Two days later, a cool breeze wafted in through the bedroom window as Tess sat motionless in the middle of the floor. Her legs were crossed, hands on her knees, back straight, head forward. She stared at a tiny speck on the wall beneath the open window.
She took a cleansing breath in. Held it, slowly let it out. Repeated this for the umpteenth time. The wind picked up outside, the Santa Ana breezes stirring up pollen, dust and trouble. The unsettling air tore her attention away from the focal point she’d tried to maintain for the last twenty minutes.
Trouble. She was shoulder-deep in it.
The digital numbers on the clock next to her bed said 8:26. Three hours and thirty-four minutes until Friday. Not that she was counting.
The elimination she’d been assigned to take over for Francesca turned out to be more difficult than she thought. It had taken the entire allotted time. Not because she’d lost her touch. No. She was still the best goddamn eliminator out there. She could have had the deed done in the first few hours. No one would have been the wiser. There was just one problem.
She didn’t want to do it.
She couldn’t bring herself to kill him.
The him was a forty-something working-class man and demon. He owned his own business, had a family and yes, had done some nasty things.
But he wanted to change.
When Tess had caught him earlier that evening in the act of stealing a man’s soul in the alley behind his small Italian restaurant, he’d slumped to the ground and confessed his sins…
“I can’t help myself, Tess. I want to better myself and what better way than taking the good I see in others?”
“You’re killing innocents, George,” she answered.
“I know,” he groaned, “I’m cursed. If my wife finds out, she’ll divorce me. My kids won’t want to see me. I’ve been trying to stop, really I have, but the devil won’t let me. Says I traded my soul to marry the love of my life.”
She looked down at him, his potbelly stomach hanging over his belt. “Did you?”
“Of course I did. But that’s beside the point.”
“What’s the point then?”
He pushed himself up against the brick wall, but still his double chin was evident. “True love.”
“Come again?”
“I want to be a better man for my wife. I want the goodness in me to overcome the demon. To beat it. What the hell did I know twenty years ago when I agreed to the deal? All I knew was that I was madly in love and would do anything to marry her.” He took a deep breath, looked up at her with reminiscent eyes. “There was another man, you know. A better man than me. He had money. Lots of it. She would have left me for him.”
Tess felt sorry for the guy. “How do you know?”
“Just a feeling I had. In case you haven’t noticed, I still don’t have much self confidence.”
“So you bargained with the devil.”
“She was my sunshine, my rainbow on a cloudy day. The way her eyes sparkled made me weak in the knees. She laughed at all my jokes. Liked her pizza the same way I do. Zucchini and pineapple.”
“Yuck.” Tess liked her pizza with mushrooms and red onions.
“I had to have her. It would have killed me if she walked away. So you see, I had no choice.” There was no mistaking the sadness in his voice.
“There’s always a choice,” she replied.
One of the cooks poked his head out the screen door. “We’re getting low on provolone, boss. You want I should switch the special to mozzarella?”
“Sure,” George answered. “Whatever you think.”
The screen slammed shut with a thud. George flinched.
As usual, Tess didn’t know who had put the hit out on George, but she wasn’t sure he deserved to die. Be punished, yes. Stealing souls was so not okay. But however messed up his reasons were, they were sort of unselfish. He did it for love. Yes, he cheated and molded his wife’s free will to fit his own desires, but love made people do stupid things. And the marriage was still working and they had children together.
Still, she had a job to do and it was now or never.
His head lolled forward into his hands. Perfect. She couldn’t ask for a better position. She pulled out the small sword from underneath the back of her shirt, knowing it would take all of two seconds to slice it through his neck and be done with it.
There was just one problem. When she lifted the sword ready to swing, her arms started to shake, sweat dripped from her temples, and her conscience screamed for her to pause, to think about what she was about to do. The man was hopelessly in love. She couldn’t fault him that.
But this wasn’t about him.
It was about her.
She didn’t want to kill anymore. Regardless of what George had done or if his sins were pardonable, she didn’t want to be the one to end his life. She didn’t want blood on her hands anymore. She had a choice to make and she wanted to stop. Stop eliminating.
He looked up and his eyes bugged out, his mouth opened wide, beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face. “What are you doing?”
Tess lowered the sword. She grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him up. “Listen carefully,” she demanded, pushing his back against the wall. “Someone wants you dead. You need to call up the Devil and make a new deal. Plus, you need to get out of town. For good. And when you leave you need to promise me no more soul stealing. I know people who can keep tabs on you and if I find out you’ve stolen another soul, I’ll tell the Devil myself to take care of you. Do you hear me? Can you do that?”
“I-I don’t know,” he mumbled.
“Wrong answer. You don’t have a choice. It’s the Devil or me. Take your pick.” She lifted the sword and hoped since she was currently George’s most pressing threat, he’d wise up. He didn’t know she had no intention of killing him.
He shook, blinked a hundred times, worried his bottom lip. For a demon, he sure was a wuss.
“Wait.” He raised his arm in defense. “I can do that.”
She pressed her arm against his chest. “You sure? Because if I let you go, I could be dead.” Fuck. What was happening to her?
“I got it.” He pushed back, finally showing some backbone. “That soul I just took must be working. I won’t let you down.”
Sirens blaring in the distance brought Tess back to the present. God, she hoped George had kept his word and left town.
She glanced back around her bedroom and her thoughts shifted to San Diego. There hadn’t been time to get there, and now she wondered if she really wanted to. Hearing George’s devotion to his wife had sent her mind reeling in a direction she’d tried hard the past two days to forget.
Her feelings for Hugh were true, honest, life altering. She’d realized over the past forty-eight hours that discovering who Jason’s killer was and why he’d died wasn’t as important as figuring out how to save Hugh.
She’d risk her life to save his, and get to the bottom of the Wolf Seekers’ vengeance on the Night Runners.
The numbers on the clock flipped to 8:30.
She had less than twenty-eight hours.
Chapter Fifteen
One emergency after another befell Hugh and he hadn’t had a moment to spare since Tess walked out on him. He hadn’t gone to San Diego. Hadn’t had more than ten minutes to talk to Trey. Hadn’t had an attempt made on his life.
Where was she?
He sat at his desk logging in the day’s flights and wished like hell he could stop thinking about her. Stop remembering her taste, her scent. Stop remembering how his life had more meaning with her in it. No matter how hard he fought it, he couldn’t shake her from his head.
Or his heart.
It was pointless trying to explain away his feelings. He’d tried rationalizing it was because she’d saved his life. But that wasn’t it. He’d fallen for her the minute he’d laid eyes on her across the crowded bar. A force positively lethal had slammed into him, causing every hair on his body to stand on edge, and
he knew—knew—she was his mate. His body had never reacted with such keen awareness, such desperate need, to anyone before. She’d sucked the air right out of him, taken his senses and wreaked havoc with them.
He didn’t want to love her. He didn’t want to love anybody. He saw what love did to his brother. Yet he couldn’t help it.
When he looked down at the papers on his desk, he noticed his notations looked like chicken scratch. Writing anything coherent wouldn’t happen as long as his brain was stuck on Tess.
Before Gavin had left a half hour ago, he’d tried to convince Hugh to leave for his vacation, take the next week off, head to the Rockies and forget about all the shit clogging his head. His partner had used those exact words, reading Hugh like an open book. Never before had anyone seen through his exterior, not even his brother. Which meant Tess had infiltrated every cell of his body to the point he couldn’t pretend it didn’t matter that he missed her something crazy. That he didn’t want another minute to pass without her by his side.
For a guy who prided himself on not needing anyone, that was a heavy-duty admission.
The pen in his hand snapped in two, and with a low growl, he reached for another. Maybe the vacation was a good idea. If anything could get his mind off the heartache he suffered, it was time spent in the mountains. Running. Running until his lungs burned. His legs shook. His goddamn head cleared.
I’m a fool if I think I’ll ever shake her. She lives inside me. Always will.
Maybe it wasn’t too late to go to San Diego and find Dobson. He needed to remind himself he had the pack to look after. While things had been quiet the past two days, that by no means meant trouble wasn’t still lurking. In the back of his mind, he sensed sooner or later the Wolf Seekers would strike again. Whatever goal they were after, they hadn’t reached it yet, and the more information Hugh had, the better prepared he and his pack would be. That meant finding Dobson was as important to him as it was to Tess. There was a connection there he didn’t understand, and before he left to go anywhere, he needed to figure out what that was.
His phone rang. He startled and broke another pen. “Langston.”
“Hugh, it’s Trey. You got a minute?”
He did, finally. “Yeah. What’s up?”
“I’ve got some more information on Dobson.”
“Shoot.” Perfect timing, he thought. Did the information concern Tess as well?
“There’s some sort of meeting going down in San Diego tomorrow night. I’m not sure who all the players are, but my source tells me Dobson will be there. Supposedly, he’s playing both sides and hell if anyone knows why. It’s also very likely that the name Dobson is an alias used in connection with the Wolf Seekers. Because of that, I can’t confirm if he’s wolfen. At any rate, the hotel information I gave you before is accurate so I thought you should know.”
Hugh knew Dobson was a wolfen. Tess wouldn’t make a mistake about that. “Thanks, Trey.”
“You going to head down there?”
“I am. You keep an eye on things here.” Every instinct told him Tess would be at that meeting, and if she were there, he’d be there too.
“Will do,” Trey said with confidence.
Hugh appreciated his apprentice’s dedication to the pack. The younger wolfen took things seriously, understood loyalty and was bound by his word. Hugh trusted him, had faith in him. “I’ll be back sometime Saturday to check in.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.” He disconnected the line and stood. His fingers punched in directory information on his cell. Two minutes later, he had a reservation at the US Grant Hotel. He took the only room available—a suite. If he left now, he’d be in San Diego before midnight, get some sleep, and get to work on uncovering the mystery behind Dobson first thing in the morning.
He closed up his office, headed into Gavin’s, and left his partner a note. On his way to the reception area, he caught a scent that nearly knocked him to his knees. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, his heart rammed into his chest, every tired bone in his body woke up.
Tess.
She sat on the couch wearing light blue jeans and a white T-shirt with some flowery design on the chest. Her posture was stiff, her legs planted at a ninety-degree angle. Her hands were folded in her lap, and her sinfully beautiful lips were trembling.
Electricity stroked the air between them, the energy in the room enough to ignite a flame. The vibe had his blood bubbling, his desire for her skyrocketing. Seeing her again confirmed everything he feared. He couldn’t live without her.
Was she ready to live without him?
“You here on official business?” Shmuck. What the hell kind of greeting was that? A necessary one, he told himself. He needed to know her agenda so he could decide how best to approach the situation.
After a few moments of staring at each other, she said, “Yes and no.”
The best answer she could give under the circumstances, he supposed. Circumstances he needed to know every detail of if he planned get them out of this mess.
He strode to the couch and sat down, a magnetic force pulling him to within touching distance. His hand brushed aside the soft waves of hair on her shoulder. “You left the other day without saying goodbye.”
She leaned into his touch. “Sorry about that.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Tiny flecks of green sparkled in her blue eyes, stirring passion and protectiveness inside him.
Without asking permission, he leaned over and kissed her. Tenderly. Tentatively. He’d missed the taste of her, and didn’t want to waste another second just thinking about it. She reciprocated as if she’d missed him too. Thank God.
The image of the two of them naked on his office floor flashed through his mind as her lips slowly parted. Sex had never riled him to his core as it had with Tess, and he desperately wanted to feel her soft, sexy skin rubbing up against his again. And again. And again.
“Stop,” she breathed, her hand pressing against his chest. “We need to talk.”
“Talk later.” His own breathless voice gave away his true intentions. He captured her bottom lip in his teeth and playfully tugged.
Those impossibly long lashes of hers sent a tremor down his spine. Her attention stayed on the heated shimmer he knew his eyes held. And by the nibble she gave back, he knew she wanted to do much more than talk, but her baby blues begged conversation first.
It took everything he had to pull away. “I think I missed you.”
“You think?” She straightened herself, drew one leg up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shin.
“My brain’s a little foggy at the moment.” He scooted back to leave some space between them. One touch of her lips to his and her mouth was a drug he couldn’t get enough of.
She, on the other hand, played the situation very cool. Her lips formed a tight, thin line as if she were trying to will them to stay shut, and her chin jutted out just slightly. The only thing betraying her stoicism was the flush in her cheeks. And the nervous arousal he let the empathic part of him pick up on. He inwardly smiled.
“Because?” she said.
“Did you find Dobson?” he asked, not wanting to go into details about his private thoughts and feelings where she was concerned. He’d been in a goddamn haze since she’d disappeared. He shook his head, clearing the cobwebs.
“I didn’t have a chance. Another assignment came up.” Her eyes wandered to the floor, the reception desk, the tree in the corner. Everywhere but back to him.
Something had happened on the job. Had she made another mistake? He waited for her to elaborate, noticing she wrestled with how much more to tell him. Her lips parted, then pursed. Did it have to do with another wolf?
He took her hand. So much for keeping his distance. The pain on her face almost strangled the air out of him. “Want to talk about it?”
Finally, she connected to him, her gaze annihilating the hard shell he wore to protect himself. If anyone had tried to hu
rt her, he’d rip the person to shreds.
“I don’t want to kill anymore.” She’d looked him straight in the eye as she spoke, conceding, pleading, praying for the right to make her own decisions.
“Then don’t.” He knew she didn’t need a lecture. She needed assurance with as little interference as possible. They both hated being told what to do. He could no more force his opinion on her than she could on him.
“It’s not that easy.”
“Since when do you like easy?”
That got a slight smile out of her. “I let my mark go. Told him to disappear. I wasn’t sure he deserved to be eliminated.” Her thumb slid back and forth over his knuckles. “It was the first time I’ve done that—let my heart get in the way.”
“Second time,” Hugh said.
“What?”
“Second time you’ve questioned an assignment. You haven’t killed me yet, and I’d like to think it’s because—”
She moved with lightning speed and slammed her mouth into his. He nearly toppled over but regained his balance when his hands landed at her waist. Her kiss sent a rush of heat through him that permeated his bones. They kissed and sighed and moaned until she pulled away, leaving him in vital need of her all over again.
“Your expiration date is tomorrow,” she offered, settling back into the couch. “Now tell me what you’ve found out the past two days. Any news on Dobson or the Wolf Seekers?”
She made a habit of quick changes in subject matter, a defense mechanism he understood all too well. But at the moment he didn’t care. The smell and taste of her on his lips satisfied him enough to go along with it for now. She obviously didn’t want him to finish his sentence, and he didn’t want to push her too hard for answers. Not when, he suddenly realized, she had an agenda.
“Actually I just got a tip from Trey that there’s a meeting tomorrow night in San Diego. I’m heading there.” He stood and gave her his back. He didn’t want her to see the conflict on his face. Did he want her to come with him? Yes and no. Yes because he knew how important it was for her to find Dobson and put some closure to what she felt she owed Jason. No because he didn’t want her in any sort of danger.
Veiled Target (A Veilers Novel) Page 22
