Dangerous Indulgence

by Roxy Sinclaire

  By the time I made it back upstairs, the hag from before was unconscious and tied up on the couch while the rest of my crew waited by the abandoned car outside. Kane nodded to me and I quickly jumped in the driver’s seat.

  “I’ll send the boys out here for your bike. We’ll follow you back into town. Are you going to Rosa’s place?”

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t want her to see Shannon like this. She already blames herself for what’s happened. We will take her back to my place. At least there, we can try and get her back into one piece. I hope you planned on sticking around. I could use all the help I can get.”

  Kane nodded and tossed me a set of keys. “I have to make this right. I will be there when Shannon wakes up, and I won’t leave her side until she’s all the way better, no matter how long it takes. The old lady inside had the keys on her. Guess she wasn’t gonna share that with us.”

  “Thanks. Once this place is cleaned up, call the locals and get out of here. Do a drive by and make sure that Rosa is still okay.”

  “You aren’t going to go out there?”

  “No,” I muttered. “I need to deal with this situation and Collins before I go back to her. It’s not safe for me to be moving around all over town. For now, let’s just keep a close eye on her. Before you come back, grab us some supplies and more of whatever that drug you used on her was. I don’t like it, but we may need to use it again.”

  I started the car and peeled away from the house. There was nothing more to say about the situation. In the back seat, Shannon moved in her sleep but didn’t wake. It took all of my strength to keep from breaking down. I wanted to call Rosa and tell her we’d found Shannon, but I knew she would want to see her old friend. In the state that she was in, Shannon would be a heartbreaking sight for Rosa. It was the last thing that she needed to be thinking about right now. A phone call wouldn’t hurt though.

  So Anxious

  Rosa

  “This is stupid,” I whispered in the darkness before pulling back the curtain once more and looking down into the street.

  There was nothing out there. Everything looked the same way that it had a few minutes ago when I’d peeked out. I couldn’t shake the sensation that someone was watching me, though, even if I couldn’t see them. Every flicker of light or reflection in the streetlamps caught my eye and made my heart race. Peyton still hadn’t come back. He hadn’t even called, and I was more than a little worried. No matter how hard I tried to tell myself that he was safe, I couldn’t seem to believe my own words.

  When my phone rang, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I quickly answered it. “Mary, you scared the daylights out of me!”

  “Sorry, I just wanted to see how you were feeling?”

  “I’m fine,” I lied. “Just watching television and getting caught up on the books for the bakery.”

  “You are supposed to be resting and nursing that heart of yours.”

  “My heart is fine. How did closing the shop go? Everything okay?”

  “Yep, nothing we haven’t done before. I was just going to see if you wanted us to stop over with a bottle of wine. Sometimes, the best medicine is a few friends, you know.”

  “Thanks, I really appreciate it, but not tonight,” I muttered.

  The truth was that I didn’t want to pull her any further into the nightmare that had become my life. If I was being watched, I didn’t want them to see Mary coming over. She didn’t deserve to be a pawn in Collins’s sick game. He had enough of those, unfortunately. I had to keep my dark past separate from the life I’d built here. Plus, if I needed to pack up and leave, it would be better for everyone if I started cutting those ties now.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “You don’t seem like yourself lately.”

  “I’m fine, Mary,” I said in a firm tone. “I really need to go. Thanks again for everything.”

  I hung up on her before she could protect me anymore. When my phone rang for a second time, I was ready to put my foot down and be harder on her.

  “Mary, I told you that I don’t want company right now,” I hissed.

  “That is a good idea. You should be playing it safe right now,” Came Peyton’s smooth tone.

  At once, my heart started to race. “Peyton,” I whispered. “I was so worried about you. Is everything okay? What happened? Is Collins gone?”

  “Easy, darlin’, he said soothingly. “I’m doing just fine. Sorry I didn’t call earlier. Things took a bit longer than I thought. I’m still working on Collins, but don’t worry, we will take care of him soon.”

  “What about Shannon?” I asked with a dry mouth. I was so worried about what was going to happen that I couldn’t control the shaking in my hands.

  “I have her.”

  The weight that was sitting on my chest lifted as I closed my eyes. Shannon was safe. My friend whom I’d believed was dead for so long was alive and well. “I have to see her!”

  “Um,” he stammered, “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”

  “What? Why not?” I asked.

  He cleared his throat, stalling for time. “Shannon isn’t the same as she was, honey.”

  “What?” I whispered. “Peyton, if she hates me, if she doesn’t want to see me, then please just tell me so, okay? I’m just happy she is safe.”

  Even as I said the words, my heart sank. It made sense. I had been the one to leave her behind. It was my fault that she’d been stuck with Collins for so many years. I didn’t even want to think about the horrors that she’d gone through. I shuddered at the memory of the brief time I’d spent locked in captivity. Years of torture, rape, and mental abuse had greeted her while I’d been rebuilding my life.

  “Rosa, it’s nothing like that. She really isn’t the person she was before. Kane had to sedate her just to get her out of there. I’m taking her back to my place now, but it’s going to take some time to get her out of her shell again. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. Do you think she will ever come back to us?” I asked hopefully. “I hate to think that I had a hand in this.”

  “You didn’t, and you can’t think like that either. What happened to her was a tragic accident, but an accident nonetheless. You couldn’t know that he would disappear with her again. I don’t even know why he brought her back there.”

  “Well, it was a lucky break for us that he did. Did you run into any problems?”

  “No, they were gone before we got there. It didn’t look like Collins had been there in a while.”

  “What are we going to do about him? I feel like I’m being followed, Peyton. I don’t like this.”

  “I know. I hate it too. Kane is working on a couple of things to bring him down, but for now, we need to stay low.”

  “Low and apart,” I muttered.

  I hated not being with him. It didn’t feel right to sleep in my bed alone. There was nothing at home to comfort me anymore. I hadn’t realized how much of an impact Peyton had made in my life. He was the rock that kept my foundation from falling. I didn’t care if Shannon wasn’t the same person as before. I wanted to be with both of them. I knew that he was telling the truth. Our being apart was safer than our being together, no matter how much it hurt.

  “I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” I whispered.

  “Just hang in there for a little longer. Has anything strange happened?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I’m being followed.”

  “That’s because you are being followed.”

  “What?”

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to tell you before we went after Shannon. I brought in a couple of men whom I could trust to tail you.”

  “Without telling me? Without asking me?” I hissed at him. “I don’t like having people watching me. I have a life here and people who have already started to notice the change in me.”

  “Sorry, darlin’, but your safety is what I care about. When this is all over, you can get as angry as yo
u want with me. Until then, you’ve got a tail whether you like it or not.”

  I felt my hand twitch with aggravation. I had survived for three years without his help or protection. Nothing had gone wrong with my life until Peyton had shown up. My emotions were all over the place recently, and I couldn’t figure out why. I just had to chalk it up to all the stress that I was under.

  “Keep me posted, I guess. I’m going to go. I need to be at the shop early in the morning. I left today, but I don’t want to do that again tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I know. I thought maybe you were taking my advice after all.”

  “Oh,” I hissed. “Right. I forgot you had people following me.”

  “Darlin,” he started to say, “you’ve gotta trust me on this one, okay? You do still trust me, right?”

  I flinched, not knowing if I could answer the question anymore. The moment was fleeting, though, as I remembered everything he was doing for me. “Of course I do.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I muttered. “Take care of Shannon, and let me know when I can have my life back.”

  I slammed the phone down and stomped up the steps to my bedroom. Now that I knew the people following me weren’t going to try and slit my throat in the night, I could get some sleep. I didn’t even change out of my clothing as I fell down onto the bed and closed my eyes. I reminded myself that what mattered was that Shannon was safe. She would need a lot of help and care over the next few weeks. I couldn’t be there for my friend if I was fighting with Peyton all the time.

  “Men,” I hissed under my breath.

  When my phone rang again and Mary’s name came up on the screen, I hit the button to ignore the call. I couldn’t deal with any more of her questions or concerns. I knew that she cared, but what I really needed was Peyton. Letting myself doze off to sleep, I thought about him holding me tight and prayed our separation wouldn’t last much longer.

  Double Crossed

  Peyton

  I flinched as she ended the call. “I’m gonna pay for that.”

  I knew she was going to be mad but I couldn’t hide things from her. It just didn’t feel right. We were stronger together than we were apart. Pulling up to my apartment, I was thankful to see Kane already waiting with the elevator door held. I grabbed Shannon and jogged to the doors as we rode up to my floor. He acted as a lookout as I snuck her into my apartment. She was light as a feather, a concern that I tucked away into the corner of my mind.

  “How’s she doing?” he asked.

  “About the same as two hours ago when we left. Are you sure you didn’t give her too much?”

  Kane shrugged. “I dated a nurse a few weeks back. We are still on good terms. She gave Collins the slip a few years back, so she was thrilled to help. Got the dosage from her.”

  In thirty more seconds, I would have slapped him across the head, but Shannon started to stir on the couch. Walking swiftly to her side, I knelt to check on her and make sure that she was still tied up well. I hated to see her like that, but I knew it was for her own good. The last thing I needed was a neighbor calling the cops on me.

  “Mmm,” she groaned. “Where am I?” Her eyes grew wide. “I know you.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, we met back at the house, remember?”

  Shannon shook her head. “No, from before then. Who are you? Why did you take me away from Collins?”

  I could see the panic growing in her eyes. The fleeting moment of joy I’d had was gone in an instant. I took the thick cloth that had been covering her mouth and put it back on. Her eyes grew wider as the fear started to spread. Every second she suffered was breaking my heart.

  “Shannon, I brought your art supplies with us. I want to untie you so we can talk. I promise we won’t hurt you, but you must stay quiet. Do you understand?”

  She looked from me and back to Kane, holding his gaze for a second before slowly nodding her head. I let out a small victorious sigh and slowly untied the cloth again. “You remember me from before. What about him?”

  Her eyes softened as she looked at Kane. “Yeah, you’ve always been nice to me. Not like the others.” The soft curves of her eyes turned hard, then fearful. “I don’t want to think about that. You said if I was good, I could draw. I want to draw now.”

  “Okay,” I quickly said as I turned to Kane. He grabbed the supplies we’d taken from Collins’s hideout along with a few things I had him pick up along the way. He set everything out on the low table in front of the couch as I quickly untied her bonds and stepped away. The second she picked up the pencil, everything else around her faded away. Kane and I watched her for a few minutes before retreating to the kitchen. It was obvious at that point that she would be sedate as long as she was drawing.

  “This is going to take some time,” he whispered.

  I ran my fingers through my hair. “Jesus, this is just one more thing we have to deal with.”

  “Don’t worry, you can trust me with her. I know you have other things going on.”

  I looked at Kane. “You would do that?”

  He shrugged. “After everything that you have done for me, it’s the least I can do. Plus, she seems to trust me. I want to get her back. She was always one of the good ones.”

  There was no doubt in my mind that I believed him. There was a look, even through the fog of her eyes, that I could see when Shannon looked at Kane. The brother in me didn’t like it, but the leader inside me knew I could place that trust in him. I needed to figure out a way to deal with Collins before everything got out of control.

  “Did you find anything out about Collins?”

  Kane nodded. “There is a girl in Morgan County who wants to talk to you. It sounds like she has dirt on Collins that might be what you need to take to the elders.”

  “Shit,” I muttered. “Morgan county is a day’s drive from here. I didn’t want to be away that long.”

  “Rosa?” he asked knowingly. “Don’t worry, you’ve got men watching her, and I’ll make sure you know if anything looks even a little off.”

  “Thanks,” I said, clapping him on the back. “I’m heading out. I don’t want to waste any more time than I have to.”

  “Go get them. I’ve got your back.”

  I shook his hand and headed out the door, looking for a way to save everyone once again.

  “Nova Sherwood?” I asked cautiously.

  The young Irish girl shook her head. She couldn’t have been older than twenty, but the fear of men was evident in her eyes. Fury at once bubbled up to the surface. It didn’t take a psychiatrist to know that somewhere along the line, a man had taken advantage of her.

  “Hey, I’m not here to hurt you, okay?” I stammered. “I’m a friend of Kane’s. He sent me down here to talk with Nova. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

  I heard footsteps coming from inside the house and the young woman stepped back. A large Hispanic woman stepped forward. She was the opposite of the frail girl. I could tell with one look that no Irishman, or any man in general, for that matter, would ever cross her.

  “I’m Nova. Who the hell are you?”

  “Peyton. Kane said I needed to come talk to you about Collins.”

  The girl sucked in a sharp breath and Nova quickly shot a stern glare in her direction. “Callie, you go and get us some tea now. We’ll be right here on the porch. And don’t go making one of the new girls do it neither! Tastes like shit.”

  The woman squeezed past me and sat in one of the two worn folding chairs on the small porch. I took the other one and held out my hand. When she didn’t take it, I carefully put it back down.

  “So, you’re the one looking to bring down that little prick?”

  I grinned. “That would be me, yes.”

  “Bet you’ve got one hell of a story behind a bullheaded move like that.”

  “Love, loss, the whole nine yards. To be honest, its one hell of a story, but I’ve got a short deadline and a lot to lose if I don’t act fast.”

/>   She tapped her foot and cocked her head. “You look awfully familiar. How long you been one of Collins’s men?”

  “Long time until now.”

  “So, it’s a girl you’re doing this for then?”

  I clenched my jaw. I wasn’t going to get out of a long conversation with her and it was infuriating. “Yes, her name is Rosa. Collins sent me to kill her, but I can’t do it.”

  “Well now, Collins only ever wanted one woman hunted down, and her name wasn’t no Rosa.”

  My eyes flickered to her and a knowing smile crossed her face. “Now, that explains all of this nonsense.”

  “Please, I just want this to end. Now are you going to help me or not? I am wasting time down here. Time that I could spend looking for another option.”

  The door behind me opened and the quiet woman scurried out, setting down two cups full of iced tea. She started to walk away but Nova grabbed her arm. The girl jumped but didn’t resist.

  “Tilly, I think it’s time you told someone what happened to you.”

  Her eyes grew wide with fear as she shook her head. “No, Miss Sherwood. He will kill me. I don’t want to do it.”

  “Don’t be silly, you twit!” Nova hissed. “You know damn well you are safe out here. I never let any of my girls get hurt. This was your own damn fault. I warned you, and now you’re gonna help get the son of a bitch who did this taken care of!”

  “Easy now, old gal,” I said in a low voice. “I don’t want to bring up anything that ought not to be. I’ve got a sister who’s gone through hell and back. I don’t want to see another girl go through that again.”