Flash Bang (8 page)

“You torch the trailers?”

Jamie nodded. “We lit those fuckers up like the Fourth of July.”

Alex was still shaking his head, as if picturing what they’d seen.

“They had her chained up like an animal, not that she could probably move anyway. She’s in a bad way, man. I don’t know if she’s going to make it. She was covered in blood and mud and God only knows what else. She looked like she’d been beaten almost to death. But if I had to guess, the physical injuries might be the easier ones to heal.”

Graham nodded. For all the shit they’d done and seen, violence against women bothered them the most. Zach especially, and with good reason. The human psyche was a fragile thing, and there was no telling if she’d be able to pull herself through it.

“You get a name from her?” Graham asked.

Jamie shook his head. “Lia, I think. She didn’t say much. Just went limp as soon as Cam picked her up and told her she was safe.”

Ro waited until she heard the door latch before she slid to the edge of the bed. If they’d rescued that woman, Ro was damn sure going to see her, and no one could stop her. Not that she would actually ask for permission. She knew Conan—Graham—would’ve shut her down hard if she’d gotten over her shock quickly enough to ask before he’d left.

The clinic wasn’t that far across the camp. She could hobble there. It might not be pretty or quick, but she could make it. Right?

Ro hopped out of the cabin on one foot, using the wall for support. Once she made it outside, the distance between the trees seemed to multiply. Her right quad was burning from bearing the brunt of her weight and the awkward hops. Ro leaned up against a thick oak, pausing to catch her breath before hopping forward again. So ... the clinic was a little farther away than she’d thought, and her balance was suffering with her fatigue. Stumbling, she put the full force of her weight on her injured ankle to catch herself, sending hot streaks of pain shooting up her leg.
Holy shit, that hurt like a mother. Not doing that again
.

After what seemed like an hour, Ro leaned up against the wood-sided wall of the clinic and could make out Beau’s black hair and another man through the window. Thank fuck it wasn’t Graham. Somehow she knew he’d make her regret this little jaunt. She pulled the door open and hobbled inside.

Beau was rolling around on his stool, grabbing supplies, and Ro could make out a blanket-covered form with a mass of brownish hair on the pillow. She couldn’t be sure of the actual color, as the brown seemed to be mostly from dirt. At least Ro hoped it was dirt. The woman’s face was a swollen mass of overlapping, multi-colored bruises; she looked like she was wearing a Halloween mask. A man with buzzed light brown hair was standing over her. Ro swallowed back the rising bile. She just hoped that her interruption of the creepy trio had saved the woman from further abuse.

“Fuck me running. Are you serious right now?” Beau was looking at Ro with disbelief. “How the hell did you get here? And don’t tell me you walked.”

His snapping blue eyes dared Rowan to lie to him … or maybe they were daring her to tell the truth.

“I—” Ro started to explain—something, somehow—when two large hands wrapped around her waist from behind and yanked her off her feet. Before she could make a sound—or complain about being manhandled—a deep voice filled her ear.

“I’d like an answer to that same damn question, woman.”

Ro could feel his hot breath on her ear and against her neck. He was holding her suspended, his hands nearly spanning her waist. And Ro didn’t have a tiny waist.

Before her thoughts could head fully into the gutter, he spoke again, “I’m pretty damn sure I left you in my bed not fifteen minutes ago and told you to bed down for the night.”

Ro squirmed in his hold. “Seriously? You didn’t see this coming? You honestly thought you could tell me to stay put and I would? Especially after what you told me?”

As Rowan’s voice started to get louder, the man with the high and tight buzz cut stalked over.

“Keep your voice down. Or do you want to wake her up and scare the shit out of her?”

Ro looked down, chastened. “I’m sorry. He just ... pisses me off. I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“Tell me you didn’t walk over here yourself,” Graham said in a low, quiet, and quite frankly, scary as hell tone.

Ro figured he meant that rhetorically, and didn’t bother answering.

“I swear—” Graham started, but Beau interrupted.

“This isn’t the place to be having this discussion.”

“I just wanted to see—” Rowan began to speak, but shut her mouth when Graham threw her over his shoulder, caveman-style.

“Now you’ve seen. And we’re leaving.”

Turning her face away from his black shirt, Ro could see the amused smirks on the faces of Beau and the other men. Assholes. Every last one of them.

Rowan struggled against Graham’s hold as soon as they were outside, which added fuel to the fire that was Graham’s temper. He’d always thought of himself as relatively even-tempered, but this girl somehow knew exactly how to rile him up.

“I oughta beat your ass for that stunt, woman. What the fuck were you thinking? How the hell did you get from my cabin to the clinic? Fly? Wait—don’t answer. I don’t want to know, because then I
will
beat your ass so red you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

She stopped struggling. Smart girl. Graham strode through the dark, up to the door of his cabin, and wrenched it open. “Now let’s try this again.” He stalked through the front room, into the bedroom, and dropped her, not as carefully as before, onto the bed. “You … stay put. Sleep. Get me?”

Graham didn’t know what pissed him off more—that she’d disobeyed a direct order, which didn’t happen often to him, that she’d probably injured herself more by hobbling over to the clinic on her own, or that Ro’s face had been as white as the sheet covering the injured woman when she’d caught sight of her bruised and battered face. Graham had never wanted to wrap someone up and protect her from all of the bad shit in the world before, but he was becoming acquainted with the feeling. Rowan didn’t need to see that. If the little bit he’d learned of her character already was any indication, she was going to beat herself up for not mounting a rescue effort herself.

Graham leaned over Rowan on the bed, where she was now propped up on the pillows. His bed. His pillows. Graham braced himself with an arm on either side of her body and spoke quietly.

“I know what you think you were doing, but you shouldn’t have. You hurting yourself worse won’t help her any. You need to worry about Rowan.” When he finished speaking, his face was only inches away from hers. He could feel her breathing, which had quickened. In the yellow flicker of the oil lamp, her pupils were dilated and Graham’s gaze was drawn to her tongue as it darted out to swipe across her bottom lip. He groaned and started to pull away. His movements were halted when Rowan’s hands tangled in his hair and dragged his head down to her mouth.

Rowan didn’t know what kind of craziness had possessed her, but in that moment, she had to kiss him. She had to have his lips on hers, if only to block out reality for a minute. As wrong as it seemed, his caveman-like actions, his protectiveness, and his quiet words, had her body softening and readying itself for him.

And although Ro might have started out in control of the kiss, he didn’t let her keep it. One of the hands that he’d used to brace himself had moved to cradle her face, angling her so he could cover her mouth more fully with his. He slanted his lips as his tongue sought entry. He slid his knee between her legs, and his hard thigh rubbed against her center, sending flares of pleasure though her, making her gasp. When she opened, he conquered. Tongues tangling and body clenching, Ro dug her nails into his scalp. Graham growled, pulling her up and into him. Then a throat cleared, Graham jerked away, and she was grasping at air.

“You don’t usually start without me, G,” Zach said, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

Ro froze. The breath in her lungs caught, and she was choking on his words.

“I didn’t tell you that you could start without me,” the seductive voice drawled from across the room.

“Not again.” Ro didn’t realize that she’d whispered the words out loud until the gazes of both men fix on her.

Zach moved toward her first, reaching his hand out, but Ro scuttled back to the headboard, out of his reach.

“Don’t touch me.” Her voice quavered. She needed to pull herself together. They weren’t Charles and Evelyn. Trying for a more even tone, she said, “Just back off for a minute, okay?”

Zach dropped his hand and stepped back. Something was all sorts of wrong here. Rowan was pale and shaking. Just minutes ago he’d watched her latch onto Graham and hold on for dear life. It’d be one thing if she wanted Zach to leave, but Graham, too? That didn’t make any sense.

Speaking quietly to her, like he would to a spooked horse, Zach said, “It’s all right. I’m backing off now. No one is going to hurt you here.”

“It’s not that ... Just give me a minute,” she said, already sounding a little steadier.

Zach glanced at Graham, but Graham looked just as confused by her one-eighty.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart? You weren’t scared of me before. And you didn’t look too scared of Graham just now. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

“It’s nothing. Just a bad memory.” She looked up and met Zach’s gaze. “I’m not a slut. I don’t know if I’m wearing a sign that’s only visible to guys that says: ‘Loves long walks on the beach and gang bangs.’ But I’m really not like that.”

Graham spoke up. “We don’t think you’re a slut. Or into gang bangs. Zach was just joking around. He’s a jackass. Ignore him.”

That statement pissed Zach off, but now wasn’t the time to argue. He hadn’t been joking around. He liked this girl. Liked her spunk and her attitude. And Graham clearly liked her too, as was evident from the way he was letting her hump his leg when Zach entered the room. Zach and Graham had been sharing women since that crazy night they graduated boot. Hell, they’d picked up a woman at the bar together just a few weeks before the grid went down. It worked for them. Graham didn’t have to actually speak to the women, and Zach charmed them while capitalizing on Graham’s dark and dangerous vibe that never failed at luring them in. Most women said it was the most intense sexual experience they’d ever had. It wasn’t like Zach didn’t bag chicks on his own. But he wasn’t entirely certain Graham did. Which made what he had walked in on all the more surprising. And honestly, it had made him happy as hell. Graham had never formed an emotional bond with any woman they’d been with. Ever. Zach supposed that being abandoned in a cheap motel room by your mother as a kid might stunt your ability to form emotional connections with women. But apparently not with this one. This girl, who’d been dropped into their lap only hours ago, seemed to have already gotten under Graham’s skin. Which worked for Zach, because even before the world went to hell, Zach had wanted a woman. A woman who he and Graham would permanently share. Zach knew Graham had been aware of his desire, but never verbally acknowledged it and certainly never displayed this level of interest in any of their hookups. But this girl could change everything. She could be the one who finally got Graham to give an actual relationship a chance. Hell, they were all envious of what Jonah had with Allison. And the little rugrat they were raising. Zach wanted that for himself, and he wanted to share it with his best friend. But Zach had yet to find a woman who could entice Graham into a relationship. Until Rowan. And that was why Graham’s comment pissed him off.