when things were going well in her life, it was only a matter of time before the shit hit the fan. She hoped like hell this time would be different.

  “So where’s this bitch you were so sure was gonna show up?” Miguel asked as he leaned against the fence behind Victor’s house.

  “Yeah, it’s been like two weeks and she still hasn’t shown her face,” Kyle added.

  Victor spat a loogie on the ground and glared at the two men. “She’ll come by, she won’t be able to resist.”

  “See, you’re saying that, but even with those ads you’ve been puttin’ online, she’s still not here,” Miguel said skeptically.

  Victor was secretly afraid he’d been wrong about the stupid bitch.

  He’d run his mouth to his friends, and they’d told others, and now everyone in their circle was expecting a big shindig with the cunt when she finally showed up.

  The new ad he’d put online a day ago should have sent her running straight into his trap…but so far she hadn’t taken the bait.

  “She’ll show,” he insisted.

  “She better,” Kyle said. “Dallas liked your idea so much, he spread the word. There are quite a few people who’re waiting on the big fight. There’s huge money to be made on this shit, so if she doesn’t show soon, heads are gonna roll.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Victor mumbled, pushing off the fence. He headed for the two puppies he’d recently acquired and kicked at them. Neither would be a good fighter, they didn’t have the temperament, but they’d be decent bait dogs when they got a little bigger.

  The two brown-and-white puppies yelped and ran, their tails between their legs. Victor felt better, calmer, after seeing the dogs run scared.

  He couldn’t believe how naïve some people were. They had no problem giving away dogs to anyone who asked for them online. They didn’t bother to check into anyone at all, they were just happy they didn’t have to worry about the animals anymore. They’d rather believe they were going to nice, happy homes than put in a bit of effort to make sure. Morons.

  “She’ll show up,” he said, more to himself than his friends. “And when she does, you both need to be ready to spread the word about the fight.”

  “It’s still gonna be at Dallas’s place, right?”

  “Of course,” Victor said with an eye roll. “He’s got the setup. We just need to get our fighters and the bitch there, and we’ll make money hand over fist. We’ll be set—and will finally be respected in this crap town.”

  Kyle and Miguel gave each other a high-five as Victor cornered the frightened puppies. He picked them up by the scruffs of their necks and threw them back into the plastic crate they’d been living in since they’d been dropped off. He’d learned his lesson about leaving the dogs outside. Nosey neighbors and the incident with the bitch stealing his last trainee had taught him it was better to keep them all downstairs in his basement, only letting them outside for short periods of time.

  As the three men headed back into the house, Victor couldn’t stop fantasizing about how awesome their next fight would be. People were planning on coming from all corners of the city, and Dallas had even said he had a contact from Mexico who was planning on crossing the border for the one-of-a-kind event.

  He just needed his prize fighter to show up.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Five days later, Gumby drank a cup of coffee and eyed Sidney over the rim. She was on edge today, and he wasn’t sure why.

  Things between them had been good. Really good. She was an easy person to live with. They’d spent most of their time at his house. Though he’d also spent a night at her trailer when Jude had called with an emergency repair late one evening, and after she’d finished, they were both too tired to go back to his place.

  She’d seemed uneasy to have him in her trailer, and when he’d pushed her about it, she’d admitted that she was afraid he was going to judge her because of where she lived. He’d told her she was completely wrong, that he didn’t give the smallest shit where she lived as long as she was safe—then proceeded to make love to her until she forgot everything except for how he felt inside her.

  Gumby had never felt for anyone the way he felt about Sidney. She was perfect for him, and he couldn’t wait to see her every evening after work.

  But this morning, something seemed to be bothering her. But he didn’t know what. And that was frustrating the hell out of him.

  “You okay?” he asked for the third time when she finally sat down next to him with her toasted bagel.

  Sidney shrugged.

  “Talk to me,” he begged. “Something’s wrong, and even if I can’t do anything about it, at least I can be an ear to listen. Did you talk to Jude? Did he change his mind about you taking the job with Max?”

  “No. He’s cool with it,” Sidney said. “The new guy’ll start shadowing me next week to meet the residents and to see what I do.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “I guess.”

  “Did you talk to Max again?” Gumby asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “And?”

  Sidney sighed. “Everything’s fine there. In about two weeks, I’ll go over to his office and fill out papers and shit and get on the schedule.”

  Gumby frowned. “You don’t sound too excited about it.”

  “I am,” she insisted. “It’s an amazing opportunity, and I’m more grateful than I can say that you introduced us.”

  He racked his brain trying to figure out what else could be bothering her then. “You haven’t heard from Brian or your parents, have you?”

  “What? No!” she exclaimed. “Although they would definitely put me in a bad mood,” she muttered.

  At least she was admitting that something was wrong. “How’s Nora and Faith?” If it wasn’t her job bothering her, maybe something was up with one of her friends.

  “They’re fine. Look, I’m just in a bad mood. I get this way sometimes. It’s a girl thing.”

  Decker wasn’t so sure about that. “Did I do something?” he asked straight up. “Because if I did, you need to tell me. Don’t pretend everything’s fine when it isn’t, Sid. That’s the quickest way to fuck up our relationship.”

  She froze with a piece of bagel halfway to her mouth. “Are you being serious right now?”

  He shrugged and lifted an eyebrow.

  “It’s not you. If you have to know, I’m just feeling antsy to get back to Victor’s house and check things out.”

  Gumby stared at her in irritation. “I think you’re the one who can’t be serious right now.” He knew he was being kind of a dick, but he’d done his best to reason with her on this subject. To make her understand the danger of confronting suspected animal abusers. And after everything they’d talked about, she still wanted to go to Victor’s house? It was crazy.

  “Don’t start with me, Decker. I’m really not in the mood.”

  “I can see that. I’m trying to figure out why but you won’t talk to me. You can’t really be thinking about going back to that asshole’s house, can you?”

  She sat up straighter in her chair. “Yes. I looked online last night, and he’s put up another ad about wanting a dog. It’s disgusting! This time he said the dog he has wants a brother or sister. I hate thinking about one poor dog already in his clutches, and now he wants another? It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve rescued any abused animals, and I feel as if I’m letting them down. I promised not to do anything while you were gone, but you’re bac
k now, and I’ve been so busy with you and Jude that I haven’t had time to do anything else.”

  Gumby tried to hold his temper and be reasonable. “So, you’re saying spending time with me is cramping your style when it comes to putting your life in danger for a dog?”

  She glared at him. “You make it sound as if a dog isn’t worth it,” she accused.

  “That’s not what I said, and you know it.”

  Sidney took a deep breath. “I can’t help the way I feel, Decker. You know what happened, and why I need to do this. I just feel as if I’m letting Faith and the dogs down.”

  “Have you talked to her about this?” Gumby asked.

  Sidney shook her head. “No, because she’d just say I wasn’t letting her down, and that she appreciates anything I can do to help.”

  “You say that as if you think she’d lie about being appreciative of whatever you do for her and the rescue group.”

  “She would,” Sidney said with conviction. “She’s as invested in saving animals as I am. And I know the fact that I haven’t brought her any dogs is concerning her.”

  Gumby seriously doubted that. He’d met Faith, and he hadn’t sensed anything other than concern for Sidney when they’d talked about her methods of rescuing dogs for the group. “Actually, no, you’re only half right. Faith is invested—but in a safe, healthy way. She’s not slinking around people’s houses stealing dogs. She’s using her connections and working with the authorities to try to shut down the assholes who abuse animals.”

  He saw Sidney clench her fists, but she didn’t respond. Simply glared at him.

  Gumby did his best to rein in his temper, but now that they’d opened these floodgates, he couldn’t stop. Doing his best to gentle his tone, yet still keep it firm enough to get his point across, he said, “You saw some horrible things when you were a kid. You lived in terror for a lot of years. Scared about what your brother was doing to animals and what he might make you watch next, or whether he might hurt you. I’m worried about you, Sid. I think you have a kind of survivor’s guilt thing going on. I’ve seen it in some of my fellow SEALs when missions go wrong, and they come back alive when their friends and teammates didn’t. I really think you need to talk to someone about everything that happened, someone who can help you try to deal with it.”

  “I did talk to someone. I talked to you,” Sidney said stiffly.

  “I know you did, and that means the world to me that you opened up. But I’m not a psychologist. I don’t have the knowledge or tools to help you like someone who’s trained would,” Gumby told her.

  “I’m not ready,” Sidney said stubbornly.

  Frustration welled inside Gumby once more. She knew her need to save animals and her willingness to put herself in danger were a direct result of what had happened to her as a child. “I can’t go with you today, so you’re just going to have to wait another day to put yourself in danger over a dog.”

  “So now you’re rescinding your offer to go with me? To keep me safe? Your words, not mine.”

  Gumby nodded. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Well, that’s just great. So all your talk of not wanting me to get hurt, of understanding how I need to help the dogs, was just crap?”

  “You know that’s not true,” Gumby said. “I’ve just got a lot of stuff I have to do at work today, and I can’t drop everything when you get a little overactive on the Internet and decide to go tromping around Riverton on a one-woman crusade to steal dogs.”

  “It’s not stealing dogs,” Sidney insisted in a hiss.

  “Then what do you call sneaking around a house, climbing over fences, and taking people’s dogs?”

  “Gumby, Victor’s abusing those dogs!” she practically yelled.

  “Right. I know that. But I was there, Sid. I saw him hitting you. If I wasn’t driving by, he would’ve hurt you a lot worse than he did.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she said sarcastically.

  “Don’t do that,” Gumby said, pissed now on top of his frustration. “You know as well as I do that if push came to shove, he’d really hurt you. He’s done it twice! And you aren’t thinking about this clearly. You’re thinking like the scared ten-year-old you used to be. News flash, Sidney, you aren’t ten. Victor isn’t Brian, and I’m not the kind of man who will be okay just watching you throw your life away over a dog.”

  The second the words were out of his mouth, he knew he’d gone too far.

  “I know I’m not ten, Decker. But you don’t get to stand there and tell me what I should and shouldn’t feel! You didn’t see what Brian did to those poor animals! You didn’t have to stand in a courtroom and have people judge you and wonder if you weren’t the same as your little brother since you share DNA! You don’t have to live your life wondering if there was anything you could’ve done to help just one of those defenseless animals. You don’t want to go with me? Great! I don’t need you. I’ve been just fine on my own up until now, and I’ll continue to be just fine. Your condescending, holier-than-thou attitude is getting a bit old anyway!”

  “I don’t want you going back to his place, Sidney,” Gumby responded, a lot louder than he’d intended.

  She sat up straighter in her chair and glared at him. “Just because you’re fucking me doesn’t mean you get to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “Seriously!”

  Sighing, Gumby rubbed his face and tried to rein in his temper. “Sidney, you can’t be serious about this. That guy hurt you. You can’t go back out there by yourself!”

  “If you won’t go with me, I’m going to have to, aren’t I?” she argued, the bagel she’d been eating forgotten on the table in front of her.

  Realizing he was getting nowhere, and if he continued to antagonize her, Sidney would leave his house and go straight to Victor’s, damn the consequences, Gumby didn’t reply immediately. He knew she wasn’t thinking straight right now. She was too emotional about the subject and was feeling guilty she hadn’t done anything recently to help any of the abused animals she felt obligated to assist.

  So he did his best to smooth things over. “How about a compromise?”

  “How about you go fuck yourself?” Sidney flung back, obviously not willing to be placated. She pushed her chair back from the table and stomped into the kitchen. She threw the rest of her uneaten bagel away.

  Gumby followed, and by the time she turned around, he was right in her face. He backed her up until she was caged in by the counter and his body. “Listen to me,” he ordered.

  “Why should I?” she threw back, trying to push him away, but he didn’t budge.

  “Because I’m worried about you!” Gumby said. “Because I know where this obsession of yours comes from, and I think there are healthier and safer ways to deal with it. And because I love you!”

  Gumby hadn’t meant to blurt the words, but once they were out there, he wasn’t sorry.

  Sidney’s eyes widened. She stared up at him in disbelief, the hands that were pushing him away now resting limp on his chest.

  “Yeah, Sid. I love you. You mean everything to me. I’m worried about you. I want you to do what you need to do to help abused animals, but not if it means you’re putting yourself in danger. Don’t you understand? If you get killed, you won’t be able to help any animals. Dog-fighting rings are nothing to mess with. The men and women who run them and attend the fights have no compassion whatsoever. That’s obvious in the way they can hurt and kill the very dogs that are making them money. They won’t hesitate to mow down anyone who stands in their way.”

  “So what am I supposed to do then?” she asked in a more reasonable voice than she’d used a minute ago.

  Gumby wasn’t surprised she was ignoring his declaration of love. He didn’t mind…for now. They could deal with that later. Right now, he had to convince his woman not to run headlong into a danger she wasn’t equipped to deal with. And for as gung-ho and street-smart as she was, she was in
over her head when it came to the hard-core dog fighters.

  “I’m not saying you should stop working with and for abused animals. Not at all. I’m just suggesting that maybe you don’t need to be on the front lines anymore. Maybe you could do what you’ve been doing all along…work behind the scenes, checking out social media and passing along tips to the cops. Or you could do what Faith does and be an intake coordinator. Hannah took to you right away. Hell, she put herself between you and Max when he came over that first time, remember? The dogs need someone with your kind nature to help them when they’re brought in.”

  Sidney didn’t say anything, just continued to look at him with an unreadable expression.

  “I don’t want you to quit altogether. I know your soul needs to help. I’m just begging you not to put yourself in direct danger. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

  “He’s hurting them, Decker,” she said, the agony clear in her voice. “If I don’t do something, who will? No one helped the poor animals my brother tortured, and they died horrible deaths. I can’t stand by and do nothing!”

  “I’m not asking you to,” Gumby insisted. “We can talk to animal control and the cops and make sure they’re aware of this guy and what he’s doing.”

  “It’ll take too long! By the time they do anything, how many more Hannahs will he have hurt?”

  Upon hearing her name, Hannah whined. She was sitting just outside the kitchen, staring at them.

  Gumby sighed. “I really do have to go into work today. I’m sorry I said I wouldn’t go with you. I was frustrated and worried. I’ll go, Sid, but it’ll have to be tomorrow. We’ll go together to check out his place, okay?”

  He knew she wanted to protest. Wanted to argue that tomorrow would be too late. But eventually, she just sighed and nodded.

  Gumby put his hand on the side of her face and waited until she looked up at him. “At least think about what I said,” he implored. “I like seeing your face and body without bruises and scrapes. We can figure out a way for you to help the animals like you need to without putting your life at risk.”