by Roma, Laurie
“So,” Sebastian drawled out as he watched Gage brood into his beer. “What’s the problem? Did you strike out?”
Strike out? Hell, no. Gage could still feel her like a phantom touch. He could still smell the sweet lemon-vanilla scent of her on his skin. Damn it, he wanted to feel her under him again, her legs spread wide with those beautiful violet eyes watching him as he took them both over the edge of madness. His carnal thoughts skidded to a halt as he heard his cousin’s low chuckle.
Sebastian watched the emotions flicker over Gage’s face and saw a look that he had been hoping to see on his cousin’s face for far too long. He saw hunger, a passion that had been absent in Gage’s life since his accident. Now, it would just be a matter of getting the stubborn son of a bitch to admit it. “So, you didn’t strike out. Was she any good?”
“Fuck you, Seb.”
“Sorry buddy, you ain’t my type. A woman who looks like that would have to be good. You like this woman or what?”
“Mikayla is…she’s not for me.”
Stupid bastard. Sebastian could see his cousin had it bad. It was the fucking Stark curse that had him running scared, just like all the Stark men. It was like an anvil hanging over their heads, waiting to crush them. Sebastian took a casual stance, keeping his voice light. “Okay, so you had her. Either fuck her again or forget her. She’s just pussy, right?”
Gage’s eyes flashed hot with anger as he stared back at Sebastian. There it is, Sebastian thought. Now, to push him a little further. “So, you done with her or what?”
“Mikayla isn’t interested in our brand of kink, Sebastian.”
He grinned at Gage, throwing fuel on the fire. “Ah, so that’s the problem. She didn’t let you tie her up and spank her pretty little ass? I could make her like it. Now that you’re done with her, I guess I can try my luck.”
Sebastian barely had time to blink before Gage was in his face, his hands holding Sebastian up by the collar of his coat. “You stay away from her,” Gage snarled. “I’m telling you that she isn’t for us. Either of us.”
Sebastian’s expression sobered. “Damn your stupid ass, Gage. I wish I’d never introduced you to the lifestyle.”
Gage jerked away and picked up his beer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. I’m a Dom, Gage. I need certain things to get off. You don’t. Instead you use it as a way not to connect to anyone.”
“That’s bullshit,” Gage argued. “I need it just as much as you do.”
Sebastian shook his head slowly. “No, you don’t. I need the control. You use it as an escape. But if you’re too chickenshit to give it a go with Mikayla then that means she’s fair game.”
Gage didn’t see it coming. One minute he was drinking his beer, then the next he was on his cousin, a red haze blurring his vision and making it impossible to think. The men were equally matched, both of them pounding the hell out of each other until they both lay in a snowdrift on the front lawn, panting for breath. Wulf watched from his perch on the porch, too used to the men fighting to be alarmed. Instead, the dog simply sat watching them with his head cocked to the side.
“Feel better now?” Sebastian asked.
“You’re such an asshole.” Gage sighed.
Sebastian laughed then cursed at the pain of his split lip as he sat up. “Someone had to knock some sense into you. Seriously Gage, you’ve got to stop doing this to yourself. You run for cover every time you even think you might be interested in a woman. You can’t keep living like this.”
Gage held back a groan as he sat up next to his cousin, bracing his arms on his knees. “She’s not for me, Seb. There’s a goodness in her I would fucking kill if I was with her. God, you should have seen her at the river. She’s got a bum leg and still, she just went after those kids like it was nothing. She was so cold and blue when I pulled her out of the water. I’ve only known her for a few days, but I can’t remember being as terrified since…”
They were both silent for a moment as both of them remembered Gage’s accident. “Maybe she’s stronger than you think.”
Gage shook his head. “There’s something about her that just makes me want to protect her. She’s just a sweet woman, too soft for my temper or what I’d want from her. I’d end up destroying her.”
Sebastian sighed. “You don’t know that. This fucking Stark curse. Do you really believe it’s real?”
“Don’t you?” Gage turned to look at him with bleak eyes. “Isn’t that why you haven’t claimed Roz?”
Sebastian snorted even though a part of him clenched inside. “That woman is no submissive. Roz is a little hellion. I’d spend all my time trying to fuck her into submission.”
Gage laughed. “But you’d have a lot of fun in the process.” He sobered and looked out over the white landscape. “No, I just have to stay away from Mikayla, no matter how much I want her. It’s better for both of us. Now, let’s go inside. My balls are freezing.” He got up and held out a hand to help his cousin to his feet.
Yeah, Gage thought as he walked inside. He wasn’t good for Mikayla. Now he just needed to find the willpower to stay the fuck away from her.
* * * *
The Twisted Tap was more crowded than usual for a Thursday night, even though it was ladies’ night and people packed it in for the half-price drinks. Tables were filled with patrons all celebrating the good work done by the citizens of Serenity that led to all of the children being saved from the accident the day before.
Gage sat slouched in his chair in the back of the bar, hidden in shadows as he preferred, wishing to hell he were anywhere but there. He was definitely not in the mood for a party. Hell, he was barely fit for any human interaction, but his family had insisted he come with them tonight for the celebration. He had been ready to tell them all to go to hell until he had seen the veiled hope in his little sister’s eyes.
He couldn’t say no after that.
The crowd of people bothered him and the loud mixture of talk and laughter irritated the hell out of him. But he was here. Gage glanced up as the chair next to him was pulled out and his friend Nick sat down. Dressed in plain clothes that signified he was off duty, Deputy Nick Cooper took a long pull of his beer before setting the glass down on the table.
“You trying to scare people away with that frown?”
Gage snorted. “Didn’t seem to work with you.”
“Naw, I’m just immune to the Stark stare. I get enough of it with you and the rest of your crew. Especially from your sister.” Nick laughed. “You need to lighten up, buddy.”
Another chair was pulled out on the other side of the table, and Gage’s younger brother Dylan flopped down. “I’ve tried telling him, Nick. He’s been like a bear with a sore paw all fucking week. We had a new client come to the ranch today and I swear he almost passed out when he met Gage.”
“Well, isn’t that usual when they meet the great Gage Stark?”
“Fuck off,” Gage murmured before he finished his beer.
Dylan laughed. “Yeah, they usually fawn and stutter for awhile, but then they get down to the basics. But Gage was on a role with Seb in the ring today. This new guy, he’s an actor trying out for some part as a gladiator in a new TV series and needs to learn some swordplay.”
“Ah,” Nick said, leaning back in his chair. “So Gage went all Spartan on Seb or what?”
“Oh, yeah. Man, you should have seen this guy’s face!” Dylan hollered. “It was priceless!”
Katie came to the table carrying three beers and set them down on the table, giving one to both of her brothers before sitting down in the last remaining chair.
Nick gave her a sad pout. “Where’s my beer, darlin’?”
She shot him a pointed stare. “In your hand. What was priceless?”
“The guy today,” Dylan said.
“Oh!” Katie laughed. “Yeah. There was Gage, all feral looking after fighting with Sebastian and he turns to Patrick, points his sword at him and says,
“You’re next!” I thought he was going to faint.”
Gage picked up his beer and took a sip, trying to ignore the conversation going on around him. He hadn’t been trying to show off today. He had been in the zone. When he was younger he had called it his “crazy.” When he tapped into the crazy, it was like he wasn’t himself anymore. All he saw was a red haze and it was as if time slowed down. It was a dangerous place for him to go to in his head, but over the years he had learned to leash it.
He felt bad for scaring the guy today, but the sexual frustration he was feeling was slowly killing him. Gage knew the best thing for him to do was to find the first available woman and fuck her silly, but no one had any appeal to him.
Hell, even in the shower before they had come to the bar Gage had tried to jerk off to relieve the pressure, only to find it difficult for him to find release. It was only after he had allowed himself to picture Mikayla in his head that his cock exploded with a violence that had left him weak.
Gage focused back on his surroundings as Katie popped back up and left the table again. If he had really been paying attention more he would have seen the way his friend Nick’s eyes had tracked her as she left, but Sebastian distracted him.
“Heard another girl went missing in Spring Rock,” Sebastian said as he sat down in the vacant chair.
“Yeah,” Nick sighed. “That’s four in the last fucking month from around the area. I heard there were several more from Denver.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Gage asked.
“I don’t know,” Nick said wearily.
“Do they think it’s a serial killer or something?” Dylan’s voice was filled with concern.
Nick shook his head. “This is what doesn’t make sense. These women are being taken from different areas, but there is reason to believe that two were taken around the same time, miles away from each other. It’s driving me bat-shit. Denver PD is all over it, but I think they’re looking in the wrong direction. They’re looking for one guy, but…”
Gage thought about it then lowered his voice. “You think it’s some kind of organization? Like a trafficking ring or something?”
“Or something,” Nick allowed. “This last girl was hiking with her boyfriend out by Spring Rock falls. The boyfriend was killed and the girl is missing. There were signs of another man and a struggle, but then the trail goes cold.”
“At least no one around here has been taken,” Dylan said.
“Yes, but everyone should still be careful. You guys need to watch out for Katie. Make sure she doesn’t go off with any clients until we catch this fucker.”
“Of course we will,” Gage snapped at his friend. “You don’t need to tell us how to look after our own sister.”
“Katie won’t be going anywhere without one of us,” Dylan agreed. He was the more easygoing out of him, Gage, and their cousin Sebastian, but when it came to his sister’s safely, they were all in agreement.
Katie came back to the table carrying another beer, setting it down on the table in front of Nick. He smiled up at her warmly. “Thanks, sugar.”
She blushed and scowled down at her cousin. “Seb, that was my chair.”
“You could share with me, darlin’,” Nick said with a little laugh.
Gage’s eyes narrowed as he watched his sister blush before he pulled an empty chair from a neighboring table so she sat down between him and Sebastian. Gage had seen a flicker of interest in Nick’s eyes even though he tried to hide it. Shit, was that interest in his little sister’s eyes as well?
When the fuck did this happen?
It was easy to see that Sebastian and Dylan had no clue what had just happened, but Gage had. It was a knee-jerk reaction that made Gage want to slam his fist in his friend’s face, but he held himself back and leashed the crazy. Katie was twenty-two, but he was still her big brother. He’d have to watch and see if this was going to be something he was going to have to talk to Nick about.
Before he could put more thought into the matter they were interrupted as a group of giggling women descended on their table, led by the ever-persistent blonde, Chrissy. Obviously drunk, Chrissy plopped herself down on Gage’s lap before he could stop her. “Hi, Gage. We never did get to talk the other night. I heard you were so brave saving those kids yesterday. Oh! You’re hurt! Let me kiss it and make it better.”
Gage tried to hold the blonde away from him, even as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Nick, Sebastian and Dylan were each getting similar attention from one of Chrissy’s friends, only the other men seemed far more receptive than he was.
The other women pointedly ignored his sister. He caught Katie rolling her eyes, and noticed she looked extremely uncomfortable. Gage’s anger grew at both himself and then women as he realized this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Only, this time he was aware of how blatantly disrespectful it was to his baby sister.
Chrissy’s blue eyes were glassy as she looked at him. “I want to be with you, Gage. I know what you like. You can do anything you want to me. Please.”
Instead of turning him on, her offer filled him with disgust. Is this what his life had been? He had taken his pick of available women and used them for a few nights before moving on to the next. Normally he tried not to hook up with women in Serenity, but Chrissy had been trying to get him to take her home with him for months now. Gage pulled Chrissy’s arms from around his neck in a hard tug. He didn’t want this woman.
He didn’t want any woman that wasn’t Mikayla.
Even in her drunken state, Chrissy blinked then recoiled at his furious glare. “Get the fuck off me,” Gage snarled low enough that no one else heard.
Chrissy stood up and stumbled away from him and fled the table as fast as her heels would take her. Looking around Gage could see that Nick had also extricated himself from his partner, but with far more tact than he had as she gave him a cheerful wave before leaving their table. Sebastian had disappeared onto the dance floor with his partner while Dylan was currently sucking face with a beautiful redhead at the far end of the table.
Classy. “Sorry about that, hon,” Gage said to Katie.
She let out a derisive laugh. “I’m used to it.”
“I know it’s happened a couple times before, but—”
“Ha! A couple times? Why do you think I hate coming out with you guys? This happens every time we go out.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Nick argued defensively.
“Yes, it does. It’s even worse when we go into the city, because whichever one of you draws the short straw is usually pissed when you have to drive me home. But if a guy ever comes on to me, you guys come down on him like a ton of bricks,” Katie scoffed.
“Why the hell would a guy come on to you if you’re with a bunch of guys?” Nick’s voice lowered in a growl.
“You guys are totally clueless.” Katie shook her head then sighed. “I need to start hanging out with Mikayla while she is in town.”
Gage stiffened at the mention of his current obsession. “What do you mean?”
Katie snickered as she jerked her head toward the bar. “Because, clearly she has very good taste in men. I mean that guy is, wow…”
Both Gage and Nick swung their heads around to look at the bar. There at the bar was Mikayla with a big son of a bitch who had his hand on her back as he helped her onto a stool.
Well, shit. Gage had been wrong.
He hadn’t leashed the crazy tight enough after all, and now it was free.
Chapter Seven
Slade held the door open for Mikayla as they entered the Twisted Tap. The heat and noise slapped at them the second they were in the door.
“Jesus, it’s like every fucking person in Serenity is here tonight.” Slade’s deep voice rumbled in her ear as they slowly made their way through the crowd of people. Several people turned to congratulate Mikayla on rescuing the two kids the previous day and made her smile as their eyes went wide at the
sight of her large friend at her back.
Mikayla’s gaze snagged on a group of women walking toward the back of the room, and her eyes narrowed as she barely made out Gage and his family sitting at a table in the corner through the crowd of people. Icy rage washed through her as she watched the perky blonde from the other night perch herself on Gage’s lap.
Mikayla turned away quickly from the sight as pain stabbed at her heart. He obviously didn’t waste any time. Stupid, it was stupid for her to feel this way. They had been together once and she knew it had been a mistake. She had no hold on him, but still it hurt like hell to see him with someone else.
Before Slade could track her gaze, she pushed forward, into the crowd. People cleared a path quickly for them as they walked up to the bar. Two men slid from their stools after Slade leveled a glare at them. Mikayla chuckled as he helped her into her chair then sat down beside her. “I love how well your death stare works.”
“I learned that one from you, Lynx. No one can freeze a man faster than one of those ‘fuck off’ looks from you.”
Roz held up a hand from behind the bar and smiled at them. Mikayla acknowledged the greeting with a smile of her own and pointed toward the tap then raised two fingers to the other woman. Understanding, Roz smiled and nodded. Satisfied that their order was coming, Mikayla turned to look at Slade then blinked to find him watching her with those pale-blue eyes that saw way too much.
Mikayla forced a smile onto her face. “What’s up, big guy?”
“If he leaves with that blonde, I’m gonna break his leg.”
Shit. So he had seen Gage in the back. Mikayla shook her head and lowered her voice. “I have no hold on him. Let it go, Slade.”
“I’m just saying. He hurts you, I hurt him.”
“Hi, Mikayla!” Roz saved Mikayla from answering as she placed two draft beers on the bar in front of them. “Sorry, we’re swamped tonight. Its ladies night on Thursdays so all the women head in here for half-price drinks, but everyone is out to celebrate those kids being saved yesterday. Oh! And by the way, Margie and Sam over there said these drinks are on them,” Roz said, barely taking a breath. “They’re Lindsey’s parents, one of the girls you saved yesterday. You were so brave doing what you did, going into the river like that. And wow, who might you be?”
