Safeword: Arabesque (Safewords Book 9)

by Candace Blevins

  Her mental health training told her she would, but she ignored the voice of logic in the back of her head. She could only process so many things at once, and for now, the haze she was in was there to protect her, so she’d let it.

  Her friend took charge of the situation by using her fancy lawyer talk to politely let the officers know how it was going to be, and then had Cassie tell her story to the officers without them interrupting to ask a zillion questions.

  Sam stayed on Cassie’s left side, so she must have known about her shoulder. Or, maybe the sling gave it away.

  Cassie did okay telling her story until she got to the part where they stripped her of her clothes. Sam had been holding her hand and providing moral support just by sitting with her, and now she told her, “You’re doing fine, Cassie. I know this is hard but we need to document everything we can so we can nail the bastards. Okay?”

  With Sam’s help, Cassie managed to tell them all she could remember. As the officers prepared to leave they let Sam know another officer had been assigned to guard her door in case Clemente showed up.

  Cassie’s stomach jumped into her throat and terror took her breath.

  “Ethan and I will both stay,” Sam assured her. “Frisco and Tom and everyone else are close, too. Jose Clemente won’t get anywhere near you. I promise.”

  Cassie took a shallow breath, then one a little deeper, careful to keep her ribs as still as possible. She ordered her body to relax, and rested her head on the pathetically flat hospital pillow before closing her eyes. If Sam said Clemente wouldn’t come near, then he wouldn’t.

  The door opened and fear shot through her again. She opened her eyes, saw it was Frisco, and turned her head away. She didn’t want him to see her like this, and she certainly didn’t want to have to look at him.

  “Please leave,” she told him, trying to sound strong.

  “I need to make sure you’re okay.”

  “You don’t care,” she said, her voice more bitter than she intended. “Go away.”

  Thankfully, Sam spoke up and said, “Cassie’s been through a lot. She’s not okay, but she will be. Maybe you can talk to her later?”

  Frisco said something about being just outside the door, but Cassie kept her head turned away from him until he was gone.

  “What do you need from me?” Sam asked. “It’ll be best if you can close your eyes and drift off, but if you can’t handle the silence I’ll talk about whatever you want.”

  Cassie sighed and looked at her friend. “Frisco and Cam and I? It was perfect. But he wouldn’t give me what I needed, physically or emotionally, so I guess it really wasn’t as perfect as I want to make it.” Sam didn’t say anything, and Cassie added, “He didn’t lead me on. He told me from the beginning he’d just show me the ropes, but I had to go and fall in love with him.”

  “Frisco called Cam when we couldn’t find you, to see if he’d heard from you. I didn’t know Cam had moved in with you.”

  Cassie nodded. “Yeah, Frisco kicked him out when Cam told him he loved him.” She rolled her eyes. “Their contract said no heavy emotions beyond the training relationship, so professing his love broke the contract.” Sighing, she added, “It doesn’t work with just the two of us. I mean, we’re friends, but sex doesn’t work without a Dom over us.” She looked away from Sam and focused on a blank spot of wall. “I should’ve been safe tonight. I took all the precautions and thought I was being even safer by checking out the neighborhood in daylight, but…”

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Sam told her. “Clemente is an asshole and a bully, and you aren’t the first woman he’s put in the hospital. He fucked up this time, though. In the past he’s done it to prostitutes and street girls — people without the resources to make him pay. He offered them fifty thousand dollars to drop the charges and lie and say maybe it was someone else. They thought they were set for life, but you’ll laugh at that kind of payoff.”

  Sam had won her title fight the night before but was pretty banged up, and she’d hurt her knee bad enough it was in a brace. Cassie saw her babying it, so when the nurse came back she asked, “Can you get my friend some ice for her knee, and maybe a way to prop her leg up while she sits?”

  The nurse had someone bring a recliner in, and brought an ice pack that fastened around Sam’s leg.

  “I’m supposed to be taking care of you, but thanks.”

  “You had a rough fight last night. You’re supposed to still be taking it easy.”

  Cassie should probably tell her to go back to the hotel, but she needed her friend and was terrified of being alone.

  “I’m not sure where my phone is,” Cassie said, looking around though she knew it wasn’t in the room. “I was going to wait until morning to call Cam, but since he knows what’s going on I should call him now so he’ll sleep.”

  Sam handed her phone over and Cassie called him. He answered on the first ring and she could hear the relief in his voice when he realized it was her.

  “Are you okay? Frisco said…” He hesitated and quickly picked up with, “Are you still in the emergency room? Do you need me to fly out? I checked flights, I can be there in about six hours.”

  “No. I need you to stay home and take care of Jake for me. I have Sam and Ethan and my other friends, and I’ll be home in a few days.”

  “They’re letting you go home?”

  “No, they’re admitting me but I know what my injuries are, and they should release me tomorrow or the next day if there are no complications.”

  “Is there anything I can do from here? I feel so helpless.” His voice cracked and Cassie wished he could be here to hold her hand, but knew he needed to stay home and keep up with his classes and rehearsals.

  “I’ll be okay, but it means the world to have you care so much.” She took a breath around the sharp pain in her ribs and said, “If you want to do something for me, find someone who took some pictures of your performance last night and send them to me. I need something to make me smile.”

  A female doctor came in as she was handing Sam’s phone back, and made sure Cassie wanted Sam to stay in the room while they discussed her injuries. Cassie squeezed Sam’s hand to make sure she stayed put, and told the doctor to speak freely.

  “You know about your shoulder, and you’ve probably guessed you have some broken ribs. There was some rectal tearing, which we’ve stitched up, and you have a lot of bruising and abrasions around your entire groin. It looks like you were repeatedly struck with a number of instruments and there is a good deal of bruising and trauma to large portions of your body but I believe those areas should heal on their own. I’m a little concerned about the open wounds on your back, but you’ll be on antibiotics to keep the stitched area in your rectum from becoming infected, and those should protect your back as well.”

  Cassie nodded. “The bastard whipped my back. Can I see the x-rays of my shoulder? Both before and after they worked on it? Also, I’d like to see the ones showing my ribs.”

  The doctor hesitated and Cassie said, “I’m an RN, and I’d like to see exactly what’s going on inside of me, please.”

  “Oh, certainly. I’ll get one of the nurses to bring them in for you. Let us know if you want to see anything else.”

  “Can you order some x-rays of my jaw, please? I’m still nursing some old injuries, and they…aggravated it.”

  It was nearly daylight outside before Cassie was moved out of the ER to a regular hospital room where more of her friends could be around her.

  With a room full of people, Cassie convinced Ethan to take Sam back to the hotel, and the group decided Tom, Tara, and Kirsten would stay with her.

  Frisco tried to insist he’d stay, but she didn’t want him around. He told her he’d be in the hall just outside if she needed anything.

  Apparently, the police officer was still there, as well as someone from Sam’s security detail.

  At some point, Frisco came in with everyone else and she was tired of telling him to leave. He stay
ed in the background and didn’t try to talk to her, but she had to look at him and wished he’d just go the fuck away.

  Eventually, he started insinuating himself into the conversation, and by the evening she kept forgetting to snub him.

  This would be so much easier if she didn’t actually like him. Asshole.

  When Sam and Ethan returned, Sam told them, “My manager says Clemente missed the flight he was supposed to take home. Authorities believe he’s driving a rental car, and the assumption is he’s headed home to California. There’s an arrest warrant; it’s just a matter of finding him.” She sighed and looked at Cassie. “Once the media picks up on it, they’ll descend on you. I’m paying the security team to make sure no reporters get close to you.”

  Resigned, Cassie said, “I’ve already figured out this is going to be a big deal. Once they put me together with the YouTube video of Kirsten and I taking him down? It’s like a made-for-TV drama. Everyone on the planet will know I’ve been sexually assaulted, and some of them will say I had it coming because of that video.”

  Frisco touched the covers over her foot. “They will be wrong. No one deserves this, Sweetness.”

  If she’d been up to it she’d have punched him. Instead, she glared and growled, “Don’t push it.”

  Sam looked as if she wanted to say something about their interchange, but instead said, “You didn’t deserve this. You didn’t ask for it. I’ll do everything I can to protect you from the media. I’m also making arrangements for a respected local attorney for you. Whether you want to sue the asshole in civil court will be up to you, but the sooner I get an attorney involved the more options you’ll have.”

  Cassie made good money but there was no telling how much all of the security and an attorney would be. “How much is all of this costing? It may take me years to pay you back.”

  “I don’t want you to pay me a penny,” Sam said. “This is my drama. Jose Clemente is my fault, so I’ll take care of you.”

  Kirsten tilted her head and told Sam, “This isn’t your fault, either. It’s Jose Clemente’s fault.”

  “True,” Sam agreed, “but, if she wasn’t my friend, or if I hadn’t decided to fight a man in the cage, then she wouldn’t be in that bed. It might not be my fault but I have an obligation to take care of her and keep her safe.”

  * * * *

  Cassie talked to Cam several times a day. She and Cam had started ending conversations with “Love you,” and then “Love you, too,” a while back, and she didn’t think anything of it when she ended the conversation with “Love you, too,” with the room full of her friends.

  Until she looked up and saw half of them looking at her in surprise, and the other half looking at Frisco for his reaction.

  Frisco looked at them, then her, and walked out of the room.

  He returned a half an hour later with fancy coffee for everyone, and a salad he’d put together at the salad bar in the cafeteria — exactly the way Cassie liked it.

  She realized his heart was in the right place, but the reminder he could make a salad she’d enjoy better than one she made herself? Made her want to cry as she ate it.

  She found herself with just Tara and Kirsten in the room a few hours later, and called Cam while she had a little privacy.

  “Isaac called me,” Cam said. “He saw the news reports, and apparently Frisco told him I’d moved in with you, and he still had my cellphone number so he called me to check on you.”

  “What did he have to say?”

  “Just that he’s worried about you, and he’d been close to calling you to see if you’d go out with him again, since — his words — ‘Frisco’s an idiot.’”

  “I don’t…there’s no way I can go out with anyone, Cam. Not after…”

  “I know, Cass. I’m here for you, and we’ll figure it out when you come home.”

  “I wouldn’t mind seeing him, though. I mean, if he wants to be my friend for a little while? I miss him.”

  “Good,” she could hear the smile in Cam’s voice, “I’ll tell him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The trip home was hell. Based on her doctor’s recommendation, her friends put her in a wheelchair to get her through the airports, but she was still exhausted by the time they reached the first plane, and half dead by the time they made it through the layover airport and into the second plane.

  Sam and Ethan drove her home once they finally landed in Chattanooga, and Frisco followed. Cassie told him she’d be fine, but the damned man was so fucking stubborn headed.

  Cam opened the door as Sam and Ethan helped Cassie out of the car. Jake bounded out, started to bump her leg in greeting, but immediately realized something was wrong so he just touched her leg with the side of his head and backed off so the humans could help her up the steps.

  Jake had never met Ethan, but didn’t growl or act aggressive. However, he’d liked Frisco in the past, but snarled and rumbled at him today.

  “What’s the matter, boy?” Frisco asked the large German Shepherd as he offered his hand for the dog to smell.

  “He picks up on my emotions,” Cassie said, breathless as she made it to the top of the steps.

  “What, you’re pissed at me, so he is, too?”

  “No,” Cam said without trying to hide the anger and grief in his eyes and voice. “You hurt her, and he wants you away from her so you don’t hurt her again. Why the fuck are you here?”

  “I need to make sure she’s okay.”

  Cam shook his head and followed as Sam and Ethan helped her into the bedroom.

  Ethan left her in the bedroom with Sam and Cameron, who helped Cassie undress and get into bed.

  Jake jumped into bed beside her, licked her cheek once, and snuggled gently into her side. Cassie put her arm around him and her eyes drifted closed.

  * * * *

  Sam stepped out, and Cameron leaned over the bed to kiss Cassie’s forehead.

  “Do you need anything?” She looked so weak, and so pale. Sam and Frisco had warned him her face was in bad shape, but it hadn’t prepared him for the reality.

  He’d been worried before, but now that he’d seen her he didn’t want to leave her side.

  “No, but thanks,” she told him. “I took a pain pill as we left the airport and it’s kicking in. Frisco’s being stubborn and probably won’t leave, just try to keep him out of the bedroom if you can. Okay?”

  “Of course. Do you want company in bed or should I take the sofa?”

  “Don’t you dare sleep on the sofa. Come snuggle with me when Sam and Ethan leave? I’ve missed you.”

  Relieved she wanted him near, he tousled her hair and said, “You bet,” before leaving her with Jake.

  The thought of having to face Frisco in the living room made him want to run to the bathroom to puke, but he squared his shoulders and made himself walk out the door.

  Ethan and Frisco were sitting in the living room, with Sam standing near Ethan, talking.

  When Cam entered the room Frisco stood and walked to him.

  Cam ignored his former Master and focused on Ethan as he said, “I congratulated Sam on the phone, but I haven’t talked to you. Congrats! I had a performance during your fights, but I DVR’d them and watched when I got home. You both kicked ass.”

  Ethan thanked him, and Sam told Cameron, “I felt your gun when I hugged you earlier, and Cass says you took her to the range and you’re good with it?”

  “I felt yours, too.” Cam said with a smile.

  Ethan chuckled as Sam rolled her eyes and continued. “I don’t have someone from Drake Security here only because I think with Jake to warn of an intruder, and you with a weapon, ya’ll can handle Clemente if he comes. But, he’s fast, so if you see him don’t hesitate to shoot. I honestly don’t think he’ll come, but be on your guard and keep it close, okay?”

  “I’m not trigger happy, but if the bastard shows up I’ll gladly ventilate him.”

  Frisco made a disapproving noise, but Sam ignored him an
d kept talking to Cam. “Good. Just don’t try to threaten or warn him first. If he makes it in the house, the castle doctrine says you can shoot without giving a warning. With the threat to Cassie you shouldn’t have to deal with legalities, but if you do I’ll make sure you have a good attorney.” Sam waited for him to nod before adding, “If you think Cassie’s scared I can have a Drake Security guy camped out in the living room within twenty or thirty minutes. I think she’s better off without a stranger in the house, and I believe you and Jake together can keep her safe, but if she’s afraid then none of that matters. I’m depending on you to let me know if you think I need to make the call, alright?”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it,” Cam said before looking at Ethan. “Would it be okay if I give her a hug?”

  “Yeah,” Ethan nodded and gave him a friendly smile, “no more fooling around, but the two of you can touch and share hugs without asking me. Sam will know if something steps over the line; she’ll let you know.”

  Cam blushed as he realized Ethan likely knew every detail of his naughty dancing activities with Sam during her bachelorette party. They’d stayed inside of Ethan’s rules, but the two had enjoyed themselves quite thoroughly.

  Ethan stood and looked at Frisco. “I don’t know what’s going on between the three of you, or why you’re staying when they’ve asked you to leave. Sam tells me I need to stay out of it and let ya’ll figure it out, but I feel I should say something, so I am. Cassie’s been through a lot, and you know her better than me, but I’m not comfortable with you staying when both Cameron and Cassie have made it clear you aren’t wanted.”

  Sam embraced Cameron as Ethan talked, but then relaxed the hug while keeping her arm around him as she turned to look at Frisco. “Don’t answer, Frisco. Consider it a rhetorical question or statement or whatever. Just think it over.” She shook her head. “You’ve hurt both of them. Only you know if you’re here because you want back in their lives, or because of some stupid-assed guilt trip. Figure it out, and don’t hurt them worse than you already have.”