BROKEN WINGS: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK THREE) (11 page)

My cock twitched again, my trusty, eager sex machine.   Hell, I could go again, for sure.  

Right now, as a matter of fact.   

I stirred a little to wake up Diana, feeling only a tiny twinge of guilt.  When she moaned and whimpered a little, hell I almost exploded again just from that.  She was so…fucking…sweet.

Damn.

She moved to look up at me, her silky blonde hair sliding across my face, catching in the stubble of my beard.  She reached her hand up to remove it, and I caught her fingers in mine, kissing them.

Her smile was so fucking beautiful it hurt to look at.  Hell, how was I ever going to make myself leave this woman’s bed?

“You want some water?” she whispered, those sexy eyes flashing seductively like she was asking if I wanted another taste of her pussy.  I licked my lips as I looked at hers.

“Yeah, that’d be good,” I said, only because I wanted to watch her walk away.  Her gorgeous tits bounced as she stood up and turned around.  The view was just what I was looking for, with a bonus wiggle and hair flip as she turned back to look at me as she walked out of the bedroom.

I shook my head, and smiled.  If I wasn’t careful, this little filly could get under my skin.

Shit, who was I kidding?  I had to keep myself in check.  Women like Diana didn’t end up with men like me.  Sure, maybe a quick fuck here and there, a little walk on the wild side, but never more than that.  

Her ass wiggled out of sight and I spread out on her white cotton sheets.  The sun was just starting to shine through the curtains, and I grinned when I realized how long we had been fucking.

When it’s that good, I tend to draw it out as much as possible.  And it hadn’t been that good in quite a long time.

Her high pitched shriek pulled me right out of my relaxed state.

I went barreling out of her bedroom door like a bullet out of a gun.  

She stood naked by the front door, one hand over her mouth, and the other pointing at the floor.  

“Fuck!” I yelled, as I saw what she was pointing at.

A coiled rattlesnake slithered on the white marbled floor, its forked black tongue shooting out at us, the loud rattle of its tail echoing through the hall behind us.

“Get back!” I said, standing in front of Diana, and pushing her behind me.  The snake stayed in one spot, its head reared up, its eyes on us, but it wasn’t charging.

Diana was whimpering and crying behind me.  

“Get me a pillow case and a clothes hanger!” I yelled.  She stayed put, her fear-filled eyes locked on the snake.

“Diana!” I yelled. “Go!”

She yelped a little, and ran towards her bedroom.  

I switched on a light switch, thankful when the light poured into the hallway and I could get a better look at the snake.  It was a Western Diamondback rattlesnake.  I knew this because Riot and I had played with them all the time growing up, along with a whole bunch of other snakes, anything we could catch really.  And just like most snakes, they weren’t going to be aggressive towards you unless you provoked them.

I had no intention of provoking this one.  Diana returned with the pillow case and plastic coat hanger.

“You don’t have a wire one?”

She looked at me like I was crazy.  

“Okay, I guess I’ll get a little closer than I wanted.  Stay back, okay?”

She nodded, and then ran all the way to the other side of the room and jumped up on top of her couch.

I shook my head as I turned back to the snake. Fucking women.

The snake made it all easy.  He climbed right on the hanger, and I placed him in the pillow case and tied it off.  

And then the thoughts began racing through my head.  

“How did it get here?”  I asked, turning to Diana.

Her face was drained of all color, and besides the fear in her eyes, she looked fucking adorable standing naked on her couch.

“I don’t know.  I was walking to the kitchen, then I saw the front door was open.  When I went to close it, I saw the snake.”

“The door was already open?” I asked, my heart beating faster.

“Yes, I thought, you know…since we came in so fast, we forgot to close it…” “I closed it.  I’m sure of it.”  I walked out into the empty hallway, and then came back in.  I shut the door, and began racing around the apartment to make sure we were alone.  When I came back out of her bedroom, she looked terrified.

“You did close the door.  I remember now.”

“I know.  So someone was in here.”  Her eyes widened and her hands began shaking.

“Stay here,” I said, pulling on my clothes I had brought in from the bedroom. “Lock the door, and don’t open it for anyone but me.”

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to the nutcracker.” 

***

I dropped the pillow case at the feet of the nutcracker as he stood stoically guarding the front door.

“What’s this?” he asked, looking down.

“Open it,” I said.  He looked at me suspiciously, but kneeled down anyway, untying the loose knot I had made.  When the snake hissed at him, he jumped back and turned to me in anger.

“What the hell?” he asked, his face turning red with rage.

“Yeah, I came to ask you the same thing.”

“I don’t understand…sir,” he said, as if the ‘sir’ part pained him to say.  I knew it did.  I liked it.

“Who did you let up?  Someone was in Diana’s apartment, and they left this little rattling calling card.”

“Sir, I assure you, I didn’t let anybody in.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said. I wanted to punch the smug look off his stupid face.  

“I assure you, I would never let anyone in, didn’t I prove that to you the other day?” he asked, his ugly arrogant face only serving to piss me off more.

“No, as a matter of fact, you didn’t,” I said, my voice seething with anger.  “I wouldn’t have gotten past you into the revolving doors if you hadn’t turned your back, so you didn’t prove shit, other than the fact that you’re an incompetent, arrogant fucktard.”  

“I can assure you, sir…”

“I can assure
you
, nutcracker,” I interrupted, pointing my finger in his face.  “If anything happens to Diana on your watch, you’ll fucking pay for it.  You understand?”

“I’ll call the police, sir.  I’ll send them up to Ms. Trudeau’s residence.”

“Yeah, you fucking do that.”

If Diana hadn’t been up in her apartment alone and unprotected, I would have violently flattened his ego before I left. Instead, I turned on my heel and raced back to my girl.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

The cops were convinced it was all a stunt.  By some copycat asshole who saw me reporting the story on the news.  Someone who wanted attention.

Me?  I wasn’t so sure.  In fact, I was terrified that the kidnapper was coming for me now.  Was I next?

If Slade hadn’t been there, I would have been packing my things and renting a hotel room somewhere.  Instead, his calmness overrode all my anxiety, well at least most of it. 

It was odd that he wasn’t angry.  He seemed to have hit some sort of reset button, and he completely took charge.  Before the cops arrived, he had me sit on the couch, made me a cup of tea, and then paced like a caged lion, muttering to himself, until they arrived.  He told them everything that happened.

And then they asked him to leave the room so they could talk to me alone.  Begrudgingly, he went into my bedroom and closed the door.

“Ms. Trudeau, do you know of anyone that would want to cause you harm?”

“No.” I couldn’t think of anyone.  “But the snake…”

“Yes?” the tall, stick-thin, bird-looking detective asked.

Shit.  I wasn’t supposed to know about the snakes that had been left at the scenes.  The cops had kept it out of the media on purpose, and I knew if I said anything I would lose my source completely, who was actually a forensic scientist for the county that I had gone to college with.  

“It’s disturbing,” I replied, being mindful of not revealing anything I wasn’t supposed to know.  “Have you had any other reports of snakes?” I asked.

The bird squinted his eyes, making his nose point outward, looking even more like a beak.  His slicked-back, greasy black hair was so shiny I could see my reflection in it.  I almost expected him to caw.

“None that I’ve heard of,” he said slowly, too slowly.

 “Any chance your friend had something to do with it?” he asked.

My friend?  Who was he talking about? I didn’t have any friends, unless you counted my mother.  

“Who do you mean?” I asked.

He jutted his pencil towards my bedroom door.  

Slade.  Oh.  Was Slade my friend?  He was certainly acting like one right now.  I imagined him behind the door, surrounded by the femininity of all my things, my white antique lace coverlet that was slung over his naked ass earlier, pacing like a madman and plotting revenge on some faceless perpetrator.

I smiled to myself, a tiny sliver of pleasure slicing right through my gut.  

I had a friend.

“Slade didn’t do it,” I declared.  “He was with me every minute we were in the apartment.”

Birdman raised an eyebrow, and I jutted my chin out proudly.  I wasn’t embarrassed or shy about having Slade as a friend…or as a lover.

My
lover
.  I let the word play over and over in my mind, trying it out, tasting it on my imaginary tongue.  

“I see,” he replied, scribbling furiously in a tiny notebook.

I knew I should be more upset.  And I was freaked out, for sure.  But for some reason, the severity of the situation wasn’t sinking in.  I was sure if someone had come into my apartment to harm me, Slade would have protected me, completely and easily, with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

What I wasn’t sure of was what I would have done if he had not been there.  But I couldn’t think about that.  I couldn’t think about what might have happened, I couldn’t think about how close I had come to danger.  And I certainly didn’t want to think about Slade leaving.

So, I didn’t think about any of it.  It was all wrapped up together, the what-ifs, the what-nexts, all of it.  So, I boxed them all up, put a bow on them, and shoved them to the back of my head.  

It worked.

Thankfully, bird man didn’t question me any further.  He picked up the pillowcase that now housed a slithering, rattling, no-doubt angry, rattlesnake and tipped his head at me as he handed me his card.  

“We’ll be in touch.  If you think of anything you’d like to add to my report, please call.  My men will be finished fingerprinting and out of here in just a few minutes.”

“Thank you,” I replied, standing up and anxiously glancing at the bedroom door.

Without a word, the detective turned and walked away.  

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

“I have to go to work,” Diana said, standing in front of me, looking absolutely inviting and completely stubborn all at the same time.  I willed my cock to behave, and shifted my stance.

“That’s not a good idea, darlin’,” I said.  As far as I was concerned, she didn’t need to be anywhere someone else might be able to get to her.