Page 10 of Beware of Dog (Lean Dogs Legacy #6)

But she wasn’t expecting what Melissa said next. “But you’re the reason Pongo got picked up by the twenty-fourth precinct this week.”

“Um… what ?”

“The Blackmons went into the Two Four a few days ago, saying someone had roughed up their precious Siggy, and they had the perp on their security cameras: a guy wearing a Lean Dogs’ cut. A patrol unit saw Pongo walking on the street and scooped him up.”

“ Shit .”

“Yeah.” Melissa didn’t sound upset, so that probably meant it had all turned out okay.

“The Blackmons tried to insist it was Pongo in the video, ‘til I showed up and demanded to see the footage. Then they backtracked. The detectives over there tried to get Pongo to flip on whichever brother did the deed, but he wouldn’t.”

“He’s not in serious trouble, is he?”

“No. And .” She made a frustrated face. “He wouldn’t tell me who thought it was a brilliant idea to go into a millionaire’s townhouse flying club colors.”

“Well. You know. Bros before hoes,” Cass attempted to joke.

Melissa’s gaze sharpened, stabbing her with the full detective force. “It was Shep, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know!” Cass threw up her hands. “I had no idea it happened until you told me just now.”

Melissa frowned. “You didn’t sic him on Sig?”

“No! Why would I do that?!”

Melissa only said, “Huh,” heedless of Cass’s inner turmoil.

What in the bloody hell, Shep? The moment she got out of here…

“In any event,” Melissa said, “we need to get Jamie to the hospital ASAP and pray for DNA, because the Blackmons will remember me, and if they find out there’s any sort of a Dog connection, this case is about to get real complicated real fast.” Her gaze narrowed. “Does Sig know you’re club family?”

“No…I don’t think so. I never told him.”

Melissa nodded. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

~*~

Melissa drove them to the hospital, and spoke with the sexual assault nurse who came to examine Jamie. When the nurse pulled the curtain shut and asked for some privacy, Melissa went off to handle a phone call.

Cass shot Jamie a thumbs-up as the curtain sealed her off, then pulled out her own phone and booked it down the hallway.

Shep picked up on the third ring, out of breath. “What?”

“Ew, are you shagging someone?”

“What?” He let out a harsh exhale and she heard a loud metallic clang. Voices called in the background over the low thump of music. She realized where she’d caught him before he said, “No, I’m at the gym.”

“When are you ever not at the gym?” It left her lips as a complaint, but a vision of his white t-shirt clinging to the well-developed muscles of his back popped into her head and almost threw her completely off course.

She wondered what he wore at this mythical gym he was always going to.

Her imagination provided a lovely little tank top fantasy, the kind with the arm holes cut so deep his ribcage showed.

“Whenever you’re not demanding I bail your ass out of a stupid situation,” he shot back. “What is it this time?”

She gave herself a mental shake and refocused. “This time it’s your stupid situation. Did you go to Sig’s house and smack him around ? While wearing your cut ? Did you get Pongo arrested ?”

He sighed. She heard a door open and close and when he spoke next, his voice echoed hollowly.

He’d ducked into a bathroom or locker room.

“Okay. Lot of shit to unpack there. One, Pongo didn’t get arrested .

Guys get picked up and the cops try to get them to flip on the club all the time. It’s practically standard op.”

“What about Sig?”

“What about him?”

“Did you beat him up?”

Something squealed. A locker door, she thought. “What the hell kind of name is Sig?”

“That’s lovely. Avoid the question.”

“Maybe he should go with ‘Stick.’ Have you seen his arms? What’s the opposite of gains?”

“ Shepherd .”

“Yeah, okay! Okay.”

She waited.

And waited some more.

“Shep—”

His voice was low and tight and nervous , she thought, when he said, “Did you really think that could happen to you and I wouldn’t send a message?”

She…

Oh.

Did he…?

He did that for her ?

“Where are you?” he cut in. “ Do not tell me you’re hanging out with that guy again.”

“No. I’m…” she hesitated, because she hadn’t expected to explain any of this to him over the phone. “I’m at the hospital.”

“ What ?”

His panic was flattering. It felt good. She wanted to wallow in it.

But Shep said, “Cass, what the fuck? The hospital?” And leaving him hanging with that level of anxiety in his voice would be cruel.

She sighed, and rolled her eyes though he couldn’t see her—and though her stomach was doing pleasant, fluttery things over the idea that he was so worried. “Not for me. For my roommate, Jamie.”

“Oh.” The shift in his tone, the sudden drop from frenzied worry to cool relief, was a subtle shift, but Cass knew him well enough to detect it.

The way his voice flattened out with seeming disinterest, but which actually meant the big veins in the side of his strong throat were still throbbing wildly. “’Kay.”

“Aren’t you going to ask what’s wrong with her?”

“Meh.”

“You’re a pig.”

“Never said I wasn’t.” A rustling came from his end. “Was that it? I need to hit the showers.”

Her mind supplied her with an image of him naked, wet, and soaped-up that absolutely flattened her.

Just steamrolled her right there on the cold hospital tile.

She knew what his body wash smelled like, because she’d smelled it often on the collars of the hoodies she borrowed and stole from him.

She knew the breadth of his shoulders, and the trimness of his waist, but she wondered about the texture of his skin.

Was there hair on his chest? Little dimples on his back just above his ass?

Oh God, she was lightheaded.

“Cass? You still there?”

“Yes—” Her voice came out a squeak, and she cleared her throat.

“Yeah, I’m here. Okay. Bye. Take your shower.

” She hung up, face flaming, throat tight, while he was still in the middle of his goodbye.

It was only after, once she’d fanned at her face and slumped sideways against the wall, that she remembered the reason for calling in the first place.

“Oh hell,” she said to her dark phone screen. Now she’d just have to reprimand him properly in person.

~*~

Once Jamie was redressed and sitting on the side of the hospital bed, arms banded tightly across her middle, Melissa had another quiet word with her. Cass wanted to eavesdrop, but held back when she saw the shame and misery etched in Jamie’s face.

“Ready to go?” she asked with forced cheer once Melissa said they were free to go, and promised to be in touch with follow-ups.

Jamie nodded, gaze downcast, and fell silently into step at Cass’s side.

She remained silent: in the elevator, through the lobby, on the sidewalk, in the taxi, up the walk to their building, and in that elevator.

Cass started to worry, and not for the right reason; not for her friend’s mental stability.

But that Jamie might be starting to rethink her statement, and be jonesing to retract the accusation.

( I’m a shit friend , she thought, but so be it. She came from a shit family, after all.)

“Are you okay?” she asked, when they were inside the dorm and Jamie had eased down onto the edge of her bed. Cass propped her hands on her hips and felt useless, thrumming with energy, wanting to do something to help in some way. “That’s a stupid question, isn’t it? Sorry.”

Slowly, as though the movement pained her, Jamie tipped her head back. Her eyes were freshly red, as if she’d cried during her exam, eyelids puffy and the delicate skin beneath bruised-looking. “What if I did the wrong thing?”

Oh no.

“You didn’t.” Cass sat down next to her, and then scooted over when Jamie flinched.

“Jamie, I promise, you did the exact right thing.” She started to reach for Jamie’s hand, but remembered the flinch, and thought better of it.

“What Sig did to you was wrong . He can’t be allowed to get away with it. ”

“But…” She bit her lip. “What if—what if I did want it?”

Shit .

Cass wished she had better tools with which to handle this situation; that she had more real-world, firsthand experience upon which to draw, rather than the empty platitudes she’d seen on TV.

She watched way too much TV. Had spent far too many hours on the couch rather than roaming the streets, apprenticing at the capable hands of her brothers and father.

Even Raven would have found wise words in this moment.

She said, “You didn’t want him to hurt you,” and cringed internally, ninety-nine-percent certain she’d heard that on Law & Order: SVU .

“But I wanted to—I wanted to be with him. I wanted him to like me.”

Here, at least, Cass felt steadier in her reasoning. Much could be said about her family, blood and club, but they didn’t have to force themselves on women.

“Maybe you did to start with,” she said, “but you didn’t want him to do it like this , Jamie. I know you didn’t.” She hesitated. “Did you?”

Jamie squeezed her eyes shut, tears standing on her lashes, and shook her head.

“Okay, then.” Cass draped an arm across her shoulders, and this time, she didn’t shrink away. “Then we’ll let Missy do her thing, and then Sig’s going to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter.”

Or so she hoped.