Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  Elena blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t understand this. Why would she marry you but not stay with you, and why would she leave our brother behind when she kept the three of us?”

  Manus’s mouth opened to answer her, but Chloe beat him to the punch. “Because she still considered herself an Amazon. Amazonian women do not keep their lovers, remember? Nor do they keep any boy children. If they birthed a son, they either killed them or gave them back to the child’s father. I guess we should be grateful Mom wasn’t a cold-blooded bitch and didn’t kill him.”

  “Chloe!” her two aunts yelled at the same time.

  Chloe shrugged. “What? I’m just being real. Don’t act like it’s not the truth.”

  Aunt Thea scowled at her. “There hasn’t been an Amazon in the last four hundred years that’s killed a boy child that we know of. That practice disappeared a long time ago.”

  “Don’t get your panties into a wad. We need to skip all this crap and get back to the important part of the conversation.”

  Elena gave Chloe a look that said she thought her sister was nuts. “What’s more important than finding out Mom was married and we have a brother?”

  Throwing her hands up in the air, Chloe shouted, “How about the part where they said they knew what happened to Delta and they were worried about her?”

  Deo shook his head. “I’m not worried about her; she’ll be fine.” Pointing to his father, he said, “He’s the one that’s worried about her.”

  Losing her patience, Elena yelled back, “Well, why the fuck is he worried about her?”

  Deo glowered at her. “Don’t yell at me, you crazy woman. I’m still mad at you for trying to kill me!”

  “Why do you keep saying I tried to kill you? I’ve never seen you before, you nutcase!” she wailed.

  Deo smirked in an evil way and his father saw it.

  “Don’t.”

  “Pfft. Keep dreaming, old man. I’m showing her right now.” Deo put his hand in his coat pocket while he spoke to her. “One of the reason that dear old Mom wanted to have children with Dad is because he’s a powerful warlock of some repute. She hoped to have a child with some magical abilities. From what I understand, Delta never developed abilities, but I did.”

  Pulling his balled up hand out of his pocket, he held it out in front of him. That devious grin on his face caused all the hairs on the back of Elena’s neck to stand up in warning.

  “One of my specialties is connecting to a familiar. I have one creature that bonds to me, and I can see life through his eyes. But when we’re connected, we share a life force. So if he dies, I die, too. You tried to kill my familiar.”

  Elena shook her head in denial, but stopped when Deo opened his hand. Right there, in the middle of her brother’s palm, was the bane of her existence.

  It was that big ass, motherfucking, hairy spider that had been stalking her.

  Seeing Chloe’s gossip rag magazine on the coffee table, she snatched it up so that it was rolled in her hand and leapt with a homicidal war cry towards her brother and her enemy. This time, she was going to kill that little bastard once and for all!

  Only she never made it near her target because her Aunt Thea was holding her back as Deo laughed his fool head off at her.

  “Let me go! LetmegorightnowsoIcankillthatcreepyabomination!” she shrieked.

  Deo stopped laughing, and his tone became severe. “You can’t kill Rufus.”

  Elena stared at him in horror. “You named that disgusting thing Rufus?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I did, and you can’t kill him for two reasons. One, he’s my familiar so he’s very important to me. And you wouldn’t want to break my heart now, would you, big sister?”

  “You slimy, little turd!”

  He continued on as if she hadn’t spoken, “And two, he’s going to help us get Delta out of her mess.”

  Hearing Delta’s name brought her rage back down. Remembering that Delta needed help of some sort, she felt ashamed about momentarily forgetting her while being consumed with a maddening drive to kill the furry, bug-eyed monster. If Delta needed her, she would do anything to get her sister back to safety. Even play nice with the spider. She shuddered at that thought.

  “You still haven’t told us what trouble she’s in or where she’s at,” Chloe snapped.

  “Delta is at the den of Bash Yasin; a very old, scheming and deceptive vampire.”

  Elena, Chloe and her aunts all started talking at once over each other, asking different variations of the same question, which was, “Why?”

  Manus held his hands up in the air and shouted, “QUIET!”

  The Demos women promptly quieted down to wait for an explanation.

  Elena took this silent opportunity to give Manus the once over thoroughly for the first time. Now that she was paying attention, she could see the genuine concern written all over the man’s face. He was truly worried about Delta, which in turn worried Elena.

  Impatient, Elena snapped out, “Well, give us some answers already.”

  Deo pet his spider, causing Elena to shudder in revulsion again. The first place she was going afterwards was home to the shower. Then she was going to scrub every inch of her body raw in the hopes that the heebie jeebies the stupid spider gave her would go away.

  “Rufus here was hitching a ride in Delta’s purse yesterday to spy on her for me. I’ve been watching you all since we were informed of Mom’s death, trying to decide on whether I should make contact with you or not.” When Chloe started to say something, he held his hand up to stop her. “So, last night, Rufus was there with Delta when she took the meeting with Bash Yasin. Apparently, they’ve met briefly before through a mutual acquaintance. Some guy named Rhett Baines. Bash had heard about Delta asking Rhett to turn her, and how Rhett had denied her, rather harshly from the sound of it. Bash offered to turn her himself, however there was a catch.” Their brother gave them a stern look and said, “There’s always a catch with those vamps, don’t forget that. Nothing is ever free with those stingy bastards. Anyways, if Bash turned Delta, she would be indentured to him for the next one hundred years.”

  Chloe snorted. “There’s no way Delta took a deal like that. She’s naive, sure, but stupid? Not hardly. So where is she now? Crying into her tea cup about not getting what she wanted?”

  Deo shook his head. “How quickly you’ve forgotten that I’ve already told you that Delta is at Bash’s den. And you forget all of Delta’s admirable traits, like her romanticism of fairy tales and epic love stories. This Rhett may have turned her down and broken her heart, but do you really think that Delta would walk away from the opportunity to live forever? Did you forget how much she likes her ‘research’? Think of all the things she could research with an infinite life span. Yeah, I see by the panic on your face that you’re figuring it out. You’re wrong, Chloe; she took the deal. Delta’s not here because she’s a vampire now.”

  “Holy shit,” Elena whispered in shock.

  After gathering her wits, she asked, “What do we do now?”

  Manus shrugged. “Wait for Bash to let her come home.”

  Gage added, “And finish clearing Lulu’s name in the meantime.”

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Thank you for reading Walk on the Striped Side! For those of you who are thinking, “Lulu’s stuff wasn’t solved.” And, “What the heck?” DON’T PANIC. The ultimate resolution of Lulu’s case will be resolved in the next Big Bad Bite book, The Demon Who Loved Me. I have to break out the big, bad Kent to properly handle that situation, and he demanded a story of his own to do so.

  Turn the page to read that book’s first chapter for a sneak peek.

  We hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as we enjoyed writing it. If you did, please consider leaving a review at your favorite online retailers, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or review websites such as Goodreads. These are great ways to help spread the word about books to readers who have yet to discover them.

  We have exc
erpts from our friends’ books and this book’s playlist after the first chapter of The Demon Who Loved Me, so make sure you keep turning those pages! Happy reading!

  The Demon Who Loved Me

  Big Bad Bite Series #3

  *Aspects of this excerpt may change between now and it’s publication day*

  CHAPTER-ONE

  Chloe

  One month later…

  “The terms of our original agreement are no longer sufficient. We need to renegotiate.”

  Chloe snorted at the demand. The demon must think she’d been born yesterday. “Wrong, Kent. Our agreement stands as it is. If you don’t like losing, perhaps you shouldn’t make bets.”

  A smooth growl came over the phone. “You scammed me and you know it.”

  She laughed at the accusation. “Wrong again. I didn’t scam you, I schooled you, and if you don’t like learning hard lessons, then don’t play games with me.”

  “Do you realize what you’ve done to my life? Do you honestly fucking grasp what I’ve had to do to cover my marker from this ridiculous goddamn bet?”

  Little did the people in her life realize, Chloe did feel regretful about some things that particular situation was one of them. Because Kent was right, she had turned his whole life upside down over a bet. It hadn’t started out that way for her. No, that night, a little over a month ago—when they had run into each other at the McPhee owned bar—Chloe would have never guessed that she’d walk away owning a marker from the demon, but he’d challenged her, dammit. And she’d won that bet fair and square.

  Chloe had been sitting at the bar, minding her own business and watching some douchebag treat his girlfriend like shit, when she’d realized that someone was watching her. Looking around to see who her admirer was, her eyes had stopped on a drop dead gorgeous man with brown hair, cobalt blue eyes, a five o’clock shadow with a panty melting grin, eyeballing her from his side of the bar. The demon who was only known by his last name, Kent. She’d first laid eyes on him in that very bar just days before when she and her two sisters had confronted Gage Ivanov about his sister, Lulu’s, whereabouts.

  He’d caught her eye even then, yet she hadn’t truly found him interesting until she’d gone home and done a little research. Her sisters might think she was an airhead, but that was only because it was the persona she liked to play. The real Chloe was an information whore. She wanted to know who everyone was, what they were doing, and the dark secrets they stored in their proverbial closets. So when she’d pulled up her aunts’ notes on demons in the area and did some extensive late night reading, imagine her surprise when she discovered that laid back, playboy Kent played a cop by day to avoid his rather influential, wealthy and demanding family.

  Why would a man walk away from easy living to play cops and robbers in real life? With a little more digging, she’d figured it out. Kent’s family was big in the demon hierarchy and politics. He was the first born son, and therefore, expected to take his family’s seat on the Ninth Circle Council. For reasons she couldn’t discern yet, Kent had done his best to put off those obligations.

  Interesting information, but not necessarily useful. Yet. Chloe had learned over the years that information was the best kind of weapon a girl could have because you never knew when it would come in handy.

  That information had been beneficial a lot sooner than she would have expected it to, as well. She thought back to the night that had put this whole clusterfuck into motion.

  It seemed like a crime to ignore Kent’s appreciative glances to keep track of the douchebag boyfriend who was berating his poor, sweet girlfriend in front of his friends. Chloe hated assholes like him and loved to make examples of them. She was just waiting for her opportunity to do so.

  She was so engrossed in staring at the douchebag as he joked with his buddies that she didn’t notice when Kent sat down on the stool next to her.

  “Do you have a thing for men that are taken or something, sweetheart?”

  The sound of his voice near her ear almost made her fall off her seat it startled her so badly.

  Placing a hand over her hammering heart, she turned to glare at him. “No, I do not have a thing for men who are taken. Do you usually scare women in bars half to death?”

  Kent shook his head. “Didn’t mean to scare you, but you’re staring at that pencil dick over there pretty hard. I was just trying to figure out if you wanted to jump his bones or something since you won’t give me the time of day.”

  Chloe snorted in disgust. “I’d rather tell him to take a flying leap off a tall building than give him the time of day. Have you seen how mean he’s being to his girlfriend?”

  “Yeah, it’s a shame, too. Pretty girl like her could definitely do better than him. She’s probably with him for his car.”

  Chloe gave him a confused look. “His car?”

  “Yeah, sweetheart, his car. Saw him getting out of his Ferrari when I pulled in. That pretty little girl probably took one look at his car and thought she was hooking up with a high class man. Instead, she hooked up with an idiot.”

  Chloe pursed her lips in thought as she stared at the miserable girl. The poor thing looked as though she wanted to be anywhere other than there. Maybe Chloe could help her with that.

  “Think it would make her night if she got to drive his car? Then maybe she’d have at least one good thing about tonight she could remember.”

  Kent laughed. “There’s no way in hell you’re getting that guy to let her drive his car.”

  Well now, she did love a good challenge.

  Leaning into his personal space, she crooned back, “What would you give me if I walked out of here with his car keys and the girl so that she could drive his car?”

  “Anything because there’s no way you’re pulling that shit off.”

  She gave the demon a small, flirtatious smile. “And what do you want if I lose this little bet?”

  “You, in my bed, any way I want you for twenty-four hours straight.”

  She didn’t even have to think about it. Not because she wanted to have marathon sex with Kent, although she had to admit the idea was appealing, but the truth was, she was that confident in her abilities. He should never have blindly walked into a bet. His mistake would be her gain, though.

  And really? Twenty-four hours? Why did men always try to bullshit about their stamina? Chloe doubted there was a man, or Other, on the planet that could have a sexual marathon for twenty-four hours.

  Running one of her manicured fingers down the side of his face, she whispered, “Remember this was your bet, demon. When it comes time for me to cash that marker, I’ll contact you about what I need from you.”

  She got up off her bar stool and walked away from Kent, who was watching her with a curious face as she sashayed over to her mark’s table. She’d seen a hundred guys just like him, and they never failed to disgust her; the privileged, over-confident and atrocious jackasses that liked to treat women as objects instead of people.

  When she reached her destination, she pulled up a chair and invited herself to sit down. Every single man there was already leering at her, and half of them weren’t even bothering to look at her face. The only one unhappy to see her was the douchebag’s date, however that was okay.

  “Hello, boys,” she purred. “Who wants to buy me a drink?”

  Two of the four men were up and out of their chairs so fast they were practically tripping over themselves to get to the bar and do as requested. Douchebag was one of the two left behind. Chloe turned herself sideways in the chair and crossed her legs to give him a view of her tan limbs and red high-heeled, fuck me shoes.

  As usual, Chloe was dressed to kill. She was wearing a black sheath dress with an overlay of red lace that clung to her pin up figure and had a low, square neckline to show off her abundant D cups.

  She leaned back a little to thrust her breasts out and watched her mark’s eyes zero in on her assets. This wouldn’t be hard to pull off at all. She was almost disappointed at
the lack of a challenge.

  Chloe spent the next hour coyly flirting with four men that she’d rather pour gasoline over and set on fire, yet she was determined to win the demon’s marker. She could feel Kent’s eyes on her, and a part of her wondered if it turned him on to see her schmoozing other men. Maybe losing the bet would be worth it? Her pride, however, wouldn’t let her throw the bet for a bit of pleasure.

  Douchebag was practically drooling all over their table at the thought of getting in her panties and he’d all but forgotten that he had another date sitting there with them. All she had to do was make her move now.

  Excusing herself to use the restroom, she got up from the group and walked down the hallway to the women’s bathroom. She went in, dug her lipstick out of her purse and touched up her lips with her favorite luscious red. Then, she fluffed her hair and checked her figure in the mirror. Satisfied that she’d wasted enough time, Chloe grabbed her purse and walked out of the bathroom where she found Mr. Douchebag himself—real name John—leaned up against the opposite wall waiting for her.

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his body, sliding his hands down to rest on her ass. “Hey, sexy, you ready to get out of here and have some fun?”

  Did he not care that he had a date sitting at the table?

  Ignoring her disgust for him, she bit her bottom lip like she was considering it. “Why do we have to get out of here to have some fun? We could sneak into the men’s bathroom and you could bend me over the sink instead. Wouldn’t that be hot?”

  The man’s eyes widened and he smiled widely, like he’d hit the sexual jackpot. “You want me bad, don’t you, baby? Can’t even stand to wait for me to take you home. Fuck, yeah, let’s go in the bathroom and I’ll fuck you so good they’ll hear you screaming in the bar.”

  Chloe ran her finger down the front of his chest teasingly. “There’s only one little problem, stud. I’m not excited yet, at all. I have a hard time getting hot and bothered, if you know what I mean. My psychologist says I’m a nymphomaniac with an adrenaline rush problem and dangerous tendencies.”