Awakening Her Racy Passion [Racy Nights 9] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“Ria called it in.” She turned toward Luke’s voice to watch detectives Harrison Kelly and Sean Brennan advance toward her, followed by Luke. She knew both Harrison and Sean. Harrison was one of Gina Santori’s Doms, along with Racy’s mayor, Zach Kincaid. Sean was a Dom to Julie Carruthers.

Ria wasn’t against the BDSM lifestyle, or the triads that seemed to be very popular in Racy, but she’d felt uncomfortable around Sean ever since last summer, when she and her former BFF Marisol Santiago had had a terrible falling out. It was an awkward situation because Julie’s other Dom, Maddox McCree, was a cousin to one of Marisol’s Doms, Ellis McCree.

Complicating that mess even further was the fact that Marisol’s other Dom was Ria’s oldest brother, Rafe. It had been Ria who had outed them to her parents, and that had, in turn, caused a rift in the family that most of the BDSM community, as well as her parents, still hadn’t stopped talking about.

Ria knew it was killing Luke to go through this as he was in the lifestyle as well. Luke, along with Chase Taylor, was a Dom to Alexa Monahan. Luke felt torn on the best of days, and Ria was surprised he hadn’t fired her by now.

Sean gave her a look that was all business. “You called it in?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“How did you know it had happened?”

“I was in the back washing dishes and I heard shouting out here. I—”

Sean cut her off. “What specifically did you hear?”

“They were just words.”

“Could you make out any of them?”

Ria thought for a second. Had she heard anything specific? “Yes. I did hear something. A voice said ‘I know you have money.’”

“Whose voice?”

“I don’t know. I thought I recognized it but now I can’t place it.”

“Male or female?”

“Male. Deep and gravelly. And he had a weird accent. It wasn’t Gerry’s voice. I’ve heard Gerry speak before.”

Sean and Harrison exchanged a quick glance. “What kind of accent?”

“I don’t know.”

Sean nodded. “Okay. Did you hear either man say anything else?”

“No. As soon as I heard the shouting I came outside, and that’s when I saw a man stab Gerry and then run that way.” She pointed west, toward the Iroquois River.

“How do you know it was a man?”

“It looked like a man.”

“Did you see his face?”

She shook her head. “He was tall, wearing a man’s leather jacket, jeans, and boots.”

“Did he see you?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

“How do you know he stabbed Gerry? Did you see the weapon?”

“No. I saw him shove his left arm toward Gerry, and then Gerry made a strangled sound and fell.”

Sean and Harrison exchanged a look. “Are you sure it was his left arm that moved?” asked Harrison.

“Yes. Positive. Why? Does that mean something?”

“It means we’re looking for a left-handed assailant, which narrows down the field a bit.”

Sean was already advancing toward where Trent and the other paramedic were loading Gerry into the back of the ambulance. Ria followed him. “Is he going to be all right?”

Karen had retrieved the bloody towels, and Ria was glad to see she now wore gloves to hold them. “Not sure yet.”

“Do you know him well?” asked Trent.

Ria had to swallow hard again. It was difficult to look into this man’s eyes without losing the ability to speak. “Not really, but everyone in Racy knows who he is. He’s harmless.”

“They’ll do everything they can to help him.”

“Thank you.”

As he and the other paramedic climbed into their seats and backed up the ambulance, Karen walked toward the building with Luke and the two detectives. Ria stood aside and watched the ambulance drive away, and then she went inside and stood next to Luke. “Can I help in any other way?”

“No. Sean and Harrison are going to poke around in the alley for clues.” Either Luke or Karen had placed the towels in a plastic bag, and now Luke held it out toward Sean. “Do you want these?”

Sean took it. “Sure.” He glanced at Ria. “Is there anything else you remember? Even something that seems insignificant to you might help us.”

“Nothing. Sorry.”

“Thanks for calling it in.”

When he and Harrison went back outside, Ria returned to the dishes she’d been washing earlier. Her mind drifted toward the image of the dark, spreading stain on Gerry’s shirt, and it was then that she realized he hadn’t been wearing a coat. Would Sean or Harrison need to know that? Probably not. Then again, it was no more than twenty degrees outside. Why hadn’t Gerry been wearing a coat?

She glanced around for Luke or Karen, but they must have gone back into the bar, so she opened the back door. Another police cruiser had arrived, and now there were four officers with flashlights in the alley. They’d turned the cruisers toward the spot where Gerry had been so that their spotlights pointed into the alley. Ria called to Harrison and told him that Gerry hadn’t been wearing a coat, but all he did was nod, so she went back inside.

Gradually, her thoughts drifted back to Trent. There was something so sexy about watching him in his dark blue uniform performing his paramedic duties. He’d worked for the hospital before leaving, and she was glad to see they’d given him a job again, but curious about why he’d been gone at all. What must it be like to save lives? What must it be like to have any meaningful job? Ria dried her hands and sat down at the tiny table. She was alone back here, and that was fine. She wasn’t ready to go out into the bar just yet.

What the hell was she doing with her life? She was thirty-three years old and she waited tables in a bar. And she wasn’t even very good at it. Luke had banned her from cooking because when the bar had been on Market Street she’d done some cooking for him, but everyone complained about how bad her food tasted. They’d been right. She was a terrible cook. When Luke reopened the bar here on Riverfront Drive in June, Ria had been reassigned to server and dishwasher.

She didn’t have any skills. Not like Bonnie who was an attorney, or her other good friend Leela Williams, who was the clerk of courts. Marisol was a court reporter, Ellis was the city building inspector, and Rafe worked in the comptroller’s office at City Hall. Everyone she knew had cool jobs and marketable skills. Most of them also had college degrees. She hadn’t even been able to keep a sales job at a department store because of her big mouth and gossipy ways.

Was this really what she was supposed to be doing with her life? Washing dirty glasses and bringing her friends burgers and pitchers of beer five nights a week? And mooning over a paramedic who barely glanced at her? She’d lost the best friend she’d ever had because of her inability to keep anything to herself for longer than two minutes. What would happen to her in ten years? Twenty? Who would be left?

Ria stood up as Luke came into the back room.

“You done with the dishes?”

“Yes. Do you think Gerry will be okay?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

“Can I ask you a question, and can you promise not to laugh at it?”

He gave her a curious look then ruffled her hair. “Sure, kiddo. What is it?”

She hated the nickname and the gesture, but this time she didn’t chide him for either one. “Do you think I’m smart enough for college?”

Luke frowned. “What makes you think you’re not?”

She shrugged. “Maybe ‘smart’ isn’t the right word. Do you think I’m cut out for it?”

“What degree would you pursue?”

“I have no clue.”

“Well, if you figure that out, I say go for it. Why not? You have as much potential as anyone in this town. Don’t you know that?”

She stared at him, wondering if he realized that was the first compliment he’d given her in years. “Thanks.” She smiled and brushed past him. Time to get back to work.

Trent Rohan waited in the ER with Paul Wakefield, the paramedic with whom he was working tonight, until they’d taken Gerry to surgery, and then the two went into the staff lounge to wait for the next call. Saturday nights were usually busy in Racy, but Trent suspected the cold weather had kept the usual fights and accidents at bay tonight. “I hope he’ll make it.”

“You remember him?” asked Paul.

Trent nodded. “Yeah, I do now. Looked like a big blade. Kitchen knife, maybe?”

“Maybe they should have dusted for prints in the back room of Luke’s Bar, then?”

Trent frowned. “You kidding? The Rodriguez family are good people. Wyatt and I went to school with Rafe, their oldest.”

Paul made a face that Trent was used to seeing now, but it still pissed him off. “He’s part of that kinky stuff you’re still into isn’t he?”

“He and Luke both are. So what?” Trent stared him down. Paul was a kick-ass paramedic, but as a person, he was a fucking tight-ass that needed to seriously get the pole out of his keister.

“So you know how I feel. You’re all degenerates.”

“You know, for a health care provider in a town full of kinksters, you’re not very tolerant.”

Paul turned his attention back to the news, and Trent dropped the subject. It was pointless to argue and he knew it. He’d only been back six weeks, but he remembered Paul from when he’d worked as a basic EMT here in Racy.

Now, he had his paramedic certification from Indianapolis, and he didn’t need to keep his lifestyle a secret in this hospital like he’d had to do at his former job in Indy. He was grateful for that, but he wished they’d pair him up with someone other than Paul. Trent had nothing beyond gender and certification in common with the man. Paul was a deacon at his church, was married to the same woman he’d dated in high school, and they had two perfect teens who never did so much as sneeze in public.

If Paul wasn’t so judgmental of everyone who didn’t live the way he did, none of that would even bother Trent. He believed in live and let live. Although he’d been a Dom since college, he’d had plenty of friends who weren’t in the lifestyle and didn’t agree with it. But Paul was the only one who liked to try and bait him, and then shove his beliefs in his face, and Trent despised people who did that.

He tilted his chair onto the back legs until it touched the wall behind him and then he closed his eyes. Trent let his thoughts turn toward Ria, the dark-haired beauty whom he remembered as Rafe’s gossipy sister. Rafe had five sisters, but Trent had always found Ria the most alluring of them all. She was a spitfire, and he loved women like that. When he’d lived in Racy before, she’d been a sales clerk at Busler’s Department Store downtown. Why was she now waiting tables and washing dishes at her brother’s bar?

She’d watched them working on Gerry, and at first Trent thought she was going to pass out, but then as he’d sneaked quick glances at her face, he realized she wasn’t squeamish about the blood and gore. She was concerned for Gerry, and his stomach had given a quick little lurch as understanding dawned on him. He’d already been impressed that she hadn’t simply gone back inside as soon as they’d arrived. The compassion he’d glimpsed in that alley was a side of Ria Rodriguez he’d never seen before, and it made him want to get to know her better.

Front what little he’d heard of her conversation with Sean and Harrison, she’d called 911 right away, and had remembered a lot of details about the man who’d stabbed Gerry. That showed she could keep her head in a crisis. She wasn’t in the lifestyle, but that had never stopped him before. He made a mental note to ask Wyatt about her. His twin worked with one of Ria’s friends, Bonnie Kowalski, and that meant Wyatt might know more about her.

Paul glanced over his shoulder, and his question pulled Trent out of his reverie. “You mind if I change the channel?”

Trent shrugged. “Watch whatever you want.”

Paul picked up the remote. “Yeah, not much on. Sure wish we had our own local channels here. But I guess it’s not a big enough town for that.”

“Nope. Sure isn’t.” Racy had just over ten thousand residents, and while Trent had enjoyed living in a larger city for the conveniences it afforded, it hadn’t been anywhere near the same as his home town. It was good to be back. He’d missed the way each resident had at least a passing knowledge of all the others, and the way people came together to help one another.

But while everything was familiar, too many things had changed in the three years he’d been gone. He’d heard about the tornado, but hadn’t been prepared for the damage on Main and Market Streets. Many of the businesses were gone for good, and others had set up temporary quarters while their owners waited for the reconstruction to finish. Luke had been one of the lucky ones who had found another spot in which to reopen.

His mind started to wander toward the reason he’d left town to begin with, but Trent pushed away thoughts of Deanna. He couldn’t go there. Not tonight. It was still too raw. He forced his images back to the downtown area, which had been hit the hardest by the EF3 tornado in May. The buildings were scheduled to be completed by April, and the town was planning a celebration and grand reopening on May 3, the one-year anniversary of the storm. That had been Zach Kincaid’s idea.

As much of a shock as the damage had been, the news that Racy’s former mayor, Bernie Crumb, was facing charges for fraud and murder had been the biggest surprise. Trent was glad the town had voted Zach in as the new mayor, although his money would have been on Maddox McCree. He’d gone to school with Maddox, and had heard that the job was offered to him as well, but he’d turned it down. Zach would do well as mayor. He’d been a councilman for years now, and he was well-respected in this town.

As Trent glanced first at the TV and then at the back of Paul’s head, he smiled as he wondered what he thought of a mayor who was in the lifestyle. That must bug the shit out of people like Paul. At least the crap that Maddox used to take for having his club had abated somewhat.

Maddox ran a BDSM club in his house, and Trent remembered how Bernie and his cronies had constantly tried to get it shut down. Even among the residents of Racy who weren’t in the lifestyle, most of them didn’t give a passing thought to the club. They went their way and ignored it. But it only took a few people to put a monkey wrench into the works.