Oak, Sophie - Siren Beloved [Texas Sirens 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (15 page)

God, he was so fucking scared. Why wouldn’t the dog stop barking? He was on the ground dying, and the dog just kept barking.

“What was that?” Lucas’s voice pulled Aidan out of his memory. “Are you okay?”

Aidan was sweating and shaking, and for a moment he had been back in that hellhole looking up at the sky, just knowing it was the last time. What had happened? Gunshot. He’d heard a gunshot.

“Did a car backfire?” Lucas asked, looking around. “Where’s Lexi?”

Aidan ran for the front door. That hadn’t been a car backfiring. He knew the difference. Someone was shooting, and Lexi had stubbornly walked outside. Aidan hadn’t thought a lot of it. She’d needed a bit of space because he’d pushed her, but then he’d heard that sound.

“Lexi?” Lucas shouted her name. Aidan could feel him following right behind.

She was crumpled on the ground outside of her first floor apartment. Aidan felt his heart threaten to burst. He went down on his knees and gathered her into his arms.

“It hurts like a motherfucker,” Lexi said, holding her arm. She turned her face up to Aidan. “I think someone shot me. Why do people always try to kill me? I’m a nice person. I give money to starving babies and properly tip my hairdresser. Why am I the one everyone tries to kill?”

“Where are you hit?” Lucas asked. He knelt in front of them both. Aidan could see what he was doing. He was shielding her with his own body.

“It’s just my arm. It’s nothing big, just a scratch.”

“Come on,” Aidan said, lifting her up. He needed to get them both inside where he could protect them.

The night cracked around him again, and Aidan ducked, covering Lexi and trying to pull Lucas down, too.

“Son of a bitch,” Lucas yelled, and he took off.

Aidan watched in openmouthed horror as Lucas ran towards the tree line of a nearby park.

“Lucas, get your ass back here!” Aidan moved quickly. He hoisted Lexi up and had her inside the house as quickly as his limbs would move. He settled her on the couch and handed her his phone. “Call an ambulance. And tell the cops your break-in just got worse.”

Lexi tried to get up. She winced as she moved her arm, but her eyes were wide with panic. “But Lucas is out there.”

“Yes, and I’m going to get him.” He was painfully aware that he hadn’t heard anything else. There had been no third shot, but that didn’t mean he was going to calm down. Aidan couldn’t calm down until Lucas was safe and over his fucking knee getting the living daylights spanked out of him.

Aidan wished he had a gun. During the time he was in the Army, he’d gotten used to the feel of a gun in his hand. On the ranch, he never went without one. It made him feel safer, but Julian didn’t allow them in The Club. He knew he should take stock of the situation, but Lucas was out there and having god knew what done to him. He didn’t have time if he wanted to save Lucas. He took off running toward the park. He stayed close to the building at first, but then there was no cover to be had. Aidan simply ran. The moonlight illuminated the night, and he saw a shadowy figure standing next to one of the largest of the trees at the edge of the small park.

Lucas turned his face to Aidan. He was pale in the moonlight. He pointed to the cigarette butts on the ground around him. “At least we know he smokes.”

Aidan reached out and grabbed Lucas’s arm. He started back toward the apartment building. He could hear sirens in the distance. At least the impending arrival of the police should scare off whoever had shot at Lexi.

“Hey,” Lucas protested and dug his heels in.

Aidan turned. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking try me right now, Lucas. I’ve been through enough that I’m seriously thinking about starting your punishment right now, and if you keep on pushing me, we’ll be in the middle of the spanking of a lifetime just about when the cops get here. Do you really want that?”

Lucas stared at him for a moment, but when Aidan started to walk again, he went along with it.

Two hours later, Aidan was beginning to calm down. Lexi’s left arm had been grazed. The paramedic had taken care of her, cleaning and dressing the wound and flirting outrageously with her to the point that Aidan had been forced to stare the man down. She hadn’t needed to go to the hospital, which was a damn good thing since Aidan wasn’t about to let her ride alone with the handsome paramedic.

The police had taken statements and promised all sorts of investigation, but Aidan had overheard them talking about the fact that gang violence was on the rise. Aidan wasn’t at all sure about that. First, Lexi’s apartment had been broken into and then someone had taken a shot at her. Aidan just didn’t see how it could be random.

There was only one thing to do. He paced as he thought about how to deliver this particular news to his wayward subs. They sat on the couch, Lexi slumped against Lucas’s shoulder. Lucas had fussed over her the whole time the cops were around, obviously preferring to leave the police business to Aidan. He stroked Lexi’s hair as Aidan paced, but Lucas’s eyes followed him every step he took.

“So, now that we’re calm again, would you like to explain to me why I’m being punished?” There was no real heat in Lucas’s words, merely curiosity.

Aidan felt the heat, though. Now that all the paperwork crap was over, he could finally get back to being really mad. “You ran toward the maniac with the gun, Lucas.”

His brows went up. “Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound like a smart thing to do.”

“Asshole.” Lexi gently punched at him. “You scared the crap out of me. Don’t ever do that again.”

Lucas sighed. “I wasn’t trying to get shot. I was trying to catch the guy.”

“The guy with the gun.” Aidan felt like that should be pointed out. He would never forget the terror he’d felt when Lucas had taken off. “You made yourself an enormous target when you should have been in this apartment, protecting Lexi.”

Now Lucas’s face flushed, and his eyes lowered slightly in apology. “I am sorry about that. I just thought you would protect Lexi.”

“It is my job to protect both of you.”

“No, it’s not. Not anymore,” Lexi grumbled. Her pretty face was scrunched up in a stubborn pout.

“And you,” Aidan began, because she wasn’t off the hook either. “You’re due some punishment, too. Your stubbornness caused this.”

“Did not. My stubbornness doesn’t even own a gun. My stubbornness is a pacifist.”

He would have smiled, if he wasn’t still coming down from the wretched adrenaline high of almost seeing the two loves of his life get cut down by gunfire. “If you had stayed in the apartment, you wouldn’t have been a target. You would have been safe and surrounded by me and Lucas when we left.”

“Great. Then you and Lucas could have been shot.”

Finally she got it. “Yes, a much more acceptable conclusion.”

Lexi sat up, wincing a bit as she did. “That is not a good conclusion. That is a sucky conclusion.”

“Lexi, stop,” Lucas ordered, his voice going hard. Lexi sat back. “Aidan is right. We would much prefer to get shot than watch it happen to you. For the time being, you don’t go anywhere alone.”

“Says the boy who chased after the guy with the gun,” Lexi muttered under her breath.

Lucas reached out and stroked her hand with his. “Well, last year you got in trouble because of me. I can’t let that happen again.”

“You’re talking about what happened with Jeremy?” Aidan asked. He’d heard the story from Julian. A former submissive of Julian’s had tried to drug Lucas. When he’d been found out, Julian had tossed him out. Jeremy Walker had blamed both Julian and Lucas for his misfortunes, and he’d gone after their women. Only Julian’s partner, Finn, had been able to save them. Aidan had nightmares about what could have happened to Lexi. Like he needed another nightmare.

“Yeah,” Lucas said, his face falling. “He wanted to hurt me. He kidnapped Lexi and pumped a bunch of drugs through her system. He was going to kill her. I thought he had when I found her.”

Lexi’s hand curled over Lucas’s.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Aidan believed that. If anything, it had been his because he had been in Iraq getting his ass blown off. It was honorable to serve his country but not when he hadn’t made any arrangements to keep his loves safe. They had been all alone. They had been without a Dom. Now that he really understood, he felt the heavy weight of guilt. He should never have left them. He’d allowed his own need to be accepted by society in general to outweigh the love in his heart. “Lucas, you did the best you could. I’m very proud of you.”

He could see the way Lucas relaxed. Praise meant a lot to him. Lucas had so little of it growing up. Lucas wanted to please. He needed it. He needed this whole D/s thing. It completed him in a way Aidan couldn’t have imagined before he’d gotten involved in the lifestyle. Lexi needed it, too. She would fight, but she needed it.

“Lucas,” Aidan began, “we need to get your punishment out of the way. Present yourself to me. Count of twenty.”

He heard Lucas’s intake of breath. It was sharp and shocked, and yet his skin flushed with arousal. There was so much Lucas needed that he had never gotten. It was the true beauty of the power exchange. He could give Lucas what he needed.

“You don’t have to,” Lexi said.

Aidan felt every muscle in his body still. Lexi had an enormous amount of influence over Lucas. She could guilt him into just about anything. Would she? Lexi had always been so sweet. Had she changed in the years they had been apart?

A little smile curled her mouth up. “You don’t have to take any punishment from him, but I kind of think it would be hot. Not that I like Aidan. He’s still a dick and a half, but you might like it, babe. And I would love to watch you.”

Aidan’s heart swelled. She was a bitch to the end, but god, she was a loving one. His Lexi would never judge or hold another human being to some meaningless standard. She’d given Lucas permission to be who he was.

“Well, I did sign a contract.” Lucas stood, and his hands were on his pants. He pushed his leathers down to his knees. He turned and presented his ass to his Dom.

It was all Aidan could do not to drool. Lucas Cameron was masculine perfection. His cheeks were muscled. He had a tan line that spoke of his modesty. Aidan liked it because he didn’t want anyone else looking at what he considered his. Lucas was his. Lexi was his. He could handle people looking at their bodies in a club where everyone knew the rules, but the private thing had its glories, too.

“Count it out, sub.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Aidan began. His hand rained down on the cheeks of Lucas’s ass. Lucas’s voice rang out. There was no small amount of pride in his count. Aidan pulled his hand back, loving the feel of the crack on Lucas’s flesh. His ass took a pounding with grace and glory. His flesh pinkened up beautifully.

Lexi leaned forward, watching as Aidan struck Lucas’s cheeks over and over.

“Fifteen.” Lucas’s ass actually wiggled a bit as though he was trying to tempt him in.

God, Aidan would love that. He could still remember the tight clench of that gorgeous asshole on his dick. Lucas’s ass had been the hottest hole he’d ever sunk his cock into. But he had a point to make. He slapped that ass again and again until Lucas finally called out, “Twenty.”

Aidan stopped and realized his breath was choppy. His cock was at full-mast, straining against his pants.

Lexi’s eyes had glazed over. She was watching Lucas’s exposed flesh with a diligence that made Aidan’s breath catch. She was so submissive. Maybe not all the time, but she liked it when it came to sex. Why hadn’t he listened to her in the first damn place?

“Is that all, Sir?” Lucas asked with perfect politeness, as though he was asking about the weather, not as if his Dom wanted to further torture him.