Dangerous interference, p.21
Dangerous Interference, page 21
She felt the cold steel against her stomach when he slid the blade under her top and sliced up, splaying it open bottom to top in one cut. As he went to work on her skirt, his tone remained almost polite as he asked, “Why have you been so fucking determined to snoop into my affairs, Alena?”
The drizzling mist took that moment to turn into a cold rain, the large drops clearing her head of fear enough for her to demand, “Where is my sister?”
Her skirt and thong fell to the ground as he looked up in surprise before he gave her a bone-chilling, slow grin. Getting in her face, he gripped her hair and pulled her head back as he replied, “In the lake, where you’ll be shortly, you stupid cunt.”
She would’ve crumbled under the weight of his cruel disclosure if she weren’t tied. His taunting grin and the evil satisfaction lurking in his eyes over her anguished cry enabled her to think past the heart-crushing grief filling her. Calling on her defense training, she waited until he released her hair then head butted his face, hearing the satisfying crunch of bone before she followed with a swift kick to his crotch.
Panting, she actually laughed as he writhed on the ground, one hand cupping his crotch, the other holding his blood-gushing nose. “Randy and Nash will finish you off, you fucking dickhead. That, that was… for… for Ashley.” Her bravado crumbled as lamenting regret took hold, followed by a swift return of terror when he rose on shaky legs and she faced a very angry psycho.
She only had time to let out one piercing scream before he closed his hands around her throat, cutting it and her breath off in a tight squeeze.
“This way!”
Bryan crashed into the clearing first, the look of pure, sadistic pleasure on his brother’s face as he strangled Alena nearly sending him to his knees. “Kevin, stop, for God’s sake, stop!”
Randy and Nash brushed past him, Randy pulling Kevin’s hands off her and almost swooning in relief when he heard her cough and gasp for air as he wrestled him to the ground. “Hold on, luv,” Nash whispered, his voice shaking with fury and relief as he reached up to free Alena’s hands. “We’ve got you.”
She fell into his arms, opened her eyes to see Nash’s blue eyes swimming before her then Randy’s dark eyes giving her a critical once-over. “Damn it, guys, what took you so long?” she rasped before succumbing to the sweet oblivion waiting for her.
“I’m sorry. I thought it was an accident.” Bryan looked with anguished eyes from his brother, who lay cursing on the ground, his hands cuffed behind him, to his long-time friend. “He’s my brother.”
Randy jerked Kevin to his feet. Bryan’s betrayal cut deep, but his tone remained unsympathetic. “And Ashley and Lisa were someone’s daughters. You’re all under arrest. Let’s go.”
* * *
Alena sat on the side of the hospital bed, dressed and ready to go. The night before remained a blur of angry voices, pain, and despair. She remembered being put in an ambulance and Nash arriving at the Portland hospital a short time after her. Other than a few conciliatory words, he had been quiet, giving her the breathing room she needed to come to terms with Ashley’s death.
Guilt gnawed at her as she now waited for Nash to return with Randy, who had just pulled into the hospital parking lot with her car. She couldn’t help but feel she had failed her little sister, done something wrong, or not done enough to steer her on the right path. Had her refusal to bail her out of jail a few months ago somehow led to her downfall? She tried finding out who paid her bail after filing the missing person’s report, but wasn’t privy to that information since Ash was of legal age. Now, she suspected Kevin may have been her benefactor, and knowing her sister, she would’ve latched onto him just to see how much and for how long she could string him along.
Hearing low voices approaching her closed door, she pushed aside thoughts and regrets she couldn’t do anything about right now and concentrated on getting home, where she belonged. Glancing at her packed suitcase, she was grateful for Nash’s thoughtfulness in picking it up last night and glad she had already been packed and ready to leave this morning.
Following a short rap on the door, both men stepped inside, those intent, probing gazes zeroing in on her. Her body didn’t fail to react in its usual manner, with a quick jolt of panty-dampening desire, her heart doing a slow roll that made her even more desperate to get on the road home. Both appeared concerned and tired, but Randy’s eyes held the ravages of a long night dealing with the unpleasantness of his job and the betrayal from a friend. She wasn’t the only one hurting this morning.
“Well?” she choked out, even though she knew the answer.
Randy released a sigh as he walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Divers pulled her out a few hours ago. I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s Ashley even though we have to wait on the coroner’s report for official identification. I’m sorry, baby.”
She rose slowly, shrugging off his hand and his condolences in order to maintain her outward composure. “Knowing helps, and I’m sorry about Bryan. What happens now?”
Randy stepped back, giving her the space she didn’t need to ask for. “Kevin’s talking to the DA. He’ll be charged with second-degree murder, along with drugging and kidnapping and anything else they can think of to throw at him. Brad and Joel participated in the drugging of you, Daisy Mae, and Lisa Ames in London.” Looking at Nash, he saw the anger tightening his jaw, the cold look that came into his eyes and regretted having stood up for Kevin when Nash first arrived. After sitting in on the interrogation, nausea churned every time he remembered the cruel indifference Kevin had shown while admitting to his crimes.
“The three of them partied with Lisa, whom they swear was willing until Kevin wanted to try out autoerotic asphyxiation. They also swore her death was an accident, and,” pivoting back to Alena, he told her, “that they suspected Kevin killed Ashley but they had nothing to do with your sister after she left the lake house that night. I don’t know if it’ll help, but Kevin swore Ashley went along with everything and that he just wanted to ‘practice,’” he used his fingers for quotes, “again.”
Alena hated to ask, but had to know everything. “But Bryan knew, didn’t he?”
Turning from the accusation neither Alena nor Nash could hide, he strode to stare out the window at the dreary, dark day that reflected his mood. “Yes,” he finally admitted without looking at them, “he knew. Both Kevin and Ashley drove away in her car that night and a few hours later, knowing his friends wouldn’t back him a second time, Kevin called his brother, swore it was an accident and begged for his help. Bryan believed him.” He had refused to see or speak to Bryan after turning him over Portland PD this morning.
“Rest assured, Alena, that if the courts are dumb enough to make parole an option for Kevin, I’ll be waiting to haul his ass and his friends back to London to stand trial there.”
Nash’s voice and eyes were harder, colder than she had ever heard or seen, which made her feel better knowing they both stood for Ashley and Lisa. With nothing left to be said or cleared up, she picked up her purse and pulled out a small drive, handing it to Nash as Randy turned from the window.
“It’s not much, just a thank you. That’s a copy of all the pictures I took the past few weeks. I thought you might like them.” Looking at Randy, she gave him a rueful smile. “I know you see those scenes every day, but…” She drifted off, shifting in self-consciousness under his close scrutiny and the way those dark eyes lit with amusement and some other indefinable emotion.
“Thank you, Alena.”
“Come on, luv, we’ll walk you out.”
With nothing left to say, she returned home with a heavy heart and memories of two men she knew she’d never forget.
Epilogue
Two days later
Randy clicked the mouse and another photo filled his computer screen, this one of a moose and her calf standing in a stream. Mother had her head turned down at her baby who looked up at her with adoring liquid eyes. It was a priceless moment and stunning photograph, just like the rest of Alena’s work they had viewed.
“How long do you think it’ll take her to see what we see?” Nash asked, standing behind Randy’s chair.
“Knowing her, too fucking long.”
“She’s headstrong, has a penchant for getting into trouble.”
“Yep,” Randy agreed, flicking on another stunning scenic photo. Anyone could snap a picture, but few had the knack to wait for that one precious moment in time or the patience to search every angle for just the right one that would change an everyday, ordinary scene into an eye-catching, spectacular vista. Their girl most assuredly had that knack.
“She’s fucking courageous.”
“Yep.” No arguing that.
Heaving a sigh, Nash growled, “I really liked her.”
Pushing back from the computer, Randy stood and looked at his friend and now ex-partner. “Well, how long’s it going to take you to fill out that application for Maine’s Bureau of Investigation, return home and get your affairs in order, then get your ass back here?”
A slow grin spread across Nash’s face. “Sent in the ap yesterday, have an interview set up for tomorrow. If it goes well, I’ll need a few weeks back home then you’re stuck with me even though I’ll probably have to get an apartment in Augusta and commute a lot.”
“Just as well. You’d probably drive me nuts if you lived here full time. But, for when you are here, and when our girl’s not with you or traveling with her photography, I thought we should add a large master bedroom and bath onto the back of the cabin. Not like there’s not plenty of room.”
Just imagining Alena snuggled between them every night stirred his cock, but Nash couldn’t help asking, “You that sure she’ll return?”
Shrugging, he slapped him on the back, stating, “If not, we’ll go to New York and haul her ass back here. How’s that for a plan?”
“Damn good one, mate.”
* * *
Alena spent the first week after her return home missing the guys as she struggled with Ashley’s loss and the guilt of having failed her. Both overwhelming emotions left her an open wound she strove to heal. She had the sympathy and support of her friends and coworkers and even sought counseling from the department’s psychologist. But none of that seemed to help her get through the nights without tossing and turning as she tried not to imagine if Ash suffered under Kevin’s tormenting hands, or her body after they brought it up after lying at the bottom of the lake for over two months.
Making matters worse, her mother went off the deep end completely after she broke the news of Ashley’s death, forcing Alena to return her to rehab with little to no hope she would ever get her act together. Losing her daughter had been the last thread holding Evelyn Malloy together.
Partial change came the second week when she could finally bring herself to admit she didn’t miss Ashley or the constant trouble she got into, but mourned her young death and what could have been, both between them and in her future had Alena not failed her. She accepted an invite from her friends to have dinner at their favorite sushi bar. Instead of salivating over her favorite salmon sushi roll and enjoying the company of her closest friends, she spent the evening craving Carlee’s chicken fried steak and down-to-earth chatter. And missing the guys.
A few days later, she had an appointment with Rico at her salon, but left without a snip when he wanted to undo Cora Sue’s handiwork Alena had found so attractive and easy to care for. And she really missed the guys.
By the third week, the constant noise of New York and throes of people were starting to get on her nerves. At first, she put her bitchy moods down to grief and stress, but when she started drifting asleep at night picturing herself sandwiched between the guys, the gentle rock of a boat lulling them all to sleep together, she had to concede there was another possible explanation.
At the end of that week, she returned to her studio apartment in tears after photographing the crime scene of a gruesome, triple homicide all afternoon. Cancelling her plans to meet some people at her favorite club, she spent the evening alone looking through her pictures of Blue Springs and missing the guys. Desperate to feel something other than grief and remorse, she spent an hour with her vibrator, recalling every touch, every orgasm the guys drove her to. But all that did was confirm she would never achieve those heights on her own and how much she craved to feel their hard hands and even harder bodies again, hear their low, deep voices that sent shivers down her spine, and see those intent, probing looks that heated her blood and dampened her pussy.
But it wasn’t until she visited her mother the next day and found her lucid, her eyes clinging to Alena with both love and regret, and heard her say, “You’re not happy here, Alena. I’ve already lost one daughter because I refused to see what a mother ought to. I had no right to shove your sister’s upbringing and problems on you and I have no right to keep you here when you so obviously want to be somewhere else. Go home Alena,” that she was free to do what she knew she had to.
Kissing her mother’s cheek, she whispered tremulously, “Thank you, Mom. I think I’ll do just that, but I’m not going far. I’ll be here for you.”
Which is how she found herself returning to Blue Springs one month after she thought she’d left this small, backwoods town behind her, returning to claim her guys. The sun had lowered to a bright red-orange ball by the time she turned down Randy’s drive, the determination that had her donning the short knit halter dress they bought her and spirited her thus far waning enough to let uncertainty turn her hands clammy. She assumed Nash had returned to London, and her plan was to enlist Randy’s support in talking him into coming back. If she could do it then he could do it, she reasoned. But what if she’d read them both wrong? What if they weren’t as open to exploring where their relationship could go as she now was?
Pulling next to his official cruiser, seeing the sheriff leaning back on two legs of the wicker porch chair he sat on, tipping his bottled beer up to his mouth and watching that strong, tanned throat work as he swallowed, her body responded with as much fervor as the first time she set eyes on him. Determination pushed back to the forefront and propelled her from the car and up the porch steps. She had a brief moment of pure female satisfaction when his eyes widened in surprise and he spilled beer down his chin, then that toe-curling, intent, probing look entered those obsidian depths and she was lost.
Before she collapsed into a puddle at his feet and started begging, she stepped right up to his front door and grabbed the handle. “I could use one of those.” Letting herself in, she saw him rise and follow her before she stopped short when she spotted Nash across the room, standing over a steaming pot on the stove. “You’re here?” She winced at the squeak in her astonished tone and both men smiled.
“I am, and I know why I’m here, but why are you, luv?”
Placing her hands on her hips, her gaze snapped back and forth between the two of them as she stated in a much more forceful voice, “Why? Because of you two, I can’t sleep, I no longer like sushi, hate crowds and busy, noisy streets, and I fired my hairdresser!” She threw her hands up in disgust with that last admission then started pacing, mostly so she could avoid looking at their identical smirks and knowing glints in their eyes.
“So, since it’s your fault I quit my job and leased my apartment, you can just put me up for a few weeks until I can get my feet on the ground doing freelance photography. I’ve sent out some feelers and have a few small jobs already. And I have savings, but I don’t want to go through all of it staying on the boat again and… what’re you doing?” She’d pivoted to see Randy pulling a wood paddle out of a kitchen drawer and the two of them advancing on her with small steps and wicked anticipation. An R and an N were carved in the wood, just enough space between the two letters for her to accurately picture those letters sketched white on each reddened cheek.
Her buttocks clenched as she held out her hand to ward them off even though she now wore a grin to match theirs. Taking a step around the sofa, she laughed, saying, “I’m not done talking. Stay back with that thing.”
“I don’t think so, baby. After we punish you for making us wait so long, we’ll show you our plans for the new master suite we’re adding on.” Randy stepped to the left and Nash to the right, coming at her from both sides.
The thrill sweeping her from head to toe had more to do with hearing how much they wanted her than with the promise of painful pleasure that board represented. Giddy with the first taste of happiness in a long time, she sidled over to the recliner, a few steps further out of their reach before she looked at just Nash. “You never told me what you’re doing here.”
“Same as you, I’ll be starting a new job soon. And waiting for you.”
Randy glanced sideways at Nash. “But we’re done waiting, right?”
“Right, mate. Let’s get our girl.”
With a burst of laughter and speed, she made to dash around them, but they were too quick for her. Or maybe she didn’t try all that hard. One second she was laughing uncontrollably, and the next she found herself pinned between them, bent over a thick arm, her skirt tossed up and her thong ripped off. The paddle landed with a resounding whack, the pain and ensuing pleasure felt like… coming home.
“Damn, we’re good.” Randy ran his finger over the white outline of the letter R against her red buttock as Nash did the same to the letter N opposite.
Swiveling her face up to him, she taunted, “Yeah? Prove it.”
Alena discovered just how fast they could move when she found herself and them stripped bare within seconds, their warm, hard bodies sandwiching hers as the three of them toppled to the rug in a tangled heap of legs and arms. Pleasure devoured her as their hands and mouths traversed everywhere at once. From the very beginning, the two of them had awoken a hunger in her she never knew she had, one that could only be sated by them both. Her mind and body became consumed with the endless wave of orgasms they drove her to until she lost track of everything but the hot, pulsing pleasure.
