It Takes Three to Fly (44 page)

Staring into Katie-Anne’s eyes, Shane uttered the word guaranteed to make her come. “Kamikaze.” At the same time, he tightened his hand around Landon’s cock, exerting pressure on the engorged shaft and stroking him furiously.

The two people in the room with him came at the same time, remaining silent as he’d demanded. But Shane knew they’d come. He saw it in Katie-Anne’s dilating eyes and the way her body had seized then spasmed wildly. And he felt it in the full-body convulsion beneath him and the pulsation from the cum pouring from his husband’s body.

As soon as they’d fallen over the edge, Shane let go. He drove himself into Landon one last time, pressing his swollen dick in as far as he could, then went stock still as his seed streamed out of his body and into Landon’s.

Panting, Shane’s body gave way and he rolled to the side without releasing Landon, taking him right along with him. Cuddling around Landon, Shane sighed. “Damn.”

“My sentiments exactly,” Katie-Anne said snarkily. “Now who is going to let me loose? I want to snuggle.”

Before he could answer her, their house phone jangled on the night stand and Katie-Anne cursed, “Oh, shit. Can someone get that?”

“Now?” Shane barked while Landon snapped, “You have to be fucking kidding me.”

“Yes, now,” Katie-Anne replied. “I can’t get it myself or I would.”

Always the rational one, Landon mumbled, “They’ll call back.”

She harrumphed. “It could be important.”

More important than this?
Not likely.
Raising his head from the bed, Shane looked over at Katie-Anne who was wiggling madly in her chair. “You can call them back in a minute,” he said curtly, losing his patience with her and whoever was calling them in the middle of the night. “We need to get you loose and take care of you and Landon first.”

Ignoring him, Katie-Anne squirmed and fussed.

Predictably, Landon caved first. But, by the time, he reached the phone, it quit ringing.

“Damn it,” Katie-Anne cursed. “That could have been important. No one would call at this late hour for nothing.”

Checking the time on the clock, Shane realized she had a point. “Let her loose,” he muttered. “I’m going to throw on some pants and check my phone in the other room.”

Dressing quickly, he hurried toward the door. But he didn’t make it because the phone rang again. Freezing, Shane’s heart pounded in his chest.
Something’s wrong
. He didn’t know what it was, but it was bad. It had to be.

And he wasn’t the only one who thought so. Katie-Anne paled, her face as white as a sheet. Landon’s hands grew noticeably shaky as he rushed to remove the handcuffs. But, yet again, the phone quit abruptly.

As soon as she was loose, Katie-Anne looked at the caller id on the phone’s display. Her eyebrows drew down, an intensely confused look appearing on her face. “I don’t know who it is,” she remarked, obviously talking to herself.

Shane let loose the breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. They’d all panicked for nothing. Thank God, it hadn’t been anything.

“Wrong number?” Landon asked.

Yet she didn’t respond to his question because the phone rang for the third time in less than three minutes. Staring down at the phone as though it would bite her, Katie-Anne cursed then lifted the receiver to her ear and answered the call.

“Oh, my God,” Katie-Anne said as she walked into the hospital lounge. The already-cramped area was jammed full of people, the room nearly bursting at its seams. Every rose-colored chair and couch had someone sitting in it. Several people were perched on top of their significant others’ laps, just to have enough room for everyone.

It amazed her that so many people had made it to the hospital before the three of them had. But living in the apartment building on the opposite end of town had slowed them down drastically.
Longest fucking drive ever.

Sweeping her eyes around the waiting area, Katie-Anne searched for her friends and family. She easily found Shannon sitting in the middle of the room with Jaycee. The men in their lives, Gray, Cade, and the Dalton triplets, huddled around them protectively. On the other side of them, Ella sat with her best friends, Micah, Brooklyn, Josie, and Svetlana. Against the wall, Ethan, Brett, and Sam reclined quietly. Meanwhile, other people were drifting around, switching seats, coming and going through the doorway, and intermingling at will.

Hot on her footsteps, Shane and Landon barreled through the door. The two men moved to each side of her. Putting an arm around her waist, Shane and Landon guided her inside. They helped her weave through the people, but it was pointless. They were getting nowhere, and they were doing it fast.

“It’s a packed house,” Landon commented.

“What the hell is going on?” Shane asked, ignoring Landon. His voice boomed over everyone else’s in the room, and all of the people went silent, their wide eyes turning in his direction.

Even though it had been a short time since she’d gotten the bizarre call from Brooklyn, demanding that she get to Serenity General but divulging no other information, none of them knew what had happened.
If we hadn’t forgotten our fucking cell phones, it wouldn’t have been a goddamn problem.

In their haste to get to the hospital for some unknown emergency, she’d left her purse behind and the men had left their phones. They’d barely managed to remember their keys. Hell, the men had probably forgotten their wallets, too. But she wasn’t about to ask them about it right now.

Nervously glancing around the room, Katie-Anne, tabulated who was not present in the room. Immediately, she knew who it was.
Sarah.

Katie-Anne gasped, shaking her head violently from side-to-side. “No.”

Shannon and Jaycee stood. They walked toward her, stepping over and around people as they moved. With tears in their eyes, they grabbed Katie-Anne and enveloped her tightly.

“Everything is going to be okay, Katie-Anne,” Shannon whispered soothingly.

Jaycee smoothed her hand down Katie-Anne’s hair, again and again. “It’s going to be fine.”

“No,” Katie-Anne said again. “No, no, no.”

Glancing over at Landon, she saw the truth dawn on him, too. He wobbled slightly, but Shane caught him. The two men embraced, neither saying a word.

“She’s alive. That’s what’s important.”

Brooklyn’s words hit Katie-Anne like a body blow. The air whooshed out of her lungs, and she sagged into her friend’s arms, openly weeping—in relief, in fear, and in regret. She wanted to ask so many questions, but she could not get her mouth to work. Even if she could, she didn’t know if she could stand to ask. She wanted to know everything. Yet she didn’t.

Luckily, she wasn’t the one who asked. Deke was. Stepping into the room, Shane’s foster brother demanded, “What the fuck happened to Sarah? And where the hell is she? I want to see her.” When no one jumped to his bidding, he barked,
“Now.”

A second later, Adam appeared behind Deke. “I want to see the bastard who did this to her. He will live to regret the day he breathed the same air as my Sarah. I will fucking kill him, if that is what it takes.”

Adam and Deke advanced into the room, heading straight for Landon and Shane. At the same time, Gray, Cade, and the Dalton triplets crossed over to them. The nine men converged in a masculine cluster. Whispering, the men broke apart and stalked out of the room.

With nowhere to go, Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne waddled their huddle over to the seats they’d just vacated. Since there were only two seats, Jaycee lowered herself into one and Shannon sat down in the other, pulling Katie-Anne onto her lap.

Katie-Anne grunted.

“Sexy,” Shannon said snarkily. “I love it when you grunt dirty to me.”

Jaycee smacked Shannon’s arm. “Now is not the time or place, Shan.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Shannon responded irreverently then frowned. “We can’t sit here and think about Sarah like this. I refuse to even contemplate that she could be in that operating room dying.” Shaking her head, she sniffled. “I won’t do it, Goddamn it!”

Katie-Anne wound her arms around Shannon and gave her a crushing hug. “She’ll be all right, Shan. She has to be. Sarah is our innocent friend. We have yet to corrupt her.”

“Looks like we won’t need to do much,” Jaycee remarked offhandedly. “I noticed the possessive
my
in front of Sarah, and I have never seen Deke that violent. Mr. Cool and Mr. Suave don’t have a chance against The Virgin Sarah.”

“She’s not a virgin anymore,” Brooklyn said as she walked up to Katie-Anne, Jaycee, and Shannon. “Sarah’s violent Dom put her through a lot of torture over the last week, but he didn’t rape her. She gave herself to him willingly and now she is living to regret it.”

Katie-Anne knew that Brooklyn didn’t want people to know about her abilities, and she understood that. But right now, she would exploit it if she could find out about Sarah.

“I will talk to you,” Brooklyn offered. “So will my mama. We’ll tell you everything we know. We just need to go outside the door to do it.”

“Okay,” Katie-Anne agreed. Getting to her feet swiftly, she attempted to run for the door. The people milling around hindered her. Otherwise, she would have made it out of the room in a quarter of the time.

Going out into the hallway, Katie-Anne whirled around and faced the four women behind her. She put her hands on her hips, and snapped, “Well. What the fuck is going on?” Then she crumbled.

* * * *

“He did
what
to Sarah?”

Landon cringed as Deke’s roar ripped through the hospital courtyard and bounced off the glass walls surrounding them. His brother-in-law took off, charging down one of the numerous winding paths with a murderous gate, and left the rest of the men standing there. Deke’s partner, Adam, remained behind with Landon, Shane, Gray, Cade, Jared, Drew, and Randy.

“He’ll be back,” Adam told them confidently, but there was a distinct note of anger hanging in his deep voice. “He did this earlier when Brooklyn called and told us that Sarah had been hurt and was in the hospital but hung up before she explained anything else. Just give him another thirty seconds.”

Just like Adam had said, Deke came thundering back at them before a half a minute had elapsed. “That bastard will die,” he ground out as he neared them. “If it is the last thing I do, I will rip his heart out and feed it to him. No man will touch Sarah and get away with it.”

Adam sighed wearily. “Tell us the entire story, Gray, from beginning to end.”

Landon wanted to beg Gray to not share any more of the gruesome details. Discovering that his sister’s boyfriend was an abusive Dom who’d used her submission as a twisted game was more than enough. But until the bastard was found and hauled into jail, they needed to know what was going on and what they were up against.

“I don’t know all the details,” Gray reminded them. “All I know is what Brooklyn and Svetlana pieced together from their visions and told Jaycee. I haven’t exactly figured out how those two know all of the details they always do, but that’s inconsequential.”

Gray sighed. “Apparently, Gavin has been introducing Sarah to the BDSM Lifestyle with the intention of her being a twenty-four-seven slav—”

“Do not say that word about Sarah,” Adam intervened with venom oozing from his very pores. “She is a submissive, but she is not cut out to be a slave. I will not allow it.”

“You’re not her Dom,” Deke spat as he stepped toward his partner aggressively, the two dominant personalities clashing. “Now let him finish the damn story.”

Moving between Deke and Adam, Landon growled. “Shut up. Both of you need to get over whatever this is. My sister is lying in an operating room, possibly fighting for her life, and you two are acting like kids fighting over a toy. I know that you both care about her, and I can deal with that. But, now, is not the time for a bunch of emotional bullshit. We need to focus on Sarah.”

Adam cursed. “You’re right. We need to get our priorities straight. Sarah is all that matters right now.”

Nodding his agreement, Deke barked, “Get on with it,” at Gray.

Gray frowned but didn’t say a word. It must have been hard for him. Hell, with all the alpha personalities in this vicinity, it was damn hard on all of them to keep a check on their dominance. But they did because they had to.

“Last night, Sarah had a date with Gavin,” Gray said. “For some unknown reason, things didn’t go well, and he ended up taking her on a spontaneous trip to Kinky. He’d planned to use her connections with Deke and Adam to get inside The Edge. They’d driven about halfway there when he told her his plans.”

Gray paused before speaking again. “I am paraphrasing here so don’t kill the messenger, but she told him Deke would rather die than let an innocent little girl like her into his and Adam’s domain—”

Deke’s curse interrupted Gray, but he didn’t remain silent for long before going on. “Evidently, Gavin didn’t appreciate Sarah’s insolence so he backhanded her. Without slowing down the car, he spouted off a bunch of horseshit that no Dom would ever say to his sub
or
slave. For a while, Sarah took it, but he must have said something to set her off because she talked back to him. Still ranting and raving, he backhanded her again then pulled over on the side of the road and got out. Coming around to the passenger side, he punched her in the face and dragged her out of the car by her hair.”