Marking Time (WeHo Series Book 4)

by Sherryl D. Hancock

  CHAPTER 5

  A few days after the move at Kashena and Sierra’s house, Raine needed to put her bike back in the shop. She had been experiencing problems with it not getting enough fuel and sputtering, so she had talked to Quinn and Jericho who both rode motorcycles and they had suggested she take it in when they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Cat had said she’d pick her up for work, but Natalia had said that Raine could use her vehicle.

  Natalia followed Raine to the repair shop, wincing and worrying every time another vehicle got even close to Raine. She found that she was a lot more nervous about seeing Raine ride than she was on the bike with her. She also realized that even so, she was very attracted to the picture that Raine made on that motorcycle with her black leather riding jacket with its sapphire blue accents, and she’d taken to wearing leather chaps over her jeans since her last accident. Leather chaps would have prevented the road rash she’d received on her leg. Plus she wore black riding boots with a heel, Natalia found everything about her sexy, especially on that motorcycle!

  Once they’d dropped off the motorcycle, Natalia handed Raine the keys to her car.

  “Uh,” Raine stammered looking confused.

  “You’re dropping me off, so it’s easier if you’re driving.” Natalia said.

  “Oh, okay,” Raine said, moving to open the passenger door for Natalia.

  Raine got in on the driver’s side, having to adjust the seat, since Natalia was about four inches shorter than Raine was at 5’7”. She adjusted all the mirrors then finally started the car.

  “This is weird,” Raine commented, as she put the car in gear to leave the bike shop.

  “What is?” Natalia asked.

  “Driving a car again,” Raine said, grinning as she pulled out onto the road.

  “How long has it been?” Natalia asked.

  “Uh,” Raine stammered, having to think about it, “I’d say about seven or eight years.”

  “Wow!” Natalia exclaimed, “Why so long?”

  “Well, in New York having a car is a luxury I really couldn’t afford. I learned how to drive one, but I never owned one. A motorcycle is easier and cheaper to have in New York. My first bike cost me $300 bucks.”

  “Mierda!” Natalia exclaimed, “That’s cheap!”

  “Insurance is cheap, so’s gas, and you can park ‘em pretty much anywhere.” Raine said, grinning.

  “I see,” Natalia said, nodding, understanding more why Raine road a motorcycle, “But you can probably afford the insurance and gas now, right?”

  “Sure,” Raine said, “But why bother? I own the Shadow outright, and I can spend money on other things.”

  Natalia shook her head, “I still owe money on this.”

  “This is a lot more than my Shadow, that’s why,” Raine said, grinning.

  Before long they were at the college. Raine pulled up to the curb, putting the car into park and turning to Natalia.

  “Text me your last class place and time, so I make sure I’ll get back here on time,” she said.

  “Okay,” Natalia said, leaning across the console to take Raine’s face in her hands kissing her lips softly, then deeper the second time.

  “You’re making it hard to go to work now.” Raine murmured against her lips.

  Natalia laughed, enjoying that Raine was willing to tell her how much she wanted her. Julie always played the uninterested game, it had made Natalia seriously wonder if she was less attractive, it hadn’t been a good situation at all. Raine was so very different for her and she loved that.

  “I will see you later,” Natalia said, smiling brightly.

  “Go learn lots,” Raine said, winking at her.

  “Voy a!” Natalia replied, as she got out, saying ‘I will’.

  Raine watched her until she disappeared around a corner, then she put the car back into gear and head to work. Her day was filled with reports to write and a warrant to work on for Cat to sign, so it seemed like only a couple of hours before she looked up to note that she needed to get ready to go pick up Natalia. The body shop had called and it was going to be a bit for them to get to the Shadow, so she needed to look into a rental car or something.

  At the college, she found a parking spot, and using the information Natalia had sent earlier she looked for the room where Natalia’s last class was. She was walking quickly because she was running a couple of minutes late and didn’t want to miss Natalia. As she walked up however, she saw that she hadn’t missed Natalia, she’d been delayed, by a woman who had to be Julie.

  Raine saw the way they were talking, it looked heated, and Raine hung back to give Natalia a little privacy, although it didn’t seem that Julie cared about that. Looking at Julie, Raine saw how really butch the woman was. She was about two inches shorter than Raine, but very different in body style and overall appearance. Raine could see what people meant by the difference between a butch lesbian and a soft butch lesbian. Julie was stocky with short cropped dirty blonde hair, almost military style, and she had a few prominent tattoos one of which was a large skull and cross bones on her neck. She wore baggy jeans with combat style boots, and a button down shirt in grey. She looked very hard.

  As Raine watched, Julie took a menacing step toward Natalia, and when Natalia shrunk away, Julie grabbed her arm roughly. Raine strode over to the two women, stepping up beside Julie.

  “Let her go, now,” Raine said, her voice strong but low.

  Julie glanced at her, and made a dismissive sound, and turned her attention back to Natalia.

  “Last time I’m gonna tell ya,” Raine said, her tone stronger now, taking on the cop authority as she stepped closer to Julie.

  Julie let go of Natalia in surprise that this soft butch was pushing up on her. She wheeled around to face Raine, pushing her chest out, her chin coming up.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Julie sneered.

  Raine’s eyes didn’t even flicker at the tone in Julie’s voice, “I’m the one that told you to let her go. I’m also the one that’s telling you that if you lay hands on her again you’ll deal with me.”

  Julie looked back at her, her face a mask of disgust. She turned slightly, like she was going to walk away, but then threw a punch. Raine was ready for it, she brought her arm up and through blocking the punch and used her other forearm to shove Julie back away from her.

  Julie looked shocked, she’d been sure that this woman was no threat to her. Raine’s blue eyes remained completely passive.

  “Are we clear now?” Raine asked as she held her hand out to Natalia who was staring at her wide-eyed.

  Not waiting for Julie’s answer, Raine nodded to her, her look still cool and calm. Then with Natalia’s hand in hers she turned and walked away with Natalia beside her. Neither of them spoke until they reached the car. Raine opened the passenger door for Natalia, taking a long look around, she then got in on the other side.

  Turning in the driver’s seat she took Natalia’s hand in hers.

  “Are you okay?” She asked the smaller girl.

  Natalia nodded, then looked at her with wide eyes, “How did you do that?” She asked.

  “Do what?” Raine asked.

  “Deal with her so easily,” Natalia said, her voice indicating her awe.

  Raine looked back at Natalia for a long moment, “Babe, you know I deal with much worse people than her on a daily basis, right?”

  Natalia looked back at her for a long moment, her look a bit shocked, then she shook her head, “No, I guess I never really did think about that. I mean, I know you’re a police officer, but you never really seem like one… Does that make sense?”

  Raine grinned, inclining her head, “I don’t usually bring the job home with me,” she said. Then she looked at Natalia, her look serious, “That’s not the first time she’s grabbed you like that, is it?”

  Natalia blinked a couple of times, wanting to lie, because the truth was so embarrassing, but she couldn’t lie to Raine. Finally she just nodded her head
.

  “I didn’t think so,” Raine said, her look pained, “Is that one of the other reasons you two broke up?”

  “Yes,” Natalia said, her voice a whisper.

  “You know that what she was doing and what she just did now is not okay, right?” Raine asked, “No one should ever lay hands on a woman like that, ever.”

  Natalia drew in a breath, blowing it out as she nodded, “I know,”

  “But she had her reasons and her excuses…” Raine said.

  “Which now, thanks to you, I know are complete bullshit.” Natalia said.

  “Glad I could help,” Raine said, grinning.

  Natalia smiled at her in return.

  “She’s got to get the idea that coming at you like that is not going to be allowed,” Raine said then.

  “I know, and the girls tried to help,” Natalia said.

  “The girls?”

  “You know, Cat, Jericho, Quinn all them,” Natalia said, “They came to the gym when Julie used to show up there, and basically threatened her.” She shrugged, “Julie just started coming here instead.”

  Raine’s lips twitched in irritation, “Pretty hard headed, I take it.”

  “Oh yes,” Natalia said.

  “Well, then, that changes what I was going to talk to you about,” Raine said, grinning.

  “Okay,” Natalia said, her tone unsure.

  “My bike is going to need to be at the shop for at least a week, I was going to rent a car, but if you don’t mind, I think I’d like to become your chauffer for a bit.”

  “Okay…” Natalia said, her look a little perplexed.

  “How often does Julie show up?” Raine asked.

  “Every other day or so,” Natalia said, then caught what Raine was thinking, “Oh, honey, I don’t want you to have to deal with her…”

  “Talia, I’m not going to stand by and let her hurt you,” Raine said, her look puzzled, “You didn’t think I would, did you?”

  Natalia didn’t answer, looking down at her hands in her lap. Raine reached over touching her hands, looking at her until she raised her eyes again.

  “I’m not going to let her hurt you,” Raine told her, “If nothing else, it’s my job to protect you, but as your girlfriend, I need to protect you, okay?”

  “I didn’t want to drag you into any of this…” Natalia said.

  “You should have told me about this sooner.” Raine said, her tone chastising.

  Natalia didn’t answer, just bit her lip.

  Raine looked at her for a long moment, then leaned in kissing her lips softly. She drove them back to Natalia’s apartment then. They had time to eat a quick light dinner and then needed to get to Natalia’s class.

  During the class, Natalia noted to her dismay that suddenly the gay members of her class, the ones that Julie had always considered her “groupies” were suddenly paying far too much attention to Raine. Raine, who never paid attention to women or men flirting with her, since it happened a lot when she was on patrol with people trying to get out of tickets, didn’t even notice. By the middle of class, Natalia was ready to chew nails. The women were purposely “playing” with Raine, running their hand down her arm when they talked to her, making a lot of eye contact. Natalia constantly had to scream at them to pay attention to get them refocused on the class and less focused on Raine.

  When they took a water break, Natalia walked over to Raine.

  “Lo que esta mal con ellos?” she asked Raine, wanting to know what was wrong with ‘them’.

  Raine looked confused, “Who?” she asked.

  “Estas bromeando?” Natalia snapped, asking if Raine was kidding.

  Raine’s eyes widened at the tone in Natalia’s voice, “No…” she said, shaking her head.

  Natalia shot her a look of complete disgust, but then turned to start the class again. After that anytime Natalia’s eyes connected with Raine’s, Natalia could see that Raine was trying to read her look. Was it possible that Raine hadn’t noticed? How could she not notice?

  Later after the class was over and Raine stood waiting for Natalia to get her gear together, Natalia could see that Raine was still mulling over what was going on. When Natalia gestured that they could go, Raine pushed off the wall, walking over to take Natalia’s gear bag out of her hand, and leaned in to kiss her softly on the lips, the same as she would any other night.

  Some of the girls from Raine’s group, Cat, Jovina and Jerry were still out in the gym when they came out.

  “Everything okay?” Cat asked, having noticed Natalia’s tension and the girls flirting with Raine during class and Raine’s complete oblivion when it came to them.

  Raine nodded, and Natalia glanced up at her.

  “Did you not notice?” Natalia asked.

  “Notice what…” Raine asked, her look cautious.

  “Wait, what did you notice?” Natalia asked, sensing that she and Raine were not talking about the same thing.

  “Okay, let’s move this outside,” Cat said, noting that people were watching the exchange closely, and thinking that this was not something that should be said inside the gym.

  Cat lead them outside, Jovina and Jerry stayed back, sensing that Cat was there to referee the argument they felt brewing.

  Natalia turned to Raine, looking up at her.

  “So what did you notice?” she asked, her hands on her hips.

  Raine looked back at her for a long moment, her look almost amused by Natalia’s stance, which served to only further irritate Natalia. She saw Natalia’s eyes narrow and had to stifle the laugh that threatened to come out.

  “What I noticed was you estar loca tonight.” Raine said, her tone completely devoid of any kind of accusation.

  “Me?” Natalia said, her voice raised.

  Raine rolled her eyes and nodded.

  Natalia launched in a series of expletives all in Spanish, which had Raine looking at her like she was insane.

  “Okay, okay,” Cat said stepping between them, before Natalia launched an all-out offensive against Raine, who very obviously had no idea what this was about.

  “Raine,” Cat said, looking at the other woman, “What has Natalia sputtering over there is that those girls in the class that were paying so much attention to you tonight were flirting with you.”

  “Huh?” Raine said, looking genuinely confused.

  “They were flirting with you meija!” Natalia exclaimed.

  “What, why?” Raine asked.

  “Aye dios mio!” Natalia exclaimed, throwing up her hands.

  Raine looked at Cat, “They are interested in Talia, not me, why would they flirt with me?”

  Cat looked over at Natalia, “She has a point.”

  “Que? De que estas hablando?” Natalia said.

  “Babe, she has no idea what you just said,” Raine said.

  “I got some of it,” Cat said, grinning.

  “What are you talking about?” Natalia asked, trying not to grin at Raine’s input.

  “They were probably flirting with her to piss you off,” Cat said.

  Natalia stared back at Cat open mouthed. Then she looked over at Raine, who simply looked back at her calmly.

  “And I did exactly what they wanted…” Natalia said.

  “Yep, you got mad at your girl, instead of them,” Cat said.

  Natalia looked flabbergasted, then looked over at Raine again and walked over to her, putting her arms around Raine’s waist and leaning her head against her chest.

  “Lo ciento, carina.” Natalia said quietly, telling Raine that she was sorry..

  “It’s okay, babe.” Raine said, looking over at Cat and mouthing the words “thank you” to her boss.

  Cat smiled and nodded and left them alone to go back inside and retrieve Jovina.

  The next night in class, Natalia waited until everyone was there, seeing that the girls were right back to their game. This time she got everyone’s attention on her, then she turned and walked straight over to Raine, putting her hands
up to cup Raine’s face, she pulled her head down to kiss her deeply. Raine’s hands slid around her waist, and pulled her close, deepening the kiss. Everyone in class cat called, and cheered, except for the three who’d been flirting with Raine, they did not look happy.

  Cat sauntered over to the three girls.

  “Might wanna take note of that ladies… That’s what you call good sex.” She said with a wink.

  It was the third day that Raine had driven Natalia to school, she’d come back to pick her up. For the second day in a row she had made the point of turning her badge face forward, she also used her hip holster instead of the one she usually wore at the small of her back. That day both were effectively covered by the black button up shirt she wore over a black tank top, the cover shirt was held together with one button at her waist. She wore jeans, and black boots.

  As she walked up, she glanced around, not seeing Julie. Looking at her watch she saw that she was about fifteen minutes early. She moved to lean against a wall close to the class, but out of the way of where people would be exiting.

  Ten minutes later, Julie walked up from another direction, not noticing Raine since another class had let out just then, and the sidewalk was filled with people. Raine, however spotted Julie, and moved toward the door to Natalia’s class.

  Julie spotted her as she walked up, her look was openly hostile.

  Raine looked back at Julie, her look ever passive. She stood with her feet braced apart, her arms in front of her, her hands clasp together at was essentially a parade rest for police officers. Julie was at a disadvantage because when the door to the class opened, she was behind it, and as soon as the door opened, Raine took a step forward, her height allowing her to spot Natalia before she got to the door. She stepped over, taking Natalia’s hand and pulling her to her, before Julie even had a chance to touch her.

  Natalia knew something was wrong the minute she saw Raine’s face, she was looking to the right, and she was tense. Raine’s action of pulling her to her, and shifting so she blocked her slightly shocked Natalia, but that’s when she saw Julie. The three of them stood looking at each other while everyone moved around them, and the area cleared.