by Marla Monroe
“I might be persuaded,” she said, closing her eyes.
“Hmmm. Might?” Mitch asked. “Like with this?” He pulled her toward him and kissed her, drawing it out and using lots of tongue.
David pulled her back toward him when Mitch let go of her and buried his fingers in her hair as he thrust his tongue deep in her mouth to explore and twine his tongue with hers. Once he released her, she felt giddy and swimmy headed.
“Ready for bed?” David asked in a husky voice?
“Hmmm,” was all she could say.
* * * *
“I can’t next week, guys. I’m working all next week for one of the guys while he goes home before school starts again. It’s only a little over a week. What about this Sunday??” Adonna hated to say no, but she had to.
“We promised one of the guys we’d work on his truck for him Sunday up at his house,” David said.
“What hours are you working?” Mitch asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Ten to six. Dayshift. Don’t look at me like that. It is my business,” she snapped.
Instantly, he looked contrite and sighed. “I know. I can’t help but worry.”
“I’ll be fine. It’s dayshift,” she said.
“So, Saturday is out. What about next Sunday?” David asked.
“That sounds good. I’ll be off Monday, so I can rest up after you guys put me through my paces,” she teased.
“Right,” Mitch said with a grin. “We’ll hike up to the lookout and have a picnic, then around to Jasper and Phillip’s place. They’ll drive us back down to our truck. You can meet Caro and their little boy, Ranger.”
“That sounds like fun, except I hate to meet them all sweaty and smelling,” she said.
“They’ll understand,” David said.
“You’ll like Caro. She’s sweet and Ranger is a darling. He’s about sixteen months now, I think,” Mitch said. “Little handful.”
“I would imagine he’s into everything at that age,” Adonna said.
“So, we all set?” David asked.
“I guess so.”
“Any word yet on the building?” Mitch asked.
“The realtor said the owner wanted to sell it not rent it. I asked if he would be willing to lease it toward buying it. She hasn’t gotten back to me yet. I can’t afford to outright buy it right now. If he would apply a small part of the lease to the asking price, I might be able to afford to buy it in a year or two,” she said.
“Maybe we could afford to loan you the money and you could pay us back when you can,” David said.
“No. Absolutely not,” she said, lifting one hand up and shaking her head.
“Why not?” Mitch asked.
“I’m not even going to get into it. Just no,” she said.
“Not even if he refuses to work with you?” David asked.
“Not even.”
Mitch shook his head. “Stubborn woman.”
“End of conversation. Not another word.” Adonna frowned at them.
“Okay,” Mitch mumbled.
David sighed and nodded. She could tell he didn’t like it, but he agreed.
Borrowing money from friends was bad for friendships. It would be disastrous between boyfriends and girlfriends. Especially with two men involved. No, she wasn’t going to go there.
“Let’s get a couple of pizzas at the pizza place and take them back to the house. I’m starved,” Mitch suggested.
“You’re always hungry,” David said.
“It’s seven o’clock, man. Lunch was like seven hours ago. Of course I’m hungry. You up for pizza, Adonna?” Mitch asked
“Sounds good to me. I can’t stay late though. I start working tomorrow for Garry.”
“That’s almost two weeks,” David said. “Like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then Monday through next Saturday?”
“A week and a half. He’s not a full-time employee so I can’t very well refuse him. I need him, David. Besides, while he’s gone, that’s more money going into my dream fund for the boutique.”
“I guess. Still, that’s a lot of work,” David fussed.
“Look on the bright side,” Mitch said. “It’s all during the daytime.”
“That’s true,” he said.
“See. Mitch understands,” Adonna said with a smile.
“Come on you two. Let’s go get that pizza before I waste away.” Mitch stood and took Adonna’s hand and pulled her to her feet.
They drove to the pizza place and picked up two large pizzas with everything and carried them back to Mitch and David’s house where they demolished them in front of the TV. By the time they turned in, Adonna was full and pleasantly sated in all departments. The men knew how to make her feel good and tire her out in the most delicious of ways.
If only her dream of opening her store would come to fruition, she’d have it all. A home, two men who seemed to adore her, and her business that she’d been planning since forever.
* * * *
Adonna sighed as she waited for another customer to wander around the store and look at every single item in the store before he finally decided on a magazine and checked out. He’d been the sole person for nearly an hour, and had taken nearly that long to peruse around the store. No wonder the college kids liked this job. They could study between customers. They were few and far between.
Around noon, she grabbed her lunch and ate while yet another man walked around the store looking at the various items without touching anything. He kept his hands in his pockets leaning in to look at stuff but never touching anything. She thought that was kind of odd, but then most of the customers she got were sort of odd.
She’d just finished her sandwich when he walked up to the counter without anything in his hand and withdrew his hand from his pocket, but it wasn’t empty. In it was a gun. He’d pulled the hood of his jacket over his head and leaned over the counter.
“Open the cash register and give me all the money. Now!” he said.
She didn’t hesitate or say one word. She just did what he said and opened the drawer and pulled out all the cash. There wasn’t much since she’d only had half a dozen sales that morning. Though most people paid in cash, it hadn’t added up to much.
When she handed it over, he banged the gun against the counter. “Is that all you have? What’s under the drawer? Lift it out and let me see.”
Adonna did as he asked and lifted the drawer out. There was a check and nothing else under there. Again, he cursed and grabbed his hood with both hands and still holding the gun.
“Where’s the safe?” he demanded.
“I don’t have a safe. I take the money to the bank every night,” she said.
“There has to be more money here somewhere. This place is always busy when I drive by at night,” he said.
“That’s at night. It’s not busy in the daytime. They dropped the money off in the night drop last night. I don’t have any money here during the day,” she said again.
He reached across the counter before she realized what he was doing, and grabbed her by the hair and banged her head hard against the counter.
“Bitch! I need that money. We’re going to go get that money out of the bank. You’re going to withdraw it and give it to me. Got it?” he asked.
“I can’t get it out. It’s Saturday,” she said. “The bank’s not open on Saturday.”
He yelled and banged her head on the counter again. Adonna’s head was bleeding now and blood flowed into her eyes, making it hard for her to see. She started to reach up and wipe it out, but he yelled at her.
“Don’t move your hands. Keep them on the counter where I can see them. You move again, I’ll blow your head off, got it?” he yelled.
Adonna nodded. She was afraid to say anything. He banged the gun against his head as he continued to hold her by the hair with the other hand.
“Think, Joe. Think.” He kept muttering that over and over.
“How much do you need?” she asked.
“What do you
care?” he asked.
“Maybe I can help you get it,” she said.
“I need three hundred and seventy-five dollars to pay my daughter’s medical bill, so they’ll treat her at the hospital,” he said.
“Okay. You’ve got, what? Two fifty there, right? I’ve got another seventy or so in my purse, and I’ll write you a check made out to the hospital for the rest. Will that work?” she asked.
“You’d do that for me?” he asked.
“If it’s for your daughter, then yeah. I’ll do that for you.”
“Okay, okay.” He released her hair and watched as she reached down and got her purse. He kept the gun trained on her as she pulled out her wallet and handed over the money, and they counted out what they needed to finish off what he had to have to pay off the bill they required to treat his daughter. Then Adonna wrote a check made out to the hospital for the remainder.
“I’m going with you to the hospital because I’m going to need stitches to my head. You do realize they are going to arrest you for this, right?” she asked.
He looked down at his boots and nodded. “I was desperate to see about my girl. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I know, but this wasn’t the answer. Now you won’t be there for her when she needs you again.”
“I need a job, but when they closed the plant, I lost the only job there was in town. I’ve been picking up odd jobs here and there, but it isn’t enough to feed a family, you know?”
“I know. Come on. Let’s go.” Adonna grabbed a couple of paper towels and wiped at the blood running down her face, then carried her purse and locked the door behind them.
She drove her car and he drove the old beat-up pick-up truck toward the local hospital. She waited until he went inside, then she followed and went to the emergency room where she was the only person in the waiting room. She filled out the paperwork and sat down. It dawned on her that she needed to contact the guys. They’d be pissed if she didn’t. Oh boy. They were going to be furious.
Chapter Nine
She could hear them from the exam room yelling at someone as they walked across the open area of the emergency room. She winced as Mitch cursed at the woman who was trying to get him to calm down.
“I’ll fucking calm down when I see her. Now show me where the fuck she is,” he yelled.
“Please. Lower your voice. She’s right here.” The soft voice of the woman stopped just outside of Adonna’s room.
Mitch pushed aside the curtain and he and David stomped inside then shoved the curtain back in place.
“What the hell happened, babe?” Mitch asked as he rushed over to the stretcher where she was laying with her head up.
“It’s a long story, but in short I was held up,” she said.
“Damnit. I knew that was going to happen.” Mitch punched the wall with his fist.
“Stop it or you’ll break your hand and have to pay to get the wall repainted,” Adonna fussed, then held a hand to her bandaged head.
“Easy, hon. Don’t yell. I bet you have a headache, don’t you?” David said as he ran his hand gently down her hair.
“Yeah. I’ve got a slight concussion so only Ibuprofen,” she said.
“What happened, babe? I need to know what happened to you,” Mitch said.
Adonna sighed and recounted the entire thing, wincing when Mitch growled at the part where the man banged her head against the counter, and when she actually wrote out a check to the hospital for the man.”
“You did what?” he roared.
“It got her out of the danger she was in,” David said, grabbing Mitch by the shoulder.
“I can’t believe she wrote a fucking check to the damn robber,” Mitch said.
“It wasn’t to him. It was to the hospital for his little girl. If he’d come and asked for it, I probably would have done it anyway,” she said.
“Where is this guy now?” Mitch asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve already talked to the police. They may have already arrested him. I don’t know. I’ve tried to find out about his little girl, but no one will tell me anything since I’m not family or anything.” Adonna really wanted to know how his little girl was.
“If he isn’t in jail, he better be soon, or I’m going to make him wish he was,” Mitch said.
“You’ll do no such thing. Let the police do their job and leave him alone. He was desperate for his little girl. What if you’d been in the same situation? You might have done the same thing,” Adonna said.
“I wouldn’t have hurt another person in order to help my child. I would have figured out another way,” Mitch said.
“Well, it wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only one he could come up with on short notice. We don’t know what was wrong with his little girl or how sensitive the situation was. I’m okay and only needed a few stitches. His little girl is getting the care she needs. That’s all that matters right now. Now, which of you two handsome men is going to take me home so I can get some rest?” she asked.
“We’re taking you to our place so we can watch over you,” David said.
“She can’t go anywhere for another hour. We want to watch her a little while longer, then you can take her home and wake her up every two hours for the next eighteen hours to be sure she’s okay. I’ll give you discharge instructions when she’s ready to go,” a young-looking man said, wearing a short white jacket over green scrubs that said Dr. White.
“She’s okay, right?” David asked.
“She’s fine. Just precaution since she has a slight concussion. She had three stitches in her head that need to stay dry. She can take the bandage off tomorrow but can’t get it wet. She can either return here or go to her own practitioner to have them removed in seven days.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Mitch shook the doctor’s hand.
David did the same then watched the man leave through the curtain. Both men sat on stools on either side of her stretcher holding her hands. They didn’t say anything, just sat there squeezing her hands and watching her as if she were going to suddenly die or something. It was driving her crazy.
“Guys, I’m fine. Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” David asked.
“Like I’m on death’s door or something.”
“We’re not looking at you like that,” Mitch said.
“Yes, you are. You’re staring at me. I’m fine. Talk about work or something.”
The two men looked at each other, then shrugged.
“Old man Guthrie is going to be pissed that we didn’t finish his car today. You want to call him and tell him it will be tomorrow, or do I have to?” David asked.
“I vote you,” Mitch said.
“Asshole. I knew you’d say that.”
“Then why did you ask? Just go ahead and do it and stop putting it off,” Mitch said with a huge grin plastered on his face.
“Gonna’ cost you, man.”
“Always does, but I’ll take anything over talking to that old, cantankerous bastard any day,” Mitch said.
“I’m sorry, guys. I shouldn’t have called you to come sit with me and caused you so much trouble. I just figured you’d be mad if I didn’t call you.”
“You’d have been right,” Mitch said. “It doesn’t matter. Guthrie would complain about it even if we got it to him ahead of schedule. That’s just the way he is. If you hadn’t called us, we’d have been pissed. You did the right thing.”
David shushed them as he punched in the numbers for Guthrie. After a few rings, a very loud “What” could be heard from David’s phone.
“Mr. Guthrie? This is David from down at the garage. I called to tell you it will be tomorrow before we finish up on your car, sir.”
“What do you mean it’s going to be tomorrow? What the hell are you doing to it? Replacing the entire engine? It’s only a tune-up.”
His loud voice could easily be heard from where Adonna lay on the stretcher. It was so loud, that David held the phone away from his ear
and winced.
“We had an emergency and we’re at the hospital with a friend. I promise we’ll have it ready by lunch time tomorrow. I’m sorry. We usually have it ready on time, but this once something came up, we weren’t expecting.”
“Emergency you say? What kind of emergency? A friend you say? Would it be that woman you two been courting?”
“Um, yeah. But she’s okay. Got a knock on the head and we’re waiting to take her home now.”
“You take care of her. I’ll see you at noon. Not a minute past. Understand?”
“I understand. See you at noon.” David hit end and sighed.
“How did he know about me?” Adonna asked.
“Everyone in town knows about you, babe. It’s a small town,” Mitch pointed out.
“I guess I wasn’t thinking. I guess that’s why the nurses and the doctor didn’t seem to even notice when both of you were in here with me. They already knew about you guys. I don’t know whether to be relieved or feel a little guilty,” she said.
“Why should you feel guilty? They accept it, you should, too. We’re a threesome. End of story. The entire town knows that’s how we are up on the mountain. They accept us. Those who don’t have learned to keep their mouths shut,” Mitch said.
“I guess I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as they say. It’s all too good to be true.”
“Trust me, babe. Nothing’s too good for you.” Mitch kissed her.
“Was that the only car you were working on?” she asked.
“No, but it was the only one we promised to finish today. We’ve got two others in there today, but they weren’t promised out until tomorrow. We’ll get them out. One of them had a loose belt that just needs either tightening up or a new belt. Haven’t looked at it yet. The other needs a new fuel pump. Got the part in today so we can change it out tomorrow after we get Guthrie’s tune-up finished.”
There was a knock on the wall next to the curtained off opening. Adonna called out for them to come in. A head peeked in. It was one of the police officers.
“Can we talk to you for a second?” he asked.
“Sure, come on in,” she said.