by Jane Jamison
“With you?” It was an odd mix of delight and jangled nerves that overtook her.
“With us. We want you to stay for as long as you like.” Chan eased closer. “We care about you, Lace. We care about you more than you know.”
She closed her eyes and tried to think, but her brain wouldn’t function. What they’d said meant the world to her, but it was all so much to take in. She wanted to tell them that she cared about them, too. Yet how could she agree to a future when she didn’t have a past? “I can’t think. I don’t know what to do right now, much less trying to figure out the rest of my life.”
“Then don’t do anything. I know it’s a lot to take in right now. Give it time to sink in. We have all the time in the world. Just don’t leave until you know what you really want.”
Maybe Chan was right. Maybe doing nothing was her best option. At least until her head cleared.
“After that, if you still want to leave, we’ll take you wherever you want. But until then, Lace, you can’t go anywhere. The roads are still closed. No one’s going anywhere,” added Zack.
“That much can’t be true. That man made it up here and that means I can make it into town.” She groaned and fisted her hands on the blanket tighter. “Will you two stop giving each other that look?”
Chan took her hand and unclenched it, then put it between both of his. “He was able to get up here because of what he is. A werewolf wouldn’t need a car.”
She couldn’t take it any longer. Too much information, some of it unimaginable, was spinning around inside her head. She jerked her hand free then stood up and stomped toward the stairs.
“Lace, listen—”
She whirled to confront them. “No. Please just stop. I need you to leave me alone.” Without waiting for them to respond, she bounded up the stairs and into her bedroom.
* * * *
An hour later Lace closed the double doors of the dining room and sat down on the window seat. She stared out at the snow and tried to make sense of the world around her. Someone was out to torment her. But why? Why did he toy with her instead of simply killing her? Had she hurt someone so badly that he wanted a sick kind of revenge? Was he an ex-lover who wanted to make her pay for leaving him? Yet she couldn’t imagine being with a man that horrible.
She rested her head against the window, letting the cool pane work on her emerging headache. She’d gone over in her mind everything she knew to be true. The list wasn’t long, but it was important.
I know I’m in trouble.
I know someone wants to hurt me.
I know someone dumped me on that road.
I know I’ve been happy staying here with Zack and Chan.
I know I love them.
I know they care for me.
At least the last three in that list were good things. The list that was comprised of everything she didn’t know was just as long. Maybe even longer.
I don’t know my last name.
I don’t know where I’m from.
I don’t know who that man is.
I don’t know why he’s tormenting me.
I don’t know what I did to get into this trouble.
I don’t know if I should stay or if I should go.
She could go on for several minutes simply listing what she didn’t know, but she didn’t have the emotional strength to do so.
Should she leave? If she did, she’d take the danger away from the men she loved. But where would she go? She knew that they’d come after her and she would perhaps be putting them into even greater danger.
A movement at the edge of the tree line had her jerking upright. She held her breath as she watched it, trying to make out what it was. If it was the man or the wolf, she’d call for the men. She waited a moment longer as the dark form moved out of the bushes and into the daylight.
The man who stepped out into the sun was not the man who had attacked her. He was a small man, with vein-lined flesh that was stretched over his bones. He had a receding hairline and he wore a heavy sweater. He scanned the yard, then let his gaze fall on the window where she was.
She knew him.
Oh, my God! I know him!
Without thinking anything more than the thrill that she recognized him, she waved and motioned for him to come to the house. He hesitated at first, then understood what she meant, and moved toward the front porch.
She dashed to the front door. Her hand was on the doorknob when she finally paused to think. She’d heard Zack and Chan talking earlier and knew that Zack was outside in the small toolshed off to the side of the house. She should call him or Chan who was upstairs in the huge bedroom that she hadn’t been allowed to explore yet. She could hear him moving around up there. He would, no doubt, hear her if she called out.
With the secure feeling that her men were nearby, she opened the door. The small man had a face that seemed to be permanently slack jawed.
“Lace. Oh, thank God you’re all right.” His eyes were moist as he started to take a step closer. He stopped, the brief smile he’d had gone in an instant. “Please, Lace, you’ve got to forgive me. I didn’t have any other choice. But I’m here now.”
He trembled, whether from the cold wafting in from the outside or from his perceived wronging of her, she didn’t know. She searched her memory, determined to put a name to his face. “Rupert? Is that you?”
He frowned. “Yes.” He glanced behind him then back to her. “I don’t understand. Or are you talking to someone else?”
She took his arm and tugged him inside. Closing the door behind her, she pulled the frail man into a hug. “It’s really you.” She laughed and held his face between her hands. “I can’t believe it. I remember you.”
“Lace, are you all right?” His beady-eyed gaze slid up and down her. “You look okay.”
“Come with me. We have to talk.”
She pulled him into the living room, then motioned for him to sit on the couch next to her. “This is going to sound crazy, but I can’t remember anything. Or at least not much of anything. I’m surprised that I remembered you. Hopefully, that’s a sign that my memory’s coming back.”
“You don’t remember what happened? Oh, God, Lace.”
She hurried to squeeze his hand. “It’s okay, Rupert. You can fill in all the details. Starting with my last name.”
“You really don’t know it?” He stood and paced to the other side of the room. “It’s my fault that all this happened to you. Please forgive me.”
The joy she’d felt a moment ago died a little. “I can’t forgive you until I know what I’m forgiving you for. Tell me everything.”
He drew in a ragged breath. “Your name is Lace Eastlake and you work at The Pretty Pussy Club in Phoenix.”
“Are you telling me that I’m a stripper?” She didn’t want to believe it, but she’d face the truth. After all, there was nothing wrong with being a stripper. As long as that’s all she’d done for money.
“No. You’re one of the servers. You refused to strip even when Victor offered you a ton of money to do it.”
Victor. The name was familiar, but worse, it sent an ominous feeling into the pit of her stomach. “Who’s Victor?”
Rupert stared at her. “You really don’t remember, do you?”
“Rupert, tell me.”
“Victor Morna is the owner of the club. He’s also our boss. I do the books.” He shrugged, his bony shoulders jumping up then down. “I cook the books is more like it.”
The more she heard, the less she liked it. Why couldn’t she have been a secretary? Or a Sunday school teacher? She remained silent, giving him the time he needed.
“Victor found out that Tomas and I were stealing from him.”
“Tomas?” A face filtered into her mind. “Tomas Reia? He’s a bouncer, isn’t he?”
“Surely you remember Tomas.”
Her memory was coming back in a flood of images. “Yes, I know him. Tomas and I dated for a while, but it didn’t work out. But what’s that go
t to do with anything? Please tell me I wasn’t mixed up in stealing any money.”
“No, you weren’t. You didn’t have anything to do with it.” Rupert ran a hand over his ragged face. “At least not until you saw Victor kill Tomas.”
She jumped up as it hit her. Her heart raced as fast as her mind at the awful truth. The adrenaline pumped through her, pushing away the fear. At least for now. What she’d envisioned had really happened. “I saw him. I saw Victor kill a man.” She fell more than sat down on the couch.
Rupert bowed his head. “I’m so sorry you did. If only you hadn’t been working that night, then nothing would’ve happened to you.” When he lifted his face to hers, it was a mask of conflict. “If I could change things, I would. But it’s too late.”
She had to ask. Had to find out if he knew more about Victor. “Rupert, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I have to know. Do you believe in werewolves?” She waited for him to laugh. Or look at her as though she’d lost her mind as well as her memory.
Yet, he didn’t seem surprised at the question. That alone gave her his answer moments before he spoke. “Oh, hell. It’s real. Victor’s a werewolf, isn’t he?”
Rupert collapsed against the cushions. “Yes. He’s an animal in more than ways than you know.”
It was all true. Everything Zack and Chan had told her. Werewolves really existed and Victor was one of them.
“He killed Tomas, didn’t he?” She hadn’t seen the face of the man, but now she recognized his back, his lean waist. She and Tomas hadn’t had a physical relationship, but she’d cared for him as a friend. Emotion clogged her throat.
Suddenly her mind was filled with visions of the past, people, places, and things. “Oh, my God. I remember it all.” She’d never had much to do with Rupert, but right now he was her favorite person in the entire world. Just seeing him had brought her memory back.
She remembered the face of her best friend, Melody Russell. She saw them together shopping for shoes, laughing at who could wear the highest heels. She could see her mother as she’d looked when Lace was a child, making a cake and letting her lick the icing from the bowl. She recalled the way the lights in the club bounced around the room as the dancers strutted their stuff on stage.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“You can’t even imagine how I feel right now. It’s like seeing you has opened up a floodgate to my memories.” Some of the memories were good and some were bad, but they were all hers. She couldn’t wait to tell Zack and Chan the good news, but she needed to deal with Rupert first.
“Why are you here, Rupert?” She swallowed, thinking that she could guess the answer.
“Lace, I came to warn you. I was there, too, like you, watching. Victor didn’t see me, but I knew he’d figure out that I was Tomas’s partner and that he’d come after me.”
“I don’t understand. If Victor knew that I’d seen him kill Tomas, why didn’t he kill me, too?” She tried, but couldn’t piece together all the parts of that memory.
“He wanted to, but you got away. I’d already run, too, and I was in my car in the parking lot when you came bolting out the back door. I got you into my car and then I took off. After driving around for an hour or two, we decided we might be able to disappear in some little nowhere town in the mountains.” His sad gaze fell on her. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to wreck the car and hurt you.”
She closed her eyes, and all at once, she could see herself in the passenger seat. The car careened down the winding road until it skidded against the edge of a stone wall. She gasped as she relived the moment her door swung open and she was ejected. The pain of her body hitting the pavement then rolling over and over came back to her, making her groan.
“I hit the wall then ran into a tree. By the time I came to, you were already gone.”
“I must’ve hit my head when I fell out of the car and then wandered away. I wasn’t very coherent when Zack found me.”
“Zack? Is that who owns this place?”
“Zack Blackwood and Chan Channing live here. Zack found me and brought me here when the storm hit. They’ve taken care of me.”
“Where are they right now?” He craned his neck around, checking the hallway. “They won’t hurt me, will they?”
“Of course not. You’re safe here.”
“We’re not safe anywhere. It’s only a matter of time before Victor comes.”
“You’re right. He’s already found me. I just didn’t know who he was.” But she didn’t want to run. Yet she couldn’t put her men into danger for her sake. She cared for them too much to do that.
“And you got away? But it doesn’t matter. He’ll try again. Shit, shit, shit. We’re fucked.” Rupert tucked his chin down and stared at his hands. He kept picking at the seam in his slacks. The snow on his boots had formed a pool of water at their feet.
“How did you find me, Rupert?”
“When Victor showed up in town, I knew he must’ve found out where you were. I don’t know how, but he has his ways. So I started asking around and found out which road he’d been seen on. From there, I started studying the maps. It didn’t make sense that this much land didn’t have a house on it. Then I overheard a couple of locals talking about how Victor had paid them a lot of money to tell them about this place. That’s how Victor is. If he wants information, he’ll get it one way or another.”
“Never mind about that. It doesn’t matter how he found out now.”
“God, I’m sorry, Lace. I should’ve looked for you, but I was afraid. I just drove off.”
“Where’d you go? What town are you talking about?”
“I—I hid out in a nearby small town called Lost Hills. I thought I’d given him the slip but I was wrong. Victor found me. He had me cornered but I got lucky when a family of tourists walked into the restaurant and startled him. Still, he won’t give up. You know he won’t.”
“What does he want with me?”
“What do you mean? You know why. Lace, you witnessed him murdering Tomas.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen him already. He could’ve killed me. Why didn’t he?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head, keeping his eyes averted from hers.
“Rupert, there’s more to this, isn’t there? What aren’t you telling me? You can’t hold anything back.” She wanted to add that he owed her that much, but decided against it.
He lifted his head and stuck out his chin. “Look, I’m back now and I want to make it up to you for leaving you behind. The county’s finally plowed the main roads. It’ll be a walk, but we can make it back to my car that I left on a side road. After that, we can go anyplace you want. I still have the money Tomas and I took. You and I can share it. Come with me, Lace. You have to leave now.”
“And go where?” She was on her feet and pacing. She whirled and confronted him. “Does he change into a reddish-brown wolf? Is he really a werewolf?” She had to ask again to make herself believe it.
Rupert’s eyes grew wide as his gaze drifted over her shoulder. The color in his face drained away.
“That’s right, sweet cakes. You’ve seen me. Aren’t I glorious in my wolf body? I bet you want to pet me, don’t you?”
Fear gripped her as she pivoted toward the doorway. “Victor.”
He cupped his crotch. “I’ll bet you’d like to pet me right here, wouldn’t you?”
Chapter Seven
Before she could scream, Victor was by her side and covering her mouth with his hand. Rupert tried to fight him, throwing his skinny body at the muscled man, but a quick backhanded strike put Rupert flat on the floor.
She struggled against him, but she was no match for the large man. Before she could get a sound out, he replaced his hand over her mouth with a strip of duct tape. He yanked her arms behind her and encircled her wrists with the tape, then shoved her back to the couch.
Pulling Rupert up, he warned the man to stay quiet, then bound his arms behind him, too.
“Any attempt to get away, and your squirrely little friend here dies. Now get the fuck up and get going.”
She started moving toward the kitchen. If she bumped into a piece of furniture, or knocked over a lamp, Chan might hear. But Victor could kill them before Chan could make it down the stairs.
Victor shoved them both down the hallway and into the kitchen, keeping a gun pointed at Rupert’s head. Once there, he shoved her toward the back door, then grabbed Rupert’s neck in a vise-like grip and jerked him around.
A sound from above them lifted Victor’s attention to the ceiling. “It seems that the one animal outside isn’t the only one here. Well, no bother. If I need to, I can get rid of him, too.”
The one outside was Zack. Had Victor killed Zack? Rage filled her. If she had the chance, she’d strangle Victor with her bare hands.
Victor’s gaze fell on the door behind her. “I guess it’ll have to be Door Number One.” He grabbed Rupert, and after shoving the door open, he pushed Rupert and Lace out of the house and into the cave.
For a moment, they stood, each of them awed at what they saw. The cave was huge. Where the cave met the end of the house, smooth walls ran on either side of them and the ground was almost as smooth as the walls. The cavern led to three wide tunnels.
Victor motioned them forward. “Get going. Down the middle one.”
She wanted to tell him that she didn’t know where the tunnels led, that there was no other way out except through the house, but she couldn’t speak with the tape covering her mouth.
The farther they went into the tunnel, the narrower it became. She’d have thought they’d need flashlights or torches to navigate their way, but the walls had tiny sparkles in them, like twinkling lights that gave them enough light to see.
They walked for several minutes with Victor shoving her every time she dared to slow down. He’d force her to move faster, threatening to kill Rupert if she tried to delay them again. She was still racking her brain trying to find a way to escape when they came to a wide opening. The cavern spread out before them, but only a few yards ahead was a huge hole that spanned from one side of the cave to the other. They were at a dead end.
