Unfiltered & Unhinged

by Payge Galvin

  He met her eyes. “I wouldn’t say no.”

  She debated what to do. Being naked with Dev probably wasn’t her wisest idea unless she wanted a hard lesson in self-control, but she wanted to help him. Cass bit her lip as he ducked behind the shower curtain once more.

  She made her decision.

  Stripping down, she grabbed the shower curtain and climbed into the shower with him. Dev turned his head to look at her. Cass felt his gaze like a caress. She felt her cheeks heat at the desire she saw in his eyes.

  She reached around him to grab her bath poof and soap. As much as she might want to do more, Cass was only in here to help Dev wash.

  While he rinsed his hair, Cass took her time to really look at him. She’d never seen him naked, and she was happy to see that reality lived up to what she’d been imagining. Abs that she could bounce a quarter off of, nice pecs, arms that made her weak kneed just looking at them, legs like tree trunks.

  Her fingertips lightly traced the line of Dev’s jaw tilting his head so she could get a look at his face in the light. His eye looked better—less swollen. A bruise darkened his cheek. She ran a thumb across his split lip, barely touching it.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Do I look that bad?” He leaned down and brushed her lips with his.

  “You look perfect.” Cass brushed wet hair out of his face.

  She soaped the poof and began to clean his back. Her hands moved gently over his bruises, and she winced at the sight of them decorating his skin. “Does this hurt?”

  Dev braced his good arm against the wall. “A little.” He gave her a crooked grin that pulled at his split lip. “Then again, this morning, everything hurts.”

  Cass rinsed the soap from him. Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to each one of his bruises, giving each a light kiss. She felt Dev stiffen beneath her mouth, and then relax. His breathing became uneven as his body began to react to her touch.

  “Cass,” he whispered, his voice full of longing. “I—”

  “I know,” she replied, pulling away so she could finish rinsing him. “We can’t.”

  She reached over and turned off the tap. Stepping out of the shower, she handed him a clean towel. After wrapping herself in her robe, Cass helped him dry off. Dev stepped out of the shower slowly, his movements cautious.

  “Take your time,” Cass told him. “I’ll make us some coffee.”

  The pot had finished brewing by the time Dev emerged from the bathroom. He’d pulled on his jeans from the night before, and had the towel draped over his shoulders. The odd droplet of water still clung to his chest, chasing a wet path down his tanned skin. Cass pulled out mugs, desperate for something to do with her hands to keep from touching him.

  “Smells great,” he said, towel drying his hair. Dev sat down on the couch.

  “Hang on.” Cass hurried to her bedroom, returning after a few moments with a faded t-shirt. “Here,” she said, handing it to him. “It’s one of my brother’s old ones. He won’t miss it.”

  “Thanks.” He shrugged into it.

  The shirt barely fit him. Liam was smaller across the shoulders than Dev and had a lighter frame. Dev filled it out in a way Liam never had. Cass smiled and got them cups of coffee before sitting an arm’s length away from him on the sofa.

  Dev reached out and pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “That’s much better.” When she looked up at him, he smiled. “I’m not going to break.”

  Before Cass could say anything, a key rattled in the front door. Mags was home from her boyfriend’s place.

  “Howdy hey hey,” she called as she stepped inside. Then she stopped as she noticed Cass and Dev snuggled up on the couch. “Oh, um, I didn’t know you had company. I’ll just grab some stuff and…”

  “Mags, it’s okay.” Cass grinned at her roommate’s flushed face. “You didn’t interrupt anything except coffee.” She climbed to her feet. “This is Dev. He’s the mechanic who’s fixing my bike.”

  Dev stood with barely a wince. “Nice to meet you.”

  “A pleasure.” Mags gave Cass a look that let her know she expected answers as to why Cass let a guy spend the night when she never had before. Cass never let a guy spend the night—the morning after was just way too awkward. Mags knew this was quite the departure for Cass and her roommate wanted answers.

  “I need to get going,” Dev said. “I’ve got a motorcycle to fix.”

  Cass walked him to the door. “You sure you’re okay?”

  Dev lifted her chin so he could kiss her. He took his time, mapping out every inch of her mouth with his tongue. When he was done, Cass felt a little dazed.

  “I’m fine. I’ll see you later.”

  When Cass closed the door, she met her roommate’s incredulous stare.

  “Oh, my God,” Mags said, eyes bright with mirth. “You are in so much trouble.”

  Cass knew better than to even try and disagree.

  Chapter 13

  Cass set the plastic baskets of fried food down on the table. She gave the three guys her best smile. “You boys need anything else?”

  The one in the ball cap smiled back. “Maybe some ketchup?” His gaze landed on her cleavage and stayed there.

  “Sure thing. And I’ll get y’all some refills too.” She gave them another smile and made sure to put a little more wiggle in her walk. Sexy hips equaled bigger tips.

  Cass handled the refills and her other tables before stepping in the kitchen for a quick break. She was at the tail end of the dinner rush, feeling the drag of a double shift. The tips were pretty good though, and waiting tables was something that she was good at. She still hated double shifts though.

  “You get your meal yet?” Domingo, one of the line cooks, asked when he saw her leaning against the wall.

  Cass shook her head. “I’m waiting for a break in the rush. Don’t want to bother you guys.”

  “Just let me know, hey.” He gave her an encouraging smile, then went back to putting out plates.

  Pushing herself away from the wall, Cass got back to work. Another hour passed as she took orders, ferried food, and ran drinks. She was clearing a table when Domingo beckoned her to come into the kitchen. She dumped the rag and cleaner at the refill station and headed through the swinging doors.

  “What’s up?”

  “There’s someone in the back lot. He said to get you.” Domingo looked worried. “He doesn’t look good.”

  Dev. He was the first person that came to mind, and Cass raced out of the back door. She drew up short when she saw the huddled form leaning against the Dumpster. Then she was running, feet pounding against the pavement.

  It wasn’t Dev. It was Liam.

  She dropped to her knees, gently touching him on the shoulder. He cried out, flinching away from her. “Shhh,” she said, reaching out again. “It’s me, Liam. It’s Cassie. No one is going to hurt you anymore.”

  “Cass?” He turned his face to her and she had to hold back a gasp.

  Liam was a mess of blood and swollen flesh. When she tried to move him, he shouted in pain. She stopped immediately, biting her lip.

  “It’s okay, I’ll make it okay,” she promised, feeling helpless.

  “W-Wrex says he’ll see you at the sideshow.” Liam rested his head against the metal Dumpster with a hollow thunk.

  Cass bit back a curse. Wrex had always been focused on her. She’d never really expected him to go after Liam. How could she have been so stupid? She leaned forward. “He did this?”

  Liam nodded. Then he coughed wetly, more blood appearing on his lips. He probably had broken ribs, maybe a punctured lung, and God knew what else might be wrong internally. “He said you had to race. You know where to find him.” He dropped his head to her shoulder. “It hurts.”

  “I know. I’m going to get you to a hospital. Stay still for a sec.” Cass ran back inside, asking Domingo to watch Liam, before going to find her manager. She quickly explained the situation, got permission
to leave early, then grabbed her things. She was calling Mags when she waved Domingo back inside.

  Kneeling beside Liam, she waited for Mags to pick up. When she finally did, Cass didn’t give her a chance to say anything. “I need you to come pick me up at work. Right away.”

  “On my way.” Mags didn’t hesitate. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

  “Liam. He’s in bad shape.”

  “Okay. See you at the restaurant.”

  “We’re around back. Near the Dumpsters.” Cass hung up.

  Domingo was beside her, a wet cloth and a bowl in his hand. “Here,” he said, placing them on the ground next to her.

  “Thanks.”

  ‡

  The hospital lights were too bright, Cass decided as she waited on the hard plastic chairs. They were also flickering, so that she thought there was a strobe light going off in her peripheral vision. And it was freezing in the ER waiting room. For like the four hundredth time she wished for a sweater. For about the millionth time she wished she’d never met Wrex.

  Liam had been taken away from her as soon as they pulled up. He couldn’t get his legs under him, and there was no way Cass and Mags wanted to risk moving him. Mags had run inside to get a gurney and a nurse. While they wheeled him back, Cass had filled out paperwork. Mags had wanted to stay, but Cass had sent her home. She had no idea how long she’d be here and Mags had already done enough.

  “Cass.”

  She looked up at the sound of her name. Dev stood in front of her chair, hands tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket. His dark eyes were filled with worry when he looked at her.

  “How did you…” she began, her mind taking a minute to register that he was really there. “What are you doing here?”

  He gestured to the seat next to her and she nodded. He sat, putting his arm around her. Cass sagged against him gratefully, letting the motor oil and musk scent of him drown out the antiseptic smell of the emergency room. He squeezed her shoulder.

  “Mags tracked me down. Told me what little she knew.” He pulled off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “You’re freezing.”

  Nodding, Cass realized she owed her roommate a huge thank you. Maybe a decorative fruit basket too. Mags was awesome, and she needed to tell her that the next time she saw her. Her friend had known what she needed, even before Cass did.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” Dev’s voice was quiet.

  “I don’t know exactly. Wrex worked him over. That’s all I know.” Cass put her head on Dev’s shoulder, suddenly feeling more exhausted than she’d ever felt before. Not even when her mother had been dying of cancer had she felt so tired. But then she hadn’t been carrying everything on her own either.

  “I’m sorry.” Dev pressed a kiss to her temple.

  “Yeah,” Cass agreed.

  She didn’t know how long they waited like that. At one point, Dev got up to get them some coffee. Mags called to check in. Dev stepped outside to call his sister. They sat a lot. They waited more.

  Finally a nurse came out to get her and lead her back to her brother. Cass looked at Dev, not really wanting to take him back or leave him, but he waved at her to go on.

  “I’ll be right here,” was all he said, giving her a small smile.

  “Okay.” She took a deep breath and followed the nurse. Cass was led through the ER and into the hospital proper.

  “We’re going to keep your brother overnight and reevaluate him in the morning,” the woman told Cass as they walked. “He has a number of injuries, one or two of which could be very serious if not treated properly. The doctor will tell you more.”

  She pushed open a door to a room with two beds. No one was in the first one, but a curtain was drawn around the second.

  “We’ve sedated him to help with the pain, so he’s going to be in and out. The doctor will be here in a few minutes to talk to you.”

  Cass stepped forward, pulling the curtain aside with a rattle of metal. Liam lay in the hospital bed, as pale as the pillows supporting his head. They’d cleaned him up and now she could see the damage. He had a cast on his left arm. Bandages peeked out of the top of his hospital gown, disappearing down his chest. His eyes were swollen and there was tape over the bridge of his nose. He had stitches over one eyebrow. Bruises darkened his face. He had a splint on two fingers of his right hand.

  “Liam,” she whispered, unable to do more than stare. He seemed to be asleep, the faint beeping that indicated his vitals not enough to keep him awake. She pulled the chair closer to the bed and touched her fingers lightly to his undamaged wrist. “I’m sorry.”

  “Miss Montgomery?” An older man with glasses pulled the curtain aside and stood at the foot of Liam’s bed.

  “Yea—yes,” she said, standing and wiping at gritty eyes. “I’m Liam’s sister.” She met the doctor’s gaze. “Is he going to be okay?”

  The doctor nodded, making Cass relax a little. “He’s got mostly superficial injuries, but here are a few we’d like to keep an eye on. He has two broken ribs and some internal trauma. Possible head trauma too from all of the damage to his face. We don’t expect any issues, but we’d like to be careful all the same.”

  She let out a sigh, like air escaping a balloon. It wasn’t great news, but it could have been so much worse. She wanted to hold Liam’s hand, but the cast and the splints made it difficult. Instead she laid her palm over his wrist.

  “Do you have any idea what happened to him?” The doctor was making notes on the chart he’d plucked from the end of the bed.

  Cass shook her head. “Not really. He was dropped off at my job. I didn’t see what happened and he hasn’t really been able to talk about it.” There was no need to say anything about Wrex. She already knew what she was going to do about him.

  “In cases like this, we can call the police—but we aren’t required to report your brother’s injuries. But if you want us to—or you want to do so yourself—they’ll want to talk to your brother when he’s in better shape to answer questions.” He pursed his lips. “And they’ll most likely wish to speak with you.”

  “I’m not interested in anything but seeing Liam get better.” Cass took her seat again. “There’s no need to call the cops.”

  The doctor looked like he wanted to argue, but then stopped himself. “We’ll be back in later to check on him.”

  Cass nodded, her gaze traveling over her brother’s face. She heard the doctor walk out, closing the door behind him. Liam cracked open one eye. “He’s gone?” His voice was slurred and lazy, an effect of the drugs they’d given him.

  “Yeah.” She brushed a hand over his cheek, one of the few parts of her brother that didn’t look bruised or battered in some way. “How are you feeling?”

  He turned into her touch. “Like hot buttered crap.” The tips of his mouth turned up in a feeble attempt at a smile. “But the painkillers make me not care.”

  “I bet.” She looked at him fondly, reaching a hand up to smooth hair back from his forehead. “Can you remember what happened? At all?”

  “A lot of pain.” His eyelids drooped.

  She frowned. “Besides that.”

  Liam groaned, weakly batting at her hand in his hair. “Go home, Cass. I’ll be fine. Just want to sleep.” He trailed off, subsiding back into sleep once more.

  Cass sat there for a few more minutes, a plan forming in her mind. She needed to talk to Dev to see if it would work. And Liam was right. He would be fine here, at least for the day it would take to see if her plan would even work.

  Giving him one last kiss on the forehead, she made her way back to the waiting room to find Dev. He wasn’t going to like what she was going to suggest, but he’d just have to deal. The sideshow was only a week away and her bike wasn’t even close to ready. She had to race; Wrex wasn’t going to leave her and Liam alone unless she did. But she wasn’t going to race on one of his bikes and risk owing him anything else. She was going to do it on her terms. And she was going to win.
r />   Chapter 14

  The Crow Bar was not somewhere she went often. The crowd was a little too rough, the liquor a little too cheap. Plus, it was where Wrex hung out. That gave it even less to recommend it. But it was where she had to go now.

  She hadn’t told Dev she was going to the bar. He thought she was taking care of Liam; her brother had been released from the hospital a few days ago. If Dev had known where she really was, he would have come with her—he’d have insisted upon it. Cass didn’t want him coming within forty feet of Wrex. Not after what he’d already done to Liam. Dev might be able to hold his own outside of a bar where people knew him, but this was Wrex’s home turf. He’d have the advantage. She wasn’t willing to take the chance of anything going wrong.

  She tried not to think about what could still go wrong in the bar.

  Without realizing it, her mind snapped back to the night of the shooting. The sound of the gunshot, Sugar on the floor, Jess with the gun, and a man dead between them.

  Cass shoved that image out of her head. That was not what she should be thinking about right now. She needed to keep her head in the game, not swan into some kind of nightmare flashback. She had to focus. If she screwed this up, it meant she and Liam might never be free of Wrex.

  He was holed up in his usual booth with the high sides. One of his muscle-bound heavies stood outside the booth. A girl was curled up in Wrex’s lap, whispering in his ear.

  Cass didn’t stop to think about what she was doing; she walked right over to him before she had second thoughts. Wrex caught sight of her and sat back, staring at her the entire time she crossed the bar. He didn’t lean over to speak to the girl he was with until Cass stood at the head of the table, watching them. The hulking behemoth that doubled as Wrex’s security moved behind her, boxing her in.

  “Well, well. What brings you here, Cassie girl?” Wrex eyed her up and down, making her want to take a shower all over again. He glanced at the girl in his lap. “Hit the bricks, Tonya.”

  Tonya slid off of Wrex and out of the booth, giving Cass a nasty glare as she went. Wrex waved a hand at the bench across from him. “Have a seat.” His blue eyes gleamed with malice. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”