Wet Leather: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC Page 4

  “And you just happened to have all this equipment lying around in your apartment?” Tori said as she narrowed her eyes.

  Patch shrugged his shoulders.

  “It was your lucky day I guess,” he said.

  “Are you a doctor?”

  Patch shook his head.

  “I was a medic in the army,” he replied. “That’s where I got my training.”

  “Was?” Tori queried.

  “You ask too many fucking questions,” Patch said as he got to his feet. “Just rest and let me know when the bag is empty.” He walked across to the door of the bedroom, but stopped and turned at the sound of his unwanted patient’s voice.

  “Did you sit beside me all night?” Tori asked.

  “Just get some rest,” Patch told her as they stared at each other.

  His deep blue eyes seemed to bore into hers and she was the one that eventually looked away. She heard the sound of the door closing and glanced across at it. Her despair welled up as her thoughts went to Matt. Taking the pills to end her life was a drastic way of getting free of him, but she’d wanted it to succeed when she was sitting in the alley the previous evening. She was left facing the prospect of what to do now that her suicide attempt failed, and she lay wondering why events conspired to save her.

  The weariness of having to go on washed over her and she just tried to clear her mind of any thoughts of her crazy boyfriend when she closed her eyes. It proved impossible to do, and she remembered his threat to kill her if she left him. It made her think that being saved from suicide might not prolong her life for much longer anyway. If Matt caught up with her, she suspected he would take care of what she failed to do the night before. The offer from Patch to go and buy another couple of boxes of painkillers was something she knew he probably didn’t mean, but as she lay in his bed she knew she would have gladly accepted it.

  Tears rolled down her cheek as she considered the misery that was her life, and she wanted to tear the needle out of her hand and run. She tried to sit up, but the pain exploded and she dropped her head to the pillow almost immediately as ragged gasps of breath came out. All she could so was go along with what Patch told her, and she rolled her head to the side to look towards the window. The light flooding through revealed it was daytime, although there was no clock in the room to show her what hour. It meant there was no way of knowing how long she’d been in the apartment. Her gaze flicked to the bag every so often as she waited for it to empty, but she was feeling no better when it was.

  “It’s…” she started, but the effort of shouting only brought on a coughing fit that made her throat worse.

  She lifted a hand to rub at it as she got ready to shout again, but the door opened before she did and she saw Patch walking in carrying a tray. He was quiet as he moved across to the chair at the side of the bed and only spoke after he sat down.

  “Drink this.”

  Tori frowned as she stared at the little plastic cup of yellow fluid.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Painkiller,” he replied. “It should take some of the ache from your throat and the bruise on your face.”

  She sighed as she accepted the small cup and lifted her head to throw the medicine down.

  “Tastes like shit,” she complained as she grimaced.

  “And here was me thinking you enjoyed taking painkillers,” Patch said without looking at her.

  Tori couldn’t stop the slight flush of embarrassment that the insulting comment brought over her, but there was also a tinge of indignation.

  “You don’t know the first thing about me,” she said.

  “Let’s keep it that way,” Patch responded. He got up from the chair and moved around the bed to grip Tori’s right arm. “This might sting a bit.”

  She clenched her teeth and let out a muffled cry as he dragged the needle from the vein and pressed down on the plaster to staunch the flow of blood. He then untied the strap that was holding her arm down.

  “Why do you have all this stuff?” she asked.

  “I still treat the occasional patient,” he said. “So I need to make sure that I have the equipment to deal with it.”

  Tori closed her eyes as she raised her head, but the painkillers kicked in to stop the explosion of agony that she suffered not long before and she managed to get herself up to a sitting position. It was only then that she saw the hanger on the wardrobe door with her top and skirt.

  “Shit,” she let out in a harassed voice when she glanced down to see she was revealing her partially naked body. “You undressed me.”

  Patch rolled his eyes at the accusing way the words came out.

  “Give me some credit,” he let out sarcastically. “I’m not in the habit of taking advantage of girls that are at death’s door. I just removed your clothes to put you to bed.”

  “I… I didn’t mean…” Tori let out, but wasn’t quite sure what to say as she dragged the bedcovers up over her chest.

  She pulled her head away when Patch reached out to her chin and grimaced as her head banged on the wall.

  “Just turn your head,” he told her.

  He moved closer to look at her bruised face and she sat still when he reached out. She screwed up her face when his fingers touched on her cheekbone, but the strong painkiller he gave her was doing its job and the agony she was expecting didn’t materialize as he examined her.

  “The swelling is going down,” he said afterwards. “It doesn’t look like your cheekbone is broken, but it’ll be a while before the bruise disappears. You really should try to avoid falling on your face and making such a mess of it.”

  “OK,” Tori said quietly, but couldn’t look him in the eye.

  She suspected he already knew that slumping down after taking the overdose didn’t cause the bruise on her face or the bruises on her arms, but she wasn’t about to tell a complete stranger how she really got them.

  “Can you get up?” Patch asked.

  “Umm… could you get me my clothes first?” she responded.

  “Yeah, sure,” Patch went on.

  He walked across to the wardrobe to get the top and skirt from the hanger and handed them to Tori when he returned to the bed.

  “Well… turn around then,” she said.

  “I’ve seen everything already,” he pointed out. “It wasn’t like my eyes were closed when I undressed you and put you to bed.”

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t conscious then to know you were looking,” Tori replied.

  “OK, OK,” Patch said and shook his head as he spun around to face towards the door of the room.

  Tori let the covers drop away from her chest as she eased the top over her head then slid her arms in the sleeves. She threw the bedcovers off and dropped her feet to the floor. Leaning down, she stepped in the skirt and worked it up her legs. Her legs were weak when she stood up and she sat down straight away after fastening the skirt in place around her waist.

  “OK,” she said.

  “Are you sure you’re decent?” Patch let out sarcastically as he turned.

  “Look, I didn’t fucking ask you to strip me down to my underwear... or for any help at all,” Tori told him.

  “Alright, alright,” he said and put his hands up in a show of apology. “I’m sorry. Can you get up?”

  “Just about,” she said.

  The dizziness came over her as she got to her feet, and she was about to drop down on the bed when Patch grasped hold of her arm.

  “You should try and eat something,” he said.

  There was no point in resisting the help he was giving her, so she leant on him for support as his arm came around her shoulder. The slight flush of embarrassed heat on her cheeks flustered her as she registered the touch of her body on taut, solid muscles, and she was suddenly aware of the way Patch towered over her. It was obvious that he was a powerful man, but there was a gentleness about the way he guided her through to the kitchen and helped her sit on a seat. He moved across to a coffee pot on a counter and p
oured some of the dark, hot liquid in a cup. Tori watched as he put milk and four spoons of sugar in it.

  “I don’t really take sugar,” she said as he moved across the room and held the cup out to her.

  “Just do it this once,” he said. “It will make you feel better.”

  She nodded her head as she accepted the cup from him and the sweet warmth of the caffeine and sugar hit did have the desired effect. It made her relax a bit and the weird sensation came over her that for once in her life she was safe.

  “What’s your name?” Patch asked as he moved to the stove.

  “I thought you didn’t want to know anything about me,” she responded.

  “Yeah, that’s true,” he said with a sigh then shot her a grin over his shoulder. “It just seems strange that I don’t know your name, but do know the pretty underwear you prefer.”

  “Oh very funny,” she let out in a droll voice and paused before telling him. “It’s Tori Sanders.”

  “Well, Tori Sanders,” Patch said, “just drink your coffee and be quiet.”

  She did as she was told and looked around the place as Patch opened a can of soup and put it in a pot on the stove. The kitchen was small but relatively tidy, and she eventually brought her gaze to the man that saved her life. His blonde hair was spiky on top, but hung down over the collar of the shirt he was wearing. The white material covering his torso was loose, but she could still make out that his physique was lean and wiry. The jeans he was wearing were tight enough to cling to his butt and she couldn’t help glancing at it, but looked away when he picked up the pot. He got a couple of bowls to pour the soup in then carried them across to the table.

  “Try and eat something as well,” he said when he pushed one of the bowls over to her.

  Tori picked a spoon out of the plastic tumbler in the center of the table and did as she was told. She glanced across at the man opposite as she ate and saw that he was doing the same.

  “Do I still have to be quiet?” she asked.

  “That depends on what it is you want to say,” Patch replied.

  “You’re not in the army anymore, are you?”

  He stopped eating to look across at her.

  “What makes you think that?” he asked.

  “It’s not really an army haircut,” Tori replied and hesitated before she went on. “Why do you have the medical supplies in your home?”

  “I told you,” Patch said as he resumed eating. “I still have to treat the occasional patient.”

  “Why wouldn’t they just go to visit their doctor or to a hospital?” she queried.

  “Do you always ask this many questions?”

  “Only when I’m curious,” Tori replied.

  Patch let out a sigh.

  “Maybe I should have just left you downstairs,” he commented.

  Tori could sense straight away that he didn’t mean what he was saying.

  “Thanks,” she said in a hushed voice.

  His eyes narrowed as he lifted his head and stared across the table.

  “Why did you do it?”

  The question surprised her and she wasn’t quite sure what to say at first. Her gaze dropped to the table as she began speaking.

  “It’s not really something I’ve ever thought about before, to be honest,” she started. “Things just… well, things just got out of hand yesterday.”

  “He hit you hard, huh?”

  She raised her gaze to look at him and saw no point in lying, so she nodded her head.

  “Yesterday started out happy,” she went on. “I met up with friends to do some shopping and have some fun, but…”

  “He didn’t like you doing it,” Patch finished the sentence for her and she nodded her head again.

  “I sneaked out of the house when he was sleeping and hoped that he’d be out or drunk when I returned,” Tori went on. “Unfortunately it didn’t go unnoticed that I was gone, and he was waiting for me when I got home. If I’d known he was there, I probably wouldn’t have stepped through the door, and after it was over I got out then just kept walking.”

  “To go where?” Patch asked.

  “Just as far away as I could,” Tori said with a shrug. “I didn’t really take much notice of where I was going. When I saw the drug store, I went in to get cleaned up and buy some painkillers to take away the hurt of the beating. When I got to the alley behind this building, I started taking the pills and…”

  Her words came to an abrupt end and she let out a resigned sigh.

  “And you couldn’t stop,” Patch said.

  “He threatened to kill me if I ever left him,” Tori let out in a quiet voice. “I decided not to give him the satisfaction.”

  There was silence as she contemplated her words then thought about slumping over in the alley as the darkness crept over her the previous evening. It made a cold shiver run through her. She hadn’t wanted to wake up, but fate took a hand to make sure she did. She let out a sigh and glanced across the table to see the man that saved her finishing the soup in his bowl then getting to his feet.

  “Give me your cup,” he said.

  Tori picked it up to hand it over then watched as Patch went over to the sink to dump his bowl in it. He moved to the coffee pot afterwards to fill her cup and added milk and sugar. The food and drink went some way to making her feel better, but a tiredness washed over her. She looked down at the cup as it was placed on the table.

  “What will you do now?” Patch asked when he sat.

  Tori wanted to put her head down on the table and close her eyes, but resisted it to pick up her cup. The sweet taste of the coffee didn’t go down so well now and she grimaced.

  “Don’t know,” she let out. “I didn’t really expect to be around and having to make plans.”

  “There’s no one you can go to?” he went on.

  “I have friends,” she said. “But going to them won’t keep Matt away from me.”

  “I take it he’s the hero that gave you the pretty purple bruise,” Patch commented.

  Tori nodded her head.

  “Yeah,” she let out in a morbid tone. “If I go and stay with friends, then he’ll likely come looking to finish what I failed to do last night.”

  “Sounds like a charmer,” Patch commented.

  “He thinks he is,” Tori replied and let out a bitter laugh. “But you can see the evidence of his love for me on my face.”

  There was silence in the room as they both sat thinking, and Tori wanted to change the subject away from a violent thug she just wanted to forget about.

  “I’m sorry I made you miss work today.”

  Patch let out a laugh.

  “What makes you think you did that?” he asked.

  “I just assumed that you stuck around to make sure you didn’t come home to a dead girl in your bed.”

  Patch shook his head.

  “I wasn’t working today,” he told her.

  “What is it that you do?” she asked.

  “I don’t think you want to know,” he replied. “You really just need to be on your way.”

  The words came out before Tori could stop them.

  “So, you’re going to save me from suicide then just kick me out to let my fucking crazy boyfriend finish me off anyway?”

  “He’s full of bullshit,” Patch replied in a calm voice. “He’s not going to kill you.”

  “That wasn’t what I thought when he put the gun to my head last night,” Tori let out quietly. “I closed my eyes and thought it was the end.”

  “Look, I’m sorry that you have such a…”

  “Are you going to kick me out?” she interrupted him.

  Patch tilted his head to look up at the ceiling and let out a long, slow breath.

  “Why the fuck did you have to try and end your life next to my dumpster?” he complained when he brought his gaze down.

  “It seemed as good a place as any,” Tori said with a shrug.

  “Good for you, not for me,” Patch replied.

&nb
sp; “So, are you going to make me leave?” she pressed him.

  “No…” he eventually told her. “You’re in no fit state to go just now anyway, so you can stay for one night until you’re feeling stronger.”