Dark Passions: Dark Romance Boxed Set, page 49
I gathered my clothes around the room and packed everything in my weathered bag. Most of the new stuff I had bought with the girls here – lingerie and bikinis –I decided to leave behind. I wasn’t itching for souvenirs. While I folded a pair of shorts, I felt something hard in the pocket.
Curious, I fished out the object and found the rolled up $20 bill Jason had given me in case of emergency. This couldn’t be a coincidence that I had thought about him twice in one day. Most of all, seeing his face in my mind was a source of calmness, of peace. I had done my best to avoid him for years and now I longed to see him again.
I unfolded the bill and stared at the phone number on the publicity sticker. This definitely qualified as an emergency. I had to find a way to call him. Maybe he could contact the cops anonymously for me and I could escape during the raid or something. At this point, I was desperate enough to try anything.
* * *
My plan came like a light bulb going off in my head. It was simple but incredibly risky. By now risky might as well have been my middle name. In a house filled with drunken horny bikers, it was difficult to find a completely still moment. I catnapped through the evening so I would be awake all night. I had to find the perfect window of opportunity.
The fight with Curtis had thankfully kept him off my back. I saw him go into his room with a couple of the girls but by 3:10 a.m. the place was dead. There was no more music, no more sex, no more partying. All I could hear was the constant humming of the air-conditioning.
I got out from under the covers and put on my espadrilles. I was already wearing my jeans and a dark tee; I was ready. I grabbed my bag and tiptoed through the house. There were still people in the living room, half of whom I didn’t recognize. They were drunk, passed out, and draped all over each other. A redheaded stripper was snoring loudly and I saw dried cum caked in her hair.
I wouldn’t miss this place at all.
I reached the front door and gingerly turned the three deadbolts and removed the safety chain. I was careful not to make any noise but to me even my breathing was too loud. I looked over my shoulder and no one in the living room had moved. I opened the door and closed it silently behind me.
I’m home free, I thought joyfully as I jogged down the driveway. The entire street was dark. There were a few porch lights here and there but nothing indicated that people were awake. Besides, most of the street belonged to the bikers. I needed to get away fast.
I ran blindly to the end of the street, made a right, followed by a left. Who would’ve thought suburbia was a genuine Greek labyrinth? Finally, I made out a ray of hope!
About 100 feet away there was a flashlight beam aimed at the ground. As I ran toward it, I saw it was a middle-aged man walking his white bichon frise. He was half asleep and wore a bathrobe over pajamas.
“Sir, sir! You need to help me!”
“What?”
“I need to make a phone call, it’s really important.”
“Are you all right? It’s the middle of the night…”
“Please just take me to your house or bring me to a phone.” I promptly remembered the emergency cash. “Here, I have $20.”
I thrust the money into his hand and the dog began to bark. I was terrified this was going to be the end of me.
“I guess you can borrow my cell phone,” he said, pulling a phone from his pocket.
“Thank you, thank you!”
By now I knew Jason’s number by heart and my fingers flew over the keypad. I pressed the phone to my ear and took a step back from the man. It rang and rang again.
“Please… Please pick up…”
More ringing.
“Hello?”
“Jason! Jason, I’m so happy to hear your voice!” I choked back tears, the sound of his voice overwhelming me with relief.
“Madden? Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me. Listen, you were right, I never should’ve come here. I’m being held by these bikers, in this blue rancher house on Krawchuk Terrace, in Pacoima. Curtis says I can’t leave, probably because I saw what he’s doing or maybe because I’m like his property and…”
The line went dead as the phone flew out of my hand. I looked up and found Curtis standing in front of me. He was wearing his biker best over his bare chest and that made him look even meaner. He turned to the old man.
“Thank you, kindly leave. This is a private matter.”
My Good Samaritan nodded, pocketed the phone offered to him, and hurried away with the little yapping dog.
“Curtis…”
He came closer. “You think my house’s not gonna have an alarm system, you bitch?”
I was frozen in place, petrified that Curtis had found me when I thought I was free at last, but also disappointed that my getaway had failed. He was practically foaming at the mouth and I could think of nothing to say to him. Sprinting away was my best option yet my legs were like jelly.
Out of the blue, he grabbed my arm to hold me still, tight as a vise, and punched me hard in the face. Everything went back and I passed out.
* * *
It was a mixture of sounds and vibrations that woke me. I discovered I was on the hard floor and my hands were tied behind my back. There was a faint light coming in; it was morning, I was pretty sure.
I looked up and saw men moving left and right. I was back in the house, in the living room. However, no one was paying attention to me. Instead there was a fight going on. Curtis and Carey were punching and kicking but it was doing no good.
The person they were fighting with was Jason.
That was impossible, I had to be dreaming or drugged, which I probably was. But the sight of Jason was unmistakable. His lean body and pleasant face was real. He was fighting like an action movie star, dodging punches and dishing out blows of his own. People went down everywhere around him.
As much as I wanted to see what was happening, my eyes couldn’t stay open. I heard gunshots and smelled smoke. There were shouts, loud screams.
“What did you do to her, motherfucker?”
I forced myself to blink and I saw Jason knocking Curtis out cold with a swinging blow to the head. Then it was my turn to black out again.
Chapter 17
Everything was hazy, like I was looking through a dirty window and then going into a series of tunnels. Except that it’s not what it was. The tunnel was in my head, I was going in and out of consciousness. I had flashes of memories, of Jason being there next to me – in California! That hadn’t been a dream, right?
No, it was real, I was certain of it. He had come to my rescue, I hadn’t imagined him beating up Curtis and the other guys. I still could feel the heat of the fire, there was no way I would have made that up.
Through half lidded eyes I saw Jason again. He was driving the car we were in while I was lying in the backseat.
“Jason?”
He half turned and it was him all right. Relief washed over me.
“Shhhh, don’t say anything,” he said. “Rest, we’re going home.”
I wanted to ask a million questions but I figured I would shut my eyes just for a minute to gather enough energy to speak again. But I drifted off again.
* * *
When I woke up I was in a much more comfortable position. It was soft underneath me and a blanket was pulled all the way to my chin. Most of all, I was no longer moving. I carefully opened my eyes, wary of any blinding light, but there wasn’t any.
There was the soft orange glow of a sunset coming through drawn curtains. I was in a bedroom, one I’d never seen before. The walls were beige and had nothing hanging on them. There was a flatscreen TV on a dresser and the furniture was nothing fancy. However, what I did notice was how clean the room was. There were no clothes strewn about like at Curtis’s.
I turned to the nightstand and found an empty glass and a bottle of water. This made me appreciate how thirsty I was and when I reached over I knocked the glass to the hardwood floor. I realized it was plastic when it didn’t break but it bounced loudly.
Five seconds later, the door opened and Jason came in rushing in, his worried face not lost on me.
“Madden, are you okay?”
Things started getting back to me, though extremely sluggishly. Jason rescuing me, me lying in the backseat of a car.
“Hold on,” he continued. “I’ll get you another glass.”
He rushed out and came back with a clean glass. He came to the bed and poured some water which I sipped in small doses.
“What happened? Where am I?”
“We’re back in New Mexico. This is my house.”
“How long…”
“You’ve been asleep almost 36 hours.”
I was shocked. That was more than a day! “How… What…”
“Don’t try to speak,” he said softly and he helped me to lie down again. “It’s the GHB in your system, must’ve been a strong dose. Maybe they laced it with something else. I’m gonna bring you some soup and then you have to rest some more, okay?”
I may have slept for 36 hours but I was still exhausted. It was a good thing too, it kept me from mustering excessive rage about having the date rape drug running through my veins. It confirmed everything I’d come to believe about those bikers. There was nothing romantic about it anymore. This particular bunch was made up of brutal criminals.
“Here,” Jason said as he returned with a steaming mug of chicken noodle soup.
He helped me sit up against the headboard. To my surprise, I was still wearing the same clothes from LA. I found that sweet that he hadn’t undressed me, it was most likely so I wouldn’t feel violated once again.
“Eat it slowly.”
“Okay but tell me what happened, please.”
He nodded and sat at the foot of the bed, right on the edge as if he was making an effort to not appear threatening. He was wearing jeans and a faded Air Force T-shirt. I remembered I was famished and I began to eat.
“As soon as I got your call I went up to Albuquerque, to Kirtland Air Force Base. I still have connections there from the service and I was able to hop on a military transport to California.”
I frowned, images from that night coming back to me. I had flashes of him going Liam Neeson on these guys, fighting them two, three at a time.
“But you’re a mechanic, Jason. You spent your Air Force career fixing planes.”
That brought out a faint smile. “That’s what I told people, mostly to reassure my mother.”
“You weren’t a mechanic?”
“I was in the 321st Special Tactics Squadron, under Air Force Special Operations.” When he noticed that I was still frowning he added, “It’s like Special Forces.”
“Like Rambo?”
“Yes, like Rambo.”
I chuckled at the revelation. “I had no idea you weren’t boring.”
“Don’t say that, Madden. Don’t make the mistake of confusing quiet with boring. But you don’t need to be afraid anymore, all right? I made a call and the cops raided the place. They found the drugs, the girls, everything. They’ll all go behind bars for a long time. You’re safe now.”
As I finished my soup, he explained that he had served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hotspots he couldn’t tell me about. He said his friend Palmer Fash offered him a job as a mercenary but he wanted to go back to Hernandez Flats to be a mechanic. I was completely floored. To me he had always been this meek guy who had a thing for me while all this time he had actually been some super soldier going around the world performing secret missions.
“I think you should get back into bed now,” he said when I scooped the last of my soup into my mouth.
I didn’t protest and after a trip to the bathroom, I slipped back under the covers. I wanted to analyze all of this but as soon as I closed my eyes I fell back asleep.
* * *
The room was dark when I awoke. I found an alarm clock on the nightstand next to the water and it read 11:27. After almost two days of rest, I needed to get up. I wasn’t fully recovered but I needed exercise.
No, I needed a shower.
Getting up, I saw that Jason had laid out some clothes for me, a selection of nondescript sweatpants and T-shirts. I was touched by the attention and went back to the bathroom where I stripped naked.
I had bruises on my arms and face but it was superficial. The hot water was like heaven as it cascaded down my body. It was breathing life back into me so much that I borrowed his shaving apparatus and went through my usual routine. I needed to feel like myself again, not Curtis’s slave.
It was rather hot in the house – technically the second-floor apartment above Jason’s garage – so I only slipped into an oversized white T-shirt and nothing else. I tiptoed through the place because I wouldn’t wake him up if he was sleeping. My plan was to get a snack and maybe find something to watch on TV.
However, when I reached the kitchen I saw flickering lights coming from outside. From the window I saw Jason had a little fire pit behind his garage and he sat nearby, staring at the flames.
I drank some water, grabbed a candy bar, and ate it while I went outside and climbed down the stairs. The air was chilly, especially barefoot and only wearing a T-shirt, but it was definitely comfortable near the fire. The backyard was utterly private and if I remembered my geography correctly the closest neighbor was a mile away.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Better, much better.”
I finished the chocolate and tossed the wrapper in the fire. I headed for the lawn chair next to Jason’s.
“Maybe it would be better if we went back inside,” he said. “No sense in having you catch pneumonia after all this.”
“I’m fine, trust me. After two days under the blankets, it feels good to go outside.”
“Okay.”
“I just…”
“What is it, Madden?”
“I want to say thank you.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, Jason. It’s not okay. I was a bitch to you all these years. I knew you kinda liked me all this time and I was nothing but a bitch. And now you travel 800 miles to come and save me after a single phone call? There are no words I can use to tell you how grateful I am.”
I took his hand in mine as a desperate gesture of thanks but he avoided my eyes.
“I don’t like you, Madden. I never have.”
“What?”
This time he looked at me. “I downright love you. I’ve loved you from the start.”
This wasn’t really shocking. I mean, yes, it was a bombshell for him to finally say so, but I’d always suspected his thing for me was more than a passing crush.
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“Because you turning me down would have hurt me more than me loving you in secret already does.”
My heart started to beat faster because I felt something I’d never felt before. No one had ever told me something so sweet. More than anything, I realized we were still holding hands and his touch felt different now. We were… connected.
“What if I told you I have feelings for you too, Jason?”
His face brightened for an instant and then he shook his head. “Don’t pity me, please.”
“It’s not pity and before you ask, no, it’s not because you saved me and I feel some sort of obligation to you.”
“What is it then?”
“All my life I wanted to escape Hernandez Flats. I finally did and you know what? The world isn’t better outside of this town. You’re the kindest person I ever met and after everything I’ve been through, I know now that I’ll never find anyone like you again.”
I hadn’t thought about any of this before the words flew out of my mouth. My heart was being poured out without prior reasoning. I was speaking the truth. I hoped he wouldn’t think I was shallow or that my newfound feelings came from him revealing his bad-ass past. That wasn’t it at all.
“All I ask is that you forgive me for how I acted before,” I continued. “That girl doesn’t exist anymore.”
What I did next happened on instincts alone.
Chapter 18
Without another word I stood, went to him, and sat on his lap. He was clearly confused but he didn’t push me away. Instinctively, he put his hands on my waist so I wouldn’t fall off.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Jason.”
He frowned in the firelight. “Why would you ever be sorry?”
“Because I should have seen the truth in you a lot sooner. I was stupid not to see what was in front of me all these years.”
“It’s okay. I…”
I didn’t let him finish. I crushed my lips against his and kissed him for the very first time. He inhaled sharply with surprise but in a flash he was kissing me back. His arms rose behind my back and he hugged me to him. That’s exactly what I wished would happen.
I felt the warmth, the affection in his delicate touch. It was nothing like my time with Curtis. It was physical, yes, but so much more. I could actually feel the chemistry between us. Him telling me that he loved me was opening something inside my heart I hadn’t known was there.
I stroked his cheeks, rough with stubbles, and we made out. His tongue probed my mouth and made me positively melt against him. Our lips moved in perfect harmony as if we had practiced this for years. This told me everything I needed to know about us, about my feelings.
This told me everything I needed to know about destiny.
I reached down between us and started undoing his jeans. He stared at me like he had just seen the Tooth Fairy in person, clearly unable to believe what was happening.
“Madden…”
“It’s okay,” I said to reassure him, my hand closing around the growing bulge in his underwear.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“But I want to, Jason. I’m dying to.”
“Are you sure?”
