Hearts on Fire 3: Tasha (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “On the count of three. Don’t defy me, baby. You’ll regret it,” he told her.

  Maybe if I just take the shot, he’ll leave me alone? Why did his demand just cause a reaction in me? Any attention seemed better than none at all.

  “Do it, Tasha,” Melanie whispered. As Tasha glanced to the left toward Melanie, she saw that James had one arm wrapped around her midsection and his hand in a restraining-like manner over Melanie’s throat. Although James was caressing her throat slowly, she could tell he was exerting control and Melanie seemed accepting. It made Tasha’s heart race.

  Tasha lifted the glass up to her lips.

  “On three. One, two, three,” Dash said and they both drank down the shot.

  Tasha felt her throat burn as she placed the glass down and then tried to turn out and away from Dash’s hold.

  He stopped her with one arm snug around her midsection and his hand over her wrist tight on the right side. She stared straight ahead, uncertain how she was going to get out of this situation.

  “That’s my girl,” he whispered against her ear, and she felt his tongue touch her ear lobe.

  She pulled away but he didn’t release her. “I’m not your girl,” she said through clenched teeth.

  He gripped her hard and pulled her back tightly against him. “Not yet, but soon. You’ll see.”

  The sound of his cell phone ringing and vibrating against her back saved her from further groping by the man. “I need to take this. Don’t leave. We need to make plans.” He lifted the phone to his ear and walked away. She released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

  “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, Tasha. I should have known that Dash was interested.”

  Tasha swung her head at Melanie. “What are you talking about?” Tasha asked and Melanie bit her lip as James pulled her closer.

  “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Just sit down, Tasha, and wait for Dash,” James ordered her.

  “I don’t think so. I’m outta here. Melanie, are you coming with me?” Tasha asked with attitude.

  James gave Tasha a smug expression and Melanie shook her head as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. It was obvious that James was in charge of Melanie. Was her cousin in an abusive relationship? James sure did look like he used force in words and in actions. Even the way he held her now, with his arm around Melanie’s waist and his fingers over her one wrist like a shackle, could pass as indicators. She wasn’t sure what to do, but her gut took precedence warning her to run and get the hell out of there.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Tasha turned to leave, grabbing her small purse off the chair.

  “I’d wait for Dash. He’s going to be upset.” James now reprimanded her in that tone he used with Melanie.

  Despite her gut instincts telling her to just head the hell out of there and keep her mouth shut, Tasha shot from the hip on instinct to James’s order.

  “Fuck him, and fuck you.”

  Tasha saw the stunned expression on Melanie’s face, and as she turned to walk away, Tasha could hear James chuckling. It irked her. It made her see how much of a dick the man really was, and she wondered why the hell her cousin was with him for so long?

  Tasha slammed the door to the place closed as she passed the inside bouncer and then the outside bouncer who told her good night. She gave him a wave, despite the fact that she was so angry. She pulled out her keys, her vision solely on getting to her little convertible Beetle that sat in the parking lot across the street from the pier. She clicked the button, heard the door unlock, and as she reached for the handle, she heard his voice.

  “Going somewhere?”

  She turned around to see Dash standing there. Where the hell did he come from? She hadn’t heard a sound. A creepy feeling consumed her. This guy was a professional something. She wasn’t sure what but she knew whatever it was, it was illegal and really bad.

  “Home.”

  He approached, towering over her, invading her personal space.

  “I thought I told you to stay put.”

  She chuckled low, well more like snorted at his audacity. Did this guy really think that women liked being ordered around?

  He moved fast like lighting, and an instant later she found herself pressed hard against her own car, his ultra-thick thigh wedged between her thighs nearly tearing the skirt she wore, and her one wrist restrained by his hand.

  She went to shove him with her right hand, and he grabbed that, too, pulled her forward, squeezed both wrists behind her back with one hand, and then gripped her hair and neck.

  She gasped as her eyes locked with his.

  She had no choice but to look up at him, chin tilted forward, her body wedged against his and the car.

  “You need a lot of discipline. I get that. I’m not a patient man, Tasha.”

  “What do you want?” she asked, and swallowed hard. In this position the move caused a hard gurgling sound in her throat.

  “You.” He pressed his mouth against her neck. She tightened her eyes and tried to free her hands, her legs, but it was no use. The man was super strong and way bigger than her.

  “Stop it. I don’t want this.”

  He nipped her chin with his teeth and then suckled it. “You don’t know what you want.” He pressed his thigh deeper between her legs and against her mound. She gasped. “I’m going to teach you.”

  She shook her head, felt the tears in her eyes, the pain against her wrists, and she knew they would be bruised.

  “My mind is set. You’ll submit. I have the ability to tame even the most resistant females.”

  She was disgusted by his comment, his chauvinistic, narcissistic attitude. “Get away from me. I don’t even know you.”

  “I’m going to change all that.”

  “No. I’m not interested.”

  “You will be.”

  He covered her mouth with his. He pressed his tongue deep and she tried to pull away but his hold on her hair and head was firm and relentless.

  Cigar smoke and tequila filled her nostrils as she tried pulling away. She opened wider, gasping as he squeezed her wrists tighter and wedged his thigh so hard between her legs she cried out.

  When he released her lips, he stared into her eyes, holding her by her hair she was still forced to look him in the eyes.

  “This is only the beginning. I’ve chosen you, baby.”

  He slowly started to release her, and she felt her body shaking, she could see in his dark eyes and expression that he knew he had complete control. What the hell was she supposed to do? The bouncers were right there and they didn’t do a thing. This guy knew everyone. They cleaned up his mess in the bar when he slugged that guy. They turned their backs as he forcibly kissed her, and she knew she just needed to get out of here.

  “I need to go,” she said in a shaky voice.

  He placed his hands on her hips, rubbed along her skin under the shirt she wore.

  Dash stared down into her eyes. She could see the definition in his chest, shoulders, and arms. She wouldn’t stand a chance physically against him. She didn’t know what she was going to do. His phone went off again.

  He licked his lower lip as he stared at her abundant cleavage. She hadn’t even noticed that her buttons came undone and that her breasts were pouring from the bra she wore.

  “I need to go. I have an appointment.”

  What the hell kind of appointment do you have at one o’clock in the morning?

  God help me, what did Melanie get me involved in?

  Dash cupped her cheek and ran his thumb along her lower jaw as her eyes filled with tears of fear.

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  She shook her head. “Dash, I’m not interested.”

  He gripped her face harder and then released it quickly as if he realized what he was doing and stopped himself from bruising her cheek. It was so strange how he went from almost violent to then suddenly controlled.

  “You don’t know what you want. I’ll
get in touch with you.” He ran his hand up her ribs to her left breast and cupped it.

  His eyes widened and took on a darker expression.

  “We’re going to have a lot of fun. Be good. No other men but me, you hear? Or else.”

  He made a gesture with his hand pretending it was a knife that slit his throat. Her eyes widened.

  He released her and walked away, pulling his phone from his hip.

  “I’ll be there soon,” she heard him say as she rubbed her wrists. When she moved to get into her car, she felt the ache between her thighs, and knew there would be a bruise. Even her neck hurt from Dash’s hold on her.

  She got into the car and locked the doors. She started the ignition and tried to stop her body from shaking. As she stared down at the steering wheel and her wrists, she could see the finger marks.

  “What am I going to do?”

  As she reversed from the parking spot, she looked toward the right making sure there were no cars when she heard the banging on her window. She screamed as she swung her head left, gripping the steering wheel, thinking it was Dash again.

  She saw Melanie.

  “What the hell?” Tasha yelled out. Melanie was in tears, as Tasha rolled down the window.

  “I need a ride.”

  Tasha was so pissed off at her cousin, she wanted nothing more to do with her, her boyfriend James or his creepy criminal friends.

  “Get the fuck in.”

  Sure, now I have all this anger and guts, but what about when Dash was restraining me. I didn’t do shit. I couldn’t do shit. I never felt so defenseless and weak in my entire life.

  Melanie got into the car, slammed the door closed, and started pulling on her seat belt as Tasha sped out of the parking lot.

  “Tasha?”

  “What the fuck just went down in there? Who the hell is Dash? What illegal stuff are he and your boyfriend involved in and why did he say I’m his?” Tasha yelled at her.

  “Oh God.” Melanie covered her face with her hands. She was sobbing and Tasha felt bad. She sped down the main road and onto the main side streets of some development five minutes from Melanie’s house.

  Tasha pulled the car over, put it in park, and turned toward Melanie.

  “Calm down, and tell me why you’re crying.”

  Melanie sniffled, then moved her hands and stared at Tasha. “I’m sorry I asked you to come there with me. I was selfish to do that, to think that having you with me would give me the courage to break things off with James.”

  “What? You said things were great with James. You’ve been with him for months.”

  “They’re not great. I lied.”

  “Tell me everything. Tell me what’s been going on.”

  “Tasha, James is involved with some really bad things. I don’t know specifics, but I know they’re illegal. He’s also very protective of me. He gets jealous of the tiniest things. He’s taken good care of me, though, and buys me things all the time.”

  Tasha could tell that Melanie was making up excuses for something and then it hit her.

  “He’s abusive, isn’t he?”

  Melanie stared at Tasha as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t leave him. He’ll kill me, and no one will ever find my body.”

  “Oh God, Melanie. No, he can’t kill you. You have to go to the police, to Uncle Paul and Aunt Lucy.”

  “Oh God, no. No, they can’t find out. You can’t tell them.”

  “But, Melanie, you’re in over your head. This isn’t right.”

  “Tasha, I saw things. I know things.”

  Tasha stared at her cousin unsure what to say.

  “I can’t defy James. I can’t say no to him, and now I’ve put you in the worst danger possible. I didn’t know that Dash was going to be there. I didn’t know that he had his eyes set on you from the first time he saw you two weeks ago.”

  “What the hell are you saying?”

  “No one says no to Dash. When he is set on having something, he’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

  “Fuck him. I’m not for sale. I’m not into getting knocked around by some dickhead on a control trip.”

  “No, Tasha. You don’t understand. He’ll hurt you. He’ll come after you and haunt you until you have no choice but to give in. He knows ways around the police, around getting caught. It becomes so much that you’ll find out it’s better to just give in than to fight and resist it.”

  Tasha felt her heart racing. “Jesus, Melanie, is that what James did to you?”

  Melanie lowered her eyes and rubbed her hands together. “Dash is worse. Dash won’t give up. You won’t be able to say no.”

  “Bullshit. I’ll go to the police. I can do it right now for what he just did in the parking lot.”

  She shook her head. “It won’t work. It won’t matter. It will make it worse for you. He has ways of showing up everywhere you go. He’ll become obsessed with you, and when you confront him, you’ll pay the price, and if you try to run and hide, he’ll find you.”

  “How the hell do you know this? How can you be so sure?”

  “The last woman Dash was with disappeared. She was found burned to death in a fire in her apartment. He killed her, Tasha, and he’ll kill you, too.”

  Chapter 3

  At nine o’clock in the evening, the call came into the firehouse. Engine 19 was on the move. The bell sounded and immediately Eddie, Lance, Tyler, Ace, Ice, and Bull, along with the others from their crew, scrambled to the garage bay. They each pulled on their pants, stepped into their boots, and grabbed the rest of their gear in speed record time. They jumped into the trucks, Chief Martelli already in radio contact with dispatch and on route to the location.

  Once in the truck, the firefighters helped one another put on their gear, attaching their self-contained breathing apparatus and checking the valves. They grabbed their masks and buckled themselves in.

  “Here we go, guys. Sounds like a bad one,” Ice stated to them. Tyler buckled his turnout coat, feeling the instant anticipation he had whenever he was called to respond to a fire.

  One look around the cab of the fire truck, and he could see the similar expressions on his brothers’ and friends’ faces as they prepared their minds best they could for the fire scene.

  Tyler could hear the radio chatter as it echoed through the cab while Montego drove the truck. Ice pulled the lever for the horn to get through traffic on Luana Highway. They were on their way to a house located at 117 Beach Cove Bay, a small, two-block neighborhood consisting of three cul-de-sacs. The house in jeopardy was located in the furthest cul-de-sac that bordered a heavily wooded area.

  Upon arrival, there was a great concern for the neighboring homes as well as the adjacent wooded area. Tyler saw all the dark smoke consuming the neighborhood and house. As he and the others arrived on the scene, flames were shooting from the right side of the home and the roof.

  The residents in the neighborhood gathered outside their homes watching the events unfold. He hated their concerned expressions, the sign of tears as they worried about their neighbors’ safety, yet it urged him to focus, do his job, and save lives while putting out the fire. The local police department had officers on the scene that immediately began to safely border off the fire scene with yellow “DO NOT CROSS” tape to assist the firefighters. He even saw the sheriff, Jake McCurran, along with Deputies Ronnie Towers and Turbo Hawkins, new to the sheriff’s department.

  “John and Marcus, you two lay it in and hit the hydrant,” Lieutenant Ice McCurran stated, and both John and Marcus began to pull the hose from the pumper truck. They pulled the two-and-a-half-inch hose closer to the custom-built, colonial-style house as their lieutenant ordered. John was now the nozzle man and he began spraying the far right end of the house, in attempt to stop the fire from spreading. Sirens blared in the distance, red lights flashed, radio conversations echoed over the speakers, filling the air in the nice neighborhood. Drivers from Ladder 19 positioned their trucks toward the house and roof.
Tyler assumed that the fire started in the attic on the right side of the home.

  He sensed the urgency to move quickly. He and Bull were doing their job and waiting for further instruction from the Lieutenant.

  Out of force of habit, Tyler scanned the crowd of people with his eyes. He knew that one quick glance would not indicate what he was looking for but, the thought of someone trapped inside would make Tyler and the team approach the fight differently. He focused on his assigned position, prepared to enter the house on the ground floor level by the garage, when he caught a glimpse of the lieutenant.

  The lieutenant’s facial expression changed as he spoke to an older couple. Tyler could tell that Ice was upset and assumed the people Ice spoke to were the homeowners.

  The chief called out orders to Ace and Eddie.

  “You two begin on the roof, we need some controlled ventilation before I can send Tyler and Bull in search and rescue.”

  Ace and Eddie grabbed the gas-powered chain saw, preparing to climb the ladder to begin working on the fire from the roof. Tyler and Bull waited to enter, grabbing a thermal digital camera to use if necessary, while Lance and Marcus prepared the hose for their water supply to put out the fire and enter by the side door of the home. Now red, orange, and black flames covered the entire right side of the home. The smoke was thick and changing from gray to black then covering the clear night sky.

  “Bull, Eddie, you two go in, do a sweep of the house B side, search and rescue. The neighbor said two adults and one child occupied the home. No one has seen them. Hollywood, Bear, and Nate will follow,” Chief Martelli told the firefighters.

  Tyler got that instant pain in the pit of his stomach, the thought of someone trapped in the heat, smoke, and fire sent a terrible feeling through his whole body. Then the adrenaline kicked in, the rush to search, find, and rescue the victims.

  The chief took Tyler’s and Bull’s red tags from their turnout coats, a procedure required before entering a fire.

  “Be smart, Godspeed,” the chief stated, and they nodded. Every fire was dangerous, and there was always that fear that they wouldn’t make it out alive. But Tyler didn’t focus on that. He focused on the people trapped inside. He and Bull would find them. That was their mission.