Gauge, page 6
“Not taking two pain pills again.”
She chuckled, and the sound blanketed him in warmth. “We’ll talk about that tomorrow.” She fluffed his pillow and nudged him to ease back. “What were you dreaming about?”
With effort, he looked at her. “The shooting. Remembered more.” He narrowed his gaze, piecing through the broken segments. Romanos. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“The Romanos were behind it. The guy asked for Hunter. I dreamed that part before, but I guess it didn’t register as being important. He said ‘Don’t fuck with the Romanos,’ before he shot me.”
“I’ll be right back.” She rushed out of the room and returned several seconds later with her laptop. She tapped some keys as she walked around the other side of the bed and sat beside him.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the shop.” She sat the computer on his leg so he could see.
Within a few seconds, Bear’s face came onto the screen. “I thought you were sleeping,” he said. “Thought you were supposed to call when you woke up.”
“That’s what I’m doing now,” she said, leaning in, so he could see her sitting there. “He remembered the shooting.”
“Just a second.” Bear yelled at the others in the shop as he fiddled with the connections. “I’m putting you on the big screen.”
“Should’ve showered first,” Gauge grumbled.
“No showering, yet,” Viola said.
“I’ll come give you a sponge bath, big fella,” Blade said, leaning in front of the camera.
Blade was yanked away, and Anna came into view. “You look so good. How are you feeling?”
“Like someone beat my chest with a bat.”
“It takes more than a bat to knock you on your ass,” Brody yelled in the background.
“Apparently, one bullet is enough to do the trick,” Gauge said.
“Scared the shit outta us, brother,” Hunter said. “When that guy’s arm—oops, sorry, forgot I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
“Pretty sure I remember everything,” he said, feeling slightly better seeing his teammates.
“Let’s hear it,” Bear said.
“I’m recording this,” Viola said, whipping out her phone. She quickly recited the intro before Gauge started.
He recounted the dream, sharing every detail that didn’t include images of Viola’s face. No way was he spilling about that. When he got through with the pertinent details, he heard Roc growling in the background. The Romanos had kidnapped Heather and Maya, not once, but twice. Roc and Heather were together now, but the most recent kidnapping was still fresh on everyone’s minds.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Axle said. “Why make a hit after the feds were crawling all over the place? Seems like they’d wait until the dust settled to exact revenge.”
“Not all mafias are created equal,” Roc said, his voice dark. He’d know. He was the son of the largest mafia leader in the world.
Gauge yawned, fighting the fog of sleep that wanted to claim him again.
Viola reached for the laptop, but he grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
“You need to rest.”
“We’re working,” he said, determined to help, no matter how hard it was for his mouth to form words. He picked up his water and took a healthy swig.
“We’ll start digging into this,” Bear said. “You’ve helped more in ten minutes than we’ve been able to do on our own the last several days. Get some rest.”
“This is bullshit,” he muttered, dropping his head back and closing his eyes.
He heard voices, but they got softer as he drifted off.
The last thought he had was that he wasn’t taking any more of those dang pain pills. He needed to be alert. He needed to help figure out who was after them.
And if a small part of him didn’t want to miss a single moment of Viola walking around barefoot in his house, he ignored it.
Chapter Seven
At the soft knock on the door, Viola grabbed her gun and peeked through the window. She knew Shelby and Anna were coming over, but she was not going to risk anybody getting to Gauge when he was defenseless. Seeing the women she was expecting on the porch made her shoulders relax. She put her weapon in the holster and opened the door.
“You guys rock,” she said, grabbing the grocery bags from Shelby, who then jogged back to her car for more.
Anna followed Viola to the kitchen with her own load. “You got enough to feed an army.”
“Have you seen the Bang Shift crew? Those men are mountains.”
Anna snorted. “True.”
“Here’s the last of it,” Shelby said, dropping the bags on the counter.
“Did you shut the door?” Viola asked as she put the cold cuts in the fridge.
“Yep, and locked it. Are you gonna tell us why you wanted all this food?” Shelby asked. “I already said you could stay with us. I’m still pissed you didn’t call last night.”
Viola eyed her, knowing good and well Shelby had either already been asleep or knee-deep in kinky stuff by then.
Anna snorted.
“Oh, please,” Shelby said. “I could’ve just untied Mason—”
“What?” Viola and Anna both whispered heatedly, leaning in.
“I thought he was the one wielding the whip,” Anna said.
“Oh, he is, but I told him if he threatened to whisk me away to some private island until the shooter is found one more time, I was going to punish him. You can’t just make idle threats to a man like that. So, I bound his wrists behind his back and stuffed a ball gag in his mouth.”
Anna giggled. “It’s amazing how stubborn men can be.”
“Exactly,” Viola said and glanced around the island to make sure she didn’t hear Gauge stirring. “Which was why I needed y’all to get some food. That man is being hardheaded,” she said, dropping her voice in case he was awake and listening.
Anna rolled her eyes. “Not the least bit surprised.”
“He almost refused to take his pain medication the last time. He’s acting like it’s a waste of time sleeping, like he should be helping with the investigation.”
“Good gravy. The man hasn’t even been home from the hospital twenty-four hours,” Anna said, propping her hands on her hips.
“Stubborn, the whole lot of them,” Shelby said.
“Exactly. It’s the weekend, so I’m going to see if Bear and the guys can work from here tomorrow. That way, maybe Gauge will feel like he’s helping but can keep his butt in the bed while he’s doing it.”
“Smart,” Anna said.
“He won’t get as much rest that way, though,” Shelby said.
“I know, but he’s already fighting himself over this. Maybe a couple of days of working around here won’t wear him down too much.”
“Worth a shot,” Shelby said, and then frowned. “Poor choice of words.”
“I’m gonna talk to Bear about it, but I could use your help getting Blade on our side,” Viola said to Anna as she put the frozen vegetables up. Since the two of them were getting married, Blade would do whatever Anna wanted.
“Not a problem, girl.”
“I can do one even better,” Shelby said, whipping out her cell phone. “I’ll text Heather and tell her to schedule a deep cleaning of the shop this weekend. The dock has already been processed, and she hates how filthy the guys are when they’re in the car zone. She’ll be giddy.”
Viola winced. “Won’t that make the guys mad? I thought she was just part-time help up there.”
Shelby laughed. “Girl, she has Roc wrapped around her little finger. Like, he’ll literally fall at her feet if she says the word. If she wants it done, he’ll go toe-to-toe with any of the guys to make sure she gets exactly what she wants.”
“And that’s putting it mildly,” Anna said drily. “Plus, with Heather on board, then Maya will be, which means Hunter will do it, too.”
“It’ll be a domino effect. The only one without a woman in his ear will be Bear, and according to what he said this morning, he’ll be over here most of the time anyway.”
Viola tried not to act too surprised by that, but when she asked, “What did he say?” her voice coming out a little too high.
Shelby smiled coyly, which only further proved Viola’s suspicion that she wasn’t playing as cool as she should’ve been. “That he’s the only single member of their group, so it was reasonable for him to be the one to sleep here. It’s not like Gauge has a girlfriend to step in.” She quirked an eyebrow.
“Ahh. Makes sense.” Does it? Hell, she didn’t know. Ignoring Shelby’s comment, Viola put the last hunk of meat in the fridge to make pulled pork tomorrow.
“I feel like we should address the elephant in the room,” Anna said.
Why were Viola’s cheeks getting hot? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Girl, you know we got your back,” Shelby said, reaching out and gently squeezing her arm. “If you don’t want to be around Gauge, you don’t have to be. We know there’s history,” she dragged out the last word. They don’t know the specifics, but with Viola’s refusal to come to Arkansas in the past and a few girls’ nights vague confessions, they weren’t exactly clueless, either.
“There is,” she said slowly. “But that was a long time ago. Before I even met Dave.”
“So, there’s no weirdness?” Anna asked.
“Oh, there’s something alright, but I’d say it’s more surreal than anything else.” She stepped back to look toward the darkened hallway where Gauge slept. “I told him I didn’t want to focus on the past, and he agreed,” she said, dropping her voice to barely a whisper.
“Probably a good idea. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the working dynamic between the feds and the Bang Shift. It’s been a wild ride so far, but I get the feeling there’s going to be a lot more mafia-based missions with Roc’s inside knowledge,” Anna said as she tapped on her phone. “Blade’s on board,” she said, looking up from her cell.
“Are you going back to the bureau full-time?” Viola asked as Shelby and Anna both sent other messages on their phones.
Anna shook her head and dropped her cell onto the counter. “Nope. I’m way too busy planning the wedding right now. I might change my mind after we’re married, but the reality is Blade and I don’t need the money.” She waved her hand dismissively and the enormous diamond on her finger seemed to punctuate her statement.
“I’m sure the contracts pay much more than the salary anyway,” Viola said.
“Oh, yeah,” Shelby said. “The last one got the team millions of dollars.”
“Holy crap,” Viola breathed. She was getting by now after struggling to get her finances back on track, but she didn’t have much cash left over each month after paying her bills and putting a little into savings. She couldn’t wrap her head around that kind of money.
“Heather’s all over this plan,” Shelby announced with a snicker.
“Good,” Anna said and opened a package of cookies before facing Viola. “Blade said that was a unique situation. They’d only gotten that much because of Roc’s connection to the cartel. But yeah, the money’s definitely better.”
“Seems strange the feds would shell out those bucks when they could just pay their employees more,” Viola said.
“No one said the government’s smart,” Shelby said.
“Yeah, which is why I’m thinking of bowing out gracefully. My soon-to-be-mother-in-law would just love for me to be a lady of leisure.” Anna rolled her eyes.
“Hell, she sounds like the type that would clutch her pearls seeing you eat junk food before the wedding,” Shelby said, nodding to the cookies.
“No doubt.”
Viola’s watch buzzed, alerting her to a text message from Jedrek. She sighed, not knowing what to think about him. She’d messaged him before getting on the plane to Arkansas and again after he’d called her last night, but she hadn’t talked to him since he’d sorta asked her out on that date.
“Uh-oh, what’s that look for?” Shelby asked.
“It’s Jedrek,” she said.
Shelby smiled. “Oh, really? He’s still sniffing around?”
“Yeah. Not sure how I feel about it, either. I mean he’s sweet and all—”
“Ha! On what planet? He’s a hard ass if I’ve ever seen one,” Shelby said. “Dude takes his Dom role super seriously, too. The scene he did with us, he had me tied up to the ceiling. It was insane.”
“Which is another problem,” Viola said, glancing at the wall that separated the kitchen to the living room…and the hall that led to Gauge. “I’m not sure how I feel about doing something like that. I mean, I could see playing around a little, but I get the feeling he’d be way too intense for me.”
“I’m telling you girl, being a sub holds way more power than you think. Mason might be dominating, but I’m the one giving it to him. Any Dom worth his salt knows the gift he’s been given.”
“I get that,” Viola said. “I do, but I’m not sure if it’s something I’d want. Dave and I were at the club that night. We saw all kinds of stuff, but at the end of the day, I think the novelty would wear off.” Lowering her voice, she said, “Jedrek said he’d answer all my questions if I meet him at an Italian restaurant that’s opening up in a few weeks.”
“He asked you out?” Anna asked, stuffing another cookie into her mouth.
“Kinda. He’s going to be there anyway and left the decision up to me if I show up or not.”
“Primavera?” Viola nodded. “Well, that’s sneaky,” Shelby said with a smirk. “You gonna go? If it makes you feel any better, Mason and I will be there. The owner is a member at their club.”
Viola shook her head. “It doesn’t, and I haven’t decided. Part of me thinks there’s no harm in meeting him for dinner. I have to get back in the dating game at some point. See what other fish are out there.”
“And the other part?” Anna asked.
“Doesn’t want to do a cannonball into the deep end of the water.” They all chuckled lightly. “I mean, I should probably tread a little water first.”
“Look, every man I’ve worked around is intense in some way. Ex-military. Mercenaries. Agents,” Shelby said. “Hell, even the mechanics in my dad’s old shop had an edge to them. Just because a guy isn’t into kink doesn’t mean he’s not going to slam you against the wall and make you scream. Getting back out there is bound to be intense, anyway.”
“She’s right,” Anna said.
Viola grabbed a cookie and munched on it, thinking about what the women had said. Shelby had a point. Viola had been with Dave for so many years, that now, she was nervous about all of it. She wasn’t even sure if she knew how to be flirtatious anymore.
“What’s the other problem?” Anna asked.
“Huh?” Viola asked absently.
“You said Jedrek being a Dom was another problem. What’s the other?”
Viola swallowed, trying her best not to look in the direction where she knew Gauge was sleeping. “Nothing really. I’m just not sure—”
“Girl, don’t even lie. You just totally looked down the hall.” Shelby leaned in. “Do you still have feelings for Gauge?”
“What?” She reared back, but her laugh sounded off to her own ears. “No. We were practically kids back then.”
“You’re blushing,” Shelby said. A huge smile slowly formed on her face. “Oh, my gosh, you’re seriously blushing.”
“Stop it,” Viola whispered heatedly. “How would you feel if you hadn’t seen the guy who took your virginity, and suddenly, you’re sleeping in the next room?”
Shelby gasped. Anna’s eyes popped. Crap. She had a big freaking mouth.
“Holy shit,” Shelby breathed, bouncing on the toes of her feet. Bouncing.
“That’s major,” Anna said with less glee than their friend was sporting.
“It is,” Shelby agreed.
“It’s not. Unless you’re a monk, you’re gonna have a first. It’s not a big deal,” Viola said.
“Yeah, but you’re single and he’s single and you’re staying in his house, nursing him back to health. That’s bound to stir some feelings,” Anna said.
“It doesn’t change what happened,” Viola said.
“And what was that?” Shelby asked, leaning in closer, almost invading Viola’s personal space.
“Shel,” Anna admonished. She looked at Viola. “You don’t have to answer that.”
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” She shrugged, trying to make light of it but not sure if it worked. “He broke up with me, and I didn’t exactly ask why. We were just starting out in life. We were both different people back then.”
“Well, I can tell you the Gauge he is now couldn’t take his eyes off you at the baby shower,” Shelby said. She pulled out a cookie and wrapped the package up.
“I was surprised to see him, too.” The moment she’d walked into the barn, she’d seen him, and he hadn’t even been near the door. She’d allowed herself one glimpse, but then she’d locked her gaze straight ahead, forcing herself not to stare at him.
“Nah, I mean, he was totally eye-fucking you.”
“Jeez, Shelby,” Anna said, exasperated. “You spend too many hours working around the guys.”
“Oh, c’mon. It’s not like I’m saying dirty jokes.” Her phone rang, and she groaned. “It’s the boss. Here we go.” She connected the call, and answered brightly, “Hey, Bear.”
Viola checked her watch. “Tell him Gauge’s medicine should be wearing off in about an hour,” she muttered to Shelby. He was supposed to stay with Gauge at night. If he got here before the girls left, she could follow Shelby to her house.
Shelby waved her off and walked out the back door onto the deck.
“Any news on the shooter?” Viola asked Anna.
“Not yet. There’s talk of me and Blade flying to Texas to investigate on the ground since we’re most familiar with the dynamics.”
“Oh, right, y’all were there when Maya was dealing with her mafia ex.”
“Yep, but Blade is not eager to go with Xan so close to delivering. Out of all the guys in the group, he’s closest to Brody. I’ll play this however he wants.”
