Safe With Him (35 page)

“I already told you and Storm what he said.”

“Say it again, but tell me exactly what was said, word for word.”

“He said I lied to him, that—”

“No, not ‘he said’. Fuckin’ word for word,” Draco growled at her.

“He said, quote, ‘You lied to me, bitch. Seen you with that fuckin’ cop. Now I got—”

“Fuck!” Draco hissed. “You sure?”

“Yes?”

“No, Bree. Be absolutely sure.”

“Yes, I’m positive that’s exactly what he said.” Bree shook her head. “Why?”

“Fuck!” again Draco repeated, louder this time as he pulled out his phone, glaring at her as he punched in a number and brought it to his ear. When apparently there was no answer, he hissed, “Shit!” before he slammed his phone against his hand. He looked back over his shoulder and shouted, “Velgada!” Then turning back to Bree, he pointed at the downed tailgate. “Sit!” he commanded.

“What? Dra, what’s wrong?” Bree was totally confused. She hadn’t told him anything that she hadn’t already, so why was Draco pissed all of a sudden?

He grabbed her around the waist, picked her up, and plopped her down on the end of the tailgate. He didn’t hurt her, but he wasn’t being very nice about it either. “Sit! Stay!” he barked, then turned to face Lee, who was coming toward them.

Sit? Stay?
Does he think I’m a damn
dog?
“What is your problem?” Bree demanded as she slid back off the tailgate.

He whipped back around, grabbed her up and again plopped her down on the tailgate. “Sit your ass down, and don’t fuckin’ move!” he hissed, then again turned and started walking toward Lee.

That man has lost his freakin’ mind!
She jumped down off the tailgate and around the other side of the truck.
Does he really think he can speak to me like that, like I’m a… a…trained dog!
“He has definitely lost his dang mind if he thinks that’s okay!” she mumbled as she stomped off. She wasn’t sure where she was going or even paying attention to what direction she was headed, she just knew she needed to be somewhere else.

When she finally did pause to look around at her surroundings, she realized she was in the middle of the woods. She turned in a circle, looking in all directions, but everything looked the same. How long had she been walking? How far from the clearing had she gone? She looked around again. Which way did she go?

She heard a twig snap and whipped around toward the noise, but saw nothing. “Just some critter in the woods,” she told herself as she tried to get her bearings. She had just taken two steps when she was grabbed from behind and slammed back against someone’s chest. For a split second she felt relief. Draco had found her. But it only took that amount of time for her to realize that it wasn’t Draco’s arms wrapped around her and it wasn’t Draco’s chest her back was pressed against. She knew what that felt like, and knew it didn’t feel like this. Then a hand slammed down over her mouth, and his voice was in her ear.

“Told you I’d be back for you, bitch.”

Draco met Lee only far enough away that he knew Bree couldn’t overhear, and with his back to her so she wouldn’t see him mouth words she might recognize, he told Lee what he had found out and what he suspected could be going on. He also told him that he couldn’t get a damn response by phone. He did all of this as quickly as possible and turned back with one thing on his mind, getting Bree the hell out of there and back behind locked doors. He had only taken a half step before he realized she wasn’t where he had left her. Where he had told her to stay. He ran to the truck. “Bree!” he called, but she didn’t answer. Running around the entire truck, “Breezie!” he shouted, but still nothing. He turned back to where everyone had been and saw them all running toward him, all of them except Bree. He turned in circles, trying to look in every direction at once. “Breezie, fuckin’ answer me, baby, please,” he yelled into the silence.

***

Bree froze at Marcus’s voice. What did he want with her? Did she really want to know?
Not so much
, she thought.

“You fuckin’ all them cops?” he snarled low in her ear. She tried shaking her head, but he held her too tight for her to move at all. “Yeah, you are. Nothing but cop pussy. Let’s see how many want you after I’m done.” He took a step back, pulling her with him, never letting up on the grip he had around her waist or over her mouth.

Think Bree, think,
she tried to tell herself, but the fear was gripping her just as tight as the deranged man’s hold.
Take a deep breath, calm, like Storm taught you.
But with his hand completely over her mouth and partly over her nose she could barely breathe at all. She closed her eyes, let her body go limp, but he only continued to drag her further into the woods. Or was he trying to get them both out of the woods?
Calm, Ree, you got this. You know how to fight back. Don’t ever give up!
She heard Storm tell her. Then remembered all the times he had been teaching her how to fight back and how to get away.

When Marcus stopped she pushed her head back more into his shoulder. It wasn’t much, but it was enough so she could breathe a little bit better out of her nose. She let her body lean into him more. Closing her eyes, she pushed her butt into his groin, then moved just a little. She felt him tense, his arm around her tighten, but when she rubbed her butt against him again, other parts of him started to…tense. His arms loosened a little. She moved her butt back and forth, felt him begin to grow and get hard, and she moaned into his hand.

“Think I just might have some fun with you,” he groaned in her ear as she continued to rub against him.

She mumbled something, knowing he wouldn’t be able to understand her. And just like she had hoped, he moved his hand from her mouth only to wrap it around her throat.

“We could have lots of…fun.” She made sure her voice came out in a purr as she thrust her butt into him and heard him moan louder. “If you got what it takes. Do you?” She boldly teased him as she thrust against him again. “Do you have what it takes…like those cops?” She egged him on as she moved her butt from side to side across his obvious erection.

He moved his hand that had been wrapped around her waist and grabbed her between her legs. “Oh yeah, bitch, I can handle you.” He thrust himself against her ass as his hand between her legs pushed her back to meet him.

She swallowed down the whimper that wanted to come and instead moaned at the same time she moved his hand from her throat to her breast. She barely suppressed the next whimper when he squeezed her breast hard.

He eased up enough on his grip to allow her to turn in his arms, and she smiled up at him. “Ever fucked in the woods like wild animals?” she asked seductively as she ran her hands up his arms.

He looked at her for half a beat that felt like an hour long stare to Bree before he finally shook his head and squeaked out a, “No.”

“Well.” She smiled into his face as she gripped his arms tighter, then slammed her knee right between his legs as hard as she could. When his body went into an automatic bend at the waist, she didn’t waste a second and grabbed a handful of greasy, nasty, hair and slammed his head into her up drawn knee. She knew she had made a perfect hit when she heard the distinct creek the cartilage in the nose makes when it breaks, a split second before he screamed out in pain. “Guess you won’t be doing that today, huh?” she yelled at him as he hit the ground and tried to curl himself into the fetal position.

Then she lost her mind. Everything that she had been holding in, since she was sixteen years old; the fear, the loneliness, the pain, caused by or because of assholes like the one at her feet. She kicked out at him, not knowing or caring where she made contact, just needing to strike flesh, over and over. She screamed at him incoherent sounds, for the moment she was beyond words. Too many flashes of moments lived through in her head. Moments when her mother beat her and she was too young and too scared to fight back; the nightmares she had night after night only to wake up alone and scared. The fear she lived with day in and day out for over a year and a half locked away with no one but Storm knowing where she was. The fear of Storm never coming back, of something happening to him, and her being entirely alone in a world that didn’t, couldn’t, know she even existed. All of it came pouring out of her as she kicked and screamed at the one person who brought all of it back to her. She dropped to her knees and started using her fists, continuing to scream as tears streamed down her face.

When suddenly she was jerked backward, and for a second she felt like she was flying, until she crashed into Draco’s chest. Draco’s arms wrapped around her, his scent surrounded her, and his voice whispered in her ear, “It’s okay, baby, I got you. You’re okay,” he murmured nonsense to her as he held her tight.

She didn’t know how long they stood like that until she felt strong enough to step back and look up at him, then noticed that Lee and Kade were there and bent over a bloody Marcus. She looked back at Draco and smiled, and he slammed her back into his chest as his arms went back around her tightly.

“You scared the fuckin’ life out of me,” he breathed shakily into her hair.

Draco stood with Bree held in his arms, and he never wanted to let her go. When he turned around and she wasn’t sitting on the truck where he had told her to stay, then yelled and screamed her name only to hear silence in return, it had caused a fear like he had never known. Then he had heard her screams of pain and terror from somewhere deep in the woods. Fuck, he had thought he would go insane until he had finally, fuckin’ finally, laid eyes on her. There she had been, his Breezie, on her knees beating the shit out of a man almost twice her size. He hadn’t even given it a thought before he raced over the ground to her and grabbed her up in his arms and held her, whispering reassuring words to her. Or he might have been reassuring himself.

“Dra.” He heard her wheeze out. “Can’t breathe.” But he was already loosening his hold on her to stare into her face.

“You okay?” he asked on automatic pilot, but it didn’t matter, he was taking her to the hospital and having her checked out.

“Yes, I’m okay,” she mumbled as she turned back to where Marcus lay. “Is he okay?”

“Don’t give a fuck.” He turned to Lee and Kade. “Takin’ Bree to the hospital, you two got this?” Both Lee and Kade’s heads jerked up, eyes on Bree.

Before either of them could say a word, Bree turned into him. “I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m not hurt.”

“Gonna get you checked out to be sure.”

“I am sure. All he did was grab me from behind and hold me. I don’t think I’ll even have a bruise.”

“You need to be checked out.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Bree,” he growled.

“Dra.” She mimicked his growl.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned as he pulled her back into his arms, closing his eyes as he laid his head on top of hers and just…breathed.

“Damn it, woman! What the fuck did I say?” Draco heard Kade’s growl and when he opened his eyes he saw Krista, Minga, and Ellie, coming toward them.

“Irish, we just need to make sure Bree is okay,” Krista answered him with a smile and even from where Draco stood he could hear Kade’s groan. Then Krista turned back to Bree. “Are you all right?”

“Handcuffs,” Kade barked out. When no one produced any, Draco saw Lee looked toward where the women were standing.

“Babe?” Lee called to Minga and gave a chin jerk to her bag.
What the hell was with women and big ass bags that they carried everywhere they went?
Draco thought absently.

Minga looked from Bree to Lee. “What?”

“Handcuffs, babe,” Lee repeated, and Minga started digging around in her big ass bag and sure enough pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“What—” Draco started to ask, then caught himself. Did he really want to know
why
Minga had a set of handcuffs?

He felt Bree’s body shake and was ready to scoop her up and take her to the hospital to have her checked out for shock, but when he looked down at her he saw her trying to hide her giggles. Until she looked up at him, “Handcuffs,” she mouthed, then slammed her face into his chest as the giggles turned into laughter. He gave her a squeeze, dropped his head down to hers, and tried to hide the smile on his face.

*  *  *

Draco stood behind the glass in the observation room, never taking his eyes off Bree while she sat just on the other side of that glass in the interrogation room as she was being questioned about what had happened.

Once Draco was sure Lee and Kade had Warwick handcuffed and were ready to move him back to the clearing where a patrol car was already in route to take his ass to jail, Draco had scooped up Bree, and he and Marco escorted the women back out of the woods and to his truck. Bree sat in his truck with the ladies gathered around her while he and Marco stood sentry outside of the truck until the patrol car left with Marcus Warwick locked up tight in the backseat. Only then did the men collect their women, all of them walking hand in hand back to their prospective vehicles. It was Lee who turned back with Minga held tight to his side. “Gonna take Mings home, then I’ll meet you at the station.”

Draco knew he needed to take Bree in so she could give her statement. He knew that the sooner she gave it the fresher her memory would be. Knew that it was the best thing, but just because he knew this it didn’t stop him from just wanting to take her home, tuck her in bed, and just hold on to her for the next week, month, year…fuckin’ forever. He nodded to Lee, then got in his truck.

His Breezie had turned to him as he got in, and he sat and just looked at her for a beat. “You sure you’re not hurt?” When she nodded her head, and before she could open her mouth, he pulled her to him and slammed his mouth to hers. He kissed her hard, then gentled the kiss and kissed her long and deep. When they broke the kiss he laid his forehead against hers. “Fuck, baby,” he breathed out raggedly, then kissed her again. When he broke the kiss the second time, he fastened her seatbelt and drove them to the station. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner he could get his Breezie home.

As Draco stood and listened to Bree recount what had happened, what she did, he couldn’t help the ball of fire that burned in his gut at the thought of some man touching her, or the shit she’d had to do to save herself. He should have been there. He should have been the one to take out Warwick. It should have been his fist beating the shit out of the asswipe who thought he could put his hands on
his woman
. “Miniera,” Draco growled low in his throat, not even aware he had spoken aloud. “
Fottuta miniera
!”

Draco felt the man beside him right before his hand landed on his shoulder. “She’s a smart one,” Lee stated as he gave Draco’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Brave too.”

Draco couldn’t help the surge of pride that swelled up inside him. His woman was smart and brave and so much more. All the hell she went through growing up, all the shit she overcame to be the smart, brave, sexy as hell, beautiful woman she was, with a heart as sweet as hers. “You have no idea,” Draco answered Lee but never took his eyes off of her.

When the officer, who had been questioning Bree, turned to the glass and gave an ‘all done’ chin lift, Draco had Bree in his arms so fast he couldn’t even remember walking out of the one room and into the other, then again he had Bree in his arms so he really didn’t give a fuck. “Takin’ her home now,” he growled out to the room in general in a tone that dared anyone to disagree. He looked down at Bree and saw the weariness in her eyes. “You ready, baby?” She nodded and he bent, kissing her lips lightly.

“Let’s go home.”