Why the hell was Margie here? And Cat?
Kyle caught and held Dan’s gaze. And smelled his best friend’s rising anxiety.
No, not anxiety. Fear.
He and Dan didn’t feel fear. It’d been bred out of them long ago.
Shit. Whatever was going on was big. And bad.
He slipped into soldier mode without a second thought.
“Tam, go with Margie. Now. You can’t be here.”
He made it an order and knew the second the words left his mouth, he never should have spoken to her like that.
Tam wasn’t fast enough to cover her expression of shocked hurt. Hadn’t he just promised her they’d deal with whatever happened together? And now he was sending her away.
“I can’t leave.” Margie shook her head. “Neither can Cat. Maybe Tam could wait out here on the porch for a little.”
Margie tried to smile but it didn’t reach her eyes.
And he knew that whatever had happened wasn’t just bad. It was catastrophic.
He looked at Tam. “I need you to go to the room we were in earlier and stay there. Don’t come out. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He tried to soften his tone this time but the damage had already been done. He watched her expression go blank as she nodded. He could feel her pulling away.
He wanted to howl but Dan’s anxiety made his skin crawl. He wanted to pull Tam into his arms but was afraid she’d pull away, and he knew if she tried to, he’d hold on.
And that would make her pull away harder.
Torn, he did the only thing he could.
He bent and kissed her, hard, trying to convey what he couldn’t put into words. “Go now. And don’t come out until I come for you.”
He watched her hesitate for a brief second then felt a small measure of relief when she walked up the stairs and into the room to the right of the front door.
“I know what you’re gonna say.” Kyle held up one hand as Dan opened his mouth as soon as she closed the door. “I know I shouldn’t have brought her here. I know how much fucking trouble this could cause. And I don’t fucking care. She’s safer here with me. I’ll deal with the other shit later. Just tell me what the fuck’s going on.”
Dan took a deep breath and shook his head. “Cole took a silver bullet to the leg. He was nearly dead by the time he got here. Doc was hit too. Margie, Cat and Nica are here. Nica’s got the bleeding controlled and Margie and Cat can deal with any infection.”
Holy shit. Cole and Doc. Catastrophic might be too tame.
Still, Nica Donato was the boschetta’s healer. Cole should be safe in her hands.
Kyle followed Dan and Margie into the house. “Where the hell were his praetorians?” Cole never went anywhere without the praetorian guard.
Dan shook his head, taking the stairs to the second floor two at a time. “No idea. We need to talk to Doc. He’s conscious and he won’t let Nica put him under until he talks to you.”
“Then let’s go talk to him. Fast.”
* * * * *
Now or never.
Tam had the keys to Kyle’s Jeep in her hand. He’d left them on the desk, in plain sight. Practically taunting her with their accessibility.
But her feet felt like ten-ton weights and the tears she’d held back outside began to stream down her cheeks.
Now. You have to go now.
She had no idea how long Kyle would be. She didn’t want to face him if he caught her, couldn’t bear to look in his eyes and see the hurt, the disappointment.
He’d never understand that she was doing this for him. He’d think she was being foolish.
She’d left him a note, told him she’d be careful. She trusted him to find whoever was chasing her and that she would stay out of sight until whoever was after her was caught. She’d left her email address so he could contact her when it was safe, when they’d caught the person who was after her.
He had to realize how much trust she was putting in him and his people to take care of this.
And if he didn’t understand, if he washed his hands of her… Well, people survived with broken hearts all the time.
And now that she had a plan and the opportunity, she wanted to get this over with.
Turning the knob, she opened the door just enough to be able see the surrounding hall and the stairs leading up.
No one there.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped out and headed for the front door. She never looked back, just opened it, closed it and sprinted for the Jeep.
She was nearly there when someone fell out of the tree above the Jeep and landed on his feet as if he’d jumped from only a few feet above the ground. Instead of twenty.
Tam drew in a deep breath and caught herself just before she screamed.
Her heart knocked against her ribs like a bird trying to escape a cage, and she froze as the boy—no, not a boy. A girl.
She looked to be around Tam’s age and physically, she was average size, average height and weight.
As the girl came closer, Tam saw bright green eyes, and hair a stunning mixture of black, gray and auburn that couldn’t be natural, no matter how very natural it looked.
The girl took her measure in seconds and must have found her unworthy of anything other than her disdain.
“Kyle’s gonna be pissed if you take his car.” She shrugged and leaned against the front driver’s side bumper. “But that’s no skin off my back.”
If Tam wanted to take the car, she’d have to get closer to the girl. And Tam wasn’t sure she wouldn’t get bitten, whether this girl was lucani or not. Still, she couldn’t stop. “I left him a note. And you can tell him I’ll leave the car for him at the Reading bus station.”
The girl shook her head slowly, looking at her as if she had three heads and snakes for hair. “It’s your funeral. I just don’t understand why the hell you’d want to leave him. I’ve never seen him with another woman, much less an eteri.”
That last word sounded like such a slur, Tam felt her back stiffen even as her heart broke just a little more. “Then I guess you should be happy I’m leaving.”
“Like I said, no skin off my teeth. I’ll let him know where to pick up the car. But,” she paused, almost as if she didn’t want to say any more but couldn’t help herself, “you’re an idiot to leave him. Kyle’s tough as nails and one of a kind.”
The girl walked off into the woods then, disappearing from sight as if she’d never been there.
She’d probably never even tell Kyle she’d caught Tam leaving.
Climbing into the Jeep, she started the engine and took off like a shot, not knowing if Kyle would hear the engine. When she got to the bus station, she’d call his cell, leave a message about where to pick up his car, just in case the girl didn’t relay her message.
Then she’d disappear. She’d done it after her ordeal. She was actually pretty good at it, having learned from her mom.
Kyle wouldn’t find her. Maybe he wouldn’t even want to. But she was doing this for him.
She couldn’t get the image of being sprayed with Kyle’s blood out of her head.
And she let that image give her strength as she started the Jeep and tore off down the road.
* * * * *
Three Weeks Later
“So are you going to tell me what’s eating at you?”
Cole sat in his bed at the lodge, playing cards flipping through his fingers like he was performing a magic trick. He’d been playing poker with Cat for the past hour until Kyle had stopped to give a status update.
Cat had taken one look at Kyle’s face, said goodbye to Cole and headed out the door after a brief hug for Kyle.
“We still don’t have a clue who ordered the hit. I’ve had Nic and Duke working round the clock.”
Cole nodded, his dark gaze locked onto Kyle’s. The lucani king wasn’t much older than Tam but wise beyond his years. Like Tam.
“That’s not what’s eating you.”
Kyle tried not to wa
nt to hit his king but the guy saw too much. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine.”
“Kaine told me about the eteri who took off in your Jeep. Have you found her yet?”
Kyle gritted his teeth but kept his expression blank. And ignored Cole’s question. “We’re continuing to pursue the angle that the Mal are involved in your shooting, due to family history.”
The lucani had lost their king and queen and their oldest son when Cole was seventeen. They’d been executed by Mal assassins, who in turn had been killed by a stregone who happened to be in the area. That stregone had saved Cole and his younger sister, Arabella.
And saved the precarious civility of the lucani.
For centuries, the lucani had run wild in Italy, their numbers dwindling as more and more were killed by eteri. When they’d immigrated to the United States in the early 1800s, they’d almost rampaged themselves to extinction.
Until Cole’s great-grandfather had given up his Sicilian kingdom to unite the American pack. He’d instilled purpose, direction and a civility the lucani had needed to survive. He’d reinstated the legion structure, given the lucani a common enemy—the Mal—and generally saved them from extinction.
The killing of Cole’s family had been aimed at throwing the legion into turmoil. They’d almost gotten their wish. Half the legion had wanted to declare war but cooler heads had prevailed.
Instead, Dan and Kyle had been dispatched to send the Mal a message. Three powerful, seemingly untouchable Mal had been executed, shot the exact same way as the Luporeale family.
The Mal had taken the hint and there’d been no other attempts on Cole, his sister or the lucani since then.
If the Mal were behind Cole’s shooting, the unspoken truce was dead. And the lucani were much more organized, much more determined to keep their young king safe.
And if it wasn’t the Mal…
Well, that could prove more disturbing than anything.
“Probably good not to let that angle go cold. And you’re sure your little eteri’s disappearance doesn’t have anything to do with it?”
Kyle practically bit off his tongue trying to hold back the blistering words that wanted to escape, and settled for, “I’m positive.”
“But you haven’t found her yet.”
“No.”
And it was eating him alive.
The first week after she’d run had been hell. He honestly thought he’d go crazy, torn between investigating Cole’s shooting and finding Tam.
Images of her kidnapped, terrified, broken and bleeding tormented him night and day. Only sheer force of will had kept him focused enough to maintain his sanity.
“And her disappearance isn’t affecting your judgment at all?”
Kyle’s gaze shot to Cole’s. “I’m fine.”
“Then I guess you don’t want to know I’ve had Kaine looking for her for the past week. She found her this morning.”
Kyle froze, his hands clenching into fists as he forced himself not to lunge at Cole and strangle him.
“Is she sure it’s Tam?”
Cole nodded. “Positive ID. She’s dyed her hair but it’s her. And Kaine said she’s hidden herself pretty well. Took her awhile to find her and you know how good Kaine is.”
Kaine was one of their best trackers. Better than Kyle. Almost as good as her father had been.
Though it frosted his ass, Kyle said, “Thanks,” and turned for the door.
“I’m relieving you of duty for the next twenty-four hours,” Cole called to him just as he stepped into the hall. “Go, make sure she’s safe. Bring her back ’cause I want to meet the woman who brought down the mighty Kyle Rossini.”
Kyle froze, biting back a snarl. “You know I’d kick your ass if you weren’t still injured, right?”
Cole snorted. “You could try, old man.”
Kyle left to talk to Kaine without responding to that jab.
He didn’t have a decent response and he didn’t want to tell his recently almost-deceased king to shut the fuck up.
* * * * *
An hour later, he sat outside the Shillington building where Tam had taken an apartment under the name Amy Jacoby.
When she’d left two weeks ago, she’d headed for the bus station in Reading and bought a ticket for Philadelphia with her credit card. But she hadn’t used the ticket. Instead, she’d disappeared for a few days before renting this apartment.
She hadn’t gone far. She hadn’t used her own name and she’d paid cash. All smart choices for someone who wanted to lose herself.
She didn’t have a job, rarely left her apartment and wouldn’t have made a blip on Kaine’s radar except for the fact that the tracker was extraordinarily thorough. She’d meticulously culled through apartment and hotel registrations in an ever-widening circle, checking out every single one since Tam had left and continuing to check at the beginning of every week.
Kyle owed Kaine big time.
Tam probably wouldn’t agree.
Which was why he was still sitting in the Jeep. He’d already made a sweep of the area and had seen nothing and no one to set off his internal danger meter.
Her apartment was on the second floor of a building along the small town’s main street. He’d already checked out the area. Quiet, settled and practically deserted at around seven in the evening. Traffic on Lancaster Avenue was light and the only people he saw were a few kids riding their bikes along the sidewalk.
The entrance on the side of the building opened into a stairway leading to the second- and third-floor apartments. A small shoe shop occupied the first floor of the older building. The plaque on the outside wall said the building had formerly been a hotel.
The lock on the outside door wouldn’t take much to jimmy, which pissed him off. Anyone could walk right in.
He wanted to storm up the stairs, throw her over his shoulder and take her back to his house.
She’d want his head on a stick if he did.
So here he sat, watching her door.
After she’d left, it’d taken him two weeks, but he’d finally, grudgingly realized that Tam had had an understandable reason for running.
Just as he had his own for tracking her down. She was meant to be his. Every sense he had tied him to her in knots.
If that gave her the power to control his wolf, he was willing to give that up to her.
Willingly. Because he wanted her safe.
And if Kaine had finally found her, the woman who was after Tam would eventually find her too.
Kyle would not wait around for that to happen.
After picking the outside lock, he took the stairs two at a time. He didn’t give himself any more time to think, just knocked on the door.
He heard her approach, caught her sweet scent tinged with fear, then heard her lean in close to the door and check the peephole.
She was being careful. Good.
Still, if he was here to hurt her, it wouldn’t take much for someone to kick in the door. Hands clenched at his sides, he forced himself to keep his mouth shut, to not demand she open the door.
When he finally heard the deadbolt slide free, he released the breath he’d been holding.
And when she opened the door, her pale blue eyes filling with tears, he reached for her before he considered his options. Actually, there were no other options. He needed to hold her, feel her warmth and the rise and fall of her chest against his.
Her arms wound around his neck as he lifted her off her feet, her face pressing into the curve of his neck. Pushing through the door, he closed and locked it behind him with one hand while the other held onto her.
Tinia’s teat, she’d lost weight. Her slight frame felt even tinier against him now, more fragile. He wanted to hold her tighter but was literally afraid to hurt her. She didn’t seem to have any qualms, though, as her arms tightened around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist.
Standing there with her clinging to him, he slid his fingers into her hair and tugged un
til she lifted her face from his neck.
The tears now running down her neck made him groan and he sealed their mouths together and kissed her. She tasted hot and salty, her tears slicking their lips.
He got lost in her kiss, forgot what he wanted to say, what he needed to say. Emotion roared up, hot as a solar flare, threatening to incinerate his good sense.
His mouth opened over hers, his tongue pressing past her lips. Her tongue slid along his as she started to devour him.
Her bare legs felt like a heated vise around his waist, the warmth of her sex burned through her denim shorts against his lower stomach. Wrapped tight to him, she didn’t fall when he released her waist to cup her ass, his fingers grazing the back of one smooth thigh.
She moaned at the brush of his fingers and tilted her pelvis until the seam of her shorts brushed against the tip of his hard, aching cock.
He wanted a bed, needed to have her spread out beneath him, completely covered by his body. Safe. His.
With a gasp, she pulled away. Her eyes wide, she shook her head, as if trying to clear her head. “Did you catch whoever’s after me?”
He shook his head and tightened his hold on her when he felt her loosen her legs. “No, we haven’t, but running isn’t the answer. You need to be with me. I can’t protect you if you’re not with me.”
She kept shaking her head, her eyes closing in denial. “I can’t be with you until you catch whoever’s after me. I don’t want you to get hurt. Don’t you understand? If you’re with me, you’re going to be shot.”
He wanted to shake her until she saw her error, until she agreed to what he wanted. Didn’t want to admire her willingness to do what she thought was right to keep him safe. Even if she was off the mark.
Putting one hand on her chin, he forced her to look up at him. “And don’t you understand that no matter what, you’re safer with me? Gods damn it, Tam, I love you. If anything happens to you, it’ll kill me.”
Her expression went completely slack with shock, her lips parting to draw in a short gasp. Shit, not exactly the response he’d expected when he told her he loved her. Something he’d never said to a woman before. And wouldn’t again.
Kiss of Moonlight Page 14
