by R B Hilliard
Without a word, he locked the drawer and shut the cabinet door. Then he stood and rounded the desk. “He told me that you were a spoiled little brat. To think, I didn’t believe him.”
“Yeah? Well he told me that you were a decent human being. To think, I didn’t believe him either!” A crack of his hand on my cheek hurt, but more than that, it fueled my determination to get the hell out of there.
“I told him to reign you in, but he wanted to do it his way. Now look where we are! You are unruly and out of control!” Dooley yelled.
This guy is certifiable, bug nuts, cuckoo and I am trapped in his fucking house! Lester appeared to have slithered back under his rock because he was no longer hovering. I could see the front door from where I was standing and, little did Dooley know, but my keys were in my pocket. All I had to do was get to my car. If I could do that, I could phone the police. Forget that. I’ll drive to the police station.
“Now, let’s go find your room,” he said. His words sliced through my internal dialog and my pulse shot through the roof.
Uh…how about let’s not. There was no way in hell that I would ever willingly stay here with this man. And what about Selina, his so-called girlfriend? Where in the hell was she?
“I had planned on you staying in my suite tonight. Since we still have some training to do, I can see that’s not going to happen.” My stomach revolted and I had to bite back the urge to throw up all over his black and yellow striped carpet.
I didn’t want him to hit me again, but I needed a distraction. Please let this work. Raising my voice to a half shout, I said, “I am not staying in your house, Dooley! And I’m certainly not sleeping in your bed…ever. Where the hell is your girlfriend?” I stormed out of his office, stopped at the foot of the grand staircase and turned on the drama. “Selina! Get the hell down here and take control of your man!”
A backhand to my mouth surprised me as well as split my lip. It also made my blood boil. Without a second thought, I reared my head back, slammed my forehead into Dooley’s nose and jerked my knee straight up into his balls. Squealing like the oily pig that he was, he dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I shot out the front door and mentally cheered when I saw that my car was still parked where I left it. I dug my keys out of my pocket and, right as I hit the bottom step, was tackled from behind. Like a flying ninja, Dooley took me down and, in a flurry of fists and kicks, beat the living hell out of me. My last thought before I blacked out was…Gage.
After my run in with Gage at the garage, oversharing with Ellie and finding out my Godson would not be named Piper, I needed a drink. Susannah had to be in Virginia the next day to interview a woman who supposedly had seventy two vaginal piercings. Yikes! She planned on spending the night at Zippo’s, but I talked her into having a few drinks before she headed out. This gave me plenty of time to decompress before work. We were stretched out on pool chairs with drinks in hand while basking in the warmth of the electric space heater when Kurt appeared.
“Oh good, you’re here, Piper,” he said. I could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong.
I shot up off of my chair. “What’s wrong? Is it Ellie and the baby?”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” he assured.
I settled back down in the chair. “Well?”
“Can I borrow your sofa for an hour or so?”
“Do I need to leave for this conversation?” Susannah asked, looking back and forth between us. “I’m not really sure I want to hear about your kink right now.”
Kurt’s horrified expression made me laugh out loud. After my crap of a day, it felt really good. When I managed to get it under control I asked him why he needed my sofa.
“Because I need a quiet place to take a nap. I’m so fucking tired and she won’t leave it alone,” he answered.
Susannah’s eyebrow shot up. “It?”
“It, it!” he exclaimed and pointed to the front of his shorts. “I love her and I love sex, but my dick is going to fall off if he doesn’t get a rest. It’s so bad that I have a chafe right on my…”
In tandem, both of our hands went up in the air. “Don’t say it!” I yelled.
“If it will stop you from talking about your sore Johnson, I will give you my key.” Susannah warily offered.
“The door is open,” I told him. “Go on in. We’ll keep your secret.” He looked so relieved that I almost felt bad for the guy. Death by sex didn’t sound like a bad way to go, especially if you haven’t had sex in over six months.
I was in the middle of telling Susannah about my day when her phone rang. She glanced at the screen, shrugged and silenced it. A few minutes later, it rang again and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something felt wrong. Before I could tell her not to answer it, she said, “Hello?” After listening for a few seconds her eyes lifted to mine, “Hang on. Let me see if she’s around.” She placed her hand over the receiver and mouthed, “Reyn.”
Grabbing the phone from her hands, I said, “Reyn? Is that you?”
“You are a hard person to track down,” Reyn said.
“Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I don’t have much time to talk. So I really need you to listen.” Her voice was a notch above a whisper, which didn’t bode well. “Lester just showed up at Dooley’s. Holy shit Piper, Dooley flipped out when he realized you weren’t in that car. He beat Lester half to death and threatened to kill him. Then he started spouting all kinds of crazy. The one thing he repeated over and over again was that you had stolen something from him and how he was going to ruin Gage Blackwell because of it.”
My lungs felt as if fingers were tightly squeezing them and I had to gasp for air. “Did he say anything else?”
“He didn’t give any details, but he knows stuff about Gage…and so does Zeke. They know all kinds of stuff about the things Gage did for Dooley, Piper. Even if they didn’t, they could make it up. Do you understand? They will make it up. You have to return whatever you stole or Dooley’s going to destroy Gage’s life,” she whispered.
Fuck!
“Okay, Reyn, hang tight. I’m coming. Do you think you could buy me until the end of the week? I have to pack and make excuses. That will take some time. It’s already too late to call in sick today. I can be there by Friday at the latest. Can you get Zeke to hold Dooley off until then?”
“I can try,” she quietly said. I cringed at the despondent tone of her voice. What had they done to her?
“Honey? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Just get here fast, please.” Her plea tugged at my heart.
“I will text you the details when I have them. In the meantime, call me at this number if you need to reach me. Susannah will get your message to me, okay?”
“See you soon,” she said and hung up.
“What the hell?” Susannah asked.
My mind was spinning in dizzying circles. “Reyn was at Dooley’s when Lester returned from his failed kidnapping attempt. Apparently Dooley took it hard and almost beat Lester to death. He is so livid with me that he’s threatening to take it out on Gage,” I explained.
“I’m confused. Why would Dooley going after Gage affect you? I mean, we both know you still care about Gage, but Dooley doesn’t. If anything, he should think that you hate Gage, shouldn’t he?”
“I was head over heels in love with Gage, Susannah. Believe me, Dooley knew exactly how deep those feelings ran. He’s banking on the fact that they haven’t completely died and damn if he’s not going to win.”
“Don’t tell me that you are actually going?” she gasped.
“I have to. Dooley is going to hurt Gage because of me. I can’t let him do that. Surely you understand?” I grabbed her hand and made her look at me. “Wouldn’t you go if it was Zip? Please tell me you understand?”
Her eyes welled. “He’ll hurt you like he did before, Piper.”
I shrugged. I didn’t have a plan yet, but I knew that I ne
eded to stop Dooley from hurting Gage. I had no idea what “jobs” Gage had performed for him along the way and didn’t really care. However, I would bet my life that Dooley had enough information to take Gage down and I couldn’t let that happen. Not if I could help it.
Susannah wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “When are you leaving?”
“I need to make sure Dillon is okay at Dragonfly and to talk to Ellie and Joss. I guess either tomorrow afternoon or Monday.”
“Will you call me?”
“Of course I will. In fact, I’ll drop by and pick up a few pre-paid cell phones and hide them in my stuff, just in case.”
Her eyes bugged and I wanted to kick myself. I hadn’t told Susannah all of the gory details about my time at Dooley’s. “I’m just being extra careful. I’ll be fine, I promise. Now, I’ve got to go get ready for work and you need to head to your man.” I tried to steady my voice, but still it waivered.
She pulled me in for a hug and I almost broke down. “I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too. Now let’s go wake up Kurt.”
Chapter Ten
I woke in a haze of pain and couldn’t decide which part of my body hurt the most. My right cheek throbbed and I could barely open my left eye. I could taste the tang of dried blood on my split lip and my shoulder ached. Wait! Why is my shoulder aching? When I attempted to sit up and look, pain in my side had me gasping for air. This is bad. At least I still had my clothes on. The last thing I remembered was being tackled from behind, thinking about Gage and then…nothing. I couldn’t let myself think about Gage right now. I had to formulate an escape plan. Once I was out and in my car, then I could worry about how to explain all of this to Gage.
After three tries, I hoisted myself out of the bed and headed for the door. I knew it would be locked, but decided to try it anyway. Yep, locked. Before checking for exits and weapons, I wanted to assess the damage and use the restroom. My ribs were on fire but I didn’t think any were broken. My shoulder hurt worse than anything else. Locking the bathroom door so dickhead and his sidekick couldn’t barge in, I slowly undressed. Then I stood in front of the three way mirror and tried my best not to flip out at what I saw. Shit!
My entire face was a blackish purple color and the swelling! Yikes! I had black and red bruises across my ribs where the asshat had kicked me. I turned sideways to get a better view of my shoulder and gasped when I saw the black golf ball sized hematoma. That must have happened when he tackled me. After I head-butted him and kicked him in the jollys. I hope he’s walking like a bowlegged cowboy. The abrasions on my knees and elbows stung. Another lovely memento from Dooley’s football tackle. What kind of person gets off on hitting women? A seriously demented one, that’s for sure. I needed to remind myself of this before antagonizing him any further. Before searching through the drawers and closets for weapons, I filled the sink up with warm water and attempted to wash away the night. I needed a shower, but couldn’t risk anyone breaking in.
After cleaning up a bit, I felt better. Before unlocking the bathroom door, I made sure to check for weapons. Nothing. It was the same in the bedroom. Not a weapon in sight and all of the windows were sealed shut. Damn. I painfully squatted down to look under the bed when the lock on the door clicked. Not wanting Dooley to catch me up and about, I quickly crawled back onto the bed and managed to get settled right as the door opened. Dooley walked in all smiles, acting as if nothing happened. The hatred that pulsed through my veins was overwhelming. It fueled me and I needed that right now because I was both exhausted and scared.
“Good morning. Lester informed me that you were up and about,” he said in a sing song voice. I stared coldly at him. He hunched his shoulders as he lowered himself to the foot of the bed and let out a deep sigh. “Things got a bit out of hand last night and I behaved poorly. I sincerely apologize. I wanted our first night together to be special and instead it was a complete debacle. For that I am truly sorry. Do you think we could…maybe…start over?” he sheepishly asked.
My mother always told me that if I couldn’t say something nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all. I had no nice words for this man so I stuck with the cold stare.
His eyes narrowed on me. “I see you can hold a grudge.” You think?
“You lured me here under false pretenses, assaulted and then kidnapped me. Hmmmm, let me see, that should get you at least ten. That’s if Gage doesn’t kill you before you ever set foot inside a jail cell,” I sarcastically replied.
“Gage, my dear, is currently with Zeke, Zippo and… Selina… in Arkansas. Rest assured he won’t be racing back home any time soon.”
“Gage is not with Selina,” I snapped.
His eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure about that?”
I crossed my arms over my chest like a petulant child. “Absolutely.”
“Well, being that I spoke both to him and Selina this morning, I can assure you that they are very much together…in Arkansas.”
I laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that, old man. Gage would never cheat on me.”
His body tensed, his nostrils flared, and I knew I’d struck a nerve. Good. Then he clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Oh Piper, Piper, Piper.” The quiet chilling tone of his voice had me bracing. “Do you remember the night you first laid eyes on your Gage?” He didn’t wait for my answer. “That night you also met sweet Selina, didn’t you? Such a beautiful woman, don’t you think?” I had no idea where he was going with this, but I knew I wasn’t going to like it. “I believe when you left that night Selina was sitting on Gage’s lap. What exactly do you think they did after you left?” He raised his eyebrows in question. “Drop her off at her house like a good little boy? No, my dear, he didn’t. He took her home and enjoyed everything about her and believe me, she has quite a lot to offer.”
A tiny tingle of uncertainty trickled down my spine but I ignored it. “Gage said he’s never been with Selina. In fact, he told me that he thought that you and Selina were involved.”
He chuckled. “He told you that. Did he? Selina is a beautiful woman who I have immensely enjoyed. In fact, we have a sort of agreement that has benefitted us both. However, I am aware that she is more taken with Gage and, if I’m not mistaken, he enjoys her charms often.”
Ignoring his last statement, I said, “Why would Gage tell me that you and Selina are involved if you’re not?”
“My guess is that he felt that if you thought Selina was mine, then you wouldn’t suspect anything.”
I didn’t like the thought of Gage with another woman because he was mine, but he wasn’t the first night I met him and that’s what mattered. Shrugging off the doubt, I said, “Gage and I weren’t together then. For all you know, I went home that same night and slept with the guy in apartment 3C.”
He softly chuckled and in a creepy, quiet voice said, “I seriously doubt that. Do you remember the night we were standing in front of the falls? Why do you think your Gage wasn’t out there with us?”
I blinked. “Because Lester had business to discuss.”
“Do you remember me asking what it would take for you to be mine?” I blinked again. “Apparently that question caused some…strife… between you two, which resulted in you walking out.”
How in the hell does he know that?
“You are wondering how I know this, correct?”
I blinked.
“In a panic, Gage came to talk to me the very next day. Did he tell you?”
I glared into his heartless, black eyes. “Gage tells me everything, Dooley. What’s your point?”
“Gage wasn’t upset because you left him that night, dear. He was worried that I might be angry with him.”
I stared at him and waited for the punchline.
He sighed heavily. “Gage came to your apartment to apologize the next night, right? How do I know this?” He leaned in and I pulled back. “The same way I know that he claimed you as his that night and told you for the first time that he loved you.” In
a low menacing voice he said, “I know this because I planned it all down to the last detail. That’s how.”
Anger flared in my belly, but I held my cool. “Liar.”
He smiled. “You don’t mean that.”
I wanted to rip the smug smile off of his face. “If you wanted me so badly, then why let Gage have me…and keep me… for over three months? No one in their right mind would do that. Not even you.”
“Hmmmm. Let’s just say that I had a previous engagement to take care of before I could officially make you mine. Think of Gage as a bed warmer or an appetizer of sorts. He is someone I trusted who wouldn’t form an attachment.”
“Gage probably told you that he was coming to see me that night and that he was in love with me. Being the smart man that you like to think you are, you put two and two together. Nice try Dooley. You almost had me going there for a minute,” I smirked.
His jaw hardened and in the blink of an eye his arms were on either side of my hips and my back was pressed against the headboard. I was caged and cornered. His face was so close that I could feel his hot breath on my cheek and his black eyes burned through me. “Gage told me everything. He told me how you jumped him in his garage and how you couldn’t keep your hands off of him. He told me all about taking you in his living room and then later in his bedroom. I know that you compare his eyes to the Caribbean and that you are afraid of spiders. I also know that Gage was uncomfortable enough playing the role of bed-warmer, that he waited for you to fall asleep before running out the door. And leave he did, Piper. Because I was unable to…how do you kids say it? Seal the deal. I forced him to find you and make amends. He did this on a sidewalk in the middle of town. Afterwards, you went to your apartment to talk. Lastly, I know that each and every time he told you that he was on a “job” for me, he was holed up in my house…with any available woman he could stick his dick inside.”