Vodka On The Rocks (The Uncertain Saints Book 3) (15 page)

Voices, one raised, had me straining to listen. But it wasn’t until I’d counted to nearly five thousand in my head that another motorcycle pulled up, and I started to worry.

“Koda!” a devastated voice called through my darkness.

I was up and running before he’d even gotten the last syllable out.

I made my way into the kitchen, not stopping until I hit the dining room, where the backdoor was located.

“Casten,” I gasped once I saw him. “What’s wrong with her?”

Casten’s hands and arms were covered in blood, and he was clutching a sheet around his dog.

When he didn’t answer, I dropped down to my knees beside where he rocked.

“Casten,” I whispered. “Tell me what’s going on. Is she okay?”

Casten shook his head. “No.”

No, his best friend, the animal that had saved his life in Afghanistan, was most definitely not okay.

And with the way his shoulders were heaving, I knew that that Koda was seriously injured, if not already dead.

“Watch her,” he whispered to Mig as he stood up with his dog in his arms and walked out of the room without as much as a backwards glance.

Woodenly, I stood and walked back to the bedroom that Casten and I had shared an amazing night in, not knowing what to do with myself.

It didn’t feel the same.

It felt like my whole life had changed in the blink of an eye.

Turning around and giving the lovely night my back, I hurried to my room where I got dressed in jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a pair of boots.

“Let’s go,” I ordered as soon as I made it out of my bedroom.

Mig narrowed his eyes at me.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he muttered.

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“We are. The question is whether or not you’re going with me,” I countered.

He shook his head, totally unmoved by my little show of aggression.

“We really aren’t. I don’t want you killed because you wanted to go see him. There’s nothing you can do there,” he shook his head.

I walked to the counter with my keys and snatched them up.

“Whatever,” I muttered.

My only dilemma right now was figuring out where he’d take Koda.

Or so I thought until Mig stopped me from moving out the door like I wanted.

“I wasn’t joking,” he said.

I snorted. “I didn’t think you were. But you’re not the boss of me. Promise,” I said, pushing him.

He didn’t even budge.

“Mig,” I growled through clenched teeth. “Move.”

He shook his head.

Knowing I wouldn’t get past them, I sat down at the kitchen table and glared at the men that were surrounding me.

I knew them all, thanks to my sister’s marriage into the club, but this side of them, this freaking scary side, was intimidating.

None of them were smiling like they were doing the last time I’d attended a party with the lot of them.

Ridley was sweeping up glass, a scowl the size of Texas on his face.

Peek was leaning against the back deck railing, speaking to someone so fast that I couldn’t make out a single word.

Mig was barricading my way out.

Griffin was outside with a huge piece of wood, finagling it over the gaping hole of a door.

Wolf was cleaning up the blood.

I watched as he smeared it across the floor instead of actually cleaning it up, so I got up and walked to the counter to grab a package of towels.

Mig tensed, but when he saw I wasn’t going to try to make a run for it, he relaxed once again, this time at the table with his legs stretched out in front of him.

“Here,” I said, dropping down to my knees next to the puddle.

Wolf surrendered the job to me and took a seat at the table after washing his hands.

I tried not to think about this blood belonging to Koda, and instead thought about what I should do over the next couple of days.

I needed to go to the store and get some food.

I also needed to go get my clothes from my sister, but I was scared because I didn’t want anyone to see me going over there.

Like my stalker…the guy I suspected was behind all of this.

“Cameras only caught the side of his face and nothing more. Not enough to go by,” I heard Wolf say.

I sprayed the area with a disinfectant cleaner I’d found under the sink, then wiped up the area I’d just sprayed before tossing all the trash into the can beside the sink and washing my hands.

All the while I listened to what Mig had to say, hoping to gain more insight into exactly what had happened.

When I didn’t learn anything more than I already knew, I started to make myself a sandwich.

I started out with a fried egg, then made it into a gourmet grilled cheese before I grabbed a bag of chips off the top of the fridge and took a seat.

All the men watched me as I sat, but I ignored them.

I wouldn’t be making them any food as long as they were holding me prisoner against my will.

So I made sure to make it sound like I enjoyed it.

By the time I was finished, all of them were glaring at me.

I got up, folded up the bag of chips, and then washed my dishes before I turned to survey the room.

Ridley had just finished cleaning up what was left of the glass.

Griffin finished boarding up the last of the wood across the door.

And Mig showed Wolf something on his phone.

Peek was still on the phone, from what I could hear, so I chose to go into the living room that butted up against the kitchen and turned on the TV.

I chose the girliest show I could find,
Project Runway
, and turned up the TV so loud that I drowned out the men’s voices in the kitchen.

I looked down at my phone over and over again, but Casten never called. Before long, I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I let them drift closed on thoughts of how badly I’d screwed up Casten’s life.

My dreams were anything but sweet.

“She’s got a death grip on the remote. Every time I tried to take it from her, she started to wake up. So we left it on. Couldn’t figure out how to turn it off from the TV, though,” I heard, interrupting my sleep.

My eyes slowly opened, and I stared up into the stormy gray eyes that I was beginning to fall in love with.

His eyes weren’t happy, though. Far from it.

“Go to bed, Tasha,” he said.

I scrambled up to my feet and stared at Casten worriedly.

“Is she…” I hesitated. “She’s okay?”

He shrugged. “Okay as any dog who got shot, I suppose.”

My stomach sank.

“But she’ll recover?” I confirmed.

He nodded. “Vet says she will.”

I closed my eyes, finally taking a deep breath for the first time since I’d been woken up during the night.

“Okay,” I said, smiling sadly at him.

I waved at Mig as I walked past Casten, then turned the corner into the hallway, heading away from where I’d spent a great night with Casten, and into the spare bedroom.

My feet felt heavy as I walked further and further away from him, and I felt like I was leaving a piece of my heart behind.

Would he want me if I kept putting him and his family in danger?

I got my answer the next morning.

And it wasn’t the one I’d hoped for.

Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money.

-E-card

Casten

I finally let myself walk stiffly to my bedroom where, hopefully, Tasha was set to sleep a few more hours.

I wouldn’t mind a cuddle or two…not that I’d ever admit that.

But when I got into my room, it was empty.

I frowned and looked at my watch, noting the time.

Four in the morning.

She wouldn’t be up already. It was too early, and she didn’t have anything to do today, seeing as it was Sunday morning.

But I poked my head into the bathroom just in case, but that was empty as well.

Frowning, I walked down the hall toward the bedroom I’d given her to make use of while she was here and found her curled into a ball on the bed.

Her hands curled around her arms, and her head was buried into the fluffy pillow beneath her head.

She looked so small, curled up like that.

Raising my hand to scratch my head, I contemplated getting into the bed with her but decided against it.

The bed really wasn’t big enough for the two of us. It was a twin, and I wasn’t a very small guy.

I chose to go into my own room and lay down, which turned out to be a huge mistake since Tasha woke up only two hours later and took off.

Or so I thought.

Well, in all technicality, she did leave.

But not me.

She left the house to go visit Koda, something I found out when I turned on the GPS tracker I had on her car minutes after I woke up.

Although it was nice that she didn’t want to wake me and that she wanted to visit Koda, I was pissed.

And I may have taken that out on her the moment I walked into the vet’s office and found her.

My boots pounded on the white tiled floor as I made my way into the vet’s office.

“I’m here to visit Koda,” I told the woman at the front desk.

The woman frowned at me and my attire.

“We can only accommodate one visitor at a time,” she hedged.

“Let him through, Darlene,” a grizzled old doctor in the back of the room called.

I turned my gaze to him to find him watching me with narrowed eyes.

I nodded at him, and Darlene opened the gate that would lead me to the back where all the dogs were held.

She kept looking warily over her shoulder as I followed behind her, and by the time we reached the very back door at the furthest point in the clinic, it wasn’t even funny any longer.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I barked.

Darlene jumped.

“No,” she said, her voice a little bit too high. “Of course not.”

I snorted. “Thanks,” I mumbled, pushing past her and walking into the room.

She squeaked when my arm brushed her shoulder, and she threw herself backwards so hard that the door banged against the wall with a thud.

I just rolled my eyes.

Bikers really got one of three reactions from women.

1. Fear.

2. Curiosity.

3. Disdain.

This woman was firmly entrenched in the ‘fear’ category, and, right then, it was grating on my motherfuckin’ nerves.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I barked the moment I saw Tasha.

The woman who was scared of me gasped at my harsh language…or maybe it was because she was scared again. I didn’t know and I didn’t care.

My eyes were all for the sexy little woman in tight black pants that molded to her tight ass and shapely thighs.

Tasha growled at me when Koda jerked at hearing my voice.

“Ohh,” Tasha fussed, soothing Koda without touching her.

“She still won’t let you touch her?” I asked.

Tasha glared. “No.”

I crossed the room and stood over the cage that Koda was in.

“Stop that racket,” I ordered her.

Koda stopped instantly.

“Damn,” Tasha said. “I’ve been trying to get her to do that for the last thirty minutes. I even brought her a treat that the doctor said she could have. She never stopped growling…until you walk in, of course.”

I nodded. “As it should be.”

She blinked.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because Koda’s my dog,” I declared. “She’s been at my six for as long as I can remember.”

Tasha sighed.

“Why’d you leave without telling me?” I took a seat with my back against the wire cage behind me.

It housed a poodle that had his tiny head in a cone that was too big for him to even turn around without hitting the sides.

He offered no protest as I gave him my back so I could sit directly next to Koda.

Tasha picked at her fingernails, then shrugged without answering.

“Tasha,” I burst out.

She sighed.

“You told me I needed to leave, that I was fucking up your life,” she rushed out.

I blinked.

“I did no such thing,” I barked.

Koda’s body tensed at the tone in my voice.

Tasha winced.

“You did,” she confirmed.

I frowned.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because I think I’d remember saying something like that to you.”

She nodded. “You said, and I quote, ‘You’re fucking up my life. Get out of my house.’”

I tapped my finger against my lip, thinking about what she’d said.

“I…I talk in my sleep. A lot,” I admitted.

She gave me a droll look.

“You’re full of shit,” she countered.

In answer, I got my phone out of my pocket and pulled up my sister’s number before hitting send.

Turning it onto speakerphone, I waited for her to answer.

When she did, I could hear her giggling about something.

“What do you want, big brother?” CeeCee asked.

I heard Joe’s rumbling voice in the background, as well as a TV, before it abruptly cut off.

“Will you tell Tasha that I talk random shit in my sleep?” I asked her.

CeeCee burst into laughter.

“He does. Talks about cows. Going swimming. Anything and everything. None of it makes a lick of sense, either,” CeeCee concurred.

“Thanks, CeeCee,” I ended the call.

Tasha looked at me suspiciously.

“I swear, she teases me about it constantly,” I promised.

Tasha pursed her lips.

“Fine,” she growled, crossing her arms and trying her hardest to appear mad when she really wasn’t anymore.

“So, did the doctor come in and tell you how she was doing?” I asked, changing the subject.

She nodded.

“I told him I was your wife, because he didn’t want to give me any information if I wasn’t ‘kin’,” she mimicked, using finger quotes.

I nodded.

“Doc Allen doesn’t like conversing with people. I’m sure he was just hoping you weren’t anyone important to me so he could get out of talking to you,” I admitted.

She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I got that,” she said. “He said that Koda’s wound was doing nicely,” she pointed to her left leg where, last night, they’d started an IV on her. “They took her IV out as soon as I got here. Then she started to wake up…and growl.”