Take a Risk (Risk #1) (13 page)

‘Why would he do that now?’

‘We still don’t understand his motivation, but I agree that it would be a massive escalation to go from flowers to murder.’

‘What’s going on?’ Crystal asked.

Too many people in this room didn’t know the full situation and he wasn’t about to let them all in on it, so he stood up. ‘Would you all give us a minute?’

‘I’m going to check the fall out,’ Blaser said and put an arm around Destiny and Crystal to take them out.

‘I’ll cover your zone,’ Crystal said to Lyssa before she exited, Lyssa smiled in acceptance. Crystal hadn’t officially waitressed in years, she was a dancer, and high up in the food chain. She’d likely serve a couple of tables and then relegate another of the girls to the task when she was bored with it.

Colt didn’t know if it was a testament to his sacrifice, or if Blaser just knew he wouldn’t be comfortable discussing the situation around him, but his respect for Blaser grew. He didn’t try to involve himself, maybe he didn’t care, but more likely he just understood the walls that had grown between them and that got to Colt more now than ever.

Ruger stayed, as did Suzette, and after the door closed, Colt went toward the fridge to retrieve sodas for him, Ruger, and for Lyssa.

‘Can I have water?’ Lyssa asked when he handed her the cold can.

‘No, you can drink what I give you and be happy with it,’ he said, hoping the sugar would calm her nerves, though she didn’t look particularly shaken up.

‘She can drink whatever the hell she wants,’ Suzette said, trying to hand her water bottle to Lyssa.

Colt pushed it away. ‘The sugar will help her regain her equilibrium.’

‘Lyssa is a rock in disaster situations,’ Suzette said. ‘She says it comes from her rotation in the ER, but the truth is, she’s always been like this.’

‘I’m in the room,’ Lyssa said. ‘And I’m fine, so you can both stop worrying.’

‘I’m not worried about you at all,’ Ruger said, moving over to the couch to sit beside her. ‘You’re made of steel, anyone can see that.’ He pushed his fist to her shoulder, making her sway to the side a little, and she punched him back, much harder than he had nudged her, so Ruger smiled.

‘I could knock you out,’ Lyssa said to him.

‘Oh, you want to go?’ Ruger said. ‘We can step outside. I’d take you down in a heartbeat.’

‘How up are you on your anatomy?’ she asked. ‘Just the right amount of pressure—‘

‘What is going on here?’ Suzette exclaimed. ‘I thought you were being forced into sex with him!’

‘I am,’ Lyssa said. ‘But only by my overwhelming desire to copulate with him.’

‘Copulate,’ Ruger muttered. ‘That’s a sexy word.’

‘It’s the way she says it,’ Colt said, swinging down to sit on the couch at Lyssa’s other side. ‘She uses that sexy doctor tone, and she doesn’t even get how hot it is.’

‘She uses it in bed?’

‘All the time,’ Colt said.

‘I do not talk like a doctor in bed,’ she said, threading her fingers through his and resting their joined hands on his lap, maybe a little closer to his groin than he was comfortable with in company.

‘You talk me through what I’m doing while I’m doing it,’ he said and Ruger laughed. ‘You tell me how good it feels, and what you like about it.’

‘I do?’ she asked and he nodded and then leaned in to kiss her temple.

‘It’s ok, it’s hot, and I never wonder if you’re having a good time because you tell me, in detail.’

‘Sounds like you,’ Suzette said. ‘You never miss an excuse to talk about sex.’

‘Even while I’m doing it?’ Lyssa asked.

‘Apparently not,’ Ruger said. ‘What else does she say?’

‘Are we going to talk about why someone is shooting at us?’ Suzette asked.

‘They may not have been shooting at you. It’s as likely they were aiming for one of the pimps on the corner. The police will be here in a while. You’ll have to tell them what you saw.’

‘Which means we’ll have to explain why we’re here,’ Suzette said and her head fell into her hands. ‘Oh god, Pete is going to kill me.’

‘You can take off if you want,’ Ruger said. ‘No one has to know that you were here.’

‘I can’t run away from the police,’ Suzette said.

‘Why not? You didn’t see anything.’

‘Pete doesn’t have to know that you were here,’ Lyssa said. ‘You can talk to the police and get a cab home.’

‘I’m supposed to be home in twenty minutes. If I’m not back he’ll worry and he’ll call me.’

Colt hadn’t been formally introduced to Pete, but he already didn’t like him. If it wasn’t bad enough that the guy was keeping Lyssa and Suzette apart, he didn’t seem like the caring type. Lyssa excused his attitude towards the friendship as his need to protect Suzette, but if that was true then he should be the first person Suzette should want to call when she’d had a fright like this.

‘If you’re ever in the vicinity of a shooting I want you to call me right away,’ he said to Lyssa, who peered at him. ‘Even if you just hear what you think is a gunshot, ok?

‘Ok,’ Lyssa said. ‘Why did you say that?’

‘I don’t care what you’re doing. I don’t even care if you’re screwing another guy or we’re in a fight, just call me.’

‘Why would I—‘

‘Because he wants to swoop in and save the day,’ Ruger said. ‘And he wants to protect you because he’s so in lurve.’

‘Or you could call Ruger,’ Colt said. ‘Especially if it’s at three in the morning and you know he has company, or a really early morning alarm set for the following day.’

‘Are you telling me that I should call Pete?’ Suzette asked.

‘No, he’s implying that your relationship is a sham because you can’t,’ Ruger said.

Maybe Colt wouldn’t have used those exact words but his brother was right. Either Ruger had read his mind, or they had once again had the same thought. Suzette squealed in indignation and Lyssa scooted forward until her ass was perched on the edge of the couch.

‘He didn’t mean it like that,’ Lyssa said, reaching for Suzette’s hand. ‘We’re here to support you; you don’t have to call Pete. I understand that you don’t want to worry him. He cares for you so much, and hearing that you were put in danger like this might upset him.’

He appreciated that he had a view of Lyssa’s snug ass because he might have sniggered if he wasn’t distracted, which didn’t explain why Ruger didn’t laugh at Lyssa’s placation. Glaring at his brother, he caught him in the act of admiring the same view he had been and though he intensified his glare, Ruger only smiled and shrugged.

‘You could tell Pete that you went for a drink with one of your sisters,’ Lyssa said. ‘They would cover for you, wouldn’t they?’

Suzette griped. ‘You’re the one always harping on about the importance of honesty in relationships.’

The reminder of this was a bit of a kick in the teeth for Lys, bearing in mind that she’d been caught in the act of lying tonight herself. ‘Sometimes we have to lie to the people we care about when we want to protect them.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Just tonight I lied to Colt,’ Lyssa said and his ears perked up. ‘I told him that I didn’t want him to eat me out after I blew him when actually I did.’

His nose wrinkled in a cringe because that wasn’t exactly the same thing. A cough of laughter came from Ruger and his hand flew up to his mouth to cover the hilarity that clearly wanted to follow. But Lyssa remained between them, reaching over to hold Suzette’s hand.

Ruger’s laughter suddenly stopped and he cast him a look of horror. ‘You didn’t do that here, did you? I’m not sitting where you…?’

Colt shook his head, pained to admit the truth because of Suzette’s position, so he just pointed over Lyssa’s head toward the loveseat, and Suzette didn’t seem to be paying attention.

‘If you want him here, if you want to call Pete and tell him where you are and what happened then we’ll all be here to support you,’ Lyssa said.

‘No,’ Suzette said, drawing in a breath. ‘You’re right. I’ll just tell him that I was with my sister. He wouldn’t understand why I came here.’

‘Why did you come here?’ Ruger asked.

‘I wanted to help Lyssa. I thought I could persuade your friend to do his thing and trap the stalker so that everything could go back to normal. Pete wanted me to stay away from Lyssa, but he didn’t say anything about not helping her without seeing her… I didn’t know she would be here.’

‘Colt has handed everything over to the police,’ Lyssa said. ‘He had to so that he could have sex with me.’

‘What does that mean?’ Ruger asked him, but Colt shook his head, it wasn’t worth explaining now.

‘Colt,’ Suzette said. ‘Is that him?’

‘You haven’t been introduced, but yes, his name is Colt Warner.’

‘And he’s the guy?’ Suzette asked and Lyssa nodded.

‘Uh, what guy?’ Colt asked and Lyssa sat back to address him.

‘She wanted to set me up with Keith, but I told her that I was interested in someone else.’

‘I told you that he wanted to screw you,’ Colt muttered.

‘Does it matter?’ Suzette said. ‘It seems to me that you’ve got the girl.’

‘The girl who could be getting shot at,’ Ruger said. ‘Are we going to talk about that?’

‘I don’t think he was shooting at me,’ Lyssa said. ‘This is just a coincidence. Like you said, there have been shootings around here before. Maybe he was aiming for Blaser.’

‘Blaser wasn’t outside,’ Colt said. ‘But it’s unlikely your stalker was outside at the exact moment you and Suzette went out there. He’d have no way to know that you were going to go outside.’

‘Exactly,’ Lyssa said. ‘So we’re all agreed that we don’t have to talk to the police about my current situation? It will just complicate things.’

‘You’re probably right,’ Ruger said. ‘If they’re that interested then all of your information is at the police station, right? So it’s up to them to do their jobs and put the relevant pieces together.’

Suzette hadn’t said much, and Lyssa noticed how her friend sat staring at her own knees, so Colt noticed it too. ‘Are you alright?’ Lyssa asked, moving to the edge of the couch again. ‘Are you sure that you don’t want us to call Pete?’

‘You lied to me,’ Suzette said. ‘All of this has been going on, and you lied to me.’

‘It wasn’t a lie—‘ Colt said, but Lyssa’s hand on his knee stalled him.

‘I’m sorry,’ Lyssa said. ‘I know that this has hurt you. It was always my intention to tell you when everything had blown over. But things were handed to the police and before I got a chance to clue you in, Pete said he didn’t want us seeing each other and I… I didn’t want to lump more onto your plate.’

‘That woman said she’d cover your zone, and how you’re dressed… you’re working here, aren’t you?’

‘Just as a waitress,’ Lyssa said. ‘You encouraged me to get back to my research.’

‘Why don’t we go and help Blaser,’ Ruger said and rose from his seat. ‘The women can stay up here and talk. We might even get one of the girls to bring you up a coffee.’

‘There’s a coffee machine in the building?’ Lyssa asked and Ruger faltered.

‘Beer?’

‘There’s beer in the fridge,’ Lyssa said. ‘But we’d appreciate the privacy.’

She deliberately turned to him and Colt knew that he had just been excused, even if he wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving her alone yet. Ruger stepped past Lyssa and grabbed his shoulder to haul him up.

‘I’ll take care of you, brother. We’ll come and get you if the police want to speak to the witnesses,’ Ruger said to Lyssa and then bundled Colt out of the room.

‘We didn’t have to leave them,’ Colt said as Ruger shoved him down the stairs.

‘You were only going to jump in and defend Lys at every opportunity. They need to work this out themselves, and you don’t want her best friend to hate you. You need the best friend on-side if you want this relationship to work out, and you do want it to work out, don’t you?’

He did. Being with Lyssa was thrilling and his respect for her, his admiration for her, only amplified his feelings for her. Ruger was right, as he so frustratingly always was. If he kept taking the flack and diverting it from Lyssa then Suzette would hate him, she’d blame him for trying to drive a wedge between the friends. Which was actually ironic because that’s what her fiancé, Pete, was attempting to succeed in doing, whether that was his intention or not.

But Colt did have to take some responsibility because he had told Lyssa to lie to Suzette. Granted, that had been before they got personally involved, but it had been his instruction that had led to Lyssa misdirecting her friend on the success of her meeting.

At the reminder of their meeting Colt fished his phone from his pocket to get in touch with his cousin. He wanted to know what the police were doing and what progress had been made, because while Lyssa’s admirer was around they would all be jumping at every snap in the street. The shooting tonight would have been a coincidence, they’d deduced as much, but he didn’t like there to be any hint of a possibility that Lyssa’s life was in danger.

He’d get an update from Chavez and then he’d play nice with the cops who showed up to take statements about the shooting. After that he was taking Lyssa home to her place, and he’d make sure that if anyone was watching the house they knew damn sure that Lyssa wasn’t alone anymore and that he was watching her back. Anyone who wanted to get near Lyssa would have a hard job of it while he was standing in the way.