Two Doms for Christmas (9 page)

“That sounds horrible,” she said,
sinking down into the chair. “How do you fix something like that?”

“The proper way is to first repair
the gutter and the roof. Then you rip down anything that is water damaged and
replace it. If it is left too long it can create structural damage to the
framing, but hopefully it won’t take that long to repair the gutter and roof.
It’s mainly a pain in the ass job. So what did you do today?”

She really hadn’t done anything. “I
cleaned a bit and tried to get some writing done.” Tried was the main word in
that sentence.

“Med read some of your books. I
haven’t had time yet.”

That was surprising. So he had told
Med about her? “What did he think?”

“He likes your stuff, but commented
that the sex was a bit repetitive. It wasn’t bad; it just needed to be spiced
up a bit.”

“Oh.” Haley tried to be careful to
not repeat things or phrases, but she had limited experience that had turned
into memories about sex. At times, it was even difficult to remember what it
really felt like.

“I’m not trying to put you down,
Haley. Med was just making an observation. I think you need some new subject
matter to pump up your imagination.”

“Oh really?” she asked with a
giggle. “What kind of subject matter?”

“Do you like surprises?”

“Usually, yes. Why?”

“Because I will drop one off in the
morning. Have a good night, Haley. I have a long day tomorrow and need to get
some sleep. Where are you sleeping by the way?”

“On the sofa,” she said softly. She
didn’t really want to admit that.

“I’m sorry you’re lonely. Sleep
tight.”

“You too.”

She waited as she heard him hang up
the phone and then with a wistful sigh, returned to the couch. She had been worried
he would reprimand her for not sleeping in the bed, but instead he had
completely understood. How sweet was that?

Chapter Nine

 
Austin flopped back onto the sofa. “Shit,
she’s sleeping on the couch. That means she is lonely and is a bit freaked out.
She said that odd noises bother her and she gets spooked when she’s enclosed in
the bedroom. It’s not claustrophobia. It’s just being alone in the house at
night.”

“I guess you can understand that,
because you sleep out here half the time. Shit, I slept out here last night.”

“It just feels better to be in the
center of thing, so if something happens I can hear it.”

“I thought you said she has dogs.”

“She has two little puffballs. Well,
Sammie isn’t puffy. He’s a pug. Ginger is a Sheltie. They are both really
cute.”

“Do you think they would get along
with April and Jake?”

“Probably. They are older than my
two, but April and Jake are mellow with other dogs. Maybe we will have to
arrange a play date.”

Med laughed. “A play date? Do they
do that for dogs?”

“I don’t exactly know, but it
sounded good. What else would you call it?”

“No clue. When are we going to
arrange a play date for Haley?”

Shaking his head, Austin sighed. “I
already told you she is damaged. I don’t want to push things. We have a date to
go to see the Christmas lights over the weekend. Let me go alone with her
tomorrow night and then you can go on Saturday.”

Med smiled slyly. “Are we becoming
possessive in our old age?”

He was becoming a bit possessive.
He wanted Haley all to himself. He wanted to be the first one to make love to
her. He hadn’t interfered with Med’s last girlfriend. Of course he found the
woman intolerable. She was a needy sub with a grating voice when she wasn’t
getting her way. “Yes. I don’t want to scare her off or damage her more by
trying to introduce her to two Doms. Give me some time alone with her. I want
to figure out what she knows and what her husband did with her. I still have
too little information and you are not good at feeling out new Subs.”

Med sighed loudly. “You’re right.
You make bad choices in wives. I make bad ones with Subs.”

“I’ve only had one wife. Granted
she was a bad choice.” He and Med had been friends for so many years. It was a
completely unlikely friendship. They were two males with dominant personalities
who enjoyed sharing the same women. They had the same views on things. They
operated on the same level, and when they occasionally found the right woman,
the situation worked out well. It had happened twice in the past.

Shelia had been with them for two
months when she discovered she had cancer. She had been through hell, but they
had both been there for her. It had seemed like she was getting better, going
into remission, but it was a false hope. Shelia passed away two days shy of her
one year since diagnosis. They had met Lilly six months later and things were
good for a while. Lilly wanted more. She wanted them to make it permanent and
neither he nor Med were in the mindset to do so. It might have happened some
day had she stayed around, but Lilly had packed up one night and left.

Then he had met his wife and then
everything had gone to hell. Rebecca hated Med and that had been but one of the
many problems in their marriage.

Med threw a pillow at him. “Why so
serious suddenly? If you want some time alone with Haley then fine. Don’t get
huffy about it.”

He chuckled. “I wasn’t getting
huffy.
I was just thinking about Shelia and Lilly.”

“Hopefully three is the charm.”

“Yeah, hopefully. We should get
some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

“No shit. I like the summer better.
We hire crews and hang around and supervise.”

“I do too. Right now there’s not
enough work to keep them busy. That means getting our hands dirty. Luckily we
both know how to do it.”

“Ain’t money a bitch?”

Austin chuckled and rolled to his
side. April was curled up at his feet and he covered her up, sharing his
blanket with her. For the time being, Jake was sleeping on the floor with Med,
but that was always subject to change. He wondered if Haley was sleeping yet
and wished silently that she would dream of him. He certainly wanted to dream
about her.

* * * *

Haley sat straight up on the couch,
almost knocking Sammie to the floor again. She had heard something that didn’t
sound quite right. Was someone in the backyard? Peering cautiously over the
back of the sofa, she saw that the sensor light was on. She was probably being
stupid and it was just an animal. Had she turned the alarm on? Haley suddenly
couldn’t remember.

Ginger growled, the sound low and
filled with wariness. “Shh.” She tried to shush her, wondering what to do. Her
heart was racing in her chest as she slid off the sofa. She couldn’t see the
back door from where she was, so she crept to the cutout between the kitchen
and living room, peering over the wooden surface. What she saw stopped her
heart cold. Haley turned and saw that the alarm light was green. She had lain
down without resetting the alarm. The sound of the doorknob being jiggled sent
her into a panic. Ginger and Sammie raced by her, barking their fool heads off
as they headed toward the kitchen. Haley bolted to her feet, running to the
alarm box and hitting the code. The glass in the back door shattered and an arm
was reaching through it.

Her dogs! The man would hurt her
babies. Haley raced into the kitchen, just as the door was pushed open. Ginger
bit into his leg and he kicked out at her, sending her flying across the
kitchen and into the corner of the cabinet.

“No!” Haley screamed, grabbing for the
cast iron frying pan she had left out to make herself pancakes in the morning.
She swung it, catching the man in the side of the head and sending him crashing
to the floor.

“Ginger,” she whispered, dropping
down to her knees and lifting the small dog in her arms. The alarm siren
outside her house was wailing, but Haley heard it from a distance. Ginger was
limp, her small chest heaving. Sammie was beside her, licking her hand.

Haley was sobbing as she stood and
grabbed her purse, heading to the door. Sammie followed her to the car, hopping
onto the floor under the dash as she carefully set Ginger on the front seat.
Racing around the car, she got behind the wheel and sped out of the driveway.
She was oblivious to everything except the small ball of fur who lay beside
her. Let the damn burglar have her house. He could have everything. The only
thing that mattered was Ginger’s life.

She slid into the icy parking lot
of the emergency vet, planning on leaving Sammie in the car. He hopped out
before she could stop him and she suddenly didn’t have the heart to leave him.
With Ginger in her arms, she raced up the stairs and burst through the door.
“Can someone please help me? A man broke into my house, and he kicked Ginger
across the kitchen.” She could barely speak through the numbing tears that were
now falling down her face. “I think she’s dying. Please!”

One woman hurried around the
counter to her, as the other raced into the back to call for help. “We’ll take
good care of her, I promise,” she said, lifting Ginger from Haley’s arms. “Is
he yours?”

Haley nodded, no longer able to
speak through her tears. She was choking on them, as she leaned to pick Sammie
up. She wanted to say that Sammie and Ginger had been together forever. She
wanted to apologize for not having him on a leash. She could say nothing as she
watched them take Ginger away.

Sammie whimpered and she curled him
tighter into her arms as she went to sit down. She hadn’t even thought to close
the front door. The police were probably at her house right this minute. Why
hadn’t the alarm company called her? Haley pulled herself slightly back
together, taking her phone from her purse. The screen was black. “Son of a
bitch,” she whispered as she pushed the button to turn it back on. She really
needed to get a new phone that didn’t die on her at inopportune moments.

It booted up and she saw three
messages. She returned the one to her mother, cringing. “Hi, Mom. It’s Haley.”

“Oh my god, where are you? Your
alarm company called me. Are you okay?”

She instantly began to sob again.
“No.” Inhaling deeply, she tried to offset the tears enough to speak. Her
mother was not going to understand. “The man who broke into my house kicked
Ginger. I think he broke her ribs and she’s dying. I’m at the vet.”

“You walked out and left your house
wide open because your dog got hurt? The police want you home so they can
question you. Haley, what did you do, and what the hell were you thinking?”

“I hit the guy with a frying pan
and ran out.” Worrying filled her.

“I have to call the police, Mom.
I’ll call you later.”

“I’m already on my way to your
house. You need to get home, right now.”

“I can’t do that.” Haley hung up
the phone. She wanted to talk to Austin, needed to talk to him.

She dialed his number, hoping he
would answer. She was putting far too much faith in a man she had just met, but
Haley had an overwhelming feeling that if anyone could help her, it was Austin
McKenzie.

* * * *

Austin glared at the phone. “Why
the fuck is Haley calling me in the middle of the night?” he grumbled as he
pushed the button to answer.

“Austin,” she blurted in what
sounded like a sobbing voice.

He sat up, suddenly more concerned
than he had been a moment before. “What’s wrong, Haley?”

She sputtered, her breathing ragged
as if she was having trouble speaking. “What’s wrong!” he said in a sterner
tone.

“Man, um, broke into my house. I
hit him with a frying pan. He kicked Ginger.” She began to sob again.

“Where are you?”

“At the vets.”

There was only one emergency vet in
their area. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” He could hear her
gasping for air, her emotions overwhelming her ability to speak. He hung up,
getting to his feet and grabbing his pants to tug them on.

“What’s wrong?” asked Med as he too
sat up.

“That was Haley. I guess someone
broke into her house and kicked Ginger. She’s at the vet, and she could barely
stop crying long enough to talk. Things must be pretty bad. Could you do me a
favor and go check her house. See if you can find out what’s going on?”

“Sure.” Med got to his feet,
grabbing his pants from the arm of the loveseat and pulling them on. They were
both dressed within minutes and heading out the door. Austin stopped only long
enough to give Med directions and both men were racing out of the driveway.

It was an irritating ten minute
drive that felt more like an hour. When Austin pulled into the parking lot, the
first thing he saw was Haley’s car. She hadn’t even bothered to shut the
passenger door. Walking to it, he looked inside and saw the blood on the passenger
seat. Austin slammed the door and turned, running up the stairs.

Haley was sitting in one of the
seats, desperately holding Sammie in her arms. She was dressed only in a light
nightgown and her sneakers and hair were completely askew. He walked up to the
front desk first. “Is there any word on Ginger?”

“I’m sorry, sir. They are still
checking her over.”

He went to sit beside Haley. Her
eyes were scarlet from crying and the minute he touched her, she turned to hug
him and began to cry again. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “How bad?”

“I don’t know. She was bleeding
from her mouth. I know she hit the corner of the cabinet really hard. I
probably shouldn’t have even picked her up, but…”

“Shhh…We are going to get through
this. All we can do is hope for the best. Are you hurt?”

“No. My mother is going to kill me
if they don’t throw me in jail first.”

Austin pushed her back slightly.
“What are you talking about?”

“My alarm company called my mother
because I never changed her as my backup number. My phone shuts itself off once
in a while and it picked tonight to do it. She called me and was furious. She
said the person from my alarm company said the police want to question me.”

What slight composure she had
managed crumbled again. “I didn’t hit him that hard. I just reacted because he
kicked Ginger.”

Oh fuck and life drops the ax on
his sunshine. She was falling apart in his arms and if Ginger died it was going
to get so much worse. Any way he looked at it, it had the potential to get
worse. Would they really convict her when it was simply a matter of
self-defense against a man who broke into her home?

Austin had a flash of memory he
couldn’t quite put his finger on. He tugged his phone from his pocket and then
reluctantly released Haley to see if he could look it up. If he remembered
correctly, he had read a small news article saying that the police were looking
for a man who had broken into a few homes. The women were always home alone and
the man had raped them before robbing the contents and escaping without leaving
any evidence. They were hesitating to publicize it and cause a local panic.

He typed in a couple of different
searches and finally came across what he was looking for. Scanning the print,
he made note of all the similarities in the article. “Haley, how did he break
in?”

“Through the back. He smashed the
glass and then opened the door.”

“What was he wearing?”

“He was dressed all in black. Black
gloves and one of those tight ski masks with red zigzags on it. Why?”

He handed her the phone and she
read it, her skin becoming even paler as her swollen eyes got larger. “Holy
shit.”

“Yeah. I think you just put this
guy out of commission.”

A woman came out of the back of the
vet’s office and walked over, sitting down beside Haley. “How you holding up,
Haley?”