Tymber Dalton - Pinch Me

Did Shayla’s eyes suddenly widen? “Oh. Uh, during an interview when I first started at the magazine. One of my first assignments.”

“What about?”

Now Shayla definitely wore a deer-in-the-headlights look. “Ah, he runs a data center.” She rummaged around in her purse for a moment. “Hey, I loaded pictures on my phone of you and the gang to look at.”

Laura got the feeling there was more to it than that, but was soon distracted by Shayla walking over with her phone and swiping through pictures with her.

Somewhere deep inside, Laura felt familiarity when looking at the first picture. It was her and Shayla with four other women. They were sitting at a table in a restaurant and all holding up glasses at whoever was taking the picture. “Leah, Loren, Tilly, and Clarisse,” she said. “The waiter took it for us. This was just a few weeks ago. Our first all together since Clarisse had the baby.”

“Baby?”

“Yeah. Her second with, uh, here’s another from the same day.” Shayla quickly swiped to the next picture. They looked like they were standing in front of a giant shark hanging upside down. “That’s in Tarpon Springs.”

“Fake shark?” she asked, squinting a little to see.

“Oh, yeah.” Shayla laughed. “Over at the Sponge Docks. Clarisse lives there. In Tarpon Springs, I mean. Not at the docks.”

“With her husband?”

“Yes.” Shayla swiped to another picture before Laura could ask why she sounded so nervous.

Little flashes of memory sparked here and there in Laura’s brain as they looked through them all, odd, random snapshots briefly coming into mental view before disappearing again. Laura didn’t know if they were true memories or not, but it totally distracted her from asking more about Clarisse and her family.

She realized that thought scared her even more than not getting her memory back at all. “What if what I remember isn’t what happened, but what I think happened, or what other people tell me?” she asked Shayla.

Her friend looked sad. “I don’t have an answer for you. I’m sorry.”

Laura’s gaze returned to the phone. “I wonder if anyone will.”

Rob went home and walked Doogie first. Then he headed by the dive shop. He wanted to make sure Carol didn’t decide to just randomly drop by the hospital again without asking first. He’d hoped yesterday’s talk had ensured that, but it never hurt.

Steve stood behind the counter, ringing up a customer. He wore a grim look on his usually cheerful face. He looked up as soon as Rob walked in and hurried to complete the transaction.

Once the customer had left, he rounded the counter. “All right. Enough with the bullshit. I want to see her.”

He took a deep breath and held his hands up, trying to placate him. “Did you talk to Carol?”

The older man frowned. “Yeah, but if she could go see her, why can’t I?”

Rob treaded carefully. “Carol stopped by without asking first. You know how Laura is. She’s been beaten to a pulp and trying to come to terms with the fact that she has no memory. Do you want to see her for your benefit or hers?”

Steve recoiled as if slapped. “How dare you—”

“How dare you ? Look, I love you like family, but what if she gets her memory back today and chews me a fucking new one for letting Carol see her like that, huh? Yeah, you’ve known her nearly her whole life. You tell me what she’d want.”

He took a step back and stared at the floor, his face going red, jaw working. Finally, he looked back at Rob. “When can we see her then? And why aren’t you there now?”

Rob took a deep, relieved breath. He kept his tone calm and apologetic. “I’m going to talk to her today about that. And I had to walk Doogie. I was already there a few hours this morning. You have no idea how many people want to come visit her. If I let everyone descend on her at once, it could set back her recovery from the stress, okay? I need to do it in stages, manageable bites, so we don’t overwhelm her. That’s what the doctors said. Okay?”

Rob reached out and touched the man’s arm. “I promise, you’ll get to see her soon.”

“Why can’t we talk to her on the phone?”

“Because she doesn’t know you. I’m not even talking to her on the phone.”

Steve leaned against the counter and shook his head. “I just…I can’t believe it. Does she remember anything?”

“She almost had a memory about that trip when we found the lobster. The picture triggered something.”

“Then we should get her in here soon.”

“I know. I agree. But she needs to be in the hospital right now for another couple of days. She’s still in a lot of pain from her injuries, and she looks like hell.” He choked back his own emotions. “He beat the crap out of her, Steve,” he admitted. “He nearly killed her. And to be honest? I feel better having her in the hospital right now. As long as she’s there, they’ll keep a deputy at her door. Once she’s out of there I can’t protect her every second of the day.”

“You know damn well I’ll help.”

“I know. But what if who did this is a customer? What if he walks in here and shoots her?”

Steve’s face darkened. “That detective was already in here. Went through records a few times. I gave him everything he asked for. Class rosters, charter manifests, receipts, everything.”

“And that’s a start.”

After a few silent moments, it looked like all the anger seeped out of the older man. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Rob knew he needed to give the man a little more info to keep him happy. “I told Laura’s friend, Shayla, she could visit her. She came last night with her husband, and she’s there with her right now. I don’t want Carol to know that. I don’t want her feelings hurt.”

Steve slowly nodded. “She’s really close to Shayla.”

“I thought if there was a single person other than me who could trigger something, it might be Shayla.”

Steve let out a resigned sigh. “You’re right. No, I won’t tell Carol.” He met Rob’s gaze. “If I could get my hands on that fucker…” He didn’t finish.

Rob squeezed Steve’s shoulder. “You and me, both. Believe me.”

As he climbed into his Explorer, Rob spotted a duffel bag on the floor behind the passenger seat. He dragged it into his lap and unzipped it.

Royal blue rope.

He fingered it. He didn’t have to unpack the rope to know that under it lay several carabiners, other clips, a ball gag, and a blindfold.

Angrily, he zipped it up and tossed it into the backseat before starting the engine. His mind drifted as he drove.

Two? No, three weeks earlier. He’d packed that bag for a small private party at Tony and Shayla’s.

Seth and Leah, Loren and Ross, and Tilly and her men had also been there. Rob was scheduled to work that Saturday and wouldn’t be at dinner or the club, so they’d set it up for him.

Because they were friends and loved him and Laura both.

Laura still went out to Sigalo’s on Saturday night with the rest of the gang, and then spent a little time socializing later at the club.

But that night, in Tony’s private playroom, Rob had tied Laura in a chest harness before binding her, helpless, to a bench.

Her soft cries still rang in his ears as he’d inserted a vibrator into her pussy before using another piece of rope to secure it in place.

And turned it on, forbidding her from coming under threat of five cane strokes, part of the sadistic fun knowing she wouldn’t be able to hold back and that she was more than willing to sacrifice five strokes for the orgasms.

How she’d moaned when he stepped in front of her and unzipped his jeans, her eager mouth wide and willing while a fine sheen of sweat coated her skin.