“What makes you think that you can just have my phone calls traced without even asking me?”
“Your life is in danger. I will do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe.”
“No. Actually, hell no. You can’t just think you make the rules and I follow them. That won’t fly. Like you said, it’s my life and if you want something to change, you need to consult me first.”
“I will consult you on everything, as long as your life is not in danger.”
“Get out!” She screamed the words, not caring who heard her. She pointed towards the door and stared him down. He needed to move. Right Now.
Looking puzzled, he turned to leave. Looking back, he opened his mouth, but she wrapped her arms around her chest. He turned and left.
The nerve of that man thinking he could do anything he wanted. What did she look like to him?
Did she look like a frail human unable to take care of herself? Or did he see something different? Did he see the person he made holler all night, the one he called doll with such adoration in his voice.
She had a right to be mad. She took care of herself. She didn’t need a bossy, pushy man to do it for her, except he wasn’t bossy or pushy and he wasn’t a man.
He was a fighting machine, designed that way. His job was to protect and he had centered that feeling on her. She was talking herself out of being mad. She wouldn’t tell him yet, though. He had to understand. They were either together or apart. He couldn’t run over her, even if he didn’t like her answers.
She sat in the chair checking her e-mail. Several letters had hit her quarantine box as suspected virus laden. She was sure by the subject line that they had all come from the person out for her blood.
If she could open them without subjecting her computer to a deadly virus or giving away her location, she might be able to follow them back to where they originated.
Smiling, now that she might have something to work with, she called Hale.
***
He hated coming here. This old abandoned house sat on a dead end street all alone. It reminded him of a house in a horror flick. He could almost hear the audience screaming at him not to go in.
He had no other choice. The steps of the wooden porch creaked and rattled every time his weight settled on one. The house looked like it was bleeding in the darkness. It was just the paint peeling, he reminded himself.
How had he allowed himself to get caught up in all of this? He stood on the porch looking for a way, anyway, to get out. Nothing came to save him. He pushed open the door.
The inside was worse than the outside. The smell of death was in the air. He was sure that there had to be bodies somewhere in the house. He had never smelt a stench this bad in his life.
He crept up the stairs. His boss, the man who tortured him, liked to meet in the attic. He was sure that was on purpose. That man knew how terrified he was of this place and made him suffer.
He never looked in any of the rooms he passed. He walked swiftly past, hoping nothing or no one jumped out at him. He was on the steps to the second floor now.
He walked past the three rooms with half opened doors. He thought he heard moans coming from them and walked faster. He reached the steps to the attic on the other side of the hallway and took them two at a time.
He hated this room the most. It was dark, barely providing him enough light to see the shadow in the corner. He knew a man stood there, but his mind insisted there was an animal behind it.
“You’re late,” the man said.
“Sorry, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t followed.”
“She’s still alive. I saw your fireworks display. Pretty, but ineffective.”
“I never saw her leave the apartment. I was sure she would go up in flames with everything she owned.”
“No more fire. Do the job, or I will show you how it is done.”
“I understand.” He shook where he stood. It wasn’t the man that had his bladder ready to explode, it was the shadow of a beast looming ever taller over the man speaking.
Its body had changed, growing taller and thicker. Sharp claws had erupted from its fingers and fangs now ordained its mouth. It threw its head back as if it were going to roar.
He turned around and jumped down the attic steps. He hightailed it out of the house. It was him or her and he wasn’t going to die.
“Why did he run like that?” The man who had been doing the talking turned to the man hiding deeper in the shadows.
“It’s hard to tell why humans do anything.” He shrugged.
The man laughed. “Why do you insist on acting like you are not human? We are all the same under the skin you know.”
“You just ordered a woman’s death. Do you feel that you are like every other human?”
“We all have some evil in us. Some just have more.”
Chapter Twenty
“The General called. He’s ready for his little problem overseas to be dealt with.”
Aran walked into the security room where Sergey and Dante sat. He would rather be with Rena, but she was giving him the silent treatment and it was killing him.
He had reached for her last night and she had stiffened. The look on her face read ‘touch me and die.’ His beast had howled. Who was he kidding? He had howled too.
“I can take care of that.” Sergey volunteered.
“No, after what happened last time I am going to go. If there is a problem, I want to be present for it.”
“You’re willing to leave your mate alone?” Dante asked stirring the pot.
“Seems she’s not that interested in me right now. Either way, I have to go. I am the face I want associated with this, if there is trouble.”
Dante started to reply, but held his tongue as they heard Rena approaching.
“Hi.” Her otherwise warm voice was cold as she entered the room.
They acknowledged her, but were tense, like she might be infected with something.
“Hi doll.” Aran was still warm, but weary. “I have to go away to take care of one of our overseas contracts. I will be back as soon as possible. Dante, Sergey and the rest of my brothers will make sure you are safe.”
She turned to face him, not liking the fact that he was leaving. Her eyes rounded just a bit and she could feel her heart beat pick up.
“How will I get in touch with you?”
He handed her a package with a sad smile. “With this.”
She opened it up to find a phone identical to the one she had given him. Looking at it, she noticed it was the newest model. Definitely not her phone, but it had the same case. In fact, other than the upgrade, he had made sure everything was the same.
“I programmed my number in, but did not do anything else to it. It is your phone. It is untapped. No one will know who called you or why. I do ask that you continue to answer the other one if it rings, in case your pursuer should call back.”
Aran leaned over and hugged her while she stood there with her mouth hanging open.
“Sorry doll. I never meant to walk all over you. We have to go. I will be back as soon as possible.”
She listened as he went up the stairs going into the bedroom, she presumed, to pack. Then he came back down and left, not saying another word. She waited until there was total silence, then she sat in the chair, put her head in her hands and cried big fat tears. The kind that made your body shake and were accompanied by moans of pain. The real kind that made parents drop everything to run to their child.
The tears didn’t stop. She had been so hurt in her previous relationships, so untrusted by men. She had also not trusted. If it was a man, he was out to hurt her.
She hadn’t always been that way. She could still here the mocking of her first boyfriend’s voice as he got together with his friends. He thought she had gone, so when they called her a whale, he had laughed and joined in with the name calling.
Today she knew better, but at sixteen she had been devastated. She had never really had anyone special, not
that she hadn’t tried. When he took her phone, she waited for the same stuff to happen again.
She cried harder as the face of the few men she had thought she loved crossed her mind. They hadn’t been worth her, but try telling her heart that at the time.
What had she done? She had let the best thing she ever had walk out the door, thinking she was still mad at him when really it was her stubborn pride that refused to tell him she understood.
She had wanted to hug and kiss him because no male had cared for her like this since her father passed away, but she had been afraid of being vulnerable. Now he had gone overseas. What if he never came back?
“Rena, why are you crying?”
Dee’s words brought on a fresh torrent of tears.
She felt Dee’s arms go around her as she started to rock her. She took comfort in her friend’s arms, until her tears finally dried up.
“I screwed up Dee.”
“Girl, whatever it is, we can fix it.”
“Maybe, I am not so sure.”
“Is this about Aran?”
Rena nodded her head afraid, to trust her voice.
“Girl, that man loves you. Whatever it is, you can fix it.”
“What makes you think that?”
“You need to open those eyes. I watch him watch you. He thinks the sun and the moon rise and lower on your command. I think he would kill for you and I am not just saying that.”
She nodded her head. “I think you’re right. How could I have messed up so badly?”
“Relationships go through ups and downs. You two are still getting to know each other. It was bound to happen. I am sure it will happen again. Next time, think first, spout off second.”
Rena reached out and gave Dee a hug. Thank the Lord for friends.
There was a knock at the door. “Everything ok in there?”
Rena dried her tears and put a shaky smile on her face. “We are fine, Dante. You can come in of you want.”
“Just wanted to let you know that Aran is off. They have a private airstrip not far from here.”
“He said he was going overseas, but didn’t say where. Do you know?”
“He went to France.”
“One of his government contracts?”
“Yes. There is nothing to worry about. It will be fine.”
“If you don’t mind I think I will worry anyway.”
She grabbed both phones and headed out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Dee call behind her.
“To look a little deeper into the people I worked with.”
She climbed the stairs, deciding to start with Mr. Harris. No one was above suspicion now. She had a reason to live. One tall, green eyed, glorious, muscle-packed reason to live. Not that she had a death wish before him, but come on with him around, who would want to visit the next world?
Opening her laptop, she flexed her fingers and went to work. She started as far back on Mr. Harris as possible. She found his high school graduation picture. He was kind of cute for a geek.
She followed him to college and got wind of a girl or two he dated there. So far, nothing jumped out at her. She found his first and second jobs after college. He had lost his second job because he had developed a gambling habit.
Now they were getting somewhere. By his fourth job, he had met the woman he would eventually marry. Turns out, she was a power-house and she didn’t deal with men who gambled etc.…
He got help, not the temporary kind either. He avoided anyplace that had gambling and turned his life around. She had to smile. She was glad he met someone who truly loved him.
Since then, he had been on the straight and narrow. Not even a parking ticket. She remembered he had once told her every bit of excitement he wanted, his wife gave him. Because she couldn’t be too suspicious, she traced the wife too. Nothing.
She moved on to Brad. He was the one that she had gotten fired because of his activities. Brad was not a choir boy. In fact he was far from it.
Brad had a record. Nothing hard. How had he gotten hired? Petty theft between eighteen and twenty, then by some miracle, he landed in college and he thrived.
He was presently engaged with a child on the way. Was that why he was embezzling? She checked out his bank account and didn’t find the funds he stole. Foreign bank accounts? She started looking deeper for the money he had hidden. Nothing.
Maybe in the girlfriend’s name? She checked deep into her and found nothing. She ran her hands through her hair. She was getting agitated. Something wasn’t adding up. From petty theft to corporate embezzler was quite a step. Add on to that the fact that she couldn’t find the money and every spidey sense she possessed was ringing.
She let go of the several strands of hair that she was in the process of pulling. She backtracked her steps until she found the trail on Brad’s workstation that implicated him in the theft of the funds.
Why hadn’t this been taken off line yet? Was he still working there? She spent the next two hours following the trail of the money but it seemed to disappear. Money didn’t disappear, unless she was spending it.
She went over it again, determined to find the path it took. Nothing, except for a blip that seemed so random. She backtracked and waited for it to appear again.
Money, but this wasn’t Brad’s account.
The ringing of the phone startled her, making her jump. She reached for it blindly.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Hello.”
“Hi, doll.”
“Aran! You called me.” Her heartbeat quickened and a smile crossed her lips. Maybe Dee was right and she did have a chance to make this right.”
“Course I called you, doll. I wanted you to know I got here.”
That was fast? Did he have a Concord? Shaking her head, she stopped trying to figure out the time verses the miles.
“Rena I…”
“Aran wait, please. I have something I have to stay. I need you to listen.” The silence was long and drawn out before he finally responded.
“Ok.”
“I’m sorry. I knew you were just trying to help me, keep me alive, but I was scared. Scared you would try to control me, dominate me and then throw me away. My pride got in the way. I’m used to handling my problems myself.”
“Doll, if I ever decide to dominate you or control you, I assure you that you will be all for it. You will want it as much as I want it. You will be crying out in pleasure, not storming out in anger.”
She felt her sex throb. Had she really turned him down last night? Now she would have to wait until he got back to make up. Mmm makeup sex. She couldn’t wait.
“When will you be back?”
“Not sure. It could be finished by tomorrow or take a week. I should know more after I meet with my contact in a couple of hours. Is everything fine there?”
“Yes, I have been doing more digging now that my laptop is secure. I found the missing money. Someone with a talent close to Hale’s did this heist and pinned it firmly on Brad. I owe him an apology.”
“That’s impossible. Hale is light years ahead of your best programmers.”
“Then Hale did it.”
“Again, that’s impossible.”
“Are you still online? Don’t answer, disconnect. I will have Hale come over and look at what you found.”
The silence once again stretched between them. “I will be waiting for him. Do you think he can come tonight?”
“Yes.”
“I needed to hold you last night.”
Her heart pounded fast. He needed to hold her, not wanted to. She felt moisture in the corner of her eyes. Dee was the only person until now who had needed her.
“Sorry I was being stupid.” Her voice had dropped lower. It sounded husky even to her own ears.
“Are you crying, doll?”
“No.” She wiped her eyes and tried to hide her sniffles.
“Rena, I won’t always know how to act. You’re so different than what I grew up watching. S
o different than what the males on my planet talked about. I won’t always get it right.”
“I won’t always get it right either. That means we can stumble together and make our own way.”
“Think about me tonight. Hale will be there soon. Later. Doll.”
She hung up, wishing he was with her. She had been stupid. How was she supposed to know he would be leaving today?
Her phone rang again and she picked it up, hoping he had called back.
“Hello.”
“You’re dead.”
“No I am alive, but I wouldn’t lay odds about your chances of survival.” She was pissed. All she wanted to do was hang up. How long did a trace take? She didn’t want to blow that.
“You’re the reason I have to kill you.”
“Insane lately?”
“Why couldn’t you just leave everything alone?”
Dante walked into the room with Hale right behind him. Hale was making the keep him talking sign.
“Care to tell me what I didn’t leave alone?”
“Do you think I am stupid?”
“Yeah.”
The phone clicked and the line went dead. She looked over at Hale who was already on his laptop.
“Got him.”
“You know where he is?”
“Better than that. I have his phone. Wherever it goes, I will know.”
“So we go and get him?”
“Not without Aran.”
“What if he ditches this phone?”
“Then we trace his new phone.” Dante said, coming over to her. “We wait.”
She found herself nodding. She didn’t like it, but she had already made up her mind to accept help.
“Hale, I found something when I was looking into Brad and the missing money. It was subtle. I would never have found it without taking a second look, because of all that has happened.”
She looked from Hale to Dante. What had happened to her boring, safe life? She felt like she was taking a walk in the twilight zone. She could even handle that, but it was the absolute need she felt for Aran that had her fighting shaking limbs.
“Something about the signature reminds me of what you have done. Here take a look.”
Aran: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance Page 10
