Damaged Goods

by Lainey Reese

  Angie moved her arm.

  “Brice,” he dimly heard, “You know I got a date—”

  “Surf-N-Slurp! Fucking now!” he shouted. He was loud enough that he heard Gage and Terryn call out and come running. Then he hung up and called 9-1-1 as he rushed to her side. Just as the operator picked up, Terryn and Gage rounded the corner. The big Texan cursed loud and long while Terryn let loose with a moan of denial even as she knelt down and reached to help. Brice gave the address and handed the phone off to Gage. Then he told Terryn, “We need to try and stop the bleeding. Put pressure there and just hold on.” He motioned toward Angie’s side where blood was welling in a gruesome puddle beneath her.

  “She’s alive,” she said with a sob. “Oh thank you, God, she’s alive.” When Angie gave a weak moan and tried to sit up, Brice would have stilled her but Terryn beat him to it. “Shh, don’t move, Angie. You poor thing, you have to keep still.”

  Brice reached out as gently as he could and braced his hands on Angie’s neck in the hopes of stabilizing it. The amount of damage she was showing, there was a better than good chance that she had a spinal injury. The important thing was to keep her from exacerbating it before the paramedics got here with a brace. Gage prowled back and forth behind them while Terryn tried to put pressure on the wound that looked the worst. And the whole time Brice held her neck he prayed that his partner would get here fast.

  When Kent’s car screamed up to the alleyway ten minutes later, Brice was there to intercept as he leaped from behind the wheel. The blue and red lights of the ambulance flashed over his grief-ravaged face. He tried to barrel past him to get to the scene, but Brice grabbed his arms.

  “She’s alive,” Brice said. It didn’t register; Kent kept shoving to get by. With grim resolve, he held fast and shouted into his friend’s face, “Kent, she’s alive!” When some of the wildness leached away from those eyes and focused on him, he repeated, “She’s alive. It’s bad, buddy. The son of a bitch beat her, but she’s alive. The medics are loading her up now, so you go see her, but I had to warn you, it’s bad.”

  Brice stepped back and watched Kent gather himself before rushing to the gurney. Even with the warning, Brice heard his anguished cry as Kent got a look at what had been done to her. His shaking hands hovered over the bandage obscuring most of her face, clearly afraid to touch her and cause more pain. Then he settled for fisting his hands in the sheet of the gurney. He was murmuring to her in a voice too low for Brice to hear and the sight broke his fucking heart. He wasn’t the least surprised when Kent loaded into the ambulance with the gurney, nor was he surprised by the aggression when he put a restraining hand on Kent’s arm.

  “Easy, partner,” Brice said, clear and calm. “I’m not trying to stop you, I just need your keys.” Kent stared at him blankly for a moment before the words registered, then he nodded and handed them over, “I’ll have your car at the hospital in the morning. I’ll finish up here and see you tomorrow.”

  As the ambulance pulled away, Brice locked down the side of himself that wanted to weep. He locked away the anger and the sadness, he locked everything away but the cop. Then he turned back to his crime scene and determined that he wasn’t leaving this alley until it told him everything.

  “Where’s her purse?” Terryn’s sleepy voice came from the depths of Kent’s backseat. Brice had just started the car to leave, but her question gave him pause. “Don’t you think we should grab her coat and purse for her? Or did you have to tag it or something for evidence?”

  Brice twisted around to look at her. She was snuggled under Gage’s coat with her head resting in his lap. Both of them looked bleary-eyed and tired, but neither of them had uttered a word of complaint and they had refused to leave without him.

  “Her purse wasn’t in the alley,” he answered. His sluggish mind knew that that was significant for some reason and he was struggling to figure out why. “It was still in the shop.”

  “Hmm,” Terryn said, “weird.”

  “Weird, why?” he asked.

  “Because,” she answered with a yawn, “if she wasn’t leaving for the night, why was the door locked?”

  “The door was locked?” Brice tried but couldn’t remember trying to get in himself until the place was already flooded with cops and Jenny the owner was there answering questions and serving them all coffee.

  “Mm-hmm,” came her sleepy reply. “I wanted to wait in there after they took Angie, but it was locked. Jenny had to come and let everyone in.” Then her eyes drifted shut and she was out. Brice, however, was wide-awake again. Adrenalin fired through his system while he mentally reviewed the facts.

  The lights had still been on and the open sign had been flashing its cheery welcome when they’d pulled up in the cab.

  Angie’s purse, jacket, cell phone and keys had all still been in the back room.

  The door had been locked.

  The lock was a two-way dead bolt.

  Brice held the door to his apartment open so Gage could carry Terryn in. She looked delicate in the arms of the big Texan. Her hair was a fiery cloud around her face and obscured all but one pale cheek. Gage, having been a frequent guest, headed straight for the bedroom without asking for directions or needing a light. Brice beat him there and tugged the blankets back so he could lay her between the sheets.

  With a low murmur, Gage set her down and gently slid her dress from her. Brice stepped into the bathroom and came back with a damp cloth just as Gage was stretching out beside her. He first ran it over her face, wiping away the remains of her makeup and the grime from the alley. He washed her neck, arms and hands next. She cooed like a dove when he came back with a second cloth and proceeded to bathe her breasts. Not one to be left out, Gage helped by draping one of her thighs over his hips so Brice had easy access to cleaning between them. They’d all thoroughly cleaned up before leaving the club earlier, so this was more to pamper her than anything else. She was soft and pink and perfect down there. He could happily spend the rest of his life exploring her.

  When Gage shifted to pull the covers over them, Terryn’s whisper stopped them both. “I just want to forget. It hurts so bad, and I’m so scared for Angie and I can’t get it out of my head. Please, make me forget.” Her eyes were tear-drenched and Brice heard Gage swear under his breath when she looked at him as well. “Please. Just make it all go away.” Brice’s fingers gentled even more and he let the washcloth slip from his hand.

  She was growing warm and wet. Those pale-as-cream cheeks flushed with color and her luscious lips parted as her breathing increased. Brice watched as Gage slid a hand over her ribs to cup and fondle one full breast. When those fingers plucked and pinched at her nipple he felt the first stirrings of urgency in his blood.

  Brice slid his touch to her back entrance and circled there. He leaned forward and swirled his tongue around her glistening clit, waiting until she arched and moaned, then slid his longest finger—slow and sure—into that tight ring.

  Her cry of pleasure was music to his ears. With his eyes closed, he enjoyed the symphony of soft sighs and low groans as he and Gage let their hands and mouths explore the body she so generously offered. When next he opened his eyes, he had two fingers buried in each of her holes and her clit suckled deep against his tongue. Gage had shifted to kneel beside her and his cock was stretching her pretty mouth wide.

  Terryn’s clit swelled and her body went suddenly rigid, but Brice pulled back just in time. “Not yet, sub.” His voice was gravel-deep with his own arousal. “Not just yet, baby.” She whimpered sexily as he shoved her knees to her to her armpits and crossed her ankles over her chest. “Hold them there,” he told her and guided her hands to clasp her feet. “Stay just like that and don’t let go.” She was spread wide and her hips were tilted at just the right angle for what he had in mind.

  “Nice.” Gage looked away from her face to see how he’d positioned her and smiled his approval.

  Brice reached over to the bedside drawer for necessities and
covered himself, then grabbed a tube of lubricant. He felt Terryn jerk when he squirted the cold gel on to her, but she didn’t let go and continued to wring grunts and moans out of Gage. With a murmured “Good girl,” he kept going.

  He brought his knees up close so she was cradled between them and slowly, so slowly eased his cock into her snug back hole. The ring of taut muscles there reflexively clenched and then gave under the pressure. After what felt like an eternity to him, he was in as far as he could go. Terryn froze and tried to let go of her legs. Brice grabbed her wrists and held. It was another agony of waiting, but he gave her time to adjust.

  Gage muttered a few choice words about how good his view was and even as he continued to plunge in and out of her mouth, he reached down and rubbed three blunt fingers over her dripping wet sheath. The added stimulation helped to ease her into this first taking of her ass.

  Brice watched as he slid his fingers inside her and then pulled them out to massage her clit, only to plunge back in again. All the while, Brice kept working his shaft in small pulses till at last he felt her body relax and yield to his Will. She was tight and hot and perfect.

  “Sweet God in heaven,” he rasped.

  Slowly he started to thrust. Her ass surrounded him like nothing he’d ever felt and as the indescribable pleasure increased so did his rhythm, until he was pounding into her. His hands gripped like iron bands around her wrists. The more he gave her, the more frantic she became. They had her securely restrained—her only option for movement was her mouth on Gage’s cock and she poured all her passion out there. Her muffled cries blended with the wet sounds of sex as she sucked and lapped at him, reducing the big man to a trembling mountain beside her.

  Gage roared as he started to come and pumped his fingers inside her sheath with renewed vigor. He plunged them fast and hard up against her g-spot and with a scream she joined him in climax, her juices splashing out around his hand while his filled her mouth.

  It was too much for Brice’s system to take. Her already tight ass locked on to him and he was powerless to stop the avalanche that was his own climax. It was brutal and unstoppable and Brice felt a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain as it barreled its way through his body and poured into hers.

  He collapsed forward and the three of them panted and floated in the aftermath. With a few twitches and aftershocks, he pulled out from Terryn and reached for one of the washcloths from earlier. He smiled at her as he brought it up to wipe her face while Gage grabbed one and ran it gently between her legs.

  “Maybe we should let you do this,” he told her and kissed the tip of her nose. “If we start this again, we may never get to sleep.”

  “Fine by me,” Gage rumbled, his voice not yet recovered. “Damn fine sub you got here, Brice.” Then he lobbed the washcloth toward the bathroom and snuggled up to Terryn’s back with a happy sigh. Brice settled into place at her front and with a few adjustments they were set.

  “I know, Gage,” Brice replied, “I know.”

  She smiled up at him with sleepy eyes and he couldn’t help but to lean in for a long, tender kiss. She was the perfect sub for him. Generous and sweet and so open to everything he taught her. She was also smart and kindhearted. In the brief time he’d known her, she had shown him depths of strength and courage that left him humbled and depths of passion that left him breathless. As sleep pulled him down, a single conviction took hold of his heart.

  “I’m never letting you go,” he whispered it as both their eyes drifted shut, “Never.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Terryn let herself into her apartment and stumbled to the couch. Once she got there, though, she didn’t know what to do. Every muscle in her body ached and her butt felt like it was sunburned thanks to her first lesson in erotic spankings. Since she was alone and there was no one there to think less of her for it, she let out a whine. She wanted nothing more at this moment than to plop down and rest, but she couldn’t think how to do that when there wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t sore and tender.

  When her cell went off, she allowed herself one more whine and answered it with a smile in her voice if not on her face. “Hello.”

  “I thought you had today off,” Brice’s voice crooned in her ear and Terryn flushed at just the sound of him. Jeez, she thought, I’m pathetic. “I called you at my place and Gage said you went to work.”

  “I did have it off, but they needed me so I went in for a partial shift this afternoon.” Her legs felt like rubber, so she gave up waiting for a miracle and eased down to the cushions. Yep. That hurts.

  “Terryn?” The note of concern in Brice’s voice was unmistakable. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  “No, not really.” She shifted a little and tried to ease over onto one hip. Nope. Not helping. “Just feeling a little tender and sore from last night.” As hard as she tried to not to, a squeak escaped when she tried the other hip. The warm and fuzzy feelings she was harboring for Brice dropped to freezing when his chuckle hit her ear.

  “Next time I should beat on you and see if you aren’t the one who’s sore. And then maybe I’ll stick something up your butt too. See how you like that.” His laughter was as infuriating as it was comforting and didn’t that just confuse the heck out of her?

  “It doesn’t work like that, Red,” he said with the laughter still rich and warm in his voice. “Unfair, I know, but nothing we can do about it.” He paused for a second and then asked, “Why did you go to your place and not mine? I thought the plan was to spend the weekend together.”

  “Well,” Terryn said as she gave up trying to be brave and whimpered when she stretched out on the couch. “It was the plan. Then you had to get up early and work and I got called into work too, so I thought the plan was a bust.” She stopped herself from saying what the biggest reason for her being back at her place was.

  “And Gage being at my place didn’t have anything to do with that, did it?” Terryn should have known he’d zero in on that. He was so good at reading her it didn’t even surprise her that he’d guessed. “Talk to me, Terryn. How much did Gage have to do with your decision to go back to your place?”

  “A lot.” She gave in with a sigh. “I don’t know. I really like him. He’s so sexy and strong and God, is he ever good in bed.”

  “Terryn,” Brice interrupted with a new edge to his voice, “don’t make me kill my best friend.”

  She giggled. “Sorry. But he’s wonderful. I really like him. Only—he’s not you. And I don’t know, I guess I felt wrong somehow being there when you weren’t. Like, like—it sounds dumb—but it’s like without you there it’s almost like I’d be cheating or something.” She waited for a while and when he didn’t say anything she asked, “Is that stupid? Am I being stupid?”

  “No, Red.” His voice was soft and she was back to warm fuzzies when he said, “Not at all. In fact, I’m sorry I didn’t think of that myself so you wouldn’t be home alone and feeling awkward. You were there as my sub, so it’s natural that you would feel that way left alone with another Dom. You knew that even though I was okay with him joining us and touching you with my permission, without me there it would feel wrong.” He paused for a minute. “Do you know why that is, sub?”

  “No, Sir,” Terryn answered, feeling a tingle of awareness in response to his Dom voice.

  “It’s because you belong to me and even though we haven’t talked about commitments or arrangements, your body knows it.” Another long pause. “And, Terryn? So does mine.”

  Brice hung up his cell and allowed himself one more moment of gloating. What he had with Terryn felt solid and right and good. He’d had no interest in a permanent relationship before meeting her. Now the thought of not having her with him permanently caused a disturbing amount of panic in his gut.

  After this case was closed, they’d have that talk about commitments and arrangements. They’d have to make some adjustments on both sides. He’d insist on her moving in. That was a hard line for him. Although her neighborhood w
as nice enough, he wanted her in his arms every night. On his end, he was going to have to find a way to pull back at work without letting his cases suffer. There were plenty of guys on the force who had found the right balance. No reason to think he couldn’t also.

  With his mind settled on the next phase of his life with Terryn, he switched gears and turned to look into the coffee shop he had been sitting in front of while they’d talked. See, he silently told himself, compartmentalizing already. Then he got out of the car and headed in to talk to the owner.

  “Hello, Detective.” Jeannette Hankins looked up at him with a grief-ravaged face and didn’t bother trying to force a smile.

  She was an attractive woman in her late thirties with chin-length brown hair and round hazel eyes. She was smart and had a sense of humor that she used with charming skill on everyone who crossed her path. Including him. He’d let her tease and charm him, both he and his partner had, and now two of her employees were dead while a third one barely clung to life. He’d never even considered her. Had he let a killer deceive him? He was here to find out.

  “Hi, Jenny.” She noticed something in the way he spoke because her hands stilled and her eyes filled. “Oh, God.” He watched what color she had drain from her face. “She’s gone? Is Angie gone?” Brice quelled the urge to comfort, trying to see a killer in what he’d previously decided was an innocent woman.

  “No, Jen, no. Angie is still in ICU—there’s no change.” When she wilted in relief, Brice asked, “Where were you last night?”

  She looked at him in puzzlement. “I was here as soon as I got the call from one of your officers. I let you all in and made everyone coffee.”

  “Where were you when you got the call?”