Gray Skies (WeHo Book 8)

by Sherryl Hancock

  “She did rescue the girl, Ty,” Shenin said.

  “She does that kind of shit all the time,” Tyler said. “It’s that protective thing she’s got going on.”

  “She also took her home that night and Jazmine’s been staying with Ray ever since…” Shenin said.

  “So, she’s a grafter…” Tyler said, grinning.

  “Stop it!” Shenin said, laughing. Then she grew serious. “Ray needs someone right now, Ty… She can’t keep living her solitary existence without Gray…”

  Tyler pressed her lips together. “I know,” she said, nodding.

  “She was brought here for a reason.”

  “You think fate brought her here?” Tyler asked, knowing how Shenin’s mind worked.

  “I think fate did, yes,” Shenin said, “and I think we need to help her in any way that we can.”

  Tyler nodded, her look resigned.

  “What?” Shenin asked, seeing Tyler’s reservation.

  Tyler drew in a breath and blew it out slowly. “I guess I’ve kind of stayed away from her, like her luck could come to me, you know?”

  “Oh Ty…” Shenin said, moving to sit in Tyler’s lap, and putting her arms around her neck. “No, honey… no… I’m not going anywhere.”

  Tyler kissed Shenin’s lips, her hand reaching up to touch her cheek tenderly.

  “I wouldn’t ever want to live without you,” Tyler told her seriously.

  “You will never have to,” Shenin told her.

  “My wife, my life,” Tyler told her.

  “Kinda like me a little bit, huh?” Shenin said, grinning.

  “Little bit,” Tyler said, smiling too.

  It was something they said often, their own private joke. They stared into each other’s eyes and no one else existed for a long minute.

  Rayden saw it and felt her heart lurch painfully. She had to grit her teeth to force back the lump in her throat.

  “Alright, alright, break it up…” she said, grinning as she walked up to the two.

  “Hey Ray,” Shenin said, grinning up at the other woman.

  “Hey Shen,” Rayden said, smiling, putting her hand out as Shenin moved to get up off Tyler’s lap.

  “Thanks,” Shenin said, smiling. “Babe, I’m gonna go to the bathroom, be right back.”

  “Okay, hey, grab me another beer will you?” Tyler asked.

  “You got it. Ray, you want anything?” Shenin asked.

  “I’m good, thanks,” Rayden said, holding up the beer in her hand.

  “Okay,” Shenin said and walked inside.

  Rayden sat down where Shenin had been sitting.

  “How’s it going?” Tyler asked.

  Rayden looked back at her for a long moment. “Are you asking about Jaz?”

  “I wasn’t,” Tyler said, “but since you brought it up…”

  “We dated a million years ago,” Rayden said, by way of explanation.

  Tyler nodded. “It’s your business, Ray. We just worry about you.”

  Rayden chewed at the gum in her mouth, something she did when she was agitated. “I know, and I know that Gray would want you to worry about me, so I’ll forgive it.”

  “Good thing,” Tyler said, grinning. “So is there anything there…?” she asked gently.

  Rayden drew in a deep breath, then expelled it slowly. “There used to be. I’m just not ready to move on yet, you know?”

  Tyler nodded. “Yeah, I know,” she said, “but maybe there’s a reason she needed rescuing at that exact moment, you know?”

  Rayden looked back at Tyler, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Shenin’s fate talk?”

  Tyler shrugged. “Sometimes she’s right.”

  Rayden blew her breath out audibly. “I don’t know, we’ll see. Depends on how long she wants to put up with my stubborn, morose ass.”

  Tyler grinned. Rayden had a way of putting things into perspective.

  Inside the bar, Natalia was dancing with Jazmine, Cat, and Jovina. She was annoyed that Raine said she was too tired to dance. Raine had been working a lot lately and it was starting to take its toll on their relationship. Natalia felt like she was always waiting for Raine to come home, and half the time she’d get home and would be too tired to do anything, including making love. Natalia knew that what Raine did for a living was important, she worked as a Special Agent to locate and shut down methamphetamine labs in the greater Los Angeles area, but it didn’t keep her warm at night.

  She’d been hoping this new opportunity to create her own studio would help fill the void of Raine’s absence. Unfortunately, it had polarized it instead. She wanted to share the excitement of planning the studio with Raine, but Raine didn’t seem as excited about the prospect. Natalia had been drinking a lot since getting to the bar and Raine, as usual, was late arriving. At one point during the night, Natalia left the dance floor to go to the bathroom. When she came out of the stall, she walked into someone and their hands shot out to grab her to keep her from falling back into the stall.

  Looking up she saw she had almost knocked over Dakota.

  “Oh my God, Dakota, I’m so sorry,” Natalia exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

  Dakota grinned, seeing that Natalia was very drunk. “I’m okay,” she said, her tone solicitous, “but you don’t look like you are…” She could see how glassy Natalia’s eyes were.

  “I’m okay,” Natalia said, nodding.

  “You sure?” Dakota asked, her thumbs rubbing Natalia’s shoulders gently.

  “Yes, yes…” Natalia said, her lower lip trembling at the show of concern.

  “Okay doesn’t usually involve crying, Nat…” Dakota said softly.

  Natalia knew the alcohol was causing her to be weepy. She did her best to wipe away the tears that had gathered in her eyes. Unfortunately, she also wiped makeup into her eye.

  “Oh God…” she murmured.

  “Ow,” Dakota said, seeing how red her eyes were getting. “Okay, easy, let’s get you to the sink…” she said, putting her arm around Natalia’s shoulders and guiding her to the sink. There she helped her get paper towels and did her best to get the makeup out of her eyes.

  “Thank you,” Natalia said, shaking her head. “I’m okay now, it’s okay.”

  Dakota grinned, reaching up with her thumb to rub one little bit of makeup away from the corner of Natalia’s eyes. Their eyes connected at that moment and Dakota’s hand moved to the back of her neck and pulled her forward. Their lips met in a heated almost frantic kiss and they both moaned softly.

  Dakota took Natalia’s hand and led her back to the far stall, the handicapped one that had more room. Inside she closed and locked the door and turned to Natalia, her lips capturing Natalia’s again. Natalia refused to think about what she was doing, her body wanted this; it had been so long since she and Raine had made love. She felt Dakota’s hand sliding down her hip, and then up under her skirt. She knew she should stop her, but she didn’t. Suddenly Dakota’s hand was against her bare skin, and one finger slid against her heat and she groaned against Dakota’s mouth. Dakota pressed closer, her lips hungry on Natalia’s, and then Natalia was coming and grasping at Dakota’s shoulders, doing her best to be quiet as she orgasmed.

  Afterwards, Natalia suddenly realized what she’d just done and felt sick. Dakota stepped back, and Natalia sunk to the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest. Dakota knelt down, but Natalia waved her away, her lips trembling as tears began to stream down her cheeks. She was shaking her head as if trying to deny what had just happened. Dakota tried to reach out her hand to offer some kind of support, but Natalia threw her hand up blocking Dakota’s hand.

  “Please, just go,” Natalia said, her voice muffled because her face was now pressed against her knees in shame. “Please…” she pleaded tearfully.

  Dakota hesitated. This wasn’t some strange girl she’d just met, but then again if word got out to Cassandra that she’d fucked Natalia, she was done for. Finally, she got up and walked out of the stall, leaving the b
athroom a few moments later.

  It took Natalia a few long minutes to regain her composure. She stood up unsteadily, taking halting steps to get out of the stall and over to the sink. She was wiping at her eyes again when Raine walked into the bathroom.

  “Babe!” Raine exclaimed, seeing how red Natalia’s eyes were. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Natalia shook her head, feeling horrible. “I… I got sick… I drank too much… Raine, I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry… I love you…” she said, her words disjointed as she cried.

  Raine pulled her into her arms to hold her.

  “Okay, honey, it’s okay. Let’s get you home, okay?” Raine said.

  Raine tried to help Natalia walk out of the bathroom, but it quickly became evident that Natalia had really had way too much to drink. Raine picked her up and carried her out of The Club.

  Dakota watched the couple leave. She felt like shit for leaving Natalia in the bathroom like she had. When someone at the table had mentioned Natalia, Dakota had volunteered the information that she’d seen her in the bathroom earlier. That’s when Raine had gone to check on Natalia.

  Cody noted the look on Dakota’s face when they’d all seen Raine carrying Natalia out of the bar. She knew guilt when she saw it. Cody went to stand next to Dakota and bumped her shoulder, nodding her head to indicate that Dakota needed to come with her.

  Outside, the patio was somewhat deserted as it was getting late. As they got outside, Cody wheeled on Dakota.

  “What the fuck are you thinking?” she asked sharply.

  “What are you talking about?” Dakota asked, her voice perfectly calm as she pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

  “You know what I’m talking about, Dak,” Cody said.

  When Dakota simply looked back at her blankly, Cody shook her head, laughing sarcastically.

  “You probably don’t,” Cody said. “Did you fuck her Dak?”

  Dakota took a deep draw on her cigarette, her eyes narrowing as she did. She blew the smoke out a full minute later.

  “Answer me,” Cody said, putting on her cop tone in the heat of the moment.

  Dakota looked back at her, not really wanting to answer. Finally she blew her breath out, dropping her head and nodding it slowly.

  “Jesus Christ, Dak…” Cody said her tone sharp. “I get it, you have no moral compass…. But you just fucked with a real relationship here…” Cody blew her breath out, looking disgusted. “Natalia’s not some fucking score, Dak. She’s in love with Raine, and now you may have screwed that completely up… for what? So you could?” She shook her head again. “I don’t know you anymore… and I don’t know that I want to.” With that she walked back into the bar.

  Dakota moved to sit in a chair, staring at the door Cody had gone back through. She blew her breath out shakily. She hadn’t been called to task like that in many, many years. Part of her wanted to write it off, because it was only Cody, but the part of her that still felt things said but she was your only friend… She took the lit cigarette and pushed it into the skin of her forearm, closing her eyes as she felt the searing heat on her skin. She could smell the burning skin, and finally her shaking hand dropped the cigarette. She clenched her fist flexing the tendons to force blood through the area, causing more pain. After a couple of minutes, she pulled another cigarette out with shaking fingers and lit it, turning her forearm over, and pressing it against her jeans.

  Twenty minutes later McKenna walked outside. Dakota was still sitting where she had been.

  “What happened between you and Cody?” McKenna asked, her tone even.

  “Why?” Dakota asked, her look blank.

  “Something happened, Dakota, what was it?” McKenna asked, her tone sharper this time.

  “I fucked up, okay?” Dakota said angrily.

  “What did you do?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Well, it does to Cody because she’s now in there getting drunk and I don’t like it,” McKenna said her voice strident.

  “Take her home,” Dakota said, her voice hoarse suddenly. She cleared her throat. “Take her home; derail her drinking by taking her home.”

  McKenna looked back at Dakota, plainly seeing that the woman was hurting, but right now her main concern was the woman she loved.

  “If this is the kind of influence you’re going to have on her, I really don’t want you around her,” McKenna said, her tone flat.

  With that she walked back inside, shutting the door behind her.

  Dakota stared after her, her mind churning, her heart aching. The waitress walked out then and Dakota looked at her. “Give me a bottle of Jack,” she told the girl.

  The waitress returned with the bottle a few minutes later. Dakota sat on the patio and drank until closing. The waitress helped her to a cab, and Dakota got her off in the back of the cab on the way to Cassandra’s house as a thank you.

  “What the hell happened to you!” Cassandra screeched at her three hours later.

  Dakota was lying on the bed, face down, fully clothed, and passed out cold. Cassandra’s screech rang in her ears for a full minute.

  “Holy hell, Cass, calm down,” Dakota muttered.

  “What time did you finally drag yourself in?” Cassandra queried just as loud.

  “Dunno, wasn’t lookin’ at my watch…”

  “Where’s the Bugatti, Dakota?” Cassandra snapped.

  “Uh…” Dakota stammered. “Oops.”

  “Oops?” Cassandra snapped. “You don’t know where you left a three point four million dollar car!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, I know where I left it,” Dakota said.

  “Where?” Cassandra snapped.

  “With the valet at The Club,” Dakota said, grinning.

  Cassandra stared at her openmouthed. “Are you insane?” she asked, as if she thought it was highly likely.

  Dakota looked back at her for a long moment, trying to focus on the conversation, although she was still very drunk at that point.

  “It’s insured, right?” she finally asked.

  Cassandra screamed, throwing her hands up and stormed out of the room.

  Dakota chuckled, inanely pleased that she’d managed to really piss Cassandra off. She knew she’d pay for it later, but it was still worth the look on her face. Dropping her head back to the pillows, she drifted back into unconsciousness.

  ***

  Natalia woke the next morning, with an aching head and needing to throw up endlessly. Raine was right there, doing her best to help. It just made her guilt worse. That was right up until Raine got a page and had to report to the office on her Saturday off. Natalia had canceled class calling in “sick” and now Raine was gone again. Natalia lay in bed, thinking about what she’d done. She knew that Dakota was a player, even though she was supposed to be with Cassandra. Natalia also knew that Cassandra was far from faithful to Dakota, so she didn’t feel too badly about that. She didn’t know how she felt about how excited she’d gotten. She figured it had everything to do with all the alcohol she’d drunk. Raine had excited her that way many times, but recently things were just so messed up between them that nothing seemed to be exciting anymore. Part of Natalia knew that she was just justifying her bad behavior, but the part of her that felt abandoned and hurt overrode that other voice in her head.

  ***

  By that evening, Dakota finally felt human again. It was fortunate since Cassandra was dragging her to some black tie bullshit event. Dakota wore all black, with a shirt that was unbuttoned just enough to display the curve of her breasts with her usual black leather tong necklace, this time with a platinum dragon wing pendant. She walked around the art show, bored out of her mind. She’d already downed numerous glasses of champagne and was feeling a decent buzz, but it wasn’t enough. She knew what kind of buzz she really needed. Glancing around she saw that Cassandra was deep in discussion with the artists whose work was being featured that night. Another pretentious asshole as far as Dakota was concerned.
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  She started walking the rooms, looking for the perfect prey. She wanted a challenge. She spotted the uptight looking wife of a banker type but discarded her because she looked too much like Cassandra. Then her eyes fell on the girl sitting in one of the chairs off to the side of a display. She looked like she was about eighteen, maybe nineteen. She looked bored. Dakota quickly located who had to be the girl’s parents. Holy parental nightmare, Batman, Dakota thought to herself grinning. Mom was fat and stuffed into a dress two sizes too small and dad looked like he was likely a closet case, probably into bondage or some type of kink.

  The girl… now the girl had potential, even if the dress she was wearing was a nightmare too, her mom must have picked it out. It was pink, the kind of pink you see on a twelve-year-old, not an adult. It was too long, but when the girl crossed her legs, the skirt hiked up enough to give a flash of nicely shaped legs. She had a pretty face, and if she got her hair out of that horrible ponytail she could probably look pretty hot. The body looked like it had potential too, even if the dress was too big. All the better to get it off of her… Dakota thought to herself.

  She walked over and sat down in the chair next to the girl, glancing over and smiling.

  “You bored too?” she asked.

  The girl looked over at her surprised, then rolled her eyes, nodding her head.

  “We could find something else to do…” Dakota said, smiling.

  “Like what?” the girl asked, her brown eyes on Dakota’s.

  “Well, getting out of here to start with,” Dakota said, grinning. “The kitchen is always where it’s happening.”

  “Yeah?” the girl asked, her eyes shining with the idea of getting away from her parents.

  “Oh yeah,” Dakota said, nodding. “Come on.” She held her hand out to the girl.

  The girl looked around surreptitiously and then took Dakota’s hand. Dakota pulled her gently out of the chair and led the way to the kitchen. There they stole a couple of pastries and a bottle of champagne, and made their way to the back area that was deserted, and sat amongst the bags of flour and sugar.

  Dakota opened the bottle of champagne and took a long swig, then handed it to the girl.