Bash, Volume III (5 page)

Angelica

I hung out in the MC clubhouse the rest of the day, usually between Bash and my dad. Dawg stopped by for a short time, but stayed away from me and left within maybe ten minutes. I didn’t know if he really needed to work, or if he just didn’t want to be around me with my dad. Gonzo figured it out, Dad probably would, too.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday, and was surprised when I didn’t get the second degree from my superiors again. No interrogation, no lie detector test, just concerned coworkers.

My dad showed me how to aggravate my bruises every couple of hours to keep them looking angry. I covered them with makeup, but you could still see them, just not as bad.

Dad left Thursday morning, and when I got off work that evening, Dawg was waiting to follow me back to the compound. I probably should’ve been asking when I could go home, but I wasn’t terribly anxious to sleep in my own bed. I knew I was safe at the compound. At home… I’m not sure I’d have managed a good night’s sleep.

Except, Dawg pulled up to my car as I approached it, and told me Bash was waiting for me at my apartment.

My heart went into my throat, and I had to wonder why I was afraid to go home. Bash was there, Dawg would likely stay. I’d be safe.

When I arrived home, Dawg parked and walked with me through the parking lot.

“Why am I afraid to go home? They didn’t abduct me here.”

“Was your abduction the first time you’ve been out of control? Taken by bad guys, with nothing you could do to save yourself, at least for the moment?”

I remembered Sloane slapping me and forcing me to my knees, and I shook my head. “Second time.”

“I assume there’s no more danger from whoever was responsible the first time?”

“Of course.”

He nodded. “Well, even if it’s the second time, it isn’t something you’re accustomed to. If the first time happened while you were still a child, you’ve probably assumed nothing like that can happen now that you’re an adult — you have a gun, you’re stronger, and you make better decisions.”

“Damn, you’re good.” He was exactly right. I’d always put the Sloane situation into the “you were stupid, you were a child, and you asked for it” category. I’m now an adult werewolf, the daughter of the President of the Atlanta Rolling Thunder MC chapter, and I could damned well take care of myself.

But, five humans had overpowered me and immobilized me, despite the fact I had a gun on my hip.

“I want more training,” I told him.

“We can arrange for that.”

Bash opened my apartment door as we approached it, and looked at Dawg in question.

“She feels safe at the compound. Doesn’t feel safe at home, anymore.”

Bash pulled me into his arms, held me tight, and said, “We’ll stay at the compound at night for a while, but you and I need to have a private conversation. I’ve asked Dawg to come so he can mediate.”

I relaxed into him, happy to be home since he was here, and because my house smelled like dinner was almost ready. But then my heart dropped to my stomach as I processed his last sentence, and I asked, “We need a mediator?”

“I don’t know, we might. Sometimes he understands things about you I don’t get, and sometimes he explains me to you in a way I can’t.” He nodded towards the kitchen. “Steaks are ready to come off the grill. Everything else is on the table. I want a beer, get drinks for everyone and have a seat.”

Two baked potatoes wrapped in foil were on everyone’s plate. Butter and sour cream were on the table, along with a huge platter of Texas toast. I got beer for all of us, and sat as Bash walked in with nine steaks piled high on a plate.

“Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?” I asked him.

“Love you, too, Princess.”

Dawg chuckled at us as he put a steak on his plate and started cutting it, and I looked to him and said, “I care about you, Dawg. It isn’t exactly romantic, but it’s more than friends.” I looked at Bash. “Gonzo figured it out, and we’re probably fooling ourselves to think no one else has, especially after I let Dawg hold me and comfort me when Marlin took me to them. I know ya’ll kept him away around my dad because you were worried he’d work it out.”

“You sayin’ you want to go public with our threesome? Or are you wanting to stop it?” asked Bash.

“It isn’t just up to me. It affects all of us.”

“So that means you don’t want to stop, then?”

“If you want to stop, it ends.” I told him.

“Yeah, that’s a given. I’m asking about what
you
want, though.”

“I like things the way they are.”

Bash nodded to me and looked to Dawg. “And you?”

“I believe we’re all handling it well. Tink’s right about being closer to me, but she isn’t confusing stupendous orgasms with romantic love, and that’s always the biggest danger. She and I are developing our own friendship, and it seems healthy enough. Real test will probably be seeing how she reacts when I’m with another woman, though.” He looked at me. “How you gonna feel, if you walk in and see me and Gonzo sharing someone?”

“I don’t have a say in who you fuck, and seeing you with other people won’t bother me. Though, if you get serious with someone, I’ll worry it might mean you can’t come play with Bash and me anymore. It won’t be jealousy, exactly, because I won’t want the kind of relationship you’ll have with her, but… if you’re exclusive with someone, it’ll mean we lose you in our bed, so I’ll be happy for you that you’ve found someone, but also sad.”

He grinned and went back to cutting his steak. “No worries, then. I don’t do monogamous relationships.”

“Neither did I,” Bash reminded him.

“Tink’s your exception — someone you let behind your walls a long time ago. I got no one like that.”

“Well then, you’ll just have to find someone strong enough to battle past them,” I told him.

Bash

I was terrified about having this conversation with her, but I’d put it off as long as my wolf would let me.

Work had kept me away in the evenings, and I’d had gentle sex with her one morning, but otherwise had mostly been hands off since I’d found out about her and Brain’s telepathic connection.

And then, adding the knowledge she’d killed someone before she’d watched me kill Sloane… it changed so much about my self-identity. Could I trust her opinion of me as not being a monster, if she was one, too?

Marlin had told me she’d been damned scary when she shot the five men. He’d said he didn’t think it was possible to recover from recoil, aim at another target, and fire again as quickly as she had, but she’d hit all five men in the chest, centered over their heart. Two of them had taken longer to die and the process had been sped along, but all of them would’ve died from her shots, had they been allowed the couple of minutes necessary.

And he’d said the look on her face was that of someone who’d executed people before — no remorse, no regret. All business.

I brought my mind back to the subject at hand, though — Dawg was here to help us navigate the minefield of how my wolf was reacting to her bond with Brain.

I’d told her she’d face consequences for keeping her connection to Brain from me, and nothing had changed. It hadn’t been appropriate to bring it up in the aftermath of her abduction, but now it was time to deal with it.

We all sat in the living room — Angelica in her big chair, me on the sofa, and Dawg in another chair.

“Relationship bindings can be worded to allow a third to play, without hitting as cheating,” I told her. “It’s easier if the third is human, as you don’t have to worry about inadvertently creating a three-person pack, but as long as he isn’t present when we do it, and we’re careful with the wording, it’s possible.”

She shook her head. “I’m not anywhere
close
to being ready to talk about a relationship binding, Bash. Let’s talk again in a year. I’m not saying I won’t want to, but it’s way too soon to be talking about it.”

I was trying to find the most diplomatic way to respond, when she added, “Look, if you were bound to a single female, I’d have a problem with it. But, if it was with someone who’s in a committed relationship with someone else, and I
knew
the two of you were just good friends, I’d deal with it. You know how close Brain and Harmony are, and you know how good of a friend I consider Brain to be. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you of our telepathic link before, but it’s been so long since we’ve used it, I honestly didn’t think of it.”

I shook my head. “We can go at this logically all day. My wolf isn’t okay with it.”

“Neither are you,” she told me, “and your wolf won’t even
try
to be okay with it until the man can come to terms with it.” She looked at Dawg, then back to me. “Maybe we can ask Randall to try to break the bond between Brain and I? My dad couldn’t do it, and Brain and I couldn’t, but maybe it can be done now?”

“You’re really this dead set against promising yourself to me?” I asked as I felt knives spearing my heart.

“No. I’m this set on not doing it until I know in my heart this is forever. We’re still new, Bash. We’ve known each other a long time, but we keep finding things we don’t know about each other. I love you and I want this to work, but I need to know in my heart it’s going to last before I promise you forever.”

The sharp pain in my heart dulled a little, as I dared hope maybe this wasn’t the end of us, after all.

Her voice went harsh and she asked, “Are you still set on punishing me for not telling you?”

Dawg moved a little in his chair. We’ve been friends a long time and — without words — I knew he was warning me this was a potential powder keg. She’d agreed to it at the time, but she’d been abducted and been through a ton of shit since then. Plus, she’d had too much time to think about it.

“Let’s not call it a punishment,” I said, careful of my tone. “In fact, let’s not tie this to anything in particular. Three minutes of my belt on your ass, then I fuck you into oblivion in human form. We won’t be able to
change
and let our wolves go at it, so we’ll drop that part.”

“No.”

I looked at her a few seconds, but she only stared back at me, challenging me. My wolf bristled, and the growl that came out of my mouth vibrated my human throat enough, I knew I was in danger of
changing
if I didn’t get a handle on my humanity.

Dawg’s voice punched through, and my human brain had to engage enough to make sense of the words. “Bash, do you love Angelica? I think perhaps this might be a good time to tell her.”

Dawg wasn’t telling me she needed to hear it, he was reminding me I loved her and I didn’t want to do this. I wouldn’t look down or away, but I could talk to her, while staring her down.

“You know I love you, right?”

She rolled her eyes, breaking our stare-off without actually looking away. “Yeah, but never hurts to hear it.”

“If you won’t follow through on the three minutes you’ve already agreed to, do you have a compromise?”

“So much has changed since I consented to it, Bash! If you insist I stick with the agreement, I will, but I’m hoping you’ll understand why I don’t want to agree to it, anymore.”

“What
will
you agree to?”

“Something that brings us closer. After being treated the way I was in the van, I don’t want anyone being mean to me,
especially
not someone who professes to love me. If your wolf has a problem with me, we need to go to the woods and
change
, let them work it out.”

I looked out the window a few seconds, analyzing my needs, and finally looked back to tell her. “My wolf needs me to claim you in human form. Mark you — show you and I and everyone else
exactly
how much you belong to me.”

Angelica looked at Dawg, and I wanted to strike out at her for it, but I held my temper. I’d invited him here to help mediate, and she obviously wanted some kind of input from him, even if it was just a few seconds of eye contact.

“There’s all kinds of marks, brother. Can you put marks on her that show your love for her? Or, better yet, can you demonstrate your love for her as you’re marking her?”

And this was why I’d asked Dawg if he’d sit with us while we talked. I suck at relationships, and he may not indulge in them, but he understands women so much better than me. Granted, I’d never cared enough about a woman to want to try to understand, before, but still… I had a huge learning curve in front of me.

My wolf did, too. He was used to the way I treated women, and he was going to have to learn we treat our Princess different.

“I love you,” I told her again. “Dawg’s right. We’ll do it as a scene, and I’ll make sure you enjoy it.”

“And the orgasm denial?”

“Oh, we’re doing that. Not this weekend, because I’ll want you to orgasm from my belt on your ass this weekend, but in the near future you’ll be with me nonstop from Friday evening until Monday morning, and I’ll give you an orgasm before you leave for work Monday, but you’ll go without all damned weekend.”

I smelled her arousal, and Dawg’s chuckle let me know he caught it, too. The idea turned her on, though I knew she’d be pissed as hell at me while it was happening.

Every muscle in my body relaxed as I realized we’d gotten past the parts I was worried about, and we were still together. I don’t know why I’d been so scared we wouldn’t be able to find a way past this, but it’d really been weighing on me.

I was about to let Dawg know we’d be okay without him for the rest of our talk, when he asked her, “You haven’t heard from the police or FBI anymore, since they stopped by Tuesday?”

“Wednesday, while I was at work, Agent Graham texted me pictures of shoes like I’d described, and asked me to verify they were what I saw. One definitely was, the others I thought probably were, but they hadn’t stuck in my head as clearly as the high tops. Brain let me know they’d finally gone in to process the crime scene at the house. From what Drake’s reporting, so far the evidence matches my story.”

“Just remember, if they take you in for questioning, you stay quiet,” Dawg said, his face dark. “They’re allowed to lie about the evidence they have, so don’t believe a word they say. You can smell a lie on a normal human, but statistically, there are too many sociopath cops, and they don’t smell like they’re lying. If they get you off guard and you’re tempted to believe them, ask for Johnson — he smells like he’s lying when he is, but don’t believe your nose for anyone else.”

She looked back and forth to both of us. “Is there something else I should know?”

Dawg shook his head. “No, but historically, when they realize their case is at a dead end they start bringing people in and flinging shit around until someone talks. They’re gonna see you as the weak link.”

Her eyes met mine and the uncertainty in them broke my heart. “You’ll be fine,” I told her. “Johnson and Graham aren’t your friend, but I don’t think they’re going to let anything bad happen unless they’re certain of your guilt, which neither are. If they bring you in, smile and laugh and cut-up, but stay on your toes and don’t let the friendly shit make you talk too much.”

I looked at Dawg, telling him while I reminded Angelica, “Her dad used to bring her in when he coached us on how to deal with LEO. She’s had it hammered into her all her life. She’ll sail right through, if they take her in.”

Dawg nodded and stood. “Give me a goodbye hug, Girly. The two of you have more to talk about, but you don’t need me. You’ll do fine.”

Angelica walked him to the door, they hugged for a good ten seconds, and Dawg kissed the top of her head before leaving. She locked the door behind him and joined me on the sofa.

“Why did you want him here?”

“I suck at relationships. I have no idea what I’m doing, and every time I tried to go over that conversation in my head, it ended with the two of us fighting and not speaking to each other. I’ve never tried to understand women, never tried to get along with them. When something came up that made someone more trouble than she was worth, I booted her to the curb. Not many were around even long enough for me to need to boot.” I touched her cheek, kissed her nose. “Dawg doesn’t do relationships, but he knows what makes women tick — knows how to talk to them without it turnin’ into a fight. I, on the other hand, have perfected the art of pissing off a woman so much I never hear from her again.”

“The only thing we really needed him here for was to get us to back down and not fight for dominance.”

“It’d be easy to agree with you, but he silently let me know I was treading on thin ice a few times, and I was careful with my words.”

She jerked a little, and sat up straighter to look me in the eye. “The two of you have a telepathic bond?”

“God no. We’ve just worked together enough, I know his body language. He moves in his seat and I just automatically know he’s warning me to watch what I say next.”

She sighed and sagged against me again. “Tell me about the fights in Ringgold.”

“It’s a big damned barn on a farm. He has three barns, the other two seem to be used for actual farm activities. This one is set up with a cage in the middle, and room around it for people to stand downstairs and watch the fights in the cage, or seats they can sit in to watch from upstairs. The audience pays to get in, and then the house handles all bets. It’s shifters and a few other kinds of supernaturals only — humans who come to watch have to be vetted beforehand, vouched for by whoever wants to bring them, and they can only watch from the upper level, because if someone gets hurt bad enough they
change
in the cage. Most fights are in human form, occasionally he does a half-form night, or even a night of fights with everyone in animal form. He doesn’t do it often, though, and security’s a lot tighter on those nights. LEO usually leaves him alone, but it’d be bad if they chose to do a raid on one of the special nights.”

“Why do you do it?”

How much should I tell her? Fuck, she’d seen me kill Sloane — she knew how I fought. “Unless I want to kill someone, I have to pull my punches, even for other wolves. People talk about my temper, but if I hit at full strength there’d be a string of bodies in my wake. I hit humans at maybe ten to fifteen percent if I want to hurt them bad. Five percent if I’m just sending a message. The strongest wolves usually get about half my strength unless I intend to kill them — other wolves get a good bit less.”

“And they put you with people you can whale on without killing them?”

“Yeah. There’s a lion I like to fight, and a grizzly bear. Rules are, if you shift before a winner’s announced, you lose. Otherwise they’d both have the upper hand.”

“How often do you go?”

“When I’m pissed, I just show up and see if he’ll work me in. He pretty much always does, even if he has to add a fight on at the end of the night. He loves being able to announce, “
And the winner of the final bout gets a shot at Bash
.”

“Not exactly fair, is it? You’re fresh and they aren’t?”

I smiled. “If I let him know a day ahead of time, I get to fight them fresh. I’m sorry I didn’t mention it before, it wasn’t something I intentionally kept from you.”

She nodded. “I get it, because I didn’t intentionally keep Brain, or the thing when I was twelve, from you.”

Her eyes went to the drawer with the sweeper Brain had made for her, and I said, “Did it before you got here. We’re clean.”

I laughed at the roll of her eyes, but then sobered when she said, “You know me better than you think. Maybe Dawg’s smoother, but don’t sell yourself short. Just pay attention.”

“Something else we need to talk about. It isn’t an
us
thing, so much as something I just need to talk to someone about.”

She leaned backwards, pulling me with her until we were lying side-by-side on the sofa, crammed together, her face in my chest. I don’t know how she knew what I needed, but this made it so much easier to say what I needed to tell her.