Leo's Pet [Rescue for Hire 4] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Read online

  Now that they were gone and he was alone again, Leo noticed the brown-haired man standing next to his table. He must have followed the scary dude over, so that meant he was probably one of his cousin’s teammates.

  “Would you like to sit down?” he asked. The guy looked startled for a minute, then nodded and sat down at the table across from him.

  “Hello, I’m Leo DeLuca.” Leo reached his hand across the table to shake the smaller man’s hand.

  “Alex Taylor.” Alex briefly shook Leo’s hand. From the look on Alex’s face, he must have felt the same zing of awareness that had zipped up Leo’s arm. “I haven’t met all of my cousin’s teammates yet. Who was the scary dude?” Leo asked, trying to put Alex at ease.

  Alex frowned. Wouldn’t you know exotic Treb, with his small, lean stature and long black hair, would catch the man’s attention? Even one on one he didn’t stand a chance. It kind of pissed him off. “That’s Treb. But he’s taken. And even if he wasn’t taken he thinks you’re an asshole.”

  Leo’s eyebrows rose at his bluntness. Instead of looking angry, a curious expression passed over his face. “Are you angry with me, Alex?” he asked.

  Alex put off answering by taking a few swallows of his beer as Leo continued to patiently wait for an answer from him. It wasn’t in Alex’s nature to be nasty. He didn’t even get angry much. But he had wanted the man to see him. Except now that he had Leo’s undivided attention he didn’t know what to do with it.

  “Alex, I am waiting for an answer.” Leo’s voice had an edge in it that had Alex’s submissive tendencies standing up and surrendering. “I um, I just didn’t want you to think you had a chance with Treb.” Alex was completely off balance by now. He found he couldn’t even raise his eyes to meet the other man’s. If he wasn’t careful, he would embarrass them both by kneeling at the man’s feet and calling him Sir.

  Leo sat back and enjoyed the picture in front of him. With Alex’s head lowered, Leo could only see the top of his shiny brown hair. But he remembered pretty light brown eyes with green flecks and smooth skin, with a few freckles dancing across his nose. He knew most wouldn’t notice all that but to Leo, this man’s looks were everything he was attracted to. He also saw the wide width of Alex’s shoulders under the baggy flannel shirt and he suspected once he removed it there would be at least a six-pack as his prize to explore.

  Alex was starting to fidget at the lingering silence. So Leo decided to put him out of his misery. “Alex, I’m not interested in Treb. I was just trying to put names to the faces of Tony’s teammates.” Leo saw the tension immediately flow out of his shoulders as Alex heard his words. He was just going to ask the man if he was free the next day when Alex’s phone rang.

  “Yes, boss?” Alex answered after checking the screen.

  “Alex, get your gear. We have two missing children that were last seen near a sinkhole that just opened up. The authorities aren’t even sure if both are in the sinkhole. We should probably take Bud just in case. Be here at the house in fifteen.”

  Alex ended the call and looked up into Leo’s deep brown eyes. He couldn’t stop himself from admiring that thick wavy black hair with a few gray hairs decorating his temples. Pulling himself away from the growing attraction he was feeling, he said, “It was nice to meet you. Sorry I was rude. The team has been called on a mission and I have to go.”

  “When you have finished that mission, I want you to call me and let me know you’re safe,” Leo instructed and held out his hand for Alex’s phone.

  Alex watched his hand automatically giving Leo the phone. With a few presses of the buttons, Leo handed the phone back. Then the bigger man stood up and went around the table and waited for Alex to leave his chair. When Alex stood up, their height difference was less than he would have thought. Leo had such a presence about him, Alex had assumed he was as tall as the boss at six five. But the man only stood about three inches taller than his own six feet. Leo laid his hand on Alex’s lower back and, with a slight pressure, had him walking before him to the front doors. As Alex walked out of the hotel with Leo, he decided the man with his huge commanding presence could be five feet tall and would still be able to order everyone around him.

  Once they were outside, Leo asked, “Which truck is yours?”

  “How did you know I drove a truck?”

  “With your job, a truck makes sense.”

  “Just over there.” Alex nodded toward the end of the row of vehicles parked next to the building.

  Alex headed toward his truck, Leo’s hand never leaving his lower back, making that spot tingle. Once he reached the driver’s door, he hit the open button on his truck key, lights flashed, and the door unlocked. Bravely he turned toward the other man, valiantly trying to come up with some sort of good-bye. Unfortunately he wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say.

  Suddenly the back of his neck was cupped in a firm hand, and he was pulled into a strong embrace. Warm lips encased his and a tongue invaded his mouth, not asking permission but demanding entrance. Alex melted. This was what he craved. As his tongue was sucked into the other man’s mouth, he felt pre-cum wet the inside of his boxer briefs.

  Then the tongue withdrew, and the lips left his. Opening his eyes, he looked into deep brown eyes that held dominance and passion.

  “Tell me you will call me once the mission is over to let me know you’re safe,” Leo ordered.

  “I’ll call you,” Alex managed to croak out.

  “When you get back, we’ll talk,” Leo stated. Alex noticed that Leo’s words hadn’t formed a question, but made a statement. And again his submissive tendencies, as well as his cock responded. “Okay,” Alex answered.

  Then Leo opened Alex’s door and he climbed into the truck. Before he could close the door, Leo stepped up to his side and pulled his head down for a quick kiss. Releasing him, Leo stepped away and shut his door. Alex met Leo’s eyes through the glass and knew, for the first time in his life, someone really saw him.

  Chapter Two

  The team took a plane piloted by Pete, Damian’s assistant, to a local county airport near the rescue. From there the victim’s family had SUVs waiting to take them to a roped-off area near the site. Cade’s call for Damian to pilot a separate helicopter turned out to be an excellent decision. On the way to the site they viewed the live news footage on Tony’s laptop, watching as no one could get close to the sinkhole by foot as the ground was still very unstable.

  When they had arrived at the scene, Damian lowered Jack down into the hole from the helicopter, where, miraculously, he had found a small boy clinging to a huge root system on the inside of the hole. Jack had managed to grab the boy before part of the deep hole widened with more earth sinking inward. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there had not been any sign of the little girl.

  Alex scanned the area from behind the barriers set up by the local authorities. Unlike with most rescue cases, these authorities weren’t very welcoming or cooperative. Every once in a while the team encountered situations like this. The locals thought they didn’t need an outsider’s help. Or there was an election coming up and they needed to be the hero. They didn’t seem to realize or care that the families of the victims only wanted their loved ones back safe and as soon as possible.

  Twice Alex had tried to take Bud, his tracking bloodhound, and go over the ground just inside the barrier where there would be less footprints or scents of the many people at the scene. But each time, a local cop would order him back behind the barrier. At this rate the second victim didn’t stand a chance of being rescued. Finally he’d had enough and left the area by the barrier and kept walking away from the sinkhole until there were no people around. It was then he took out a large plastic bag containing a small pink T-shirt and let Bud put his nose inside.

  “Find,” he ordered.

  Treb was right behind him as they slowly and methodically made their way in a huge circle around the sinkhole. It was the only chance they had of finding the seven-year-old girl still m
issing. About a half hour later, Alex felt Bud starting to get excited. Suddenly the hound veered off to the right, even further away from the hole and started his, “I found something,” talk. Alex could hear Treb behind him, speaking into the mike attached next to his mouth, giving the boss their current coordinates and asking the team to quickly get there before the crowd noticed Bud’s howling.

  With some difficulty, Alex and Bud, with Treb following, made their way through a thick stand of scrub willow trees until they stopped at the edge of an algae-covered pond. A small path of clear water cut through the algae, showing both men something had gone through the water right where the dog was indicating the scent trail ended. Alex’s eyes followed the trail through the shallow mucky pond until it reached the leaf-covered branches of a large downed tree. That’s where he caught a glimpse of the little girl clinging to the underside of the branches, their leaves providing an unwelcomed cover over her.

  “Sit!” Alex ordered before giving Bud his puppy doll. “Good boy!”

  Alex gave Bud a hand signal and commanded, “Stay,” before he jumped into the pond. He knew one of the team would take care of Bud.

  His feet immediately sank into the muck. Knowing if he struggled he would sink deeper, Treb dove chest first, keeping his head above the algae-covered water, and started swimming toward the child.

  Finding the little girl was the easy part. Getting to her was a whole new world of pain. The branches hiding the child were dense and covered with millions of small sharp thorns. Now he could see she was caught in the branches by her clothing and had small cuts all over any exposed skin. Making his way slowly toward her in the water was very painful, as the thorns ripped right through his clothing, cutting into his skin. He could feel the thorns in a couple of places, imbedding their way into his flesh. Finally he took out his knife and started cutting and sawing his way to the child.

  When he made it to her, Alex found her totally immobilized, hanging by her clothes from that nasty tree. She was very cold and her crying had turned into mews like a cat.

  “My name is Alex. I’m here to get you out so you can go home. Don’t be afraid but I’m going to have to cut your jacket to get you loose,” Alex said softly, trying to get the girl’s attention. It wasn’t until he started cutting the girl off the branch that he saw she couldn’t look at him because her hair was trapped by the thorns.

  “Please, it hurts so bad,” the little girl pleaded.

  Alex could do nothing else but cut the little girl’s long blonde hair close to her head to get it loose. Then he cut her jacket and part of her shirt that had somehow wound their way tightly around the branches in her struggles to be free. Finally he had her loose and lifted her onto his back. Alex kept his body as low in the water as he could while keeping the little girl above. Even though it was probably too late, he wanted to keep as much of the dirty water as he could out of all the cuts covering her small body.

  The little girl just clung to him as tightly as her bloody fingers would let her. As he made his way through the last of the thick cover, a particularly large branch filled with thorns, half-submersed in the water, caught on his pants by his left hip. He felt the skin tear, and the thorns and the ends of broken sticks imbedding themselves into his flesh. But he couldn’t stop at this point, so he clenched his teeth and kept going, letting his skin tear even more.

  After what seemed like hours, Alex got the girl to shore. She was immediately taken from him by helping hands. More hands grabbed him and pulled him from the water. As they got him out, they laid him on the ground, making the thorns and debris sink even deeper into his hip. Alex couldn’t stop the shriek of pain that escaped.

  Jack was immediately at his side. “What hurts, buddy?”

  “The thorns caught my hip on the way out.” Alex breathed deeply through the pain. Jack cut through his pant leg by his hip, revealing a bloody mess with black spots that only could be thorns driven deeply into the wet, dirty open wound.

  It became clear to everyone present that there was no way a stretcher or vehicle could make their way through the thick scrub willows to where the little girl and Alex were. Cade ended up carrying the little girl out to the waiting arms of her parents.

  Alex had to slowly make his way through the willows with Treb in front of him and Jack behind, guiding him, painful step by painful step. Twice he would have fallen if Jack hadn’t grabbed him. Jack hadn’t been able to dig the thorns out beforehand because they were in too deep. So the pain became even more excruciating every time he moved and they inched even deeper into bloody, torn flesh.

  Finally they made it out of the willows only to be informed that the ambulance had taken the little girl with her mother to the hospital. Now Alex had to wait for the second ambulance to arrive. There was no way he could sit or lay down with those things stabbing into him, so with Treb’s and Jack’s help, he stood and waited. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wet but usable phone. Their phones had been a special purchase by Tony and could stand a lot of abuse, including getting wet. Finding the number he needed, he hit the green call button. Alex heard the phone ring a few times.

  “Hello,” a deep voice answered.

  “It’s Alex Taylor. I just wanted to let you know we found the little girl and everything is fine.” That was all Alex could say before a fist came out of nowhere and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. He never heard the father of the little girl swearing at him and calling him a pervert for cutting off his daughter’s hair and clothes. He never saw Treb jab the guy in the neck, dropping him to the ground. And he never heard the voice on the phone urgently asking what was going on and if he was okay. No, he never saw or heard anything until he woke up in the hospital bed handcuffed to a bed railing.

  * * * *

  The first time Alex became aware of his surroundings, he realized right away that he was in a hospital. No matter how hard they tried to cover up the distinct smell, a hospital will always smell like a hospital. He could hear the unmistakable beep of the machine that kept track of a person’s vital signs. The beep seemed to be keeping a steady rhythm so he figured he must be still alive and halfway okay. That was the furthest he got before the drugs kicked in and he was pulled back under into nothingness.

  The next time he reached consciousness, he managed to open his eyes. The machine was still keeping that steady pace so now he tried to figure out how bad he was hurt. He realized his head hurt, especially the front of his face. When he tried to reach up and touch it, his hand was only able to lift a couple of inches. Carefully, because his eyes hurt when he moved them, he looked down and saw that most of his left arm was covered in bandages. But what really concerned him was the handcuff locking his wrist to the bar of the hospital bed.

  Glancing around the room, Alex saw a police officer sitting on a chair in the corner and Treb sleeping in a chair directly in front of him, but on the other side of the room. What the hell? He must have made a noise because Treb woke up and hurried to the door calling for a nurse.

  Turning back to him he said, “Sorry, man. They won’t let me near you until the boss has the bullshit charges against you dropped or straightened out or some such crap. They think I’m going to get the cuffs off of you and help you escape or something.” Treb waved his hands about, clearly agitated. “In fact none of us are allowed near you. That is everyone except Tony’s cousin, the asshole chef. You dating him or something man? The guy has clearly staked his claim if you know what I mean.”

  Alex lost track of most of the conversation. He was so thirsty and his skin felt like it was burning up. His left arm just below his elbow and his left hip were in intense pain. There weren’t any broken bones that he could tell, but something was clearly wrong with his hip.

  “Now, Mr. Taylor, try to take a few of these ice chips into your mouth. It’ll help with your sore throat. Then maybe you can tell me how you’re feeling.” A woman’s voice brought him out of his inner contemplating.

  A nurse was standing next t
o his bed, shoving a spoon between his lips. He admitted the ice did help his dry mouth and sore throat, so he opened his mouth again, hoping she would shove some more in.

  “All right, Mr. Taylor, one more spoonful and then try to talk to me,” she urged.

  “Hip hurts,” was all he could manage in a hoarse whisper. Again he opened his mouth for some ice chips. Thank goodness she shoved in some more.

  “I’m sure it does, Mr. Taylor. Infection has set in from those nasty thorns and dirty water you were swimming in.” She then pointed to a laminated picture on the wall of a row of round sad faces. On one end was a face that looked constipated and the faces gradually became unhappier until the last was crying. “Can you tell me from one to ten on the pain chart, with one being hardly any, to ten being excruciating, what the hip pain is, Mr. Taylor?”

  “Nine.” He managed to talk a little above a whisper this time. He noticed the softer he talked, the louder the nurse spoke to him.

  “I’ve called the doctor, Mr. Taylor. He should be here soon to explain your injuries and infection. I’ve pushed the button on the pain machine so you should be feeling some relief soon.” By now the nurse was practically shouting at him. But Alex didn’t care. He was already letting the darkness overtake him again. Although he did manage to whisper, “He’s not an asshole.”

  * * * *

  “Alex. Wake up now. Come on, pet, you need to open your eyes.” The voice was persistent and held the edge of authority. “That’s it. I know you’re awake. Open your eyes, Alex.”

  Thank goodness someone had dimmed the lights because just opening his bruised, swollen eyes a sliver made them water. A hand carefully wiped the tears from his lashes and he managed to open them a little further, focusing on the handsome man leaning over him. Some of the fuzziness must have cleared away from his brain because he realized that it wasn’t a nurse helping him but Leo DeLuca.