He needs to understand what kind of woman I am. No matter how much I love him, I’ll never stop working, it’s too much a part of me. Andy’s smile disappears as we head toward the truck but I’m thrilled. With last night’s winnings, I can buy a cheap guitar in a pawn shop and then, who knows?
Chapter 16
Andy
I kiss Sienna, loving how responsive she’s been since we made love in front of Tanner’s old barn. Maybe that’s why I’m not thinking straight and let her take that job in Charlotte.
What if that crazy bastard of a husband comes looking for her.
Hell, he’s not her husband. He lost his right to her when he got himself declared dead. He’ll be good and truly deceased if he tries to harm her.
While me and Sienna sit in the small back seat of the Camaro I rented for speed, Jack drives. Out the front window, the city’s skyscrapers loom, incongruent with the lush greenery surrounding the thruway.
“I don’t feel good letting you sing tonight.” My legs hit my chest, even with the front seat pushed up as far as it will go.
Sienna pulls my gaze to hers with a soft palm to my cheek. “If someone wanted me dead, they would’ve already tried.”
Why then, do I feel so uneasy?
Google Maps directs us around the center of Charlotte, deep into a seedier part of town. Inside the dark club, I pace a hole in the plank floor while she tests the sound system.
“Check, check.” Her voice echoes all the way up in the balcony.
Finally, the sound guy nods, she places the mic on the stand, and comes over to me with a big smile. “Jack says people are already lining up at the door.”
After I kiss those cherry flavored lips, I press the comm unit in my ear. “All clear?”
“Affirmative.” Jack’s voice comes in loud and clear.
Me and him argued for some time this afternoon but he won. We can’t guard Sienna forever. She needs her life back and to do that, we need to force Olafson’s hand.
Next to me, her pink lips smile and the makeup on her eyelids sparkle. “I hope everyone stays for two sets. The band gets a percentage of the evening’s take.”
“No worries, luv. If they try to leave, I’ll just have Jack convince them to stay.”
He snickers in my headset while she laughs and hits me playfully on my bicep. Then, we chat about what it was like to grow up around here while we wait for the show to start.
When a guy jumps offstage, my hand twitches for my weapon until I realize he’s a member of the band. “You’re Quinn, right?”
“Guilty as charged.” I shake the firm, calloused grip.
“I’m Jasper.” His accent says he’s an Aussie. “The ads you put on Facebook were killer, mate.”
His unique choice of words shakes me up a bit but I’m antsy. He’s probably a nice enough guy and I might like him except for how his eyes rove over Sienna’s form.
She gives the Australian a big smile, the one that’s supposed to be reserved for me. “Thanks for letting me sit in.”
“You kiddin’? Half the people lined up at the door are here to get a glimpse of you. They’re dying to know if Peter Olafson’s wife can sing.” He touches her goddamned hand. “You’re a dream come true.”
Hell yeah, she is but she’s my dream come true, not yours. To make that perfectly clear, I stand closer to my woman with my arm around her waist while they talk music.
They choose mostly old blues favorites which seems to make Sienna happy as she sits down and tunes her new guitar. Earlier, I drove her to every pawn shop in the area until she found one that spoke to her. Of course, she wouldn’t let me buy it, paying instead with her karaoke winnings.
When the doors open, I settle down on a stool nearest the stage and study the audience with Peter’s image burned into my brain. It reminds me of my college days when I worked as a bouncer.
“See him?” Jack asks in my comm.
“Nothing.”
Everyone takes their seats, the lights dim, and my girl walks out. She sings Mustang Sally, as if she just smoked a pack of cigarettes. If I didn’t know better, I would swear she’s been singing blues since diapers.
The applause is deafening and the band steps it up a notch. I’m real proud of Sienna but fearful. She looks too happy, especially when she exchanges onstage looks with Jasper.
What if she thinks me and her are some kind of fling? Will I survive if she starts up with that Australian? My thoughts get all kind of morbid as the set finishes.
Under the hot lights, Sienna leans into the mic, beads of sweat on her forehead. “Y’all are too kind. Grab a drink, make sure to tip your waitresses, and we’ll be back in a few.”
Then, Jasper introduces the band once more and again, holds her hand to take a bow.
I slip off my stool and glance once more through the audience as she carefully sets her guitar down. When I reach her, she gives me a warm hug, her lips on mine in front of everyone, including Jasper.
“You were awesome. I mean it.” My hand slips around her waist to the open back of her dress.
“Thank you. What a great crowd. I need a little fresh air. Can we go?”
Hell, yeah. I want to feel more of that soft skin, make promises, and remind her how good it is between us.
Jack answers in my ear. “Parking lot is clear.”
Out front, the street is empty and despite having Jack at my back, I get this unease I can’t explain. Maybe it’s the abandoned warehouse to the right of the parking lot or the open street where anyone could drive by, take a shot, and be gone in an instant.
Sienna is clueless as she rattles on about the set and how good it feels to sing with a group again.
“Let’s head back.” I put my arm around her waist.
Jack feels the wrong vibe, too. “Get her inside.”
“Copy that.”
I lead Sienna toward the door where Jack stands ready, his hand under his vest.
Several other couples come and go as we cross the parking lot and one young girl calls out, “Hey? Are you really that woman who married Peter Olafson?”
The girl is far too young for the man on her arm and when I glance into his face, I catch his eyes shift.
Ah fuck.
“Jack, it’s going down!” I mainline adrenaline as the guy pushes the girl into Jack.
“Peter? Is that you,” Sienna pales and stares with a ‘deer-in-the-headlight’ thing going on.
Double fuck.
No way am I letting this prick take my woman.
“Tell your bodyguard if he takes one more step, you die.” Her undead husband shoves a Glock into her side. “Move.”
I try to bring the drama down a notch. “Damn good plastic surgeon, Olafson.”
His reptilian face smiles the way skin does when pulled too tight. “I had everything planned perfectly. She had to go and fuck up everything, didn’t you? You just couldn’t let it be.” He shakes her, then backs her up toward the street where a car waits, engine running.
I’ve got maybe seconds before he takes off with her but what to do? He’s got his forearm around her neck, the barrel’s tip dug into her waist.
Eyes and body language say it all. He’s going to kill me first. When the barrel points at my chest, I pounce, hoping to give Jack a chance to fire off a shot.
Sienna screams, the back of her head crunches Olafson’s nose, and the gun goes off. Ignoring the excruciating pain in my side, I crack the asshat’s jaw with my fist. When he goes down, I roll with him onto the asphalt, two sets of hands struggling for the weapon.
On the edge of insanity, Olafson is stronger than ten men but I got the love of a good woman as motivation. I grab his wrist and twist. No way is he taking her from me. When he jabs his left hand into my fucking wound, I shout, wince, and my grip loosens long enough for him to slip out from under me.
Hell, no. I grab at his shirt, the muzzle of the forty-five in my gut.
He’s a rabid dog, foam drooling from his mouth. “No one
sleeps with my wife.”
“She’s not your fucking wife.” I struggle for the weapon, making it point high as his finger tightens around the trigger.
“Sienna. Lay flat.”
When the weapon fires again, I hope to hell the bullet comes down on the abandoned warehouse, not someone’s head.
The way we’re twisting and rolling on the pavement, I don’t figure Jack can get off a shot for fear of killing me. It’s me or Olafson. One of us needs to die and well, he’s already dead. I grab his hand, point the pistol toward his belly, and press down on his finger.
Gunshot explodes, he stops moving, and his full weight drops onto my chest. My right ear goes deaf but I’m sure the other works because Sienna is screaming in it.
For some odd reason, my hands aren’t doing what my brain commands and Jack gives a valid explanation. “You’ve been hit.”
“Baby, you okay?” Sienna drops to her knees beside me but I can’t see her.
“Oh God, open your eyes, Andy, please.”
For her, I try but it’s damn hard. There’s a kind of buzzing in my ears and I’m weak as a baby.
Her cries are desperate and sad which probably makes sense because I think I may be dying. If I want to see her one last time I need to lift one of my lids. So, with a Herculean effort I do. My reward is the loveliest woman on the face of the planet.
When I notice the tears, I need to tell her not to cry and to believe in God before she dies so I get to see her again. I try to give her a brave grin, but cough and taste blood.
That can’t be good.
She looks to Jack, the one holding my insides in place and he lowers his mouth until I taste the coffee on his breath.
He gives me this real, dark look and says, “You die, that fucking Aussie will make his move.”
Really? That’s his don’t-die speech. He really needs to work on his bedside manner. The fucked-up thing is, it works. Now I’m damn well not shutting my eyes until I hear some doctor say I’m out of the woods.
I glare at him and he raises a brow with a snarky grin.
Asshole.
Sirens, paramedics, and some blessed relief comes in the form of an IV. As promised, I keep my eyes glued on Sienna as she holds my hand all the way to the hospital. I can’t quite understand what she says but her tone is sweet.
“Sing to me baby.” I must be as high as she was the first time we met.
Grinning and feeling stronger, I remove the oxygen mask. “Do you want to fuck me because I sure do you.”
“You jerk.” She blushes and places the mask back in place.
Jack’s disembodied voice comes from somewhere, “Way to go, lover boy.”
What? I thought I was pretty clever.
After we stop, things get pretty wild. The back door of my ambulance opens, a bunch of concerned faces start barking orders, and I’m wheeled into an emergency bay for triage. There, I learn a bullet went right through me and nicked some important organs.
“Kidney? No problem. I got two, right?” I joke around as I approve the surgery and they agree I’m not going to die, otherwise I’m not closing my eyes.
Sienna gives me a kiss, Jack punches me on the shoulder, and the last thing I remember is an anesthesiologist telling me to count backwards so I start, “One, two, three…”
I hope Saint Peter has a sense of humor.
You can guess I’m pretty relieved when I wake up in a hospital bed, not with fire and brimstone. Also, there’s no old guy with a white beard, no tally sheet, and no escalators. However, there are a lot of monitors and a nurse who smiles and asks me what year it is.
I say nineteen fifteen, she looks horrified until I laugh.
Guess that means I’m going to live.
Chapter 17
Andy
When I wake in the hospital, the good drugs must’ve worn off because my side hurts like a sonofabitch and I’m not sure if I’m hallucinating because my mom is sitting with Sienna and it looks like they’re sharing yarn and a crochet hook.
Standing at the door to my hospital room, Jack is the first to catch my eye. “Glad you’re awake. I was afraid I’d lose my job if I let my boss’s brother die.”
I try to think of a snappy comeback but my brain is fog and my throat too dry to talk. I point to the water and suddenly my mom is there, putting the straw to my lips. “How do you feel, son?”
I cough for a few, throat on fire. “Like a guy that just got shot.”
Jack snickers. “You should see the other guy.”
I moan. “Oh no, don’t tell me. Peter’s not dead?”
“Nope. He’s a few doors down. But get this, in the ambulance he cried like a baby and confessed to everything. Now, he’s got his lawyers to make a deal for some hard drive he said left hidden in his safe.”
At first, I smile, then it widens until my face hurts and I start laughing. “That’s fucking perfect!”
Jack, my mom, and Sienna look at me like I lost my mind but my brain is on fire, whirring in lawyer-mode “If Peter has the hard drive, there’s no reason for the Buonannos to come after Sienna. The only witness protection will be for him.”
Blue eyes widen and she grins right along with me. “That’s awesome but I have the hard drive.”
“We’ll make sure he gets it. Give me my phone, I need to call New York.” I wheel and deal with the DA until I’m sure Sienna is safe.
After I sleep, I wake with one more question on my mind. “Have you called Dahlyla, luv?”
Sienna looks up from her game of sudoku. “Yeah, but she hasn’t answered.”
“Can you ask Jack to find her?”
“Sure, but why?”
I don’t say but I got my reasons. Weak and full of painkillers I can’t keep my eyes open.
When I open my eyes again, Jack tells me his news. “Dahlyla’s been arrested.”
“Really? For what?” I scoot next to Sienna and grab her hand.
Jack purses his lips. “She was Peter’s get-away driver. She has ties to the Buonanno’s.”
Sienna shakes her head back and forth, letting the news sink in. “She was always nosy but I thought it was because of the insurance. She must have guessed I had the hard drive.”
“Did you ever tell her about it?” I hold my breath, if she knows, it changes everything.
She shakes her head, no, blond locks flying. “Hell, no. After Peter died, I stuck it in a safety deposit box and never mentioned it. Frankly, I rather hoped if I ignored it, it would disappear. What did she want with it?”
“If she was working for the Buonannos, I would guess a good deal of cash.”
Chapter 18
Andy
My cock reminds me it’s been fourteen days of hospital-forced celibacy as it jumps up at the sight of Sienna. She’s wearing some kind of one-piece shorts suit without any buttons or zippers. All I want to do is stretch it off her shoulders and enjoy pulling it off her lovely body.
Her sweet lips meet mine, then she sits down on the side of my bed.
I lace my fingers with hers and share my good news. “They’re letting me go early, for good behavior.”
“I highly doubt that and what about that big hole in your side?” She lifts my t-shirt and points at my bandages. lush lips frowning.
I wiggle my brows. “As long as I’m careful, I can do whatever I want, starting with you.”
At that, she giggles with the cutest blush and I can’t help but grab the back of her head and bring the softness of her lips to mine for more kissing. We enjoy our moment until my nurse, Kyle, clears his throat in the doorway.
“Time to go.” He wheels in a chair.
“Home, James.” I swing my feet over the side of the bed and sit.
He chuckles then pauses before pushing me to my freedom. “I was wondering how I might get your brother’s autograph.”
“Give me your email and I’ll see to it.” With a bit of difficulty, I reach into my back pocket and remove my cell phone.
While he t
ypes an address, Sienna says, “Speaking of CJ, he’s at your mom’s. She’s planning a huge celebration in your honor.”
I glance up at the thought of spending time with my baby brother and his kids. Almost kicking the bucket made me realize how important my family is to me.
In the parking lot, we say our goodbyes to Kyle and make our way to the car. She smiles and stops in the middle of the parking lot. “I made a surprise for dinner.”
“What?” I love the impish grin she shoots my way.
“Starts with apple, ends with pie.”
“Mmm. Sounds delicious. I figure I should share my surprise, as well. “I booked us first class tickets home tomorrow.”
Instead of jumping into my arms and showering me with kisses, she frowns and toes the ground by the driver side door. “I ah… I guess I should’ve told you. I’m not going.”
“That’s okay, I can change the dates.” My heart begins to crumble.
“No. Listen, I’m really sorry, if the tickets aren’t refundable, but I’m staying here, permanently.” She bites her lower lip before looking up.
My chest grows tight at the thought of going home without her. I figured I could get her to move in within a week or so. “What about your career? Your jazz? Your brother?”
Me?
She sighs. “The girl I got to replace me is awesome. Too awesome, actually. She’s been singing jazz her whole life. She even went to Berklee on a full scholarship.”
By the reverent way she refers to the college, it must be a big deal but I’ve heard Sienna sing. This other woman can’t be anywhere near as good.
“So, what? Are you just giving up?” I get into the car too fast and pay for it with a nasty pain that takes my breath away, matching the one breaking my idiotic heart.
She sees my face and hers breaks into concern, “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah.” Actually, no. I’m not okay at all.
It’s probably that Aussie with the big hands. She has a lot more in common with him and I doubt he has OCD.
She starts the truck, throws an arm over the seat, and slowly backs out of her parking spot. “Okay. Let me explain. You know how I said I’d never flown before?”
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