by A. K. Evans
My attention came back to the officer when he spoke again.
“Was that all?”
She took in a deep breath, shook her head, and ended, “Looking forward to seeing you soon.”
“Were you hurt, Ms. Blackman?”
She held up her hands and answered, “Just some cuts and scrapes from when he threw me to the ground.”
“I can call a paramedic to come and have you checked out,” he offered.
“No, it’s ok. I’d really like to just leave and go back to my hotel now.”
He nodded and brought his eyes to mine. “Do you have a card?”
I pulled one out of my pocket and handed it over to him.
“I’ll reach out to you with any updates. We’ll get our men searching for the second suspect and deliver any information we find that can be helpful to you and your team.”
“Appreciate it, Officer.”
“No problem,” he returned. His eyes went back to Elle and he continued, “We’ll need you to come down to the station to make an official statement. I hate to have to make this any worse than it already is, but it’s protocol. If you want to get this over with, I’ll call over and let them know you’re coming now.”
“Ok,” she squeaked out as she wrapped her arm around my waist and squeezed.
The officer walked away to notify one of the several other officers that had arrived on the scene while I held on to Elle.
I looked over to find Pierce in the face of the man he’d taken down mere minutes ago. Pierce was attempting to find out who the bastard was that hired this guy so we could put an end to Elle’s misery. From what I could tell based on the guy’s reaction to Pierce’s inquisition, he had no idea who hired him. My guess is that he was somehow contacted anonymously and he likely did it for money, not really caring or considering about the consequences of what he was being hired to do. Pierce could tear someone down with the best of them, but Elle was scared and had already dealt with enough, so I decided we needed to waste no more time in getting her back to the hotel.
“Reynolds,” I called out.
He looked to me and I jerked my head, indicating he could leave it alone. Pierce took one last look at the asshole, said something menacing, and walked over to us.
“You ok, rock star?” he said to Elle as soon as he was standing in front of her.
She nodded and stated, “Yeah.”
“Were you hurt?”
“Just a few scrapes and cuts from when he threw me on the ground. Other than that, it’s just the emotional wounds.”
Pierce’s eyes came to mine. “I’ll drive,” he started. “Keep her in the back with you.”
We walked to the rental, got in, and Pierce drove us to the station so Elle could make her statement. After, Pierce drove us back to the hotel.
The three of us walked in and got on the elevator. Finally being in a place that was well lit with mirrors surrounding us, I saw just the barest hint of something I was not happy to see. I pulled Elle’s hair back away from her neck and confirmed it. I clenched my jaw, doing my best to tamp down the anger I felt. Pierce saw my face, looked to Elle’s neck, saw what I did, and had the same reaction.
Marks along the skin of her neck where that vile piece of shit put his hands on her.
Pierce spoke.
“I’m calling Cruz. Updating him. Assuming he doesn’t need me on anything back there, I’m staying for the remainder of the tour. On my own dime.”
I gave him a chin lift in acknowledgement, knowing if I spoke about what I just saw I’d lose my shit.
Elle lifted her head to Pierce.
His face softened when he looked at her, but since she still hadn’t seen her own neck, she didn’t understand it.
She looked to me in confusion.
“Elle…” I trailed off. “He marked you.”
“What?” she asked.
“Your neck, sunshine.”
Her head snapped to the side, allowing her to look in the mirror. Instinctively, her hand went to her throat, where her fingertips traced over the spots that his hands had left a physical reminder of her ordeal.
Elle’s eyes welled with tears. She tried to stay strong, but the tears rolled down her cheeks.
The elevator arrived at our floor and the doors opened. I ushered her out and down the hall toward our room. As I pulled the room key out of my pocket, Pierce offered, “I’m down the hall if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Reynolds.”
“Pierce?” Elle called.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He gave her a chin lift and turned toward his room.
I pushed open the door to our room and let Elle in ahead of me. She walked through the suite to the bedroom and finally into the bathroom. I followed behind her and, standing in the doorway to the bathroom, watched as she pulled her hair up and tied it up on top of her head before removing her jewelry. After all of her necklaces, bracelets, and earrings were off, she began removing her clothes and boots. She stepped out of the boots, pulled her top over her head, and dropped her shorts to the floor.
Elle turned to face the mirror and my heart broke for her as her hands balled up into tiny fists.
“I don’t fight bad guys,” she whispered.
What?
She continued to stare at her reflection in the mirror.
“Elle?”
Her head turned toward me and she repeated, “I don’t fight bad guys, Levi. You do. I sing. I spend too much money on lip balm. I do not fight bad guys.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t like how it felt. I was helpless tonight. And terrified. And I didn’t know what to do to help myself. I hope I am never in a situation like that again, but I know I don’t ever want to feel powerless again. As much as it’s not what I do, Levi, I’m begging you to teach me how to fight the bad guys.”
“Anything, Elle. Whatever you need to make you feel safe, I’ll give it to you. Dom can train you in self-defense. He’s in California with us tomorrow. If you want to start tomorrow, we’ll make it happen. If you want to wait until we are back in Wyoming, know that we will have you covered either way.”
She visibly relaxed. Her shoulders dropped and her fists were no longer clenched.
“I’m sorry,” I lamented as I walked toward her. “I should have walked you over to the bathroom. It was a rookie mistake and you paid the price.”
“It’s not your fault, Levi. I don’t blame you and I don’t want you blaming yourself for this. The only one to blame is the person who’s after me. And when you catch him, I want the chance to tell him what I think of him. And I want to know why he did this.”
“If it’s in my power to give you that, sweetness, I will. But know that I will not do anything that will jeopardize your safety again.”
“I know you never would,” she said softly. She waited a moment before continuing, “Will you shower with me and then hold me tight the rest of the night?”
Fuck yes, I would. I wasn’t sure I was prepared to let her more than an arm’s length away from me at this point.
“Yeah. But in between the shower and the bed, I want to take care of your hands. I’ll call down to the front desk and get a first aid kit up here.”
“Ok,” she agreed.
“I love you, Elle.”
She smiled, the first I’d seen since before tonight’s ordeal, and returned, “I love you, too.”
At that, I turned on the shower and stripped out of my clothes. Elle removed her bra and panties. Then, we proceeded with a shower, first aid, and Elle being wrapped up in my arms the rest of the night.
Chapter 14
Elle
The incessant chimes from my cell phone woke me.
I was cuddled up in Levi’s arms and someone was disturbing that. Considering the frequency of the chimes, I knew something was up. I rolled over in the bed and sought out my phone on the nightstand.
I looked at the screen and watched as the te
xts poured in.
They were from two different people.
Both were expected, but one had me slightly concerned. That person was Charley. She was texting me because, apparently, she found out about what happened last night. The other person was Leah. She, too, learned of the events following my performance last night and, obviously, wanted to check in on me.
Charley’s texts started off as her showing concern for me and wanting to make sure I was alright. Then, the tone of the texts changed because Wes found out. He was currently losing his shit about the situation and Charley’s texts were serving as a warning.
Did I mention I loved my sister-in-law?
She had the forethought to at least warn me that a call from Wes was imminent so I could prepare myself.
“What is it, El?”
Levi was beside me in bed and, unfortunately, my phone had woken him up as well.
“Leah and Charley. Somehow, they know about last night. They wanted to check in on me,” I answered.
“Fuck. It’s got to be on some news media outlet,” he hissed. “Let them know you’re ok so they can stop texting.”
“There’s a problem, Levi.”
He lifted his head and asked, “Which is?”
“Charley said Wes just found out and is losing his marbles. A call is going to be coming from him any minute now. I can pretty much guarantee you that.”
He acknowledged this with a nod of his head and asked, “How are your hands today?”
“They don’t hurt. Whatever that ointment was you put on last night had some pretty serious pain relief stuff in it. The burning stopped almost immediately.”
“Let me look at them,” he said, obviously still concerned about the well-being of my hands.
I held them out to him and allowed him to remove the bandages. The redness surrounding the scrapes last night was non-existent this morning. He kissed both palms and I felt my belly flip at the sweet gesture.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to bask in that too long because just then, my phone rang.
Wes.
Shit.
I stared at it knowing he was not going to be happy and wondering if I should avoid picking up the phone until later when he had some time to cool off.
“Answer it, sunshine. Don’t make him worry any more than he already is.”
Good point.
I answered the call and put the phone to my ear.
“Hi, Wes,” I greeted as I sat up in the bed and rested my back against the headboard.
“Dear God, Elle, please tell me you weren’t hurt.”
“I’m ok. I just have a few scrapes on my hands and bruising on my neck.”
“Everything I’ve read says that you were abducted after your show last night in Tucson,” he began. He went on to recount all the details of last night’s catastrophe. I was surprised at how accurate it all was.
“That’s the basic gist of it. Where did you read this?”
“The fucking internet, Elizabeth Blackman,” he roared. “And I’d like to know why that is? Why did my baby sister not call me last night the second she was safe to tell me what happened so I wouldn’t have woken up to this terrifying fucking news that someone held a knife to her back and tried to kidnap her?”
Fuck.
He was using my full name.
This was a pretty good clue, as if I didn’t already have one, that he was pissed.
“Wes, please calm down.”
“Maybe I could do that, Elle, if I had any indication that when shit happened you’d call me and let me know. I read that shit this morning and I wanted to fucking vomit thinking something had happened to you. Where the fuck was Levi? I thought he was with you.”
“Levi was there. After performing for the last three nights I just wanted a few minutes to relax and have a drink. In fact, Levi and Pierce were both there.”
I continued and filled in the holes in the story for him so he knew what happened from start to finish, including the stop at the station to give my statement. I ended, “By the time it was all done, I was exhausted, scared, and no longer running on adrenaline. I should have called you, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
“Jesus Christ, Elle,” he clipped. “Are you sure you are ok?”
“Physically, it really is just some scrapes on my hands. Levi actually got a first aid kit last night from the hotel and bandaged them up. I have bruising on my neck where the guy gripped me and held me against the car, but that’s all. I’m not going to lie to you, though. I’m scared. I don’t know why someone is doing this to me. Last night, I felt scared and helpless. Even though I know Levi and his team will do anything to protect me, I told him I wanted to learn self-defense. I didn’t like feeling scared like that.”
“I wish you’d cancel the tour and come home until this situation gets resolved,” he confessed.
“I appreciate where you are coming from, Wes, but I can’t do that. It’s not fair to me and it’s not fair to my true fans. On the bright side, I don’t have to perform again until Tuesday night so I have some time to relax. Levi is actually going to drive me out to LA instead of flying. I don’t really want to fly and he told me he’d have no problem driving me if that’s what I preferred. Dom is going to be meeting up with us out in California after the LA show. Pierce was supposed to fly back to Wyoming, but after what happened last night, he decided to stay for the remainder of the tour.”
“Please be careful, Elle. And if anything else happens, please don’t make me read about it on the internet, ok?”
“I promise to call next time.”
“Appreciate it. Charley misses you and wants to talk with you. Can you spare a few minutes for her?”
“Of course. I have things to share with her anyway.”
“You can share them with me,” he offered.
“No. No, I cannot. This is girl-talk territory. I absolutely will not share it with you. Trust me, you’ll thank me for not sharing it with you.”
“Fuck. I should have known better. What you just said is more than I care to know about. Hang on, I’ll put Charley on. Love you, Elle.”
“Love you, big bro.”
While I waited for Charley to get on the phone, I looked over at Levi. He had a look of adoration on his face.
“Do I need to make myself scarce during girl talk?” he inquired.
“It’s up to you. I don’t mind if you stay, though.”
He gave me a grin and shifted his body closer to mine. Draping an arm over my thighs, Levi rested his head in my lap.
“Elle, honey, I was so worried about you,” Charley’s voice filtered into my ear.
“I’m ok, love. Levi’s with me and has taken such great care of me. I promise, I’m good now.”
“I assume you gave Wes the details of your whole incident last night?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get the details of that from him then. What I really want to know is how things are going with you and Levi?”
I looked down at Levi’s head resting in my lap, his eyes closed as he held on to me.
“They’re perfect,” I sighed.
“Is it getting serious?”
“It is for me…” I trailed off. I thought a moment and continued, “I’m in love, Charley.”
The hand on Levi’s arm that was draped over my thighs squeezed my leg. It was gentle and sweet. I put my free hand to the top of his head and lazily ran my fingers through his hair.
“Oh, Elle. I’m so happy for you. I knew it. I knew that day you first met him here when he was covering Emme that you two were going to end up together.”
“Well, I’m happy you were right about that,” I admitted.
“So,” she started. “Is the sex good?”
“That’s the best part. I’ll spare you the details right now since Levi’s here and I don’t want his ego inflating, but trust me when I say that it’s absolutely fabulous. He’s great at finding and fighting bad guys, but sex easily tops the list of his talents.”
When he settled down, his fingertips began traveling up my thigh. He lifted his head and brought both hands to the hem of my nightie. The next thing I knew, my nightie was up around my waist, Levi’s hand was at my knees separating them, and he was moving to settle his body between my now parted thighs.
Charley was talking, mentioning something about telling Emme and Zane the good news. I was agreeing with her up until Levi put his face between my legs and put his mouth on me.
“Oh God,” I moaned.
His head shot up and he gave me a wickedly sexy grin. Then, his mouth was back on me.
“Elle? Are you ok?” Charley said into my ear.
“Perfect,” I squeaked out. “Listen, love…” I trailed off because Levi was distracting me with his tongue.
I fought to remain silent, but it was useless. I moaned again into Charley’s ear.
“Oh my,” she said. “Go get some love from your man, honey. Stay safe and call me later.”
“Ok,” I panted. “Later.”
I tossed the phone back onto the nightstand.
Levi did not stop. He continued to kiss, suck, and lick my sex. I kept my hand in his hair, not wanting to let him move from me. This only motivated him further. He grew hungrier, his tongue working me faster, deeper.
“Levi,” I gasped.
He kept at me, taking me higher and higher.
It was like magic.
One hand began traveling up my body to my breast. His thumb circled my nipple over the satin fabric of my nightie as his mouth continued to feast on me. The sensation was divine and it took mere moments for me to feel the familiar feeling deep in my belly.
I had one hand at my other breast, the other at the back of his head. I moved my hips against his mouth.
He growled and relentlessly ate.
Seconds later, I was calling out his name, clutching his hair in my hands as my sex trembled against his mouth.
Levi pulled back slightly and pressed a soft kiss there before trailing more soft kisses up my body.
He eventually made his way to my mouth and kissed me there. I tasted myself on him and grew more turned on, not even understanding how it was possible.
