“Alicia…”
“Ye’ll ne’er guess wit the fuck ah foon oot Commander!”
Shuggie threw the door open and then stood as though transfixed. “Ah, right - ah kin come back,” he said still staring at Xavier and Alicia as the tiger cub bolted for him, obviously looking for a safe haven from the action that was about to go down in the room.
Picking it up and placing it on the bed, Shuggie kept staring, even although he had offered to leave.
“Fuck.”
Never had his best friend’s timing been more fucking shit than now. Standing with his back to him Xavier said, “Never heard of knocking, Lieutenant?”
Reluctantly pulling away from Alicia as he lingered momentarily at her lips, before turning and giving Shuggie a death glare. “This better be fucking worth it, yeah?”
Alicia ducked from under Xavier’s arm and without looking at either men she said nothing and made a very swift exit from the room, racing through the corridors and down the stairwells of the derelict hotel until she was outside and away from any steel that would have stopped her from flashing to Italy. Her pulse was going faster than ever as she made her way into the boutique, his lips repeating over and over in her head as she placed her order.
Curling his fist into a ball, Xavier struck out and connected with Shuggie’s nose, hearing it crunch and flatten against his face.
“That is how you fucking knock, yeah?”
Shuggie laughed and wiped the back of his hand across his bloodied nose.
“Interrupting ye, aye? Ye were looking awfy cosy there, Xavier,” he said dodging to the left as another punch was headed his way. “Dinnae use up aw yer energy oan me, Commander, we dinnae want ye spent afore yer next encounter with the youngling.” Laughing louder as he took a seat. “Cool yer jets big man, ah’m only teasing.”
Xavier slammed the door of the bathroom behind him as he looked down at his pants, cursed, and turned on the faucet to throw some cold water on his face. He shouted through the door, “Cock blocking fucking Scottish bastard!”
Shuggie’s perma-grin was evident as Xavier walked out, scowling at him.
“Nae need fur name callin, Xavier. Ah’m sure yer animal magnetism will seduce the youngling again.”As Xavier folded his arms across his chest and looked down at him, he decided that he could save his smartarse comments for another time, the Commander was definitely not amused. “Anyway, ah huv some news that may interest ye, an take yer mind aff other pressing matters.” Giving a pointed look downwards, before raising his eyes to meet with Xavier’s.
“Fuck off, Highlander,” growling, Xavier’s patience was growing thin. “Well, spit it out”
“Bet ye wouldnae say that tae the youngling, eh?” Unable to stop himself, Shuggie dissolved into gales of laughter until the back of his head was slapped so hard, he was sure there were tweety birds flying round his head.
Xavier took forty-five seconds to cross the room, drag the back of Shuggie’s chair out to the corridor and slam the door shut in his face.
“Get back to fucking work, Highlander.”
Shuggie, sat looking at the door, before bursting out laughing again.
Standing he gave a one fingered salute then headed down to the comms room singing “French Kissing in the USA”.
Chapter Fifty Five
The tiger cub stared at Xavier.
Xavier stared back at it.
A long awkward silence followed, with Xavier’s wolf salivating at the thought of fresh meat. The tiger cub could sense that there was danger but couldn’t locate it, and as Alicia had abandoned him, he was paralysed with fear.
“What the fuck am I meant to do with you? And if you piss or shit on my bed I swear I’ll make you into a rug, understand?” Xavier smirked as he suppressed the wolf and picked up the small bundle of fur, scratching him behind his ears as the cub started to nuzzle him. “She’s going to be the death of me, yeah.” The mewling from the cub seemed to agree with him. “But what a way to go!”
As he sat on the bed, he couldn’t believe how close he had come to fucking things up.
What the hell was he thinking — about to kiss the vampire who resented him.
Xavier stood up, letting the cub chew on his finger playfully as he walked out his room, kicking Shuggie’s chair out of the way. Rapping his knuckles on the door to Alicia’s bedroom, he waited for an answer that never came.
Opening the door, he discovered the room was empty.
“Fucking hell, she’s done it again, hasn’t she?”
He placed the cub down in the adapted playpen. “Well, why don’t I just provide a welcoming committee for her when she gets back,” he said, crossing his arms behind his head as he lay down on her bed, resisting the urge to get naked under her sheets.
****
Leaning back in his seat, feet on the desk, Shuggie’s laugh could be heard for miles as he recounted what he had witnessed between Xavier and Alicia to Teo.
The Doc was giggling and demanding all details, which Shuggie was more than happy to embellish.
Phoning Teo had been Shuggie’s first action when he was unceremoniously thrown out of Xavier’s room. He could listen to her sweet Spanish lilt endlessly and when he closed his eyes he could see her in his mind’s eye, as though he was there in the room beside her.
As her laughter died down, she turned the conversation back to business, but Shuggie would have been happy reading the telephone directory to her just for a few more precious minutes of contact with her. She knew that he had something terrible on his mind. She seemed to be able to read his mood even when he was trying to mask it.
That was one of the things he most admired about her.
That, and her analytical mind.
She could always help him work out problems and find solutions that no one else seemed to think of. The problem was this time that he couldn’t tell her what was on his mind, he had to inform the Commander first, besides the information he had was not appropriate for a lady.
Hanging up the call, he sat listening to the dialling tone for a few minutes, before putting the receiver back down. Back to business. Enough time had passed already, and things were moving fast. He needed to track down ‘Mr. Loverman’ and give him the details of the Belcastro surveillance, because if Xavier reacted the way Shuggie anticipated, battle lines would be drawn before he could spit.
****
Alicia said her farewells to her parents and brother as she rose to her feet and walked out of the graveyard. She had lost track of time and her cell phone stated four hours had lapsed. Clutching the bag filled that was the purpose of the visit to Italy, she flashed back to the compound Xavier and Shuggie called home.
A squalor was a more correct description!
It was nightfall which meant Shuggie would be able to move about more freely, the light coming from the middle floor which housed the office he used indicated he was around. Moving her head to the left, his bedroom light was off.
“Thank the gods, I don’t need to face him tonight!”
Alicia took her time walking into the base and up to her room where she padded over to her bed. Unlacing her boots and wriggling out of her pants she slipped into the covers…letting out a blood curdling scream as she turned and was hit with a brick wall…a breathing wall!
“What the fuck are you doing in my bed you prick?”
Grinning a response, Xavier curled his arm around Alicia’s waist and pulled her on top of him.
“I was spending some alone time with your pussy.” When she stilled he added, “The tiger cub…swear to fuck, female you have a dirty mind!” Looking up at her, he winked.
“You are gross!” Alicia wriggled out of Xavier’s hold and willed the lights to room on, seeing Frazzle in his pen.
“Don’t be like that, Sweetcheeks, I’ve been stroking your pussy all night. Surely that deserves some kind of reward?”
Sitting up, he got a good look at her in the shorts and t-shirt, wishing that the material was just
a little tighter, a little thinner. His wolf wasn’t the only thing rising right now, and he hoped that Alicia didn’t notice.
Forgetting that she was half naked and now standing at the side of her bed occupied by Xavier, the furious Alicia glared down at him.
“Get out my fucking bed now! You want pussy to play with go see your ‘jaguar’. Now if you’ll excuse me, I'm tired and want to rest.”
“You know, using the words bed and fucking in the same sentence lead a male to think a certain way, Sweetcheeks.” Laughing as he swung his long legs over the side of Alicia’s bed, Xavier held his hand out. “Look, I’ve come to play nice, yeah? You won fair and square, got one over on me, so as I’m a good loser. Congratulations.”
As Alicia reached over to shake his offered hand, Xavier brought his other hand around, and clicked the steel handcuff around her wrist, the other bracelet around his own wrist.
“Gotcha.”
Smirking, he stood up. “As punishment for fucking off without permission, you, Sweetcheeks, will be spending twenty four hours in my delightful company. No, no, don’t thank me, it’s my pleasure!”
Chapter Fifty Six
The first three hours consisted of a tug of war between Xavier and Alicia, with her kicking him like a mule and protesting against his ‘punishment’ by using the fact that she had a ‘lolly emergency’ and therefore just had to leave the protection of the compound.
Adding that nothing untoward had happened to her thus far, so what was the problem exactly?
All of this fell on deaf ears as Xavier dragged her behind him around the base. He deliberately decided to do a grand tour of the dilapidated hotel from almost roof to basement. In fact, the more dusty, dirty and dangerous the terrain underfoot, the better. Whistling to drown out the incessant curses from Alicia, Xavier was quite enjoying his day, and wondered why the fuck he hadn’t thought of doing this before.
“Hup two, three, four!” Smirking as the orders were barked out, he turned around to see Alicia stiff as a board, digging her heels into the ground as though she was water skiing behind him.
“You really do hold onto a grudge, Sweetcheeks, yeah? There’s no point in fighting it, you’ve got another twenty two hours and fifteen minutes of this shit left.”
“A grudge? A fucking goddamn grudge? Oh I’ll tell you what I have solider boy...a wish to kill you!”
Alicia rattled her wrist against that of her captor. She was fuming as she was being dragged around like a rag doll and he was laughing and having a merry old time to himself.
“I'll get you back for this you fucking prick! Enough is enough, let me fucking go!” All the while Alicia was imagining the ways that her gun was going to shoved in his various orifices.
“Have you ever considered anger management, Sweetcheeks?”
Yanking his arm sharply, slamming Alicia into him like a freight train. Leaning down to go nose to nose with her. “You seem to be forgetting that you are being punished for doing wrong, Alicia. I’m your bodyguard and I can’t fucking do that if you decide to disappear without any notice. So suck it up, deal with it - you’ve earned this.” Resuming his whistling as he started to walk on, he could feel her eyes staring into the back of his head.
Standing outside his bathroom, Xavier put his hand on the handle and turned to Alicia, grinning. “Guess you will need to accompany me. If you’re real nice, I might let you hold it for me, yeah?” Barking a laugh at Alicia’s horrified expression he stopped teasing her for a second.
“Meant to say, Alicia, Shuggie told me something very interesting earlier. Tell me, have you checked my offshore bank accounts recently?”
Her face went ashen as the realisation dawned on her that she had been busted, big time.
Xavier took her mute response as an invitation to continue.
“You see, someone…” giving her a knowing look, “wiped some of my accounts, stealing all of my money. Shocker, yeah? But get this…I had blamed Belcastro as being behind such duplicitous deceit. Oh I had his cards marked for that — it was actually a contributing factor for my ending our agreement — did you know that? No?”
Alicia stood shifting from foot to foot, wishing a great big hole would open up and swallow her right now
“Why would you have known any of this...silly me? Oh, no…wait a goddamn fucking minute…you would be the exact person to have known this because, Alicia...” He leaned down to face her. “...Sweetcheeks...” And he was enjoying his victory. “...It was you who stole from me, wasn't it?”
“Well…ahhh…oops?” Alicia gave an award winning smile. “Surprise!” Alicia knew she was well and truly caught and there was no way to worm herself out of this one. “No Com-Man-Derr I did not steal from you, I simply went out to teach you a lesson and all your money you will find is accounted for, so chillax the fuck out.”
Opening the door to the bathroom, he thrust his hips in her direction saying, “Unzip me, I need a piss, and you need a lesson in humility, Sweetcheeks.” Although he had absolutely no intentions of letting her thieving little hands near his Xav Jr, she didn’t know that, and by the expression on her face, he reckoned she was about to faint by the way her pulse was racing as he held her handcuffed wrist.
Taking pity on her, because for all his enjoyment of her awkwardness his wolf would not tolerate any harm even in jest befalling his female.
“Calm your tits, Sweetcheeks, like I’d let you anywhere near my fucking impressive cock. You'd likely rip it off and sell it on eBay as a draft excluder.” Giving a hearty laugh, Xavier dragged Alicia away from the bathroom before she cringed any further.
“Just take me home! I need to get underwear unless you want me walking around knowing I’m panty-less!” Alicia let out a sigh as she dragged her feet behind him.
His wolfs ears perked up.
“Works for me, Sweetcheeks.” And by fuck did that image work for him. So much so that he nearly head-butted a wall because he was too busy thinking about that particular visual.
“You are such a perv!” Alicia burst out laughing as the suddenly stilled, peering around his waist to be faced with a wall. “Something distract you there Commander? Now please un-cuff me and let me get fucking home!”
“You say perv, like it’s a bad thing.” Shrugging a shoulder, he turned to face her. “Tell you what - you ask real nice, and I might consider letting you go home for an hour, escorted. But only if you ask …” elongating the word, “...real...” he patted the top of her head with the hand that was attached to the handcuffs, making Alicia pat her own head at the same time, “...nice, Sweetcheeks.”
Alicia knew she was walking a tight line here, one false statement and he would make her suffer for hours upon hours.
“Please Commander Raige, I would rather like to visit my place of dwellings for you see us ladies tend to suffer from...shall we say women issues? And I would really like to gather some of my belongings.”
Alicia internally smirked as she felt Xavier shudder.
“I’d say it was males that suffered from women’s issues!” Barking a laugh he added, “And where the fuck did the hoity toity lady shit come from?” He flicked his fingers on the tip of her nose. “And since when did female vamps get cramps?” Although this was more amusement than he’d had since fuck knows when, he was feeling charitable. “One hour, with me - your place, no arguments.”
Giving her a warning look before taking the key out and unlocking the handcuffs.
“Agreed?”
Rubbing her wrist from where the cuff had been against her skin Alicia waggled her finger at Xavier smiling as he dipped his head, her lips brushed over his cheek as she whispered, “I was raised to be polite Commander.”
Alicia could have sworn she felt a bolt of static hit her hand as she took Xavier strong on in hers and without warning flashed them to her London apartment.
“Make yourself at home, I’ll go grab my stuff.”
Watching her ass sway like a pendulum as Alicia walked away, Xavier whistl
ed through his teeth, then started having a look around her home. It was nothing like he had expected. Most vampires that he had met went in for the nouveau gothic monstrosity shit — candles, black walls and novelty coffin coffee tables. Or, like Shuggie, so minimalist that he didn’t seem to actually fucking own anything.
Alicia’s home though was different.
Feminine, full of life and tasteful. Xavier walked through to the kitchen, impressed at the way it was immaculate.
He surmised that she must be an accomplished chef, and took pride in her workplace. The surfaces were so clean, he could have eaten his dinner off of them. The fridge was empty, but seeing as vamps didn’t need to eat to survive, that wasn’t very surprising. Still, he was famished and it wouldn’t have hurt for her to have had something in there for him to munch on while he waited for her.
Turning, he could hear a heavy noise, as though a body was being dragged across the floor, but just as he was about to go and investigate he heard Alicia cursing after tripping over something. Fuck, even when she was pissy, she was damn adorable. Telling his wolf to shut the fuck up, Xavier shook his head and was about to leave the kitchen when he noticed a door obscured by a cabinet. Curiosity getting the better of him, he reached over and tried the handle.
The door was locked.
Looking around for a key, he couldn’t see one, and as Alicia was busy amusing herself with a self-made demolition derby, Xavier decided to jimmy the lock and go investigate what was so secretive that she had to lock this door in particular.
Taking care not to make any noise, the door opened slowly, and Xavier flicked the light switch. Dust mites fell like a veil before him as he made his way down the wooden stairs. The basement was dark, and there was a faint smell of musk in the air. At the foot of the stairs, Xavier stared, blinked, and stared again.
The Heist Page 18
