Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Chapter 16

  There’s a special place in hell for men that fuck with women. And you’ll be meeting that dark little corner of the universe as fast as my bare hands can get you there.

  -Silas’ secret thoughts

  Silas

  I wanted to kill someone.

  Preferably with my bare hands.

  As I sat in the darkness listening to Sawyer have yet another nightmare, I was torn.

  It’d been a week since I’d gone down to Huntsville and watched as the guards that’d tortured Sawyer for years get arrested.

  And I’d told her last night that all four of them had been let out on bail.

  Then six hours later, as she slept, she started to have nightmares.

  I’d woken her from them three times already, but the moment her eyes closed once again, and she drifted back to sleep, she was right back in the throes of her nightmare.

  Now it was three in the morning, and we both had to be up in less than three hours, and I was wondering if I should just wake her up completely.

  The scream of terror that was ripped from her throat solidified my decision as I wrapped my hand around the outside of Sawyer’s hip, letting my hand play along her ass.

  “Sawyer,” I said, shaking her slightly.

  “Noooo,” she moaned. “Please. Don’t.”

  The sound of her pain tore through me like a hot fire poker right to the gut.

  Leaning down so I could gather her completely into my arms I said, “Sawyer, wake up!”

  Sawyer jolted awake, shaking uncontrollably in my arms.

  “What…what’s wrong?” She asked shakily.

  “You tell me, darlin,’” I said. “You’re not ever going to get it out if you don’t talk about it. Tell me what they did to you.”

  I could feel Sawyer’s eyelashes fluttering on my chest as she opened and closed them rapidly.

  Then I felt the telltale trail of tears sliding down my bare chest, and I pulled her to me a little tighter.

  “Tell me,” I urged.

  “If it wasn’t for Ruthie, I’d be a very different woman right now,” she started.

  Instead of saying anything, I just ran my hand through her hair. Stroking it lightly in encouragement, urging her to continue.

  “I was paired with Ruthie right off the bat,” she whispered. “Thank God. Ruthie had gotten there about two weeks before me, and she’d already had to suffer at those men’s hands. I never really heard what exactly was done to her, because she didn’t want to talk about it, but I figure they went a lot further with her than they did with me.”

  The hand that was propping my head up clenched in a tight fist as she got to what I really wanted to hear.

  “The first time they cornered me was in the laundry area. I was in charge of folding the towels.” She swallowed, her tiny hand sliding up the outside of my abdominals, playing along the ridges and valleys of my chest. “I was bent over the basket, reaching for the last towel, when one of the guards came up behind me and pinned me to the basket. My pants were around my ankles before I even realized what was happening. When his hands touched me there, Ruthie came up and started to scream, drawing the attention of the entire laundry area, as well as the guards not in the laundry area.”

  My eyes clenched shut tightly as I tried to reign in my fury.

  “From then on, Ruthie and I had each other’s back. We never left one another alone, and the guards weren’t brave enough to do us both at the same time. So we basically had to stay with each other twenty-four seven,” she continued. “But there were the times where we were separated. Sometimes she’d be assigned to a different job for the day. When I started working with the dogs, she wasn’t allowed to do the same. That’s when it started up again. Not for me, but for Ruthie. I didn’t even realize anything was happening until about a month before I was let out. And I feel like a total and complete heel for not noticing it sooner.”

  I brushed my lips across her head before I said, “She was protecting you and letting you do what you love. You’re good with those dogs.”

  She was, too.

  I was impressed.

  She could easily rivaled Trance with her ability to train dogs.

  Trance’s skills, however, were focused on training dogs for police procedures.

  Sawyer’s abilities were geared more toward training them to be service dogs.

  Like Belly.

  Belly was trained to find people in the aftermath of a storm or a natural disaster.

  Sawyer was a savant with dogs, an absolute natural, and I bet she’d start to get serious about dog training once the trials of the guards made it through the courts and everything related to her own charges had been settled.

  “Anyway, it’s not really me you should be worried about. It’s Ruthie. I only had them touch me. She…I don’t know. They did more to her, but I don’t know exactly what because she won’t say. I hope one day she entrusts that information to someone,” Sawyer said tiredly.

  “I want you to talk to a lawyer. I want you to get more from the state than the twenty-five thousand they say they’ll give you.” I said suddenly.

  It was something that’d been weighing on my mind since I’d read the letter Sawyer had received.

  “I don’t know. I don’t really want to start something. I just want it all to be over with,” she explained.

  I shook my head.

  “Twenty-five thousand dollars isn’t enough. They owe you a hell of a lot more. A nurse’s salary just for one year is at least twice that. And from what I figure, you should at least get fifty grand times eight years. But what I think you should really do is sue the state for assault. None of this would’ve happened had you not gone down in the first place. You have to believe in your government. If they made a mistake like this, they need to rectify it a little better than just an ‘oh here’s twenty-five grand. Go buy yourself a nice half a car. Sorry about falsely imprisoning you for eight years,’” I said.

  I could tell she wanted to roll her eyes.

  But I was right.

  Had she been a nurse for eight years, she’d probably have a house, a nice car, and a lot more to her name than just an old beat up junker car and a garage apartment.

  “I’ll get the club’s lawyer on the line in the morning. In the meantime, how about I do a little distracting,” I said, running my bearded chin up and down the column of her throat.

  She giggled and turned her face away, but that only caused her breasts to press further into me.

  “Stop,” she laughed, twisting in my arms.

  I rolled until she was on top, straddling my thighs.

  “Silas,” she said breathlessly, leaning down until her face was even with my own.

  The faint glow from the nightlight that had flicked on with our movements illuminated her shapely body and had my blood pumping and my heart pounding in anticipation.

  I’d placed the nightlight there so Sawyer could make her way to and from the bathroom at night without tripping over any of the furniture.

  Never in a million years had I envisioned the sight before me, but thanks to that nightlight, it was a vision I wouldn’t soon be forgetting

  My dick, now hard, strained behind my underwear and pulsed in time with the thump-thump-thumping of my racing heart.

  “What?” I replied, lifting myself up to grind into her.

  She pressed her lips softly against mine, then pulled back long enough to say, “Make love to me,” before she was pressing them back against mine, tangling her tongue with mine.

  If a woman had said that to me a month and a half ago, I would’ve balked.

  But in that moment, with the woman I considered mine, I didn’t hesitate. Not one bit.

  Running my hands up her sides, I caught the tails of my shirt that she’d commandeered for the night, and quickly pulled it up and over her head.

  She separated her mouth from mine, hunching her shoulders,
causing her breasts to hang down over my face.

  “Are you trying to suffocate me with these things?” I asked teasingly as I let the shirt go and immediately latched onto both breasts.

  I pinched and flicked her nipples as I reached into the bedside table, pulling out a condom and ripping it open.

  Placing my palm flat on her belly, I pushed her back slightly until she fell flat on her back.

  I followed her as I lowered the band of my underwear, allowing my cock to pop free.

  I ground the bare length of it into the wetness of her vagina, wishing like hell I could just slip inside of her without a barrier for once.

  Alas, since she wasn’t on birth control from what I could tell, I slipped the annoyance down over the length of my shaft and lined up the head of my condom-clad cock at the entrance to her pussy.

  Slowly easing inside, I filled her until she gasped.

  “Silas,” she breathed.

  I leaned down to allow my chest hair to play along her turgid nipples, grinding my cock into her core and relishing the tightness of her.

  She was the tightest pussy I’d ever had, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

  Reaching down, I gathered both of her knees into my hands and pressed them up over her shoulders as I slowly started to pump in and out of her.

  This positon allowed me to get deep inside of her, exactly where I liked to be.

  My hips pumped back and forth in to her as her wetness eased my way. The head of my cock was bumping against her cervix with each plunge.

  “You feel so good,” I said roughly against her lips.

  She sighed, and her hot little tongue licked the seam of my lips, causing my hips to jerk.

  She gasped at the deepness and clutched my ass with both hands as she urged me on faster.

  I obliged as I gave her my length, harder and harder.

  My hips slapped against her ass with hard thrusts, making that distinct smack-smack-smacking sound as our bodies collided.

  My balls slapped against her ass with each thrust, and when I felt her hand move down to gather her wetness before trailing back up to her clit, I knew I was fighting a losing battle.

  My eyes squeezed tightly shut as I used every ounce of my strength to hold off my impending orgasm.

  When her orgasm finally hit, I was panting.

  My eyes crossed as her pussy clamped down on my cock with the start of her orgasm, and I groaned in relief as I finally let go.

  Hard, hot pulses of my come filled the tip of the condom.

  I wished like hell I was filling her to the brim, but that would be for another day.

  “Jesus,” Sawyer breathed long moments later. “I prefer that to having nightmares.”

  I laughed. “I’ll remember that.”

  Pulling out of her tight heat, I carefully pulled the condom from my cock and tied it in a knot before placing it in the trash can beside the bed.

  Then I pulled her into my arms and rolled until she was lying directly on top of me.

  “Go to sleep, darlin’,” I ordered.

  She smiled and rolled her head to kiss my chest, right above my nipple.

  “Alright, Silas,” she agreed, settling a little deeper onto me.

  My eyes closed, and I finally let out a breath I hadn’t been aware I was holding the moment the words slipped free of her mouth.

  “I love you, Silas.”

  She was asleep in the next breath, so she didn’t hear my reply.

  “I love you, too, darlin’.”

  ***

  “What is this place?” She asked.

  I lifted my leg from the bike and held out my hand to her, which she took almost immediately.

  “Life Flight,” I said. “I own it.”

  “You…you own this?” She asked, looking in awe at the huge helicopter that was sitting on the front lawn, taking up the helipad and the majority of the front lot.

  “Yeah, I own it. I bought it about a year or so ago,” I told her, leading the way to the front door.

  It was set up much like a fire station would be.

  “Life Flight employs ten people. Four flight medics, four flight nurses and two office dispatchers. Each medic works with a nurse, so there’s always one of each on every flight. The dispatchers work opposing shifts, and we use an answering service that specializes in medical office procedures to cover the phones during non-business hours,” I explained as we made our way inside the main room.

  I wasn’t surprised to find Cleo kicked back on the couch and his partner in the closest recliner.

  There was a lot of down time being a flight medic.

  Although, it was inevitable that when it did get busy, you were hit with a ton of shit all at once. Our calls usually came in back-to-back-to-back.

  “Biscuit Girl!” Cleo yelled, surprising the ever-loving shit out of me.

  I blinked, then turned to Sawyer with raised brows.

  “What the hell is he calling you that for?” I asked.

  Sawyer smiled. “I gave him my biscuits for his wife one day when he came into the diner. They’d just stopped serving breakfast, and we’d gotten the last batch.”

  I nodded in understanding.

  The Pub Diner was a pretty happening place during breakfast hours.

  Most of the time, the line was out the door just to get into the place for breakfast.

  Cleo had been lucky that Sawyer was willing to give those biscuits up.

  I’d personally had them, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have done that.

  “Yeah, thanks to her, my wife didn’t try to kill me that day. Sawyer’s a hero in my book,” Cleo said emphatically.

  Rolling my eyes, I took hold of Sawyer’s hand and led her into my office, shutting the door behind us.

  I didn’t even notice Sawyer’s wide eyes until she asked, “Do you not know how to file?”

  I looked at my desk and the mountains of paper collecting dust on every available surface.

  “I do my best, but I seriously need a secretary,” I told her, dropping down in my chair and punching the power button on my computer. “Why don’t you make yourself useful?”

  She laughed, which was what I’d intended for her to do.

  She hadn’t been the same since last night, which was why I’d kept her with me today.

  Today was Sunday, so Zack’s office was closed, and she was off.

  Which meant she would’ve been home all day stewing on things she couldn’t change, which was why she was here with me instead and not at home alone.

  “I guess I could try to help you out,” she said as she came up behind me, threading her arms around my neck.

  I patted her hand. “Gotta get this payroll done, then we can christen another office,” I teased.

  She snorted and pressed her lips against my neck.

  “Let me know when we can get to that,” she whispered.

  I turned my face up towards hers as I guided her lips to mine by way of my hand in her ponytail.

  “Be good, and I’ll see what I can do,” I told her.

  She giggled against my lips, and I found that I quite liked that sound.

  “I can do that,” she whispered. “I can be very, very good.”

  Yes, she absolutely could.

  Within the hour and a half I’d been working, she filed not just one of my paperwork piles, but all of them. She even started cleaning up my office when she was done.

  And yes, we christened the office.

  Twice.

  Chapter 17

  What’s better than a man in uniform? A biker in leather.

  - Fact of Life

  Sawyer

  The next morning dawned rainy, yet again.

  I could really go for some sunshine right about now.

  The clouds and rain paired with the blinds on Silas’ windows reminded me too much of being caged in…and Silas’ bad attitude wasn’t helping my mood.

 
; “Hey,” Silas said, interrupting my thoughts. “Do you think you can do something for me?”

  I blinked. “Sure, what?”

  He handed me a letter.

  “I have a brother in the Navy. He’s deployed right now. Do you think you can go get him these things, and a few extras, so we can send a care package over to him?” Silas asked.

  I nodded. “Sure. I was heading over to Target anyway.”

  I’d of course heard him talking about the man in the Navy.

  Sterling, I think he’d said his name way.

  He was a SEAL from what I’d heard through passing conversation.

  “What else should I get him?” I asked. “And do you want me to go ahead and send it out today?”

  He looked up distractedly from something he was reading.

  It looked like a case file or something, but I’d learned not to butt into his business.

  The last time I’d looked at one of his manila folders, I’d seen the gruesome carnage of a teenager that’d been hacked up with…something.

  I didn’t want to know what was in those files, and I’d resigned myself to not even thinking about them.

  I still wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was that he did for a living.

  I knew he was a CIA operative at one point, but he didn’t really go anywhere aside from the firehouse, the Dixie Warden’s clubhouse, Halligans and Handcuffs and the Life Flight office.

  “Get him some candy that won’t melt,” he offered.

  “Silas?” I asked.

  He looked up. “Yeah?”

  His beautiful blue eyes were intoxicating.

  “What is it that you do for a living?” I finally asked.

  He grinned. “I’m a crime analyst. I freelance, which means I do it on my own, and I’m paid as a subcontractor for my expert opinions and analysis. I usually get my cases from the CIA and the FBI. I look for trends in criminal activity across the country, and I track them using the software program I developed. It’s a central source of criminal information for all branches of law enforcement. I track the details of crimes, so that when another similar crime occurs, we can determine if the similarities are just coincidences or the crime is actually related to other crimes. This is helpful to law enforcement in deciding if a crime is the work of a serial criminal, a copycat or an unrelated coincidence.