Retribution (15 page)

The back of her neck prickled, and she instinctively reached to rub it. The frantic whispers of her sisters pressed on Sasha, and she looked up trying to locate the source of their upset.

Then everything focused for her as her gaze found Dray. He was headed their way, standing out in the crowd, truly a man among boys. He was so tall and deliciously packed with muscle; Sasha tried to catch her breath and failed. Even at a distance his gaze burned into hers. His features were drawn tight, full lips compressed into a thin line. Yeah, that wasn’t exactly an I’m-glad-to-see-you kinda look on his face. No hint of welcome or happiness. In fact, he looked put out to be here and wasn’t that just a bitch?

Or no, wait. Maybe the woman hanging onto him like a leech was the bitch?

Another woman
. Her sister’s words echoed in Sasha’s ears. She’d missed something here, and she really just needed a moment to sort it all out. Hal squeezed her hand, and Sasha glanced at her, trying to draw strength and lucidity from her sister. Then Kara and Devyn flanked her sides and put their hands on hers to lend strength also. Drawing a deep breath, she gathered what wits she had left and turned back to Dray just as he reached their table.

It rocked her, the joy that ripped through her at his presence. Everything stopped, including her heart, and then kicked back into a rhythm that had joy breaking through and over her. She made to step around her sisters, but they wouldn’t move.

“Kara, get out of the way,” she whispered loudly. Kara shook her head.

Sasha finally got it that something wasn’t right with the whole scenario.

Glancing back at Dray, her gaze was drawn down to his hand wrapped in another woman’s, and things became even clearer.

Another woman. Doesn’t look happy to be here…

He wasn’t here for her. He was here because she’d threatened to go to him.

She bent at the waist, unable to control the
whoosh
that left her lips. The pain was staggering. Much more than any physical hurt she’d ever suffered, her soul felt as if a hot knife had sliced through it.

He’s not here for me.

Hal stepped in front of Sasha even as she helped her stand up straight. Sasha struggled to pull herself together, lowered her gaze to the table in front of her, and then looked up again. She concentrated on the pain, breathed through it as it rode every nerve ending she had.

That staggering pain, more than anything else, sobered her up instantly. Okay, not completely. Her lips were still numb and her brain was foggy, but the crux of her problem had to be met.

She looked around Hal and met his gaze. “Dray, it’s good to see you. I hope you’ve recovered from your gunshot wound.”

“Yes, I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking.” Each word was formal with no hint of emotion. His voice was gravelly.

Would he sound like that when he made love?
She winced and almost lost it. Hal must’ve recognized her condition because she pressed Sasha to her side and held tight.

Dray let go of Dawn’s hand and wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist. He shot a dismissive glance Sasha’s way. “General Post said you wanted to speak with me. I was going to be up this way and decided to drop by. I called Surrey and he told me where to find you.”

She flinched as he tucked the woman under this shoulder. They looked perfect together. She looked perfect. Hell, they looked like Ken and damn Barbie. The bitch was beautiful
and
blonde
and
tall.
I’ll never be able to compete with that.
A piece of her soul withered.

Then the raging flames of her anger blew that piece away…

She notched her chin and squeezed her sisters’ hands tight. “You shouldn’t have disturbed your trip just to see me. I’m not all that important in the grand scheme of things. A call would have sufficed. In fact, had I known you’d be bringing someone, a call would have been best, don’t you think?” Her voice broke at the end.
Damn it!

Hal pressed a hand to Sasha’s shoulder. It was a subtle warning to stay focused and not let him see how she was hurting. How had this happened? How had she fallen so hard for someone she didn’t even know? How had she let him have this control over her emotions?
How, how, how?

“Oh, we were up here anyway. We’re going up into the mountain to see the leaves changing colors. I hear it’s beautiful this time of year,” Barbie enthused. “I’m Dawn, and it’s such a pleasure to meet you all. The boys talk about you all after their visits, and I feel I already know so much about you.” She gushed, holding her hand out as if to shake with Sasha.

Sasha struggled to keep her face blank.
Know me, my ass.
“That’s great.” It came out flat. But how else could it escape when she’d been driven into the ground by this situation?

Deep breaths, in and out. You can do this.
“Well, Dray, I guess you made a trip to Ray’s for nothing, I can’t think of a single thing we need to discuss now. I did want to say thank you so much for rescuing me not once, but twice. I’ve thanked the guys already, so now all of my gratitude has been offered.” Her voice broke again slightly at the end, and her vision clouded with moisture.

They’d have a million pieces to pick up because she was about to shatter watching Dray stare at her impassively while he held another woman. Her temper, short already, was on a hair trigger because of the alcohol she’d consumed. Nobody was safe. She let it flow through her, white-hot and ferocious. Who was he to command her feelings and then act as if she didn’t matter?

Screw that!

She drew on the core of strength built as she’d gone through her first years of life with a junkie biological mother on the streets of Atlanta. The core she thought had been beaten out of her in that compound in Afghanistan.

Turning back to Dray, she said, “Well then, that’s that. It’s been great seeing you, nice meeting you Bar—um, I mean
Dawn
.”

“If I had known you only wanted to thank me, I would have called. The general made it sound more urgent. I hope I didn’t interrupt your party,” Dray said dismissively as he turned to Dawn and said, “You want a drink, ba—uh, baby?”

“Sure, baby. Let’s have a gin and tonic for the road,” Dawn replied as she batted her long eyelashes at him.

She listened to it all without blinking.
Hold on to the rage, Sasha
.

“Con, Surrey, we’ll see you guys later, right?” Dray pointedly asked Con, but his gaze was once more lingering over Sasha’s face.

She met his stare directly and didn’t give a shit if he knew her anger. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done because all she wanted to do was beg him to talk to her, hold her.

“Yeah, we’ll see you later,” Con and Surrey assured him gruffly.

Before Dray could leave, Hal called out his name. He looked at her with a raised brow.

“How long have you and,
Dawn
, is it? How long have ya’ll been dating?” Hal questioned him sharply.

Shock held Sasha immobile. “Hal, don’t—”

Dray cut her off. “We’ve dated on and off since high school. She’s kept me grounded over the years, and on my last leave in May, we decided to hook back up. Why?”

Sasha’s spine went ramrod straight. That son of a bitch! His answer sealed his fate with her. She wasn’t a woman who screwed another woman over. The fact that he’d kissed her in Afghanistan while he was supposedly dating someone else capped it all off.

Hal snorted. “True love, huh? Well, best of luck to y’all then. I for one will be glad to see the back of you. You know, the back of you as you leave and
don’t come back
until you get your shit straight,” she emphasized.

Sasha glanced back and forth between them, trying to read between the invisible lines she could feel floating just out of her reach. Dray didn’t respond, but, if possible, his features tightened even more as he glanced at the small, taut smile on Hal’s face. He gave her a small nod and turned away.

A house built on broken dreams and crazy hopes was bound to succumb to the elements. As he walked away, Sasha felt her world crumble around her.

*

He rubbed his chest, unable to stop the action.
Goddamn it!
He’d hurt her. And now he’d have to play house with a woman whose touch left him cold. A woman whose blonde hair and blue eyes left him craving the honey and gold of Sasha’s. And he’d have to do it for as long as it took for the woman he really wanted to get the impression he
didn’t
want her. How fucked up was this? He fisted his hands, wishing Dempsey’s neck was within them.

They found a table and ordered drinks. Dawn sat and moved her chair close enough to Dray so she could drape her legs over his. She leaned into him and Dray looked at her, the need to tell her to remove her legs beating at him, until Dawn nodded slightly toward Sasha. She hadn’t moved, in fact, still stood there staring at him. Tension coiled her body tight, and he could feel the force of her gaze boring holes through him.

He leaned toward Dawn and asked, “How’s my average now?”

“Still about damn perfect. Just keep leaning toward me and try to act all lover
ish,
” she responded, laughter in her voice. She grabbed his hand and put it high on her thigh, and when he automatically tried to pull it away, she gave him a pouty look and stressed, “
Loverish
, remember?”

He tried to smile and do what she said, but damn if it wasn’t Sasha’s thigh he wanted beneath his hand, Sasha’s citrus scent he wanted to be inhaling. His body was rebelling against contact with any female except Sasha, but he was used to dealing with that. He hadn’t been right since she’d seemingly looked back at him through the lens of his scope the night he’d rescued her. He’d never even fully kissed her with the exception of the time in the Jeep a few weeks ago, though in his mind and dreams he’d done much more than that. Yet he wanted her like hell on fire.

God he’d tried, though. He’d tried to purge her from his mind with thoughts of other women but had been completely unable to follow through. His body, his mind, hell, even his damn heart was on board with the woman currently staring at him like he was destroying her. He couldn’t even convincingly fake it with anybody.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Dawn quipped as she drew a nail over his shoulder.

He shuddered as disgust rippled through him. There’d been a time when they were both younger that her touch had set him on fire. Young, dumb, and full of come, his brother Dare would’ve called it. He and Dawn had been an item back in the day but now were just good friends. The intensity of young lust had cooled into an easy friendship.

So while his body recognized the touch and the scent of her, it screamed and rebelled against it.

He sighed. “What day, Dawn?”

She laughed and leaned close to his ear. “The day Drayven Bonner went belly up for a woman.”

He pulled back, stomach roiling, and she pounced, reached up, and placed her lips on his for what felt like an eternity. “Stop that shit,” he bit out against her lips.

“Gotta make it convincing. You hit her hard and there’s a crack. Might as well finish breaking her heart completely.”

Pain bit deep, just sliced right through him. He couldn’t deny her words. That’s exactly what he’d set out to do. Well, not break her heart, but at least get her angry. He’d not anticipated that she could feel the same way about him that he felt about her. And now that the repercussions were staring him in the face, he had to wonder if he’d ever get another chance with her.

“Back off, Dawn,” he growled.

She smiled and it was full of pity with a healthy dose of understanding. What the hell?

“You love her,” she said quietly.

He shook his head, denial in his mind but not in his—“I barely know her.”

“Sometimes a simple look or touch is all it takes,” she responded with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, come on Bonner. I’m not stupid. And neither are her sisters or your men. It’s written all over your face. You don’t have to say a single word.”

“I don’t love her, Dawn,” he returned in a hard voice.

She shook her head and it hit him then…the truth. He wouldn’t call it love. No, what he felt for Sasha Bennoit was much more elemental than that four-letter word. It eclipsed love and need and shot straight through to obsession.

“I don’t love her, but I—fuck—I
recognize
her,” he said with a deep exhale.

Dawn sat silently for a minute and then wiped at her eye.

“Are you crying?” he asked as horror danced through him. He could barely touch Dawn without cringing. How the hell would he comfort her?

“Damn, I had almost forgotten what an asshole you are, Bonner,” she said with a small laugh. “No, I’m not crying. Well, not now, anyways. I may have teared up a little bit because…damn. What I wouldn’t give to hear that a man
recognized
me.”

His heart beat hard, threatened to punch through his chest. Hearing his words echoed out loud was akin to a junk-punch. Unable to stop himself, he glanced over to where Sasha had been standing. She was there, though sitting now, and still surrounded by her sisters. Con and Surrey threw him mean looks and shook their heads.

Sasha’s honey-colored locks taunted him, and as he saw her lips move, his body hardened. He wanted her. So fucking much. The how or the why didn’t matter. He had to have her against him, beside him, on top of him.

He needed to meet with the guys tonight and formulate a plan to take care of Dempsey very, very soon. His mind acknowledged he didn’t have a choice. The bottom line was
Sasha
, and he wasn’t sure how many more breaths he could draw, how many more days he could survive, without having her by his side.

“I have to get out of here.
Now
,” Sasha demanded of her sisters. She felt fractured, as if she’d split at the seams any second.

“No, we aren’t leaving. You aren’t going to give him, or her, the satisfaction of thinking he achieved his goal and ran you off. Sit down, Sasha, please,” Hal implored.