by Milly Taiden
She felt a painful piercing on her arm, which made her wince, followed by a burning sensation, and then the numbing of her arm. Oh god. She’d been injected with something. Whatever they’d given her worked quickly. Her muscles turned heavy, and her struggles sluggish. Weighed down by her unhelpful arms and legs, her efforts waned even when she tried to fight back. Her screams grew muffled, until they stopped altogether due to her oxygen-deprived lungs.
The arms, which she was sure belonged to a giant, hauled her up some steps and a massive body fell on a bed on top of her, pinning her down. The smell of male sweat, cigars, and whisky told her the person holding her down was a man. He wasn’t alone. While the man’s large body robbed her of the oxygen needed to stay alive, someone grabbed her feet. A coarse rope tangled around her legs until she couldn’t kick anymore. Her arms were jerked over her head and also bound in a painfully tight grip. Whatever was holding her arms down was cutting off the circulation in her wrists. She still couldn’t get enough air into her lungs with the man’s heavy body draped over her.
Every noise became enhanced. She heard the quiet whispers from one to the other. It took great effort to fight the drowsiness taking hold of her.
“That’s it.” The scratchy whisper sounded like a smoker that had a horribly dry throat.
“You’re sure.” The second voice wasn’t right. It sounded as if the person was trying to sound different on purpose.
“Yes. She can’t get out of these binds,” the scratchy voice whispered.
“OK. I’ll go set the fire and meet you in the car. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Shit. They were going to set the house on fire with her inside. She tugged at her arms to no avail. Every pull made her wince. Exhaustion dragged at her, and she blinked inside the covering. She shook her head from side to side until she was able to see light under the dark cloth. When the scent of smoke reached her, her blood turned to ice. Frantic, she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders until the cloth came off her head completely. She could now look around her room. Filling her lungs with air, she let out the loudest scream of her life, hoping someone would hear her.
Panic seized her when she saw flames licking at the doorframe to her bedroom. She was going to die. No! It was wrong. There had to be a way to get out. She tugged at her almost-numb legs and arms, but only chafed her wrists in the process. It took her a moment to realize she was screaming for Riel. Her mind had focused on him, seeking out the one man she knew would do anything to save her, as the room filled with smoke. With every scream she inhaled copious amounts of smoke. She coughed and breathed into her shoulder. Flames crawled into her room. Horror filled her as all the memories from her childhood were destroyed by the hungry blaze. Metal frames melted, photos turned to ash, and her lovely blue wood furniture all turned dark with the force of the fire eating its way through her room.
Smoke made her eyes water and her lungs burn. She couldn’t get air in. Every time she inhaled, her lungs screamed in agony, and she coughed in pain. The drug attempted to pull her to sleep and forget about breathing. White spots danced before her eyes, and her vision swam. The lack of oxygen made her lightheaded. A loud growl made her jerk her gaze to the door. A blurry Riel ran into the room, soaking wet. Determination lined his features, and concern was visible in his eyes. He moved up to her arms and beat at the wood until the rope came loose. She was still bound and trying to get air in. He picked her up and held her in his arms. The last thing she knew was her body flying through the air before darkness consumed her.
Chapter Seven
Riel dropped Sam’s limp body out of the window into Troy’s waiting arms. As soon as he caught her, Riel jumped, landing in a crouch. There had been no way he could have gone back out the door. The house was being consumed by the blazing inferno. He immediately ran over to Sam. They set her on the ground, and he felt for a pulse. She wasn’t breathing. He started CPR, tilting her head back and blowing air into her lungs. Nothing. His entire life narrowed down to getting her to breathe. If he didn’t achieve that, nothing else mattered.
“Breathe, baby.” He pumped her chest and blew into her lungs. “Please, Sam,” he begged and blew into her lungs again. He listened for her to take a breath and repeated the action.
Natalia’s soft cries, along with the crackling of the fire devouring the house, filled the air with rigid tension.
“Breathe, Sam. Breathe. I love you, sweetheart. Please breathe. Please.” He continued to blow and pump her chest without a response. Minute after minute passed without a response from Sam. He growled and roared at the injustice of it all. He’d just gotten her back. How could life be so cruel? He blew into her lungs again.
She coughed, and he almost collapsed in relief. Her pulse was weak, but he heard the faint wheezing of her body trying to get oxygen into her lungs.
Moments later an ambulance, the fire department, Kane, and Zeno arrived. Paramedics rushed over to Sam and placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. His gaze never strayed from Sam’s limp body. The two men placed her on a gurney and lifted her into the ambulance.
“To our clinic,” he instructed the shifter paramedics.
“Yes, sir.” They carefully lifted the gurney into the back of the ambulance.
He turned to find Kane and Zeno speaking to a fire department connection, while Troy held Nat. The couple quickly rushed forward.
Riel was not wasting time. “I’m going to the clinic with them.”
Nat’s nodded, tears streaming down her face. “We’ll follow behind you.”
Raven was waiting for them at the entrance when they arrived.
Sam was rushed to the intensive care unit for severe smoke inhalation. She was hooked up to a heart monitor and an oxygen tank. His gut clenched when he heard her cough, a dry, painful sound that broke his heart.
Raven patted his arm. “She’ll be fine. I understand you gave her CPR and breathed air into her lungs?”
Riel shook his head. If only she knew. “I did.”
Raven smiled sadly. “I understand. We’ll take good care of her. Why don’t you wait outside while we monitor her, and once we’re done you can come sit by her.”
The thought of leaving her made his heart hurt, but he knew they had a job to do. He stared at Raven in the eyes. “I’ll be outside. Call me if anything changes.”
Troy and Nat sat in the waiting room along with Kane and Zeno. Minutes later Sophia and Chase showed up. Sophia threw herself into Riel’s arms in one of her sisterly displays of love.
“I’m so sorry. Is she OK?” Her concern was palpable, and Riel appreciated her for it. Chase gave him a brotherly hug and curled an arm around Sophia’s waist.
Riel swallowed against the sand dunes residing in his throat. “She will be. She’d stopped breathing, but I gave her CPR and she’s holding strong.”
Chase nodded and squeezed Sophia into his side. “What happened?”
Natalia sniffed through her tears. “I can tell you.” She stepped forward. “More or less.”
Everyone turned to her, and Riel wondered how the hell he’d left Sam for what must have been just a few moments only to come back and find her tied up inside a burning house.
“When Ry dropped her off I told her I needed the copy of my birth certificate she has always held for me. She said she needed to get something at her house anyway. She walked out saying she would be right back. She went to the house and came back with a small trunk. When we realized she’d forgotten my document, she ran back. After I made her sandwich, I noticed she didn’t come back as quickly as the first time. I ran out only to find the house engulfed in flames. I called Troy, and when I was talking to him Ry showed up.”
Riel picked it up from there. “The house is gone. I was lucky to get her out in time.” Agony lanced his chest when he thought of what could’ve happened had he not gone back. Something had nagged at him to return, and so he’d turned around before reaching Kane.
“We still don’t know who’s tryi
ng to hurt her?” Chase glanced from Riel to the other enforcers.
“No.” Kane said. “There are a lot of shady family members to go through. Our main suspects are Juan Junior and Kurt Danitelli, but Junior’s been missing in action for a few days, which makes it harder, and we’re still getting information about Danitelli,”.
Riel finally realized that’s what Kane had wanted to see him about. Just because Juan Junior was missing didn’t mean he wasn’t behind what was happening to Sam. As for Danitelli, there were mob ties, and he needed to know how badly he might want Sam dead.
“We’ll call in others to help look into her family,” Chase said to Riel.
He nodded at Chase.
Riel turned to face Raven.
She squeezed his bicep. “She’s doing well. She was drugged, so it makes it even more important that we keep her under close observation until she’s awake and conscious.”
“What do you mean she was drugged?” Riel roared.
Chase gripped his shoulder in an attempt to get him to calm down.
Raven nodded, unperturbed by Riel’s outburst, and pursed her lips. “I’m running blood tests to figure out exactly what she was given, but preliminary tests show she was given a heavy dose of muscle relaxers. Had the dosage been any stronger, we could have been facing some serious problems. It was only enough to put her to sleep. She won’t be awake probably until tomorrow, if not the day after.”
An overwhelming rage consumed Riel from the inside.
“You can go see her now, but keep it brief. She’s not going to wake up. It’s still helpful for patients to hear their loved ones when they’re asleep, so go ahead and speak to her,” Raven walked toward a nurse waiting for her.
Riel turned to Nat. “Come on.”
He knew she felt guilty, and he wanted to help appease her concern. None of what happened was Natalia’s fault, and she shouldn’t carry that type of burden.
As they walked into the room his gaze wandered over Sam’s pale face. Thin plastic tubes had been placed inside her nose and mouth. The long, dark curls of her hair had been pushed back from her face, and a blue hospital gown replaced her clothing. Loud wheezing sounds came from her chest. It bothered him that her throat was so raw and she still had such a hard time breathing, but he was glad to see her chest move up and down with every breath. Bandages covered her wrists. When she was brought to the hospital her hands and wrists had been bleeding from the rope she’d been tied with.
Nat strode to the bed and grab Sam’s bandaged hand. She spoke quietly in a wobbly voice. “I’m so sorry, Sam. If I hadn’t—”
“This isn’t your fault.” He told her. “No one could have known that this would happen. I’m sure Sam wouldn’t want you to feel guilty.”
Nat nodded and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. She bent, kissed Sam’s forehead, and then turned to Riel. “Sam’s really special. Please, please love her with all you’ve got, because that’s how she loves you. She needs happiness in her life.” Natalia walked toward the door and stopped. “I’m not sure if Sam understand what a mate means to your kind, but she knows what love means to her. And it means everything.”
Riel stood there in silence listening to the sounds of the machines beep. Emotions ran rampant inside him for his mate. Anger, fear, love, and pain all mingled to make a cocktail of frustration he’d never felt before. He walked toward her and sat by the bed. Frustration he’d never felt before filled him.
For those endless moments when she’d stopped breathing, his heart had ceased to beat. Even if she wasn’t his mate he’d still want her. She’d captured his heart the first moment he’d seen her. His mate was not going to be hurt again. And he wasn’t letting her go.
* * *
When she opened her eyes, the first thing Sam noticed was the darkness. She was in a hospital room. And Riel was sleeping on a chair beside her bed. She grinned. His head lolled forward in repose. The slight beard growth and messy brown hair made him look so sexy. A white T-shirt did a poor job at concealing his bulging muscles beneath. Memories of how she ended up in the hospital assailed her brain. He’d saved her, again. If she didn’t already love him, she surely would now. The man had gone into a burning house to get her out.
She tested her voice. “Ry.” The low croak was barely audible, but his head shot up.
He moved forward and caressed her cheek with one hand. “Don’t talk. Raven said you’re throat is going to hurt for a while. Let me get you some ice.” He moved toward a table and filled a plastic cup with ice chips.
Trying to make herself comfortable, she turned her head to the side rail and searched for a button to lift the bed to a sitting position. Once she was finally sitting up, she smiled. He sat on the edge of the bed and passed her the cup.
The cool comfort of the ice chips going down her throat rivaled the pleasure from eating the best ice cream in the world.
Several chips later she tried her voice again. “Thank you.” No longer a weird trucker hack, her voice had the low, husky tone found in phone-sex operators. She grinned, cleared her throat, and tried again. “Testing, testing. If you’d like for me to strip, press one now.” When Riel’s brows lifted, she laughed and then coughed. Crap, she should’ve known her lungs were still not ready for comedy hour.
He quirked his lips, but his frown was all concern. “How do you feel?”
“Better than I did the last time I saw you. The house?” Hopeful that something was salvaged, she bit her lip and waited.
He gave a sad shake of his head. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s all gone.”
All of Ginny’s memories evaporated because someone wanted to be rid of Sam. The only thing left was that trunk she’d taken to Riel’s home. Ginny’s home was the only place she’d ever really belonged to.
Tears gathered in her eyes, and she blinked back the need to cry. Not only had she lost Ginny, but she’d lost a lifetime of memories with the only relative who had ever cared for her.
“It’s OK. I know there was nothing you could do. Hell, you got me out alive. Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. The spiky hairs of his beard growth pinched at her skin when he sniffed her. He fluttered soft kisses over her neck and shoulder. Having his nose by her throat brought a measure of comfort she hadn’t expected.
His soft rumble vibrated by her ear. “You don’t need to thank me. I would never let anything happen to you. You’re mine.” And she was in full agreement. She was his, and he was hers.
* * *
When she finally returned to Riel’s house, the first thing she did was shower. After five long days in the hospital, she carried the grime of the world on her skin.
Her amazing man had gotten Nat to buy her new clothes. They were situated in his closet waiting for her. Everything she needed of a personal nature sat by his toiletries in his bedroom.
Remembering Sophia’s words about Riel wanting their mating to be Sam’s choice, she decided not to wait any longer. She’d almost died twice, and the reality was that anything could happen. There were no guarantees in life. Why stop from acknowledging how she felt because it was kind of soon? Who said there was a right time to tell someone you loved them? All she knew was that she wasn’t going to go another day without him knowing the extent of her feelings. She was in love with him, and there was no way she’d live the rest of her life without him knowing. Aside from her feelings, her body and hormones were wreaking havoc with her mental stability. She was still horny as hell, and her body craved him in the worst way.
She put on her new robe and waited for him to return to the bedroom. The soft, silky material reminded her of all the clothes she’d lost. Her entire collection of sexy lingerie had gone up in flames. She’d just have to start a new one. Excitement dashed through her when she thought of buying new sexy lingerie and modeling it for Ry. Tying her hair up in a knot, she paced the bedroom. Footsteps sounded down the hallway and headed her way, sending a rush of excitement through her.
>
Riel walked through the door with a tray. He’d cooked for her again. Could the man be any more perfect? Their gazes met and held. Lust flared bright in his eyes, spiking her temperature and making her heart flip.
While he placed the tray on the dresser, she tried to think of the best way to proceed. After debating for a moment, she decided honesty was her best course of action.
His nostrils flared, and he sniffed. She grinned. The color of his eyes turned into liquid gold. He knew she was aroused. Evidence her need dripped down her thighs. The fire that made her pussy clench and moisten, had given off her needy state.
Fascinated, her stomach flipped when his facial muscles tightened and his jaw clenched. With a leisurely stroll, she made her way toward him.
“Sam…”
She opened the tie around her waist that was holding her robe closed. The robe slipped down her body with a quiet swoosh and landed on the wood floor in a puddle of silky material. Her nipples pebbled into tight points, and another wave of moisture dripped from her pussy.
She draped her hands on the hard muscles of his stomach. Each of the tiny squares in his abs beckoned for her to lick at the tight skin. She smiled at his soft growl.
“I love you.” Saying the words wasn’t as hard as she thought.
His eyes widened. “Are you sure?” He gave her a silly grin. “You don’t need to profess love for me just because I’m amazing in bed,” he joked.
