Athena's Raid: Book Two Perdition MC (12 page)

By the time he managed to haul his sorry ass out of the car and get into the house behind her, she’d already kicked her shoes off and left a trail of her things from the door to the bedroom. He locked them in and found her curled up in what he’d come to think of and would always think of, as their bed, her back to him, a miserable little bump under the covers. In the scheme of things, him not telling her about the appointment, that Nasa had tracked down their letters, it wasn’t a big deal. Which is what made his reaction to her finding out about it, all that much worse. He scrubbed his hand through his hair and kicked his boots off, climbing up beside her to sit with his back against the headboard. “I told you no, when you asked to visit me in the hospital, before the surgery, because I didn’t want you to see me like that. Weak. I thought you’d see me in that damn bed, or in a wheelchair, and remember me being weak, paralyzed, forever.”

He reached out, testing how deep she’d let him past the wall she’d put up, stroking his hand down the tail of her hair, twirling the little tuft at the end of her braid around and around his fingers. That she didn’t shove him away was enough to make him hope. “You being confined to a wheelchair, wouldn’t have changed a thing about how I feel. And that’s bullshit, because the surgery wasn’t a guarantee,” There it was, a little bit of fire coming back to her, and one of the hundred knots twisting up his guts, released to hear it. “No, it wasn’t a guarantee. It was just a chance that I could be that guy I was before,”

“That guy who figured he couldn’t be loved unless he was able to walk like a real boy?”

His heart skipped a beat, hearing her say the L word, well, sarcastically snark it. But it was better than the sad dejected tone. He’d take her pissed off rather than hurt, any day. “Something stupid like that, yeah.” She snorted, not unravelling from her little ball, or turning over to look at him. But she was listening, that was good, right? “I didn’t tell you about the appointment, because you’d have asked me why I needed one, and I’d have had to tell you I’d been feeling some weird, random numbness. I didn’t want you to worry, or freak out and make me eat more kale.” She stayed quiet, not responding when he’d tried to make a tiny little joke, because for real, her answer to everything was more kale. “And it wasn’t that your worry was a hindrance, or an inconvenience, I think it was just one of those macho asshole moments, where if I didn’t talk about how the numbness was freaking me out, it wouldn’t be real. I said that my reasons for not telling you were the move, and not wanting your worry, because that seemed easier to say than to tell you I was afraid and didn’t want you to know.”

She tucked her chin down, nuzzling into the pillow in a way that made him swallow thickly, hoping that she wasn’t crying. “And after you hung up on me, I stood there and had that epiphany. Realized I’d been a dumbass, because no lie, I hate that place. I hate how it smells, I hate the sounds, I hate how it made me feel to be back there. Saw some poor bastard in a wheelchair and my legs hurt from how tight I locked my knees to keep on my feet. Stood there staring at my phone and all I wanted was your hair in my face, so I could smell something other than death. You’d have been right there with me at the hospital, getting checked out, waiting to meet me when I came out of the MRI. I know that. I never once thought that what I’d said, how I said it, would hurt you so much and I’m so sorry, baby. I asked Shirley to meet me after my appointment, so I could rip her a new asshole and make threats without witnesses, not to fuck around with her. I love you, more than Cruncher does at breakfast time.”

And that’s what it took to make her explode.

She jackknifed up off the bed, grabbing her pillow on the way to slap him in the face with it. “You
asshole
!” She shrieked, and it was embarrassing, almost, how hard that made his dick. “You are god damn right I’d have been there with you!  This whole time, you’ve been having random numbness, and you didn’t say anything, because you were
afraid
? Mother fucker, you got BLOWN UP! You weren’t walking for a year, and you think I would have judged you, thought you were weak, for being afraid that random numbness meant the surgery might not have worked? You think I’m that cruel? That shallow?”

She hit him again with the pillow, growled, threw it across the room and got up to stomp out of the bedroom in nothing but her tee and panties, that ass of hers bouncing with every pissed off step. “I am
moving
here. Moving here, to be with you, and you think that I wouldn’t understand, would think that you being fucking
human
, somehow equated to you losing your stupid fucking macho man status?”

“Athena,”

“I swear to fucking Christ, I would kick you in the balls until you were choking on them, but I don’t beat former cripples.”

He followed her into the kitchen and watched her yank open the fridge, tear out the giant bag of kale, slapping at him with it when he reached for her, and then stomped to the back door. She yanked open that door too, threw the kale in the trashcan and banged the lid down with a loud clang, slammed the door behind her hard enough to rattle the shade and glared at him with so much heat, his blood simmered. “Since my cooking is so displeasing, congratulations, the job is now alllllll yours.” He tried hard to keep from smiling, because that was surely not the way to calm her down, and she proved his suspicion correct when he lost control of his expression, and got the object closest to her hand thrown at his head. A book that made quite the bang when it hit the floor, missing him by a mile. A heavy fist pounded on the front door and he laughed, “Seems we might have woken up the neighbors, babe.”

“If it is, don’t think their untimely interruption will save you from a further ass chewing,”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

NINETEEN

It was not the neighbors. Surprisingly, it was a pair of uniform cops standing on his doorstep, one of them looking uncertain, the other all fired up and shit, with his hand way to close to his weapon. He assessed them both and pegged the nervous one as a rookie, and the other one, itching. Itching, for an excuse to draw his weapon. He kept himself in the doorway, just in case, every warning bell he had, clanging like a five alarm. “Evening, officers. Can I help you?” He drawled, wondering why the one with the wandering hand was trying so hard to look over his head and into the house. “We received a call to report to his residence. Some neighbors heard domestic disturbance, sir.” The nervous cop said, glancing at his partner with what looked like uncertainty. New partners maybe. “You mind if we come in, check things out for ourselves?” The itchy one asked, raking him over with glittering, hard, angry eyes. “Uh, yeah. I do mind.”

He did a quick look over his shoulder, not wanting to risk taking his eyes off the asshole cop for long, but the pallor of Athena’s face made him do a double take. “Why would you mind? Unless you’ve got something to hide,” The asshole cop tried to push his way inside, and he made sure to keep his hands plainly visible on either side of the door frame, noticing that the rookie had a camera attached to his vest. “Officer…Harding. That camera on? I hope so, because it seems like your partner here is trying to force his way into my residence without a warrant, and looks awfully eager to pull his weapon.” The asshole cop, with his blonde hair and frat boy good looks, stopped almost nose to nose with him, hand still on his gun. “We don’t need a warrant, the neighbors have reported a domestic disturbance, which gives us probable cause to enter.”

“What you have, is dick.”

Athena had silently crossed the house and set her palm on his low back. He could feel the tremble in her body when she leaned against him. The asshole cop sneered at Athena and spoke in a sugary sweet drawl, with the perfect hint of Texas in it. “Why darlin, I had no idea you’d moved out this way. Figures I’d find you right smack in the middle of another domestic dispute.” His body locked down, preparing to throw her out of the way, kick this mother fucker in the face and damn the consequences. “Raid, this douchenozzle is my ex. The one I beat up with a baseball bat, who according to a judge, can’t be within five hundred feet of me at any given time.”

His bitch had balls, big brass ones, but the fact that her ex had crossed state lines and was here on their doorstep, made him very fucking itchy for a gun of his own. The douchenozzle ex puffed up and gave some official line about taking domestic disturbance calls seriously, and his partner shifted just enough that he could tell the guy was trying to get the whole scene in with his vest camera. The douchenozzle, was also a fucking moron. “You must be Denny’s new partner.” Athena murmured kindly, while he stood in the door and choked back a laugh. Denny? What the fuck kind of name was,
Denny
? “Were you out of the squad car when this supposed call came in, Officer Harding? Or was it around 10:30? Coffee with three sugars and a cherry doughnut with sprinkles, right?” 

Officer Harding’s jaw flexed, and it seemed that Douchenozzle Denny wouldn’t be getting his partner’s trust, any time soon. “I have a copy of the restraining order if you’d like to see it, and I’m sure your superior would like to know that Denny’s last name is actually Woodward. Lockhart is his mother’s maiden name. Is it protocol for officers with an official arrest for domestic abuse on their record, to be employed by the Williamson County Sherriff’s department? I’m new to Texas and don’t know the bylaws yet.” Giant, sexy, brass balls. He could feel them pressing up against his back, minus her bra…these fuckers needed to get lost, right fucking now. “Pretty sure it’s not, baby. No offense to you, Officer Harding, but I think we’ll be calling the real cops ourselves and reporting harassment by this walking colostomy bag.”

“No offense taken, sir. Ma’am, I apologize for disturbing you. Let’s go,”

At first, Officer Douchenozzle, didn’t move. Just stood there nose to nose with him, and he’d have called his expression as that of a rabid pit bull, but that would have been an insult to Cruncher’s people. He had spit bubbling at the corner of his lips, nostrils flaring…mad cow disease. The guy looked like a mad cow about ready to squirt milk everywhere. If not for the seriousness of the situation, he’d have laughed. “Dennis, let’s go.” Harding said firmly, moving his hand to his taser slowly, and after another tense moment or two of the stare down, Athena’s ex blinked and looked over his shoulder at her with a sneer. Going so far as to wink, before he turned and walked back towards the squad car parked in their driveway. “Call this in,” Harding ordered softly, then walked off to follow his partner.

Soon as he closed and locked the door, Athena took off running for the bathroom, slamming that door. But it didn’t silence the sounds of her puking her guts up. He made a quick call to Saint, knowing he’d have the name and number of the best guy to call and report
Denny
. Saint was pissed, wicked pissed, said he’d call Nasa and get him working on the dickhead’s background. Hung up, hearing Athena flush and turn on the shower, made the call into Saint’s contact and gave him the information he had. “I’ll come by in the morning, I need to speak to Miss Williams. Have a few calls to make,” That was fine by him, gave him time to go in and make sure Athena was okay.

TWENTY

He knocked before he went in, almost pushed back a step by the steam that billowed out into the hall. “Babe?” She didn’t answer, but he could see her through the fogged up glass of the shower, standing with her back to him, still in her tee and panties. Shit. He stripped and said her name again, getting into the shower with her, wincing over the temperature of the scalding hot water. He reached around and turned it down to hot, but not burning hot, and touched a kiss to her shoulder before peeling her wet tee off, tossing it into the corner of the stall, hugging his arm around her belly when she flinched at the slapping sound. He murmured to her and got her panties down her legs, tossing them the same way as her shirt. “You know that conversation we just had, about how I didn’t tell you about some shit that involved
us
?”

He hugged her back against him tightly, wondering what the fuck had happened that was so bad, that she’d puked as soon as the douchenozzle had gone, and made her feel like scalding her skin off because she was shivering from cold. “It was before we got involved, and I did tell you about him,” She rasped quietly, not fighting when he turned her around so the water could hit her back, and pressed her face to his throat. “You told me you kicked his ass for slapping you, and that he was remanded into custody. Way it read, worried me. But now that I’ve seen the fucker in person, and how his presence affects you, I should have been more worried. I realize there was a decided lack of details in your letter, that at the moment seem pretty fuckin important.”

“Raid-“

“Like the fact that he’s a cop, and that you have a current restraining order out on him.”