Chapter 30

We Need More Margaritas

HIS LETTER WENT UNANSWERED. Each time he dialed her number, the call went straight to voice mail. Noah considered camping on Jonas' doorstep until she came out. It seemed desperate, which he totally was. How could he apologize and grovel properly if she wouldn't see him?

He'd sent two dozen pink roses with a handwritten card that said, "Call me, baby. Please."

Then...crickets.

In need of advice, he texted Val. She suggested persistence, but not stalking, and that he might want to visit the club tonight for open sub night.

Noah instantly shot off a response: I'm not looking for a distraction.

There was a long pause. Damn those three dots! He was typing up a terse reply when she finally answered.

Val: Elena Russell is performing. Fiona is expected for the show.

He closed his eyes. Usually an intelligent man, the situation with Fiona—entirely self-inflicted—seemed to have dropped his IQ by thirty points. Frustration and the lack of sleep played a role. Luckily for his patients, he wasn't back in LA on the surgical schedule.

Noah: Right. Thanks.

Val: You really love her, don't you?

Noah: I do. What made you ask?

Val: You're endearingly muddled when you're desperate. Good luck, Master Noah. I'm rooting for you.

At nine o'clock straight up, because that's when Elena took the stage, Noah walked into the San Antonio Club Decadence lounge for the first time. He'd always been curious about what the original club was like. Tonight, he couldn't care less.

If he thought finding her would be simple, boy, was he wrong. There had to be a thousand people crowded into a space half the size of the lounge and bar back home, and they were all on their feet. If they had a dance floor, he couldn't tell because it was shoulder to shoulder everywhere, and all the fans were dancing and singing along. The staff was trying to keep the center and perimeter aisles clear, but otherwise it looked like a mosh pit.

Christ! How was he supposed to find her in this madhouse?

Although he couldn't see them, he assumed, like in LA, there were tables up front by the stage, so he headed that way. He didn't get far before he bumped into a body. His pardon me went ignored, the immense man not budging. Noah stood three inches over six feet, but he had to look up several more to see the man's face.

"Axyl. What are you doing here?" Noah asked, surprised to see him.

"I'm just on loan to the LA office. I live here, remember?" When he crossed his bulging arms over his massive chest, his orange DM armband was hard to miss. "We're at capacity. You'll have to leave."

His eyes widened. "You're joking."

"Look around you. It's standing room only. We don't have room for guests."

There was an unmistakable sneer to his last word. What the hell?

The younger man filled in at Rossi in LA often, and he'd gotten to know him well. Usually outgoing, genial, and quick to laugh, none of those qualities described him tonight. More like closed off, pissed off, and definitely inhospitable.

"I won't stay. Once I find Fiona, we'll leave."

He stepped to the side to move around him, but he moved with him, blocking his way.

"You'll leave now. Alone."

Noah stood his ground. "What is your problem?"

He dropped his arms and moved closer, deliberately bumping him in the chest. "Fiona doesn't want to see you. By ignoring your calls, texts, and letters, it should be obvious that she wants nothing to do with you."

Noah's jaw clenched. She and Axyl were friendly. He'd protected her many days while at work and when on lockdown when he couldn't be with her because of a patient who couldn't wait. If he knew about the letter, they must be closer than he realized.

"Take the hint, man," Axyl urged. "Leave her in peace."

THE BASS LINE AND DRUMSgot her heart pumping, and the lead guitar licks made the hairs on her arms stand on end. But it was the lead singer, petite, with long wavy dark hair, a classy lacy black dress, and some kick-ass tattoos, who commanded their attention. Her voice, a delightful contralto, could seamlessly transition into a perfectly pitched head voice, and she had a wicked growl, used sparingly, that made the crowd go wild.

She sang songs from a range of genres, pop to classic rock with a few alternative tunes in the mix. As if to prove her versatility, she switched to country. Specifically, "Any Man of Mine."

The irony of the lyrics considering where they were, in a large crowd where at least half were dominants, wasn't lost on any of the submissives in the audience. As if a Club Decadence dom would walk the line. That didn't stop the subs from singing along at the top of their lungs, especially the chorus, and echoing the yeahs whenever Elena sang them.

The applause was thunderous at the end.

Grinning, the petite singer with the huge voice announced, "We're gonna take a break because I've got some explaining to do to the gorgeous, green-eyed, fire-breathing, earth-quaking master dom of mine over by the bar about that one."

The avid fans cheered and laughed and applauded wildly again as she walked off the stage.

Fiona leaned closer to Lexie to be heard. "This isn't a bar in a kink club; it's a concert, and better than any I've been to at the Palladium."

"I know! Right?" she answered, grinning. "Isn't Elena awesome?"

"Is there a word for better than awesome? Why doesn't she have a recording contract?"

Megan, a petite blonde she'd learned was married to Cap, the CEO she'd met in LA during her recent drama, answered that. "Because she's in love with the master dom here and prefers to perform locally. She's a brilliant songwriter, too, and has sold quite a few of her songs."

The redhead beside her, who'd joined them in the middle of Elena's first set, leaned her elbows on the table and asked, "What's your story?"

"Meet my subtle twin, Regan," Megan said with an eye roll. "How about finding out her name before demanding her life story? Sheesh!"

"I'm Fiona from LA," she said, doing the intro herself, but only since she'd had two top-shelf, freaking-fantastic margaritas. Usually, she didn't even like them. But they'd loosened her lips, and her not-so-inner introvert had retreated a bit. "But I may be Fiona from San Antonio pretty soon. I haven't decided but am leaning that way."

"Really..." She popped a pretzel into her mouth and chewed slowly, her eyes fixed on her as if analyzing every detail. "What are you running away from?"

"Regan!" Lexie, Megan, and Elena, who'd just joined them, all exclaimed at once.

"What? Am I supposed to ignore how sad she looks?" The unfiltered redhead reached out and patted her hand. "You're among friends here. You can tell us. Believe me, we have all been there."

Elena raised a mug of what looked like hot tea to her lips, saying before taking a sip, "She ain't lying. I think it's a curse all Rossi doms have. To hook up with subs who have drama."

"Maybe it's them who create the drama. Ever think about that?" Megan quipped. "My life was placid before Tony came crashing into it like an EF4 tornado."

"And boring," Elena reminded her.

"Well, there is that," she replied with a secretive smile.

"What's your drama, then?" Regan persisted. "Or his?"

"My drama is over. Now it's all him. Lingering from years ago before I ever met him."

"He was married before," Lexie explained. "His wife and daughter died. It's very sad. The little girl was only two."

Naturally, that brought down the mood of the table.

"Where's Angie?" Regan asked, scanning the crowd. "She went through something similar with Lil T. She'd be the one to talk to."

"Did he dump her and run off to Africa?" Fiona asked as she poured a third margarita, filling her glass to the salty brim. If they insisted on talking about it, she needed more tequila to numb the pain and keep the tears at bay.

"Not Africa," Megan clarified, taking up the pitcher when she was done and refilling her and Regan's glasses with what was left. "But he dumped her three times before he got his head out of his butt."

"Three times!" Fiona gasped. "That means she went back to him twice. What is she, a glutton for punishment?"

"She loved him," Elena explained, her tone wistful, but it didn't stay that way. "Lucky for him, the third time was the charm. Otherwise, we were going to have an intervention."

"You've seen these Rossi men, right?" Regan asked.

"Noah is a Rossi man," Lexie explained.

"Then you know they're hot and can do a number on a girl's head and heart."

"Noah Richmond? The one they call Doc?" Megan asked.

"That's the one. Also known as Master One and Done," Fiona replied, risking a brain freeze by slurping a mouthful of slushy drink. Maybe if her head hurt, she could forget about the pain in her heart for a while.

Megan pointed toward the door. "I've only met him once, but isn't that him about to come to blows with Axyl, Cap, and Jonas by the lobby door?"

Lexie and Fiona both jumped to their feet and faced that way.

"That's him, all right," Lexie confirmed. "Jonas doesn't look happy."

"No one does. Excuse me," Fiona said, moving that way.

"Wait! We'll go with," Regan called, also moving, along with the other women at the table. "You've gotta learn, babe, especially in Decadence, you don't go headlong into a drama without your posse."

That she had a posse for the first time in her life would have tickled her to death. But there was some shoving and chest bumping going on by the doors. Three other men had arrived and formed a barrier to Noah getting in.

It took her ducking, sidestepping, physically squishing herself between bodies, and a dozen excuse mes to get within hearing distance of whatever was going down.

"If she wanted to talk to you, she wouldn't have blocked your number and would have replied to your letter," she heard Jonas say calmly, but with a bite to his voice. "Until she decides her next move, you need to keep away and give her some space."

"She's had nearly four weeks of space."

"After you destroyed her," Axyl hissed, getting in his face again. "What part of blocked calls and ignored letters don't you understand, man?"

"Let's take this discussion somewhere other than the lounge, gentlemen," Elena's master dom husband stated coolly. "Cap, Rick, maybe you can escort Doc to the conference room in administration?"

Noah was big, but the other two men were human mountains. They flanked him and directed him toward the lobby. He hesitated, scanning the crowd, clearly reluctant to leave. His gaze passed over her then quickly shot back. For a moment, they connected.

She saw his lips move. The two syllables, baby, not kitten, caused a resurgence of her grief and pain. Then she lost him behind the wall of men herding him out of the lounge.

"What was that about?" Regan asked, serious for once.

"I don't know, but I've never seen them stand between a dom and his sub before unless there were some major rule violations involved." Megan sounded equally shocked and confused.

"I'm not his sub," Fiona stated flatly. "And never really was. That's the problem."

"Let's go back to our table, Fi," Lexie said, taking her by the hand.

"I think I'd rather go home."

"We can't, honey. Not until Jonas is done with...whatever that was." She waved her hand to where, without a show to see, the crowd was dispersing. "He's our designated driver."

"You need more margaritas," Regan declared as she waved down their waitress.

"And some sad songs," Elena suggested. "That's all I sang for two years after Dex and I split. It always makes it better for some reason."

Fiona glanced at Lexie as if to say see what I mean? Then she asked the singer, "Do you know ‘Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia?"

"Oh, honey," Elena whispered, because obviously she did.

ALL BUT SHOVED OUTof the lounge and away from Fiona, Noah was not happy. But he wasn't stupid enough to think he could take on six Rossi men on his own, especially Axyl who was the biggest, the youngest by at least ten years, and spoiling for a fight, too.

He didn't appreciate being perp walked to the conference room like a criminal, either. But he realized, if he wanted to get to Fiona, he had to get by her elite guard. All six of them filed in behind him, Cap shutting the door with a resounding thud and sealing them inside.

Axyl wasted no time tearing into him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Wrecking her wasn't enough? You had to follow her across three states to get in a few more licks?"

"I need to talk to her and get things straight," he calmly explained, although he was anything but calm on the inside.

"What things?" the younger man asked, having taken on the role of Fiona's protector, which only pissed Noah off further.

"That's between me and Fiona."

Axyl laughed. "Not if you want to get close to her. Look around you, Doc. We do things a little different in Texas. We protect our women from assholes."

"Your women?" he repeated, in Axyl's face again, this time as the aggressor. "You haven't explained why she's your business. The case ended weeks ago."

"She's a vulnerable sub, destroyed by a heartless fucker hours after a whack job tried to kill her. That's most doms' business. Good ones, leastwise."

Admittedly, that stung. "It wasn't hours; it was nearly a week. She was better. She'd even gone back to work, or I wouldn't have—"

"Cruelly dumped her," Axyl finished for him. "She was vulnerable and scared out of her mind. Of course, she'd turn to you, her protector. You took advantage of that when you should have backed off. That's Security 101. If you haven't learned that yet, you're a fool, and Fiona has paid the price for your stupidity."

"Okay," Sean interjected, moving closer. "Let's dial the hostility back a little."

Axyl didn't give an inch. "I care about her, and you. Although I don't know why I should when you've got your head so far up your ass, you've got shit in your eyes and can't see something special passing you by."

They glared at one another, both seething with anger.

"Well, that certainly was graphic," Cap drawled, wading in for the first time. "Why don't you two have a seat and cool off. Dex? Got any whiskey stashed in your office?"

"I do," he said, moving toward the door. "Try not to let them kill each other while I get it."

Cap turned back, saw them still standing toe to toe, and barked with authority, "Sit down!"

They pulled out chairs side by side, but Sean intervened. "That's not happening. Sit across the table, Axyl."

Stiffly, he rounded the end of the long conference table and came even with Noah from the other side, but he didn't sit. He stood with his arms crossed, glaring.

"My twin boys are easier to wrangle," Cap muttered. "Ax, it might take all of us to carry you outta here, but we'll do it. If you want in on this discussion, you'll sit. Now."

He shot his boss a pissed-off look but pulled out a chair and flopped into it. At the ominous creak, Noah half expected him to be on the floor the next second when it collapsed, but it held.

Dex returned with glasses and a handle of Jack. "Could someone fill me in?" he asked as he poured and passed shots to everyone.

"I'm not up to speed, either," Cap said, looking at Noah with a black brow arched.

"I'll go," Axyl stated. "He's still in love with Claire."

"Leave my wife out of this."

"Why? You haven't."

"Who says?"

"Fiona."

"You're married?" Sean asked, joining Axyl in scowling at him.

Noah tossed back the shot, which was a healthy double. "I'm not anymore. She died five years ago."

"Fiona said you're broken. You never sleep, and more recently you're having nightmares. That you're still in love with your wife and didn't have that to give her," Jonas accused in a hushed tone, his words hanging heavy in the air.

"She assumed after two months and practically 24/7 that it was love, or heading that way, not just dick, because you were giving her plenty of that."

"Shut up, Axyl," Dex ordered, sounding much like Tony. He was also liberal with his pours and filled their glasses again.

"She told you all of this?" Noah asked, directing his question at Jonas.

"Me or Lexie, yes. She also says there's nothing for her in LA any longer. She already gave up apartment and has given her notice at work. It hasn't been easy, but she's trying to move on. Unless you've got something concrete to offer, I think it would be best if you did too."

"By not going there again, I didn't mean not love her," Noah blurted out. "I meant losing her."

Silence descended on the room, broken only by his glass hitting the table after he downed his second doubled shot.

"Imagine losing Lexie," he said, meeting Jonas' gaze. "Or Megan," he said, his eyes shifting to Tony. "And burying her with your child." His voice broke. Someone slid a full shot glass in front of him, which he didn't hesitate to toss back. "I was in my residency, working at the hospital. Back then, I worked more than I do now. I don't know why Claire was out that late, except Leah had the sniffles. I was in surgery and couldn't take a call. She knew that. Usually, she left a message. I assumed she was on her way to the after-hours clinic, but that's just a guess. The traffic cameras picked up some of it."

"What?" Axyl asked, sliding the bottle to him.

Noah forgot the glass and turned it up for a healthy swig. It burned all the way down. He could feel the numbing effect of the alcohol and welcomed it, because it was the only way he could finish the story.

"She had stopped at a light when someone ran up and got in on the passenger side."

"Fuck, it was unlocked?" someone asked.

"I was a resident. They make shit money. Claire wasn't working because of the baby. A twenty-year-old POS without auto locks is all we could afford as a second car." And he had to suck up the guilt trip for that as well. "The police said the images were grainy, but they could tell he had a knife."

One of them muttered, "Fuck me," under their breath, but Noah couldn't tell who. The enormous bottle of Jack was in his way as he chugged another generous swallow, trying to dispel the images forever emblazoned on his brain.

"Doc, you don't have to—" Dex began, but Noah spoke over him.

"He made her drive him out of town, nearly sixty miles." Untold to anyone before now. The cops knew, as did her family, but he never shared. It was too fucking painful. But, once he started, it was as if a floodgate had opened. "They found the car on a mountain road north of San Bernardino. The POS couldn't make it. He abandoned it, but not before eliminating the witnesses. Claire was DOA." His voice cracked, but he pushed through. "He'd slit her throat."

"Jesus!" another faceless voice exclaimed.

Across from him, Axyl asked quietly, "What about Leah?"

Bleary-eyed with the whiskey numbing his lips and tongue, he slurred his answer. "My sweet girl...still strapped in her car seat. He spared her the knife, but..." Noah chugged from the bottle again. "It was July. They said the interior of the car got to 130 degrees that day."

Too bad the fucking alcohol didn't numb his brain enough to erase seeing his baby girl on a table in the morgue next to her mother.

IT TOOK FOUR OF THEMto load Noah's stuporous body into the back of Cap's Explorer. Only Axyl was there to help drag his ass out and carry 230 pounds of dead weight into the downstairs suite where he was staying.

Once they dumped him in bed, Cap headed for the door. When Axyl didn't follow, instead staring down at the sleeping man, he asked, "Are you coming?"

"We've got to help him get her back."

"An hour ago, you wanted to kick his ass."

Axyl twisted to face him. "Did you hear that shit? It's fucked up. And to almost lose a second woman essentially the same way, no wonder he went off like he did."

"I think all the men, including Jonas, feel the same way. Lexie might be a problem."

"She's sweet, but don't mess with her sisters," Axyl acknowledged. "If the subs could hear what we did, they'd have a change of heart, too. But, how do we do that without breaking a confidence?"

Axyl may not have been the most experienced, but his unwavering ethics set him apart from the other applicants. It was why Cap hired him. In addition to his skill and imposing size, which made him and Lil T look small standing beside him.

In moments like these, when family was at stake, his own principles were called into question. He considered all the men who worked for him part of his extended family, regardless of where they were located.

"We just need to sow a few seeds of compassion without actually coming out and telling Doc's story. Which, as you say, is his to tell."

Clearly intrigued, Axyl tilted his head to the side, his eyes widening with interest. "I'm eager to hear how you intend to pull that off?"

"I'll sprinkle a little angel dust on a compassionate mama I know."

"Megan?"

"The woman is incapable of keeping a secret. Not when it's important to someone she cares about or when there's a sale at Neiman's. For once, we'll use it to our advantage." Cap chuckled, his soft laughter echoing behind him as he ascended the stairs to put his plan into action.