CHAPTER 1 #3
I shook my head at myself. I was having a pity party and there wasn’t time for it. I had to shower, get dressed and find my brother. I may be useless for most things now, but I refused to let Colt down. He had always been there for me, and I would not fail him at the one time he may need me.
I powered through the shower, refusing to look at any part of myself where I might see the scars. It had been ten years. I needed to get the hell over it all, and I knew it.
Once I was out and dried off I pulled on underwear and a pair of black skinny jeans with a black long sleeved henley.
It was hardly in keeping with the dress code at Temple , but it was as much as I was willing to do to fit in.
I slid on my black slip on sneakers and scraped my hair into a pony tail on my head.
I didn’t even own make up any longer, so that was a no go, even if I had wanted to give my self a boost, which I did not.
I didn’t care what anyone thought, I reminded myself.
I packed up the rest of my belongings into the small backpack I brought with me, and tried calling Colt one last time before I left the room.
Of course there was no answer, and there was nothing in reply to the texts I had sent him either.
I had a bad feeling I wasn’t going to find him at Temple , but since he mainly worked out of his office there, I hoped I could at least find some clues about what was going on, amongst his papers in there.
Opting to walk to the club I pulled on my long, black, wool overcoat and left the hotel via the front entrance.
It was bitterly cold outside and dark now that the sun had set.
Some snow lingered from the last storm, and it was playing havoc with the black chrome walking stick I used to help support me.
It had a handle that I usually pressed my weight onto.
But the slippery surface underfoot made that impossible.
Add to that how crowded the sidewalk was, and the fight I faced just to get through, and I was shaking with exhaustion by the time I got to the front of Temple .
It wasn’t until I was before it, looking at the entrance that hadn’t changed one bit since the last time I ran through it ten years before, that I realized returning there may not be as simple as I’d expected it to be.
Instantly a replay of that night opened in my head, and I saw myself naively fleeing the club because of such ridiculous jealousy, launching myself into the danger of the city late at night, alone and unable to defend myself. I’d been such an idiot.
“Can I help you?” I startled from the memory that had sucked me back in time and looked up at a huge guy who loomed over me.
I wasn’t short at five feet eight, but this guy had almost a foot on me.
He had his arms crossed over his chest, and even through the black jacket he wore I could see how wide his biceps were and the sheer width of his built shoulders.
Still shaken from the memory I tried to step back, away from him, but my left foot slipped out from me on a patch of ice and I went down hard and fast.
“Mother fuck!” I screeched as pain shot through my back in violent spasms. At least I’d managed not to smash my already damaged spine on the ground this time.
“Fuck! Are you alright?” The bruiser of a guy panicked as he knelt on the floor beside me.
I took in the neon yellow lanyard around his neck and realized it was a security ID, for the club.
I followed that up to a wide neck. His jaw was strong and covered with short stubble.
His nose was straight and just slightly too big for his face to make him classically handsome.
His eyes, which were scanning me, probably for injuries, were wide, and the color was a light Gray that just verged on blue under the lights from the club.
His hair was neat and styled in place, shorter on top and pushed up and to the right just a little on top.
It was a chestnut brown that suited his light eyes, complimenting them and softening his intimidating size as he just stayed at my side, awaiting my answer.
“I’m fine,” I answered abruptly, pulling my eyes away from his before he lured me in any further.
He may not be classically handsome, but he was still good looking and definitely sex on a stick.
It had been a long time for me, and even in the state my body was, I could still dream a little.
“You always sneak up on people and scare the shit out of them like that?” I added as I grabbed my stick and started the struggle to get my ass off of the freezing sidewalk and back to my feet.
“I called out to you, but you didn’t answer. It’s like you zoned out. I just wanted to check you were good. Your face?” He nodded to my bruised face as he placed his hand under my right elbow and helped me to get up. “Who did that to you?”
I looked up, hearing some anger in his growled words, and found him watching me with concern, and fire in his eyes.
“Stand down soldier,” I quipped as a smile teased my lips. “I already took care of the dipshit.”
“You did?” he questioned as he looked me over with a raised eyebrow.
“You got something against women who know how to take care of themselves?” I asked defensively.
“Fuck no. I just hate when women need to,” he sighed as his face softened a little.
He had looked intimidating when he was pissed, but now his features had softened, and despite his huge size, I found myself seeing something gentle in his eyes.
“You’re trouble, huh?” he asked, and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth, making him even better looking.
“With a capital ‘T’.” I replied with a smile of my own. “Don’t you forget it.”
“Wouldn’t dare,” he told me as he held his hands up before him in surrender. “You a member here?” He nodded to the club behind him.
“Used to be. I moved away. I’m looking for Colton. Is he around?”
“And you are?” he questioned.
“Ava Scott. Colt’s my brother. I need to speak to him. It’s important.”
“Come inside. I’ll call up to the office,” he said as he placed his wide hand at the small of my back, and helped me into the entrance. I would have protested had I not been feeling shaky and unsteady after the first fall.
“So Colt’s here?” I asked hopefully.
“No idea. I only just started my shift,” he shrugged. “Name’s Deacon, by the way. You can call me Deak,” he added with a wink, which I rolled my eyes at, but inside things were stirring that I’d started to believe no longer functioned.
I watched Deak as he rounded the counter where Jean-Pierre used to stand each evening. He picked up a phone and started dialing a number. The whole time I was fighting not to fidget with the nerves of being back in that place, and the hope that Colt would just answer the call.
“Hey, it’s Deak down at the front entrance. I got a pretty girl down here asking for Colt. Says she’s his sister,” Deak said into the phone and I tensed even more. Please let that be Colt , I pleaded over and over.
“Okay. Manager’s on his way down, says you know him,” Deak said as he set the phone down and looked to me.
“My brother?”
“Jack said he’s not here.”
“Jack?” I questioned as my heart started to pound too hard. “Jack Hilton? He’s still the manager here?”
“He is. He’s also part owner now too,” Deak told me.
I had no idea how that had come about, but Colt had never mentioned Mason or Jack to me in the years I’d been gone.
Maybe because he suspected there had been something between us and he didn’t want to upset me.
Either way I knew nothing about the two of them any longer.
“And should we talk about you calling me a ‘pretty girl?’” I added more firmly as I stared him down, in an attempt to hide my internal panic from him. I hated people seeing my weaknesses.
“Just stating a fact,” Deak said as he held his hands up in surrender again, then circled the desk and headed for the door he was stationed at before. “Boss will be here any minute. Just wait there, okay?”
I nodded, but the second Deacon was back outside, I was considering running.
I didn’t want to face Jack after all of this time.
What if he was married now? What if he had kids?
What if he took one look at me and was repulsed?
I tried hard to convince myself I didn’t care about any of it, but I did.
I had feelings for Jack and Mason and I still felt the sting of their betrayal that night when they had been with that other sub and not me.
Part of me, a very irrational and hateful part, blamed them for what happened to me that night that I had foolishly fled the club alone just because I was jealous.
But it wasn’t their fault, It was mine. That was the past and I needed to focus on now. I needed to find Colt.
“Ava?” I hadn’t heard Jack walk in from the club, but when I glanced up, there he was, standing over me and looking just as sinful and sexy as he always had.
My brain was overloaded just trying to take him in, but then Mason stepped out of the club too and it was just too much.
Mason looked almost the same. His neatly cut afro hair was shorter now, standing just a centimeter or so off his head, and he had a neat, short, trimmed beard and moustache which just added to his appeal.
He didn’t look any older, but he was definitely even more in shape that he used to be, his wide biceps, ripped chest, and strong shoulders clear to see beneath the close fitting thin, dark green sweater he wore.
Jack was just as I remembered him. His wavy hair hung down to just above his shoulders, the front of it falling down from where he had likely just pushed it back from his face.
His bright blue eyes were locked on me and taking me in carefully.
He was dressed in tight fitting black jeans, and a white shirt that clung to his lithe, muscular body beneath in all the right ways.
His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and I could see his tattoos peeking out beneath both sleeves and up his neck from the open collar.
He was covered with tattoos all over his torso, back, arms, and neck, and when I’d seen him naked I’d always considered him the most spectacular work of art I had ever seen.
“Ava?” Jack repeated as he rubbed at his lightly stubbled chin, then lowered to his haunches before me.
“What are you doing here, darlin’? What happened to your face?
” he asked as he reached out his right hand and held my chin, moving my face side to side as he took in the bruising, then turned an angry glare to Mason behind him.
Finally sense returned to me as I batted away his hand and glared hard at him.
“Don’t touch me!” I growled. “I need to see Colt. Is he here or not?”
“Not,” Jack told me with a shake of his head, but he didn’t move from where he was crouched before me. “He’s away for a fortnight,” Jack added.
“Away where? He didn’t tell me he was going anywhere.”
“He said he was going to Chicago, to spend some time with you. He called and left me a voicemail last week. Asked Jack to handle things here,” Mason further explained.
“No,” I shook my head as I tried to make my sluggish brain think straight. “He’d have called if he was coming to see me, and he didn’t. He hasn’t even called me this week.”
“Yeah, we thought it was a bit odd that he didn’t tell us before he went, but he has been worried about you. We guessed he just decided last minute,” Jack shrugged.
“Something’s not right. I need to get in his office,” I demanded as I grabbed my stick and used it to push myself to my feet. It wasn’t until I was standing and I looked to Jack to let me pass, that I realized both he and Mason were looking to the stick, and my shaky position with confusion.
“What happened?” Mason demanded as he stepped forward and stood at Jack’s side now.
I sighed deeply as I looked between them. I didn’t have time for this. There was no way Colt came to see me and didn’t even call me when he got to my place and discovered it abandoned.
“I got shot, okay? Spinal injury. I’m fucked up and have the mobility of a hundred year old granny, but hey, I retained control of my own bowels and bladder, so that’s a win huh? Least that’s what everyone told me. So lucky. Go me! ” I blurted with a fake cheer.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t Colt tell us that?” Mason asked in a gasp.
“He doesn’t know. No one did until right now. So can we just get over it, and find my fucking brother, please? I plan on kicking his ass when I get my hands on him.”
“Fuck no, Ava,” Jack barked. “You don’t get to charge in here bruised and injured, lay that shit on us and pretend nothing bloody changed. What the fuck? Why haven’t you told Colt? A fucking spinal injury and you didn’t even tell your own brother?”
“You know what? I don’t have time for this.
Colt’s in trouble, and now he’s fucking missing.
I need to find him!” I snapped as I shoved my way between them and headed for the back of the club where I could get up to the office.
The stairs were going to be a bitch, but determination alone would get me up them.