Bleacke's Geek (Bleacke Shifters) (23 page)

“Events are fuzzy.”

“He threatened to kill you. He was involved in making and selling drugs.”

“Drugs. He made and sold drugs.”

“You heard he was supposed to do a drug deal today. He beat you up because you told him you didn’t want him doing that.”

“I didn’t want him doing that.”

“He was alive when you left.”

“Alive…”

Dewi looked up at Badger. “Get her out of here. Now. Call Collins and have him meet you somewhere to check her out. Tell him it’s on our tab. Then call her mother and turn her over to her.”

Badger looked worried. “All right, but I’ll have Beck go with ye—”

“Now!” she roared, making the two shifter men lean away from her.

Beck held up a hand. “Dewi, what about—”

“I’ll take care of it. She needs help now. Go!”

She headed for her car, Ken on her heels.

“Dewi, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer, just pointed at the passenger door. Without another word he climbed in and barely had time to get his seat belt fastened before they roared out of the driveway. Behind them, Badger and Beck climbed into the truck to follow as smoke poured from the house.

From the tense set of her jaw, he knew something terrible was wrong, but didn’t want to interrupt whatever process of self-control he sensed her struggling with.

They turned toward Plant City. He noticed Badger and Beck turned the opposite way, heading toward I-4. After several minutes, they pulled into the parking lot of a Publix grocery store and she parked in the shade far from the store’s entrance and away from other cars.

Jamming a hand into the pocket of her jeans, she pulled out several twenties and shoved them at him.

“Meat,” she croaked, her eyes closed and forehead now resting on the steering wheel. “
Red
meat. Beef.
Not
ground. I don’t care which cuts. Several pounds.”

He thought about asking for clarification, but their first night together came to mind and he understood what she needed. He bolted for the store’s entrance and snagged a hand basket from the storage rack by the front door.

Meat…beef…not ground.
He raced to the meat coolers at the back of the store, his eyes flying over the selections of beef. Badger had fixed her two huge-looking steaks Saturday night, but there was a line of people waiting for service at the meat counter, where the more prime cuts and steaks were displayed in a large case.

From the cooler he scooped two London broils, a couple of roasts, and all four flank steaks that were on display into his basket. As he ran down an aisle toward the registers, he did an about-face and found the picnic aisle.

He made it back to the car in less than ten minutes and found Dewi sitting with her door open, her feet on the ground, and her eyes closed. He dropped to his knees in front of her and ripped open one of the London broil packages, putting it into her hands.

Her eyes flew open as she tore into it, her eyes looking glazed with something he couldn’t quite determine, whether rage or pleasure or struggling to maintain self-control, he didn’t know. By the time she devoured that one in less than a minute, juices dripped off her arms onto the asphalt below and he had the other London broil unwrapped and ready for her.

As he watched, both fascinated and sickened at the way she ripped into them with her teeth and bare hands, he noticed how she once again made the shnurfling sounds she had Saturday night.

She worked her way through one of the roasts and a flank steak before she let out a long burp and focused her gaze on him.

Back to his sweet Dewi.

He wanted to grab her and fuck her brains out right there in the middle of the parking lot. Swallowing back that urge, he instead asked, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, letting out a sigh. Then she caught sight of her hands and upper arms, which were covered in gore and blood from the meat. “Crap. I look like an escapee from a grindhouse movie.”

“It’s okay.” He opened another grocery bag and pulled out a container of wet cleaning wipes. He handed her several of them, and a bottle of water, which she used to finish rinsing off her hands. Then a few paper towels from the roll he’d purchased.

And a cold iced tea from a cooler at the register.

She looked at the tea before meeting his gaze. This was all his Dewi, the sweet and sexy woman he knew he would gladly spend the rest of his life buying meat for when she needed it. “Thank you,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek as she swallowed half of the bottle’s contents in several gulps.

He brushed the tear away. “What’s wrong?” he quietly asked. “Is it what happened back there?”

She looked away and shook her head.

Capturing her chin, he tilted her face so she had to look at him and he planted a long, deep kiss on her lips. “Tell me,” he said.

She threw her arms around him, her face pressed against his stomach. “You shouldn’t have to deal with me like that. You don’t even like meat. And here you are taking care of me.” She let out a half-laugh, half-snort. “You even thought to get stuff so I could clean up.”

He stroked her hair. “But I
love
you. I don’t know if I could butcher a cow for you, but yeah, I’ll make your London broil runs if that’s what I need to do to take care of you.” She laughed and looked up at him. “You ready to tell me what happened in the house?” he asked.

With her face firmly pressed against him again and his hands stroking her hair, she did. Kendra had been tied up in the bathroom. Her husband and his cousin were running a meth lab out of the house. He had dragged her up there against her will after he found out she was pregnant. That’s when he started beating her.

When she said she wanted to leave him, he threatened to kill Tayla if she did. Both the husband and cousin, as well as another guy inside, had been armed.

Come to think of it, he realized Dewi’s holster had been empty when she got in the car, as had Badger’s and Beck’s.

“Where do you get the guns?” he said.

“Peyton and Trent have a source. We buy them directly through a guy at a factory who’s a shifter. They’re bootlegged and have fake serial numbers on them. Untraceable. So when we need to, we wipe them clean and leave them.”

“Like Badger did with your gun from the pub?”

“Yeah.” She let out a deep sigh and sat back to look up at him. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For dragging you into all of this.”

He couldn’t get the battered woman’s face out of his mind. Pulling Dewi to him again, he said, “I’m not sorry. You saved her life and took out a couple of scumbags in the process. I’m proud of you. And I’m proud to be yours.”

* * * *

She helped him clean up the mess left from her impromptu gorging and they headed back to the house. He made her join him in the shower, where he made slow, languid love to her, turning her around and pinning her against the shower wall as he entered her from behind and fucked her until she’d come twice for him.

He laced his fingers through hers and let his own release follow. As he caught his breath he kissed the back of her neck. A week ago he would have run, screaming in terror, from the events he’d seen today.

Tonight all he wanted to do was love the stress from her soul.

He ordered her to bed to watch TV and went downstairs to heat leftovers for them for dinner. By the time he returned, she was curled around his pillow and softly snoring.

Carefully, so he didn’t disturb her, he climbed into bed with her and ate his warmed-over vegetable lasagna while watching the news. When he heard Badger and Beck return a little before eleven, he went downstairs to talk with them.

Badger cautiously eyed him. “Ye all right, lad? No chunks outta yer hide?” Beck tried, and failed, to contain his amused snort.

“I’m fine. She’s asleep upstairs.”

“I’m not surprised. It was vicious.”

“She told me what happened, but I’m guessing she left out some parts.”

Beck patted him on the shoulder. “You don’t want to know. Trust me.”

“How’s Kendra?”

Beck pulled a beer from the fridge and popped the top on it. “She’ll be okay. Looks like the baby will make it, too. Her mother met us and took her home to Ft. Myers.” He glanced at the time and walked over to the small undercounter TV. Picking up the remote, he tuned the channel to the Tampa NBC affiliate.

They gathered around and watched the eleven o’clock lead story about a meth house in Plant City going up in flames. Inside, investigators found the bodies of three men. From the looks of it they suspected a drug deal gone wrong. The spokesman for the sheriff’s office said the gunshots likely triggered the chemicals and fumes to catch fire.

Badger let out a sigh. “Eh, good riddance to three bags of shite.” He waved his hand at the TV. “Yer welcome, State of Florida, for savin’ ye the court and prison costs.”

Beck went and pulled another beer from the fridge and handed it to Badger. “Thanks, lad.”

Beck grabbed another bottle and held it up to Ken.

At first, he considered refusing it. Then he said, “What the hell. Might as well.” As the three of them stood there, Beck held his beer up first, followed by Badger. Ken realized what they intended, and they clinked their bottles together in an unspoken toast.

Chapter Fourteen

Dewi slept through the night. She stayed tightly curled against his side, as if afraid he’d leave her.

Not likely.

He didn’t care what it took, he’d do anything for her to take care of her, to help her, to not be a burden to her. When he awoke before the alarm Friday morning, she was already staring up at him.

He gave her a smile. “Hi, beautiful.”

She offered him a tentative smile in return. “Hi.”

“They did a story on the house last night. Meth lab drug deal gone really, really wrong.”

“That’s what I made it look like,” she quietly replied.

He kissed her, waiting until he had her undivided attention to look at her again. “I’m
not
scared of you. Not after Beck had to slug you, not after seeing you set a house on fire, not after watching you devour half a cow’s worth of meat.”

Her smile widened a little, so he pressed forward. “Yeah, this is weird and freaky. And I’m sure I’m going to have plenty of ‘oh, shit’ moments along the way. But I’m willing to do it all because you are the prize.”

She snuggled tightly against him. “Sorry I didn’t get to teach you how to swim last night.”

“That’s okay. I think I’m going to need a lot more than just one night to learn.”

“Your brother did something to you, didn’t he?”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” She left it at that

She took him to work that morning. Fridays were a half day for him, and she wore a beaming grin as she walked into his office that afternoon.

“What are you up to?” he asked after kissing her in greeting. It wasn’t just the wolfish smile, but he felt it, a pleased aura that told him she had something up her sleeve.

She handed him a small paper shopping bag with a Verizon logo printed on it. “Here’s the first thing,” she said.