Deadlock sa-3

by Moira Rogers

  That, at least, was something Carmen could take care of. «If you’ll let us take some pictures before we do anything else, we’ll have a record. And Jackson and Alec can find out what happened to Josh.» Maybe they could even find a way to dissuade him from causing future trouble for Sera.

  «Okay.» Her eyes fluttered shut. «This was the first time. Things have been bad for a while, but he’d never hurt me before. That’s not how it works. He was stronger. He was supposed to keep me safe.»

  She whispered the words as if her heart was breaking, and Carmen wrapped her arms around her. «It’s okay. You’re all right now. You can be safe here.»

  «I’m sorry.» Muffled words laced with stiff pride, though Sera didn’t pull away. «I shouldn’t be — it’s stupid to cry over an asshole.»

  «The assholes are the ones who make you cry.»

  Sera nodded against Carmen’s shoulder, her face still hidden. «Yeah. Yeah, they really are.»

  A knock shook the closed door. It opened a second later, and Julio stuck his head inside. «Carmen, Alec is about to go— Oh shit, I’m sorry.»

  Sera pulled back so fast she almost tilted off the stool. She lifted her hands to her cheeks to scrub away tears and winced when her hand bumped her bruised cheekbone. «Alec’s here? God, he can’t see me like this either.»

  «He won’t. The last thing we need right now is for him to flip his shit. Julio, close the door.»

  He did, his gaze fixed on Sera’s battered face. «What the hell…?»

  Intense embarrassment filled the room, but Sera lifted her chin a little, almost a challenge, and pointedly ignored the question. «Kat didn’t tell me what happened to my dad. Just said there was an explosion at the clinic.»

  Julio answered it out of what seemed like habit. «That’s all we know right now. It was definitely some sort of incendiary device. There’ll be an investigation.»

  «Maybe not such a formal one,» Carmen interjected.

  «No.» He shook himself. «No, maybe not. But we’ll find out what happened.»

  Some barely visible tension in Sera seemed to fade away. The defensive tilt of her chin lowered. The tight set of her shoulders relaxed a fraction. She tilted her head as she studied Julio, quiet curiosity in her eyes. «I’m a coyote.»

  He stared back. «I’m aware of that.»

  A tiny furrow appeared between her eyebrows. «Most wolves aren’t very friendly to me.»

  «I’m not most wolves, sweetheart.» He glanced at Carmen. «Alec’s about to head out to pick up some stuff. He wants to know if you need a change of clothes, anything.»

  He could head to her place and kill two birds with one stone. «Yeah, and Lily needs a few things too. Tell him I’ll be there in a second.»

  «Sure.» With one last look at Sera, he left.

  «My brother,» Carmen explained.

  «Oh.» Sera smiled a little. «Sucks for you. I’m pretty glad my parents didn’t see fit to saddle me with an alpha bastard brother.»

  «Yeah? I guess I’ve got two now.» Cryptic words, but explaining would take too much energy. «If you want to wait a while, I can find someone to fix up these bruises.» Jackson, probably, though Carmen hoped he could keep it quiet, or she’d have to test just how well she could reach Alec through a haze of rage.

  Sera’s smile faded. «You need to go. I’ll be okay. Kat’s mad at me, but she’ll get over it. She can help me out.»

  «She’s not mad at you. She’s scared for you. Terrified.»

  «She’s mad, and she should be. She hated Josh.» Sera laughed, a tired, broken little sound. «Guess she always knew.»

  She didn’t need to be alone. She needed support, comfort — and Carmen didn’t even have time to provide it, not with everything else going on. «I’m going to get my other brother. He can come in and hang out with you.»

  «It’s okay.» Sera reached out and folded her slender fingers around Carmen’s. «I’m stronger than I look. I just want someone to fix my face so I can see my dad. If you tell me where to go or who to talk to… That spell caster Kat used to work for. Is he here?»

  «Jackson. I’ll find him right now.»

  «Thank you.» Sera squeezed her hand before releasing it. «I think Kat’s hovering outside the door. She’s not very sneaky.»

  Carmen could feel her. «You’re right, she’s not.» She passed her hand over Sera’s head and took a deep breath. «Hang in there.»

  Then she turned to go, because there was so much left to do, and the last thing she could afford was to think too closely about Sera’s pain. She had to stay strong and hold things together, at least until Franklin was well.

  That was the best thing she could do for Sera anyway.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Franklin looked like hell, and Alec had never seen him happier.

  The surgery had gone on for five nightmarish hours. Alec had spent them trying to keep a mostly grown-up and thoroughly hysterical Sera from crashing into the room where spell casters, shapeshifters and doctors were systematically breaking the bones in her father’s legs. Even narcotics and Franklin’s stone-faced stoicism couldn’t keep him sedated. By the third hour, everyone in the warehouse was tensed against the next scream.

  Agonizing, but fleeting. It might be weeks or months, but shapeshifter healing would repair the damage to Franklin’s body. Sera and Lily had already repaired the damage to his heart. Bandaged and pale, Lily sat on one side of his bed, his hand pressed to her cheek as she watched him in silence. Sera hovered on the other side, her quiet murmur indecipherable over the quiet beeps of machinery.

  Franklin had the two people who mattered most to him, safe and sound. He had half a dozen medical professionals on hand, ready to leap if the tiniest thing went wrong. He’d be fine.

  And Alec was taking Carmen home for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep on a horizontal surface if he had to drag her there by the scruff of the neck.

  She pushed through the door, her face and hands scrubbed and damp. «Okay, I’m ready. Let me check on them one more time.»

  Famous last words. «They’re fine, Carmen. Franklin doesn’t need anything else. And you’re not the only doctor around anymore.»

  She stopped and rubbed her palms on the scrub bottoms she wore. «Right, I know. If I don’t just leave, it’ll be another hour or two. Let’s go.»

  It seemed too easy, but Alec wasn’t in the mood to try his luck. One hand at the small of Carmen’s back urged her down the hallway, toward the cavernous main area.

  They passed Kat and Miguel, curled up on one of the makeshift pallets and sound asleep, Kat’s tiny little computer resting on the floor under her hand. Julio sat nearby in quiet conversation with Derek and Nicole. Alec didn’t stop, not until they hit the side door and stepped out into the afternoon sun. «My truck’s a couple blocks down. Gonna have to figure out better parking around here, that’s for sure.»

  «One more thing on the list.» Carmen leaned against him, letting him bolster her as they walked to his truck.

  She remained silent as she climbed into the cab and buckled her safety belt. He’d already started the engine, put the truck in gear, and pulled out into the street when her hand crept across the seat and brushed his leg.

  Driving with one hand was easy enough. He curled the other around her fingers, rubbing his thumb along her palm. «You did a damn good job, pulling that place together like you did. I couldn’t have managed it.»

  «Most of the pieces were in place…» As the sleepy murmur died, Carmen’s eyes snapped open. «And if you ever really considered making buttons of Wesley Dade’s teeth, you should think twice.»

  The transition was so jarring he blinked. «Does Wesley Dade have something to do with this?»

  She smiled as her eyes drifted shut again. «It doesn’t matter. Just cut him some slack, okay?»

  «Honey, you’re punch-drunk. Get some sleep. It’s a long drive back to my house.»

  «Mmm. Mine is closer.»

  Maybe, but only having her in
his house — in his bed—would soothe the terror that had been gnawing at his gut since the first phone call about the clinic. «You care?»

  «No.» She squeezed his hand. «I like your house.»

  «I like you in my house.» Which she probably knew better than he did. «We’ll get there and sleep until this evening, okay?»

  «Mmm,» she said again, already tumbling into sleep.

  She was so tired that she slept through the long drive back to his property, and the soft sound of her rhythmic breaths eased the tension rattling inside him a little more with every minute that ticked past. They’d have two days of comparative peace, and then—

  Then the bottom would fall out of the world as he knew it.

  No, that was unfair. There was nothing passive about the shakedown to come. He was kicking the bottom out with both feet and trusting there’d be somewhere to land. If not, a lot of people would get hurt. Small comfort that he’d be too dead to see it.

  Carmen stirred as he turned down the long gravel drive that led to his house. «You with me, honey?»

  «I’m here,» she whispered, her voice low and thick. «I’ll always be here.»

  His heart skipped a beat. «I know, darling. Hang on and I’ll get you into a bed.»

  «I’m all right.» She straightened and squinted against the sunlight slanting through the windshield. «It’s a beautiful day.»

  «Nice enough.» The grass on either side of the drive was starting to grow wild again. It’d be May before long, and if he didn’t see about having it cut, his house would look like it was parked in the middle of a savanna. «You wanna lay out in the sun instead?»

  «No. It’s only that I didn’t notice it until just now.»

  Hard to notice the weather when she’d been stuck inside a warehouse for the past eighteen hours. Alec eased the truck to a stop a few feet from his front porch and slid it into park. «If you can stand to eat before you pass out, I’ll find something in the fridge.»

  «I’m not hungry.» Her seat belt clicked as she released it, and she climbed out of the truck and stretched.

  The sun turned her caramel skin golden. Even in ugly green scrubs and a T-shirt, with her hair in a sloppy knot and shadows under her eyes, she was the most gorgeous thing on two legs. The smile felt awkward curving his lips, though God knew it shouldn’t by now. He’d been flashing it a lot since she’d wandered into his life.

  It was a short walk to the porch, but he picked her up anyway. «You scared a decade off of my life, and now you’re going to let me smother you for an hour. You owe me.»

  Her head fell back with a groan of protest, though she slid her arms around his neck. «Even if I didn’t mean to scare you?»

  «Life’s not fair. And neither am I.»

  She muffled a laugh against the side of his neck, though it quickly faded into a moan. «You may not be fair, but you smell good.»

  Having her lips nuzzled against his throat was asking for trouble. «Reach down and open the door for me, would you?»

  She slid her hand over the wood, feeling for the knob without raising her head, and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to his skin as she pushed open the door.

  He was hard before the damn thing hit the far wall, his dick straining against the zipper on his jeans. Walking was uncomfortable. Walking with Carmen licking him was fucking well impossible. «Carmen.»

  Her lips skated over his jaw. «Alec.»

  The brand-new door Andrew had installed shuddered as he kicked it shut with more force than strictly necessary. In the next second, he had Carmen up against it, her long legs snug around his hips. «Don’t think I’m not already fighting the urge to rip your damn clothes off and check every inch of you to make sure you’re in one piece. If you don’t cut it the hell out, I’ll do it.»

  She released him long enough to strip her T-shirt over her head, leaving her in a white cotton bra. Then she cupped his face between her hands and smiled. «I’m in one piece. And I love you.»

  I love you too. But the words didn’t come, because she’d shattered his control into pieces so fine they could blow away in the wind. He couldn’t remember putting her down, but he didn’t think he’d ever forget the triumph of tearing the scrub pants off her body, or the blind relief when he slid his hands down her thighs and calves and found smooth, unblemished skin.

  «I’m all right.» The murmured words didn’t penetrate so much as the feeling, the overwhelming sense of peace that matched her gentle smile. «I’m not hurt.»

  The laces on her sneakers tangled under his fingers, and he snapped them with a frustrated jerk. Shoes, socks, they landed in the foyer in a haphazard circle, though one sneaker bounced down the stairs to the basement. Part of his brain marked its thudding progress as proof that time had slowed, because it seemed to take forever to skim her panties down her legs, but the shoe had barely settled on the cement floor below when he rose and turned his attention to her bra.

  Simple. Gorgeous. Carmen. He fumbled with the fastening and bent the little metal hooks, but she didn’t notice. She tore at his shirt and gasped when he touched her bare skin, arching away from the door with a shudder.

  Gorgeous and his. A hand between her thighs proved it, and he pushed two fingers deep into the slick, gripping heat of her pussy. Wet and ready, eager, so hot for him that he moaned as he crushed his mouth to hers.

  She cried out against his lips, her nails sharp on his shoulders, and her hips bucked as pleasure welled through the foyer, a hot weight pressing in on his skin. Her gift, let free, and the boundaries between them blurred. No Alec and Carmen, just now and more.

  His hands found his belt. His fly. The zipper broke and he ripped the denim, but a second later his cock was in his hand. He thrust into her, driving deep as he lifted her against the door and snarled her name.

  Carmen bit her lower lip and shuddered again, her eyes glazed and unfocused. «I feel you. Everything.»

  No way he’d last through one of her jaw-clenching orgasms with empathy wrapped around him tighter than the slick grip of her body. «Feel it all, sweetheart.» He caught her hand and pinned it to the door next to her head, twining their fingers together as he ground deeper. «Feel every inch of me.»

  Her gaze sharpened as it met his, and the sheer adoration on her face thrilled every part of him. He clutched her thigh with his free hand and felt the bite of his fingers against her skin, felt the satisfaction she got from knowing he’d marked her. Intimacy beyond thought, beyond words or reason.

  So he fell into it. Fell into her with every rough thrust, and she rewarded him with little spikes of ecstasy that shivered up his spine and whispered encouragement. She welcomed him, into her body and her heart. Open. Joyous.

  His.

  He buried his face against her throat and bit her, just a tease, and Carmen sucked in a sharp breath. «Yes» Throbbing pleasure tightened around them both. She was close, so close to the peak that she began to beg, whispers that quickly rose in volume as she shook.

  Blood roared in his ears, pounding through him with the rhythm of their hearts. He thrust deeper, faster, chasing the perfect angle that would unravel that knot inside her and drive them both over.

  And then he found it. Her head banged against the door, and her low, keening cry reached his ears a split second before the sweet rush of her orgasm hit him.

  He came. Hard. Fast, out of control, riding her body’s spasms until he was spent and she was trembling. Her fingers combed through the damp hair at his temple, and every heaving breath pushed her chest closer to his.

  She spoke in a whisper. «I’m sorry I scared you.»

  For a second, he couldn’t remember what in hell she was talking about. «I’m just glad you’re okay. I need to keep you okay.»

  Her soft laugh tickled his cheek. «Take me to bed and hold me.»

  He could do that. He could do it damn near forever, which made the words easy. Right. «How about I take you to bed and love you?»

  Carmen held him tighter. «Even better.
»

  Carmen woke to darkness and a delicious ache in her muscles that flared and subsided as she stretched gingerly under the light sheet. Alec lay beside her, his features indistinguishable until her eyes adjusted to the scant moonlight filtering through the window.

  He stirred, his face still relaxed in sleep, and her heart thumped. Love. She leaned close and kissed him, her lips to the corner of his mouth, marveling at the tenderness that rose. He was strong, undeniably so, but he needed her as much as she needed him.

  He murmured something, a rasping rumble more noise than words, and rolled toward her. One arm fell heavily across her waist, and her conscience stung. How often during the last day had he insisted she catch whatever sleep she could manage? She should have done the same for him.

  She settled against him and stroked his bearded jaw, trying to soothe him back to sleep.

  «Won’t work,» he mumbled, but the corner of his mouth curved up. «But it feels good, so you can keep at it.»

  «I shouldn’t have woken you,» she whispered, «but I had to kiss you.»

  «Good reason.» His hand landed on her hip, fingers spread wide.

  Another muscle twinge made her groan. «Maybe we should have slept more and had less…sex.» Sex, without a condom in sight. «Oh.»

  «Oh?» He still sounded sleepy. Oblivious. «You want less sex next time?»

  She’d never been so mindless, so unthinking. «No,» she murmured, «but maybe more birth control.»

  His hand tightened so fast she sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed his wrist. He released her with a muttered curse, then rolled onto his back. «Well. That answers that.»

  Carmen rubbed her hip absently. «Answers what?»

  He reached over and covered her hand, his touch soft. Apologetic. «You’re exactly the second person I’ve forgotten a condom with, and the first wasn’t an empath. She could keep her head.» He turned his head and gave her a rueful smile. «We might have to acknowledge that this could happen. A lot. Making babies is pretty much the ultimate instinctive drive.»

  «Honestly? I’m surprised we lasted this long.» She kissed his shoulder with a soothing hum. «There’s a regimen I’ve been on before, and I don’t mind restarting it. It might be easier than trying to keep our heads.»