Arsen

by Kathryn Thomas

  She looked down. “I don’t have any money.”

  “I know. It’s my treat.”

  “I don’t want you to do that!” she cried, looking back up and meeting his eyes.

  “Too bad. I don’t want to see you in those same four shirts and pants all the time.”

  “But—”

  “Look, do you have any clothes?”

  “In Flagstaff.”

  “But none here. Do you want to go back there and risk something happening or being recognized? There are going to be a million questions and the police are certainly going to be involved. Do you want to face that? Nobody knows where you are at the moment, and in Tucson, nobody knows you. Let’s keep it that way in case the Horsemen want a little revenge for you killing one of them.” Her face crinkled then looked down again. “Okay, now that we have that straightened out, let’s go shopping.”

  “I’ll pay you back, somehow,” she whispered, not looking up.

  He held his hand out to her. “We’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about it.”

  They rode back to his house and left the Indian, changing over to the Caddy. She squirmed down in the leather seats, the air conditioning blasting along with some Creedence Clearwater Revival on the stereo. She’d heard of the band, but this was the first time she’d ever really listened to their music, and pretty soon she was toe tapping and grooving with the music, surprised at the number of songs she recognized from movies and television, but hadn’t known the band.

  She grinned as he cranked the volume up and lip synced along with John Fogerty about being down on the corner and out in the street, the seventies vibe of the music somehow fitting him.

  They made several stops a bunch of different boutiques. She was aghast at how much money he was spending, but he never even blinked. If she liked it, and he liked it on her, it went into the bag.

  By the time they left Dillards, their last stop, she was certain he’d spent well over two thousand dollars on her wardrobe. She felt guilty at having to depend on his charity, and concerned that he was outfitting her so lavishly. If she were fucking him, it would make it a little easier, but he’d asked nothing from her, and she wondered, if at some point, he would make demands on her.

  He could tell she was feeling low. It didn’t take a genius to guess that she was worrying over the money she probably felt like she owed him. He’d tried, repeatedly, to assure her he wouldn’t demand payment and had actually enjoyed the experience. He used to go shopping with Holly, enjoying watching her face light up when she found something she liked, and he had gotten the same sense of satisfaction with Quinn. With her bruises hidden by makeup and dressed in properly fitting clothing, she was stunningly beautiful.

  They had dinner, a meal she’d insisted on preparing alone. Arsen assisted only in pointing out where various pots and pans were, and though she would talk to him, what little vibrancy she’d developed was gone. During the meal she’d kept her eyes low, and though they watched the second Jurassic Park, she’d kept her distance. He made no comment, giving her the space she needed.

  She lay in her bed, the demons whispering in her mind. He’s going to demand your body in exchange for the clothes. Maybe not tonight, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Nobody has ever been that kind to you and not expected something, and he’s no different. She held her fists over her ears, crushing her eyes closed as she tried to blot out the whispers, but they wouldn’t be silenced.

  She was afraid to go to him. She’d felt his hard cock against her ass last night, and she was afraid eventually he would use it on her. She didn’t think she could ever face having a man touch her that way again and she worried the whispering fear was right. He’d only known her a few days. Why would he spend so much money on her? He was obviously wealthy, but you don’t become wealthy by giving your money away for nothing.

  She lay for hours, tossing and turning, but she couldn’t silence the voices and couldn’t sleep. She finally rose and tiptoed to his room. If he forced himself on her, then she would know, but he hadn’t hurt her yet. Swallowing hard, she eased the linens open and slid into the bed.

  The bed moved as Quinn joined him, the shifting of the mattress pulling him from sleep. She was turned on her side, presenting her back to him, and he snuggled in. She was shaking but he made no comment, heaving a deep sigh as he wrapped her up and tugged her in close. It took her several long moments, but eventually he felt the tension slowly draining out of her. He smiled and allowed sleep to take him again.

  Chapter 17

  “So, Quinn, how are you feeling?”

  Quinn smiled up at Doc Holiday as he coasted to a stop by her chair. She sat the laptop aside and rose to her feet to give him a hug. “I’m so, so, sorry for what I did the last time I saw you.”

  Doc chuckled. “Quinn, I would ten times rather see that than have you simply sit there and let people do anything they want to you. It showed me your spirit wasn’t broken. I knew then you would probably be okay. I assume Arsen told you the news?”

  “That I wasn’t pregnant and I had a case of Chlamydia? Yes.”

  “Did you take all the antibiotics I prescribed?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s good. In another couple of months, I want you to come back into the office and get tested again, to make sure we have that cleared up.”

  “Okay.”

  “Are you comfortable with me doing another exam?”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, corralling and blocking off the fear before it could overtake her. In the month since she’d met Doc, she’d come to accept that the men of the Blacktop Blades weren’t going to throw her on the bed and fuck her, but thinking about having even a doctor touching her body made her heart speed up. “Yes.”

  He smiled. “I can’t believe the difference in you now and how you were when I first saw you. Come on, this won’t take but a moment.”

  They moved to the guest quarters, Arsen watching her go but not interfering. She was getting control of herself more and more every day.

  When they entered the room, Doc closed the door and she could feel the panic rising within her but she battered it down. She started to unbutton her shorts.

  “Let’s save that for last,” Doc said. “Have a seat first.”

  He examined her hands, face, knees and legs, pressing her ribs through her shirt. “Any pain?”

  “No.”

  “Have you been sexually active?”

  She snorted. “No.”

  “Didn’t think so but I wanted to ask.” He finished his pushing and prodding. “I’m going to listen to you breathe now,” he said as he warmed the stethoscope in his hand. He reached under her shirt and pressed the still cold metal disc to her chest. “Deep breaths.”

  She breathed deep several times and let it out slowly.

  “Good. Everything seems perfectly normal. How are you feeling? Sleeping okay?”

  “Better,” she said with a smile. “About a week ago I started sleeping in my own bed.”

  He chuckled. “Oh? Where were you sleeping before?”

  She blushed. “With Arsen.”

  “Really?”

  “Having him hold me kept the nightmares away.”

  He nodded. If Arsen was sleeping with Quinn and they weren’t having sex, Arsen had more self-control than he did. Now that she had healed up and the bruising was gone, she was lovely.

  “On more thing. I don’t expect to find problems, but I want to make sure you’re healed up.” He paused a moment. “I’m going to check you for pain. That means I need to insert my finger into you. Are you okay with that?”

  She swallowed hard. “Do what you have to.”

  “Remove your shorts, please, then lay back on the bed.” She did. “Any pain?” he asked as he touched.

  “No,” she said, trying to control her breathing.

  “Done,” he said as he moved back and removed his gloves. “You can get dressed now.” The experience was far less upsetting than she was
afraid it was going to be and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “How are your bowel movements? Any discomfort or leakage?”

  “No,” she replied as she buttoned her pants.

  “Do you know what this means?” he asked, his voice slow and serious.

  She felt her blood run cold. “What?”

  He smiled at her. “You’ve completely healed. Physically at least.”

  She burst into giggles. “Don’t do that! You scared the crap out of me.” His smile widened as he opened the door and stepped aside so she could depart first.

  “How is she?” Arsen asked as they exited the room.

  She felt her heart melt a little more, reading the concern in his eyes. He had been her knight this entire month, there to prop her up when she stumbled, giving without asking for anything in return, endlessly patient with her emotional ups and down, and even though she knew he wanted her, his hard cock speaking of his desire, he’d not once attempted to seduce her, much less coerce her. She would have enjoyed spending more time in his bed, but she began to feel sorry for teasing him by allowing him to hold her but denying him the use of her body.

  “She’s fine, physically. I can’t speak to her emotional well-being.”

  “Every day she’s better,” Arsen said.

  Doc looked to Quinn and she nodded in agreement. “I still have my moments, but they are getting farther and farther between, and they don’t last as long.”

  “That’s good,” he said. “I knew you were a fighter.”

  “Thanks, Doc, for taking care of this,” Arsen said.

  “I’ll send you the bill. I told Quinn I want her back in the office in two months so we can do another swab. The doxycycline should have knocked the Chlamydia out, but I still want to check to make sure.”

  “I’ll call and setup an appointment,” Arsen agreed.

  After Doc Holiday left, she turned to Arsen and grinned. “I have something I want to show you, you and the club.”

  “Okay. Right after lunch?” He knew she’d been up to something, but he didn’t know what. She’d been in a huddle, off and on, with the Alex, the brother responsible for both their club and B3 websites, and Zane. She’d also disappeared with some of the old ladies, returning a few hours later with the women all bright eyed. He hadn’t asked what she was doing because she was engaged and excited, and so long as Zane was in on it, he knew she wasn’t doing anything detrimental to the club.

  “That’s fine. I hope you like it.”

  “Does Zane know?”

  “Yes.”

  “What does he say?”

  She grinned. “He hasn’t seen it, but he knows what I’m doing and he said go ahead. Alex has been helping me with it, and he’s seen it.”

  “Then I’m sure it’s fine.”

  She grinned and flounced to the laptop she’d been using and sat down to put on the finishing touches. She been trying to do the big reveal for the past three days, but each time she thought she was ready, she would find something wrong or have a better idea. Now, however, everything was working as she envisioned.

  He smiled. The last few days had shown marked improvement in her attitude. Whether it was she was feeling better, she was putting her dark days behind her, or the excitement of what she was working on was helping her cope. He didn’t know and didn’t care. He was just glad to see her steady improvement.

  Having her engaged elsewhere was also helpful; he needed to talk with the brothers about Phil’s discovery.

  It had taken him the better part of two weeks, but Phil had finally run to ground what was going on with the Horsemen. They were losing their muling duties as the cartel edged them out. The word on the street was the Horsemen had been losing too many loads to the authorities, and Lobos cartel wasn’t happy.

  The Horsemen had hit the softer of the two targets first, but once they consolidated that, they would probably turn their attention south, to the big prize. Arsen wasn’t so naïve to believe the Horsemen could survive on trafficking weed when they were used to dealing in coke. An attack attack was coming, the Blades just didn’t know when or how.

  He’d spent the past week working, getting word out to his customers what was going down and to expect supply disruptions. He had guaranteed the supply, but he could no longer guarantee the regular deliveries.

  The only customer who was really affected by the potential disruptions were the Advocates, since all the other customers bought on an as needed basis anyway. Where other customers could order a week or two earlier, to make sure the delivery was made before their stock ran out, the Advocates depended on the regular supply line.

  Arsen and Jason had talked it over, and Advocates had agreed to up their order to 50,000 tablets for the next four weeks to ensure they had adequate supply in case of delays. Once the Blades got their problem sorted, they would bleed their stock down with smaller orders until the supply and demand equalized again.

  He and Zane had just finished working out the raw material order quantities to meet the sudden increase in demand when lunch was served.

  All through the meal, Quinn was buzzing with excitement, her enthusiasm infecting the entire club. Like Arsen, the club knew she’d been working on something, but she’d kept it under wraps and sworn Alex to secrecy. A few of the old ladies had an inkling of what she was up to since she’d had professional photos taken of them with various products, but only Alex knew the whole story.

  ***

  “Okay,” Arsen said after lunch had been cleared away. “What is it that you wanted to show us?”

  Quinn couldn’t believe how nervous she was. “A few days after I arrived, Arsen told me what the club did for income. I sat down and looked at the B3 website and, to be honest, I wasn’t impressed.” She looked over her audience to see if she was offending anybody, but they were all still with her. “Several of you have told me what great products you have, and I’ve tried a few myself, and I was impressed with the quality and the price. The problem is, as a customer, I would look at your site and skip right past it thinking you were some fly by night operation, or the products weren’t any good. There was no pizazz to the site that made me want to look around.”

  She nodded to Alex who sat at the computer, now hooked to the huge television. He typed a few keys and their old website disappeared and a new one took its place. “Now there is.”

  Where the old website was simple and barren, with lists and words, the new website was vibrant, laid out in shades of green with images of plants and trees slowly changing in the background. “I thought, ‘If I was a customer, what would I want to see? What would capture my attention?’ I started with pictures, and worked from there.”

  Alex flipped through the pages, showing off the work he and Quinn had done. “I kept a lot of the text you already had, describing what was in the products and how they worked, but I reworded most of it, making it less dry and, I hope, more interesting.”

  Michelle burst into giggles when her picture popped up. She was sitting on the side of a tub, her vibrant red bathrobe carefully arranged to suggest much, but reveal nothing, as she poured a handful of salt into the tub.

  “Is this live?” Arsen asked.

  “Not yet,” Alex said. “It’ll take about ten minutes to upload it to the host, but after that, it will be. We didn’t want to do anything until you had a chance to look at it.”

  “Go to the bath salts page,” he ordered. A moment later the page appeared. The salts were arranged in artful piles, showing off their color and shape.

  “If we click on a picture,” Alex said, taking over the technical details from Quinn, you get a larger photo.” He clicked and the photo zoomed in so they could see the individual crystals. “That’s true on all the products.”

  “You did this?” he asked Quinn.

  She felt a cold lump form in her stomach. “The overall design is mine, yes, but I hired a photographer to shoot the photos, and Alex actually did the work to make it all happen.”

&
nbsp; Arsen looked back at the television. “Amazing. What do you think?” he asked the group.

  “I think we should be uploading it to the host, or whatever, right now,” Zane said. “This is amazing. I knew she was working the website, and I approved the bill for the photography, but I had no idea it was going to look like this.” He looked at Quinn then Alex. “Outstanding work, you two.” His gaze shifted to Michelle. “I want to see that robe when we get home.”

  She giggled. “I think we can arrange that.”