Engaging (Alluring Book 2) (23 page)

Finally, after rationalizing and working up her courage, she opened the door.  She should have been prepared, but she wasn't.  She should have known something like that would be behind the door, but she didn't.  She took a deep breath as she scanned the room, feeling sick to her stomach.

The room was a large open-space warehouse and in its center was a big, square, boxing ring-like structure.  The light-gray mat was covered in what looked to be old and new blood stains.  Thick, heavy-duty ropes with large hooks were tied to poles in the four corners of the ring.  Rows of folding chairs were set up around three sides of the ring along with a small wooden dais that held a microphone and stand.

Cassie's phone rang in her back pocket, causing her to jump.  She quickly pulled it out, saw Gage's name on the screen, and hit the reject button, sending the call to voice mail.  She powered off her phone and stuck it back in her pocket, hoping she hadn't alerted anyone to her presence. 

After a full minute of silence, where no one came running, she felt confident enough to snoop around a bit.  A set of double doors with large inlaid windows were at the far end of the room, and she felt if dogs were here, they'd be through those doors.  As quietly as possible, she jogged to them and looked through the dirty glass.  Sure enough, a gated dirt lot held about twenty-five pit bulls. 

Okay, Cassie had seen enough.  She could get the hell out of there now.  She retraced her steps back to her SUV.  Once in with her doors locked, she pulled out her phone and powered it up.  She pulled up her GPS app and saved her location.  She would call Animal Care and Control when she got home and tell them what she found.

She noticed Gage had left her a voice mail, but she wanted to leave the area and decided to listen later. 

Boy, she really wished she had remembered to do that.

Chapter Eighteen

Her phone woke her out of a sound sleep.  She reached for it, fumbling in the dark and squinted at the screen.  Gage.  Her heartbeat picked up.  It was an odd hour to call, and she worried something was wrong.

"Hello."  Her voice cracked from disuse.  She cleared her throat and tried again.  "Everything okay?"

"I'm at the front door.  Let me in."

"What?"  Gage was here?  He wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow.

"I take it, you didn't listen to my message that said I wrapped things up early and would be back tonight?"

Oops.  "Just give me one sec.  I'll be right there."

Cassie hung up the phone, threw off her covers, scrambled to the front door, and opened it.  Gage, looking tired but no less gorgeous, greeted her with a smile.

He stepped into the house, wrapped her in a hug, and gave her a deep, long, wet kiss.  "I missed you."  He gave her another devastating smile before lightly kissing the tip of her nose.

She smiled back.  "I missed you, too."

He steered her toward her bedroom.  "Everyone good?  Logan, Max, Sunny,"  he smiled down at her, "you?"

"Everyone's fine."  Gage shut the bedroom door and shuffled her backward to the bed.  He clicked on the bedside lamp before giving her a little push, so she landed back on the bed.

She threw her arm over her eyes to shield them from the bright light.  "Ah, what did you do that for?"  When he didn't answer, she lowered her arm.  He was staring down at her, and he looked pissed.  "What's the matter?"

"What the fuck happened to your arm?"

She had worn a tank top to bed, and her eyes automatically cut to the large bruise encircling her exposed arm.    There was no way she could produce a believable story fast enough.  "Um..."

"Um, is not an answer," he said, in a dangerously low voice, that was (if you can believe it), scarier than if he had yelled.

Shit.  Her mind drew a blank.  She had nothing.

"If you don't start speaking within the next three seconds, I won't be happy.  And if I'm not happy, you'll be very unhappy."

Cassie held up a hand.  "Okay, okay."  She thought for a moment.  Nope, she still had nothing.  Wow, she was discovering she really didn't do well under pressure.  That was something she would have to work on.

"Cassie."  Gage stood, his arms folded across his chest, looking down at her.  "Stop trying to think up a story and just tell me the truth."

"Well, see um...."  She heard him sigh and knew he was losing patience.  "Well, I had this idea."  She sat up on the bed and crossed her legs.  She looked down at her lap, noticed a little scab on her leg and wondered if she nicked herself shaving.

"Cassie, look at me."  She raised her head.  "You had an idea...."  He waved his hand for her to continue.

"Yes, well, you see, I was upset about my dogs being stolen."  He nodded his head for her to continue.  "And well, I remembered I had that address.  You know, the one that the tipster sent me."

When she paused again, he said, "Go on." 

"Well, I went to the address."  He started to look pissed again so she added hastily, "Just to see if the dogs were there so I could call Animal Control and have them picked up."

"Get to the part about the bruise," he demanded.

"Right.  Well, I was at the side of the house, looking in the backyard.  The dogs weren't there by the way
–
"

"Cassie," he warned.

"Okay," she placated, holding up a hand.  "Jeremy Beckett saw me looking in the backyard.  He grabbed my arm and asked me what I was doing there."

Gage's hands clenched into fists, and his jaw got tight.  He was morphing into the Hulk right before her eyes.  "And you said?"  He spoke slowly and carefully like he was trying very hard to maintain his temper.

"I said, I was checking on a tip I got about some injured dogs." 

"And he believed that?"

Cassie nodded her head.  "Yeah, he let me go after that."

Gage took the step that separated him from the bed and sat down.  He picked up her hand and held it gently, softly rubbing his thumb across the top.  His actions contradicted his next words.  "I'm very angry with you right now."

She lowered her head, nodding, knowing what she had done was stupid.  Thank God, he didn't know about the warehouse.  And he would never know, of that she would make certain.

"Look at me."  She picked her head up.  "You put yourself in unnecessary danger.  Things could have gone very differently.  He could have beat you, raped you, or even killed you."

His voice grew louder with each point, and Cassie thought it best to interject.  "I know, you're right.  It was a stupid thing to do."

He gave her hand a squeeze, stood from the bed, stripped down to his boxer briefs, and turned off the bedside light.  "Get under the covers."  He climbed in beside her and took her in his arms.  She heard and felt him sigh, her head moving with the expansion of his chest.  His arms held her tighter, and she felt his lips press against the top of her head.  She didn't know his thoughts, and by his actions, she wasn't sure she wanted to.  She had a feeling they would cause her to feel more guilt.  Soon, she heard his breathing even out and knew he slept.  She drifted off promising herself she would no longer do anything foolish.

Cassie phone rang early Monday afternoon as she cleaned the kitchen.  Gage sat at the kitchen table, doing work on his laptop.  He had spent the night again the night before. 

Sunday morning when they had awoken, Gage declared he wanted to spend the whole day with his family.  They went to breakfast, then to a movie that Logan had been asking to see for the last few days, then finally back to Gage's where they spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the pool.  They grilled hot dogs and corn on the cob, eating outside to enjoy the early, evening breeze.  It was late when they arrived back at the ranch, and Gage said he didn't feel like driving all the way home.  Cassie suspected he just didn't want to go home.

She dried her hands and pulled her phone out of her back pocket.  Animal Care and Control flashed across her screen.  She had left a message Saturday with the address of the warehouse, asking them to do a pick-up.  She hoped they had good news for her. 

* * * * *

Gage distantly heard the ringing of Cassie's phone.  He was absorbed in scanning the new artwork for his latest album, so it wasn't until he heard her raised voice that he paid attention to her conversation.

"What do you mean there were no dogs there?  I saw them with my own eyes."  She paused a moment while she listened to the person on the other end.  "Did they see the ring with the blood?"  Another pause.  "Yes, I know there's nothing they can do about that, but the dogs have to be around there somewhere." 

Gage closed the program he had open on his computer, giving Cassie his full attention.  She stood with her back to him, looking out the kitchen window into the backyard.

"Yes, they were out back in a gated area, at least twenty-five of them, all pit bulls."  He watched her shoulders tense.  "Well, they were there on Saturday.  I don't know where they could have gone." 

He watched her turn around and lean back against the counter.  She had her head down and was unaware that he watched her.  "Yeah, I called the police, too.  Maybe with both of our complaints, they'll look into it."  She looked up, and her eyes widened when she saw he stared at her.  She stuttered into the phone, "Y... yeah, y... you too.  Thanks again."

She ended the call and carefully set her phone on the counter.  Gage stood from his chair, walked around behind her, encircled his arms around her waist, lifted her off her feet, and walked to the bedroom.

"What are you doing?" 

He didn't reply until he had her on the bed, his body covering hers.  "I have a feeling this will be one of those conversations where I'll need you in my control."  She wisely kept her mouth closed, so he continued, "You want to tell me what that was about in there?"

"Not really."

"Smart girl.  On a scale of one to ten, how angry am I about to get?"

She was quiet a moment.  That wasn't a good sign.  He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing.  He opened his eyes and stared at her beautiful face, something he would never get tired of doing.  He reached out with his thumb and caressed the soft, smooth skin of her cheek.  She looked at him just as intently, and he wondered at her thoughts.  He knew he was getting in there, wedging himself into her heart.  He just didn't know to what extent yet.  He wanted all the way in.  He wanted to possess her.  He wanted her to be all his.

He let her stall long enough.  Time to find out how much trouble his little Sunshine was in.  "Spill."  She chewed on her bottom lip, and her eyes slid to the side.  Another bad sign.  "Look at me."  Her eyes connected with his once more.  "Consider it like a Band-Aid.  The faster you tell me, the faster it'll be over with."

She took a breath and gave him a nod.  "There might have been something I didn't tell you."

"And what
might
that have been?"

"Well, after I went to the house on Friday and had my encounter with Jeremy and saw there were no dogs there, I may have gone back the next day to see if I could find a lead on the dogs."

Gage felt his temper flare anew at the thought of that asshole Beckett, having his hands on Cassie.  And that she went back to the house the next day, had him seeing red.  "Go on," he said, slowly so as to appear calm.

"Well, this pickup truck showed up, and I followed it to an alley off Pine and Chestnut." 

Gage internally cringed.  That was a piece of shit neighborhood.

"When the truck left the area, I drove down the alley, you know, to sort of check things out.  A door was open, so I went in.  It was a big warehouse and in the center was a fighting ring of some sort with ropes tied to poles and blood all over the mat."  She paused a moment a look of horror on her face.  "I can't even imagine how many dogs were injured on that mat by the amount of blood I saw."  She shuddered. 

"I saw doors at the back of the room.  They had large windows in them so I could see a gated yard."  She licked her lips and placed her hands around his wrists, squeezing tightly.  "There were at least twenty-five pit bulls in that yard, but when Animal Care went there today, they were gone.  How can that be?"

Gage thought for a moment.  "You said you went Saturday, right?"

She nodded.  "Yeah."

"They probably hold fights there Saturday nights.  The dogs were probably there for that.  They must keep them somewhere else during the week."

Cassie was silent a moment.  "Good point.  I didn't think of that.  So now we just need to find out where they keep them during the week."

Gage's hands, which rested flat on the bed on either side of Cassie's head, formed into fists.  "You," Gage said, menacingly, "will not be finding out anything.  You have gotten yourself in enough trouble and put yourself in enough danger.  Do you understand?" 

He saw her eyes flash and knew his comment had made her angry, but he didn't give a fuck.  She had nothing on the anger he felt right now.  Going to that warehouse had been incredibly stupid, especially after the incident she'd had the day before.  "Say you understand, Sunshine, because your safety is my top priority.  Even if I have to tie you to this bed to keep you out of trouble, I will.  And, believe me, Sunshine, the thought of tying you to this bed is in no way a turnoff, so don't even tempt me a little bit.  Now say you understand."