Prohibited (Tulsa City Sinners #1)

22. Lindsay

Chapter twenty-two

Lindsay

The first thing Lindsay noticed about being awake was that it felt like he had been hit by a train in his right shoulder. The hot ache that pulsed there took his breath away and he couldn’t help but moan from the pain before he even opened his eyes.

Last night’s events came tunneling toward him and his body jolted with the wave of stress that caught up with him now that he was awake.

The fire. Smoke. The pop pop pop of gunfire and pain exploding in his shoulder. The hot, sticky smell of blood and Evelyn speaking to him in a low, soothing voice. Ryan, sounding as worried as he ever had. Alex’s voice boiling with cold rage.

He blinked his eyes open and looked around the room.

Alex’s house. One of the spare bedrooms. Sunlight streaming through the windows, open to let in a fresh breeze. The curtains fluttered gently, animated by the soft drift of air.

Good God, he was still alive .

But, Christ, his bladder was nearly bursting. Slowly, he wriggled his good arm up by his waist and attempted to leverage himself into a sitting position. The pain in his shoulder tightened until he wailed softly in a most unmanly fashion.

“Pony, you’ll pull out your stitches,” Alex’s muffled voice said from a very intimate distance.

Lindsay blinked, trying to clear the sleepy blur from his eyes. Alex’s blue eyes were inches away and his strong pale hands were suddenly behind Lindsay, hooking around his good arm, pulling him into a sitting position.

“Where are you trying to escape to?” Alex said, a note of amusement in his voice.

“The washroom,” Lindsay said in a voice so hoarse he barely recognized it, and then coughed. His mouth was so dry, he was so thirsty, that he felt like might die.

“Okay,” Alex said. “Up you go.”

Lindsay watched him in a daze as he got up and walked around the bed until he was standing next to Lindsay. He stripped back the blankets and took Lindsay’s good hand, prompting him to turn toward him.

Lindsay shifted his weight onto his good leg and grasped Alex’s hand with his good hand. Well, now he had two limbs that were indisposed. He was too exhausted to feel more than a flicker of annoyance about it. The certainty that Alex would look after him eliminated much of the anxiety he may have had otherwise.

Alex stepped up beside him and pulled Lindsay’s good arm over his shoulders. “Off we go, Pony. ”

One careful step at a time, they made their way across the bedroom and down the hallway to the lavatory. At Lindsay’s insistence and Alex’s amusement, Alex left him to do his business.

“Try not to fall, Pony,” Alex said as he closed the door behind him. “Nothing as undignified as falling with one’s pants around one’s ankles.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lindsay said in a voice that cracked with his thirst.

When Lindsay finished and stood at the basin to wash his hand, he was shocked to see how pale he looked. His freckles stood out like splatters of blood across his face and down his chest and his arms. Evelyn had patched the wound on his shoulder, but he could still see a bruise radiating away from it, crawling out from underneath the linens she’d wrapped over his shoulder and under his armpit.

“God,” he breathed.

“All finished?” Alex said, cracking the door.

“Yeah,” Lindsay said. He was so tired just from the trip to the lavatory that he could have gone to sleep on his feet.

“Come on, then.” In the same way they came, they made their way back down the hallway.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Lindsay asked, his voice reedy and soft.

“Yes, always,” Alex said, his tone betraying nothing as usual .

“Then why aren’t you doing it?” Lindsay asked as Alex lowered him onto the bed, sitting on the mattress next to him.

“Bossy Pony today, aren’t you,” Alex said. He carefully removed Lindsay’s arm from his neck. “I’ll manage my work when I’m ready to. In the meantime, my work is to make sure you don’t die.”

“Well, it seems like I didn’t take that turn, after all.” Lindsay started to lay back, but Alex was quick to maneuver him back onto the bed.

“Besides,” Alex said in a soft voice that made Lindsay shiver in spite of his exhaustion, “I can never pass up the opportunity to watch you suffer.”

“Well, feast your eyes on this,” Lindsay said, settling back into the pillow, eyes drifting closed. The corners of his lips turned up a bit, in spite of himself. And in spite of the pain and the exhaustion, pleasure was needling through him. Being the subject of Alex’s undivided care and attention always filled him with pleasure.

“You could have died, Pony,” Alex said in a quiet voice as he crawled onto the mattress next to Lindsay. His warm lips suddenly found their way onto Lindsay’s chest, opposite his bad shoulder. They wandered across his chest, toward the bullet wound, causing Lindsay to tense slightly. “For a moment, I thought you did.”

Then, he lifted his head and stroked Lindsay’s hair back while they stared at each other. The moment was so pregnant with vulnerability that Lindsay nearly covered his face. In spite of the levels of physical intimacy they had experienced together, moments like this were rare.

Alex smiled in a way that made him shiver. He dipped his head and ran his tongue along the bruised flesh on Lindsay’s shoulder before he bit into the flesh just beside the bandage. Lindsay flinched and let out a puff of air.

“I will remove every single digit of every finger and then then both hands at the wrist on Walter Stanley’s bastard hands,” Alex whispered between bites and kisses that wandered back over Lindsay’s chest. He paused to give keen attention to each of Lindsay’s nipples, licking them and sucking them until Lindsay cried out in pain.

“Yes, Pony.” Alex’s hand glided over the fly of his trousers and gripped his cock, already half hard. “Give me all of it.”

His mouth traveled further down, every inch pumping more and more blood into Lindsay’s cock until it was stiff as marble. He shifted, but stopped at the flare of pain in his shoulder. Then, he laid back and gave himself over totally to Alex’s keen, practiced hands as they undid each button until he had Lindsay’s fly open. Without wasting a moment, Alex’s hand slipped inside and grasped Lindsay’s cock, dragging a moan from him.

“You’ve been such a good boy.” Alex’s hot breath, soft as feathers, sent a surge of blood into his cock. “I’m glad to see your injury has not interfered with your ability to get this gorgeous cock hard.”

He lifted his head just slightly to get a better look at the business Alex was attending to .

“And you’ve been suffering terribly,” Alex went on, hand stroking Lindsay’s cock slowly and carefully, squeezing at the base before traveling back up. “Allow me to help alleviate some of your troubles.”

“Yes,” Lindsay breathed. He held perfectly still while he watched the head of his cock disappear into Alex’s mouth, beautiful lips closing around the shaft and swallowing it down. Lindsay moaned and reached out to touch Alex’s hair. He liked running his fingers through Alex’s soft white hair, rubbing his scalp so that his blue eyes fluttered closed while his head rose and fell gently, and his hand followed his mouth up and down the base of Lindsay’s cock in an earth-shaking rhythm that drew ragged breaths of Lindsay’s body.

An orgasm was starting to build, a sensation that made Lindsay’s weak body begin to tremble. His breaths came faster, sharper. Alex kept his eyes on Lindsay’s, never slowing down or losing his rhythm. Lindsay’s breaths came faster and faster–

Until Alex swallowed his cock all the way and bit down on the shaft so hard it ripped a gravelly noise of pain out of Lindsay’s throat through his gritted teeth. The pain went through him, a horrible shock that quickly turned into a luscious, floating warmth of pleasure.

Alex pulled his mouth off and murmured, “That’s my good Pony.”

“God,” Lindsay choked, shaking from exertion. Sweat was quickly beginning to soak his body. Thirst still burned at the back of his throat, but he shoved the drive for water aside. “More,” he whispered, watching Alex watching him like a predator watches a soft woodland creature. The pain in his shoulder had faded to background noise, eclipsed by the rush of pleasure that was blocking out anything but the beautiful red of Alex’s mouth engulfing the length of him.

“If that’s what Pony wishes,” Alex said. He gave Lindsay’s cock a squeeze and ghosted his lips down the shaft, sending thrills of pleasure down the shaft and straight up into his balls, causing them to draw up even tighter against his cock. Then, he swallowed him down again, working up to a gorgeous fever pitch of pleasure until Lindsay was once again on the verge, gasping and clutching at Alex’s hair. He turned his head into the pillow, moaning with despair because he was so close and the uncertainty and anticipation of what Alex might do was driving him insane.

Without warning, Alex bit down again, causing Lindsay to smother a cry. Adrenaline surged through him, threatening to draw him up at the cost of great pain in his wounded shoulder. He forced himself to lay back and relax while Alex laughed softly and licked his balls, taking care to suck each one into his mouth and massage them with his tongue until Lindsay half sobbed.

“That’s a good Pony,” Alex murmured. He took Lindsay into his mouth again and began to work his shaft with his hand and his tongue with such precision and skill that Lindsay was back at the brink again, teetering dangerously on the edge. The thrill of terror that Alex was once again going to snatch his orgasm from him kept drawing him back from his release, but Alex showed no sign of stopping.

Finally, in a surge of desperation, he threw himself toward the finish. He gasped once, twice, held his breath and then exploded in Alex’s mouth, letting his release go in several huge spurts.

“Christ,” he said, laying back, panting. He was completely unable to move, though he was soaked in sweat and so thirsty he thought he might faint.

“Did you enjoy that, Pony?” Alex said, softly. Lindsay heard a rustling and opened his eyes to see Alex collecting a towel from a stack that had been brought in the night before in case Evelyn needed more. He brought it over and gently cleaned the sticky mixture of spit and come from Lindsay’s cock and the pool that settled around the base and dripped down his balls.

“Oh yes.” Lindsay sighed, watching Alex through half closed lids. “Your mouth. Christ.” Sleep was threatening to take him again. But first… “Could I have some water?”

“Anything for you, Pony,” Alex said in his pleasant, silky voice. He walked to the door. “I’ll be away for most of the day, but I’ll send Nurse Dolly in. She’s got to earn her keep, now that Ryan wants to make her his pet.”

“Pet?” Lindsay said faintly. “Did the Crystal burn to the ground?”

“Don’t trouble yourself yet.” Alex paused in the doorway. “Rest.”

And he disappeared through the doorway .

Ryan wanted to make her his pet? What the hell did that mean?

Lindsay let out a big breath and settled deeper into his pillows. Alex did not spare a single expense for anything in his house. Each of the beds was the softest, most delicious, most heavenly clouds that Lindsay had ever laid his poor body down on. The pillows were exquisite. The bedding was equally so. The walls were papered with the most tasteful, fashionable designs, and the carpets that sat on top of the gleaming wood floors were rich and plush. The servants were discreet and unobtrusive, but unfailingly attentive.

He loved being here. Though he had his own room at the house that he had shared with Ryan and Tommy, he spent more nights here than he did there. It was comfortable. He could give himself over completely to Alex’s care and his cruelty.

With a slight smile on his face, he began to drift off. But the sound of bare feet whispering across the wood floor and then the carpet woke him.

A beautiful woman in a simple green shift dress with a V neck tapering down her beautiful decolletage, holding a pitcher of water and a glass in her hand, was standing at his bedside.

“I’m sorry to wake you,” she said in her voice, rich as fig jam. A small line appeared between her eyebrows, a charming indication of worry. For him? The thought made his stomach flutter .

“I was already awake,” Lindsay said, cracking a small smile. Mostly, anyway.

With graceful hands that made his heart sing, she poured him a glass of water and helped him sit up enough to drink it.

“Thank you,” Lindsay said, settling back on his pillow when he’d had enough to drink. The water sitting in his stomach made him realize how hungry he was. As if to amplify the matter, his stomach gave a growl of protest.

“Don’t thank me,” Evelyn said. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked away. “It’s the least I could do.”

“Evelyn,” Lindsay said in a gentle voice. His hand slid over the sheets to where her hand rested in her lap. Cautiously, he allowed his fingers to creep over hers until, to his delight, her hand turned over and held his.

She glanced at him through a fringe of lashes, a melancholy settling over her face that was so acute, it made his heart ache for her.

“You’ve never said my name before,” she said, a touch of surprise and tenderness in her voice.

“It’s a beautiful name,” he said. A smile touched the corner of his lips. “If you don’t mind me saying so, I don’t think a person can live life weighting the scales back and forth. You’ve done things you shouldn’t have. So has Ryan. So have I. So did Tommy.” A comfortable moment of silence settled between them, and she nodded slowly. “All you can do is your best.”

Evelyn scoffed. “My best doesn’t rate very high so far.”

“Maybe not,” he said, lightly. “I can’t say for sure. But I do know you saved my life and that rates pretty fucking high, in my opinion.”

A small smile cracked her face. “Call me Evie, would you?”

“Evie,” he said, his smile growing to match hers.

A small laugh escaped her, a surprising and beautiful sound. A flower bloomed somewhere, surely. She covered her face.

“I’m getting off track,” she said, suddenly businesslike. She turned toward him and began to gently undo the bandages on his shoulder. “How is it feeling this morning?”

“Wonderful,” Lindsay said with a dry laugh that turned into a grunt of pain when she began to feel his shoulder, checking the temperature and searching for any pockets of swelling.

“Didn’t seem to hit anything vital.” There was real relief in her voice when she began to cut up some linens in order to apply new bandages.

“Didn’t seem to,” Lindsay agreed. “Still hurts like a son of a bitch.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Her hands moved quickly, practiced at their work, deft as a piano player. It was a pleasure to watch her care for him with real tenderness, worry etching itself between her eyes. When she was through, she folded the dirty linens and put them aside to be laundered, and then she settled back next to him on the bed. She looked at him, almost shyly .

“I was worried,” she said. “For a moment, I– I thought you were dead.”

“That’s sweet of you.” He gave her a playful smile and turned his hand over again, an invitation for her to place hers in the safety of his. She did without hesitation.

Then, slowly and gently while he watched her for any signal of resistance, he raised her hand to his mouth so that he could brush his lips along her knuckles. A blush stained her cheeks immediately, but a smile of pleasure crept onto her face. She looked into his eyes, and he into hers for a moment that stretched into an eternity, searching out unspoken words, hidden anxieties, and the seeds of longing. Then, she gently unfolded her hand from his and dragged her fingers gently down his cheek.

“You need a shave,” she said with a small laugh. “I’d be happy to oblige.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Lindsay teased.

“I can’t bake a cake to save my life.” Though she said it solemnly, a smile sneaked onto her face.

“Well, isn’t this sweet?” Over Evelyn’s shoulder, Alex was standing in the doorway, dressed in one of his fine suits, a blue waistcoat causing his eyes to spark from his face. He watched them with a cold, amused smile. Impossible to read as always. “My Pony and my Dolly, playing together so nicely.”

“Leaving?” Lindsay smiled at him, appreciating the way his handsome face made his heart squeeze.

“Only just,” Alex said. He held a hat in his hands that twirled distractedly. “There is much to do. ”

“Still alive, I see.” Ryan’s voice from the doorway made Lindsay look away from Evelyn–no, Evie. Ryan stood there, looking like blazing shit. Bloodshot eyes, also unshaved, very rumpled. He was holding a steaming mug, likely a cup of coffee. Black, of course.

“I’ll live to fight another day,” Lindsay said with a dry laugh that turned into a slight cough.

“You’re not fighting anyone with that bum shoulder,” Ryan said, settling against the doorframe with his shoulder.

“We’ll see about that.” Lindsay raised an eyebrow at him. “They say the cane is mightier than the sword.”

A rare smile cut through the tired stoicism of Ryan’s face. But it disappeared as soon as it arrived.

“We’ve things to discuss,” Alex said, abruptly.

“Yes.” Ryan inclined his head. He looked at Lindsay. “We’ve been talking.”

“Oh dear,” Lindsay said.

“We’ve decided that it’s best that we go to the Orchard.” Alex watched him, cold eyes empty of anything but purpose. “Who knows how much longer the house will be safe.”

“I don’t disagree with that.” Lindsay nodded as best he could against his pillow. “Staying in town doesn’t seem the safest place right now.”

“But if he does burn down my house, I will disembowel him,” Alex said in a voice that didn’t reveal a hint of jest.

“The Orchard?” Evie said, looking at Lindsay, and then turning her head to look at Ryan and Alex .

“My family owns an orchard outside of Tulsa,” Lindsay said. “Well, I mean, my brother runs it now. We move a lot of the cider he produces. Applejack, too.”

“It’s far enough away and well-protected enough that we’ll see Stanley coming,” Ryan continued. “If he’s stupid enough to come.”

“How soon can he travel, Dolly?” Alex fixed his unsettling stare on Evie. Lindsay didn’t blame her for quelling ever so slightly.

“As soon as he feels well enough.” She glanced at Lindsay. “He lost a bit of blood, and the injury will take some weeks to heal, but I got the bullet out. He’s very lucky to be alive. The main threat now is fever. Infection.”

Lindsay nodded, feeling a thrill of fear go through him. He tried not to dwell on the things in life that he couldn’t control. But during his time as a medic in the war he’d watched many men succumb to burning fevers and infections that caused wounds to swell and produce ghastly smelling pus and drainage.

“Let’s be certain that doesn’t happen, hm?” Alex said it casually enough, but the look he gave her spoke volumes about what he might do to her if she failed this directive.

Lindsay put his hand on her hand, causing her to flinch slightly, then look slightly embarrassed for being jittery.

“I’ll do my best,” she said. Her eyes met Lindsay’s. They didn’t have to tell each other that they had little control over that particular outcome. All they could do was keep the wound clean .

“Your best had better be good enough.” Alex put his hat on. His eyes shifted to Lindsay, cold as ever. “Rest, Pony. We’ll leave tonight for the Orchard.”

Evie turned her face toward Alex. He nodded to her and touched the brim of his hat. “Good day, Dolly.” He turned and left. Then Ryan and Evie met eyes and something passed between them that Lindsay couldn’t quite read, but Ryan quickly dropped his eyes and turned away, mumbling something about breakfast. Interesting.

Lindsay looked back at Evie, who was staring at the floor.

“Don’t worry, Evie.” He took her hand between both of his, making him grimace with pain at the effort of lifting his arm. “We’ll–”

“Don’t move your arm,” she scolded suddenly. Then she stood and walked to the small pile of clean linens. “I’m going to make you a sling so you can’t move it.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Lindsay lay back on the pillows and watched her with a smile.