by Leilani Love
There was no guarantee how long the men would be knocked out, so she looked for something to use to tie them up. Not seeing anything useful, she grabbed the knife she’d seen hanging on the first guard’s belt and used it to tear up the sheets. She tied them both up quickly, hands behind their backs as well as their feet.
With a deep breath, Kassandra slowly opened the bedroom door. Downstairs, she heard one of the guards say something that made her blood run cold.
“Stupid bitch would go into labor now.”
Kassandra quickly crept down the stairs, listening to Alyssa’s heavy breathing. They were human so she didn’t have to worry about them smelling her. She used her ability to make her practically invisible to the naked eye. To be completely invisible, she would need to stand still. She would just have to hope that the guard’s downstairs didn’t notice her slight movement.
“You should have thought about that before you kidnapped a pregnant woman, dumbass.” Alyssa growled as she continued to pant.
Kassandra fought the urge to rush down the stairs, hoping that Alyssa could keep calm until she’d taken care of both guards. Each step careful and light, she made her way down the stairs. She would need to take care of Alyssa’s guard and make sure she was not seen by the one in the office with Robert.
When she reached the bottom, Alyssa stared at her in wonder, causing the guard to look in her direction.
“What are you staring at?” he asked, turning around.
“A dead man,” Alyssa said with a smirk. Kassandra found herself smiling. If she wasn’t in labor and tied to a chair, Alyssa would have ripped the guard to shreds.
The guard walked past Alyssa to look up the stairs. From here, no one in the office could see him, so Kassandra had to move fast. In one swift movement, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a triangle hold, squeezing tight. He struggled in her arms, trying to hit her, and Kassandra pulled tighter. If he didn’t black out soon, she’d have to snap his neck. When she felt him sag against her, she sighed in relief and lowered him to the floor.
A quick glance at Alyssa showed her surprise, but the fact that she was breathing heavier and making more noise than earlier helped Kassandra. There was no path that would keep her out of sight from the doorway completely, so Kassandra did her best to be quick. The more she moved, the harder it was to stay invisible. It was described as a shimmer when she moved too quickly and Kassandra hoped the guard didn’t notice.
Kassandra almost swore out loud when the floor creaked under her and the guard looked in her direction. Kassandra shapeshifted from a shimmer to woman, and charged the guard.
Using the element of surprise, Kassandra grabbed the arm holding the gun. The gun went off as his arm swung wide missing both her and Robert. Somewhere, she heard a crash. Ignoring it, she slammed the guard into the desk and whacked his arm several times until she heard the gun hit the floor. A whimper from Alyssa caused Kassandra to pause, just long enough for the guard to pull his arm free and punch her in the jaw.
The punch landed hard, and she stumbled backward. As she struggled to regain her footing, a loud growl sounded behind her and Robert flew at the guard. Kassandra took the opportunity to rush to Alyssa’s side.
“You have to tie him up before he comes to,” said Alyssa, indicating the guard on the ground.
“I will, just let me cut you free,” Kassandra said. She lengthened her nails and sliced through Alyssa’s ropes. She looked at Alyssa and grabbed some of the discarded rope. “Take deep, calming breaths—I’ll be right back.” Kassandra said, trying to sound reassuring as she grabbed the rope that was left when they’d tied up Alyssa.
The guard’s breath was returning to normal, and Kassandra made quick work of hog-tying him, leaving him unconscious on the floor. When she returned to Alyssa, Robert was standing over her.
Before she could finish tying the guard up, Robert was there next to her. “We need to get you to the hospital,” Robert said, his voiced laced with worry.
Kassandra tried to give them both a reassuring smile. “Robert, the guard in the office…”
“Won’t be a problem.” His brown eyes met hers, and she saw a flash of remorse. She nodded.
“Robert, your baby is coming now. We don’t have time to get to the hospital.” Alyssa said before she screamed in pain.
CHAPTER 28
There was no way even running all the lights, he could possibly get back to the bar before John was expected to call back. Robert and Alyssa where both tied up, leaving Kassandra with armed gunmen. He knew the second they left the two guarding her would try to kill her. If they laid one hand on her, he would rip them both to shreds.
“We will get to them in time,” Hope said sitting next to him. Her voice full of doubt and the only acknowledgment he gave that he heard her was a grunt.
Kassandra can’t be dead. With their connection, Damien would know. His wolf would know. He pulled up to the bar and flung open his door. When he and Hope got to the front entrance, the soft whimper of a baby crying stopped them in their tracks.
He pushed past the door and saw a space in the middle of the floor where all the tables had been moved aside. Robert was holding Alyssa between his legs, and in her arms, wrapped in what looked to be one of the bar shirts, a tiny head poked out. As Damien smiled, the baby scrunched up its face and let out a loud cry.
Robert and Alyssa both laughed and smiled at him. A movement coming from his office door caught his eye and he smiled when he saw Kassandra emerging with a rag in her hand. “I called an ambulance and it’ll be here soon to bring Mommy and baby to the hospital.” Kassandra smiled. “The baby decided to come before we could rescue you.”
The sound of Hope’s soft laughter behind him, brought him back to the present situation. Kassandra knelt beside Alyssa, smiling as Alyssa handed her the baby to clean. Images of her holding their baby flashed before Damien’s eyes and he felt Hope’s hand on his arm. Her bright smile told him she knew exactly what he was thinking. She was happy, but underneath it he could feel her sadness and he gave her a small smile. They would talk about what John said after Alyssa was in the hospital. He didn’t want to ruin this moment or give his sister false hope.
“Come check out your nephew,” Alyssa said. Kassandra stood and carefully transferred the baby to his arms. Her eyes met his and in that moment he knew he could never let her go. “The guards?”
“Your mate there took them out,” Robert said with a big grin.
He raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. Kassandra shook her head. “Not all of them. Robert did help.”
The ambulance sounded outside and Damien decided to hold off on more questions until after the paramedics left. Hope went to the door, opening it just as the paramedics got there with their gurney. Damien handed over the baby, letting one of the paramedics check it while the other checked to make sure the mother was okay. Robert picked her up and put her on the gurney much to the paramedics’ dismay.
“We’ll meet you both in the hospital in a little bit,” Damien said as he patted his friend on the back. “He’s beautiful.”
Robert grinned and glanced at Kassandra before getting into the ambulance. “Things would have turned out differently if your mate wasn’t here,” he whispered, so the paramedics wouldn’t hear them.
Kassandra was standing back with Hope, watching them load up Alyssa and the baby into the ambulance, a small smile on her face when she turned and looked at him. After they got Alyssa into the ambulance, Robert followed her in. The driver closed the door and they all stood outside watching the ambulance leave.
They stood outside, watching as it pulled out of the parking lot before walking back into the bar. Damien looked around, frowning. “Where are the guards?”
Kassandra managed to both smile and blush at the same time, which Damien found adorable. “Three of them are tied up, and the other is hidden in the supply closet.”
“Are they all…”
Kassandra shook her head. “The ones upstairs
are all alive,” she whispered.
Giving in to the need to touch her, he approached her and stroked her jaw where he noticed it swelling, “Are you okay?” Damien asked between gritted teeth. He wanted to kill every one of the men who dared touch his mate, but the need to take care of Kat was stronger.
Her green eyes softened and she lightly cupped his cheek, taking him by surprise. “Better now. I wanted to go after you, but Alyssa was in labor before I came downstairs. The baby wasn’t waiting to come out.”
Damien kissed her. It was supposed to be a soft kiss, but as she wrapped her arms around his neck, he pulled her against him and thrust his tongue deep inside her mouth.
“Ahem.” A loud throat clearing caused him to stop and he couldn’t help the feeling of masculine pride as his mate held him tighter, her irregular breathing matching his own. Damien looked over to see Hope standing behind Kassandra, smiling at him. Not wanting to let go of Kassandra just yet, he kept one arm around her as he looked at his sister.
“I’m glad you two seem to be working it out, despite my brother’s best attempt at ruining it.” Hope said, giving Damien a knowing look, “but why did those guys want our mother’s journal? And what are we going to do about them?” Hope went around the bar and handed them both ice packs that Damien kept stashed away for nights that the bar had gotten rowdy.
“John seemed to be under the impression that our mother is alive and that the key to finding her is somewhere in her journal,” Damien said, watching his sister’s reaction.
At first, he didn’t think Hope had heard him. Then he felt her response through their connection. Her pain was so intense, it almost brought him to his knees. Hope swallowed, her eyes locked on his. “What else did he say?”
Damien was her big brother, her protector, and he wanted nothing more than to keep his mouth shut right now. But she deserved to know the truth. “That we didn’t know what really happened as far as our pack goes.”
A single tear slid down Hope’s cheek and Damien went to comfort her. He knew she still dreamt of Warrick. They never spoke of it, but when they were little he would hear her crying while she slept, and he would go into her room and hold her. In those moments he could see her dreams.
Kassandra put her hand on his back and gently moved him aside. Kassandra embraced Hope, whispering encouraging words in her ear. Hope hardly cried and her emotional state worried Damien. Since meeting Kassandra, he’d finally understood what his sister had been saying about wanting someone on a level beyond the physical. To have been so young and to have had her mate torn from her, was something Damien could barely begin to understand.
Was John right? Did they not know what happened to Warrick? Damien shook his head. John must have just been trying to confuse him. The people of his pack who had escaped and made their way to Lazzaro, had told them Warrick was holding a tight grip on both clans, and abusing them.
With a deep, shuddering breath, Hope straightened up and wiped the tears from her cheek. Never one to be weak, she squared her shoulders and gave Damien an uncompromising look. “We are saving our people and finding our mother.”
All he could do was nod. There was no arguing with his sister when she’d made a decision. From now on, Damien would no longer be allowed to sit back and hide.
Kassandra looked at them both. “Before we do that, we should try to find out exactly what these guys know and maybe get some help.”
The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. His mate was a warrior and she stood like a queen waiting for him to agree with her. “What are you thinking?” he finally asked.
“We need to get rid of the body so it’s never found. We should also get those guys upstairs to a safe house for questioning. I’m not worried about them going to the cops, but we don’t want someone just finding them and having to explain why we have them tied up.”
The speed of her ideas surprised him a bit. “How often do you tie up guys for information?”
Her lips twitched. “Not as often as I’d like, to be honest.”
“We’ll be talking about that later,” he said with a smile. Becoming more serious, he looked toward the front door. They would need to be quick. His staff would be showing up in two hours to open up. He would also need to call Jacob to come in and help set up since Robert would be off.
“Hope, why don’t you check the back? See if there’re any vehicles and if they have keys in them while we bring the guards down. We don’t have much time—my staff will be here soon.” Hope nodded and left. “Kitty Kat, why don’t you come with me?”
He and Kassandra quietly ascended the stairs. Pausing in front of the bedroom door, they heard a soft squeak. Damien thrust open the door.
“Damien, you stop him! I’ll go after the other one outside,” Kassandra cried when she saw the drummer halfway out the window, assisted by the other guard. She pivoted and headed down the stairs.
Nathan, the drummer was trying to scramble out the window and was more than halfway out when Damien grabbed him by the calf. His nails lengthened holding him tight as the guy struggled to free himself and get onto the ledge. Damien reached out with his other hand grabbing his shirt and roughly pulled him back into the room.
Nathan struggled, trying to grab hold of whatever he could to stop Damien from pulling him back inside. Damien pulled so hard that the man lost his grip on the window sill and hit the floor hard. Before he could get up, Damien grabbed him by his shirt and jerked him to his feet. There wasn’t much to tie him up with and Damien hoped that there was something downstairs he could use as he dragged the drummer with him.
“Not so brave against a man as you are against a pregnant woman, are you?” he asked as he quickly tied him up, using Robert’s old ropes.
Nathan’s cold, dark eyes narrowed as he leaned forward. “I should have shot that pregnant bitch before she gave birth to yet another abomination.”
Damien’s fist connected with his face so hard he could hear the sound of his nose breaking. Blood streamed down his face. If he didn’t walk away now, he would kill him. Damien exited the office and nearly collided with Kassandra and Hope as they came through the back door.
“I should have checked them for weapons before I left them, but I was worried about Alyssa,” Kassandra said, looking defeated.
Damien pulled her into his arms, kissing her nose “You did the right thing. Alyssa and the baby were more important.”
“Damien, can you take the body from the closet and lock it upstairs while we figure out what to do with him?” Hope asked. “Then you two take that one to the house while I try to clean up the bar before the staff gets here. I’ll meet you at your place afterwards.”
Damien nodded and set about the grim task of dragging the body upstairs. Once he’d locked the body upstairs, he sent a text to Jacob letting him know that Alyssa had the baby and Robert wouldn’t be in tonight. Checking first to make sure Hope had everything under control, he gave her the keys to his truck. John’s SUV, with its dark tinted windows and backseat, would be the best way to transport the reluctant prisoner.
CHAPTER 29
The drive home was quiet. Kassandra had a thousand questions, but didn’t think asking them in front of their backseat captive was prudent. When they got to Damien’s, Kassandra heard him swear under his breath. When she looked at him he mumbled, “Garage door opener is in the truck.”
“Here I’ll get it,” she said as she held up her hand for him to give her the key. Kassandra got out and let herself into his house, moving to the garage to open the door for him. As he pulled in, Kassandra lowered the door, allowing Damien to drag the drummer inside.
“Here, watch him for a minute,” Damien said. “I think I’ve got some better restraints out in the shed.”
With that he walked out, leaving her alone with the drummer. His dark eyes shadowed her. “You realize you’re sleeping with an animal, right? He should be put down and you for sleeping with him. What kind of sick whore goes around sleeping with animals
?”
Kassandra’s fury threatened to boil over. She couldn’t shift in Damien’s living room, but she could allow her dragon near the surface.
His eyes widened. “What the fuck are you?”
She chuckled. “I’m the girl who kicked your ass earlier, and if you keep insisting on saying mean things about my mate, I’ll be the dragon who eats you.”
He paled at her words, but Kassandra could feel his hatred increase.
“Figures you animals would find each other,” he muttered.
Just then Damien walked in; from the look on his face, Kassandra knew he’d heard the drummer’s last comment. Without a single word, he grabbed the drummer’s hands and put them in flex cuffs behind his back, then dragged him to what looked like a giant closet under the stairs.
When Damien finished, Kassandra raised an eyebrow. “Is locking someone up in your house so common?”
Damien chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Lazzaro always warned us to be careful, and insisted that we be prepared. He recommended I build something for those ‘just in case’ moments.”
He said those last words with a slight accent and she smiled, picturing the Vampire King lecturing him on security. Damien gently touched her jaw. It was slightly tender, but hurt less than earlier.
“I should kill him for touching you,” he said softly.
Kassandra shook her head. “He’s not worth it,” she whispered.
He paused a few beats, then finally nodded and brushed his lips against hers. “I need to go to Hope’s to bring John here. I didn’t want to risk dragging him around town.”
He pulled her close for a kiss. When he pulled back, she bit her lip to keep from whimpering.
“Promise me you’ll be here when I get back,” he said.
“I promise.” Kassandra said giving him a teasing grin.
