Independence: #4 Hayley (18 page)

“So…” Dane stroked the freshly shaved cheek. “We need to install a stripper pole?”

“Show us some moves,” Jack challenged.

Hayley looked from one to the other and nodded slowly. “All right. But the rules of the bar apply. No touching,” she informed them firmly. “Agreed?”

“We’ve been around strippers before,” Jack told her with a dismissing shrug. He looked over at Dane. Both men braced their legs apart and waited.

“Agreed,” Dane answered for them both.

Hayley went to the stereo unit and slipped the CD she’d carried in her bag into the unit. She cued up the song she wanted. “Rihanna is one of my favorites to gyrate to…I especially love the song, ‘Rude Boy’.”

Her head nodded in time to the start of the music, the lyrics explicit and clear as the woman’s voice filled the room. Using them as her focus, she introduced them to the moves that had filled the places she danced in. She knew the lyrics by heart and sang along with the music. Using them as her stripper pole, she wrapped one leg around Jack and gyrated, grinding her pelvis against his. She knew it would happen and felt his cock react. She slipped down his body and straightened to come up behind Dane, her hands stroking over the freshly pressed button down shirt to the waist band.

She turned her back to his and slid up and down to the music. Her rubbing against them was getting to them when the erections filled the front of their jeans when the song was only half finished.

But they held up their end of the bargain and didn’t touch. Both were frozen in place while she performed. She wrapped one leg around Dane’s waist and bent over backward, the shirt straining against her breasts.

She ended the song behind them, kissing each cheek when silence replaced the music. She saw each of them swallow and knew it had to be a new feeling for the dominant types.

“I’m going to get dressed. I ate while I cooked…enjoy,” she told them with a backward flip of her hand as she went down the hall.

“Fuck…” Jack said when he was sure he could breathe. He adjusted his jeans and headed for the tall glasses of frosted juice she’d set out on the table for them. “That was the longest fucking three minutes of my life.”

“Yeah…and that’s putting it lightly. Damn…the woman can move…” Dane adjusted his jeans, wincing slightly when he sunk into the chair and began filling a plate from the various bowls of covered choices. “She was busy,” he remarked, spooning potatoes and eggs to the plate before reaching for the marmalade and toast.

“She feels at home,” Jack added, filling his own plate. “That’s good.” He watched Dane pull the phone from his shirt pocket. His thumb moved and scrolled until he had what he wanted. “Business?”

“Her truck,” he answered, speaking to the man who answered. “I’ll clear things for you, Terry. Thanks.” He took a few more bites as he scrolled through the listings. “I hope the Lieutenant doesn’t mind a call on a Sunday.”

“I don’t think police people have weekends,” Jack commented, adding more eggs to his plate.

Dane pushed the speaker button and waited.

“Templeton.”

“Lieutenant, this is Dane Landon. We met last night at the emergency room. I’m working on having Hayley’s truck picked up and the repairs begun. At least, I’m hoping your department is finished with it.”

“They got what they wanted this morning, Mr. Landon. I can clear it. Who’s retrieving it?”

“Temperance Auto Repairs out of Fife,” Dane told her. “And if you could shoot me a copy of the police report for her to file the insurance claims, we’d appreciate it.”

“That’s the easy part,” Natalie said. “I love digital stuff…”

Dane and Jack heard the laughter in the background. “I don’t think that guy you hooked up with would have survived without tech in his life,” Dane told her with a chuckle.

“Now that…I definitely know to be true,” Natalie returned. “Done. I’ll send the report to you in a few minutes. How is she?”

“Like new,” Dane said honestly. “She slept till about an hour ago and seems to be fine. We’re at a loss, though on how to protect her when we don’t know the why. We haven’t gone out to the ranch yet to look around, but plan to in an hour or so.”

“I was out there this morning,” Natalie exhaled slowly. “Whoever it was, is damn good with a 30-06…standard deer hunting rifle. Long range and damn near impossible to trace in the hills around the mountains. They also had to be either not concerned with being spotted or off on one of the hills. There’s nowhere around the area she was shot for someone to just perch and wait.”

“It wasn’t a random accident,” Dane said flatly.

“I don’t see it that way, no. We’re still running tests on the fragments we found. My ballistics expert tells me they’re hollow points. Hollow points expand on impact causing severe trauma to flesh. Somebody intended her harm. I’ll be in touch. If Hayley thinks of anyone who might…hell…if she thinks of anything, have her call me.”

“Will do, Lieutenant. Thanks for your help. Have a nice day,” Dane broke the connection and quickly finished off the food on his plate. “We need information on the guy from Neptune’s Dungeon.”

“What kind of information?” Hayley stood in the doorway, her hair pulled into a high ponytail at the back of her head. She had her fingertips in the pockets of her jeans, the t-shirt a bright pink and white stripe with Merry Christmas across her chest. “You think it might be him.”

“Give us another someone who would be hunting you, Hayley,” Jack told her bluntly. “It wasn’t a fucking accident. You were driving and if I remember right from what I’ve seen on a map, you were driving straight into the full moon. Which would have lit up the inside of the truck like a beacon. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was cold and crisp last night. You had the heater going and windows up. Probably the music, as well, which means you wouldn’t have heard anything around you. The clouds left earlier yesterday, so everything was still soaked. You told us the roads were gravel and dirt, which also means you were probably going slowly over it. Slow enough for some bastard to get a bead on you and…”

“All right! I get it!” Hayley shouted at him. “I get it.” Her voice dropped, her head shaking slowly.

“Where is your friend, Hayley?” Dane asked calmly. He stood and began clearing the table. Scrapes into the compost bucket, dishes into the dishwasher, but his attention was completely on her.

“I put Tessa on a plane to her parents. She hasn’t returned to work, and I haven’t heard from her,” Hayley explained.

“Can you call her?” Jack asked, rising from the table and helping Dane with the cleanup.

Hayley sighed. “I can call her and check on her,” she said, turning and leaving them in the kitchen.

Chapter Seventeen

“A little hard on her,” Dane commented.

“If keeping her alive, means I’m hard on her to find answers, then so be it,” Jack answered roughly. “I’ll be as fucking hard as I need to be and so will you.”

“I need to make arrangements for my truck,” Hayley commented as she returned, her head bent and fingers moving over the small screen of her phone.

“It’s been handled,” Dane said easily.

“I…handled?”

“The Lieutenant emailed me the police report and I printed a copy and sent you the file,” he met the gaze on her face that said she just looked at it. “I had the truck towed to a very good mechanic and body guy just a bit north of here in Fife. He’ll be in touch when he gets his estimate finished.”

“Wow…”

“He’s slightly anal,” Jack commented with a shrug. “Call your friend, Hayley.”

She stared blankly at them both. “You’re each anal in your own unique ways.”

Jack opened his mouth and then closed it, brown eyes returning her gaze.

Hayley exhaled and tapped a number before raising the phone to her ear. She listened and frowned.

“That’s weird. Tessa always has her phone on…she is worried one of her patients will need her when she’s off doing something…”

“You said she’d changed when she met this guy,” Dane recalled quietly.

“Yes…yes, she did…” Hayley lowered the phone, her thumb tapping across the screen. “But I have her mom’s number…Hello, Mrs. Canton…it’s Hayley. Is Tessa there? I tried her cell but…I…oh…she’s not…” her voice had dropped to a hushed whisper. “She said she felt well enough to return…thank you…yes, I’ll try the other number, thank you. Goodbye.”

“She isn’t where you put her,” Dane said softly, watching the suddenly pale features. The scrapes and scratches from the night before all that more prevalent.

“She left the day before yesterday. They hoped she’d stay for the holidays…” Hayley tapped over the screen, listening and beginning to pace the floor. “She’s not answering at her office, either.”

“Her home address?” Jack suggested, tossing the hand towel he’d been wiping things down with onto the counter. “I’ll get my jacket and wallet.”

“Be right back,” Dane told her, stopping at her side and placing a hand on her arm. “We’ll go check her place with you, Hayley.”

“I…I need to go home…”

“We can take you there, too.”

“I thought I’d invite you to dinner…I put a nice pork roast out to cook,” she looked down the hall at the blue eyes that paused and smiled at her. “If you both wanted to…and I could show you some of the ranch.”

“I think we’d like that,” Dane accepted for them both before continuing to collect his jacket.

Hayley continued to pace. She tapped the edge of her phone against her thigh, her head shaking. She couldn’t have gone back to him. She wouldn’t.

She squeezed her eyes tightly closed. She’d known too many abused women in her time to know she was lying to herself. Military women, police, sweet, lovable women who fell for a guy who believed hurt was a part of love.

Her body swayed, her mind turning over the images from the last week of her life. Her hand went out to the edge of the counter, steadying herself and listening to the argument about the differences in their life choices.

“Hayley?”

“He’s abusive,” she said very softly. “He’s selfish and abusive. He doesn’t really care about Tessa.”

“I don’t know what brought this about…” Jack said cautiously, the thick crème colored sheepskin jacket open as he crossed the room and framed her face with both hands. “I don’t know him. What you’ve told me…he’s not a Dom. He is abusive and uses BDSM to pretend it’s acceptable. He sounds like he has a lot of anger inside and takes it out on women in the form of violence. Tessa didn’t sound like she agreed to the behaviors, but was coerced into the acts.”

“She changed. She used to…to sing and dance around with me at the office…we’d laugh and…then that first Monday, she came in after spending a weekend with him at the coast. She was bruised and…and quiet. Silent and…and when someone would approach, she’d flinch as if…”

“As if she was waiting for the hit to fall,” Jack finished the sentence for her. “That’s abuse, Hayley. That isn’t the basis of a sincere Dom/sub relationship. Even for sadists and masochists, it’s all about need and consent. On both sides. I can’t say I understand the needs of some, but it’s not my right to stop something a couple needs in their lives.”

“But she keeps returning to him…” Hayley shifted her gaze from his, lower. She could see the hunt of darkness beneath his skin even though he’d saved. “I wasn’t the first women she tried taking to him. He made demands and she’d approach girls at the club. She told me…told me he’d arrange them and…and have sex with one while the other one…he made her beat someone…and she told me she doesn’t like being with a woman, but he made her…and she did it all…”

“She’s not strong enough to break away,” Dane said from the side, his hand up and stroking along the side of her head. “I don’t know how to help someone who doesn’t want the change, Hayley. It’s like trying to force a drug addict or alcoholic into treatment. Unless they want it, it won’t be effective.”

“I can’t save her,” Hayley interpreted with a little nod. She swallowed hard. “Home, please.”

“You have Tessa’s address? We’ll stop on the way and you can check on her,” Jack suggested, releasing her and going to check the back door. “I’ll be out in a minute and set the alarms,” he told Dane with a nod.

“You can tap the address into the GPS while the truck is warming up,” Dane told Hayley, his hand taking hers and guiding her through the house to the main entrance. “Should we pack an overnight bag?” He laughed at the color in her cheeks. “Or do you want to come back here after dinner?”

“I don’t know…” she was staring down at her phone. “I have her address. I’ve never been there…it’s just a little south of here, before we get to the ranch. I don’t have a bed like…like yours.”

“We’ve never brought a sub to the house, Hayley. To be honest, we’ve never slept in the same bed with a woman before. We’ve played with women…sometimes together, sometimes not. Not all the women we’ve met were interested in two men. Most of them say it’s difficult enough dealing with one of us,” Dane lifted her into the truck.

“What do your parents think?” Hayley heard the words from her lips before she realized she’d said them aloud. Loud enough that Jack heard them as he came from the house and Dane was walking to the driver’s side of the truck. She pulled her gaze from both their stares, busying herself with the seat belt for the middle seat. “I’m sorry. I…I don’t know where that came from.”