I stopped in front of her and tipped my hat in the most awkward imitation of a cowboy.
“It’s our song,” I said to her over the piano notes of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman.” I held out my hand, hoping she’d take it.
Her eyes lit up and she took my hand. I quickly grasped it, cool and white between my fingers. I led her to the floor and put my arm around her, bringing her in hard and fast to my side. She was mine. For the sake of appearances, she was my wife, but she was mine anyway. She didn’t know it yet, but I did. It was wrong and it made no sense, but she belonged with me. No one else, not any-one else.
It was a shame that I was the one who belonged to someone else. I wondered if I’d ever have the strength to correct that or if I’d punish myself forever.
We started dancing slowly, side to side, and I put one hand behind her back, where it was hot and small, temptingly close to her ass. The other held her hand. I kept her as close to me as possible, but I didn’t want to impose like Maximus did. Besides, the last thing Perry needed was to feel my hard-on on her hip, even though it was fucking tempting to let her know what she was doing to me. I entertained the idea that she might even like it. It was a high school dance all over again.
I had to know. I stared into her eyes, lost in the storm, and started singing along with Joel. Softly, and at a distance to start, then I leaned into her ear where it smelled like sunshine and baby powder. I closed my eyes and sang, feeling my breath bound off of her ear in hot clouds. It was taking all of my willpower to not take this further, to not wrap my lips around it and lick the lobe to see what it would taste like. See if I could make those eyes roll back and make her forget everything that had happened to her. I didn’t want to be Red Fox’s savior, but I wanted to be hers.
As if hearing my thoughts and welcoming them, she laid her head on my shoulder. I tried willing my heart to beat slower, knowing how fast it was racing now. This felt so perfect, a perfection I didn’t deserve but I would take it if I could get it.
And then wham bam thank you m’am, the spell was gone. Perry raised her head back and looked wide-eyed and vaguely frightened. I couldn’t figure her out if I tried. But I wouldn’t let her go. The song ended, but I kept my arms wrapped tight around her, not letting her move an inch. If she was having some internal battle again, she could do so in my arms.
“Whatcha doing, wifey?” I joked, secretly enjoying the sound of that.
She gave me a look of forced casualness. “Song’s over.”
Right. Like that’s what happened behind those deep eyes of hers.
“Is it?” I asked, knowing exactly what was coming next. Yep, I was a smooth one tonight. Found two Billy Joel songs on the jukebox and bogarted them both. I was sure the hillbilly folks of Red Fox would be put out without their country incest bullshit, but I was in town and I had a fake wife to impress.
I don’t know if she was impressed, though. She looked shocked. I didn’t know if that was good or bad.
“Don’t look so worried,” I told her, trying to put her at ease. “Best fifty cents I ever spent.”
“What, did you select Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits or something?”
Er, maybe she wasn’t finding it as charming as I thought. Maybe I was being creepy. Wouldn’t be the first time.
“Well, I tried,” I admitted. “But these were the only two songs. I’m afraid it’s Poison after this, so you should probably enjoy this dance while you can.”
“You really like Billy Joel, don’t you?”
Oh, she was just so clueless. Bless her heart. I brought her in closer to me so she’d start picking up on the right idea. Which was the wrong idea. Or a bad, naughty idea.
“He’s all right,” I said, having a hard time keeping my amused grin under wraps. “But I figured you might dance with me if I put this on. Only fair that I get to dance with my wife.”
She blushed at my choice of words. “A good wife would dance with you to anything. Especially with you. You’re a modern day Gene Kelly.”
Now it was my time to blush. Except that I’m a man and I don’t do that.
I laughed instead. “Years of theatre school and that’s the only thing that sticks.”
It was true too. I was a pretty fucking good dancer before I got sucked into the film side of things. Though I gotta say, the tail I got in theatre school was one of the reasons I stuck around for so long.
Her eyes widened. She smiled, her breath hot and sweet. “You’re going to continue to surprise me, aren’t you?”
“I hope so,” I said. “The element of surprise is all I have.”
And to make my point, I did something I had wanted to do all night.
I reached down and took a firm grab of her sweet ass. It molded like soft putty in my hand.
I looked over to Maximus, hoping the twatwaffle was watching.
He was. He looked surprised. Bothered. Red brows knitted together.
I grinned at him and gave him the thumbs up.
Suck on that, Max.
“What the hell, Dex?” she whispered harshly.
Oh right, I still had her ass in my hand. I let go and put my hand at the small of her back. Still in reach.
“What?” I asked innocently. “I’m allowed to grab my wife’s ass. She’s got a nice one.”
A strange look came over her eyes, like clouds from an incoming storm.
“What would Jennifer think?”
Oh, fuck man. Why did she have to go and ruin a perfectly good – and innocent, I might add – ass-grabbing moment like that? Jennifer. What the hell did she have to do with anything? This was about me and her. This was about now. Why couldn’t she have left it like that?
Reality bites.
“There is no Jennifer in this scenario,” I told her.
“You’re skirting dangerous territory, Dex,” she warned.
It’s too bad that was the best territory to be in. What a little buzzkill I had in my hands.
“What do you mean?” I wanted to hear her say it.
She thought about it. She knew I was baiting her.
“Your girlfriend is awfully trusting of you, that’s all.”
It wasn’t all. But it was right.
“We have a relationship based on trust. Just like you and I do.”
The trust that I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize either relationship unless I had a damn good reason. And, well, I hadn’t seen the reason yet. It needed to be full-proof.
Oh, I had no fucking idea what I was thinking about. All booze plus no meds makes Dex a crazy boy.
I felt eyes watching me every move so I looked away from her sweet face and scanned the bar. There were two idiots in their twenties sitting nearby, staring intently at Perry. It gave me a very bad feeling. First of all, one of them looked like he got chewed up by a lawnmower and hastily put back together. The other was just dripping with Perry lust. It was a little nauseating. Fuck, I hoped I didn’t look like that.
“Looks like you’re attracting some yokel’s at ten o’ clock,” I told her, trying to sound breezy but wanting her to know it wasn’t something flattering.
She observed them for a moment. They never broke their stare, even though now I was full on giving them the Dex Foray glare.
She looked back to me and I softened my face.
“Lovely pair,” she joked. “Are you suggesting I go for them?”
I twirled her around. “Only if you want to add another cut to that cheek.”
We danced for a little bit more until the song ended and then I regretfully took my hands off of Perry and left her to go to the bathroom. It had felt so good to be holding her but it was back to reality and the tawdry, beer-soaked morons of Red Fox.
When I was done I came back to the table where Maximus and Bird were talking. Max’s head snapped up the moment he heard me approaching and the look in his eyes was brilliant. As in, he was still annoyed about the ass-grabbing move. Well good. Her ass wasn’t technically mine to grab (not in the real world) but it sure as hell wasn’t his either.
Perry wasn’t at the table but I didn’t want to ask where she was in case Maximus had some stupid answer. So I just slid in the seat beside him and started talking to Bird about the history of the town. Not that I hadn’t learned quite a bit all ready, but I liked Bird and Bird seemed more relaxed when he was talking about boring shit.
I don’t know how much time had passed before it was apparent that Perry wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Max had gotten up to go somewhere, so I asked Bird.
“Where’s Perry?”
He looked over at the crowd, his stern eyes scanning every person.
“I don’t know....she-”
I didn’t hear what he said. The slight spark of panic in his eyes was enough for me to jump to my feet. I marched to the edge of the dance floor and tried to pick her out there. Then I went around the bar area, searching every table and booth. I went to the bar, still as packed with stanky people as ever and then I went to the washrooms, hanging around the woman’s one for a few minutes before I had this terrible, ball-grabbing sensation that she was in major trouble.
I hoped my instincts were wrong but when it came to Perry they never were. It was like I had some sort, I don’t know, it sounds lame to say connection, but that’s kind of what it was.
I ran away from the washrooms and pushed my way through the crowd to the front door. Outside people were smoking, puking, making out. Perry wasn’t one of them.
“Fuck,” I swore under my breath and went back inside, the wall of sweat and heat hitting me like a bum paddle.
When I looked around again, I noticed the two yokels I spotted ogling her earlier were gone. Again, my balls seized. This was not good.
Not good, not good, not good, not good.
I spied an exit sign at the back and another door and scrambled my way through the crowd. At one point my borrowed cowboy hat fell off but I wasn’t about to retrieve it.
I burst through the back doors and into the still of the night, the sounds of the bar fading as the door closed behind me.
But, fuck.
Wait.
I heard noises coming from around the side of a truck.
I saw. Oh god. I saw feet sticking out. Perry’s worn and dusty shoes.
My heart lurched, anger pulsing through my veins at the speed of light. It was a violent feeling. I shut down to everything except swift justice.
I couldn’t even think. I walked slowly toward the back of the truck. I spotted a shovel in the back of the truck with some farm equipment and quickly yanked it out. The scraping noise of metal on metal was a dead giveaway so I had two seconds to act.
I leaped around the corner and brought the shovel down like I was batting a home run. It connected with the face of the ugly bastard and he went flying backward.
It was only then that I saw Perry underneath him, blood on her hands, life in her eyes.
“Perry!” I screamed. I went for her, falling to my knees beside her. I put my hands to her cheek, seeing how hurt she was. She was still clothed, but from the way her pants were unzipped, the way her stomach was bloodied…
I could barely choke out the words, “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. At least there was that. I slipped my arms underneath her and brought her gently to her feet.
“I got you,” I whispered. Then I remembered the other dude at the bar. “Was it just this guy?”
She didn’t say anything but she didn’t need to. I heard the crunch of gravel and saw her eyes go circle-wide. I turned on my heel, without thinking, without planning, and swung the shovel at my target.
And there I found the other guy, his face underneath my shovel as it connected with a sick crack and he went flying backward onto the ground.
I don’t really remember what happened next. Something in me, something I tried to keep buried and starving, it came out. It overrode my entire body and all I could think about was wanting to, needing to, kill this man. This beast. This animal. I wanted to rip his heart out and eat it in front of him for what they did to my Perry.
I didn’t rip out his heart but this got pretty ugly with the shovel there. It was only Perry’s cry, her protest for me to stop, that made me realize there was no use. He was down. She’s the one who needed me.
I dropped the shovel and ran to her. She was barely staying up right and her eyes were closing in lid-fluttering daze. I was losing her.
“Perry! Hang in there!” I yelled, holding her up. She went completely slack in my arms. I hoisted her above my shoulder, finding the strength deep inside (she was small but, fuck, boobs weigh a lot) and brought her to the door.
Just then, Bird came rushing out with Max and Rudy, a flashlight in his hand.
One look at Perry and the guys on the ground and they knew what to do.
I was ushered through the crowd toward Rudy’s office.
We did get a lot of looks from the drunk patrons, but none of concern. Just curiosity. It made me wonder if hauling bleeding women around was a part of their nightly scene. It wouldn’t have surprised me.
Luckily, being a medicine man didn’t mean Rudy relied on just flowers and hocus pocus to heal people. He had syringes, vials, antibiotics and a whole mess of clinical stuff under his desk.
He cleared it off and I laid her down on top of it. He lifted up her shirt. The wound near her belly-button...it made my skin crawl. It made that beast want to come out of me again.
I spent the next hour trying to keep the rage under control. A police officer showed up and I had Maximus show them to where the two guys were. I couldn’t go myself. I would have finished the job. They deserved death but I knew better than to give it to them.
When Perry was finally patched up, we took her still unconscious body to the jeep and gently placed her inside. I had hoped the rolling movement and noise of the car would have woken up, but whatever she was drugged with (Rudy said she exhibited all the signs) was far too powerful. She was there but not there. I wanted all of her to be there. I wanted her to be awake and know she was OK. I had her.
We brought her into the house where Will immediately started fussing and flipping out. Everyone was on edge, angry, wanting answers and justice. So was I, but I had to take care of her first.
I brought her up to the bedroom, alone. I was about to put her on the bed when she started making noises. Gurgling noises. Puking noises.
There wasn’t enough time. I made it as far as the bathroom with her before she puked up on herself. Trying to ignore the smell, I took her over to the toilet – she was walking a little now, but not talking – and held back her hair as she brought up the rest of the night.
When she was finally done, weak and dirty, I ran a bath for her, lukewarm. I took off her clothes and there was Perry below me, naked. She looked as vulnerable as a baby bird.
I gently put her in the bath and quickly bathed her myself, sponging her with a soapy shower puff, trying not to get her bandages wet. Her pajamas were next. She was now coherent enough to help me by putting her arms through the sleeves. Bird was now in the room with us, a shotgun in his hand. It didn’t make me feel all that better. It felt like the damage was done.
I scooped her up in my hands and lowered her into the bed. Her eyes opened wider, taking me in for the first time in hours. There was a flash of horror as she regained memory of the night. Then there was something else. Something reserved especially for me.
Maybe it was a thank you.
Maybe it was something more.
It didn’t matter. She was looking at me in a way I’d always dreamed. It’s too bad I had to save her in order to get it.
I’d never stop saving her.