by Faith Gibson
“Good. Let’s go.”
Tessa had dressed in her normal attire, looking every bit the biker chick she was. She’d even checked on renting a bike in case she needed to get closer to the Hounds for any reason. Tamian had argued about his sister infiltrating a motorcycle club, but once she’d put Gregor on speaker and he’d given his blessing, Tamian just shook his head. He didn’t completely understand their dynamic. Gregor was completely protective of Tessa, but when she put her mind to something, he never tried to persuade her to back off. The male had her back, even from hundreds of miles away.
After dropping Tamian off close to Harlow’s neighborhood, she drove to the opposite side of the lake where she would wait on him. Tamian strode with purpose until he got three houses down from his mate’s estate. As he got closer, he slowed his steps and put his plan into motion and began calling out for a puppy that belonged to the child from the park.
“Stormy! Where are you, girl?” Tamian pretended to look for the wayward dog, calling out every so often until he got to Harlow’s gate. “Stormy! Here, girl!” Tamian continued moving down the sidewalk, back and forth in front of the tall hedges separating the estate from the road, making sure to step in the path of the cameras. “Stormy.” Tamian whistled a few times for good measure. He fully expected the biker to come see what was going on, considering it looked like he was there to protect Harlow. His stomach clenched, and he knew before he saw her Harlow was the one coming to see what was going on.
“Excuse me?” she called out.
As Tamian jogged back toward the gate, he reached out, trying to gain access to Harlow’s mind. Instead of getting her thoughts, he was bombarded with loud cursing coming from the biker who was standing at the gate with Harlow.
“Hi,” Tamian panted as if he were out of breath. It wasn’t a stretch considering Harlow was a few feet away looking splendid in the morning sun. Once again, her hair was in a messy knot atop her head, and she was wearing cropped yoga pants and a T-shirt which left nothing to the imagination. She had on no makeup he could detect, but she didn’t need it. Realizing he was staring, he cleared his throat.
“Did you happen to see a puppy? She came this way, and if I don’t get her back, my daughter’s going to be devastated.” Tamian closed his mind off to the man’s thoughts and tried to get something from his mate other than the pull. Standing less than five feet from her, he had no doubt she was his. It was all he could do to keep from phasing and going over the gate, grabbing her, and flying off, biker be damned.
Her smile faltered at the mention of his daughter. Or maybe she just didn’t believe him. He opened his phone, tapped the photos, and held it up for her to see a picture of the real Stormy. “She’s little, but the bugger’s fast.”
“Why wasn’t she on a leash?” Harlow asked, looking from the picture to his face, her head cocked to one side as she intently studied him.
“Amelia – that’s my daughter – was trying to put the leash on the puppy when she took off. I apologize for disturbing you, it’s just... have you seen her? I really need to find her.”
The biker stood taller, crossing his arms over his chest. If Tamian was a human, he would be intimidated, so he pretended to be leery of the huge male. Harlow didn’t miss the way Tamian took a step back, and she placed a hand on the male’s arm and whispered, “It’s okay, Monk. I have a good feeling about the man.” Monk narrowed his eyes at Tamian but still didn’t say anything as he walked over to a small gatehouse and pushed the button to open the gate.
“Please, come inside,” Harlow offered. Tamian didn’t want to get too close for fear of passing out, but this was the reason he was looking for a nonexistent dog, to get close to her. He’d just hoped to do it without an audience. Tamian reached out with his senses while the man was preoccupied. His thoughts were loud inside his head, and Tamian came close to chastising him for even thinking Harlow was being foolish. He also sensed something within Monk that wasn’t human. Not knowing what he would be up against, Tamian didn’t attempt to control Monk in case he had his own abilities. Tamian had to play this one safe and let things happen naturally.
Lucy’s sleep had been fractured with dreams, alternating between meeting Tamian in the trees where he unfurled his massive wings and took her for a midnight flight across the sky and being chased by an unknown creature through the streets of New York. After waking up the third time, she climbed out of bed and made her way downstairs for some tea. It wasn’t often she indulged in Vera’s favorite drink, but Lucy found it soothing in the early morning hours.
Monk silently made breakfast without Lucy asking him to, and instead of eating at the table with her, he stood by the stove and shoveled his food in before cleaning the dishes. An alarm sounded, and they both headed toward the office where the camera monitors were housed. A man was walking back and forth in front of the gate. “I’ll go see what he wants,” Lucy said, but Monk placed a heavy hand on her arm and shook his head. Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “Are you going to ask him what he needs?” Monk shook his head again, and Lucy sighed. “Well then, I’m going with you. You can’t just go around intimidating the neighbors by glaring at them.”
As she and Monk stepped outside, the man whistled then called out, “Here, Stormy.” Lucy did a double-take when she got a good look at the man. There was no way he was the actor he resembled, but the likeness was uncanny. She’d never seen him before, so she didn’t think he was a neighbor, but then again, Lucy was rarely home, and someone new could have moved into the area. As they closed in on the gate, Lucy’s stomach clenched. She didn’t think it was from breakfast. No, this reminded her of the same feeling she had whenever she was around Tamian St. Claire. He had the same build, but the man looking for an animal was not Tamian. So why did she feel the pull?
“Hi,” the man said, panting. “Did you happen to see a puppy? She came this way, and if I don’t get her back, my daughter’s going to be devastated.” Definitely not the actor. His voice wasn’t raspy enough.
Lucy couldn’t help the disappointment from hearing the man was a father. But why? Why would that affect her in any way? Was she so hard up for a man’s affection she was going to start hitting on strangers at her gate? While he fiddled with his phone, she watched him. There was something vaguely familiar about his mannerisms, but when she studied his face, she knew she’d never seen him before. Part of her job was to pay attention to those around her. Be aware of anyone she came in contact with. She had never seen this man before, even though...
After convincing Monk to open the gate, the stranger stepped closer, though he did keep his distance. “Let’s split up. Monk, you go that way, and Mr. ...?” Lucy looked at the stranger, waiting for his name.
“Oh, uh, John. John Black.” John held his hand out for Lucy to shake, but she was stunned at his name. John Black was the fictional husband of Marlena Evans, one of her aliases. Surely it had to be coincidence. She placed her hand in his, and when their skin made contact, she felt an inexplicable urge to never let go.
“Lucy Ball. Nice to meet you.”
John narrowed his eyes at her introduction, but he quickly turned his frown into a brilliant smile. “The pleasure is surely mine.”
With a blush, Lucy released his hand and told Monk, “Mr. Black and I will go this way, if you want to check around the other side.”
Monk glared at Lucy in a silent warning, but she ignored him. He ignored her as well when, instead of retreating to the opposite side of the property, Monk followed behind Lucy and Mr. Black. It was just as well. Lucy had no room in her life for a man, much less one with a daughter. If he had a daughter, there was more than likely a Mrs. Black in the picture, and that most certainly was something Lucy wouldn’t get involved with. As they walked, the both called out for the puppy, and Lucy caught John sneaking glances her way.
After half an hour of walking the grounds and arriving back at the gate, it was apparent they weren’t going to locate the wayward dog. John’s shoulders slumped,
and he said, “I’m sorry to have wasted your morning.” He pulled a piece of folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Lucy, holding onto her fingers longer than was appropriate. “If you happen to see her, please give me a call.”
“It was no problem. I needed the exercise,” Lucy responded softly. She didn’t want to let go. Lucy wanted to hold on even tighter and take the man into her home and get to know him. What the hell was wrong with her? Monk was still lingering, but not as close. John walked through the gate, and as it closed behind him, he winked at Lucy before striding off down the sidewalk. When she unfolded the paper, a phone number had been scribbled above a note. When she glanced at the words, it took her a second to realize what he’d written.
Maybe I’ll have better luck next time
Tamian. Lucy sputtered, racing to get the gate open again so she could chase after him. She should have gone over the fence, because by the time she had the gate reopened, he had vanished.
Chapter Eight
“Lucy. Lucy Ball. Lucy.” The whole time Tamian was walking back to where Tessa was picking him up, he said his mate’s name aloud. She introduced herself as Lucy, and he had no reason to doubt it was how she referred to herself on a daily basis. While he still preferred Harlow, he mentally tried to reconcile the new name with the woman he’d met.
“What are you muttering about?” Tessa asked as he slid into the passenger seat.
“Her name’s Lucy Ball.”
“Lucy Ball? Are you kidding me?” Tessa barked out a laugh as she pulled away from the curb.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Lucy Ball. Lucille Ball? The red-headed comedienne from the mid-nineteen hundreds? ‘I Love Lucy’?”
When Tamian just stared at his sister, she shook her head. “I forget you aren’t the classic television type. I’ll educate you when we get back to the hotel. But aside from her name, I don’t have to ask if you got anything else from your little meeting. You have the same look on your face I did after being close to
Gregor the first time. Granted, I went home, curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor, and transitioned after we met, but since you’ve already been through that, I can imagine you’re feeling like you want to kidnap her and run away. Right?”
“Something like that.” Tamian wasn’t about to discuss what he really wanted to do with Lucy. He shut off access to his thoughts so there was no way Tessa could accidently, or otherwise, hear how he wanted to shred Lucy’s clothes from her body and fuck her into next week. In all his years, Tamian had never felt the urge to take a female in such a carnal way. Yeah, he’d taken a couple of women to bed, but without a mate, sex was just an act to assuage a baser need, not the need to claim someone as his. Mark her so the world knew she was no longer available. If Monk hadn’t been there, Tamian would have probably done just that. He had no doubt he was stronger than the biker, even if he was a shifter.
That was another thing; Tamian recognized the beast in the other male. It didn’t feel like a Gargoyle’s energy, but something had been there. Something animalistic. The male hadn’t bothered shutting off his emotions or his thoughts, and it had both thrilled Tamian and pissed him off knowing the man felt protective of Lucy. His thoughts were less than pure when he imagined protecting Lucy from “John.” But Tamian wanted to bide his time until he could get Lucy alone. He wanted to get to know his mate. Wanted to show her who he was and give her the chance to choose him as a mate.
Her thoughts had been completely cut off, but he had been able to sense her emotions. With the other male around, he couldn’t be sure who her body had been reacting to, thus the need to get her alone. If she had feelings for the biker, Tamian would have to take things slow so she had plenty of opportunity to make a decision based on something other than the mate pull. And now that he’d slipped the note into her hand, he had no doubt she knew who he was under the disguise. The ball was in her court to call him.
Lucy was going stir crazy. Monk continued to stare at her, but he never asked her what the note said, and she wasn’t about to divulge that piece of information. She knew better than to involve the family in the game of cat and mouse she and Tamian seemed to be playing. She hated the fact that they already knew about him. Their guard was up where he was concerned, and that wasn’t something Lucy wanted to deal with.
Everything about the male called to her on a baser level. She should have realized it was him even with the disguise. And what a disguise it had been. It was worthy of being in a spy movie. How had he even managed such a thing? If she could get her hands on something like that, she could travel the world with all new aliases.
And the way they connected when their hands met? It had been all she could do not to climb his tall, lean body right there in front of Monk. That would have gone over like a lead balloon. Would they have fought each other? A Gargoyle versus a Gryphon... What a matchup that would be! Lucy found herself getting turned on thinking about Tamian letting those massive wings of his loose and going all beastly for her. Sighing, she stood from where she was trying to relax on the sofa with a book, to no avail. The note was burning a hole in her pocket. She wanted nothing more than to call the number and ask Tamian to meet her somewhere, but Monk would never let her out of his sight.
Until she could come up with a plan to get him alone, Lucy tried to find something to take her mind off the Gargoyle. She found herself wandering through the large home, looking at things she ignored on a daily basis. Photos of her from a baby all the way to her high school graduation lined the wall going up the stairs. Candid shots of her and Vera were placed all throughout the house on side tables and bookshelves. The one thing missing were pictures of Lucius.
She’d never noticed before, but now that she was really looking, Lucy could find no evidence of her father – great uncle – anywhere in the common areas. It wasn’t until she stepped into his office or his lab did she find traces of the man who raised her. Now that she’d met Warryck, it was hard for her to think of Lucius as her father.
Had Vera removed the pictures that included her husband? Had she been so brokenhearted she couldn’t bear to look at things which reminded her of when he was alive? Lucy hadn’t changed anything in the home since her mother passed away, but now that she thought back to when she was growing up, she didn’t remember seeing anything that alluded to the fact that Lucius Ball lived in the large home. Nothing out in the open, anyway.
It had been months since she’d gone into the study, but Lucy found herself opening the door and stepping inside, taking a good look around. As with the rest of the house, everything was as it had been with the exception of the top of his desk. Lucy had dug through the contents of her father’s safe deposit box, pushing his paperwork to the side. All the items she’d pulled from the box were now back in the container beside the desk. Everything except her fake birth certificate. She’d taken it to her bedroom where it was safely hidden away in the closet.
When Lucius had been alive, he’d spent most of his time downstairs in his lab. He used his office to pay the household bills and occasionally jot down information in his journals. The books on the shelves had collected dust even before he’d died. Lucy walked slowly around the room, reading the various titles. Subjects such as chemistry, anatomy, and biology made sense for someone like Lucius. Lucy stopped when she spied “Memoirs of a Geisha.” What was it doing among medical books? When she pulled the book to remove it, a click sounded, and the unit moved.
“What were you hiding?” Lucy asked her dead father. When the bookcase stopped, Lucy pulled it open farther, giving her room to step between the wooden shelves and the wall behind it. She flipped the switch just inside, and a light shined down a set of stone steps. If Monk hadn’t been somewhere in the house, she probably would have waited until one of her uncles was there with her. Since the Hound was there, she slowly descended into a cavernous room she hadn’t known existed. When she reached the bottom, Lucy gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “Holy mother of Zeus. Wh
at have you done?”
Tamian had been plastered to the sofa, his eyes on the monitors so he could keep watch over his mate. For a while, she sat reading. Well, she’d been sitting on the sofa with a book in her hand, but her eyes had been forward as if she was lost in thought. Was she thinking of him? Now that Lucy knew he was in town, would she call him? Or would she continue to avoid him as she’d done since Norway?
When Tessa asked him what his next steps were, he admitted he didn’t know. “I gave her a number to a burner phone. Hopefully, she’ll call.”
“And if she doesn’t? You can’t tell me you’re going to wait forever for her to make the next move.”
“No. I won’t wait forever, but I am going to give her time to reach out to me.”
Lucy put the book down and walked around the room, looking at the walls. What was she doing? It appeared she was roaming her home with no particular purpose other than studying the artwork and photos. She eventually disappeared into a room with no camera access. Tamian waited, rather impatiently, for her to return, but it seemed she had found something to occupy her time. When the biker jumped up from his chair and strode with purpose to the door Lucy had entered earlier, Tamian leaned forward. The male disappeared into the room, and Tamian cursed the fact that they couldn’t see farther than the doorway.
“What’s wrong?” Tessa asked.
“The biker hurried into the room where Lucy is. Something’s going on.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do. I don’t think she’s in danger, but something isn’t right. Why else would he have rushed into the room? I need to get over there.”
“And do what? Interrupt an intimate moment? Just give it a few more minutes.”
Tamian growled at Tessa’s insinuation something more was going on between his mate and the male. He didn’t want to give it a few seconds let alone minutes, but Tessa was right. If he went over there now, Lucy wouldn’t have the choice of reaching out to him. As much as he needed to wait, he couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. He couldn’t sit there and watch a blank screen without losing his mind. Standing, he told his sister, “I’m going for a run. Call me if anything happens.”
