A Diamond in the Dark (15 page)

Axton’s arms had tightened once she’d kicked Jimmy, and he held her in his comforting embrace. Ax whispered in her ear that she was a genius. This time when she pushed Axton back from Jimmy he moved willingly, but still didn’t release his hold on her.

As Jimmy picked his sorry ass up off the ground, holding his family jewels, and headed to the mouth of the alley, Tia raised her voice. “Jimmy! If I find out you’ve spoken to anyone about what happened here, I will go through with the threat. You will never do business with us again. Ya hear me?”

The only affirmation was a nod of his pathetic head.

“You all right, baby?” Ax asked after a few minutes of silence.

Neither of them had moved since Jimmy had left the alley. Her body was trembling, but she was unsure if it was from the adrenaline or fear. The warmness of Axton’s body pressed snuggly against her own offered little comfort to her rambling brain.

His hands rubbed her arms in a soothing motion. “You are one cool lady when you’re under pressure. I would never have thought to threaten the Dolands with withholding breeding stock.”

Instead of acknowledging his statement she asked what had been worrying her since Jimmy had hobbled from the alley. “Ax, do you think he will tell anyone? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care who knows, it’s just that I would rather the family knew before the rest of the town.” She tilted her head back to look up at him, wanting to see his face as he answered.

“No, baby, I think your threat will work.” He kissed her forehead.

“Good. Shit, I’ve missed brunch with the girls,” she said, looking at his watch.

“You’re not that late. Why don’t you go and meet up with them, I’ll see you at my house say about four. I have a few errands to run first.” Ax turned her around in his arms, giving her a proper goodbye kiss.

* * * *

Ax had been right. She had only been running about ten minutes late. When she walked through the doors of the diner she spotted Shelley sitting there waiting, but no Mara. She waved at Shelley, then pointed to the ladies room. She could feel the evidence of Axton’s passion running down her leg. Laws of physics and all...what goes up, must come down. And if she didn’t get to the bathroom soon, it was going to be visible to the whole diner.

After a quick clean up she was ready to be in public again. Mara had arrived while she was in the back of the diner. She was sitting with her back to the bathrooms, so it wasn’t until Tia sat down opposite her that she noticed Mara was wearing a large pair of sunglasses. They were rather trendy looking, thick black frames with little rubies at the sides, but really not needed in the middle section of the diner.

“Why are you wearing sunglasses?” Tia already knew the answer before asking the question, but there were two possible answers. One of them she couldn’t do much about, but the other would be dead if he had come back to town.

“Tia, don’t make a big deal of it, okay? Daddy was just having a bad night, and when I tried to wake him he accidently hit me,” she said without raising her face from the menu, which she didn’t need to read. They had eaten in the diner every Saturday morning since they had all gotten their licenses, and they knew everything that was written on the damn thing.

The old bastard who called himself Mara’s father was a really bad drunk. He was three-sheets to the wind more than he was sober. He hadn’t accidently hit Mara. There was never anything accidental about it.

Not wanting to say anything to upset Mara, Tia did the only thing she could. She reached over and took Mara’s hand in her own just as Shelley did the same with Mara’s other hand. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, lending their best friend their strength.

Chapter 10

There hadn’t been any more dramas while Ax was in town. He’d run into a few folks who wanted to chat and talk business. It was one of the things he had always loved and hated about small towns in Texas. Everybody knew everyone’s business. He just hoped that his and Tia’s business could stay just theirs for a little while longer.

He’d seen her sitting with the girls in Pickles Diner. He couldn’t see her face, but the set of her shoulders was not that of the relaxed woman he had left earlier. After kissing her goodbye with enough passion to make her forget about Jimmy’s assholary, he thought she would’ve been fine. Her distressed posture triggered his caveman protective instincts again, and he almost walked in to see if she was okay. Halfway across the street he watched her lean over the table to take Mara’s hand in her own. Stopping himself from going any further, he turned around and headed off to do what he had come into town for.

It was past three by the time he arrived home. He’d just finished putting everything away when there was a knock on his door. He opened it to find Tia standing there. She was wearing a pretty sundress, with her hair sitting in two long braids on either side of her head. The white Stetson and cowboy boots she also wore gave her the look of a wholesome country girl. He smiled at the thought, already knowing that some of the things they’d be doing that night were going to be far from wholesome.

“I rode Thunder over. I put him in with Triton. I hope you don’t mind.”

Triton was his pure white Andalusian Stallion. He was a little smaller than Thunder, standing at only seventeen hands, where Thunder stood at eighteen-two.

Ax shook his head at the thought that his little Tia, who stood more than a foot shorter than him, rode a horse that was bigger than his. It was weird. Tia had gotten Thunder when she was fourteen, and when everyone tried to talk her into getting a smaller horse, she wouldn’t be dissuaded. She was as stubborn as a mule. She had wanted Thunder, so she was getting Thunder.

“That’s fine, baby. Did you put some extra feed out?” He placed a kiss on her upturned lips as she nodded her head. “Did you tell Jack you were staying out tonight?”

“Yeah, I told him I was staying at Mara’s. Seeing as she’s working tonight no one will see her. She stays at the hotel when she does night shift, because it’s too far for her to drive home at that time in the morning.”

Mara worked at one of the larger motels in Mason, doing everything from receptionist to barmaid duties. Since her daddy had been injured coming off a bull, Mara had become the breadwinner of the family.

Mara’s father had lost the farm after the accident, and they had moved into a small apartment in town. From what Ax understood, and the gossipmongers in town said, Mara’s daddy was a drunk, and a bad one at that.

“How was brunch?”

“Not too good. Mara’s daddy hit her again.” There was such sadness in her eyes, Ax wanted to take all that pain away.

“Shit, baby. I’d heard he was a mean bastard, but I didn’t know he was hitting her. Why hasn’t she moved out?”

“I think she feels responsible for him. Her mama died when she was so young, and she’s only ever had her daddy. I know he wasn’t always like this, but I feel so helpless. How do you help someone who doesn’t want to be helped?”

“I don’t know. But we’ll think of something, okay?”

“Thank you. All right, enough of depressing shit about my friends. There’s nothing I can do about it tonight. So, what have you got planned?” The sparkle returned to her eyes, not as brightly as he would have liked, but the deep sadness for her friend wasn’t as prominent.

“Come on. We’re gonna eat out back. I’ve got the grill heating up.”

* * * *

While Ax cooked the steaks Tia made the salad. She’d always loved Axton’s place. He’d done some remodeling before he’d moved back into his childhood home, but not a lot.

You could feel the life of the house—its heart. It was a warm and inviting open plan, two stories plus a loft, with high ceilings and hardwood floors throughout. The house wasn’t as big as Uncle Jack’s place, but that actually appealed to Tia more. Although she was pretty sure Ax didn’t cook, because he ate at the main house more often than not, the kitchen held all the modern conveniences that any chef would want.

One wall was exposed sandstone, helping to keep it cool, and there were Mexican accents everywhere. Bright turquoise, reds, and orange. Ax had continued the Mexican feel through the house with bits and pieces, like large rugs, little statues, and lampshades. The eastern wall in the kitchen had three glass alfresco doors that let in just enough morning sun without overheating the room, and they opened to a large, wrap-around porch.

They ate their meal on the picnic table Axton had set up on the back deck, laughing over things they had done growing up. Telling each other all the silly things they’d gotten into. Axton told her about the time he and Jack had gone fishing with their other brothers, Adrian and Jeremy. It had been just after their parents had died. Tonya, Jeremy’s twin, hadn’t been able to go because her husband Alexander was sick at the time and couldn’t look after the kids. But the boys had thought they still needed the time together, so they’d gone without her. It had been a long time since all the brothers had spent time just shooting the shit together.

While they were fishing Ax’s line has gotten caught. Thinking it was snagged on a scrub, he pulled and pulled. Lost in his own thoughts, he hadn’t heard Jeremy screaming at him until Jack slapped him on the back of the head. He’d turned around to see that what he thought was a bush was actually Jeremy’s cheek with Axton’s hook sticking out of it and blood pouring everywhere.

Luckily, Adrian was a doctor and always took his bag everywhere he went. Ten stitches later and some strong whiskey, Jeremy’s face had stopped gushing blood. Ax had stood there crying. He thought it had been from the emotional overload of just losing his parents and thinking he had just ruined their brotherly weekend. But now, looking back on the situation, he found it quite funny.

To help him with emotional overload the older boys in all their wisdom had gotten Ax drunk with his inaugural taste of whiskey. Ax had awoken the next morning with his first hangover. Jeremy had nearly pissed himself laughing at how much Axton had thrown up, but begged him to improve his aim so that the stench of regurgitated whiskey would float down river instead of filling their campsite.

Tia shared with Axton some of the more daring and stupid things she and the girls had done. They’d done some pretty hair-raising things over the years, and she could see Ax cringe whenever she mentioned something he must have thought was too dangerous. Like jumping out of a airplane for Shelley’s twenty-first birthday. But it was the tale of how she’d almost shot her best friend that had him turning green.

They had been sixteen at the time, going off camping by themselves. Mara had pilfered a six-pack of beer from her daddy. Shelley hadn’t been able to come, she was off visiting some family, so it had been just the two of them.

After drinking three beers each, it wasn’t surprising that they had ended up a little tipsy. They’d fallen asleep near the fire, their fuzzy brains not reminding them to top it up with more wood so it would burn all night and keep the critters away. So it shouldn’t have been a shock when a bobcat wandered a little too close to their camp.

Tia had awoken to Mara screaming like a banshee. Clutching the twenty-two long rifle they’d used to hunt dinner, and because her still alcohol-deluded brain wasn’t telling her to stop what she was doing, Tia pulled the trigger. Luckily, the habit of always putting the safety on had been ingrained in her since she had held her first gun at eight, otherwise Mara would have been sporting a nice hole through her chest.

In the end all the noise of her and Mara screaming scared the bobcat away. Tia never drank again while she was in the presence of a gun after that night. Almost shooting your best friend had a way of making you wake up to a thing like that.

* * * *

Ax didn’t know what to say to some of the things Tia had told him. He’d had no idea she was such a daredevil. Doing a few laps in a NASCAR, that he could appreciate, but skydiving? Who in their right mind wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? He wasn’t an overly domineering man, but if she thought for a second that he wasn’t going to put his foot down and stop some of the more outlandish things she thought she could do... Well, he wasn’t opposed to a little spanking to get his point across.

Topics moved on to the mundane things like favorite band and time of year. On and on, Tia asked one question after another. When she asked him what his favorite color was he said violet—he’d never really had one until recently. Tia’s was daisy yellow. Not just yellow, but daisy yellow. Ax had seen millions of daisies in his life but still couldn’t picture the color of it in his mind.

After hours of talking they fell into a serene silence, neither one feeling the need to disrupt the moment with idle chatter, until Tia blurted out, “Let’s see who can count the most shooting stars!”

So there they were lying on a blanket in his small fenced-in yard. They had turned out all the lights in the house, so the only illumination was that of the almost full moon and stars. Axton couldn’t remember the last time he’d just sat and looked at the night sky. With Tia it was a whole new experience.

She knew all the constellations’ names, pointing them out to him, explaining the mythology behind each one. Then they looked for funny shapes. Of course when Ax made the shape of a dick Tia just rolled over laughing at him.

Pulling her back into his side, he ran his hand under the hem of her dress and cupped her ass.
The girl sure loves G-strings.
He had yet to see her in anything else. He looked into her eyes, watching them turn from that greeny blue of happiness to violet, which told him all he needed to know.

Kneeling above her, he stripped off his clothes then began to undress her, kissing every inch of skin he uncovered. Starting at her feet, he licked her instep, then nibbled on her ankle, causing her to giggle. He’d discovered that she was very ticklish in some rather odd places. Lifting her leg, he licked the inside of her knee, moving to the other one to give it the same attention. The sweet, musky scent flowing from her pussy was making his head spin. He only gave it a quick swipe with his tongue, stopping himself from lingering at her core.