by Bryony Kayn
“You look fantastic,” Jake said, unable to stop herself from running her fingers through the other woman’s long hair. “Wow!”
Spyk smiled at the compliment. “You don’t look so bad yourself,” she replied and winked at Angel. “You looking for another pair of boots?”
He shook his head, smiling sheepishly when Jake laughed. “No, I told Jake about the store, and she wanted to come down and see you.”
“Cool,” Spyk said. “So what’s up?”
Jake shrugged, looking around. “Not much. Looks like you’re doing pretty good. I was sorry to hear about your mom.”
“Didn’t bother me too much,” Spyk said coolly. “You know we weren’t close.”
“How did Kila take it?”
Spyk pursed her lips. “How do you think? She pretty much went off the deep end, and I had to put her in another rehab. It still amazes me how she gets so addicted to whatever’s around, when I can take it or leave it. At least Ilone was smart enough to make me executor in her will so Kila couldn’t take her share of the money and blow it on—well, on blow.”
Sorrow filled Jake upon hearing this. Drugs had been the ultimate downfall of Jezebel. Tanner had become a junkie and introduced the shit to Kila. Not that they were the only two who’d used. As Spyk had said, she could take it or leave it, and sometimes she’d taken a lot. Even Jake had partaken on occasion, although she definitely preferred alcohol. More so now even than she had back then. “Where is she now?”
“She stays with me most of the time. She keeps getting these shitty jobs, and when she gets tired of them and quits, then she helps me out here. I have to keep an eye on her though. A lot of my customers are not what you’d call upstanding citizens. I don’t want to have to send her back to rehab again.” Spyk stopped then and looked Jake up and down. “So what have you been doing with yourself? I heard you had a pretty bad accident, ended up in the hospital—then, poof! You were gone.” She emphasized the word accident, but didn’t look at Steve.
“Nothing too exciting,” Jake answered, not wanting to discuss what had happened before she left town. “I lived in San Diego for a while. Spent some time in Tijuana and Ensenada down in Mexico, but it got old. So I decided to come back home.”
Steve was looking at her, mildly startled. They’d actually never talked about where she’d been while she’d been gone, and he’d had no idea. “You never told me you were in San Diego. What were you doing there?”
Jake opened her mouth for a moment, not sure what she was going to say. Then she simply said, “Stripping.”
Spyk threw her head back with a laugh, her blue eyes sparkling. “Now, I wish I’d been there to see that!”
“Me, too,” Steve said in a low voice obviously meant just for Jake. “Topless?”
Jake made a face at him. She knew that before too long now, Steve would talk her into dancing for him, just to fulfill whatever fantasy was going through his devious mind. “Yeah, topless in San Diego. Full nude in Mexico.”
“Hmm,” he growled deep in his throat, and the look in his eyes was enough to raise Jake’s temperature.
“Good money?” Spyk asked, turning back to the front of the store.
“Depends on what you call good,” Jake answered, following the other woman with Steve right behind her. Angel had gone around the other side of the clothes racks and leaned against the end of the counter. “The tips were pretty good, at least in San Diego. About what they are here, so I’ve heard. Mexico was a whole other story.”
“Oh?” Spyk asked, stopping at the door of the shop and flipping the sign from “OPEN” to “CLOSED.”
Jake sighed. “Let’s just say I had all the drugs I could want whenever I wanted them. Kila would have been in heaven.”
“Really?” Spyk said with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t look strung out to me.”
Jake shook her head. “That’s because I didn’t use it.”
“What did you do with it?” Angel asked curiously.
“I smuggled it back into the U.S. and sold it,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulders. “After a few months of that, I decided I was done; drug runners and dealers are dangerous, and I didn’t want to die for some stupid asshole who viewed me as a pack animal.”
“How’d you get the stuff back over the border?” Steve asked, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling close against his side.
She smiled unpleasantly. She knew what he was fishing for. “I’m not telling.”
“I bet I know where you hid it,” he whispered, and she pulled away from him.
“I’m gonna go down the block and grab lunch,” Spyk said, shooting a disgusted look at Steve. “Care to join me?”
“Sure,” Jake said, walking out the front door with the other woman.
“Lock it up,” Spyk said, tossing a set of keys to Angel, who caught them reflexively. Then she turned and put her arm around Jake, who returned the loose embrace, and they sauntered off down the sidewalk. They were close to the same height, although Spyk was taller, and as they walked with hips swaying in unison, Spyk’s hand fell so she could tuck her fingers into Jake’s back pocket. After a moment, Jake slipped her fingers in Spyk’s back pocket. Jake could feel Steve’s gaze on them, maybe even Angel’s, but she didn’t look back.
After a simple lunch at a sandwich shop around the corner from Jezebel’s, they sat around for a while at one of the tables out front, talking. Spyk told Jake how she’d taken the money she inherited from Ilone and invested it in the shop. It wasn’t a gold mine, but she turned a decent profit that allowed her to afford the rent on the store as well as the rent on her apartment. There was enough left over each month to help Kila out when she needed it, which was pretty often.
“You wouldn’t recognize her if you saw her on the street,” Spyk said, taking a sip of her soda. “She’s changed that much.”
“I take it not for the better,” Jake commented, putting her leg over Steve’s and leaning back in her chair. He sat silently beside her, his arm across her shoulders possessively.
Spyk shook her head, grimacing. “She might weigh ninety pounds, fully dressed and soaking wet.” Her younger sister had never been drop dead gorgeous, but there had been a sweetness about her that made her seem prettier than she was. Seeing her the way she was now was hard.
“Damn,” Jake sighed. “She’s not still using, is she?”
“No, she’s clean,” Spyk answered, brushing her fingers through her hair, her gaze straying to Steve for a moment before coming back to Jake’s face. She’d noticed the way he made a point of touching Jake all the time, as though announcing to the world that she belonged to him. Spyk would never have put up with it. “But it’s a struggle. She goes to meetings, Narcotics Anonymous mostly, but AA and CA too, if she needs the extra support. She’s been more or less on the wagon for the last year, but she slipped up a couple of times. Her guilt over backsliding is almost worse than the addiction.”
“You said she works the store for you sometimes,” Steve said, his hand resting on Jake’s shoulder. “When is she there? I’d like to see her again.”
Spyk frowned, not pleased with the idea. But where she’d always had an aversion to the dark-haired singer, Kila had always treated him like an older brother. And she had to admit, at least to herself, that he’d never hurt Kila. In fact, he’d protected her more than once from people or things she couldn’t deal with herself. “She comes in a couple afternoons each week. She’ll be in day after tomorrow for a few hours, after noon.”
Steve nodded. “Maybe we’ll stop by,” he said, taking his hand from Jake long enough to pull a cigarette out of his pack and light it. Then he put his hand on her knee. “Don’t say anything to her. I’d like to surprise her.”
Spyk shrugged. “I won’t say shit,” she replied, only half-heartedly trying to disguise the distaste in her voice.
“So, what are you doing for fun now?” Jake asked, changing the subject. “Still playing guitar?”
She grun
ted sourly and crossed her arms, giving the blonde a baleful look. “What would be the point? The only band I ever wanted to be in was Jezebel, and there’s no Jezebel without you.”
Jake stared back at her, seemingly at a loss.
“How about you?” Spyk asked, a note of challenge in her voice. “Are you still singing?”
Jake sighed and shook her head once. “Haven’t had any reason to,” she said, her expression just shy of bleak. “When Jezebel died, I gave up that dream.” The tone of her response was eloquent of old pain.
“You could always try again,” Angel said, his gaze going from Spyk to Jake and back.
Both women stared at him, then Jake gave a brittle laugh. “Those days are over, Angel-mine. I wouldn’t want to try and resurrect Jezebel now. Besides, Tanner’s dead. It doesn’t sound like Kila could handle the pressure, and I have no clue where Riley is.”
Spyk shrugged, pushing her fingers through her hair again, knowing that simple gesture was kind of freaking Jake out. Spyk had always kept her hair short in the old days, and the longer style made her almost seem like a different person. “I couldn’t spend the time on it now like I did back then. I’ve got the store to run and Kila to take care of. Doesn’t leave much time for a band.”
Steve hadn’t spoken, but he seemed pleased with their answers.
Angel slanted a glance at the singer, then away. He didn’t say any more about it either, but appeared less pleased. Spyk figured she wasn’t the only one who had noticed Steve’s possessiveness. The man wouldn’t want anything taking Jake away from him again, not even if it was something that would make her happy.
“Aw, shit,” Spyk finally said, stretching before getting to her feet. “I’d better get back to the shop. I hate leaving it closed for too long. Never know when someone’s going to come in and buy some expensive thigh-boots or something.”
Angel smiled at that but didn’t comment.
“So what do you do after you close the shop for the day?” Jake asked as she got up from her chair without a backward glance at Steve and stepped closer to put her arm around Spyk’s waist.
Spyk returned her embrace, turning away from the table to walk with Jake toward the sidewalk. “Usually just head home. Why?”
“You ought to come down to the Neon,” Jake said, slipping her fingers into Spyk’s back pocket once more.
“God, I haven’t been there in years,” Spyk said a little wistfully. “It wasn’t the same after you took off.”
Jake smiled up at Spyk. “Well, I’m working there again. It’s almost like old times. You should come down and see me.”
“What nights do you work?” Spyk asked.
“Today’s my day off,” Jake answered, “but I’ll be working the rest of the week.”
When they reached the store, Spyk waited for Angel to hand her the keys, and she unlocked the door. She stepped inside, turning the sign from “CLOSED” to “OPEN,” and dropped the keys into a drawer behind the counter. “I’ll have to see if I can’t make it down in the next couple of nights,” she said, turning to face Jake again. “I wouldn’t mind reviving some old memories of the Neon.”
Jake laughed and stepped forward to put her arms around Spyk. “It’s really good to see you, Annie,” she said softly, using Spyk’s real name for her ears alone.
“You too, Jakey,” Spyk replied, hugging the blonde fiercely. When Jake went to step back, Spyk caught her head between both hands and gave her a kiss on the lips.
Jake started, but didn’t pull away from the kiss.
When she finally released Jake, Spyk sighed, half smiling. “Still straight?” she asked, knowing by the blonde’s non-response what the answer would be.
Jake laughed softly. “Very. What can I say? I like men.”
Spyk shrugged nonchalantly. “I like men, too. Doesn’t stop me from appreciating what another woman can offer.”
Jake’s brown eyes were warm and filled with affection as she gazed into Spyk’s face. “You’d better come down to the Neon. If you ask nice, I might even dance with you.”
Spyk grinned, letting out her raucous laugh. “In that case, I’ll make sure to show up.”
Jake turned away and stepped out the open door of the shop. She found Steve waiting for her on the sidewalk, and his dark face was set in an expression she knew too well. She let out a soundless sigh and went to him.
Angel stepped into the shop to talk to Spyk for a minute, giving the couple on the sidewalk some privacy.
“I don’t know why you let her come on to you like that,” Steve growled, his arms crossed and muscles clenched tight. “She knows you’re not interested.”
“Yeah, she knows,” Jake agreed, reaching out cautiously to put a hand on his arm. He was rock hard with tension and temper. “But we’re friends; we’ve always been friends. So she tries to tease me into admitting I’m interested, and I tease her back by letting her hope. It’s no big deal.”
“She’s a fucking slut, Jae. Who knows where she’s been putting her mouth? And you let her kiss you.” He was still angry and not about to let it go.
Jake took her hand off his arm and put her fists on her hips. Her own temper was starting to heat up. “She’s not a slut. Or if she is, she’s not half the slut you are. And I let you kiss me.”
Steve’s eyes narrowed.
“And I don’t even want to think where you’ve been putting your mouth during the last three years,” she continued, knowing it was stupid to antagonize him. She only got herself hurt when she pushed him, but she couldn’t help it.
“It wouldn’t have been an issue if you’d been around,” he said tightly.
She laughed harshly, amazed at how he manipulated the blame. “Wouldn’t it? I can remember several times, in detail, where I caught you getting it on the side, sweetheart. What the hell would have changed if I’d stayed?”
Steve stepped toward her, and she flinched. It was an old habit, one she couldn’t control. But he only took hold of her arms above the elbows, pulling her up against him. “I would have changed,” he said in a low, intense tone of voice. “I love you, Jae. I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to share you. Not even if it’s only teasing.” His gaze flicked over her shoulder to the open door of the shop, where Angel and Spyk still stood inside. “I want you to be mine, damn it.”
“And will you be mine?” she asked a little breathlessly. His grip on her arms was becoming painful, but she made no show of it. “Or am I going to have to be prepared to walk in on you with some bitch again, like so many times before? I’d just like to know so I can get ready for it.”
“I’m yours,” he said, his eyes meeting hers fiercely. “You’re the only woman I want. But I’m not going to put up with anyone putting their hands on you, not even her.”
Her heart was pounding, and her arms ached under his grasp. “Don’t disappoint me,” she whispered, putting her hands on his sides as she moved closer to him. “Don’t let me down, Steve. I don’t think I could take it again.”
He let his grip go, putting his arms around her to hold her against him. “I won’t,” he promised and kissed her.
Jake surrendered to him, the hunger that he aroused in her rising up until she could almost forget the incidental pain he had caused her. She forgot that they were standing on the street, that Angel and Spyk had almost certainly witnessed the whole sordid little drama. For this moment, all she cared about was the man who held her, his mouth stealing her breath as her heart pounded against his broad chest. Wasn’t this what love was supposed to be like?
Angel shook his head, his jaw clenched tight. The stilted, uncomfortable conversation he and Spyk had been having while watching the couple on the sidewalk had trailed into silence. In front of Jezebel’s, Steve and Jake embraced, kissing as though they were in private. He had been unable to hear what they’d been talking about, but had read their expressions and body language well enough to be concerned. Now, it seemed the storm had blown over.
“Yep, just like
old times,” Spyk commented cynically.
Angel found that he had to agree.
Jake awoke early the next morning wincing at the soreness in her biceps. She lifted her head, checking to see that Steve was still sleeping. He was. Then she sat up cautiously and looked at her upper arms. There were thumbprint bruises on the front of each arm. When she lifted them, she could see faint shadows of fingerprint bruises on the underside of each arm. She sighed soundlessly, rubbing her face.
After leaving Jezebel’s, Steve and Jake had dropped Angel off at home. Then they had driven to Steve’s place. She hadn’t been surprised when he started stripping her clothes off her as soon as they set foot inside. But, wryly, she had to admit that after a few seconds she hadn’t really minded. His flash of temper in front of Spyk’s store had shaken her. It was a vivid reminder of years past and the life that she’d left town to escape. Yet once his anger was gone, she didn’t feel any fear of him. He’d kissed and caressed her, carried her in his strong arms to his bedroom, and spent the next couple of hours making her feel so good she could almost have cried from the sheer physical pleasure. She hadn’t noticed the bruises on her arms then. If he had, he hadn’t mentioned them.
They had fixed a quiet dinner there, and Jake had called Angel to let him know she wouldn’t be back to his place that night. She didn’t say it in so many words, but she knew Angel understood that the real reason she’d called was to let him know she was okay.
Now, she took a deep breath and turned her head to look at the man lying beside her in bed. He seemed to be deeply asleep. Tangled black curls half covered the planes of his face. The sheet had been kicked to the end of the bed, revealing his muscular back and well-shaped legs. And his ass, she admitted to herself with a smile. He was very pleasing to the eye, that was certain. She thought about getting up and taking a shower. She thought about going out into the kitchen to make coffee and scrounge something for breakfast. But after watching him for a while, like a sleeping leopard—beautiful but dangerous—she couldn’t resist.
She slid down, moving over on hands and knees, and touched her lips to the small of his back. He made no response, so she touched his warm skin with the tip of her tongue, making little designs. He groaned, his hand twitching, then fell still. Jake breathed across his skin, sliding her right hand along the back of his thigh and up to the curve of his ass. She kissed his back again and felt a strong hand close around her left wrist.
