Since it was Dominic's man that had messed everything up, he did not want to involve the rest of the crew. That would mean that he would have to admit that he had failed, and that would not be taken lightly by the rest. If he did not take care of it himself, he knew that it might be him next on the chopping block. The Syndicate did not appreciate people that brought problems to the organization. They were there to fix problems, not create more of their own.
He made a couple phone calls before he found out who the guy was. While he was surprised to find out that it was a panther shifter after them, he knew the name well enough. He had heard of Malcolm before, the one that ran the clan. It didn't take much to realize that the one who was after them was his son and new leader.
Dominic waited for the man to try to attack again, and then he was going to take him out. That was the only way it was going to end. But the attack didn’t come.
When he got to Dylan’s house, it was dark outside, and no one was around. He was surprised to find himself in the middle of the woods, without a real light in sight.
He was about to take his step into the main house and paused when he heard a voice behind him.
“I knew you would come. Give me my wife back, or I will snap your neck right here and now.”
Dominic turned around and was suddenly face to face with the deadly man from the video. After seeing what Dylan could do, he was the last person he wanted to meet while he was trespassing in the middle of the night.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jamie knew that she should be strong. It was the only thing that was going to keep her going. Her own strength and her own agility of mind. Jamie had been sold into slavery.
At first, she had tried to go along with it, but there was just no way. As much as Jamie wanted to believe that she would be saved, after several days, she was starting to think that she never would be. Then, when she decided to take off before she was forced to do something that she wouldn't be able to live with, it had only made things worse.
Her punishment was to be locked into a tiny room with no light for hours and hours on end. Sadly, though, she figured it was better than what they wanted her to do downstairs in the common room. It became clear rather quickly that the girls were there to make the Syndicate, as well as their business partners, happy.
Since they were ruthless men, it was not ordinary things that they wanted. William had gone into detail one time about what went on, but Jamie didn’t want to see it. She wanted to have nothing to do with any of it. Her tiny little room was better than the alternative. Jamie knew it, and she tried to remind herself when it all became too much for her.
There was yelling from outside of the little room she was in. Jamie really didn't think anything of it because she had found that the only way to survive such a life was to become completely numb with it all. She was very close to that after being in there for a week, maybe more. It wasn't like she had a way to keep up with time. Days rolled into weeks, and maybe even longer. Her mind was playing tricks on her anyway.
So instead of being hopeful that this person was coming to save her, Jamie came to the conclusion that she was not ever going to be saved. To hope for it would only make living her new life even more complicated.
But then something happened. The door in front of her jiggled. Hope started to find its way back inside of her, even though she really didn't have any right to feel that way. Optimism was not for people in her situation.
There was a little bit of fighting on the other side, and then a groan as somebody hit the floor. It wasn't until she heard his voice that she let the hope inside of her take hold fully. It was Dylan; he had somehow found her, and now he was going to save her.
Then the door swung open, and she had a smile on her face because Dylan was finally there for her. It was not that rat-faced man that tried so hard to intimidate her. It was the man that loved her and promised that nothing would ever happen to her. That promise may have fallen on deaf ears before, but it didn't matter now. She was going home with him.
He pulled her in tight, and just like that, everything was right in the world again. Jamie could breathe again and believe that it was all going to be okay. No other man had ever been able to do that for her.
He kissed her softly and cradled her face like it was going to shatter if he wasn’t careful.
“I can't believe I found you. I didn't think I was ever going to find you, Jamie. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
Jamie had been hurt, but not in the way that he obviously feared. It had happened in another way, maybe even more damaging. She learned a lot about love and about hate.
As he held her in his arms, Jamie knew that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
“How did you find me?”
He smiled at her. “I knew that to find you, I just had to track down who took you.”
“The Syndicate, are they still around? Did you take them out?” Jamie was hopeful.
“I would like to tell you that they are all gone, but they are not. I really just scratched the surface of how big the group is. At the moment, they're probably trying to figure out what happened. They're not gone, and I have definitely made them an even worse enemy.”
“I don't want anything to happen to our people because of me. I brought all of this to us, and I am so sorry.”
He grinned wider. “There's no way that I’m going to let you go. Trust me, everyone felt the same way. The Syndicate started this, and I'm just going to make sure that we finish it. We can't let this slide. They will be back for us, but you don't need to worry about that. I will take care of everything. All I want to do now is keep you safe.”
Jamie relaxed in his arms because it was the first time that she had felt safe in well over a week. She sighed, and he held her even closer.
“I only feel safe when I'm with you. I know that this is a bit more complicated than we wanted it to be, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sorry that I brought these people into our lives. I thought that you would leave me here because it was all my fault.”
Dylan just shook his head vigorously. “That was never an option, I just want you to know that. That was never something I even thought of. All I was worried about was getting back to you and making sure that you’re safe. After that, nothing else really matters.”
Unable to think of a better response, she just kissed him again, thanking him for saving her. How many times was Dylan going to have to save her life?
It wasn’t long before the kiss was more than just a kiss. His lips were insistent, like he had missed her more than he could say in words. His body was showing her that he needed her more than his next breath.
Jamie finally had to slow him down. It was the only way she was going to be able to pull herself together.
“We have to save the rest of them, Dylan. As much as I am so glad to see you, we can’t just leave with all those other women here. There is at least a hundred of them, and most of them are shifters.”
Dylan agreed, but he was bothered. It looked like he was torn between being with her and taking care of the rest.
“I am not going to let you out of my sight again, Jamie. We are going to release them together. Just stay behind me a little bit and I will keep you safe.”
Jamie agreed almost immediately. She didn’t want to be anywhere that he was not. “Lead the way, Dylan. I am right behind you.”
He grinned at her answer, and he took her hand in his. They left hell together, and Jamie had never been so happy in all of her life.
“Shit!”
Dominic threw a knife into the messenger’s head. He was disappointed that everything had gone so badly while he was gone. He’d gone to speak to council about the new problems, namely William. That had been bad enough, but now it was all going to shit.
Tommy’s associate was shaking next to him, staring at the dead body of his friend.
“Do you have anything else to add, Tommy?”
Tommy shook his head vehemently. The
last thing he wanted was a knife stuck in his forehead. He preferred to say nothing at all.
“Good, smart choice. Josiah never knew when to shut his mouth. I am happy to tell you that you just got a promotion. I would suggest very strongly that you don’t fail me like he did. I won’t accept it.”
Two guards had appeared to take away the body. It was treated like an everyday occurrence, and the last thing he wanted to do was become another body on the floor.
“I won’t fail you, Dominic.”
“Good, because if you do, Tommy, you’re going to be just as screwed as Josiah is.”
Another look down at the body before Tommy made it clear that he wasn’t going to mess up. His heart was racing when he got out of there, and all Tommy could do was walk faster.
Dominic was left alone. He couldn’t believe that a damn woman, one woman, had caused so much trouble. He would have to be less merciful. Next time, Dominic swore that he wouldn’t let her live. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.
Alpha Bear’s Bride Secret Baby
(Alpha Shifter Bride Service)
Book Four
Chapter One
“I just don’t understand why you have to go back so soon. You know that you are in danger when you’re away from the cabin. It took a lot of time, magic, people, and money to get us here. Why jeopardize it for nothing?”
Jamie was done having the conversation. She was sick of hiding and ready to get back to work. Her company had been on a hiatus for the past few months. Still, she had responsibilities, and the only way to take care of them was to get off the hidden mountain they’d been staying on and to get back to civilization. Her husband, Dylan, didn’t want to even consider it. He wanted to keep her hidden until they could find the people that were after her.
“It’s not nothing. I started my agency years ago. It has been everything that I worked for, and I won’t just let it go under. I am already behind on so much. I have lost several clients that couldn’t wait. I can’t keep going like this. We have to live our lives. We can’t always live in fear.”
She could see that he wasn’t buying it. Dylan had tons of money; his family was an old shifter clan that had millions. He didn’t need to work and didn’t understand her desire to. His life’s work was running the family’s clan after his father passed it down to him. That included keeping them safe from the Syndicate. Several attacks were being blamed on them, and Jamie was sure that there was going to be more.
Jamie didn’t care, though. She knew the dangers and still wanted to get out into the world. She couldn’t spend any more time in the cabin, even if it was relatively safe.
“Just because you are getting a little stir-crazy doesn’t mean that the risk is any less. I am sorry I haven’t been able to find them yet, Jamie. I will, soon. You just have to give me a little bit of time.”
She smiled at him, touched his face, and tried to get him to understand what she was going through. She didn’t want to endanger herself or anything like that. Jamie just didn’t want to lose everything that she’d worked for building the company because of some bad decisions working with the wrong sort of people. She was ready to get past all of it, but that wasn’t going to happen if she didn’t get back to work.
“I need to at least go check on the last two girls I picked up from William. I don’t know where they are. I need to track them down and figure out what to do with them. I can’t just leave them twisting in the wind, not with the Syndicate so hell-bent on destroying us. They very well could try to get to us through them.”
“You are sending them money weekly. How do you not know where they are?”
Jamie shrugged. “I just send through a pre-paid card. I fill it up, and they use it.”
“Well, you can track where they are using it. I am sure it will have all the information we need. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure it all out, without you running around, getting yourself shot.”
“I won’t get shot.”
“It’s too dangerous for you to do this alone.”
Jamie relaxed. “Does that mean that you’re going to help me?”
Dylan smiled at his wife. “Do I really have a choice?”
She agreed that he didn’t, though Jamie was still nervous about everything. His words of warning ringing in her ears.
“Jessica, it’s good to hear from you. I have been trying to get a hold of you, but communication has been spotty.”
Jessica paused, trying to place the woman’s voice. It was the one she was waiting for, Jamie, and she felt a bit of relief go through her.
“I have been waiting to hear from you as well. Your office is closed, and no one is answering the phones, but the money kept getting sent, so I figured that something was going on. Are you okay?”
“I am fine. Thank you for asking. I just had to make a few decisions and lay low for a while. Things have been intense.”
Jessica paused for a moment. “Yeah, I heard about that. I heard that you ran into trouble with the Syndicate. I wanted to think that it wasn’t true, but it is, huh?”
“It is true. I wanted to tell you sooner, but it’s been a lot of up-in-the-air issues at the moment. We were trying to wait it out, figure out how to deal with the problem, but it’s been months, and we’re no closer. I wanted to talk to you and meet up. We have a few things to discuss.”
Jessica had a feeling she knew what was going to be discussed. She was supposed to marry a rich man that would fulfill all of her dreams. That was the speech that she had gotten from William, after he bought her from her parents. Jessica had gone with it because she wanted adventure and to get out into the world. Her parents were always very strict, so it was seen as a Godsend. But that had changed; the feeling of hope was gone. She had been sitting in a hotel room for months, waiting for the very call she was on.
“That sounds good. Where would you like to meet?”
When Jamie suggested that they meet where she was, Jessica declined. She didn’t know who was after Jamie, but she didn’t want to be involved. The Syndicate was one of those organizations that no one really knew too much about. If they did, they didn’t talk about it, or they weren’t able to talk about it. Jessica didn’t want to have anything to do with that.
They agreed on a restaurant that wasn’t too far away. Jessica wasn’t sure what she was going to say to Jamie, how she was going to word it, but she had come to the conclusion that she didn’t want to get married off. It had all sounded good in theory, but the end result wasn’t what she had in mind.
Jessica didn’t like confrontations, but she didn't have a choice. She was going to have to break the contract, and there were rumors that William had been killed. Jessica couldn't get ahold of her family, and she was still hundreds of miles away from her home. After the conversation with Jamie, Jessica was hoping she'd finally get to go home and put all of it behind her.
Chapter Two
Dylan dropped Jamie off at her office. Her car was still parked in the parking lot. She got in it and put the address to the hotel into the GPS. It said that she had a thirty-minute drive ahead of her, and Jamie tried to focus on what was next. There had been something in Jessica's voice, some bad news that was dying to get out.
When she arrived, Jessica was waiting out front for her. Jamie waved to her through the windshield and Jessica got in next to her. They did the obligatory greeting before Jessica asked Jamie how she was.
“You really had me worried. Where have you been?”
Jamie was quiet for a moment. She was trying to shift through her thoughts and emotions. She didn’t know what all to say or even how far she was supposed to go.
“Honestly, I've been doing pretty much the same thing you've been doing. The Syndicate has attacked our clan several times and hurt many people. We found it to be safest if we just stayed away for a while.”
“And now you are ready to come out of hiding? Does that mean that everything is safe?”
Jamie paused for a second and saw the worry on Jessi
ca's face. Jamie felt like it was all her fault. She had roped her into it, and there was no clear way out of it.
“No, it doesn't. It just means that life is going to have to go on, even though right now it doesn't seem like it's going so well. I am going to be looking over my shoulder for a while, but I can't leave everything hanging. You can understand that, I'm sure. I am positive that I would have gone stir-crazy in a single room. I have been doing it in a little cabin, and it’s been driving me crazy.”
Jessica smiled and looked out the passenger window. Something was on her mind.
They pulled up at the restaurant, and both women got out. Jamie was a few steps ahead of Jessica as they went into the restaurant. They found a seat and quickly ordered drinks while they decided what to have for dinner.
“I think we need to just get this out of the way in the beginning. If not, we're going to have this weird and awkward meal and I'd rather not do that.”
Jamie steeled herself for what was coming next.
“Tell me what's going on. You look like you have something specific on your mind.”
“I don't think I want to do this anymore.”
“Do what? Have dinner? We don't have to stay here if you don't want to. The menu doesn’t look all that great.”
Jessica shook her head. Jamie wasn't sure what she was talking about. She got so serious that the whole vibe of the table changed.
“I mean dealing with your company. I don't want to marry some random guy. I know that it sounds romantic and everything, but the idea of it really freaks me out now that I have had nothing but time to think. The more I think about it, the more preposterous it seems.”
Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series) Page 32
