Stealing Joy Page 4

  Doggo snuggled against me. I don’t know how he could stand it. I reeked. I itched. I was waiting for the doctor’s orders to come through so I could take a shower. Honestly, I thought all I needed was an orderly willing to help get me over to the shower. I knew there was one in my bathroom. There was a seat, and we could prop my foot up on the toilet. I didn’t want to wash my foot, just the rest of me. The hair dye wasn’t helping matters either. My scalp and my privates wanted a serious rinsing.

  Nurse Tracey, who conducted my exam, understood my need to rinse the dye off. When I told her it needed to be included on her report, she acted all cool, but her jaw dropped.

  Travis came back with another man, equally as pretty.

  “Gage is on duty tonight. So, he sent Zeke here with me.” Travis slid into my room as the food was being delivered. Unfortunately, I was more excited about the food than I was over a horde of really good looking men visiting.

  Travis and Zeke were like opposites twins. Travis was pale. Zeke was dark. Travis was messy and rugged. Zeke had a clean cut and dapper look going on. Both were built, and knew how to wear tight jeans. Zeke wore his with a button down and a bow tie, while Travis had some worn T-shirt with a rock climber on the front.

  I made Doggo get down so I could eat. Travis took him outside for dog business.

  I raised my eyes eagerly to the orderly pushing my tray over. “What’s for dinner?”

  The domes were lifted and I was presented with soup, Jell-O, and apple sauce. “You’re kidding me right?”

  My new nurse came in then. “Is there a problem?”

  The orderly shrugged and left me with my liquids.

  “I’m not getting any food,” I complained.

  “Let’s see what the doctor ordered. I’ll be right back.” She left the room for a minute.

  “Okay, it looks like no one knows how long it’s been since you have had solid food. Including you. So this is a precaution. If you do well, then tomorrow you can have soft solids. Look, honey, you came in here dehydrated and banged up pretty bad. We want to take care of you.”

  I nodded in acquiescence and she left.

  “She’s right, we just want to take care of you.” Zeke’s voice was unexpected.

  “How do you know me?”

  “I was with the team that found you. Gage and Max want someone guarding you at all times. They want to know who did this to you, and why.”

  “Who is easy, my ex-boyfriend Gordon. Why? He’s a psychopath.”

  “According to your mother, his name was Gordon Dryer.” Gage strode in with Doggo at his hip. Damn that man was fine. Let’s put it this way, if I had panties on, they’d be gone.

  I honestly don’t know why I reacted to him on such a cellular level, but I did. Let’s get real. I should be completely repelled by men at the moment. I should be terrified of anyone coming near me. I should be skittish and weary. I was bone tired, well with what bones I had left—currently down three—sick, and injured. I shouldn’t be looking at any man and thinking about how soon before I can climb him.

  He wore that khaki uniform as if it were a tuxedo. Meaning, holy crap, he was gorgeous. Who knew khaki could look so damned good on a person. Not me.

  A woman in a similar uniform followed him in. It didn’t do the same for her at all. She carried some note pads. Gage pulled his chair back up and sat down. The woman stood at the end of my bed. Doggo whined and went to sit with my guardians. I still had the food tray across my lap, so there was no room for him.

  At some point, I was going to have to ask Gage about him. I wasn’t dumb, okay maybe I was cuddling up to a wolf, but at the time when I first did it, I was so far gone I didn’t have a frame of reference to realize he was a wolf. Maybe I didn’t care? And now? He proved himself to be cuddly and safe.

  Gage sat, smiled, and hit me with a little wink. Damn.

  “Officer Kelley and I are here on official business. We’re here to take your statement and make a report. We’ll collect the rape kit into evidence.” Hecate help me, his voice.

  Focus Bails, focus. “What if I don’t want to file a police report?” Why was I sassing off to this man? All I wanted to do was climb up into his lap and have him kiss it better.

  “You requested a rape kit in my presence. You are reporting this. I found you.” Doggo barked. “Fine. Max found you. You have too many witnesses to the shape you were in not to file a report.”

  I swear Travis and Zeke were growling right along with Doggo.

  Officer Kelley looked bored. How was she not a quivery pile of female goo around these men? I swear I felt like I was being washed in testosterone. Sexy, sexy, testosterone. Maybe that’s why I needed a shower so badly.

  “Look, Bailey, we want to find the person who hurt you and bring him in.”

  Doggo growled, again. I swear Travis or Zeke said, “Kill him.”

  “Pull up a chair, Officer Kelley. It’s a long story, and you look like you’re gonna be taking notes.” I focused on the other woman in the room. I could think if I looked at her. Gage stole my reasoning.

  I sipped on my soup as if we were having a pleasant afternoon’s conversation, and not me telling them about my kidnapping and subsequent rape and abuse. It was all so very surreal.

  Initially, I only went back a week and told them about the trip.

  I kept my focus on Officer Kelley, it was easier. She was all business, and she didn’t growl when I describe the nastier events. Funny, I felt very detached from past events. More like I had been an observer to the activities, not on the receiving end of certain actions. I told them about everything from Mrs. Fey up until I came to without a toe.

  I’d been raped… twice. The one that caused the most damage, the one that robbed me of part of my identity, the one I couldn’t push away and start forgetting about, was the violation of my hair. Fortunately, I wasn’t looking in mirrors these days, and I kept my hair pulled back. My hair was long enough I’d catch glimpses of it, and it was wrong. I’d see a flash of brown too close to my eyes, and then there were Gordon’s fists.

  “Wait, go back to when you met this guy.”

  So I did.

  I met Gordon at Yuki’s birthday party, shortly after Easter. There was a small group of us acting like total idiots. I had on blue fuzzy bunny ears and a tiara. And no, I wasn’t even dressed up the most. That would have been Yuki. She was in high Lolita mode. The skirts of her pink plaid dress were practically horizontal; the bow on the back, huge to the point of looking like big black butterfly wings.

  I love that dress, but I’m too big boned for it to not look exceptionally stupid on. Trust me, I tried one on. I didn’t do the Lolita look well. Yuki, on the other hand, owned it. Being half Japanese didn’t hurt her there.

  The wig she wore that night would’ve made a drag queen shiver with envy. It was big and pink. And while the rest of us all wore tiaras, I mean who doesn’t want to wear a tiara? Yuki had on a Russian beauty queen’s crown. I swear that thing was a foot tall. She looked like one of the Munchkins stole Glenda the Good Witch’s crown.

  We be-bopped our way into a honky-tonk, of all places. You could almost smell the pretend manure on all those new cowboy boots and Stetsons that came out of their hat boxes once a week to be shown off at the bar. The lights weren’t as bright as a disco, and the music was loud but not throbbing. An old-time, classic country song was playing when we walked in.

  “Yee-haw, if the party didn’t walk in the door.” He was skinny and already drunk. But we were here to party, so I had no problem letting him drape across my shoulders for a few minutes. “Ladies, you are in the wrong bar,” the cowboy of the evening slurred.

  Charlene scoffed, “Free beer, dance floor, and sexy men, how is this the wrong place?”

  My drunken shoulder wrap transferred himself to her. “Well darlin’, maybe I’m mistaken.”

  She giggled as the two of them went off to drink more beer. The rest of us found a table and ordered an obnoxious quantity of chicken win
gs. Before the order was even delivered, Yuki had been dragged to the dance floor. Sandy, Jade, and I continued to eat wings and laugh.

  Yuki was quite the sight with her flared out dress, pink wig, and crown in the middle of a wall of cowboy plaid and denim. Actually, she looked like a square dancer who got stuck in Wonderland.

  Gordon slid into one of our empty chairs, smiled, and began talking as if he knew all of us.

  “She’s taking over out there, isn’t she?” He leaned close to Sandy, but his attention directed us all to look at Yuki.

  “She is the star tonight,” Jade answered.

  “Clearly this is her night. Birthday or bridal party?”

  “Birthday.”

  “Finally twenty-one? I mean I can’t believe any of you are old enough to be in here.” Gordon was smooth. A woman, no matter how old, loved to hear she looked young.

  “Yuki is twenty-five. She’s old enough to know what she’s doing.”

  “But young enough not to care,” I finished Jade’s thought.

  Gordon turned his gaze on me at that point. He had dark eyes and sculpted dark scruff. His hair was trimmed neat, with extra length around the front. Slurp. I may have drooled.

  “My name’s Gordon. What’s yours?” I was the first one of us he asked.

  I smirked a little flirty half smile. “Bailey.”

  “Baileys and cream. Come with me.” He held out his hand, and I followed his nice ass out onto the dance floor.

  Okay, at the time I thought it was the best ass ever. But it really wasn’t. It was flat—practically no gluteus muscles what-so-ever.

  Maybe it really wasn’t when Gordon claimed to be fascinated with redheads that I succumbed to his charms. Maybe it’s when he said, “Spank my ass and call me daddy,” after I drained a beer in one gulp.

  In college, I learned a valuable skill for impressing stupid boys, open your throat and let gravity drain a can of beer. It took a little coordination because you had to spike the can on the bottom to let air in. If you didn’t do that, the beer chugged itself out of the can instead of fell. The second half of this skill was not to belch and go puke as soon as humanly possible. I didn’t need a can’s worth of beer in my gut, speeding up the drunken process.

  It impressed and scared. Qualities I found helpful for guiding others to properly form opinions about me.

  At some point, my tray table was pushed aside, and Doggo was back with me.

  “You aren’t underage. But…” Officer Kelly stopped to think. “Did you willingly travel across state lines with this man?”

  “Yes and no. Look, I willingly left on a road trip with him, but after that second night, I was no longer willingly doing anything. At that point I wanted to go home.”

  “Do we need to call in the FBI?” Kelley looked at Gage. I mean she looked at him like she just worked with the man and wasn’t even vaguely interested in peeling his clothes off.

  Yes, even having to review all that I went through, I wanted Gage. Maybe I wanted the security he represented. Maybe I was projecting my fantasies of a rescue hero onto him. Maybe I like the idea of replacing a bad memory with a new memory that was beautiful and wonderful and love, not anger and hate.

  I don’t know what was wrong with me. I seemed to be getting worse the longer I was around him. He had to have some kind of magic pheromone juju. Typically, a freakishly good looking man would have me unsettled for a few minutes until I gathered my cool about me, or accepted that I was just going to dork my way through our interaction. But Gage had me wanting to start humping things, mostly him.

  He needed to go or I was going to seriously embarrass myself. As if he could read my mind, he stood up. I followed his motions and gulped. He approached the bed. Doggo shifted and positioned himself less like a pillow to the side and more like a blanket across me. I couldn’t hear him, but I could feel the low growl in his chest. My protector.

  Gage looked down at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but damn if those green eyes didn’t melt me. Doggo kept me in place.

  “So, you’re coppery orange under that? Huh. I’ve always liked redheads.” His eyes cut to Doggo who was audibly growling. “Get over it, Max.”

  I hated him. I hated him for walking in here for the past two days as if I mattered. I hated him for having someone watch out for me when he had to work. I hated him for saying that as if he knew a man who liked red hair was my kryptonite. I hated him for being so damned hot I couldn’t think straight.

  I grinned like the idiot I was. I ruffled Doggo’s ears and whispered, “I think I’m in love.”

  5

  Mom swept in the next morning like a frazzled crazed person. Mostly because she was. Dad strolled in like he was casually meandering through a mall. I swear that man had been stoned for the past twelve years of my life. I’m not complaining, mellow Dad was just fine. But he clearly needed to share with Mom.

  “Bailey, baby.” She plastered herself across me for a hug.

  Fortunately, I had been given a shower that morning, and Doggo had made space for her.

  “What did that man do to you? Why did you dye your hair for him?” The barrage of questions began.

  My dad was going around the room introducing himself.

  “Guys, this is my dad Keith and my mom Donna.”

  Today, I had Travis, Zeke, and a new cutie named Mark. Gage had swung through long enough to turn my spine to jelly and say he’d be back later. I missed his presence the way three-year-olds missed dinosaurs, with everything in their little bodies. But unlike a three-year-old, I wasn’t going to be satisfied with some plastic toy.

  “Who are these men, Bails?” Instead of smiling at the crew of handsome men I seemed to have gathered, she scowled at me.

  “They rescued me.”

  Doggo yawned at me. By now, I had figured some of his communications out. Not everything was a growl, and he didn’t yip unless he was away from me and needed to make a point. The yawn meant he was tired of everyone getting credit before he did.

  “Doggo made sure they rescued me. Didn’t you?”

  He answered me with another yawn and by pushing his nose under my hand. I complied and scratched behind his ears.

  “That’s a very large therapy dog. I’m not sure I approve of them letting him in your bed while you have an open wound,” Mom huffed.

  “Hey guys, will one of you get my mom a chair?”

  Zeke zipped out of the room.

  “The thing with Doggo here is, no one lets him do anything. He just does it. Except they did make him take a bath or they wouldn’t let him in here.”

  “And he sleeps up there with you? Does he follow you to the bathroom too?”

  Zeke reappeared with a chair for Mom. She glanced at him, barely offering a thank you, and then sat down.

  “Look, Doggo found me. He tried to lead me to where his people were. And when I couldn’t walk any further, he brought them to me. As far as I’m concerned, he can stay. And since he is very protective, I’m actually not very freaked out that Gordon could show up at any moment.”

  Doggo let out a low growl at the name.

  I smiled, ruffled his neck, and kissed him on the nose. “See, he knows to not like Gordon. And Gordon is stupid enough to think he could take Doggo on.”

  “Why would that man be afraid of your new dog?” Mom asked.

  “Donna, you know that’s not a dog right?” my dad asked.

  “Get down, show off.” I pushed Doggo off the bed.

  His head was even with my mom’s. Okay, so she was sitting in a chair, but that’s still a few feet up. Typical dogs aren’t that tall.

  “Bailey.” She spoke my name quietly.

  “Don’t intimidate my mom,” I told the wolf.

  He sat, and gave her a big doggy grin, and slapped his tail against the floor.

  “Guys, I think you should take Max out for a walk.”

  Gage leaned against the doorjamb. Tall and built, but not in uniform, he was a presence to be reckoned
with. I wanted out of this hospital so I could do a bit more than reckon with him.

  “You heard the man.” Travis stretched as he stood up. It was so hard to not stare at his abs as the T-shirt lifted and exposed him.

  “After you, Max.” Zeke stood with his arm extended, inviting the animal to go with them.

  “How come everyone else calls him Max? Hmm?” Mom looked at me over the tops of her glasses. Now that I was back in arm’s reach, I guess it was safe to nag at me.

  “His name is Max, but Bailey didn’t know that when she first found him. I guess Doggo has stuck. And he doesn’t seem to mind. Actually, he seems to like it. A special nickname from the beautiful lady.” Gage didn’t go to my parents to shake hands. He came to my bedside and smoothed my hair back from my face.

  I flinched and then every muscle melted and all nerves in my body started to thrum. That wasn’t the protective instinct of a sheriff. That was a man making a move. Yeah, baby!

  “And who are you?”

  He gave my arm a squeeze. The type of action someone does when they aren’t into kissing in public, but if they were, it would be a kiss, not an arm squeeze. Demeter and Isis, what was going on? Gage walked around the bed and approached my mother first.

  “Sheriff Gage Masterson.” He shook Mom’s hand and then Dad’s. “My guys were out on a team building expedition when Max alerted us to someone needing help in the area.”

  “So, you follow some big dog around? What is he, Lassie?” Mom was sharp as cut glass today.

  “Ma’am, Max is a wolf. He was raised to be a tracking animal, so when he alerts me to a possible situation, I pay attention. Canines are remarkable creatures. Don’t underestimate Lassie.”

  “So why did it take so long for anyone to call me?”

  “No one knew who I was. Apparently, I was out of it. I don’t know if it was cause I got sick, or if Gordon drugged me.”

  “Don’t say that man’s name,” she snapped. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

  “Mrs. Hastings, don’t give him that power over your lives. Say his name and curse him. But don’t allow him to set up fear in your hearts.”