Chapter 15

Tate

I should have fucking known this shit would happen, but I’d let myself get distracted. Get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of running a business, dealing with club business and Teddy. All of those distractions had made me forget who I was. Not just a man who’d spent six years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, but a man who, in the eyes of the two officers glaring at me, had won against the state. These assholes looked at me like I was already guilty, the same way they had right before they put handcuffs on me and pushed me through the system.

I was nothing more than a goddamn statistic to them. Well fuck them and fuck their statistics. I was the other number, the small number of men who’d been freed and deemed innocent. To these guys, that made me an enemy. A target. “Since your minds are already made up, I think I’ll wait for my attorney to show up.”

“That’s fine.” The young detective I’d come across once before, at the scene of Teddy’s burned house, set out nearly a dozen photographs of a woman with a nasty black eye. Fucking Sheena. Troublemaking bitch. “We have the victim’s statement and these fine images so I’ll imagine you’ll end up where you belong soon enough.”

The other detective, the older one, Haynes, sighed heavily. “Look Mr. Ellison, this would all go a lot easier if you would just talk to us.”

I nodded because he was right, it would. Too bad the hardest fucking lesson I’d ever learned didn’t come at the hands of Uncle Sam, but the Las Vegas Police Department. “Still, I’ll wait for my attorney.”

Dodds, the young prick, laughed again. “The longer you take, the worse it’ll be for you. Just tell us what happened. You get a little too rough for her? Or maybe she likes it rough and is now crying foul?”

I opened my mouth to say something, the rookie’s eyes glued to my face, hopeful and arrogant. “Maybe you didn’t hear me. I said, I am invoking my right to counsel.”

He glared. “Just because you got out on a fucking technicality doesn’t make you a good guy.”

I sneered at him. “And just because the only way you can get your dick hard is to railroad innocent people, doesn’t make you competent. Or good. Officer.” These motherfuckers wanted me in a cage and they wouldn’t rest until that happened. That was too bad because I would die before I let that happen. I would beat one of them to a pulp to ensure it, but I would never spend another night in a cage again.

“Innocent,” he scoffed.

“Yeah, asshole, it’s called DNA. Maybe you need to go back to the academy and figure out how this business of solving crimes works. You know, sometimes people lie.”

He was pissed off now. “Yeah, they do.”

Dark eyes narrowed to slits like that shit was supposed to intimidate me. It didn’t. Yet I did bite down on my cheek to keep from cracking his fucking skull, but oh how I wanted to.

“I guess we’ll see when my lawyer shows up.” I sat quietly while Dodds was clunky in his attempt to get me to say something to incriminate myself. Dumb shit.

“Look Ellison, if it wasn’t you, then we need find out who it was.” Haynes was the good cop here and he tried hard to combat the damage his partner was doing. But I knew how to play the game.

“I’m aware of that, detective. But the last time I was honest and tried to help, you locked me up for it. My lawyer should be here soon.” At least I hoped. This wasn’t exactly Bobby’s wheelhouse, but she’d gotten me out, so I hoped she could do something because I did not fucking relish the thought of sitting in a cell tonight.

“It’ll be better for you,” Dodds began but the door opened and a well-dressed man walked in like he owned the place.

“My client has said, at least a half dozen times, that he wished to remain silent until his lawyer arrived.” He looked right at the rookie detective. “I’d hate to file more charges on civil rights violations. But I will.”

Haynes stood, adjusting his oversized pants over his oversized belly. “We’re just trying to clear a few things up, Mr. …”

“Mr. Gladstone. My client has an alibi for the evening in question, video surveillance starting at seven pm until after midnight, plus a sworn affidavit of his whereabouts thereafter. You have thirty minutes to verify it before I decide to make an example out of this department.” The man took a seat beside me, calm as you please, and smiled. “We’re waiting, gentlemen.”

Chairs scraped against the linoleum as the cops stood and practically ran from the room. When we were alone, I turned to look him over. “Do I know you?”

“Gavin Gladstone. I work with Bobby and this is more my thing than hers, so I came. She’s out there with your lady friend.”

I blinked. “Teddy is here?”

He nodded. “She’s a spitfire. Told me to ‘get my ass down here and make those fuckers pay.’” I had to laugh at his cultured voice saying her words. “She gave me all the information I needed to get you out of here tonight. Don’t worry.”

I nodded at his words. “I wondered how you got everything so quickly. I figured the sun would be up before you got here.”

“Divide and conquer. I was with Bobby when Teddy called. Bobby went to the casino and cashed in a favor to get the parking lot surveillance while my assistant and I came here to take Ms. Quinton’s statement. And here we are.”

“You really think I’m getting out tonight?”

“I’m certain of it. If not, you will add more money from the state of Nevada to your bank account. I would rather get you home, though.”

“Damn straight,” I added because there was nothing else to add. This man was one of those sharks you wanted when you got into trouble. He was the kind of lawyer cops feared, especially crooked ones. “Hey, you need more billable hours?”

“Always.”

“Good, because I think we could use a guy like you.” His only response was to slip me his card.

Thirty minutes later, Haynes opened the door with a sheepish grin. “You’re free to go, Mr. Ellison.”

I stood and shook his hand. “Thank you, detective.” At Gladstone’s surprised look, I shrugged. “He’s been decent to me, which is more than I can say for any other pig in this fucking place.”

“There are always a couple,” he muttered and guided me out of the interrogation room and into the spacious pit where Teddy waited with Jana, Max and Bobby.

Teddy marched right up to me with a glare. “Well?”

I grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, ignoring the confused looks of my brother and soon to be sister, as I told her about the assault. “It was Sheena. I don’t know who, but someone fucked her up. Bad.”

“That skank from your club?”

I nodded and she stepped away from my touch.

“You’re free to go, though?” She looked to Gavin who nodded before she turned on her heels and marched to the parking lot.

Shit, she was pissed and I didn’t want to deal with an emotional woman over some shit I didn’t do. “Teddy, wait.”

Max’s hand landed on my shoulder and I stopped, but my gaze never left Teddy as she slid into her car and started the engine. I smiled when she waited instead of peeling out of the parking lot as pissed off women have been known to do.

“You good?” Max asked.

“I am now. I wished she hadn’t worried you with this.”

Max’s look turned dark. “I’m glad she did. What’s going on with you two?”

“Hell if I know,” I told him and ran a hand through my hair, still mussed from Teddy’s hands.

“Why don’t you come to our place tonight?”

“Thanks, man but I just want to crash now. This shit has my head all fucked up and all I need is to be alone.”

My gaze found Teddy’s, even in the dark of night and through the dark windshield.

“That’s not alone,” Jana added, a smile in her voice.

No, it wasn’t. Not at all, but funny enough, all I wanted was to be alone, with Teddy. “It’s as alone as I want to be right now.” With no more words for my family, I closed the gap between me and the pissed off, fuming woman in the car, slid into the passenger seat and waited for her to shift into drive.

When we got home she was still pissed, but after a long hot shower where she washed me gently, she climbed into bed beside me, naked, and I wrapped my arms around her.

It was the best fucking sleep I’d had in more than six years.

***

As soon as I opened my eyes, the previous fucking night came back to me in sickening clarity. How I went from having Teddy coming all over my hand to sitting inside a fucking interrogation room was still a haze but it didn’t do anything to quell my shitty mood.

Even now, with Teddy’s soft body and silky skin pressed against mine, I couldn’t shake it off. So I did the only thing that could make me feel better. I lost myself in her body. Her back was pressed so tight against me, one tit resting in my hand, the tip hardening as my thumb brushed back and forth over it. The way she pressed back into me and moaned, even in her sleep, had my dick hard and ready. Angry and turned on wasn’t exactly the mood I was going for, but when Teddy’s back arched, bringing her wet cunt sliding across my stiff cock, I couldn’t hold back.

I slid deep in one, slow thrust, groaning loud enough to finally rouse her from sleep. “Yes,” she moaned in a throaty voice, one hand gripping mine right over her tits, a perfect handful. She was so tight from this angle, slick with arousal and so hot I couldn’t control myself, pounding harder and faster in search of release. “Tate, baby,” she moaned again, pumping her hips as one hand slid between her legs and fixed on her clit.

I could tell the second she started to play with her clit because her pussy pulsed around me, quivering as her breaths came in faster, shallower. “Let go,” I grunted in her ear and she did, screaming as she fell apart, the orgasm hard and brutal, squeezing my cock so hard I had no choice but to ride the orgasm out. “Ah, fuck, Teddy!” My cock shot off like a rocket, pulsing and shooting deep into her wonderfully wet pussy.

“Not that I’m complaining,” she panted, smiling at me over her shoulder, “but what was that all about?”

I didn’t have an answer so I just shrugged. “You looked too fucking good to resist.” It was partially true anyway, but I could tell by her expression she didn’t believe me. Still, I slid from bed and walked to the bathroom where I lost myself in a long, hot shower. As the hot soapy water slid over my body, I ached to bury myself inside Teddy again, but I’d locked the door, ensuring that didn’t happen. I needed some space today. The peace I’d found last night had evaporated. My mind was in a fucked up place and being around people would only end up making me angry. Well, angrier.

I stepped out of the bathroom and found the bed empty, but the sound of the shower in the other bathroom told me Teddy was up. I was just glad she hadn’t decided to ambush me about locking her out of the bathroom. There was no need, because Teddy didn’t cling.

Even still, I couldn’t think about looking at her right now. She’d been a fierce advocate for me last night, making sure the system didn’t fuck me over twice. And I was grateful as hell, but last night had brought home just how fucked up I still was over my time in prison. With the kind of anger pumping through me today, I knew I needed to get away, so I dressed quickly, grabbed my keys and helmet and jumped on my bike.

I rode and rode, trying to clear my mind of every goddamn thing haunting me. I pushed out the fucking cops determined to put me back in a cell. My brother’s upcoming nuptials reminding me of the normal life not meant for me. Teddy and her fiery personality, sexy body and simple understanding and acceptance. I rode until my back ached and my hands cramped, my bike eating up the miles and miles of desert landscape. When I finally stopped for gas, water and some fresh air, I realized I was just a few miles from Reno.

Pulling out my phone on the side of the road as the sun began to set, I called the shop. “Hey Lasso man, I need you to close the shop up tonight and open tomorrow. I’ll catch up with you then.”

“Sure thing, Golden Boy. Everything all right?”

I nodded even as my shoulders were rigid with tension. “Everything will be,” I told him and ended the call, taking in several deep breaths of the cooler, crisper air.

Hopefully the distraction of a new place would clear my head.