Nicole started to panic. She willed herself to stand up and run to her car, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the fight. If Conner were to win, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what he had to say anymore. Everything felt too unreal. On the other hand, if he were to lose, she would be stuck with the creature that wanted to take her babies. All the more reason to get up and go, she thought.
The men got separated when Conner used his legs to shove the other guy away. In an impressive backwards roll, she saw Conner get to his feet at the same time he reached for his back pocket and pulled out another star. His throw was so quick that she didn’t see it leave his hand. However, she did see the lower half of Yellow Eyes arm fall to the ground.
Instead of the customary blood that she was expecting to see, flames sprouted from the wound, and a terrible high pitched noise came from the creature’s mouth. When the section of the arm on the ground burst into flames, she no longer had any hesitation in running.
There was a slight cramp in her stomach when she got to her feet, but it didn’t slow her down. She started to run strait for her car, and reached into her purse at the same time to pull out her pepper spray. It was all too much. She felt as if she was going insane, and all she could think of was getting home to forget the nightmare ever happened.
She had just gotten to her car when she felt someone grab her shoulder and spin her around. She didn’t think but only acted on instinct when she brought up her hand and pressed down on the button to release the spray.
“Ahh! What the fuck!?!” Conner jumped back but didn’t release her arm when he put his other hand over his eyes.
“Oh, shoot. I’m so sorry,” she apologized, but still tried to pull away from his grasp.
“What the fuck?” he repeated while still wiping at his eyes.
“I didn’t know who it was. I just reacted.”
“Not just the spray. What the fuck were you thinking? What are you doing here?”
“You swear just as much as Gemariah. Don’t you know that you can get the point across just the same without cussing?”
He didn’t answer her, but she could tell that he was irritated when a deep rumble came from his throat.
“Fine!” she said exasperatedly. “I wanted to talk to you, so I thought to—”
He didn’t let her finish before he raised his voice and interrupted her. “That’s just the thing… You weren’t thinking.”
He finally let go of her but it was to snatch her purse off her arm. She thought about making a break for it, but she didn’t think she would make it very far. Already, she had started to doubt her assumption about the man. He was starting to look crazier to her by the minute. When he ducked his head to start ruffling through her bag, her ire went through the roof.
She made an unsuccessful grab for her bag and snapped, “Get out of there! That’s my stuff!”
“No shit. Why do you think I’m searching through it?” He pulled out her set of keys before giving her bag back to her. “It’s definitely not for my health, that’s for damn sure.”
He clicked the key pad to unlock her car and opened the driver’s side door. “Get in,” he told her as he gestured with his arm to indicate the seat.
It was not looking good. What were the chances of being found if she were to get in the car? Sure, she had gone there to talk to him, but that was it. She hadn’t been planning on going anywhere with him.
She must have taken too long in his opinion because before she could think twice, he growled in frustration and grabbed her arm to guide her down. The sound was so much like Gemariah’s when he was aggravated with her that she didn’t think to put up a fight. When her butt hit the seat and all limbs were out of the way, he slammed the door closed.
The thought crossed her mind to drive away, but when she reached to turn the key in the ignition, it wasn’t there. Damn, she thought. He still had the keys. Not being able to drive away, she did the next best thing she could think of, and locked the doors.
She watched as he slowly walked around the car to the passenger side, rubbing at his eyes the entire time. She hated being forced to do anything, and the more that Conner ordered her around, the less guilty she felt about spraying him with Pepper Spray.
She started to tear her car apart, looking for her cell phone. If she could just get a call out, to somebody… anybody, she could go back home and forget the night ever happened.
“Where is it? Where is it?” she mumbled as she dumped out the purse that Conner had shoved back in her arms. It was then that she heard a knock on the window. It was not a heavy knock but one that was sharp enough to tell her that he was not amused.
He leaned down and looked at her through the window. “Unlock the door,” he demanded.
Letting out an exaggerated but fake laugh, she leaned to the back to see if her cell phone was on or under the rear seat. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen,” she said without looking at him.
“You have three seconds before I break this window. One!”
He was bluffing…
“Two”
He wouldn’t dare. She scowled at him.
“So be it.” He pressed a point to one of his stars to the corner of the window. “Th—”
“Wait! Wait!!” She quickly reached over to her door and pressed the unlock button.
Without another word, he opened the door, unceremoniously pushed all the clutter to the floor that she made while looking for her cell phone, and sat down. He didn’t gloat, he didn’t smirk, he just shut the door and tossed her the keys before leaning back, and ordering her to, “Drive.”
His superiority complex was getting on her nerves. It probably wasn’t wise to anger her kidnapper, but she couldn’t stop the words from leaving her mouth. “Where to your highness? Or would you like me to just drive in circles.”
Kidnapper…
The word stuck in her head like a bad taste in her mouth. Is that what had happened? She had been kidnapped… abducted?”
“North.”
She started the car and pulled away from the curb. They weren’t on the road for two minutes before he snapped.
“So tell me. Have you always been stupid, or is this just a recent occurrence?”
“Excuse me?”
“You were there when I warned Gemariah about people wanting to get their hands on you. There’s that popular question that comes to mind, ‘Are you deaf or just dumb?’ I’ve been tailing you long enough to know that your hearing is in tack, so I’m thinking it’s the latter.”
What an irritating and insufferable man! “My plan worked, if you must know,” she spat. “I wanted to flush you out of hiding to talk to you. Sure, there were a few drawbacks, but it still worked.”
“Drawbacks? You think almost getting abducted by a demon and a henchman is a drawback? More than likely, they would have cut you open to take your babies. If you lived, you would have been sold to the highest bidder to do with what they pleased. And believe me when I say, you would have never seen anyone you knew again, including your children.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. There were too many thoughts going through her head, and she didn’t know how to vocalize any of them.
There was definite terror at the thought of those men and what they might have done. There was also confusion. He used the word demon to describe one of the men. She didn’t know if he was just describing his manner, but it sounded as if he was talking in the literal sense.
She wanted to tell him that he was crazy, but then she remembered what she had seen that guy turn into, and how his arm had caught fire from a wound. Maybe she was the one going crazy, but there was something inside of her that made her think otherwise.
He let out a frustrated huff when she remained silent and leaned back into the seat again. “You know, I don’t know why I bothered saying anything at all. Do you think it was for my own good that I chose to warn the two of you? No! Just the opposite. In one night, you have managed to ruin the r
eputation I spent many long and grueling years building. Poof!” He clapped his hands and pushed them to the sides. “Gone.”
He turned his head to scowl out the window. “You two deserve each other. I don’t know what I was thinking that he would listen to anything I had to say. Big, bad, untouchable, Gemariah.”
When she chanced a quick glance in his direction, she saw his face in the reflection of the glass. He had the same look that she had seen many times before on kids that had replaced their feelings of abandonment with anger. At that moment, she softened a little towards him. She wanted to tell him the truth, that Gemariah had listened, and it was her that had gone rogue for the night. She tried, but the words got stuck in her mouth.
At that moment he looked her way. The car’s interior lights must have illuminated her face just enough for him to see her expression, because it was then that he let out a laugh that was lacking any humor.
“He doesn’t know. Does he?”
He took her silence as affirmation and shook his head. “Oh, this is rich,” he stated as he reached inside his jacket to a pocket that was hidden over his chest. When she saw what he pulled out, her blood ran cold. It was her phone. He must have taken it out of her purse when he grabbed her keys. When he started to scroll through her Contacts, panic set in once again.
She watched as he stopped on the name “Gemariah Slater”. This can’t be happening, she thought. All her hard work to make sure he didn’t find out… He would never trust her again. With more speed than she thought she had, she quickly reached over to make a grab for the phone. However quick she was though, he was faster as he moved it away from her.
With great ease, he hit the Call button and held the phone up to his ear; the one farthest from her reach.
The volume was up on her phone, and she heard Gemariah answer, “Hey Babe. Everything alright?”
“Just fine, Snookum. How ‘bout yourself?” He emphasized the endearment, and she wanted more than anything to smack him for his taunt. God, she didn’t want to know what Gemariah was feeling just then, because she knew that it would be miserable.
“Who is this? Where’s Nicole?” She didn’t know if she had ever heard Gemariah’s voice so cold.
“Now I’m hurt. Don’t you recognize my voice, Big Bro?
“If you hurt her in any way…”
“Relax,” he didn’t let him finish. “You’re lucky it’s me that has her. If she would’ve had it her way, the people that originally had her wouldn’t have given you the courtesy of a phone call.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let’s just say that she left the house looking for trouble, and she found it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Just let her go.”
Conner pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in exasperation. “You really think the worst of me, don’t you? For your information, we’re on the highway and headed in your direction now. I didn’t take her from you… I’m taking her back to you.
She felt herself marginally relax. At least she knew where they were going. She wanted to be home more than anything, but was dreading it all the same. She didn’t want to know how mad Gemariah was going to be with her when he found out what she had done and how she lied to him.
“Well, technically she’s taking herself back. My sight was temporarily compromised with that lethal can of poison she carries around. Luckily we heal fast or I’d have added new words to her uncouth dictionary.”
If his comment was meant to lighten the mood, it was unsuccessful. Between the two of them and the silence over the phone, there was an alarming sense of tension in the air.
“Let me talk to her,“ she heard Gemariah say.
“Sure. No problem. Conner handed her the phone with a smile on his face. It was obvious that the man was determined to have her hate him.
She grabbed the phone from his outstretched hand and quickly held it up to her ear. Before he could say anything, she started to ramble. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I should have trusted you to tell me the truth. I should have—”
“Are you hurt?” His words cut off her apology, and they were so curt that she had to swallow back the tears she felt coming.
“No.”
“Hand the phone back to him.”
She wanted to argue. She wanted to yell at him to forgive her, but then yell at him that all of it was partially his fault for not talking to her in the first place. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and handed the phone back to Conner.
When he got the phone back, Gemariah spoke low enough to where she couldn’t hear and all Conner said was the occasional “Yep” or “Okay”.
Finally, he put the phone into one of her cup holders, and she looked down to see that it was still connected to Gemariah.
There was no more talking, but every once in a while, Conner said the name of a street they passed or which one they were on. There was never a response back but she knew that Gemariah was listening to everything, listening and waiting until she got back to him.
The thought made her sick to her stomach. What kind of reception would she get when she got there? That was all she thought about as they wound down the last few streets.
CHAPTER 16
He heard “Scott’s Street” and had to take another deep breath to calm his temper. It was impossible to think rationally when he was so furious. He was angry at everyone, and he didn’t even have the whole story yet.
A rush of adrenaline had him pick up the vase Nicole had filled with flowers that morning and throw it against the far wall. Luckily he had put his phone on mute before he threw the first object. He could hear everything they did or said, but they wouldn’t be able to hear the destruction going on around him.
He knew it would happen, but there was no way he was going to let them hang up the phone. He had instructed Conner to leave it on and keep him informed on where they were. So far, he had done everything that he was told and supposedly he had saved Nicole, but trust didn’t come easily to him. After so many years of being stabbed in the back, that part of him had hardened to stone. There were only a handful of people that had managed to get through the rock exterior, Nicole had been one of them.
He picked up something else to throw but thought better of it before letting go. What the hell was she thinking? He had trusted her, dammit! Now, because of her carelessness, she put herself and his children in danger. He should put her over his knee for what she had done.
His cock twitched at the thought and he became even more pissed off. It was not the time for his thoughts to turn in that direction. Even with a romantic relationship, they needed to have trust in each other. Obviously, they were lacking in that department. He grabbed the edge of the kitchen table and was about to flip it over when he heard a car pull up out front.
“Ding-dong,” he heard come through the phone. Damn that kid. Was everything a joke to him?
Walking around the table, he went to the door leading to the garage and stepped through when he heard the garage opening. He stood and watched as the car pulled in.
Sure enough, she was driving and there was a smug looking man sitting next to her. He was already walking towards the car and had the driver’s side door open before she had fully gotten it stopped. There was a small resistance from it being locked, but it didn’t stand a chance with how he was feeling. If she was going to say anything, the words died on her lips when she saw his face.
She had just managed to shift the car into park by the time that he grabbed her wrist and pulled her out. She let out a small yelp in surprise, but didn’t fight him. Quickly, he took her head between his hands and massaged her scalp looking for a head wound. His hands made quick work traveling lower and over the rest of her body. He knew that she had said she wasn’t hurt, but he had to see for himself.
He took one hand and gently rested it over her belly. When he felt a small movement from inside, he let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he had
been holding. Everything felt to be alright, only a few small abrasions that would heal on their own, but nothing detrimental.
He heard a sniffle and he brought his gaze back up to see that she was crying.
Grabbing onto his shirt, she buried her face into his chest and inhaled. “”I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.
As if on their own, his arms wrapped around her body. He didn’t want to comfort her. He wanted her to go out of her mind with worry, so she would understand a fraction of what he felt, but he didn’t have it in him to stay distant. There was something about the woman, something that brought out all his protective instincts, even from him.
In front of this… stranger, he didn’t want his weaknesses revealed. Then there was another part of him that said, “to hell with it,” and he would deal with the ramifications later.
He brought a hand up to gently tug on her hair and tilted her head to the side. Leaning down, he kissed her temple then moved his mouth to whisper in her ear, “I am so mad at you.” He closed his eyes and sighed in defeat before tightening his grip around her.
“Aww, isn’t that sweet?”
The irritatingly familiar voice broke into their solitude, and Gemariah felt his body stiffen. Stepping back, he eyed them both. “Does someone want to tell me what the hell happened tonight?”
He looked to Conner, but he only crossed his arms over his chest, raised an eyebrow, and looked towards Nicole expectantly.
When Gemariah looked at Nicole, he could tell that she had paled considerably in a short amount of time. Obviously, it was her story to start.
“Okay, this might take some time. Let’s all go in,” Gemariah stated and turned to walk inside. He had no doubt that they would follow, but he had forgotten about the mess he had left. To him, it was a reminder of how upset he had gotten and why. It helped him to stay centered and not be swayed by tears that would more than likely come.
The Divine Whisper Page 27
