“The thirsty kind. Anything else?” Mike replied.
“Lori was just out here. Please, tell me she didn’t see you.”
Mike shrugged. “She knows what happens out here. She doesn’t want to see it then she shouldn’t come out here.”
“But did she know she was going to see you out here? And what in hell are you doing out here anyway? Did you two have a fight? I mean, even if you did, this definitely isn’t the place to come. What in hell—”
Interrupting him, Mike snapped, “Damn it, what in hell are you, my mom? No, we didn’t have a fight, but you’re still assuming there’s something going on between us and there’s not. We spent one weekend together. We had sex. End of story.”
“Except you don’t turn into a mean bastard after a weekend of sex, pal. You’ve been a dick all week, but now I know why. You really are scared.”
Mike rolled his eyes and stood up. “Don’t start that shit again, Alex. I’m not relationship shy and I don’t have any kind of commitment issues. Lori just isn’t my type.” He started to push past Alex but his partner lifted an arm, barring his way.
“She’s not a type.” Alex said it quietly. “She’s a sweet lady.”
Mike stilled. “I know that. She’s a very sweet lady. She’s a good girl and she expects the things out of life that good girls deserve. A husband, a family, a dog in the backyard. I can’t give her that.”
“Bullshit. You just don’t want to try. Why are you so certain you can’t have it? I mean, shit, look at what you came from. Your parents were so in love with each other, it gave people cavities. If they hadn’t died in the accident, they’d still be making moon eyes at each other.”
Turning away, Mike rubbed his chest. It felt empty inside, hollow. Just like it did every time he thought of his folks. They’d been killed by a drunk driver years ago but it still felt like yesterday. He and Allie, they’d been lucky. Not only had they had two parents who loved them, their parents had loved each other as well.
But it had spoiled things for Mike a little. He didn’t want to fall in love because he didn’t want any less than his parents had had. And these days, that kind of relationship wasn’t just rare, it was almost nonexistent.
“I know that, Alex. You think I wouldn’t like to have what they had?”
“Most people would. You’re not stupid, even if you have been acting it lately. I don’t get it, Mike. This is your chance and you’re throwing it away. You think you’re going to have anything lasting with somebody like Bambi?”
“It’s Kiki,” Mike corrected absently. Then he shook his head. “No. I know that’s not the kind of thing that lasts. That’s why it’s how I prefer things. Marriage, kids, the whole nine yards—can you see that working out for me? I’m a homicide detective and I spend my nights at a sex club. I don’t see it.”
“You’re more than just a cop, buddy. That’s why you’re good at it. And you hardly ever come here anymore. You admitted it yourself, you’re getting bored with it. So what’s stopping you from going after Lori?”
“Just let it go.” Mike shook his head and headed out of the alcove.
Alex caught his arm. “Not until I get an answer. I’m tired of you acting like an ass and—” His words ended abruptly and he just stood there, glaring at Mike.
“And what?”
Alex let go and turned away. Reaching, he rubbed at the back of his neck. Under the plain white T-shirt, his shoulders were stiff with tension.
“Alex, either say what you got to say or go away. I want a drink and I want it now,” Mike snarled.
Alex turned around, his eyes dark and glittering. Unless Mike was mistaken, his face looked a little red too. Kind of flushed.
He realized why a few seconds later.
Alex was blushing. “You’re my best friend, Mike. We’ve known each other our whole lives. I just want you to be happy.” He gestured toward the club. “This…hell, this is just fun for us. It’s not our lifestyle. You don’t want some babe calling you Master and asking permission to go to the bathroom any more than I do.”
Mike closed his eyes. No. That wasn’t what he wanted. Up until a few weeks ago, Mike hadn’t been sure what it was that he did want. He had a bad feeling, though, that he knew now.
He knew what. He knew who.
“Come on, man. This is your chance. Why are you trying to screw it up?”
Mike looked Alex square in the eye and said, “There’s no trying to it. I already have screwed it up. I just… Hell.”
Alex had been right.
Mike was scared. That’s all there was to it. “Shit.”
He opened his eyes and looked at Alex. “I think I really fucked things up.”
Alex just shrugged a broad shoulder. “I dunno. Something tells me that Lori just might let this go, after she makes you crawl a little.” A wide grin spread across his face. “Can I watch?”
Mike flipped him off and headed for the club.
Behind him, Alex asked, “Aren’t you even going to say thank you?”
He spun around but kept walking. “Thanks.”
Alex wagged his eyebrows. “I was thinking something a little more tangible than that. Like maybe let me have a taste of the pretty blonde thing…after a while. When she’s done making you crawl and beg. See if she’d be willing to let me come play a little.”
Mike just snarled at him.
As he spun back toward the club, he could hear Alex laughing behind him.
* * * * *
Lori was scared. Hell, screw scared. She was terrified.
She’d changed the locks after she’d kicked Dirk out, but that hadn’t kept him out. The shattered glass and the rock on the kitchen floor made it pretty clear how he had gotten inside, too.
He stared at her with a wild, half manic look in his gray eyes and something about that look made her skin crawl. He didn’t look like he had shaved in a week and his clothes were wrinkled, his hair a mess. Considering that Dirk was the ultimate metrosexual, it wasn’t just surprising to see him that way.
It was downright disturbing.
“I saw you.”
When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost whisper quiet. No reason for it to terrify her. But it did.
“Saw me where, Dirk?” Her cell phone was in her purse. If she could get to it…
He laughed and took a step toward her, then another. She started to back away but he didn’t move any closer. Instead, he started circling her. “With him. I’ve been watching you. You’ve been going to that club.” He nodded a little. “That’s my fault. I should have listened when you said you wanted to go. You want to get fucked and let other people watch, hey, why not? But you had to fuck him?”
Dread curdled in her belly. He had been watching her? And he’d seen her with Mike. It hadn’t occurred to her that Dirk would go all stalker crazy on her, but apparently that was exactly what had happened. And if he had gone and gotten obsessive, seeing her with Mike was not a good thing.
Dirk couldn’t stand Mike. Lori had always suspected that Mike intimidated the hell out of Dirk, made him feel inadequate.
He stopped in his tracks, staring out the bay window. It faced toward the back, but the angled side windows let her see the back half of Mike’s house and that was where Dirk was looking. “Of all the guys, you had to pick him.”
While he had his back to her, Lori carefully slid her hand in her purse and grabbed her phone. He turned to her and she tucked her hand behind her back, hiding the phone from his view.
“Why him, Lori?” he asked, his voice soft and silky. “Of all the guys, you had to sleep with Mike. Had to let him touch you. Why did you do that?”
She lied. What the hell else could she do? Dirk had gone over the deep end and Lori wasn’t planning on letting him take her with him. “I’m sorry, Dirk. I wasn’t thinking,” she said. It wasn’t too hard to sound upset, considering she was absolutely terrified. He didn’t need to know it was fear making her voice so shaky, right? “I was just so hurt. So
lonely…”
Dirk nodded like he understood. “Were you missing me, baby?” he murmured, moving a little closer.
As he did, Lori realized it wasn’t shaving he had been neglecting. He smelled like he hadn’t taken a bath in a week. She started to breathe shallowly through her mouth so she wouldn’t take in so much of the sour scent of his body.
“Did you miss me?” he asked again.
“Every day.” Okay, squeezing that lie out hadn’t been easy. When he stepped even closer, warning sirens started to screech in her head. Lori spun away from him and went to the table. She’d never been the best actress but she sat down and buried her face in her arms and started to wail. “I just missed you so much. But after what you did…”
He made shushing sounds and she flipped open the phone, hoping she had it hidden well enough. With her hair falling in her face and her other arm up, she just might…
“So that’s why you went to Mike.”
Lori wailed a little louder and hoped it covered the sounds as she keyed in 911. His hand touched her between the shoulder blades and he rubbed her back in soothing, slow strokes. “I knew you were just trying to punish me.” He moved away and she heard a cabinet open, heard the water running.
She breathed out a sigh and carefully sat up, keeping the phone in her hand. From the corner of her eye, she could see him filling a glass with water and she tucked her hand under the table. She tried to muffle the sound with her hand, but the tinny… “911. What is your emergency…” was loud and clear.
Dirk turned around and stared at her, his eyes narrowed down to slits. As he lunged for her, she jumped up from the table and put it between them. “Stupid bitch! Lying whore!”
“You don’t really think I’d take you back, do you?” she said, sneering at him. “You’re pathetic.”
“Shut up!” he bellowed. He feinted to the left and Lori moved with him, keeping the table between them, not letting him force her to move anywhere she didn’t want.
She could still hear the operator’s voice coming from the phone in her hand. Keeping Dirk in her sights, she lifted it up and said, “I’ve got an intruder.” She barely managed to recite her address before he came over the table at her. She backpedaled and slammed into the island. He caught there, pinning her up against it.
“You’re going to pay for that, Lori,” he panted, struggling to pin her hands. Lori fought back, fighting to get just a little bit of leverage. She brought her foot up and slammed the heel of her boot onto his foot, grinding down. He yelped and one hand loosened enough that she was able to jerk her arm free. Stiffening her fingers, she jabbed them into his throat.
He fell back, choking for air and Lori scrambled away. She nearly made it to the front door when he caught her. She went down struggling and as he flipped her over, she jerked her knee up, catching him square in the balls. “The police are coming, Dirk. You need to get lost.”
His eyes were wild. His face was pale and he could hardly breathe, but he pinned her down, his knees pressing into her upper arms to keep her trapped against the floor. He reached down, closing his hands around her throat. “You’re mine, Lori. If I can’t have you…”
She struggled to breathe as pain exploded through her. His fingers got tighter and tighter and she kicked, but he had her pinned a little too well. She could feel it, the strength draining out of her, the blackness growing. Her lungs threatened to burst from the pressure and still she couldn’t get a breath in.
As everything went completely black, she heard a crash.
Chapter Eight
For the rest of his life, he was going to see it. Dirk on top of Lori, his hands choking the life out of her.
When the 911 call had come through, he had been almost home. Terror had turned his blood to ice and he had put the gas pedal to the floor, keeping it there until he pulled into Lori’s yard. Literally. He had taken out the white picket fence and destroyed several of her flowerbeds as he practically drove his car through the front of her house.
He’d buy her new flowers. Hell, he’d buy her an entire warehouse of them, so long as she lived.
Alex had shown up at the hospital just as the security guards were trying to drag Mike from the treatment room. How the hell Alex knew already, Mike didn’t know. Didn’t care. He’d almost popped Alex in the mouth because he was helping the security guards drag him away.
“Come on, Mike. Let them help her…” Those words finally penetrated and Mike had let Alex guide him out. That had been nearly thirty minutes ago. Although nurses came and went from the curtained-off room, not one of them had approached.
Finally, the curtain was pushed back and Mike stood up. His legs felt leaden and he was pretty damn sure he was going to choke if he had to say anything. The knot in his chest was so damn huge, he could hardly breathe.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to say anything.
She was young, pretty and looked entirely too perky for Mike’s peace of mind, and she smiled at him. “She’s going to be fine. There’s been some trauma to her throat and she was without oxygen for a few minutes…”
Mike knew that. He had been doing CPR when the ambulance got there. She hadn’t been breathing…
“We’re going to have to keep her overnight. I think she’s got a few broken ribs, either from the attack or the emergency CPR, I’m not sure. We’re going to X-ray…”
Nothing else she said made sense. Mike stopped listening. He moved past the doctor, aware that she was following him, that she was still speaking, but none of it mattered.
What mattered lay in the bed in front of him. Her face was pale, but unmarked. Apparently, Dirk hadn’t been interested in beating on her, just killing her. The evidence of that lay in hideous, ugly red bruises that ringed her pale throat.
As he sat down on the stool beside her stretcher, her eyes opened. She opened her mouth to talk but all that came out was a weird, garbled sound. He reached up and touched her lips. “Don’t try to talk. Your throat’s going to hurt for a little while.”
She stared at him at him for a moment and then her lids drooped. Within a few seconds, she was fast asleep.
“We gave her some pain medicine. There’s no head trauma, no cuts, no lacerations. Really, she’s incredibly lucky. Aside from her ribs and the trauma to her throat, she’s unharmed.”
Mike looked over his shoulder at her and rasped, “You call this lucky?”
The doctor gave him a sad little smile and suddenly she didn’t look so young and perky. Her hazel eyes looked incredibly old as she murmured, “Yes. She’s alive. All of her injuries will heal. You all got to her before he…” Her voice trailed off but Mike knew what it was that went unsaid.
Before Morrigan could have killed her, raped her, or both.
She turned and left but before the curtain swung back into place, a dark hand caught it. Alex stepped inside. He looked at Lori for a second and then looked at Mike.
“You okay, man?”
“No.” Mike lowered his head to the stretcher. He reached up with one hand and sought Lori’s, linking their fingers and pressing his palm to hers. “No, I’m not.”
* * * * *
She woke up surrounded by flowers.
On the table nearest her bed, there was a huge crystal vase. It sparkled in the light filtering through the blinds. It held roses, dozens of them. Each one a deep, perfect shade of red.
She reached up and touched her fingers to one of the petals.
“You’re awake.”
Lori rolled her head on the pillow, too damn tired to lift it. She found herself practically nose-to-nose with Mike. He had huge bags under his eyes, his hair was standing on end and he looked like he had aged ten years.
“You look awful,” she said baldly. Her throat hurt like fire when she spoke and she reached up, touching it with her fingers. Even that light touch hurt.
“Don’t try to talk,” he murmured. He reached up and caught her hand, drawing it away from her throat. “It’s going to be a day or two
before you can speak without it hurting so much.”
Mike stared at her, his eyes focused, intent. “God, I’m so sorry.” His eyes dropped down and she knew he was staring at her throat.
Ignoring his order that she not speak, she asked, “How bad is it?”
He cocked a brow. “Don’t talk.” Then he reached up and gently touched one finger to her neck. “Bruised. Very ugly and bruised. But it will be okay. Do you remember?”
Lori nodded silently. She wanted to say something. But she wasn’t sure what. It’s a good thing I didn’t marry him. How did I get out of there alive? Those were the questions she should be asking.
Instead, she found herself wanting to yell at him about the bimbo brunette who had been giving him a blowjob. She wanted to gouge the woman’s eyes out. And then either slap Mike or jump him.
Not very normal reactions for somebody who had been nearly choked to death, she was sure.
So she focused on one thing she really did need to know. “Dirk?”
His eyes fell away. “He’s dead.”
Her eyes widened. “How?”
“Later. When you feel better. Now will you stop talking?” he asked with a pained expression. “The sound of your voice makes my throat hurt.”
Lori nodded. “After you tell me one thing.”
Mike scowled a little. “What?”
“If you were going to start pretending I didn’t exist after…” Her voice trailed off. After a weekend of wonderful sex. Lamely, she just left it at that. “Why did you even bother? We were friends.”
“Lori, this isn’t a good time to talk about it.” His eyes were flat and unreadable. “You don’t know how badly you were hurt.”
“Mike—”
His voice rose. “Didn’t you hear me? You weren’t breathing!” He was shouting by the time he finished, his face tight with fury. He closed his eyes and she watched him battle the rage. His voice was a little softer when he continued, “You weren’t breathing. Do you have any idea how much that scared me, seeing you there like that?”
“Seeing me… You found me?”
He nodded curtly. “I had left the club to come and find you when I heard the 911 call on my radio. I was nearly home. And still almost didn’t make it in time. You were lying on the floor and he…”
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