by Susan Stoker
He didn’t want to die. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to live.
“Can I help.” Adriana’s voice surprised him.
He turned to see her crawling toward him. She was alright. Relief surged through him. “I need you to tie this around my arm, up here really tight.”
She looked at his arm and her eyes widened. She shook her head. “I-I c-can’t.”
The darkness was becoming too hard to resist. “You can. You have to stop the flow of blood. If you don’t, I’ll die.” His voice sounded far away to him. Did he actually say that or did he dream it?
Maybe this was just another one of his nightmares. He hoped so. He could dream he felt better and they were having sex. Yeah, that’s what they were doing. And he was convincing her there was more than sex between them, giving it his cowboy’s best shot of getting her to admit she felt something stronger.
His gut said she did. His gut was never wrong. To hell with nightmares, this could be a great dream. The darkness reached for him and he slipped into its waiting arms.
*
Adriana couldn’t take her eyes from the blood covering Hunter’s arm. It flowed like a tiny river over the angry bee tattoo, so different from the puddle her father had next to him. “I can get help.”
When Hunter didn’t respond, fear sliced through her. “Hunter? Hunter!”
She pulled his good arm, but his head just rolled.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Don’t you dare die on me.” She looked at the strip of material in his good hand. Even that had blood on it. Freakin-a, she couldn’t do this.
She had to do this. He said he would die.
Pain filled her chest at the possibility. She swallowed hard and grasped the strip of material in both hands, trying not to breathe deep as the warm iron smell tried to pull her back to when she was eight. The blood kept flowing down his arm.
She swallowed hard and moved her gaze to where he’d pointed to. There was no blood up there. She could keep her eyes on that. Without looking, she threaded the strip of material under his arm and around. When her hand came around, it was wet with blood.
“Fuck. I hate blood.” She forced herself to take shallow breaths and tied the two ends together as tight as she could. The memory of Hunter choking the Dom with the whip helped her ignore the blood all over him. His arm was so large. Was it tight enough?
She forced herself to look below the material. Barely a trickle ran down his arm now. She watched as the tiny thread wiggled its way along his forearm and off his hand to soak into the dry desert ground. She wanted to tighten her knot, but if she loosened it to do that, all the blood would flow again.
Even as she had the thought, her stomach heaved and she leaned away to vomit. When she finished, she looked around. He needed help. There was a car not far away but its windshield was cracked. What the fuck hap—“Oh, Crap.”
That car had hit her broadside. So where was her car? She looked at the ledge not five feet away and her stomach heaved again.
She wiped her mouth on her sleeve. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. She owed Hunter her life.
Freakin-a. He already had her heart. Now she had to save him.
She started to stand and fell over, the ground moving like it had the night before when she was drunk. She touched her head and found a huge bump. “Ouch.”
Note to self: if it hurts, don’t touch it.
She crawled back to Hunter. “Okay, you can’t die on me.” Maybe she could crawl to the golf cart and honk the horn. “Yeah right, over the noise going on down there. They’d never hear it.”
If only she had her phone. The sounds of sirens in the distance gave her hope. She took off her long-sleeve shirt and covered Hunter. She’d seen on television where they kept accident victims warm. This wasn’t exactly an accident. More like a homicidal maniac event.
She glared at the car yards away. Whoever was in it better not wake up or she and Hunter were sitting ducks. Unless…she reached behind her for her gun. Crap, she’d put it in the glove compartment.
Hunter groaned and she stroked her hand over his short hair. What happened to his cowboy hat? He always wore his hat. She scanned the ground in the moonlight. It bothered her that she couldn’t find his hat. Was that wrong?
The sirens grew louder. They must have turned down the dirt road leading to the resort. She watched the desert for a reflection of lights. “Help is on its way. Hold on. Please, hold on.”
She blinked back the tears that threatened. There was no way Hunter could die here at Poker Flat. He’d served two tours in Afghanistan, for God’s sake. She forced herself to look at the wrap she’d tied. No more blood flowed below it. That was a good thing, right? Or did it mean his whole arm would die?
The reflection of red across the desert floor flooded the area now. They were almost here. The sound became deafening. Freak, why did they leave those on? It wasn’t like there was any traffic.
She watched a big-ass fire truck drive around the barrier and head right for the road down to the resort. She waved as the headlights shone on them and the truck came to a sudden stop.
Men jumped out and two headed for the car. To hell with that person. “Over here!” Two large men ran toward her.
“Adriana?”
“Hi, Cole. About time you got here.” She gave him a smile, more than happy to see him.
He spoke into his radio. “Dispatch, we need an ambulance.”
She nodded. He was a good firefighter and a take-control kind of man, like Hunter. Lacey was very lucky.
He wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. “Can you stand?”
She shook her head then stopped when the ground started to spin again. She reached out, and he caught her arm. “Whoa, there. Just sit while I take a look at…” He glanced down at Hunter. “Shit, Cash, what have you done to yourself?”
“He got cut saving me.”
Cole gave her an odd look then took Hunter’s pulse. “Who tied the tourniquet?”
“I did. Pretty good for a girl who’s afraid of blood, huh? Of course, I did throw up twice.” Now why did she tell him that?
“Do you know how long it’s been on?”
She tried to think. “Since the crash. No, not that long. I don’t know.”
“No problem, Adriana. We’ll take care of him.”
The other man covered Hunter up with a blanket as well. “We need to transport him first.”
Cole gave the man a scowl. “Mason, I have an ambulance on the way. I need to check—”
“Who’s hurt?” A figure ran in front of the headlights. “Cole, tell me, who’s hurt?”
“Lacey, you shouldn’t have come.”
“Don’t give me that—Oh Adriana.”
From the look in Lacey’s eyes, her bump was bigger. She raised her hand then stopped. If it hurt before it would kill to touch it now. “Hunter’s hurt.” She pointed to him. Then she glared at Cole. “He better live. If he dies, I’m coming after you with my Smith and, oh crap, that’s gone too.”
Cole laid a large hand on her shoulder. “He’s not going to die.”
He spoke into his radio again. “Clark, drive the tanker down below. We’ll join you as soon as our patients have been transported.”
Adriana looked at Lacey, who had crouched down next to her. “My car is gone.”
Lacey didn’t say anything. She just opened her arms and gave her a hug.
Adriana hugged her back. She hadn’t wanted to leave anyway.
*
Hunter opened his eyes, immediately recognizing he was in a hospital room. But it was different from the last time. He was in the bed.
He looked at his arm. Shit, it wasn’t a dream. Adriana?
He scanned to his right and found her. She was asleep, her head on his leg, her hand clasping his. He’d almost lost her. Another car, another driver, and almost another dead woman. He couldn’t let it happen. He would have gone over the edge with her, trying to save her.
She
had a bandage wrapped around her head and over her tangled hair. Shit, she was so beautiful to him. He had to convince her she was his. He squeezed her hand.
“Huh?” She lifted her head, looked at him with her warm brown eyes and blinked. “Hunter?”
“Good morning.” He smiled, too happy to have her next to him not to.
She straightened up. “Hunter McKade. You had me worried. How dare you stay unconscious for so long?”
“I’m sorry. If I’d known you were waiting for me to wake up, I promise you I would have woken much sooner.”
“You scared me.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“You scared me.” He took a deep breath. “Do you know how close you were to going over that ledge with your car?”
She shook her head then held her hand against the good side of her head. “I shouldn’t do that. It makes me dizzy. Who was it who hit my car? I couldn’t believe that guest ran right into me.”
He tried to stay calm, but it was useless. “It wasn’t a new guest, it was the Dom’s sub, Tina. She was the one who has been making your life hell.”
“How would you know? You’ve been unconscious.”
He squeezed her hand in his, still adjusting to the fact that he’d been there, saved her. “Investigative work. Lacey and Mac helped too.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “Meek little Tina?”
“Not so meek. I believe she was the regional manager of your bank. Mac discovered on a forum that she blamed you for her Dom not being allowed at any nudist resorts for miles around.” His anger started to build. “She decided you needed to be taught a lesson.”
“That bitch.” Adriana’s hand found her hip, just as he predicted.
His smile broke through his tension. “But she didn’t count on Kendra being so loyal to you, so when she didn’t fire you time after time, she must have come back to the resort to make you pay.” He hesitated over the question he had to ask.
“What is it?”
“I shot her to keep her from ramming you again.” He took a deep breath. Killing the enemy, even female enemies in a foreign country was different than this. “I may have killed her.”
Adriana’s hand came to his chest. “I did see them take someone out of that car and put her in an ambulance. But I haven’t heard anything.”
“I didn’t want to kill her. She probably needed psychological help.”
“You think?” Adriana’s look had him smiling.
Shit, she’d forced him to face life again and he was so glad he did. He leaned forward, unable to resist her lips a moment longer. Fuck, he’d almost lost her.
Despite the pain in his arm, he brushed her lips with his, the touch calming him.
Adriana’s hand wrapped around his neck while she deepened the kiss.
“Whoa, can’t you two wait until you’re discharged?” Cole walked into the room with Lacey right behind him. She ran straight to Adriana and gave her a hug.
Adriana released his hand to hug her friend back.
Cole shook his head at them. “Good to see you awake, Cash.”
Adriana disengaged herself from Lacey’s arms. “Hey, Cash doesn’t fit him. He’s not wearing any black.”
He picked at the hospital gown he wore. “No, I believe they call this baby butt blue.”
They chuckled at his comment.
“Sorry, black or not, you’re still Cash to me.” Cole gave a hard nod, like he’d settled that.
“He’s a hero to me.” Adriana grabbed his hand again, a very good sign as far as he was concerned. “But he wants to know what happened to Tina. Did he kill her?”
Cole stared at him. “How did you know the woman’s name was Tina?”
Lacey smiled. “Because he did some of his own detective work and figured out which guest was out to get Adriana.” She looked at him. “But how did you know she would try to kill Adriana?”
“I didn’t.” He looked expectantly at Cole.
The man smirked. “No, you didn’t kill her, but your bullet did catch her in the forehead on its way by. She would have kept coming but blood from the wound dripped in front of her eyes and she fainted. That’s what she told the EMT when she came to in the ambulance.”
“I understand that feeling.” Adriana looked at his bandaged arm.
He squeezed her hand to reassure her he was fine. “What was she doing at Poker Flat? Everything up to that point she’d accomplished from off-site. Why show up then?”
Lacey leaned against his bed next to Adriana. “She’d heard on the forums that Adriana was going to leave. I guess she didn’t like that at all. She wanted her fired.” Lacey looked at her friend. “From the whip they found in her car, we think she planned to punish you, but when she saw your yellow Camaro so close to the edge, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to get rid of you once and for all.”
Adriana grimaced. “So I was at the right place at the right time to trigger a nut cake.”
Lacey shrugged. “I think that’s all there is to it.”
Cole came around the bed and took Lacey’s hand. “But don’t worry about her. From what I understand, she’ll be under the state’s care for a while. She was raving that you had hurt her Dom and you should never have challenged him, and how his reputation was in the mud thanks to you. It didn’t make any sense. Detective Anderson said she is facing attempted murder charges and if she doesn’t go to jail, she’ll still go away for a long time for psychiatric help.”
“I’m so glad that’s over. Now maybe we can get back to business as usual.” Lacey embraced Adriana in another hug and he kept his lips from twitching upward as she rolled her eyes.
Lacey finally let go. “Kendra said as soon as you are feeling better, she wants you back at the bar. She hated having to choose between you and the resort and is thrilled that this is all over.”
“I never would have let the resort suffer.”
Lacey’s eyes teared-up. “I know. You were going to leave without saying goodbye, weren’t you?”
Adriana pulled Lacey into her arms and Hunter raised his brow, but she ignored him.
“I was. I didn’t want all the tears. Now we don’t have to cry.” She let Lacey go.
The bookkeeper nodded then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Get better soon, Hunter. We need you back at Poker Flat.”
He nodded. “I plan to.”
When the couple exited, he gave his full attention to Adriana, who looked completely deflated. That was not a look he liked to see on her. “What is it?
“So once again, I brought it on myself by not being careful in my bedmates.”
He released her hand and gently grabbed her chin. “No, you didn’t bring this on yourself. The Dom’s actions were under his control, not yours. And Tina’s actions were her own decision. You did nothing wrong.”
She captured his hand, moved it to her lips and kissed it. “Actually, I did. I let you get too close. No other man or woman interests me anymore. I want you to know that you are going to have to meet my sexual needs now because you’ve spoiled me.”
Hunter’s soul rejoiced at her words. “I think I’m up for that.”
She lowered her brows. “You think?”
He released her hand and cupped her neck, bringing her within an inch of his lips. “I am if you’re up for having a relationship.”
She gazed into his eyes. “I don’t think I have a choice. My heart and body only want you.”
He grinned. “Good.”
Before she could respond, he kissed her, putting all of his heart into it.
When he released her, she winked. “I think I’m going to like this relationship thing.”
Epilogue
‡
Adriana walked around the debris that had been her car. Everything was black. She couldn’t see an inch of yellow anywhere.
Good thing she packed only the important stuff in her car and planned to send for the items that were still in boxes in her living room. Hell, wouldn’t want to have
anything of any value left to pick up the pieces of her life with. She smirked, stifling the groan that wanted to emerge. Even the money she’d taken from her account had been in her purse and her gun was probably melted to the car. So much for catching a break.
She looked up to the top of the ravine wall. She’d never thought of it as that far up, since the winding dirt road made it a gradual climb, but as far as direct height, it was up there.
She returned her gaze to her car and shivered. That could have been her. Note to self: redefine definition of catching a break. She definitely had. She was alive.
A strong arm came around her from behind and she smiled. “It’s a good thing I would recognize your scent anywhere, Hunter, or you could have been seriously hurt right now.” She turned in his arm to find a smile on his face. He did a lot more of that since getting out of the hospital.
He pulled her against him. “What are you doing here? I woke up and you were gone.”
She shrugged. “I guess I just needed to see for myself that nothing was salvageable.”
“It doesn’t matter. I have the only thing of any importance.”
“Good point.” She grinned before giving him a passionate kiss. When he broke away, she found herself itching to ditch her clothes. She was still on sick leave because of her head, so she technically didn’t have to wear her clothes. Good thing because they were all burned.
She stepped away and looked at the mess that was her life. Her old life. Now she would begin a new one and see where it led her. “I guess I’ll start by buying new clothes.”
Hunter stepped in front of her. “But you still have boxes in your apartment that are overflowing. Don’t you have clothes in there?”
She thought back to what was in those boxes and gave him a seductive smile. “Oh there are clothes in there. I have at least six different body stockings, five corsets, eighteen costumes, eleven teddies in different styles, some—”
Her gaze was caught by a shiny object on the ground not five feet away. Releasing Hunter’s hand, she scrambled over the rocks and debris and picked it up. It was Lady’s rabies tag. Closing her hand over it, her eyes misted.