RAFE'S LAIR (29 page)

                                 CHAPTER 43

      Marie kept looking over at Ava who kept looking behind them. "Ava what the hell is going on? Why do you keep looking behind us?"

    "Just get us
home Marie so we can pack a bag and go find a place to stay for a few days."

    "Kay now you
’re really scaring me dammit. Tell me what is going on or I'm taking you straight to the cops and you can tell them."

Ava laughed a bitter laugh at that. "There's
nothing the cops can do so you'll just be wasting our time. Just get us home like I said."

Marie drove them home the rest of the way in silence. She barely pulled into her parking spot when Ava jumped out and ran straight in the door and up to her room ev
en before Marie had the car off. Marie followed her up there and stopped in the doorway when she saw Ava throw a bag on her bed and start gathering clothes. She walked in and stopped Ava when she came back out of her closet with an arm full of clothes.

  
"Marie go get packed we have to be out of here before the sun sets."

She grabbed a hold of Ava and stopped her. "No you tell me what the hell happened right now."

Ava sighed and was about to start to tell her when they heard a knock on the door. They both looked at Ava's door when they heard the knock again then a voice calling to Ava.

    "Ava
its Dom. Please come open the door sweetheart."

    "Who the hell is Do
m?" Marie asked her friend.

Ava shook her head and put her finger to her lips. "Sshh. They'll hear you. Don't say a word and hopefully we can get him to go away."

    "Ava there's no way he can hear me, he's all the way outside."

    "Ava I will not go awa
y sweetheart, so come open the door and talk to me." Dom called through the door again while looking at Sloan who had a sly smile on his face. They both had heard Marie and Ava knew it.

    "Shit!" Ava said marching down the stairs to the door. "Go away Do
m I don't want to talk to him." She called through the door.

Dom chuckled. "He is not here, so you don't have to talk to him. It's just Sloan and myself my dear."

    "Why should I believe you Dom?"

    "Because you know I wouldn't lie to you, and that there is no way he can be here right now even if I were."

    "Well you could be here to take me back."

    "I would not force you to do anything against your will. Ava open the door please." He said on
a sigh. He really was tiring of having to repeat himself no matter how amusing the situation was currently.

Ava cracked the door open and peeked out. "I don't want to talk to him right now Dom."

Dom smiled at Rafe's mate. She most certainly was something else. "Yes I know this as you have made it abundantly clear by telling me several times. And I have told you that I won't force you to every time as well. Now may we come in and talk a moment?"

    "You
’re just going to try to stall me so that when the sun goes down he can come get me."

    "No my dear I will nothing of the sort. I just want to talk a moment, and then I will let you go on your way." 

Ava opened the door and stepped back. "Fine come in." She said and shut the door behind them. Crossing her arms over her breasts, she asked. "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

Dom looked around the apartment. It was quite nice and was exactly how he would have pictured their place, very inviting yet sheik showing off their individual style. He looked ov
er and saw Marie come into the room.

    "Hello I don't think we've had the pleasure of being introduced. I am Dominic and this is Sloan." He said pointing at himself and his beta.

    "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to be friendly at the moment, so tell us what the hell you want and then get out." Marie said to him going to stand by her friend and taking almost the same posture. Dom looked at Sloan and raised his brow. Sloan just shrugged and shook his head. Women.

    "It's okay Marie, you actually have t
o be nice to him, he's actually a really important and apparently powerful guy." She turned to Dom. "Do you even refer to yourself as a guy?"

Dom chuckled. "Yes Ava I do." He said nodding his head.

    "I don't care if he's the president of the United freaking States. Him and his boy have apparently helped to get you really upset and I want to know why right friggin now, cause I'm starting to get really pissed off."

    "You don't know how close he really is to a president." Ava said half to herself. "Marie
just give us a minute okay?"

    "No I actually think it might be better if she stayed to listen to what we have to say to you." Sloan spoke up. He turned to his alpha. "Do you agree?"

    "Yes I do. Ladies please sit." Dom said gesturing to the couch.

 
  "Not in the mood so we'll just stand. Get to the friggin point before I tell you both to get the hell out and show you exactly how you can do it." Marie said back to them.

Sloan barely bit back the growl that wanted to come out at the ornery woman. She w
as starting to piss him off with the way she was treating his alpha. She had already been warned and she still showed no respect. He felt Dom lay a hand on his shoulder.

    "Sloan it is okay. Once she understands who we are, then she will not be so rude.
She is very upset about her friend and she has every right to be."

    "She may be upset, but she has already been informed that she is to treat you with respect whether she wants to or not." Sloan said glaring at Marie.

    "Damn straight I'm upset. Now what the hell is going on?" Marie yelled.

    "What am I aloud to tell her?" Ava asked Dom trying to diffuse the situation before it got any worse than it already was.

    "Whatever you like." He said to the shock of both Sloan and Ava.

Ava's jaw dropped. "
Are you being serious?" She couldn't believe he just told her to tell Marie whatever she wanted. "What's the catch?" She asked then thinking there had to be something up.

    "No catch. You obviously trust your f
riend, so you decide what it is she should know." Dom told her gesturing to Marie and smiling between the two.

Ava looked at Dom a moment longer to see if she could tell he was lying. Seemed he wasn't, so she turned to Marie and told her the truth.

    "I was kidnapped on my way home from work last night by a crazy midget that is off her meds and wants to get Rafe in trouble by hurting me. And because of that, he's decided that I need to be locked away at Lair until they find her. And of course we both know how well I take being told what to do without being asked my opinion, so we're kinda having a fight and I ran away. So because I don't want to talk to the overbearing jackass right now and I sure as hell don't want to see psycho midget, we have to go find a place to stay."

Sloan looked at Dom and raised his brows. The alpha just smiled back at him and winked. Of course he knew all along Ava wouldn't tell her friend the entire truth. Sloan was sure she was going to and wouldn't have given her the option. Se
ems both he and Rafe had a lot to learn about the woman and from the alpha as well.

Marie stared at her friend for a moment. Shaking her head, she finally spoke to her. "You expect me to believe that? Ava what the hell? What have they done to you that you
can't tell me the truth?"

Ava looked at Dom. "That's the catch." She said pointing at her friend. "You knew she wouldn't believe me."

    "It is kind of a hard story to believe is it not?" Dom replied raising his hands in the air.

Ava started laughing. "Ye
ah it is. Marie I really am telling you the truth and I'm sorry you don't believe me, but I don't know what else to say to make you. So I'm sorry, I guess you'll just have to be pissed at me." She turned back to Dom. "So now what?"

    "Now you decide what you need to do."

    "You know for being some all powerful alpha dude, you really are no help at all. You know that right?" She told him crossing her arms again and kicking out her hip.

Dom laughed. "If you would like me to give yo
u my opinion, then I will. But if you are looking for me to tell you what to do, then I will not. I told you Ava, I will not force you to do anything you do not want to do."

    "I want to find that damn midget and make sure she can't hurt Rafe again, that
's what I really want. But we both know there's no way I can do that and stay alive in the process." Ava said pacing to the window.

Sloan smiled a wicked smile at that. "Yeah I like her too I think. She definitely is full of surprises" He told his alpha. "
I think I can help you with that actually." He told Ava.

    "How's that?" She asked turning back around to face them brows raised. "And really I'm so very glad I pass everyone's approval, but kinda getting sick of hearing about it. Kay?"

Sloan smiled back at her. "Hate to tell you this, but that's just too bad. I kept Carl's phone and was able to trace the locations where many calls were made from. There are three locations I think are likely to be places Rachel would be hiding."

    "Who's Carl?" Ava aske
d.

    "Who's Rachel?" Marie asked.

    "I told you, the crazy midget." Ava told her friend waving her hand dismissively.

    "Ava you cannot seriously expect me to believe you about a crazy midget."

Ava looked at her friend. "Believe me, or don't believe me. It's the truth. So do you have a number that he called a lot too?"

    "Actually I do. Why do you ask?"

    "Because I'm thinking I give her a call and set up a meeting. You can let Rafe know where it is right before we meet. Then he can come take care of his crazy sister and save the night." She snapped her fingers. "Then voilà, fights over and everybody's happy." She finished smiling from Sloan to Dom and back again.

    "You know he will not be pleased about this in the least Ava." Dom told her then.

Ava shrugged. "Yeah well, I'm not pleased with him trying to lock me up so that makes us even. May I have the number please?"

                                  CHAPTER 44

      Ava sat in Marie's car looking around at the dark parking lot wondering what the hell she had been thinking. She looked down at her watch. Again. Five minutes till they were supposed to meet Rachel. She scanned the lot again. Man it was dark out now
and she could barely see a damn thing. Sloan and Ed were somewhere out there watching them, thank goodness. At least that's what they had promised her and Marie. Dom had gone back to Lair right before sunset to tell Rafe where they were. She had deliberately picked a place fairly far away from the club to give them time to get Rachel here before Rafe showed up guns blazing and forced her back to Lair.

She looked over at Marie and saw she was just as antsy as Ava and she kicked herself again for dragging her
friend into this mess. Ava had tried to keep Marie from coming, but she had insisted on coming to help. Although she had made it abundantly clear, she still didn't totally believe the story Ava had given her. She said she knew there was more to it than what Ava was telling her, and she wanted to know what so she was coming whether Ava liked it or not. Ava was glad her friend was here with her, but she was scared something would happen to her and Ava would never be able to live with herself if that happened.

    "I cannot believe I let you talk me into this Ava." Marie said to her for the hundredth time.

    "I told you you didn't have to come. That you actually shouldn't come."

    "Whatever. We are not having this argument again. You know damn well, there
was no way I would let you do this alone. Whatever the hell
this
is."

    "Well for what it's worth, I am glad you
’re here." Ava said smiling at her friend and squeezing her hand.

Rafe was about to go crazy. He'd been pacing the club for the last few hours
waiting to hear from Dom and get Ava back here where she belonged. The sun was mostly set now and he'd had enough waiting, so he headed for the garage and his Harley. Ethan, Marcus and Nate followed him out. They knew not to question him on this now even though he was still pretty badly burned, cause he was damn close to blowing up again. Just as they were starting to pull out, Dom came riding in.

    "Where the hell have you been?" Rafe yelled. "You were supposed to get my mate and bring her back home to
me."

Dom raised a brow at him. "I told you I would not force your mate to do anything she didn't want to do." He replied.

    "No you didn't." Rafe shook his head. "Dammit I don't have time for this. I'm going to get her myself."

    "Well I would not both
er going to her apartment then." Dom replied way too calmly for the mood Rafe was in now.