Leather and Sand (Riding the Line Series) (27 page)

“I might not get you, but I’ll get your girl, Jamison!” Vidal’s maniacal screech alerted Dax to the man’s location—a small door at the rear of the building.

“Dax!” A loud hiss reached his ears. “You’re hit!”

Dax looked at Wince with twin feelings of gratitude and concern. “So are you,” he observed. Blood oozed from Wince’s thigh as he army crawled to Dax.

“He went after Rhiannon.”

Though he was pale and in obvious pain, Wince struggled to stand but was unable to bear weight on his leg. Dax quelled his rising sense of despair. He tried to yank his shirt off to offer Wince a way to staunch the flow of blood and found that not only was the fabric practically glued to his body, his right arm didn’t seem to work.
Shit.

“I’ll use my hand.” Wince said weakly, placing his palm over his wound. “Slade and the others are with the guns. Turtle will send more backup.” With effort, he tugged his cell phone from his pants.

“Give me your gun, too.”

“You’re going to shoot him left-handed?”

“I’m going to
kill
him, Wince.”

***

No one could have predicted what had happened. At least Sirena was safe. Turtle was sending more of his boys back, along with his cousin who was on the police force. It was time to bring in the big guns. Dax told her to run, and she did. Sirena needs a mother, he had said.

Well, Dax Jamison, she also needs a father.

Gritting her teeth, Rhee circled back to the rear entrance of the building. It led to a short dock and some rusty old equipment. She meant to sneak back in to the warehouse to help Dax and Wince. The shooting had stopped. Rhee took a step forward and the door flew open. Horror of horrors, it could have only been worse if Jeffrey Dahmer had stepped through the door.

“My day just keeps getting more interesting.” Vidal sneered, looking her up and down. He leveled his gun at her chest. “Come on, my dear. Time to take a long walk off of a very short pier.”

His laugh made her want to vomit. Rhee prayed the man wouldn’t notice the bulge in her waistband.

“You know, back in the day, the fishermen used to dump tuna carcasses right off of this dock.” Vidal said casually.

What was he about? Rhee had heard that in a hostage situation, it was best to keep the perpetrator talking. And to talk back, tell them about yourself, so they would see you were a person too.

“That’s…interesting,” she said hoarsely, unable to think of a different word.

Vidal cackled. “What’s more interesting is what liked to eat those carcasses, my dear.”

Gooseflesh rippled down Rhee’s body as she understood the implications of his words.

“I see you catch my drift, so to speak.” Another crazed laugh emitted from the man’s mouth. “I wondered if those big tigers still came around here, sniffing for food. A few months back, I started chumming the waters.”

Was the man serious? Turtle had talked about the big sharks that had been sighted in the surf. Rhee trembled as they got closer to the end of the dock.

“I didn’t see anything at first. It turns out, you just need the right kind of bait,” Vidal continued.

Rhee chanced a peek at the man. His eyes were glazed over and a thin line of drool hung from the corner of his mouth. He rubbed his drippy nose repeatedly. He spoke in a high-pitched, singsong tone that told her he had lost whatever marbles he had left. He dragged her along, still talking, but the conversation was no longer directed at her.

“You never believed in me, father! Look who’s on top now? And what are you, old man? Food for the sharks, that’s what!”

Rhee wasn’t entirely pretending when she stumbled about two feet from the end of the creaky wooden dock. The man’s words sickened her. He railed on as she doubled over, feigning a twisted ankle. Her hand slipped into her waistband, her fingers curling gratefully around the cool steel that waited there.

“So what’s it gonna be, Little Miss
Phantom?
” Vidal was saying. “You gonna dive in with honor or am I gonna give you a little push off my plank?”

Rhee closed her eyes. There was no way in hell she was willingly jumping into shark- infested waters. The ocean was murky here, and looked menacing. Plus, she had seen enough episodes of
Shark Week
to know that there was a real possibility of being attacked in this particular spot. Rhee shuddered, her hand shaking as she hunched over her weapon. She’d have only a few seconds to make her move.

“Get up, you little bitch, or I’ll shoot you first and then toss you in!”

“Let her go.”

Rhee looked up at the sound of Dax’s lethal-sounding voice. A combination of anxiety and relief coursed through her as he limped towards them.
Mighty Mouse!
Rhee thought inanely.
Of course, he’s come to save the day.
But why is he holding his arm that way?
And
—
-is he bleeding?

“Ah, Jamison. This is too perfect. I have a way to sink your club regardless of your cooperation. So, I think I’ll feed your girl to the fishies and send you in after her.”

Before Rhee could utter a word, Vidal pulled his weapon and let loose a barrage of bullets towards Dax, who dropped to the ground. Time seemed to freeze. As if in slow motion, Rhee raised the heavy gun to Vidal’s back. The trigger was difficult to pull. In desperation, she squeezed harder, as Vidal turned to face her.

Rhee didn’t hear the explosion of gunpowder from the chamber. She didn’t feel the backlash that slammed into her in the shoulder like a freight train. The burn on her palm didn’t register at all. It was Vidal’s look of surprise as he toppled backwards into the water that punctured her awareness.

“Dax!” Rhee scrambled to the man, who lay unmoving on his stomach, like a fallen soldier.

Rhee knelt over him. “You’re hurt!”

“Hit—in—the—shoulder. Before.” He mumbled, as he tried to sit up.

“Don’t move, Dax. Turtle’s on his way with help.”

A trickle of blood meandered down the left side of his chiseled face as he patted himself down with his left hand, wincing as he felt along his right shoulder. “It went through. Think the rest of me is still here.”

Rhee slid herself under the man’s good arm as shouts came from the front of the warehouse. “Lean on me.”

At last, Dax turned to look her up and down, as if to confirm that she too, was okay. “You’re not hurt?”

“I—I don’t think so.”

“Sirena?”

“Turtle got her out.”

Dax glanced at the silent waters that lapped against the dock. “Nice shot, stowaway.” When he shot her that cocky, lop-sided grin of his, Rhee knew that everything was going to be okay. Uniformed men raced toward them, but Rhee didn’t move. She stayed exactly where she was—nestled against Dax Jamison, cradling his head against her breast.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

One Month Later

“She’s asleep.”

“Are you sure?”

Dax smiled wolfishly. “Yep.”

Rhee grinned. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

“Even if I had one foot in the grave, I’d still be
up
for this, darlin’.”

As she regarded Dax, sling and all, Rhee’s mind flashed back to that awful day that had transpired, exactly one month before. Thankfully, Sirena was no worse for wear, seeming to have forgotten all about the “bad men.” She didn’t remember the woman who tried to help her—Alanna. Rhee had mixed feelings about the girl. She acted to help Sirena, and even if Alanna was after Dax, she didn’t deserve to be shot. She had been airlifted to the mainland for treatment—another victim of Vidal’s personal vendetta against Dax and the club.

The local police believed that Vidal murdered his own father to gain control of the company’s funds. They dragged the area near the cannery, but found nothing. Rhee had been truly afraid until Vidal’s bloated body, ravaged by the creatures of the sea, washed up on a tourist beach several days after the incident at the cannery. It caused a major scene until the authorities ran a fictitious story explaining that the man had been in a boating accident. Turtle explained that the department was still gathering information, but Rhee suspected that his inside guy was protecting the arms deal. She would never question him, but Rhee secretly hoped that Turtle, and all of the people she knew and loved, would find a less dangerous, more legal vocation.

One of the crazed shipping magnate’s goons died after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. Turtle’s boys inside covered up the evidence that implicated Wince in that shooting—a scheme that worked well when Agent Marino’s bullets were also found in the body. The other man—well, he was nowhere to be found and Turtle assured Rhee that he would stay missing, if he knew what was good for him.

For now, that was enough to assuage some of her nightmares.

At first, Rhee presumed Marino dead, but the man seemed to have as many lives as Manali did. Even though she hardly knew him, he had risked his life for her family. Rhee wanted to thank Marino in person, but she never got the chance. With his cover blown, and bullets in both legs, the agent was sent home to recover after making a brief statement. According to Wince, an unmarked chopper whisked Marino away just before the ambulance arrived.

Wince, thankfully, had not sustained any serious injuries but the graze on his thigh required a few stitches. He and Dax were taken to the same hospital as Manali. When Rhee finally arrived there, with Turtle, Tiny, and Sirena in tow, she learned that her beloved landlady-parent had suffered a mild heart attack during her sprint down the beach trail, before being shot. In a bizarre twist of events that even the hospital staff couldn’t explain, the bullet ricocheted off of a large, stone amulet Manali always wore. She escaped with a small scar from the impact and a greater focus on spirituality than ever before. Over the last few weeks, Manali had set out many offerings to her ancestors, claiming that they were protecting her from beyond the grave.

While Wince was released right away, and took over the day-to-day operations of whatever deal they were still working, Dax spent a few weeks in the hospital recovering from surgery on his shoulder. He was a truly grumpy patient. The man hated being tied down, that was for sure. The moment he was able, he ripped his monitors off and stomped right out of the heavy sliding doors, with Rhee trailing behind, begging him to be reasonable.

It turned out that his definition of “reasonable” included Rhee playing nursemaid.

Now, Rhee had a slightly incapacitated Dax Jamison convalescing in her bed. The sexual tension was unbearable. And, after all that she had been through, the overwhelming lesson that Rhee had learned was that life was short. Precious. There was no time to hide behind fear. No, this time she was going to take what she wanted and she wanted Dax.

It had always been Dax.

The man in question stretched his good arm as his phone flashed. “It’s Turtle. The coffee operation is a go.”

It was nice to have the man at a slight disadvantage. Rhee reached over and turned the phone off. “You’re off the grid for a few days, Jamison.”

“Oh, yeah? And what do you plan to do with me, stowaway?”

Dax looked amused at her display of dominance. The wink he gave her told Rhee that he wasn’t expecting her to take charge, so that’s exactly what she did. Careful to avoid his bandaged shoulder, Rhee gently pushed Dax back onto the pillows.

“I’m going to take care of you, of course.”

“Mmm. That sounds like a interesting idea.” He placed his good arm behind his head.

Rhee’s belly clenched at the sexy picture he made reclined against her pillows.

“I’m at your mercy.”

Fuck, he’s so...beautiful.

It was the only word that seemed to fit. Rhee had never been given the freedom to explore a man’s body like this. She ran her hands lightly down his muscled torso and lean ribcage as he watched her, his eyes smoldering with intensity. Rhee was determined to act every inch the confident seductress, even though she had no idea what she was doing. All she knew was that she wanted to be in his arms. She climbed astride him and placed her face to the spot where his neck met his shoulder. Rhee inhaled deeply, pressing a kiss to the warm skin. His sharp intake of breath spurred her to continue her exploration.

Oh, the muscles on this man. She ran her hand over the smooth, hard slab of steel that made up Dax’s chest. His flat nipples hardened as she grazed them with her thumbs. Curious, she pressed a kiss to each one, wondering if men experienced the same sensations women did.

“Jesus!” he hissed.

Guess they did. Feeling powerful, Rhee ran her tongue down to his navel. Dax tasted of leather and sand. He groaned. Boldly, she placed her hand over the hot, hard part of him that was straining through his track pants. “How am I doing?”

“Enough teasing, stowaway,” he ordered.

Even as she giggled, Rhee found herself topped. Somehow, busted shoulder and all, Dax managed to flip them so that she was beneath him on the bed. “I’ve been aching for you since you left,” he whispered, before covering her mouth with his own.

Before she could respond to his honest confession, Dax whisked her dress to her waist, fitting himself between her legs. Rhee opened her mouth to speak as he nuzzled her breast, pressing his hot mouth to her nipple through the thin material. All the thoughts in her head, all the words she wanted to say were lost as her nipples swelled, a bolt of electricity shooting straight between her legs.

“Dax!” she gasped.

“Mmm. These are bigger.”

“I had a baby...” she explained breathlessly.

Dax paused. Tension crackled in the air. Rhee chanced a look at his face. Oh God, the look in his eyes was purely predatory. “You had
my
baby.” He punctuated his statement by thrusting against her moistening panties.

Rhee cried out. “Yes.”

“Hmm. As I recall, I think I owe you a spanking, stowaway.”

Rhee let out an audible gasp. “What?” A jolt of desire ripped through her body as heat bloomed in her abdomen.

“You heard me, darlin’. Hands and knees.” He levered up and stood over her expectantly.