The Fallback (Sample Chapters)

8. Numb

    "Freya!"

    Tati's ass felt numb after the flight to Denver. The airport’s bustling atmosphere only added to her weariness. It was like an oversized labyrinth, and she was glad that her friend had told her she would meet her at the gate. Otherwise, it was likely Tati never would have come out of the maze of workers and travelers at the airport. The personnel would someday find her body still clutching her carry-on like the frightened little child she felt like. Only she would probably be all bone and hair by then.

    "Ana!" Everyone in the chat group still called her Ana with the exception of Grey who prided himself on always being the exception. He wore it like a badge of honor. Grey—contrary as always.

    The two friends hugged. They hadn't seen each other in over three years, though they kept making promises to visit each other. It felt like a reunion of sorts.

    "Girl, your ass has to be tired after that flight," Freya told her with a smile. "Let's go get your checked bag and get something to eat. Then we'll head to my place and catch up."

    "So, how's that man of yours?" Tati asked her friend with a smile. A smile that wasn't returned.

    "We broke up. Again," Freya said on a sigh. "I'm with Matt now."

    "Matt? Again?" Tati frowned at her friend. She seemed to go back to Matt whenever she didn't have a ready lay at her disposal. "What happened with Devon?"

    "Another stupid fight over where this relationship is going?" Freya told her as she rolled her eyes.

    "Freya, you've been on and off with him for...well, a really long time," she stated as they walked through the cavernous building. "I don't think it's unrealistic for him to be wondering where this is heading to."

    "And what about you?" Freya asked, changing the subject as she always did when it came to her rocky relationship with Devon. "How's that sexy bit of man meat you've been seeing?"

    Cole was starting to become a permanent fixture in Tati’s life. When she’d told him she was moving to her own place, he had immediately offered to help her so she wouldn't have to hire movers. He’d also volunteered several of his cop friends without their knowledge.

    And the man had almost looked panicked when she had told him she was getting her own place. When he realized she was merely tired of living with her parents and her commute to work, he understood and was happy to see she was sticking around Seattle and only moving closer to her job at the Children's Hospital.

    "He's doing okay," Tati said shrugging. "He's going to help me move into my own place in a few weeks. With his friends on the force."

    "Men in uniform all over your new digs," Freya groaned with a sigh. "So hot."

    "You can't have any of them," Tati warned her. "You have your own s*x life to worry about." And Grey, not that you even realize it.

    Tati sighed. It really was a shame she was visiting at the time she was. She enjoyed Grey's company, even if it was only over Skype, text, or in the chatroom, though the chatroom was slowly being winnowed out and the new phone app was being used more frequently. It was just more convenient for everyone as many were on the go a lot of the time.

    "So, when do I get to meet everyone in person?" Tati asked Freya.

    "Well, Matt is back at my place already," Freya told her. "Probably eating me out of house and home. Kay and Ash are God knows where, and Jonathan will probably come over after he realizes you've arrived. He wants to meet you almost as much as Grey. Speaking of which, what's going on with you two?"

    Tati looked at Freya inquiringly. The girl was staring back at her with an intrigued look mixed with a bit of something else Tati couldn't quite place.

    "Nothing, why do you ask?" Tati wondered if her friend was slightly jealous. Grey had admitted to spending less time with Freya, and she wondered if it stuck in her craw just a bit.

    "No reason," she stated blithely. "You and he just seem to be close is all."

    At first, Tati didn't know how to answer that without giving away Grey's love for the woman in front of her. "Well, he's a hard guy to get rid of once he’s latched onto you," she remarked with a smirk. "He's like...mold in an old house. You keep painting over it, and it just keeps coming back."

    "He's very attractive mold, then," Freya said with a laugh. "I'll try not to mention the mold thing to him, but I can't promise anything. I am a horrible gossip, and the comparison is just too rich to simply ignore."

    By the time they got her luggage and made it to Freya's car, it was 45 minutes later and Tati's stomach was starting to make a raucous noise in her gut.

    Freya took Tati to a small diner near her house and fed her before making their way to her humble home on the outskirts of the city. It was close enough to work, yet quiet enough so she didn't have to contend with city noise. The perfect medium.

    "Matt! I'm back!" Freya called out, hoping he wasn't walking around her home in only his boxers—or worse. He had a tendency to walk around nude since he slept that way as well.

    "Hey, babe, what took you so—" He came around the corner of the kitchen wall and blinked at Tati. "Oh—you must be Ana."

    "Yes, pleased to meet you, Matt," Tati told him, holding her hand out for him to shake. He shook her hand briefly and let it go before running it through his hair.

    Tati had to admit the man was quite attractive. She could see why he was Freya's go-to guy when she broke up with Devon—over and over again. He wasn't as perfectly handsome as Grey or as ruggedly attractive as Cole, but he was an odd mixture of both it would seem. Nice body and chiseled jaw. He didn't hold the same intensity that Grey did with his piercing blue eyes, but Tati wouldn't throw the man out of bed—not that that was an option. Again, she didn't do that to friends. The few she had she held in high regard, and she would never betray them like that.

    Freya looked at Matt as he fumbled back into the kitchen. She was just glad he was wearing something more significant than boxers—even if it was just basketball shorts and he was bare-chested.

    He was a good distraction while she and Devon were on a break, and she hoped he realized that they could never go anywhere as a couple. He was simply “playtime” until Devon stopped trying to be all clingy with her. Freya gave it another two weeks, tops.

    "Jon said he'd be over in a bit, and Kay and Asher invited themselves over for dinner," Matt told Freya as he wandered back out of the kitchen after grabbing a glass of water.

    "Figures they would," Freya sighed as she set her purse down and dropped onto the couch. "I hope they bring food, because I am not cooking for an army tonight."

    "You could order takeout," Matt suggested.

    "I could cook," Tati suggested.

    "No way!" Freya told her, ignoring Matt's comment. "You're my guest here, and I will not have you slaving away on your first day!"

    "So, the second day maybe?" Tati asked with a smirk.

    "You bet your boots," Freya told her with a wink.

***

    It had been a while since Tati had felt such camaraderie in a room. Kay, Asher, Jon, and Freya were present, along with the tag-along Matt. He seemed not to mind being the odd man out and spoke a lot to Asher and Freya, though his eyes often wandered to their guest.

    Tati only wished that Grey was able to be there. The atmosphere was friendly enough, but she realized then just how much closer she was to him than any of the other people there. Even Freya.

    At some point, Tati had to ask where the bathroom was, and was pointed toward the kitchen entrance. She found it halfway down the first-floor hallway, and went in to relieve her bursting bladder.

    After washing her hands, she opened the bathroom door to find Matt standing there as if waiting to escort her back. Before she could say anything to him, she was shoved back roughly in the room before Matt closed the door on them.

    "I see why Grey talks about you like you're a living f*****g unicorn," Matt told her, blocking the exit with his bulky body. "If I wasn't so certain he was in love with Freya, I would say he's head over heels in love with you."

    This all read very wrong to Tati, who was struggling to say something. How did this guy know how Grey felt? Did someone spill the beans, or was Grey just that obvious in his actions and words?

    "Well, we've become quite close," was all Tati could think of to say.

    "No, it's more than that," Matt told her, taking another step closer to her. "He makes it seem like you belong to him somehow. Even if you are f*****g that cop."

    "I'm not f*****g anyone," Tati replied, truthfully. She hadn't been seeing Cole long enough to become that intimate with him.

    "Well, whatever you're doing, he's not happy about it," Matt explained. Another step closer.

    "Well, that's just too damned bad," Tati ground out. The man was making her very uncomfortable in the confined space of the guest bathroom. "And why do you care about who I see and how it affects anyone? Or Grey? You're with Freya."

    Matt tilted her head at him as his lips quirked up at her.

    "I realize I'm just a d**k to ride until Devon and Freya get back together," he dimissed. "I'm not stupid. Hell—they could be f*****g behind my back while I'm at work for all I know. Why can't I have the same fun when Freya's not watching?"

    Matt closed the distance between them and placed his hand around her neck as she gasped. Her own hands came up to his to try and pry them away. He was squeezing too hard, and she was quickly losing oxygen flow.

    Suddenly, his lips came down on hers, punishing them with their force, his hips pinning her to the wall next to the toilet.

    Once Tati felt the hard length of his c**k pressed up against her, something snapped inside. She took her hands away from her throat and made a fist before punching him hard in his left eye.

    A breathy screech left her throat as Matt grunted from the impact, and his hands flew up to his face. Tati didn't hesitate and used her knees to thrust upward toward his balls.

    She made direct contact and let out another cry as she saw him drop to his knees with a wheezy gasp. She jumped over his shoulder quickly in a bid to flee the room.

    Tati had almost made it when a hand snatched her back by the ankle and she fell to the floor. She screamed and kicked back at him before the door to bathroom flew open and the remainder of the guests and Freya stood there staring at the two people flat on the ground.

    Tati kicked her foot back and made contact with Matt's face before scrambling forward.

    Thankfully, Jon was there and pulled her to her feet before she was escorted from the room amidst cries of “what happened?” and Freya's unintelligible screams at Matt.

    The sounds seemed to fade as Tati was ushered into a room away from the noise and was sat down on a soft mattress. It was fortunate that she was already on the bed when her body decided to go lights out and darkness consumed her.

***

    Grey wished he could slam down his phone, but the only thing he could think about doing was to throw it. He also knew if he did that, it really wouldn't satisfy him either. And it would only break his phone.

    So, he ran both of his hands through his hair slightly before fisting and pulling at them until it hurt.

    That didn't help either. f**k.

    If he wasn't in the middle of opening a new gym in Boulder, he would go back to Denver and beat the s**t out of Matt himself. From what he gathered from Asher, Jon had beat him to the punch. Literally.

    Grey had just gotten off the phone with Freya, who explained what had happened. It had taken them a while to figure it all out since Tati had fainted for a few minutes after the assault, but when she woke up with a bruised neck, it was clear she had been attacked by Matt, who had followed her into the bathroom after dinner.

    He had spoken with Freya first, and she explained things before he demanded to speak to Tati, whose voice sounded as small and weak as a child's.

    She sounded beat down.

    He had been proud of her when she told him she had gotten in a few good punches and kicks, but angered that she’d had to resort to violence in the first place.

    f*****g Matt. Grey had always hated that little prick. Dating Freya the few times he had didn't help, but it was only half of why he thought the man was scum. While Freya and he had dated, he was forever flirting with other women, and Grey figured he was probably sleeping around on her as well. This was only more proof in the pudding that he was the s**t on the bottom of someone’s shoe.

     Now he wanted to pound the little turd into the pavement for what he did to Tati. Only the lowest of the low would have tried what Matt did, and Grey had tried to urge his friend to go to the police. She had declined, stating that she would have to tell Cole eventually then if she got involved with a criminal case in another state.

    Cole. Another man who got under Grey's skin like no other. And he didn't have any proof of his suspicions about him either. He thought Cole a domineering, overly-possessive prick who had gotten one over on Tati and convinced her he was good people.

    Bullshit.

    But again, he had no proof. He went purely on instinct. And when his gut told him not to trust someone, his mind soon followed.

    And again, he didn't know if his feelings for Tati—whatever they were—somehow blinded him and caused him to hate a man who so far hadn't done anything to make him feel that he was unworthy of his friend.

    Friend.

    Perhaps he was being overprotective of her, or perhaps he just didn't want to see her with anyone else but himself. He didn't know. Grey was f*****g confused, and wanted to sort himself out somehow.

    If only he knew how.