Out of the Ashes (Trust Book 2)

by A M Raulerson

  “Wait, you made bets on when I’d propose? How did you even know I would?”

  I was confused as hell because I was surprised at how fast my relationship with Alexi had been going. Not that I regretted asking him or anything, but even though I knew it was the right thing, it was fast.

  “Dude, we’ve been watching you watch him for months. You may think this was a quick thing, but you’ve been falling in love with Alexi for a long time. Now you have him, I know you won’t willingly let him go.”

  “The two of you have been making goo-goo eyes at each other for a long time man. We knew you would strike while the iron was hot, but the bet wasn’t when. Aaron bet that you would propose, I bet you’d collar him first. I should know better than to bet against an FBI Profiler.”

  “David, you never win when you bet against Aaron. You should have learned by now.”

  I knew what they were all doing, trying to give me a little normalcy. Trying to give me time to calm down before the questions were asked. I looked around to see if maybe there was a quiet spot, the emergency room hall was not the place to have this conversation. I noticed Sam waving me down and pointing to a door near him. I guess that was as good a place as any, and motioned the others to follow me.

  “I go first? Alright, Alexi and I knew from the second we walked through the door that we were in trouble. It was a set up. I’m not sure how much Andrew knew, but he didn’t look very happy when we walked in. The sub, Octavius LeBraun, headed straight to Rogue. I’d thought he might be a plant, but I don’t know how we messed up. I have no idea what he whispered into Rogue’s ear, but it was exactly what that little shit wanted to hear. We never stood a chance so I hit the button on that collar you supplied. Aaron… If you hadn’t provided..”

  “Lucas, no one could have known how badly this would end. It isn’t your fault at all, and blaming yourself won’t help you or Alexi. Shit happens.”

  I started laughing and couldn’t stop, I must have sounded like a lunatic because the looks I was getting said they were questioning my sanity. Wiping the tears from my eyes I got control of myself, just barely.

  “Alexi said something like that. Sometimes things are FUBAR and there isn’t anything we can do to stop it. Yeah, fucked up beyond all recognition fits.

  “Anyway we found out quickly that they had already decided we were undercover. Rogue and Lady Payne seemed to have had a plan. He wanted me, she wanted Alexi. She’s the murderer Aaron. It’s her. You should have seen the look in her eyes. Please tell me they got her.”

  I wanted so badly to know she’d been caught, but the shake of Aaron’s head said enough.

  “She must have gotten out in the confusion. I can’t say how she got away, we thought we had every door covered, we got every Dom and Domme who was there, but Olivia Payne wasn’t among them.”

  I watched as he pulled out his phone, checking the list of who’d been arrested and who hadn’t.

  “No, She isn’t on the list, are you sure it’s her?”

  “She started to carve Alexi’s chest up, his hips. I saw the bodies of the boys she’s killed, and I saw the look in her eyes. Stone cold crazy, like she was there but wasn’t. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but yeah. It was like she was doing to Alexi what she saw in her head… I…”

  “Hey, I know what you mean. It’s okay. Let me tell you what I have thus far. It isn’t everything, but I’ve got what Dillon sent me. We have one of the agents looking through this club of theirs as we speak. He said that Andrew kept meticulous records, but he doesn’t know if it was to cover his ass, or maybe for future blackmail. His computer is being looked at now, but every Dom or Domme, every sub: their names, ages, when they were taken, from where and by whom. We have plenty of evidence to go through, but he thinks we’ll be able to start airtight cases against these guys. He even has which states have what clubs… This man made our jobs a lot easier, but there will be a lot of work.”

  “How did she get away? I mean knowing all that about the information and all is great, but how do I tell Alexi she got away? Now I have to worry about whether she’s crazy enough to come back and try to finish the job. Fuck!”

  I couldn’t help but be upset, and the looks of sympathy I was getting told me they understood exactly where I was coming from. Laying my head down on the table I needed just a moment to take stock. I had to find a way to keep him safe.

  “You aren’t in this alone Lucas. None of us want anything to happen to either one of you, but I don’t think you need to worry about her for now. She’s running, and I think she will have a lot to worry about right now. She has to run fast and light, and she knows it. She knows that we will be right on her tail.

  “As a profiler do I think she will come back? I’m sorry, but the answer is yes. I believe that she will. It’s a need, a compulsion for her. She will not be able to let it go, and will try to finish the ritual she started. But I don’t believe she’s stupid. Crazy? Hell yes! But not stupid.

  “She managed to hide from law enforcement for a long time, and we wouldn’t have even known there was a serial killer if it hadn’t been for Chase seeing something strange with Andrew and getting Mason to talk about it.

  She’s also managed to hide the fact that she is, in fact, a she. We’d all been thinking the killer was male. I think that she’s been using Rogue, maybe thinking if things went south everyone would think it was him. Shoot, I thought it was him. If you and Alexi hadn’t gone undercover we wouldn’t have a clue what was really going on. She is very smart, crazy smart and that is the worst kind.”

  “What I find scary is that if we’d missed one step. If Chase hadn’t seen something he didn’t like, if he hadn’t talked to Mason. Lucas you have to know that if you guys hadn’t gone undercover, done your jobs to the best of your ability… a killer would be loose with no information on who it is or when she would strike again. And she will strike again. We wouldn’t even be looking for a killer much less know who she is, and that is one very important fact.”

  Simon’s rumbling voice had a calming effect on me. It always had, and I knew what he was saying was true. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Aaron took a call on his cell, standing up and leaving the room. I wondered about it, but I was almost too tired to care.

  “Detective Miller, you look like you could use a cup of coffee. We don’t need to go over anything else right now. This is probably the only time a Captain will bring you coffee. I saw one of those kiosks that have real coffee, not a machine that makes coffee worse than at the precinct. How about a cup?”

  Giving the Captain a brief smile I nodded. Coffee sounded great at the moment, anything to pick me back up again after the adrenaline started to drain out of my system. It was almost over, as over as it was going to be for awhile. What Aaron was saying about her made sense. She’d had that crazed look in her eyes while she’d been cutting Alexi, but I’d seen those eyes looking almost normal when we’d first met. I would never have guessed she would turn out to be the killer.

  “Sorry, that was my boss. He wants an update on Alexi’s condition as soon as we get it. He did have some good news though, seems that Rogue had some secrets he was keeping. Olivia Payne had a house out in the sticks and that’s where she took the boys she killed. He’s not admitting to actually being involved in the killings themselves, but he sure does know a lot about them. I doubt she would go there but a team from the FBI will be heading there right now to go over it with a fine tooth comb.

  “My boss was also able to tell me how she got out. A short tunnel, that hadn’t been in the spec we got on the building, leads out to the street on the other side of the bank. She knew about it and must have headed straight for it in the confusion from the flash bang.”

  At that moment I couldn’t give a shit how she got out. I knew it was important, but I was exhausted and all I wanted to know was how Alexi was. I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation going on around the room, but when the Captain set a huge cup of coffee in front
of me I seemed to come back to myself.

  Sitting up and taking a big sip of the hot coffee I was about to ask how many Doms had been arrested when the door opened up and the charge nurse walked in. I stood up quickly, with the coffee all but forgotten in my hand, and walked over to her. The room went silent as we all waited to hear how Alexi was. We knew nothing was life threatening, but that’s about all we knew.

  “He’s fine. Okay? He’s just fine Detective.”

  A huge sigh left me and I closed my eyes for a second. I opened them quickly when she put her hand on my arm.

  “The doctor is stitching up his cuts in a few places, and treating the burns on his shoulders. They are mostly second degree burns, with only a few third degree burns in places. The doctor wants to keep him for observation because he’s still in shock, but he will be just fine. I knew you would want to know that right away. As soon as the doctor is done treating him I’ll come and get you.”

  She smiled kindly at me and walked back out the door and I stood there looking at it for a minute.

  “Lucas come sit down, you don’t look so hot yourself. You get hit anywhere else? Your jaw is turning purple.”

  I turned to see Simon walk towards quickly me. The room was starting to fade out. I shook my head a little, unable to say anything as he grabbed me, right before the room went black.

  CHAPTER 12

  Alexi

  I could hear deep, rumbling voices around me but I didn’t really want to pay attention. The drugs they were giving me were awesome. Nothing hurt and I felt heavy and lethargic, but when I heard Lucas’s name I tried to focus, pulling myself up through the layers until I could open my eyes and see Aaron sitting next to my bed. That wasn’t right, where was Lucas?

  “What’s going on?”

  It was hard to talk, but the more I fought off the drugs, the more I was able to concentrate.

  “There you are. I didn’t figure you’d be up for a while with all the drugs. Are you hurting?”

  “No. Where is Lucas? What are you doing here?”

  “Hey calm down a little. Lucas is okay, I promise.”

  I hadn’t realized that Simon was here too, but Aaron had to have been talking to someone. I was still high I suppose, my brain not at full speed.

  “Lucas is down in the ER. No, don’t worry and don’t move. It will just cause you to hurt worse. Settle down and I’ll tell you why Lucas is in the ER, okay?”

  Realizing just how bad it hurt to move I settled back. If he was smiling then nothing bad had happened. Aaron wouldn’t be smiling if something was wrong and Simon stroking my hair helped me to settle back. If I didn’t have to, I doubt I’d move for a week. Between the drugs and the pain, I didn’t want to.

  “He fainted. No I’m being serious. He’d been all jacked up on adrenaline after what happened. We’d had a very short debriefing, mostly to give him something to think about until we knew how you were. Then once the nurse had come back and said you were going to be fine, if Simon hadn’t caught him, he would have hit the floor. He went straight down.”

  “He’s just fine, Alexi. They just wanted to watch him for a little bit. Apparently you weren't the only one in shock. He’s probably down in the ER bitching and moaning, but he made us swear we wouldn’t leave your side. Sam is with him to make sure he follows orders from the nurses, although how that sub is going to stand up to Lucas if he really wants to do something? So not happening. He’ll walk right over him.”

  Simon was smiling, his dark skin looked even darker when he smiled that widely. A lot of people were scared of him because of the scar across his face. I’d been a little scared the first time I’d met him, until he spoke to me for the first time. He was a giant, cuddly teddy bear. He may look scary, but the only people who actually should be scared were the people trying to hurt someone he loved.

  Simon could be ferocious. I’d seen it once when a Dom actually hurt a sub. The Dom had slapped this tiny sub across the face, the sub landing at Simon’s feet. He’d gently picked the boy off the floor, pushing him towards Blake, a bouncer for the club who’d come to back Simon up. Not that he needed it.

  Once he’d made sure the poor sub was being taken care of he turned to the Dom, and returned the favor. Slapping the man to the floor and standing over him for a minute. Daring the man to get up, but the man was not stupid, he’d stayed down.

  We’d been at Madame Mariska’s club, Slap and Tickle. The Madame herself came over and stood right next to Simon. Asking what Simon thought she should do to the man, never taking hard, piercing eyes off the man on the floor.

  “That is up to you Madame. I would revoke his membership, and post his name on the blacklist. This is your club Madame, but that is what I would do.”

  “You are a lot nicer then I am Simon, but you are right. Blake, remove this thing from my club. Make sure you take his membership card, and block his account. I will take great pleasure in speaking to all the clubs to make sure you are no longer welcome anywhere.”

  I’d seen the looks on both Madame and Simon’s faces. They were holding back from hurting this man, and he knew it. When Blake came forward to pick the man up he didn’t even struggle. He knew he had no chance against the force of the two of them.

  “Whatever happened to him?”

  I didn’t realize I’d spoken allowed until Simon brushed his fingers over my cheek.

  “What happened to who, Alexi?”

  “That sub, the one from Madame Mariska’s. You stood up for that tiny sub when he got hit.”

  Simon chuckled, realizing that my head was still fuzzy from the drugs the nurse had given me.

  “I think I know the sub you're talking about, tiny little thing that he was. Anderson Montgomery. I believe he is still with Bastion Dunne, owner of Fly on the Wall. Bastion collared Anders… I think it was two years ago, and they are still together.”

  “Yeah, Simon. The collar ceremony happened two years ago, and they are still quite a pair, totally in love. Which reminds me. I hear congratulations are in order.”

  I looked at Aaron for a moment, not knowing what he was talking about for a minute. Then it hit me and I couldn’t help the silly grin that spread across my face. Lucas had proposed. I couldn’t believe it.

  “Well I don’t have to ask how you feel about this do I?”

  “Don’t tease him Aaron. Can’t you see he needs to rest?”

  My eyes went right to the doorway, Lucas standing there looking perfect. I hadn’t realized just how worried I was until I saw him. A tear slipped from my eye as he came over and took Simon’s spot by my side.

  “No, Bebe`. Please don’t cry, everything's just fine I promise.”

  I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. Not caring when he tried to pull back.

  “I don’t want to hurt you Alexi. I’ll just sit right here, I’m right here.”

  The tears were pouring down my face now, as I continued to pull and tug until he was practically on top of me. Clinging to him, I started to bawl.

  “I need you. I need you to hold me. Hold me tight Patron. Please, Please!”

  Laying down carefully he wrapped his arms around me. I just pulled him closer, because I needed him to keep me from flying apart. When he finally gave in and lay down with me, wrapping me up tight. I took a long shuddering breath, trying to stop crying. I just held on tight, my head nestled under his chin.

  I felt, more then saw, Aaron lean onto the other side of the bed, Simon at my feet. I felt protected, safe and loved. It was hard to understand all the thoughts and fears that ran through my mind, but for the moment I knew I didn’t have to understand anything. I knew I was going to be okay, more than okay if my Patron had any say in it. I giggled a little, stifled a bit by the hiccups that had taken over as I started to calm down from my panic attack.

  “What’s funny Bebe`?”

  “You. You proposed to me in the back of an ambulance. Really Lucas?”

  I started to laugh now, hiccups making me sound a little d
eranged, but the release of fear and anxiety was… freeing. I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. Anxiety, fear, and anger all emotions I had been feeling when I grabbed my Patron. They lifted off my shoulders and I knew without a doubt that I could trust my Patron to always be there for me.

  “Where are we going to get married Patron? In the back of a cop car?”

  “Oh, you think you're so funny, huh? Laugh all you want. I wanted to know that you were mine. That you wanted me still, you would still choose me even…”

  “Stop right now.”

  I tried to sit back a little, to look Lucas in the eye. He held on tight for another second, then let me lean away from him. I lifted his chin, much like he’d done to me.

  “Lucas, I love you. I love my Patron, I give myself freely and happily. I trust you and I always will. Will you try to believe me? Will you listen to me when I tell you it is not your fault? I know this without a doubt in my heart. FUBAR, remember?”