by Wendy Vella
Vision Of Danger
A Sinclair & Raven Novel
Wendy Vella
Copyright © 2018 by Wendy Vella
All rights reserved.
No part of VISION OF DANGER may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This one is for my friends… you know who you are!
“A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.”
-Winnie-the-Pooh
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Thank You!
Sneak Peek
About the Author
Other Books By Wendy Vella
Foreword
A wounded hero living in the dark…
Wounded war hero Captain Wolf Sinclair has recovered physically from the hell he endured fighting for his country, but in his head, he still exists in the dark. Living among a big, boisterous family allows him somewhere to hide, until the day Rose Abernethy storms into his life.
She challenges him, makes him feel again.
Soon he’s addicted to her touch, and her kisses have him wanting more. But danger stalks her, and Wolf realizes he must keep her safe because in Rose he’s found someone to help free him from his demons.
Is she the one to bring him into the light…
Rose is a runaway. The life she’d always known changed with the death of her aunt, and she was forced to flee Scotland. She chose the big city of London to hide in. But hiding isn’t an option when your life is in danger, and the big, handsome Captain Sinclair becomes your guardian angel.
She battles her growing need for the man who is from a different world. A world where money and status are everything.
The closer she gets to him, the more she realizes he’s fighting his past, and Rose knows that helping him heal is important to her, especially as she’s given him her heart.
*All books in this series are standalone stories with an HEA.
BOOKS IN THE SINCLAIR & RAVEN SERIES
Sensing Danger
Seeing Danger
Touched By Danger
Scent Of Danger
Vision Of Danger
Would you like to know when my next book is available? Sign up for my new release mailing list at www.wendyvella.com or visit me on Facebook www.facebook.com/AuthorWendyVella
Prologue
It is said that when lowly Baron Sinclair saved the powerful Duke of Raven from certain death in 1335 by single-handedly killing the three men who attacked his carriage, King Edward III was grateful. Raven was a wise and sage counsel he had no wish to lose, therefore, he rewarded Sinclair with the land that sat at the base of Raven Mountain. Having shown himself capable of the duty, Baron Sinclair was now, in the eyes of the King, to be the official protector of the Ravens.
Over the years the tale has changed and grown as many do. There were rumors of strange occurrences when a Sinclair saved a Raven in the years that followed. Unexplained occurrences that caused many to wonder what it was that the Sinclairs were hiding, but one thing that never changed was their unwavering duty in the task King Edward III had bestowed upon them.
To honor and protect the Raven family was the Sinclair family creed.
Chapter 1
Wolf Sinclair rubbed his thigh hard to knead out the knot in the muscles.
“Is it aching again?”
“A bit.”
“You barely have a limp now.”
“Essie’s exercises have helped, as have her medicines.”
Wolf was on his way to an appointment with his solicitors, and the man at his side, his cousin, was doing the same. It just so happened they had met en route, so were riding partway together. Although now he thought on it, there was no way his cousin would go this way to reach his destination.
“May I ask how your route to the docks took you past my lodgings?”
“I had to visit someone else first.”
“Who?”
“Someone. You don’t know of him.” Dev whistled softly, which made Apollo, Wolf’s horse’s ears twitch.
“Do you miss me so much that a day or two cannot pass without an invasion?”
“Invasion? Surely that is overstating the matter? We come in pairs or singly, never as a group.”
Wolf looked at the road ahead and let his thoughts go back over the last few months since he’d moved into his own rooms.
“I had thought it was just a matter of a family member passing by and deciding to call in, but now I think on it, you have actually been checking on me, haven’t you... all of you. The question is why?”
“How is your head?”
“Pardon?” He shot Lord Sinclair, the eldest of their clan, a look, and saw his own face staring calmly back at him. They were the most similar, even though they were not siblings.
“Your head.” Dev knocked his knuckles against the side of his own. “Large, empty cavern that sits on your shoulders.”
“I know where my head is, I just don’t understand the question. For that matter, you have yet to answer mine.”
“Yes, we have been keeping an eye on you. Now tell me how your head is?”
Having been a military man also, Dev rode with his broad shoulders back, like Wolf, and sat his horse well after many, many years of practice.
“And I state again, I do not understand the question,” Wolf said calmly.
He did though, he just hadn’t thought any of his cousins had realized that what he carried in there was sometimes dark and angry.
“No need to get testy.”
“There is every bloody need to get testy,” Wolf snapped before he could stop himself. “We’ve never discussed my head in the months I’ve been back, and you choose now. There is also the matter of this bloody intervention!”
“When would have been a better time to discuss your head? A family celebration or gathering? Perhaps at a social func—”
“Not at all would be my preference, as there is nothing to discuss.”
“You’re lying to me... us, and it took Essie to show me that. You have demons, Wolf, as do many of us, But I hadn’t noticed how deep-seated they were. So now, with my sister’s prodding, I felt it was time to exorcise them.”
Christ.
“If you pull out a cross and a garlic necklace, I’m shooting you.” Wolf went for levity.
“Essie says you are not sleeping, and that you hide your troubles well. Care to share them with me?”
Dev was the eldest of the Sinclairs and took that responsibility seriously. Since Wolf had joined his pack, so to speak, he was now under his wing too. Usually he did not mind that, as he’d never had a brother, a
nd had been the head of his own family for some time. Now he found it annoyed him immensely.
“I have nothing to share.”
Dev threw him a look that he ignored. Wolf’s demons were his problem, not his family’s.
“Remember both James and I went away to war.”
“I remember.”
“It helped us to speak of that time.”
“And yet I have no wish to.”
Just thinking about those days made his heartbeat accelerate. The blood, noise, and pain were his memories, especially in the last few days he’d been a solider.
“Should you ever wish to, then my ears are yours.”
“Thank you, but I do not need them. Keep them for controlling your family.”
“I have been controlling my family for years with little effort; I can do so and lend you my ears.”
“Oh now, we both know that’s a lie.” Wolf attempted to change the subject. “Your family is like a herd of rampaging bovine and cannot be controlled.”
Dev snorted. “All true. Still—”
“No more, Dev.” Something in his tone had his cousin falling silent, but Wolf knew it would be a brief respite.
He felt Dev’s penetrating stare burning into his cheek, but kept his eyes forward.
“Very well, I shall leave it there, but I reiterate, should you need any one of us we are here for you, as you are for us.”
“I know this, and thank you for it.” Wolf gave an abrupt nod.
“Have a good meeting then, cousin, with your solicitors, and for God’s sake don’t let that bloody black beast stomp on anyone.”
Apollo threw his head up as Dev pointed at him, almost as if he knew they were discussing him.
“My horse does not stomp on people. He is well trained, unlike that heathen you ride. Show Dev how much you like him, Apollo.”
Wolf laughed as his stallion’s large black head turned and nipped Dev’s boot. His cousin cursed and lifted his leg; his horse shied, nearly unseating him.
“Oh I do apologize, my lord. Naughty boy, Apollo,” Wolf drawled.
Dev gave him a glare, his eyes full of color, and then threw Wolf a smile. The Sinclairs did not stay angry long.
“Good day, cousin.”
“Cousin.” Wolf nodded.
Using his legs, he turned Apollo right. This path would take him through one of the less desirable areas of London, and yet it took at least twenty minutes off his journey, so he took it.
He’d risen before dawn, left his lodgings, and made for the stables, where he’d mounted Apollo and ridden hard to ease the tension a night of tossing and turning had left him with.
The war had changed Wolf. Before his last campaign he’d been a man with a positive nature. A man who saw the good in life. But what he’d endured in the month before he’d been shot in the thigh had changed him irreparably. Until today, he’d believed he was the only one who knew that.
Apparently not.
He was happy for the most part. Content? Well that was something he was working on. Driven was perhaps the best way to describe him. Suffering as he had, made him strive continually for things that he hoped would fill the void inside him. As yet he’d not achieved his goal.
Apollo threw his head in the air suddenly, and Wolf felt it. The shiver of awareness that signaled something was not as it should be. Tension gripped him, and beneath him the stallion started prancing, throwing his head to the left this time.
“’Ere, control that beast.”
“Apologies.” Wolf used his thighs to control Apollo as he brushed the side of another horse. “Settle down now, boy.”
The Sinclair family, of which he was a member, had heightened senses. Wolf’s was sight.
He’d always known that he and his sisters were different, and yet he’d never explored what that meant until coming to London several years ago. The cousins he’d never met had shown him just what he was capable of.
Looking around him, Wolf studied the scene with eyes that saw a great deal more than anyone else. He could see farther than most. Buildings lined both sides of the London street as far as it travelled. Most housed families, often sharing only a single room, their lives a far cry from his.
“What is afoot?” Wolf said beneath his breath.
Grabbing a handful of Apollo’s mane to keep himself upright, Wolf switched his vision like Devon, who also had the gift of sight, had taught him. It could make him unsteady when faced with so much color. Exhaling, he opened his eyes slowly.
Everyone was a different shade, and suddenly he was surrounded by them. Orange, blue, pink, and green, they were everywhere. Examining those he could see, he saw none weaker than the other; all were strong and healthy.
Was one of his family in danger? The invisible link between them all often had each feeling the others’ pain or fear.
Changing his vision back, he was about to turn his horse and head for home, to check on his family, when a shiver of awareness made him look up the street once more… and he saw her. A woman was dodging in and out of the traffic, following a man. A thick braid swished from side to side as she ran, and Wolf wasn’t sure why, but he felt the need to follow her.
He nudged Apollo’s sides and was soon in pursuit.
He watched the man change direction and duck though an opening between buildings; seconds later the woman followed, and disappeared.
Did she know the man? Was it a marital dispute or something more nefarious? Wolf dismounted, ignoring the tug of pain in his thigh.
Why did he care? He wasn’t a heartless man, but neither did he involve himself in the lives of others without provocation. So why did he feel this pressing need to reach that woman?
“Stand, Apollo.”
Walking down the narrow alley, he lengthened his stride until he saw her. Keeping to the shadows, Wolf took a large, steadying breath, and instantly regretted the action. The stench in there was foul. Attempting to breathe through his mouth, he pressed his back to the wall as he heard someone speak. If it was a domestic dispute, he would leave unseen.
“Give me back my money!” The woman’s shriek echoed around the narrow space.
The man she was chasing had stopped, and was now facing her.
“Come and get it, my lovely.”
“I’m not frightened of you, sir!”
She stood a few feet before Wolf, hands on hips, legs spread, her stance defiant.
The woman was clearly a fool. What was she thinking, provoking the man in such a way? She should be bloody running the other way… fast!
“You should be... very frightened.” The man’s words were not loud like the woman’s, but Wolf heard them. “I’d quite like to get closer to a sweet little thing like you.”
“I wouldn’t touch you with the handle of my broom!” the woman scoffed. “You’re nothing better than vermin!”
That was something the women in his family would say, and yet Wolf could find no humor in the response. She obviously had no regard for self-preservation.
“Gotcha!”
Another man appeared and grabbed the woman.
“Unhand me!” She began to fight for release, but as the second man had moved to help restrain her, she had no hope of achieving it.
Wolf walked out of the shadows.
“Release her.”
“Go away, this is no business of yours.”
One of them had his hand over her mouth, muffling any sound she tried to make.
“She’s me daughter and I’m taking her home.”
“I said release her at once, and I shall let you leave unharmed.”
Wolf was a big man, and after his time in the army he’d kept his strength up. His leg needed constant exercise, Essie had told him, so he ensured he got it. Most men were not keen to take him on, however...
“There’s two of us, you’d best be the one to leave.”
“I don’t think so.” Wolf tensed his muscles. “Now, I will ask you one last time. Release her.”
“M
ake us,” one of the men said, and pulled a knife from his belt.
“I will be leaving this alley with the woman, no matter what that takes,” Wolf said calmly. The war had taught him that too. Yelling got you nowhere, and likely only irritated any volatile situation more.
He advanced slowly, and the woman began to struggle in earnest. Her eyes wide and panicked, she tried to get free, but the man had her arms trapped.
“Tis all right,” Wolf said, taking his eyes off the men briefly to look at her. “I will not let them harm you.”
He felt a charge of energy as their eyes caught. Something passed between them and then she raised a leg and kicked it backward into the man who held her.
“Bitch!”
She did it again and again, drawing the man’s attention away from Wolf. He lunged at the other man, knocking the knife from his hands and him to the ground with a punch to the jaw.
“Now release her, or you’ll meet the same fate,” Wolf hissed.
The man lifted the woman and threw her at Wolf.
“Christ!” Catching her, he stumbled back several steps and came to rest against a wall.
“Are you all right?” Wolf tightened his arms briefly before lowering her to the ground.
“Aye... yes, I think so.”
She had a soft Scottish brogue. Before he could stop her she’d moved away from Wolf to where the man still lay unmoving.
“Snake.” One small booted foot kicked the prone man hard in the thigh before she wrenched the coin purse from his belt. “I hope you hurt for days!”
