Take a Risk (Risk #1) (19 page)

‘Tonight, when he left me, I didn’t think he was going to do anything dangerous. What happens if the next time it’s him who is shot?’

‘Then we’ll bring him to you,’ Ruger said, smiling in an attempt to garner hers. ‘Trust me, this doesn’t happen a lot and it’s great that you’re a part of the team now. Seriously, Lys, thanks for helping Blaser. When he comes round, tomorrow, he’s going to be grateful too.’

‘I just did my job,’ she said, feeling bad now knowing she’d dismissed Colt and he was probably cursing himself for getting her involved.

She was still interested in the details of what had happened to Blaser, and why it had happened as much as because she wanted to know if Colt planned to put himself in more danger for his brother, or anyone else. But she would ask him about that when he got back, at the same time she confessed to him what Hoburn had said. Now that she’d spoken to Ruger about it, she wished that she’d just been upfront with Colt when she’d had the chance, as soon as Hoburn left.

They had to be open with each other and she didn’t want her current situation to prevent him from telling her the truth about his past, about where he had come from. Everyone had skeletons in their closet, and she wanted him to know that she’d embrace him despite those skeletons. But until she knew all of him, she couldn’t trust their connection, or their feelings for each other. She had to make him understand that it was ok to be vulnerable with her, and that she would never judge him for that. If they couldn’t do that and real trust couldn’t be built then she had doubts about how sincere their love for each other could ever be.

Ruger went to sleep on the floor, which gave her the couch, and at some point Colt must have come back in because she found him sleeping on the floor when she woke up the following morning. After checking on Blaser, she was happy that his vitals were strong and his wound would heal, although it would take time. She woke him to make sure that she could, but when he grumped at her, she let him go back to sleep.

She grabbed a quick shower and wrapped herself in a towel, but would have to go upstairs for clean clothes. As soon as she started to brew coffee, the men sleeping on the floor began to stir, so she poured everyone a mug and laid out breakfast on the table.

‘Ah, she’s an angel,’ Ruger said, climbing to his feet and coming over to gulp down the scorching brew.

‘I have to go upstairs to get changed,’ she said to Colt when he too picked up his coffee. ‘I’ve checked on Blaser and he’s ok, but you could take his coffee through to him and give him some of the antibiotics and painkillers you brought in last night.’

‘Ok,’ he said, putting the cup down and starting toward the back bedroom.

‘You could kiss me good morning first,’ she said.

The big talk would have to wait, as they had an audience, and there were more pressing matters. But she wanted him to know that there was no residual anger, only questions. His head tilted and a smile flirted on his lips when he came back to her, Ruger turned his back with a theatrical groan, and she was swept into Colt’s arms.

‘Good morning,’ he said, and said hello in the best way there was – without words. ‘Do you want me to get your clothes?’

She shook her head. ‘No one will be around at this time, and they won’t care.’

‘You obviously haven’t met many of the neighbours,’ Ruger said.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she said and left the men to go upstairs and change.

When she got back downstairs, Ruger was nowhere in sight and it was Colt who was coming out of the shower. ‘Was this because of me?’ she asked, wanting a definitive answer because she wasn’t convinced that Ruger had been telling her the truth about the shooting last night.

‘No,’ he said, tucking in his towel. ‘Wrong place, wrong time.’

‘I’m trusting you, Colt,’ she said. ‘I know about Emma.’

His expression became gradually more serious. ‘Hoburn?’

‘Yes, and Ruger gave me the details this morning. Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘We’d have got there eventually,’ he said. ‘But cracking your case, getting this guy off your tail, that’s what we need to focus on.’

‘What about us? Aren’t we important? Are we building a relationship or am I just a quick fumble for you? A distraction while you’re dealing with other things?’

Coming to her, he took hold of her. ‘That case still haunts me, Lys. It changed my life and… telling you what happened, trying to explain it when I can’t come to terms with it myself… I didn’t want it to change things between us.’

‘Things are going to change between us and you have to realise that, but we should grow closer with the more we learn about each other, not use our histories to wedge ourselves apart.’

‘It’s easy for you to predict these things,’ he said. ‘You have an education that guides you in the appropriate way to act, I don’t have that, and it’s been a long time since I’ve trusted a woman as much as I trust you.’

‘I’m grateful for that, but relationships take work. There’s no great power watching over us from above making sure that we don’t make mistakes. Those mistakes are what make our relationship unique, and we make them ourselves because of who we are and the experiences we’ve had.’

The weight of his expression cleared. Something struck him and he silently mouthed her words. ‘What an idiot.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Not you,’ he said, kissing her with full tongue force. ‘You’re a fucking genius, Miss Lys. I’m the idiot.’

He tossed his towel aside and began to yank on the clothes she’d brought him. ‘There’s no need to dress so quickly,’ she said, sad to see his toned, naked physique disappear from her view so abruptly.

‘I need to go out,’ he said. ‘I have to check something. Will you be ok with Blaser until Ruger gets back from his place?’

‘Yes,’ she said, watching him gather his things. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I might have cracked it,’ he said, going towards the door then coming back to kiss her. ‘Actually, you might have cracked it.’

She caught his wrist. ‘Then clue me in.’

‘When I get back, I don’t want to say anything until I’ve checked it out,’ he said, kissing her again. ‘You’re a fucking genius.’

He muttered the words again and managed to actually get out of the door this time without coming back. Lyssa was left clueless, but he’d had an epiphany and who was she to stand in the way of that.

Blaser was a downright awful patient, he did nothing that he was told and thought he knew better than everyone else. Ruger did his best to back Lyssa up, but when Blaser insisted he was going into Risqué, no one could stop him. On the condition that she and Ruger accompanied him, they agreed to let him go in. With the antibiotics and painkillers, she hoped that he’d tire quickly and they could whip him back to his apartment for more rest, but she wouldn’t hold her breath.

Leaving a message for Colt – who hadn’t appeared or been in touch all day – the trio trooped over to the club. Blaser was immediately set upon by all of the girls who fawned over him and his arm, which Lyssa had put in a sling with hopes it would reduce movement. Although she had stitched the wound, she didn’t want him to tear out any of his stitches and do himself more damage. Blaser, for some reason, wasn’t as worried about that or further injury. At least he displayed no outward signs of being worried about it, which made her wonder if this was all in a day’s work for him.

Ruger did his bit as bartender, which frustrated Blaser because Ruger was more interested in showing off with the cocktail mixer than just getting on with the job. Watching them spar was fun for her, though she would have liked Colt to be here and involved as well, just for her own peace of mind.

Now that she wasn’t expected to work she got more time to observe what was going on and began to openly take notes on what she saw. She actually told Crystal the whole truth, and by the end of the night all of the girls were crowded around her trying to give her anecdotes of their own experiences on the exotic dancing circuit. Each of the stories, and the woman, were fascinating and she promised to keep returning until she’d taken note of all the stories.

Wondering if Colt would let her use his office to compile the stories, and maybe interview some of the girls, her mind turned to concern. She didn’t know where he was, or what he was doing, and he’d been gone all day.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Blaser said, taking a seat on a stool beside her. Now that things were winding down, he let Ruger do what he wanted, he’d given up trying to control his younger brother.

‘What are you talking about?’ she asked. ‘I think that Ruger has done really well tonight.’

‘It’s not Ruger you’re thinking about. It’s Colt.’

‘Well… yes,’ she admitted, unable to lie. ‘He’s been gone all day.’

‘He knows what he’s doing.’

‘If this goes wrong, if something happens to me, like it did with Emma… he’ll never forgive himself.’

‘He told you about that?’

‘Under duress,’ she said. ‘I heard about it elsewhere and Ruger filled in the blanks, but Colt knows that I know. I wouldn’t want him to carry any guilt about anything negative that happened to me, except… look at the way he’s thrown himself into this, he’s giving it everything, and… it might not be enough.’

‘If Colt had gotten to do things his way with Emma then she would still be alive. Now that he does things his own way his odds have gone up, which is great news for you.’

‘I trust him,’ she said, turning to look Blaser square in the eye. ‘But if something happens…’

Blaser slid a hand under hers. ‘We’ll look after him, Lys. He’s a pain in the ass, Mr High and Fucking Mighty, but he’s family… just like you are.’

‘Colt just called,’ Ruger said, coming over to their position. ‘He wants you to stay at his place tonight, and he’ll come and see you at work tomorrow.’

She shouldn’t be surprised that while talking about her concern he got in touch, but she was. ‘How does he do it?’

‘He’s freaky that way,’ Ruger shrugged and Blaser laughed, then winched.

‘No woman can ever claim he doesn’t pay attention to them,’ Blaser said, clenching his teeth to try and hide his discomfort.

‘Come on,’ she said, still with a hold of his hand. ‘I’m taking you home. Ruger can close up here.’

‘I’m being ditched?’ Ruger called after them as they began to leave.

‘Come to Blaser’s when you’re done,’ she called back. ‘I’ll be on his couch tonight.’

‘You got it, sis.’

Ruger said what he did in an attempt to try and get a reaction from her. It was nice to be a part of his ribbing, because it did make her a part of the family. He made fun of his brothers all the time and being included in that brought her closer to the men who were important to her lover.

During her time at Blaser’s today she’d called the hospital and managed to arrange work space for the following day, which happened to be Friday. She’d missed enough patient time this week so she chose to suspend her adopted rule of not seeing patients on the last day of the working week. She’d called up the patients she’d missed this week, in the order that she’d missed them, and offered appointments in her new office at the hospital.

Many of her patients had questions and she was as diplomatic as she could be in answering them. Finding out that your therapist had lost a patient through murder was bad enough, but finding out he’d probably been murdered because of his connection to her would be worse. But it did leave her with the unsettling question of whether her patients were safe from her stalker, or if he would go after any more of them.

The day had gotten off to a flying start and she was thrilled with her new workspace. It wasn’t as comfortable as her home office, but that was to be expected. Although there was nothing fancy in the space it had everything she needed. It had the added bonus of being in a busy building, which meant people mixed together, hopefully making it harder for her stalker to pick out those who had visited her if he was indeed watching.

A desk and chair were provided for her, with a couch and an armchair for her sessions with patients. Lee Zucker, who was present at the moment, hadn’t spent much time on the couch, but that was understandable given the revelations he’d experienced in his own life over the last forty-eight hours.

‘She let me think that I had a problem,’ he declared, pacing up and down in front of the window. ‘She let me think that I was out of line!’

‘Calm down, Lee, I know that this is a shock.’

‘I thought I was being too demanding, that my libido was somehow shot! I actually thought I might be sick!’

‘Now we can’t discount that your situation remains as it always was. It may just be that your wife—‘

‘She’s having an affair!’ He stopped pacing then came around to flop onto the couch. ‘She’s having an affair. She’s fucking around with another dude, no wonder she never wanted it from me!’

‘I know,’ Lyssa said, wishing she could offer some comfort other than platitudes. ‘What she has done is terrible, and it will take you time to process it. What you have to do is decide where you want to go from here. Is she still seeing her lover?’

He groaned. ‘Do you have to use that word?’

‘I’m sorry. What I want to establish is if you want to move forward and if she wants the same thing. I could offer you a session together, if you think that would help.’

‘Do you think that it would?’ he asked. ‘You’re really great but you can’t… you know…’

‘Erase the past? No, there are limits to even my powers. Did you tell Harriet why you come here? There was a time she believed that you were here due to stress at work.’

‘I haven’t told her exactly what we talk about, but… maybe I could talk to her and ask her to come along.’

‘That could be beneficial for you both. It would be interesting to find out why she sought gratification elsewhere. Perhaps there are issues that we could work on together and find a solution that is suitable for both of you.’

‘You must have a perfect life,’ he said. ‘Your relationships must be ideal, and without any issues at all.’

‘Just perfect,’ she said, trying not to think about the state of her life at the moment. Just then she saw movement in the small glass panel in the door of her office, which she’d decided to get a curtain for in order to protect her patients’ privacy. To her horror, the face filling the space was that of her ex-husband. ‘Oh, my god.’

She hadn’t meant to speak aloud, but she must have because Lee turned to look over his shoulder at the window. ‘Who is that?’

‘My ex-husband, believe it or not,’ she said, with a frozen faux smile.

‘Ex?’ he asked, arching a brow.

‘Maybe not as perfect as you’d think,’ she said.

‘And he gets to just walk in on sessions and kick out your patients?’

‘I’m sorry for the intrusion,’ she said. ‘But we are at the end of our time anyway. Let’s schedule your next session.’

It was just lucky that Lee’s session had been finished when Archie turned up. That didn’t stop her from leaving him in the hallway and taking her time bidding Lee farewell. When Lee opened the door, Archie almost knocked him over when he ran in and closed the door.

‘How long does it take to get rid of a patient?’ Archie demanded.

‘Good afternoon to you too, dearest,’ Lyssa said, sinking onto her desk chair and booting up her computer. ‘Some people may think it rude to randomly show up without an appointment. Do you need a consult?’

‘This isn’t medical, Lyssa, I’m in trouble for goodness sake!’

‘Trouble,’ she said, dropping the repartee. ‘What kind of trouble?’

‘She’s kicked me out,’ he said, sitting on her couch without invitation.

Archie was still a handsome guy. His salt and pepper hair, and defined features made him sophisticated and desirable in that older man sort of way. Seeing him in distress didn’t make her feel good, there had been a time when they’d been happy, and just because they wanted different things didn’t mean that she wished him ill.

‘What happened?’ she asked. Abandoning her computer, she came around to settle in the armchair again.

At first, he said nothing and various possibilities ran through her mind, but when his gaze shifted she could tell he was about to say something he was ashamed of, or at least ashamed to admit. ‘Tax evasion.’

‘Oh, Archie,’ she said like a parent disappointed in a child and lifted her hands to slap them back on the arms of her chair. ‘How could you be so stupid?’

‘It snowballed,’ he said, making excuses. ‘The accountant said that he could get me into this scheme and I’d pay less tax.’

‘I don’t want to know the details,’ she said, folding her arms and making no secret of her disapproval. ‘I don’t want to be subpoenaed.’

‘Don’t say that. Oh, god, Lys, what am I going to do?’

She was no tax accountant and she wasn’t a lawyer either, so she really couldn’t answer that in reference to the crime, so she went to her comfort zone. ‘This is… the receptionist you were living with who kicked you out?’

‘She’s a nursing administrator.’

Lyssa wasn’t even sure what that was. ‘Ok, and she’s unhappy? So she didn’t know about what was happening?’ He shook his head. ‘It’s understandable that she’s upset.’

‘Maybe, but she kicked me out of my own damn house!’

‘You would have rather that she left?’

‘No. She should stand by me, she should support me.’

‘Did you tell her that you felt that way?’

‘All she did was shout,’ Archie said. ‘Shout and shout… it’s not my fault that the assets have been frozen.’

Her disapproval grew. ‘Everything?’

‘Yeah,’ he grumbled. ‘So don’t expect any alimony checks for a while.’

She laughed. ‘That’s not really my primary concern.’

‘How can you laugh? That’s very unprofessional!’

The office door opened and Colt strolled in, only to stop short when he registered that there was someone on the couch. ‘I heard you had an opening,’ Colt said, frowning at her “patient”, which made her think he recognised exactly who was on her couch.

‘I did,’ Lyssa said. ‘But it was unceremoniously filled.’

‘The standard of your professionalism has slipped significantly,’ Archie said.

‘Are you one to judge me?’ she asked. Colt moved to exit, but she stood up. ‘No, don’t go. Close the door.’ Colt did as he was told.

‘We were talking,’ Archie said to her.

‘Colt Warner, this is Archie Cutler.’

‘I know,’ Colt said, coming to her side.

‘I know that you know,’ she smiled.

‘Do you introduce all of your patients to random people?’ Archie asked.

Being identified as a random person must have riled Colt because he sat in her armchair and then yanked her down into his lap. ‘Colt isn’t a random person.’

‘Apparently not,’ Archie said. ‘You’re fraternising with patients?’

‘Colt is my partner, he’s my boyfriend.’

‘Really?’ Archie said, examining her lover. ‘Your type has changed considerably.’

‘My previous type didn’t work out in my favour,’ she said. ‘I reassessed my needs.’

‘Still, I didn’t presume you to be the type to prioritise beauty over brains.’

‘Luckily, Colt has both,’ she said, arranging herself around Colt to leave no illusion as to their intimacy.

‘He’s sort of… brawny for you, is he not?’ Archie said, as though Colt wasn’t present in the room.