The Game (26 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I awoke with a start. A pounding noise penetrated my mind. The door.

Riley lifted his head off the pillow next to me and groaned.

“What time is it?” I mumbled.

“Three in the morning.” He kissed my cheek and pressed into my back. “Stay here.”

The pounding grew louder.

“That bitch,” Riley mumbled under his breath while he dragged himself from the bed
and then plucked his jeans from the floor and stepped into them.

We’d spent the late evening lounging in bed under the glow of candles, which we hadn’t
extinguished. The room remained shrouded in the low glow of the flames. I sat up,
tugging the sheet with me.

“Stay there, baby. I’ll handle this.”

I nodded. I had no intention of leaving this room. He could deal with his fucking
ex without me.

He handed me his cell phone, pressing it into my palm. “Call nine one one. I’ll keep
her occupied until they get here.”

I nodded and lifted his phone up to press the keys with shaky fingers.

As he shut the door to the bedroom, the operator answered. “Nine one one. What’s your
emergency?”

I took a deep breath and quickly explained to the woman about Christine Parson being
at my boyfriend’s residence banging on the door. This was easily confirmed while I
spoke to the operator because both of us could hear Christine’s high-pitched squeal
of anger filling the house and seeping under the door to contaminate us with her venom.

The woman assured me someone was on the way and encouraged me to stay on the line.

I did, listening intently to the muffled voices outside the room when she wasn’t screaming.
I rarely heard Riley and assumed he was trying to pacify her and remain calm to give
the police a chance to get there.

The voices grew louder, and I sat up fully, hugging the sheet against my chest and
breathing heavily into the phone.

“Ma’am? Are you still there?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if Christine realized my car was out front in the
street, and therefore I was probably in Riley’s bed. But I wasn’t going to take the
chance and have her hear my voice.

She screamed again. I cringed, feeling helpless. Concerned, I dropped the phone on
the bed and slinked to the floor to snag Riley’s T-shirt and shrug it over my head.
At least in an emergency I wouldn’t be completely naked.

When something slammed into the bedroom door, I dashed to the adjoining bathroom and
slid into the corner out of sight. The door to the bedroom flew open, and Christine’s
piercing voice filled the room.

“I know she’s here. Why, Riley? Why would you want to fuck that whore instead of me?”
she screeched.

I cringed, squeezing farther back to stay out of sight and glad I’d slipped from the
bed when I had. The last thing I needed was a screaming match with his ex while half
naked.

I snuck behind the open door and peered through the hinged slit as Christine stomped
around the room. She a hand on her hip and spun around to face him. “Where is she?
Hiding? You
asshole
,” she shouted.

“Christine, calm down. We’ve been broken up for a year. Let’s discuss this rationally.”

Christine leaned down to grab one of the floggers. The floor was littered with our
clothes and the floggers. She flung it across the room. It hit the far wall with a
resounding thud. “Jesus, Riley. Floggers? Already? What kind of whore lets a man hit
her this early in the relationship?”

I swallowed my anger and gripped my hands into fists, trying hard not to burst out
of the bathroom and go after her like a rabid dog. It’s what I wanted to do. Instead,
I held my ground.

The phone still lay on the bed. I could see it, and I knew the connection was open,
but all I could do was hope the police were close and the dispatcher was listening.

Christine flailed her arms around the room, and I wondered where Riley was standing.
I couldn’t see him. He must have been in the door frame.

And then I gasped and held my breath. She was holding a gun.

Fuck.

She was more deranged than I thought. More than any of us thought.

Riley was intentionally making small movements in an effort to keep her from losing
it and firing at him. No wonder she got by him and into the bedroom. The crazy bitch
was waving a gun around.

“Let’s go sit in the living room and discuss this. Work something out,” Riley pleaded.

She laughed maniacally. “Work something out? You mean like I take Mondays and Wednesdays
and that whore gets the other five days with you? I don’t think so.”

My mouth fell open.
I don’t think so either, you fucking bitch
. It was painful enough knowing he’d ever laid a hand on her. I would spend my life
blocking out the images.

“Why, Riley?”

“I don’t know, Christine. Let’s figure this out. Together. Come on.” He was trying
to lure her from the bedroom.

She glanced around, seeming to forget I was in there somewhere. And then she snapped
out of it and lifted the gun, her finger poised to pull the trigger.

I screamed and she whipped my direction.

The gun went off.

I slid to the floor on instinct, hitting my head on the edge of the tub as I went
down. The door swung almost shut. My face landed on the tile just past the door, giving
me a view of the room. The pain was intense, but I fought to stay alert while the
fading draw of being knocked out battled against my need to pay attention.

Riley emitted a deep primal growl as he ran forward into the room and slammed into
Christine, taking her down to the ground and sending the gun spinning across the floor.
It landed just outside the bathroom.

In a perfect world, I would have snagged it and saved the day, but in my world, my
limbs wouldn’t obey any command, and I lay there glancing between the gun and the
struggle between my man and his ex.

A commotion filled the doorway, and I managed to flick my gaze to see several officers
enter the room.

Riley held Christine down by sitting on her waist with his knees on her arms. She
bucked beneath him.

The officers grabbed his arms and pulled him off. “We’ve got it from here, sir.”

He glanced at first one man and then the other, seemingly confused to find them in
his bedroom.

And then he jerked his gaze to mine and jumped off Christine, screaming at the top
of his lungs. “
No
…” His voice faded, even though that confused me as I watched him lunge toward me
as if in slow motion.

****

My head pounded. I blinked awake, squinting toward the ceiling. The light was intense.
I moaned at the sharp pain that washed through my body and left me close to vomiting.

“Turn her head to the side,” someone shouted.

I blinked again to find Riley holding my face and tipping me to one side.

That hurt worse. I fought him.

He held steady. “Easy, baby. You hit your head.”

I knew that. I remembered the tub slamming into me as I went down.

I curled onto my side on the bathroom floor as Riley grabbed a blanket out of someone’s
hand and tucked it around my frame.

I shivered in spite of his efforts, remembering I wore nothing but his T-shirt.

“Christine?” I asked.

“Police have her. She’s gone. They already left. Ambulance is on its way.”

“For what?” I asked, squinting into the bright room again. “Did someone get shot?”

“No.” He shook his head, smiling down at me with his lips. His brow was incongruently
furrowed.

I was confused.

“You’re hurt, baby. You need a doctor.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Though you scared me to death when I saw you on the floor. You must have hit
your head on the tub. I thought she shot you.” He pointed at the door.

I lifted my gaze to follow where he angled his finger at the splintered hole in the
door. Shit. That bitch did fire off a round. I was lucky she hadn’t hit me.

“Jesus, she could have killed us both.” I fought against his hold to sit up.

“Stay there, baby.”

“Cold. The tile…” I shivered against the frigid floor.

Riley tucked his hands under me and lifted me into his arms. “Hang on. I’ll get you
to the bed.”

When he gently lowered me to the mattress and tugged the comforter over me, keeping
the blanket around me at the same time, I immediately felt better. I still shook violently,
but I thought it was from shock more than pain.

“Sir, can you move down a bit. Let me look.”

A paramedic leaned over me as Riley grabbed my hand and squeezed.

“What happened?” the man asked, flashing a light into my eyes.

“She hit her head when my fucking ex shot at her.”

The guy glanced at Riley and then back at me. He turned me to one side and felt around
the back of my head. “That’s quite a knot, ma’am. Can you answer a few questions for
me?”

“Sure,” I whispered, cringing as he continued to poke the spot.

“Do you remember what happened, ma’am?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s a good sign.”

“What’s your name?”

“Cheyenne Decard.”

“Do you know what the date is?”

“October fifth? Something like that.”

“Good.” He leaned back. “I think you’ll be fine. I don’t see evidence of a concussion,
but that bump is going to hurt like hell for a few days.” He turned to look at Riley.
“As long as she doesn’t vomit or get disoriented, I think she’ll be fine. Take her
to the emergency room if there are any changes. But it’s not uncommon for someone
to faint when they hit their head like that, probably from the fear and the pain.”

“You don’t think she needs to go to the hospital?”

“If you’re concerned, we can take her.”

“Riley. No,” I muttered, reaching out to grab his hand. “Just let me sleep. Please,
babe.”

He stared at me a moment and then faced the paramedic. “Okay.” His shoulders slumped.
“I’ll stay up and watch her.”

“That’s all they’ll do at the emergency room anyway. If she doesn’t show any signs
of confusion or extreme fatigue or an inability to wake up, you’ll be fine.”

Riley nodded as the man stood and headed for the door. With a squeeze to my hand,
Riley followed him.

I listened as muffled voices filled the hallway and traveled down to the foyer. The
police… The paramedics… Riley…

I closed my eyes and drifted into a light slumber, smiling a few minutes later when
Riley slid into bed beside me and pulled me close. He lifted my head several inches
and helped me swallow a pair of painkillers. “You scared the fuck out of me.”

“Sorry.” I would have said more if I had the energy.

“I was sure she shot you.” He lowered me back onto the pillow, careful to set my head
to one side and avoid the bump.

“I ducked too fast. I think I slipped. But I avoided the bullet.”

“There is that.” He held my face against his and inhaled long and slow. “I’m so sorry
I brought you into this mess.”

“It’s over now. Right?”

“Yes.” Thank God.

“I feel bad for her dad. He seemed like a level-headed nice guy.”

“He is. And I hate that his daughter is such a whack job. She wasn’t always this way.
In the early days, she was sort of normal. In college we had a blast.”

“Was it the BDSM?”

He shook his head. “No. That was gradual. As I grew more into the lifestyle, she faked
like she went along with me. But she never really did, and unfortunately it took many
years for me to realize she was faking it.”

“Why would she do that?”

“She was a money-grubbing whore. All she cared about was finding someone to support
her in the manner she was raised. I just didn’t see it.”

“She is beautiful. You must have been blinded by her looks,” I teased.

He tensed next to me. “Is she? It’s been so long since I found her attractive, I can’t
even see it. And her personality ruined any beauty she once possessed.”

“I can see that.” My voice trailed.

“Sleep, baby. I’ll watch you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You will be.” His hands roamed my body as if he needed the verification I was indeed
whole.

I fell asleep to the feel of his warm hands.

****

When I opened my eyes the next time, the room was light. The blinds were partway opened
and the sun leaked in through the slits. I turned to my other side and found Riley
smiling down at me from a chair next to the bed. “How do you feel?”

“Better. Tired. Someone woke me up like ten times.”

He smiles broader. “Just being cautious.”