Gray Skies (WeHo Book 8)

by Sherryl Hancock

  Natalia crumpled to the floor and cried.

  Outside the apartment, Raine leaned against the door sobbing quietly. She could hear Natalia crying inside the apartment, and she had to steel herself against it. She wanted nothing more than to comfort the woman she loved more than anything, but she couldn’t, not now, not when she’d done what she had. After pushing off the door, Raine strode to the stairs, and ran down them and outside. She got onto her bike, and gunned the engine. She had no idea where to go so she just drove around for a couple of hours. Finally, she stopped at a coffee shop, got some water, and sat at one of the tables. She checked her phone and saw numerous texts from friends. There were texts from Natalia too that Raine deleted without reading. She assured her friends that she was still alive, including her boss, Catalina Roché.

  A couple of minutes later Cat texted her back, asking where she was.

  “At a coffee shop,” Raine texted back.

  “You don’t drink coffee,” Cat replied.

  “I’m not drinking coffee,” Raine replied.

  “Where are you staying?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Come to our place,” Cat told her.

  When Raine didn’t answer for a few minutes, she got another text. “That’s an order, Agent.”

  Raine shook her head, sighing. Being friends with your boss definitely had its downside. She arrived at Cat and Jovina’s house a half an hour later.

  Cat answered the door and straightaway and took Raine in her arms.

  “Are you okay?” she asked after she finally let go.

  Raine blew her breath out and shook her head dismally.

  “Too bad you don’t drink,” Cat said, leading Raine over to the couch. “You could probably use one right now.”

  Raine shook her head. “No, it’ll just make things worse.”

  Jovina walked over to Raine and hugged her too, then sat down on the other side of her on the couch.

  “Feeling that match with Quinn yet?” Cat asked, with a raised eyebrow.

  “Not yet,” Raine said, knowing she would soon.

  Cat looked pointedly at Raine’s arm that already had a nasty bruise on it. She could only imagine where else the kid was bruised. Cat remembered her own match with Quinn, where she’d been determined to prove to the other butches that she could butch it up with the best of them. She’d had bruises for a week. Quinn was a damned good fighter, just not very good at pulling punches fast enough.

  “Well, you look like you need some sleep,” Jovina said softly. “I’ve made up the extra bedroom for you.”

  “Obrigado,” Raine said, smiling feebly.

  “Your Portuguese is getting good,” Jovina told her, smiling.

  Raine nodded slowly, looking really tired suddenly.

  “Come on,” Cat said, moving to stand. “I’ll get you settled.”

  Ten minutes later Cat walked into the master bedroom. Jovina was sitting on the bed reading a book.

  “Is she okay?” Jovina asked.

  “I don’t think I’d call it okay,” Cat said, as she lay down on the bed next to Jovina and looked up at her. “I think she’s completely shell-shocked.”

  Jovina nodded. “I can understand why.”

  “I can too,” Cat said. “I know exactly how that feels.”

  Jovina looked down at Cat for a long moment, her look pained. “I know you do,” she said softly.

  Cat shook her head. “I don’t know what the hell Natalia thought she was doing. All you have to do is look at Dakota and know she’s a player. Why would she throw away what she has with Raine for that?”

  “I don’t know,” Jovina said, sighing. “I never would have believed it.”

  “I’m with you there,” Cat said, shaking her head. “I thought they were good for the long haul.”

  “Raine has been working a lot lately,” Jovina pointed out.

  Cat canted her head slightly, nodding. “Yeah, she has, but she’s been putting in a ton of overtime to try and come up with some money for Natalia to put in on the studio.”

  “Does Natalia know that though?” Jovina asked.

  “No,” Cat said. “Raine wanted to surprise her…” Her voice trailed off as she thought about it. “Jesus, that would suck… if it happened because of that…”

  Jovina nodded, looking sad.

  ***

  Later that night, Cody and McKenna were in Cody’s room. Cody was lying on the bed while McKenna moved around the room putting things into boxes. They were getting ready to move to their own place. Cody had done some packing, but McKenna had been sure that the way Cody packed was going to cause a lot of breakage, so she was repacking things. Cody let her have her way. It was getting late and she was too tired to protest.

  “Well that turned into a big mess, huh?” McKenna asked.

  Cody made a sound in the back of her throat. “Ya think?” she asked derisively, grinning to take the sting out of her words.

  McKenna shook her head. “How did Raine figure it out though?”

  “Natalia would suck at poker, babe. She has absolutely no filter on her face.”

  “And Raine caught on that way?” McKenna asked.

  “Raine’s a cop, Kenna, she’s trained to read people.”

  McKenna shook her head. “I just feel so awful for them, you know?”

  Cody nodded, understanding completely.

  “I still can’t believe Dakota did that. What is wrong with that girl?” McKenna said contemptuously.

  Cody shook her head. “Don’t judge her too harshly babe, I could have so easily been her.”

  McKenna looked over at Cody sharply. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No you couldn’t have.”

  Cody laughed without a hint of humor. “You have no idea…” she said, shaking her head.

  “Cody, you have a conscience, she doesn’t. That’s a big difference right there.”

  “I didn’t always have one, Kenna,” Cody said. “And I was learning from the best how not having one helped you get through the shit you had to do to survive.”

  “Dakota…” McKenna said.

  “Yep,” Cody said, “but no one saved her. Not like Lyric and Savanna saved me. And believe me, Dakota has been through a lot of shit in her life, so much worse than me.”

  “Really?” McKenna asked, unable to believe that anyone could have had it worse than Cody, who’d been forced into prostitution by a street gang as a teenager.

  “Trust me,” Cody said, nodding.

  McKenna drew in a deep breath, then expelled it as she nodded.

  “Have you checked on her?” she asked Cody then.

  “I texted her,” Cody said.

  “And she said she was okay?” McKenna asked drily.

  “Yeah. I know she can say whatever she wants in text, but trust me, till she’s ready to talk about it, you don’t want me goin’ over there.”

  “Why?” McKenna asked.

  “Because Dakota has a tendency to get really physical when she’s pissed and she is pushed to talk about things…”

  “Physical?” McKenna repeated, knowing there was a reason Cody didn’t use the word “violent.”

  “Uh-huh,” Cody said, grinning.

  “Like sexually?”

  “Yeah,” Cody said then.

  “Oh my…” McKenna said, clearing her throat.

  “You don’t get it, I know,” Cody said.

  “No, can you try to explain it?” McKenna asked, moving to sit on the bed, looking down at Cody.

  Cody sighed. “For me, sex was always a power thing… I had the power so I could control the situation… For Dakota sex is the way she handles things. She’s pissed off, she gets some poor girl to come until she’s half dead. She’s feeling powerless, she seduces some rich bitch and humiliates her sexually. It’s power to her, but it’s a lot more, it’s her… currency. It’s how she pays for things. It’s how she proves her worth, how she keeps her edge…”

  “Jesus…” McKenna said her to
ne shocked. “And I’m guessing she needs that edge.”

  “Oh yeah,” Cody said, “or she folds, and that’s not an option for her.”

  McKenna shook her head, trying to imagine what life must be like for someone like Dakota. She wasn’t even able to begin to fathom it in the slightest.

  ***

  Dakota lay on the bed in her room, staring up at the ceiling, smoking a cigarette. The girl she’d just had sex with scurried around the room picking up her discarded clothing, occasionally glancing over at Dakota. Tilly was the upstairs maid, and she was terrified that Dakota would tell Miss Billings about their tryst and she’d be fired. Dakota hadn’t had to make any assurances when she’d encountered the girl in her room cleaning it. Dakota had come up from behind, and started touching her.

  At first, Tilly had been frightened, but then she’d succumbed to the sensations Dakota’s hands had been creating. She’d heard a great deal about Miss Billings’ girlfriend, and she’d actually been hoping to get a chance to sleep with Dakota, but she hadn’t expected this, in the middle of the day when she was supposed to be working. Dakota hadn’t cared and hadn’t stopped. In the end she’d brought her to orgasm so many times she was still feeling weak in the knees. Her boyfriend, Jorge, hadn’t better want sex that night because there was no way she could handle anymore that day.

  Tilly left the room without a word, sensing easily that Dakota wasn’t interested in talking. A minute later Cassandra stormed into the room, slamming the door so hard one of the paintings on the wall fell off shattering the glass.

  “You’re fucking the help now?” Cassandra raged, having seen a very flustered Tilly leaving Dakota’s bedroom.

  Dakota grinned, still staring up at the ceiling. “Like you haven’t?” she said mildly.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Cassandra snapped.

  Dakota moved to sit up, her slim, naked body on full display. “You’re really gonna go with that one, huh?” she asked, her tone snide.

  Cassandra strode over to Dakota and slapped her hard. Dakota’s head snapped back, and she let out a gasp that sounded like it was somewhere between shock and excitement. When she looked back up at Cassandra, there was blood on her lip.

  “Did that help?” Dakota asked.

  “Strapping you down and whipping you might begin to help, you ungrateful bitch!” Cassandra snapped.

  Dakota irritated her more by grinning. “We’ve never tried that…” she said, her tone a sexy drawl.

  Cassandra’s hand whipped out and she raked her nails down Dakota’s chest, drawing blood with her talon-like nails. To her shock, Dakota’s hand lashed out grabbing her wrist to draw her hand away from her chest as she hissed in pain. Cassandra tried to pull her hand away from Dakota’s grasp but she tightened her grip. Cassandra tried to hit Dakota with her other hand, and Dakota grabbed that wrist as well, kneeling up on the bed, still holding Cassandra’s wrists. Cassandra fought her hold, but Dakota was stronger than she looked, and she increased the pressure to the point that Cassandra cried out.

  “You’re hurting me!” Cassandra snapped.

  “And if I let you go, you’re likely to hurt me again, so, here we are,” Dakota said, her tone matter of fact.

  “I’ll call the police!” Cassandra snapped.

  “And tell them what? That you lost control of your boi toy and she beat you up?”

  “Exactly!”

  “Uh, yeah, who’s bleedin’ here?” Dakota said, giving her a wry grin.

  “You think they’ll believe you?” Cassandra said, her tone snide. “Some little street whore?”

  Dakota narrowed her eyes at Cassandra. “Watch your mouth, Cass…” she said, her tone low in warning.

  “Or what?” Cassandra jeered. “You’ll do what, Dakota?” she asked, becoming really full of herself.

  “You don’t want to find out,” Dakota said, her tone dead serious now.

  Cassandra laughed a harsh nasty sound. “Am I supposed to be afraid of you, Dakota?”

  “You might want to be…”

  “I’m only afraid you’ll fuck all of the help and then I’ll have to hire more,” Cassandra snapped.

  Dakota shoved her away then, and Cassandra stumbled into the dresser near the door and fell to the floor. Dakota lay back on the bed, breathing heavily as she tried to reign in her temper. She had her eyes closed in an effort to force away the dark thoughts she was having at that point. That’s why she was truly surprised when she felt a sharp burning pain rake down the underside of her right forearm. She felt Cassandra over her then, pressing against her, her hand clamped over Dakota’s wrist, holding it down with her weight. As she opened her eyes she saw the shard of glass Cassandra had picked up from the floor and was raking down her arm.

  Dakota yelled in pain as the glass dug deeper into her arm. She could see Cassandra was excited by it. Using her left arm, Dakota tried to shove her away, but Cassandra worked out to try and stay young, so she was able to grab Dakota’s arm with her hand and force it above her head.

  “Get the fuck off me!” Dakota yelled, bucking to dislodge Cassandra.

  She felt Cassandra moving against her body, and knew that she was getting off on hurting her. She went into survival mode then. Yanking her left arm out of Cassandra’s grasp, she put it to Cassandra’s throat. Cassandra had gotten the piece of glass almost down to her mid-forearm, so Dakota was able to shift her arm painfully against the glass to grab Cassandra’s wrist. By wrapping her left leg around Cassandra’s and using every ounce of strength she had, she was able to force Cassandra over on her back. Keeping her forearm at Cassandra’s throat, she lay over her, her eyes burning points as she stared down at her. Cassandra was panting at this point, she was so excited. Dakota curled her lips in disgust. She shook her right arm, dislodging the piece of glass, and heard it clatter to the floor. She then reached down between them, her blood smearing over Cassandra’s white suit, yanked up Cassandra’s skirt, and shoved her fingers inside Cassandra as roughly as she could. She repeated the action until Cassandra screamed and grasped in her orgasm.

  Afterwards Dakota moved off her, rolling to her back, feeling disgusted with both herself and Cassandra. She knew their relationship had just taken an extremely dangerous turn. She’d always thought that Cassandra had some kink to her. There’d been a few times when she’d gotten excessively rough, but never this crazy. Her arm was throbbing wildly and she could feel the blood still flowing from the long cut.

  “This suit is Chanel!” Cassandra exclaimed when she saw the blood on it.

  “You’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me right now, right?” Dakota said harshly.

  Cassandra chuckled. “I guess it was worth it,” she said as she got off the bed.

  Dakota closed her eyes, shaking her head. She heard Cassandra leave the room then. She grabbed one of the pillows on the bed and yanked off the pillowcase, some ridiculously expensive thread count Egyptian cotton bullshit, and wrapped it around her arm to try and stop the bleeding. After a few minutes she got up off the bed, walked into the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. She had a nasty cut on her lip and there were nail marks from her shoulder halfway down her chest. She carefully unwrapped the pillowcase, seeing that the cut was about three inches long and blood still seeped out. She found an ace bandage in a cabinet and wrapped it tightly around her arm, hoping the pressure would stop the bleeding.

  ***

  Cat knocked on the door to the room Raine was staying in.

  “How’s it going in here?” Cat asked.

  It had been a couple of days since the incident at the gym. Raine had stayed in the room for the most part. Cat had noticed that the door was open, so she’d decided to check in on the girl.

  “Hey,” Raine said. She was sitting on the bed with her knees up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

  Cat walked over to the bed and sat down next to her.

  “How are you doing?”

  Raine shrugged, swallowing convulsively.

&n
bsp; “Have you talked to her?” Cat asked.

  “What is there to say?” Raine asked, sounding depressed.

  “There could be a lot to say,” Cat said, her eyes searching Raine’s.

  “Like?”

  “Like asking why she did what she did.”

  “What difference is that going to make?”

  Cat blew her breath out. “It could make no difference at all, or it could make a world of difference.”

  “How?” Cat looked back at Raine and suddenly remembered that Natalia was the first person Raine had ever dated, had ever had sex with, all of it. She really had no clue how this kind of thing worked.

  “Okay, look,” Cat said, looking over at Raine. “My ex cheated on me too, and believe me, we’d been through a lot of shit together and I was really in love with her.”

  “What did you do?” Raine asked.

  “Well, in my case the circumstances of her cheating were really bad, and basically she’d been more or less planning it for a while before she actually did it… and that’s what made it impossible for me to forgive her completely. There was intent there, she knew what she was doing, and she did it anyway…”

  Cat let her voice trail off, seeing Raine’s mind churning.

  “So you’re saying that maybe if the circumstances aren’t as bad then I might want to forgive her?”

  “I’m saying it’s something to consider, unless you’re really done…” Cat said gently. “And it’s okay if you are, Raine, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not telling you what you should do. This is something you need to decide for yourself. I’m just saying that sometimes circumstances aren’t really as bad as they seem, you know?”

  Raine nodded, looking pensive.

  “So is that what broke you and your ex up? Her cheating?”

  Cat chuckled. “Well it should have been, since she did it again about a year later… but I don’t learn too quickly, apparently.”

  ***

  The day after the incident with Cassandra, Dakota was outside on the driveway, listening to music, smoking, and washing the Bugatti. Jazmine drove up in Rayden’s Viper; she’d borrowed it to make the meeting with Cassandra. As she got out of the Viper, she heard Dakota whistle.