by Cecilia Lane
Kill her? Women weren’t to be harmed unless it was life or death. And even then, only if there was no other way to survive. Annika sat in that room. His mate, for fook’s sake. He’d question her, ay, but he wouldn’t kill her.
“No,” he repeated. A bit of growl entered his voice and Gio stiffened.
He needed to enter the room alone. She was his mate. His responsibility. And he didn’t trust what he’d do if someone tried to get between them.
He left Gio in his office. He knew the man would watch the feed even if he ordered him not to. The man’s loyalty edged into overprotectiveness and Eoghan knew he’d stand guard to make sure Annika didn’t attempt to kill him.
It was annoying as hell but it was something he learned about running a family. He knew his people’s tics and when to push back on them or just let them slide. Gio could have his vigil. Eoghan was too concerned with what story Annika would spin him to care who watched her tell it.
Eoghan ignored the eyes on him as he crossed the warehouse and entered the short hallway at the back. Rolling his shoulders, he let himself into the room where the mate he’d been denied awaited him.
Seeing her image on the grainy security camera didn’t prepare him. She looked like a poor reflection of herself. Her hair hung lank and dead. Her eyes didn’t shine anywhere close to what he remembered. Even her skin looked sallow compared to her high bronze complexion before.
In all his forty years, no woman had made his body react in the way that he craved Annika. Even now, with the first scent of her in a year, he wanted to scoop her into his arms and make up for lost time. That other part of him, the one that she drew out before she disappeared, nearly vibrated with her closeness.
Instead, he leaned against the door and kept the distance between them.
“Where have ya been?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.
“Why am I here?”
The faint tremble in her voice grabbed him by the balls. Fooking hell. She could still do a number on him.
“I asked where have ya been.”
Her lip quivered. He wanted to cross the space between them and wipe away the fear with his thumb. He never wanted to hear her heart pounding in her chest the way it did then. She was absolutely terrified of him and her situation.
He stayed where he stood. He wanted answers. He deserved answers. She’d disappeared on him and then reappeared in his city. He would get an explanation.
“Please. Just let me go. I won’t say anything about this to anyone.”
“And where, exactly, do ya think yer going?”
“Home. To DC.”
Fooking hell. DC. Yakuza territory.
Was she part of Mariko’s plans? Make him go soft on her and let her get close enough to shove the knife in his heart? What a cold bitch to kidnap his mate and use her against him.
Unless she was working for Mariko all along.
He folded his arms over his chest. Cold fury washed over him. It was a familiar feeling after the year alone and he welcomed it. He could disassociate himself from the Annika he remembered. Just because she looked the same and sounded the same and even smelled the same didn’t make the weak creature in front of him the Annika that tugged at his heart.
“Why were ya at The Can-Can tonight?”
She swallowed a lump in her throat. Her fingers pressed harder onto the table. “I was looking for help.”
The word sounded like a keen to his soul. His mate needed help and he wanted to give it to her. He shook his head and cleared the thought. Ay, she’d get his help. After he got his answers.
“I heard there was a wytch. And shifters. And… I need to know if I am one.” The last spilled out in a quiet jumble.
He barked a laugh and she shrank back. “Now I know yer full of shite. Come, tell me why yer here after disappearing last year. Where have ya been?”
Fooking hell. If someone had taken her, they did her over good. She paled under his attention and didn’t even know she was a shifter?
Unless that was a lie. Unless she was spinning a story. How could she forget her other form? He scented the air and tried to find a lie but there was only the smell of nerves and sweat under the deliciousness he remembered. His hands clenched into fists. He wanted to hit something. Fook.
“DC. I have an apartment there,” she said quietly. She sounded on the verge of tears.
DC again. The spot between his shoulders itched in wariness. What was in store for him, now that she’d been returned? Was she some agent for Mariko? Was Mariko trying to distract him or send him on some wild hunt to avenge his memory of Annika?
His Annika would have met his accusations with biting ones of her own. She’d have defended herself and tried to win him over to her side. Headstrong, that one was. The woman sinking further into herself and pleading with him was weak.
If she was a plant, he needed to find out who sent her. Mariko was likely but he’d made other enemies since becoming Don. Those he’d beaten while consolidating his power might be using her to make a play. The Dragon Court that sought to hire his men to die in their war was another possibility but he was sure his wasn’t the only family to refuse them.
He didn’t want to confront the growing certainty that something was wrong with Annika.
“Who sent ya?” he asked roughly.
“No one. Please. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just want to go home.”
Her shoulders hunched and she cringed away from him. The brief flash of guilt he felt disappeared when he glanced at the camera. Annika was his responsibility. He let her get close, he mated her, he had to protect the family if she was a threat.
He’d get her to spill all the answers he deserved, starting with who brought her careening back into his life.
Annika watched from under her eyelashes as he pushed away from the door. He trudged deliberately toward the table. The chair scraped against the floor.
It was all too loud. Her heart beat faster as he neared and then settled in the chair across from her. That, too, sounded loud in her ears.
She met his eyes for the first time. The bright, clear blue seared into her.
That’s Eoghan’s girl.
She didn’t need the words of the other man to know this one was something important to her. She just wished she could remember him.
His dark t-shirt clung to his body and she could almost see the dips between the muscles lining his stomach. One smooth cheek was marred by a faint, thin scar. Some part of her knew his short, dark curls that needed a trim would be as soft as they looked. A faint, smoky smell filled her nose and she knew it was from him. She wanted to press her nose against his bare skin and inhale.
And still, his eyes dug into her as if he could draw every secret out of her with one look.
She wished he would.
Annika struggled to think through the spinning in her head. She could feel her memories just out of reach. It was almost as if there were more than one scene happening then, layered on top of one another. Eoghan stared and laughed at her—or was it with her—and she couldn’t tell past from present.
She broke their look and with it, their connection. She pressed her hands to the table again and tried to will her heart to a normal rate.
There was nothing normal about the reaction to him. Her lungs struggled to fill with air. Her body warmed the more she was near him, nerves thawing under the heat in his eyes.
Who was she?
Who was he?
He reached across the table and snatched her hand in his.
“You need tae tell me who sent ya.”
The rough burr of his voice sent a pleasant shiver down her spine. His tone sounded reasonable but his fingers tightening around her wrist were anything but. Parts of her wanted to pull away while other parts urged her closer. The warmth of his hands spread through her hand and wrist and up her arm.
She just wanted to lay down and cry. Everything about him was so overwhelming.
“Please. Just let
me go. I don’t know anything. I don’t even know who I am,” she whispered, trying to pull her hand away from his.
The room spun faster and the flash of a memory hit her. She sat in a room not terribly different from the one she currently occupied. Another looming figure sat where Eoghan sat. Instead of fear, it felt like… practice. A voice spoke in her ear.
Give the enemy nothing. You know nothing. You are nothing.
The memory shimmered and Eoghan’s face scowled at her once more.
“I’ll ask you again. Who sent ya?”
His fingers tightened around her wrist and he refused to let go of her. “No one. I told you. I heard about shifters here. I thought maybe… maybe I could get some help.”
She jumped as Eoghan’s other hand slammed down on the table. “Don’t lie to me!”
“I’m not lying! I don’t know anything past this last year. No one sent me. I keep having dreams of being a dragon and I don’t know if I’m a shifter.” She sucked in much needed air after her outburst but Eoghan remained silent.
It was obvious he knew her and held the information back. Information she desperately needed. She was so close to learning the truth and he wouldn’t give her anything.
Anger curled around her spine and straightened her shoulders. She could feel it flushing her cheeks when she cocked her head and turned narrowed eyes back on Eoghan.
“You like to play games, little man? Does it keep you warm at night to keep others in the dark? Bet it’d make your mommy so proud to see you getting off on being the biggest cock in the room.”
He smirked at her. The blue of his eyes grew colder than ice but at least he let her loose. The burr on his tongue nearly disappeared when he spoke next. “You’re going to tell me where you’ve been for the last year.”
“I’m not going to tell you shit until you tell me what you know about me.” She crossed her arms and glared back at him.
The door burst open and the man who brought her there hurried inside. But it wasn’t him that drew her attention. Eoghan sat back and a small smile still tugged his lips up. His blue eyes held something close to amusement. No, that wasn’t right. Pride.
Why would he be proud that she’d snapped at him? Wouldn’t anyone do so, if they were pushed hard enough? And after a year of being called crazy, she’d reached her breaking point.
“You both need to calm the fuck down before you tear into one another,” the new arrival scolded.
“Get out, Gio,” Eoghan ordered without taking his eyes off Annika.
“You want to know where she’s been. That’s fair. We can find that out without using her as a verbal punching bag.” The man called Gio turned to Annika. “From the sound of it, you want to find out who you are. Okay. We can fill you in on that, see what that gets us.”
Annika eyed Eoghan and found him still watching her just as closely. “Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Then talk.”
He shook his head and the insolent smirk reappeared. “I don’t think so. Ya left me. Ya explain that first.”
She wanted to throw her hands in the air in exasperation. “I can’t explain anything! I don’t even remember you! I woke up in a homeless shelter in DC last year with no idea who I was. Your turn.”
“That’s the part I don’t believe. It’s too bloody convenient. Ya have tae know something.”
Annika matched his scowl. “I know my counselors. I know the girls I housed with. I know how to get to and from my appointments. But I have no bloody idea how I got there. Your. Turn.”
Eoghan cocked an eyebrow at her. She had the feeling that he wasn’t used to having demands made of him. His eyes flicked to Gio who then left without another word.
But Eoghan wasn’t done tormenting her with crumbs. “Yer powyrful. Like me and the rest of my family out there. You were here roughly three months before ya vanished. Before that, a mystery.”
“I have dreams where I’m a dragon. Is that what I am?”
“Ay.” He stood slowly and walked around the table between them. His breath ruffled her hair and curled heat in her center. “And ya know exactly how tae get the biggest cock in the room off.”
The door closed on his dark chuckle and locked her away. Annika didn’t know whether to scream or cry.
4
One mystery solved. Only a thousand more to go.
Annika stewed after the door closed behind Eoghan and Gio. She took comfort in the one fact she’d been able to pry out of Eoghan. She was a shifter. A heavy weight lifted from her shoulders and her head calmed a tad. Her dreams weren’t coping mechanisms. She wasn’t crazy.
That part was still debatable. There was still so much to uncover about herself and her strange connection to that insufferable man. He had at least three months of her life stashed away in his head, plus any clues she might have dropped while talking about her life before they met. She aimed to get it out.
If she was ever allowed out of her prison.
The more she replayed their encounter, the more she was sure he was tied to her somehow. Even through the panic and fear and desperation, her body responded to him. His eyes running down her frame, his hand around her wrist… it all sent shivers through her. And it calmed her. Not entirely, though nothing seemed to take the edge off completely. But Eoghan cut through the haze and irritated her enough to make her snap. She felt strong for the first time in a year.
Who was he?
Who was she, to make him so angry and accusatory?
The door opened again and pulled Annika from her thoughts. She hoped—briefly—Eoghan would make a reappearance. Maybe he’d let her out.
The woman entering had a round face and wide eyes that blinked too much. Annika disliked her immediately.
“Just brought you some food. I’m Lenore, by the way,” the woman said cheerfully. She bumped the door closed with a hip and set the tray on the table, removing the lid with a flourish.
Her sing-song voice grated on her nerves, reminding Annika of her pharmacist. But she was another person who potentially held more clues to her past.
Her eyes slid up from the unappetizing sandwich and bottle of water in front of her and connected with Lenore. “Do we know one another?”
Lenore tittered. “Of course! Don’t you remember?”
Annika pressed her hands to her head. She was so tired of the question. “Sorry.”
“No matter. I’m sure Eoghan will do whatever he can to make things right.”
A spark of jealousy ignited in her stomach at Eoghan’s name on Lenore’s lips. The word sounded too familiar and she elongated the syllables to savor the taste of his name.
“I’m sure he will. He wants only the best for me.” She arched an eyebrow and smiled pleasantly at the other woman.
Lenore’s smile dropped into a scowl. For a brief moment, Annika thought the other woman would hurl herself over the table and try to claw at her face.
Lenore glanced toward the upper corner of the room and the camera behind Annika. Her smile returned but no emotion reached her eyes. If she’d been a cat, Annika thought her tail would be twitching in agitation.
Lenore paused halfway out the door. “I’m sure you’ll get exactly the treatment you need.”
Once again, Annika found herself locked away.
Lenore leaned against the bar and tried to listen to the conversation in Eoghan’s office. It was just a little too far and too many people in the warehouse for her to hear anything. She knew Eoghan and Gio had to be discussing Annika. Her mysterious return was on everyone’s lips. It turned her stomach.
Fucking Annika. She just had to make an appearance, didn’t she? She’d been warned to stay away. Though, Lenore wasn’t sure just how much she remembered about their little chat. That was the beauty of the drug she’d bought off one of the Shadow Yakuza.
She often lay awake at night and relished the memory of catching Annika unaware while she closed down one of the family’s bars. Just a chat, she said. Girl to girl. Oh, it was
heaven to see the smug expression on Annika’s face wiped away along with everything she’d been.
It’d only taken a few covert drops from the vial and the woman who’d stolen Eoghan’s affection was reduced to a blubbering wretch. No memory, no powyr, just some trash to throw away.
Lenore made sure to drive her all the way across the Virginia state line and into North Carolina before shoving her out of the car. Somehow, though, the bitch had found her way back to Baltimore.
Even for her catty remarks, she didn’t seem as with it as before. She denied knowing Lenore. The drug should have worn off by then but Lenore made sure to add a few drops to the tray of food she brought the bitch. Just in case any pesky memories resurfaced and needed to be forgotten again.
If only she knew what had been exchanged when Eoghan confronted Annika. If only she could hear what Eoghan and Gio were plotting behind the firmly closed office door.
She couldn’t have it discovered that she’d been the one to dose Annika and sent her packing. Interfering with the mates and lovers of the family was death. As much as she wanted Eoghan’s hands on her, she didn’t want a repeat of Baldwin.
She’d never seen someone with powyr move so fast or kill so thoroughly. One second, Eoghan had been completely man. The next, he’d partially shifted and ripped Baldwin open from his throat to his stomach. It would be impressive if she didn’t worry she’d be next.
She needed to make Annika disappear permanently.
It couldn’t be anyone in the family for the same reason she had to outsource the drug to the DC arm of the Yakuza. She didn’t trust any wouldn’t slip the information back to Eoghan. Loyalty to their Don ran annoyingly high.
But the territory battle wouldn’t let her seek help from the Yakuza again. A hit on the Don’s girl would just bring the fighting to a head. While she didn’t care who owned what side of the street, she did care if her prize was taken away before she had a chance to enjoy him.
Lenore spotted her target just settling at the other end of the bar and pulling a sandwich out of his pocket. She abandoned her attempt to listen to the planning in the office and sidled up next to Simon, one of the family soldiers. His blood was too diluted to make a play at a capo position, but he ran a mean gambling racket. He also had a memory for numbers. She’d never be allowed in the office or on the phone of a capo to get the contact information she had in mind.
