by Lynde Lakes
“Powerful words, Brian. But this isn’t a job for one man.”
He laughed, feeling no humor. “Ah, ye with so little faith.” He straightened the filigree gold cross he’d placed around her neck and fought a grin at her little gasp. “I don’t intend to do it alone. Give me a week to show you what I can do with the right help. And in the meantime, we’ll be glued to one another like Siamese twins.”
“What about Dad?”
“I’ll enlist his help to gather my posse. You’ll see. It’ll all work out. You’re surrounded by strong men who care about you and will strive to keep you safe.”
“I assume you mean you, Dad, Uncle Hugh, and Rick.”
He nodded. “And your dad mentioned a man named Deeto who has an axe to grind with our evil werewolf. I’ll see if he wants to join the extermination party.”
She smiled impishly. “Extermination party. I like the sound of that.” She held out her hand to shake on their deal and then froze. “Look there’s Kyle! He’s been missing for over an hour. Now there he is running across the field like demons are after him. Better check out our mild-mannered houseman very carefully.”
Brian glanced at Kyle. “He’s on my list.” He grabbed her limp hand and drew her close. “We’d better kiss. And make it look good. We don’t want him to know we’re watching him.”
She shook her head. “Brian, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
He grinned. “For a few minutes, pretend you were.” Refusing to let her escape, he tightened his hold until it was steely, unbreakable. Did she feel the singe of flames in his gaze that he’d purposely intensified…and the heat of his chest pressed against her breasts? Could she guess about the hot stirrings in his groin and the new fires igniting from her nearness? “Come on, I need a little more body contact. First person on my list is your dad and I need a super-hot kiss to provide an energy boost to tackle the big guy.”
She laughed and melted in his arms, her silken hair brushing his cheek. God, he loved this woman. Then he loosened his hold a fraction—to survive, he had to fight to remain a tad detached from loving so deeply. Such human emotions were dangerous, especially now with so much at stake.
****
Brian squared his shoulders and without hesitation gave Damon’s office door a hard rap. He wanted to chalk up the dampness under his arms as normal for a hot August day, but even he didn’t buy the lie. What if Damon kicked him out? He could live in the hills again. Why was he planning defeat?
“Come in, Brian.” Damon’s tone sounded congenial, perhaps deceptively so.
Brian took a deep breath and opened the door with forcefulness. He stood squarely in front of Damon’s desk and looked down on him. “Sir, could we talk about Valerie’s suggestion without letting our emotions get in the way?”
Damon stood and gestured to the guest chair. “No way. It’s a damned emotional subject and she’s my baby.”
Brian sat down in the still low guest chair—better termed the hot seat. He didn’t know what to do with his long legs.
Damon punched the intercom and told Kyle to bring them coffee. He remained standing, staring down at Brian. The seconds felt like minutes. Finally, Damon said, “Do I intimidate you, Brian?”
“Only because you’re the father of the woman I love.” Nerves jumped under his flesh. “Look, Sir, like I said—I love Valerie and wouldn’t suggest anything that might put her in jeopardy.”
Damon shook his head and laughed bitterly. “Yet, you want to discuss her crazy idea. You were there when she grabbed the needle and jabbed it into her arm. If you’re able to protect her, why didn’t you grab the needle away from her?”
Brian swallowed past the constriction in his throat. “Why didn’t you, Sir?” He rushed on. “For the same reason I didn’t. Her act came out of the blue. No one could’ve known she’d do such a hair-brained thing.”
A red flush crawled up Damon’s neck. Brian wondered if his bold comment had killed his chances to win Damon over.
There was a light tap on the door, and Kyle brought in two mugs of coffee and saucer-sized plates, each with two peanut-butter cookies drizzled with chocolate. He hesitated at the door.
Damon glanced at him. “Thank you, Kyle. That fresh from the oven aroma destroys my diet every time.”
Kyle beamed, his watery blue eyes glinting like a shard of glass. Then he disappeared as though he’d never been there.
Damon handed Brian a mug and a cookie plate while glaring at him.
After his earlier bold comment, Brian felt lucky Damon didn’t throw the coffee at him. He tried to balance the mug and cookies on his lap. He finally gave up and put the drink and plate on the edge of Damon’s desk.
Damon narrowed his eyes as he gulped down a swig of coffee. Suddenly, he stood and paced. “Let’s hear your plan and I’ll point out the holes in it.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Sir,” he said sarcastically. “But all right. I’ll give it a try. Actually, some of what Valerie suggested made sense.”
Damon snickered. “Oh yeah, which part?”
“Having a strong metal cage ready for the capture made sense. And when he’s dead, a mixer full of fresh cement might be handy. Also, it’s possible that dropping him in the deepest part of the ocean in a concrete casket might end his ability to return.”
“All pipe dreams. Tell me who he is and how we lure him into the cage.”
“We choose likely suspects and set up each one up with a separate night to catch Valerie alone. We jointly attack the one who makes a threatening move toward her.”
“And while we’re setting a trap using Valerie, we leave Victoria and Angela vulnerable.”
“Maybe we could take the women along and let them be the lookouts or something.”
“When you identify the host body we’ll set a trap, not before.”
“That’ll be too late. We have to play with the skimpy cards we’re dealt. But if you need me to choose someone, it’s Rory. I have a strong feeling about him. I got the distinct feeling he knew me before we met. And I get bad vibes from him.”
“Maybe you get bad vibes because you both want my Valerie.” Damon frowned and dropped into his chair. “You fought with the wolf in the barrio. Why can’t you identify him?”
“Excess hair and werewolf features masked his human facial structure, but not his quarterback build. Rory knew Valerie was CEO of the foundation, and somehow he found out about Kindra and her mother. The more I think about it, the surer I am it’s him.”
Damon eye-balled him, his stare piercing, skeptical. “What about Kyle?”
“He’s not in the running. He’s too slender and amenable. I’ll prove it’s Rory, if you let me set him up.”
“By using Valerie as bait.”
“Yes, Sir. But all of us working together can keep her safe. I promise you on my life, I personally won’t let anything happen to her.”
A vein throbbed in Damon’s jaw. “You haven’t convinced me.”
“I’m sorry about that, Sir. Real sorry, because I think Valerie will do this with or without us, and I’d rather be with her than have her leave me out of the loop.”
Damon shot out of his chair, his face flushed. “That sounds like blackmail. Maybe she’s the one who needs to be locked in a steel cage. And you with her.”
“Not cool, Sir. Then she’d be a sitting duck for an attack. And if we’re both locked in a cage—”
“Brian, have you ever killed a man before?”
“No, Sir.”
“Well, I have. It eats at your soul and you’re never the same again. I still have nightmares about it.”
Brian’s heartbeat accelerated. “I’ve thought long and hard about the potential damage to my soul, Sir.” Brian forced himself to hold Damon’s gaze and suddenly felt the man’s anguish clear to the pit of his stomach. In that moment, he felt he knew Damon Lamont…really knew him. And oddly, he felt their shaky bond tighten.
Brian took a gulp of coffee to moisten his aching throat. “I
tried to analyze everything. I mulled over what Momma Maggie might think about me planning a murder. She’d undoubtedly advise me to follow the Bible—Thou shall not kill. But for Valerie, and the rest of you who have taken me in and treated me more or less like family, I’m prepared to face the repercussions of my sin. The way I see it, the resurrected Reeves intends to kill this whole family and has already killed so many innocent people in the community. He must be stopped. I view the deliberate plan to kill him like going to war against a deadly enemy and as they say, in war there are casualties.”
Damon leaned back in his chair. “I’ve been lucky. Angela has understood the damage to my soul and has stuck with me through thick and thin. But what if after you damage your soul for Valerie, she can’t accept the anguished, damaged man?”
“I’ve thought about that, Sir. But to save her life, I’m willing to gamble that her love is as deep and binding as mine.”
“I hear little passion in your voice. With your religious background and unique rearing, how do I know when the chips are down, you’ll have the killer instinct?”
“All men have it to different degrees, Sir. But Valerie has become my reason for living—I’ll meet the devil face to face to keep her safe.”
“In a way, you already have. Reeves is the devil’s creation. You’ve already fought him once. Why didn’t you kill him then?”
“I hadn’t made the decision to kill. But after the attack at the foundation and Valerie’s determination to end all this, I see that to save her I must be a part of his eradication, even if it means I have to do the actual killing.”
“Reeves has all his own knowledge and skills plus those of Lazar and his present host-body. That’s like taking on three men. Are you prepared for that?”
“I’ve fought more than three before.” Brian felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck prickle. “And I’ll have backup, right, Sir?”
“Would you still go through with it if you didn’t?”
Brian’s throat went dry. He suddenly felt like a lone man in a leaking raft, bobbing in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. “For Valerie…her family…and the community, yes, Sir.”
“Damn it. This is against my better judgment. But go ahead. Set it up.”
Brian felt no elation over the victory. This was the most terrifying responsibility of his life and if he failed, the woman he loved would die.
****
Brian spotted Valerie waiting out by the pool for him. His heartbeat did double-time at the sight of her sitting on the edge of the sparkling aqua-marine pool, looking like a Goddess. Wind lifted strands of her lemony blonde hair while the sun danced ribbons of gold through it. The profile of her slender curves was enough to drive any man wild.
Gesturing the O success-sign with his finger and thumb, he rushed forward and dropped down beside her. “We got the okay from your dad.”
“I suspected you were a slick salesman.” Her cactus-green eyes with sunny flecks of silver glinted with joy.
He wanted to kiss her so damned bad, but first he had to make her understand the seriousness of the plan and lay out the ground rules. “This is just the first hurdle. To move ahead on the plan, we must handle the setup like a statistics problem by establishing certain assumptions. Based on previous behaviors, we’ll assume the evil werewolf, Reeves, is most likely Rory.”
Brian thought he saw of tremor go through her. Then she confused him by wriggling closer. She met his gaze. “Good assumption.”
“Your Dad has agreed to use you as bait. But only if you promise to follow all the rules we set out without exception or deviation.”
She slowly drew her pink tongue across her lips and inched toward him until their hips touched. “Done.”
He didn’t like how quickly she agreed or how out of control she made him feel. “Are you listening carefully?”
She stroked his thigh. “Memorizing every word, my sexy wolfman.”
“Good. This is important. One of the rules is to tempt him without letting him get too close. If he steps forward, you take two steps backward. Stay in plain sight at all times.”
She leaned forward until he felt her breath on his lips. He yearned to succumb to the lure of her poorly-timed flirtation. He fought the tension building between them as they stared into one another’s eyes. Her gaze darkened. Was it from anxiety or smoky passion? Unable to stand the escalating torture a second longer, he captured her lips and delved into her mouth, putting his whole heart into the blissful scrutiny. She trembled. Out of desire or raw fear about the plan? He thrust her away. “Now isn’t the time for this, Valerie. We need a meeting of the minds before we explore the meeting of our bodies. Each step is critical.”
She pouted, but her sidelong look told him she was teasing him, perhaps to cover her unease. The poor kid was probably scared to death and he was too caught up in making the plan work to realize her brave, flirty front was just a façade.
****
Brian set up a few small meetings with the critical people before he set the plan in stone. Valerie had to be present each time because she was the key to everything. Immediately after dinner, he requested a meeting with her parents. They gathered in the den away from the others over coffee. Damon and Angela’s serious, uncertain expressions warned Brian that his sales job was far from over.
Angela tucked a loose tendril of auburn hair behind her ear with tense fingers as she sat down on an upholstered chair. “I like things logical and direct, Brian. So please don’t soft-pedal the danger for my benefit. And I must be absolutely certain Valerie knows exactly what she’s volunteering for.”
Brian put his arm around Valerie who sat next to him on her dad’s desk. “We’re on the same page about that, Mrs. Lamont.”
“Angela,” she corrected.
“Right. I’m sorry, Ma’am.” He clapped his hands once to release nervous energy. “Okay, to get right to it...” He got up and started to pace. “We’ve decided on certain assumptions—since Rory is the most logical suspect, we’ll start with him. And, because you’re the one he’d be most likely to trust, I’d appreciate it if you’d consider calling him.”
Angela’s eyes flew wide. “And say what?” Her voice cracked.
Damon strode over to his wife. He lifted his tailored, gray trousers leg slightly before perching on the arm of her chair. He gently touched her shoulder as if to calm her.
Angela looked up at Damon with a pleading look. When he didn’t rescue her, she pressed her lips tightly together and stared at Brian with a questioning expression and waited.
Brian cleared his constricted throat. “You could say something like…Valerie is terribly distraught over the murder of her night watchman and I’m worried about her. She left the house without saying where she was going. After four hours passed and she still hadn’t returned I started calling her friends to check if anyone had seen her. We suspect she’s gone running in the hills to vent her frustrations.”
Looking thoughtful, Angela picked invisible lint from her beige slacks.
Wondering if she’d do it, Brian studied her. Her matching halter top revealed a woman who took excellent care of herself. He glanced at Damon. It was clear he worked out every day. With such handsome parents, it was no wonder Valerie was such a knockout. Whoever was lucky enough to marry her would have beautiful children.
Angela met Brian’s gaze with moss green eyes. They were so like Valerie’s, except Angela’s flecks were gold and Valerie’s silver.
“I don’t understand how a call like that will bring him to the bait,” Angela said.
“Think about it, Mom, an egomaniac like Reeves probably can’t resist fooling us if it’s a trap, and if it’s not, it’s the opportunity he’s been waiting for.”
Angela closed her eyes. “Dear, God. Can you imagine the image you just painted in my mind?”
“I’ll stay close by every second.” Brian’s heart pounded. It was a life or death responsibility and he couldn’t fail.
Valerie
touched her lips as though thoughtful. “It’ll probably work best in daytime to throw Reeves off,” she said. “He’d be more apt to expect a nighttime set up. If you don’t want to call him, Victoria’s always up for a challenge.”
“Forget that,” Angela snapped. “Rick wouldn’t appreciate Victoria calling an old boyfriend. If anyone does it, it probably should be me. But I want to hear the whole plan first.”
“I agree with her,” Damon said.
Brian glanced at Valerie. She shrugged.
“So we all agree,” he said. “Let’s call the others in.”
Brian found Hugh in his room and Victoria and Rick out on the veranda. Once they brought in folding chairs and were all seated, Brian laid out the bones of the plan and then started in on the specifics of date, time, location, and equipment needed.
“You can count on me,” Hugh said. “The risk is worth setting Valerie and all of us free.”
“I want Reeves dead more than any of you,” Damon said, “but if I thought for a second we couldn’t protect Valerie, I’d pull the plug on this whole damned idea. But if Valerie behaves and everyone stays on their toes, this just might work. We’ll all have a part in this, and Deeto has agreed to fly down to join us. He wants this over as much as all of us.”
“We’ll be stationed in a fairly tight circle,” Brian said. “But there has to be a pathway to Valerie, which we close tight after our suspect enters the ring.”
“If Reeves doesn’t show up,” Victoria said. “All this preplanning will be useless.”
Valerie shook her head. “From what I’ve seen, his ego won’t let him pass this up, even if he suspects a trap.”
“The only part of the plan that can’t be adjusted as required is Valerie’s part. She has to follow her rules to the letter,” Brian said.
“That’s right,” Damon said, “Valerie can’t stray one iota from her script of safety first. No heroics.”
Victoria shook her head. “It’s already heroic for her to even consider being the bait. But I’m not worried about her because I’ll be in the wings ready to help.”
