Gale, Avery - Rissa's Recovery [The Shadowdance Club 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (21 page)

“You stupid bitch, look what you’ve done. Fuck, I only had a few bullets, and you just wasted one of them. Give me that gun, so I can shoot you.” Rissa thought that if she wasn’t scared spitless, she might find the other woman’s drunken rants amusing.
Seriously? She thinks I’m going to give her the gun so she can kill me? Just how drunk do you have to be to believe that might become a reality?

Rissa could hear pounding on the stairs and knew that help was close, and it seemed like she was watching the scene before her played out in slow motion. Rachel had heard the footsteps on the stairway also and had picked up a small statue from the end table intending to throw it at whoever entered the apartment, but Rissa knew with a flash of insight it was going to look like a weapon in her hand rather than just a cheap garage sale statue. Just as the back door of the apartment crashed open, Rachel spun bringing the statue up to hurl it at the intruder, and Rissa screamed, “
No
!” trying to stop the deputy who had entered from firing the weapon he already had drawn—but it didn’t work, and Rissa watched in horror as Rachel Sutton sank slowly to the ground, her eyes going wide before she dropped unconscious to the floor.

The officer was followed by about half the population of the small town but the only people Rissa could focus on were the two men leaning over her protectively. Mitch’s voice finally sunk through the haze. “Put the gun down, Clarissa Jean.” When she looked up and blinked, his soft smile told her she was finally safe. Rissa dropped the gun and launched herself in to Mitch Grayson’s embrace. Bryant pressed his chest against her back, hugging her tightly between them, long moments passing before either man could speak.

Bryant found his voice first. “Rissa, love, my heart stopped dead when we pulled up downstairs and heard a gunshot.” He took a couple of steadying breaths before continuing. “I swear you have just taken ten years off my life, I want you to remember that when we get married—my shortened life span is largely due to this moment in time.” He knew he was rambling, but he felt her muscles relax, so at least his lame attempts at humor were working to diffuse her tension a little.”

“Baby, I swear to God I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” Leaning closer, Mitch whispered, “And I am going to turn your bare ass so red hot for leaving the mansion without telling us and getting yourself in to this mess…” He hugged her so fiercely she worried he was going to break her ribs before he finally released her.

Dylan Marshall, the local sheriff, had returned from his honeymoon late last night and had been at the diner when he heard the shot. After helping load Rachel Sutton onto the gurney and into the ambulance, he returned to the small apartment where Rissa’s men were keeping her wrapped in her homemade quilts and themselves. A couple of the bar’s patrons had quickly nailed a piece of plywood over the shattered window but it was still cold enough in the small room to see your breath. Trace Bartell was standing to the side waiting and watching. When he saw Dylan re-enter the apartment he nodded and then left. Dylan had known Trace his entire life and knew his friend had simply stood guard in his stead never mind the room was filled with various citizens and law-enforcement personnel. Smiling to himself, Dylan thanked God yet again for the guiding hand that had led him and the love of his life back to Climax.

Dylan finally moved to stand in front of Rissa. Looking down at the fragile women cocooned between Mitch and Bry, he couldn’t help but smile. He’d rescued her the last time, but these men would do it better than he’d been able to, and this time she’d make it.

Chapter Nineteen

Rissa sat wrapped in the quilt Granny had made her as a graduation gift but still shivered so hard her teeth were chattering. Dylan knelt in front of her, and his soft expression had tears tracking down her cheeks before he even spoke a word to her. “Well, Clarissa Jean, we find ourselves in familiar, yet new territory.” His small smile let her know he was trying to gently tease her and lighten the moment. “Sweetie, we’re going to have to get your statement, but I’d like to do that at my office where you’ll be more comfortable and much warmer, that sound good?” Even though Rissa knew it wasn’t really a question, she appreciated his effort at giving her some control in the situation. She knew that his training as a DEA agent would always serve the residents of Climax well.

She nodded then reached for his arm, her fingers gripping him tightly. “Dylan…I, well, I just want to say thanks for everything. You have always been so kind and considerate. I’ll just change clothes and get my car and meet you down there in a few minutes.” When she stood up, the only warning she had that she wasn’t going to make it were the black dots that bloomed in her vision just before everything went black.

Mitch saw her weave and then watched her knees buckle out from under her. Bryant had managed to get his arms around her and kept her from hitting the floor and his softly muttered “Fuck” echoed Mitch’s sentiment. They’d both been so thrown off by her assertion she was driving herself to Dylan’s office that they had almost let their woman collapse right between them.

Dylan just shook his head “You two better get your shit together and quick or you’re going to blow this—badly. Christ, how did she come to be back in this cold apartment all alone anyway—no. I don’t even want to know. I’m sure you have some lame-assed excuse, and I don’t even want to hear it. Now help your woman get dressed and get some food in her and get her to my office ASAP.” Stomping away, his curses could still be heard as he descended the stairs. Bry looked up at Mitch and smiled, he’d never seen that side of Dylan Marshall. Bryant had only known the Dom at the ShadowDance Club, but the man who had just stomped out of the room was a tender-hearted softie hiding in a gruff exterior. And something told Bryant the sheriff would always hold a soft spot in his heart for Rissa.

Looking to his best friend, Bryant smiled and nodded toward the small closet. “Find her something to wear and then, while I help her get dressed, pack it all, everything. She is not coming back here, it’s not safe.” Mitch nodded, and they quickly set to work.

* * * *

Trace Bartell knocked on the door to the office at the back of the small diner and said, “Tori, open up, it’s me, Trace.” He heard movement on the other side, but the door didn’t open immediately.

“How do I know it’s really you? This town is crazy…There’s the attorney who takes off a week for Thanksgiving when he knew I was on my way…no place to stay except that piece-of-shit car I rented…gunfire like the damned OK Corral or something…Christ, you could be some crazed murderer pretending to be the man I met earlier…Hell, what am I saying, you could still be a crazed murderer…Geez, I really need to sleep and I am fracking starving, too.” Trace had all he could do to keep from laughing out loud. God she was going to be fun, and suddenly his life didn’t seem nearly as bleak as it had just a couple of hours ago.

Really smiling for the first time in years, Trace leaned against the door. “Well, darlin’, how about this—I found you sitting outside the local tavern shivering in the cold because you don’t have a coat suited for a Colorado winter, and you had tears freezing on your sweet cheeks because you had no idea where you were going to sleep for the next week. But I can solve all that and your hunger problem for you if you’ll just open up the door, sweetness.” Trace heard the lock snick open, and then the door slowly opened, and he was struck again by the bolt of fire that shot through him when he reached for her and wrapped his arms gently around her trembling shoulders. “Ah, sweetness, it’s okay, just a little drama in the apartment above the tavern, but I believe both parties will be fine, so let’s not let worries about that cloud our thinking right now, hmmm?”

He was slowly walking her back toward the dining room and settled her in a booth. Sliding in beside her, he kept a hand on her at all times. When the waitress came over he ordered her a hot tea and the daily special without consulting her. In the back of her mind she thought there was some reason she should protest that, but she was just so exhausted she was more worried about being able to eat on her own and at this moment, she didn’t much care what she ate. He gently pulled her against his shoulder. “Come here. You have that chalky look that tells me you are just a breath or two from collapse, and I’d like to have you close when that happens.” He’d no more than gotten the words out when he saw her eyes roll up and she looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “Yep, saw that one coming…” He softly laughed as he pulled her up on to his lap and gently laid her cheek against his chest. God but she felt perfect against him, he was taking her home with him, it was just that simple. It was the convincing her he wasn’t a mass murderer that might prove to be the challenge. Looking around the small diner, he decided he was fairly sure he could find a character witness or two when the time was right. But for the next few minutes, he just wanted to savor the feel of the soft bundle in his arms.

* * * *

Rissa finally realized she was moving, and somewhere in the far reaches of the darkness surrounding her was an awareness of a motor and softly playing music. When her stomach growled loudly she heard soft chuckles and then Mitch’s voice. “I’ll call the diner when we get to Dylan’s office and have them send over something for her to eat. She’s going to need her strength to get through all the questions they’re going to have for her.”

Bryant’s voice was quiet but sounded farther away which meant he was driving. “Yes, this will likely take some time. Hell you know how this goes, they’ll ask the same damned questions fifty times to try to prompt every detail out of her.” She could hear the note of sadness in his voice. “Hell, she’ll be lucky to get to rest again for hours.” Rissa tried to open her eyes, but for the life of her she couldn’t seem to pry them open, so she decided to just rest a couple of more minutes, surely that would be all it would take to recharge her.

“Come on, baby, time to rise and shine. We need to get you into Dylan’s office so he and his deputies can ask all their blasted questions, and then we can take you back to Bry’s condo for the night.” Mitch was sure that they’d all be too spent to make the drive back up the mountain after they finished up with Dylan. Shaking her shoulder, he put his lips against hers and decided maybe arousal was the way to go. When she moaned against his mouth, he knew he was getting through to her. Pulling back, he spoke against her soft lips, almost losing himself in their silky sweetness. “Come on now, let’s get this done. Bry has already called the diner for some soup and sandwiches. Let’s get you fed and debriefed so we can go take a nice long soak in the hot tub, what do you say?”

Rissa slowly opened her eyes and smiled. “Okay, but that’s bribery, you know.” When he only smiled, she said, “I just didn’t want you to think you’d gotten away with it. I’m so tired, I don’t know what happened—it was like someone just let the air out of me all of the sudden.”

Mitch leaned closer. “Adrenaline crash, baby. I’ve seen it thousands of times—your body goes in to fight-or-flight mode and gets flooded with Mother Nature’s own Powerade, and then when it subsides, look out floor here you come!” Chuckling to himself, he thought of all the newbies he’d seen drop like stones just like Rissa had back at her studio. And speaking of that hole in the wall. “Baby, we’ve packed you up, you won’t be returning to your apartment at least until this is all resolved, it’s not safe.” He put his hand up when she started to protest. “Think about it, baby…There is only one exit, no security system, you live there alone—because God knows there isn’t room in there for another person, let alone two men the size of yours.” Grinning from ear to ear when she rolled her eyes, he went on. “Oh, baby, do that again later and I’ll paddle your sweet ass, but all things considered I think I’m going to have to make that one a freebie.” He grabbed her and gave her a big hug before setting her back on her feet. “Now, let’s go inside, I’m freezing my ass off out here. We didn’t exactly take time to dress warmly when we finally managed to find out where you’d gone.”

Bryant flanked her other side and leaned close to her ear and whispered in a comical imitation of Snidely Whiplash, “We’ll be addressing that small issue later also.” She couldn’t help herself, she laughed out loud at their antics. You had to love a couple of Doms who could make you laugh about being in trouble after a drunken psycho bitch tried to kill you because she was tired of waiting on the Russian mob to snatch you up as a sex slave…Yep, that seemed to sum up her current situation just about right.

Chapter Twenty

Mitch and Bryant had been right when they had warned her that the debriefing might be more interrogation than interview. God how had she forgotten about the hours she’d spent answering questions after Dylan and Mia had rescued her? Shaking off her mind’s meandering, she refocused on the issue at hand, and that was the fact that at least one member of the Russian mob was already in Climax and he was waiting for at least one more, if the bat-shit-crazy Rachel Sutton was to be believed. Evidently she’d had plenty to say on her way in to surgery. Rissa had told them every single word the looney Domme had said while in the small apartment, and honestly, their altercation hadn’t lasted all that long. Rissa suddenly wondered about how all this was going to affect poor Doc Woods, sighing to herself, she knew she was going to have to talk to him about what she had recently learned about their relationship. She’d been trying to stall because the whole idea of him being her grandfather kind of freaked her out and the idea that her Granny had never told her the truth in all the years Doc had been visiting as her dear friend really didn’t sit all that well with her heart either.