Gray Skies
Sherryl D. Hancock
Copyright © Sherryl D. Hancock 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by Vulpine Press in the United Kingdom in 2017
ISBN 978-1-910780-71-8
Cover by Claire Wood
Cover photo credit: Tirzah D. Hancock
www.vulpine-press.com
For everyone out there who's looking for love, NEVER stop searching, it will happen! It just has to find you, be open to it!
Prologue
In Los Angeles, things at The Club were in their usual swing. Jet made her way through the crowd, with beers for her and Skyler, a Baileys for Devin, and a soda for Fadiyah who finally had a free evening to spend with her wife. Jericho and Zoey were there, as were Quinn and Xandy. There’d been the usually flurry of excitement about Xandy Blue being at The Club but it had finally calmed down which mean Quinn could relax. Natalia and Raine were at the club as well. Natalia had met a friend there that wanted to talk about putting together a dance studio.
The bois in the group had admired the newcomer, a redhead with green eyes, and a body that was definitely worth the time to admire if nothing else. At five four, Jazmine Collette was a definite showstopper with her waist-length red hair that fell in loose curls, her sweetheart-shaped face with a perfect California tan and smooth skin, and wide green eyes that sparkled when she talked. She worked as a dancer for hip-hop videos and the like and had been rumored to have dated a number of hip-hop stars. It was for that reason that everyone was shocked when the girl had no problem dancing with the random butches that asked her or moved up to her out on the floor. The redhead was definitely a party girl.
Tyler and Shenin arrived at The Club shortly after everyone else and rounds of hugs were exchanged. Shenin joined the girls on the dance floor, and Tyler took her beer and stood with Quinn, Jericho, Jet, and Skyler who were all leaning on the raised bar that surrounded the dance floor watching their girls dance. Even Fadiyah had been persuaded to dance, and Natalia was showing her how.
“So what do you think of the new girl?” Quinn asked Tyler.
“The redhead?” Tyler asked.
“Yeah, not your redhead, the other one,” Quinn said, winking.
Tyler chuckled, then took a good long look. “Nice… She looks… ah… friendly…” she stammered. “Who’s she here with?”
“Well, she came to meet Nat,” Jericho said, “but she didn’t show up with anyone.”
Tyler nodded, her look considering. “Looks like she’ll have lots of options when she leaves…” she said, as yet another woman moved in on the girl.
As the song ended, the DJ said she was taking a break, and put on regular music. The girls all headed for the group, except for Natalia and Jazmine, who headed to the bathroom.
Everyone was standing and talking, when Natalia came running back to the group.
“Raine! Jericho! It’s Jazmine! Hurry!”
Raine, Tyler, Jericho, Quinn, Jet, and Skyler all followed Natalia to the back of The Club where there was a scuffle going on. As they stopped to figure out what was happening, the girls all ranged out in a line.
There was a black guy yelling at Jazmine who was backing away from him with her hands up in front her.
“Hey!” Jericho yelled, distracting the guy for a moment.
Jazmine saw her opportunity and started to walk away but another black man, bigger than the first, appeared and grabbed her. She screamed.
Quinn was about to react when a woman from behind the black man stepped in. She was every bit as tall as the man, standing about six foot, and she snatched him up by two handfuls of his jacket and threw him a good three feet from Jazmine. Jazmine had fallen to the floor in the melee. As the group watched, the woman took a knee leaning down to Jazmine and saying something.
Everyone was shocked when Jazmine looked up at the woman and promptly fainted. The woman was close enough to cradle her head, then moved to pick her up easily. Turning around, her eyes scanned the crowd.
“Ray?” Tyler queried suddenly.
The woman’s eyes, that looked almost black, moved to Tyler.
“Ty,” the woman said, nodding. “Good to see ya, where can I put her down?” she asked, a grin on her lips.
“Ah.” Tyler looked over at Jet who nodded for the woman to follow her.
The rest of the group trailed after, having to know what the story was here.
In the office, the woman strode over to the couch and once again went down to one knee to lay Jazmine down gently. She stood then, turning to look at the women who were all watching her with fascination. The woman was tall, but the two inch heeled boots she wore made her seem taller, with a strong handsome face that was tanned with black brows and lashes. Her hair, pulled back in a long thick braid hung half way down her back and was jet black. She had the look of an American Indian that was confirmed a minute later when she introduced herself.
She grinned showing a set of very white, very straight teeth, her dark eyes sparkling with a knowing look.
“Rayden Black Wolf, at your service,” she said inclining her head as her grin widened.
With that Rayden walked over to Ty and shook her hand.
“How’ve you been, Ty?” Rayden asked, smiling.
“Good, good,” Ty said and nodded. “Shen’s here, she’ll be thrilled to see you.”
“We haven’t met,” Jericho said, moving to shake Rayden’s hand, her eyes on the new comer, “but we’ve talked, I’m Jericho Tehrani.”
“My new boss…” Rayden said, grinning as she nodded. “Good to meet you, ma’am,” she said, inclining her head respectfully.
“Call me Jericho,” Jericho replied. “Nice save there,” she said, nodding toward Jazmine.
“Not the first time I’ve rescued that particular redhead,” Rayden said, grinning.
“Really now?” Jericho said, raising an eyebrow.
Rayden chuckled. “I’m lucky she passed out when she saw me instead of smacking the shit out of me,” she said jokingly, but the look in her eyes told Jericho she was not kidding.
“You’re rather handy to have around,” Quinn said as she walked over and put out her hand. “Quinn Kavanaugh, good to meet ya.”
Rayden canted her head. “Irish?” she queried, referring to Quinn’s accent.
“Yup,” Quinn said, nodding.
“Quinn’s a bodyguard; we’re trying to convince her to come work for your program, actually,” Jericho said.
Rayden paused for a moment, assessing Quinn. . “Might just have to see about that,” she said, smirking.
“Not gonna happen,” Quinn said, smiling. “I like freelancing.”
“Ray, this is Skyler Boché and Jet Mathews,” Tyler said, gesturing to the other two women standing in the room. “They’re DOJ too. As a matter of fact, Shenin’s working with DOJ at the moment.”
“Yeah?” Rayden asked, looking surprised. “Still Force though, right?”
“So far,” Tyler said, grinning.
Just then Jazmine started to stir. Jericho and the rest of the group moved to check on her, whereas Rayden stood back, wondering if disappearing right now might be the best idea.
“Rayden!” Jazmine exclaimed as she sat up.
Rayden winced, knowing this wasn’t going to go well.
Chapter 1
“What the hell are you doing here, Ray?” Jazmine asked, not for the first time that evening. Her tone was accusatory, as if Rayden was there just to annoy her.
Rayden Black Wolf had just rescued her from two men who had been trying to accost her at a local gay club. As she had long ago, Rayden had come in and handled the situation with her usual use of force. Jazmine, who hadn’t seen Rayden in ten years, had been stunned to see a woman who’d haunted a lot of her dreams for years appear and be the amazing protector she’d been years before.
Unfortunately, the shock of being attacked by two thugs, and the shock of seeing Rayden after so many years had been too much and she’d passed out. When she’d awoken, she’d seen Rayden trying to essentially sneak out of the room. She’d stopped her, but it hadn’t gone well after that. In the end she’d followed Rayden out to her car, a low-slung Copperhead Edition Viper, which just screamed Rayden’s style, still screaming at her.
Rayden had ordered her to get in the car if she felt like she needed to continue to bitch at her. Jazmine had done that without a second thought, not even noticing the surprised look on Rayden’s face. Now Rayden was driving down the freeway and Jazmine was still trying to get something out of this woman but not getting anywhere.
Rayden grinned, shaking her head, ever amazed at the stubborn redhead.
“What was that about back there?” Rayden asked, not for the first time either.
Jazmine narrowed green eyes. “It’s none of your business,” she said, her tone snide.
Rayden nodded, dark eyes staring out the windshield as she drove.
“Well, could you at least tell me where I’m dropping you?” Rayden said mildly.
Jazmine was silent then. Rayden glanced over at the girl and saw actual fear on her face.
“Jaz?” Rayden queried.
“I can’t go back there,” Jazmine said, shaking her head, as the realization hit her again.
Reaching up she put her hands to her face. “Oh, God… I’m so fucked right now, it’s not even funny…”
“Okay, what’s going on?” Rayden asked, her tone authoritative.
Jazmine blew her breath out slowly, swallowing convulsively as she thought about what she was brave enough to tell Rayden. There was so much history between them, none of it really that good, at least not the last part of it. It had been so many years, but Jazmine remembered it like it was yesterday.
Jazmine couldn’t figure out what it was about guys like Tony, but they always turned into assholes at the most unexpected times! He always told her what a rocking body she had, and would enjoy that she wore clothes that revealed her body, but tonight he’d decided she’d overdone it. As far as Jazmine was concerned, he’d overstayed his time in her bed now. He’d practically dragged her out of the club as was yelling at her in the alley. What scared her was that he was getting more and more pissed off.
“You can’t embarrass me like this in front of my boys, Jazmine!” he yelled.
“You always want me to look hot…” she began again, trying to remind him that he’d always said this to her.
“You look like a fuckin’ slut Jazmine!” he yelled, fingering the tassels at the bottom midriff top she wore.
“Well, that’s really sweet, Tony. Fuck this!” she shouted, throwing her hand into his face. “I’m out.”
She started to walk away from him, but he grabbed her arm. She stumbled on her heels and fell. What she expected was that he’d be sorry he’d gotten violent. Instead, she suddenly realized that he was yelling at her.
“Think you’re gonna fucking walk away from me? I don’t fucking think so bitch…” he growled, reaching down and hauling her to her feet.
“Tony!” Jazmine yelled, trying to get through to him. “Stop!”
He grabbed both of her arms then, shaking her violently. Jazmine tried to reach out to grab his arms to try to stop him, but he kept shaking her and yelling expletives at her. When he finally let her go, she stumbled away from him. She leaned against the wall hoping he was done, but he started to stalk toward her. She put her arm up over her head.
That’s when Tony suddenly stopped, and Jazmine looked at him, trying to figure out why he had such a strange look on his face. Then she saw the woman standing behind him, and saw that the woman had grabbed him by a handful of his jacket and was holding him back.
“I think that’s just about enough of that,” the woman said, her tone mild.
“What the fuck?” Tony yelled struggling against her hold on his jacket.
“I think you owe the lady an apology,” the woman said then, her dark eyes looking over at Jazmine.
Jazmine stared back at the woman, unable to believe what she was seeing. Tony wasn’t really a big guy, only about five seven, but this woman was taller than him. And she was definitely strong. Tony was stocky but the woman was holding him with what didn’t look like too much effort on her part.
“I think I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you bitch!” Tony yelled, increasing his struggle and managing to get free of her grasp.
He spun around, ready to attack and that’s when he laid eyes on the woman. It made him pause for a minute, but then she started to grin, her eyes sparkling with laughter at his hesitation.
“Cunt!” he yelled and charged at her.
To Jazmine’s shock, she put him down with one punch to the jaw. She looked at the woman again, this time with more respect. She was dressed in jeans, a black tank top, with three black corded necklaces with various silver pendants on them, a long jacket that fell to her mid-thigh, and black heeled leather boots.
“How did you do that?” Jazmine asked her tone awed.
To her surprise the woman casually pulled out a cigarette and a lighter, flicked the lighter open, and lit her cigarette.
“Wasn’t hard,” she said simply as she leaned back against the wall and smoked, putting a booted foot up on the wall behind her.
Jazmine walked over to the woman, stepping carefully around Tony lying on the ground.
“Do you do that kind of thing a lot?” Jazmine asked, gesturing to Tony.
“Only when I see some guy mistreating a woman,” the woman replied, her dark eyes looking back at Jazmine. “I think you should probably upgrade your taste in dates.”
“Should I?” Jazmine asked, smiling brightly. “To someone like you?”
The woman looked back at her, grinning. “Nah,” she said simply.
Jazmine was surprised, and her green eyes reflected it. “Who are you?” she asked then.
“No one,” the woman replied, shrugging lightly.
“You obviously learned to fight somewhere,” Jazmine said, moving closer to the woman to gauge her interest.
The woman’s dark eyes narrowed slightly at her approach. She took a long drag off her cigarette assessing Jazmine and wondering what her intentions were. Finally, she nodded.
“U.S. Navy,” she said simply.
Jazmine nodded slowly. “That makes sense,” she said, then she extended her hand to the woman. “I’m Jazmine,” she said, her eyes looking directly into the other woman’s.
The woman regarded Jazmine’s hand for a long moment, then shifted her cigarette to her left hand as she extended her hand to take Jazmine’s. “Rayden.”
“Rayden?” Jazmine repeated.
“That’s the name they gave me,” Rayden replied with a grin.
“I like it,” Jazmine said, smiling flirtatiously.
Rayden looked back at her, once again evaluating this woman, then her gaze shifted to Jazmine’s arms as she noticed they were already showing signs of bruising from where Tony had grabbed her. Putting her cigarette between her teeth, she shrugged out of her jacket and put it around Jazmine’s shoulders. Jazmine was pleasantly surprised by the gallant gesture.
“Your arms are bruised,” Rayden said by way of explanation.
“Thanks,” Jazmine said, smiling again, then she
looked down at Tony who had started to stir. “We should probably go,” she said, nodding toward the street.
Rayden looked surprised, but nodded and followed Jazmine out of the alley.
“Where’s your car?” Jazmine asked as they reached the street, her green eyes staring up into Rayden’s.
Rayden dropped her cigarette, blowing smoke out as she did, her eyes looking amused by the question.
“Over there,” Rayden said pointing to the parking lot across the street. “Why?”
“Tony has a lot of friends inside the club, you probably don’t want to go back in there, and I know I don’t.”
“Tony’s friends don’t scare me,” Rayden said, her tone even.
“Well they scare me, so could you please get me out of here?” Jazmine said, her tone tremulous suddenly.
Rayden looked back at her, her dark eyes searching the girl. Finally, she nodded and led the way over to the lot. As they walked through the parking lot Jazmine tried to figure out which car would be this woman’s. She was not completely surprised when the lights to a green Mustang lit up and Rayden walked over to it.
Jazmine admired the Mustang; it was a tough-looking car, with a body kit that dropped it to the ground, and aggressive lines, with black rims and a hood scoop. It also had a thick black racing stripe from the front to the back of the car and a racing spoiler. It was a hot car, and Jazmine found that for some reason it excited her, it seemed to really fit the woman driving it.
Rayden walked over to the passenger door and opened it for Jazmine, who got in smiling. As Rayden got in the driver’s side, she glanced over at the girl. She wasn’t sure what the hell she was supposed to do with the straight girl, but she hadn’t been able to resist the plea to get her away from the club. She had a weakness for girls in trouble, and she knew it. Damsels in distress were her major downfall.
Jazmine felt a thrill go through her as Rayden started the Mustang; the engine had a deep throaty growl to it that had always been an exciting thing for Jazmine. She loved muscle cars!
Gray Skies (WeHo Book 8) Page 1
