“We’ll get our rooms, and if you’re hungry, we can grab a bite at their diner.” He swung one long leg over the bike as he dismounted and then nodded toward the little eatery. “Sign says it’s open twenty-four hours.”
She didn’t want to sit at a table with him or anywhere else. She needed space in order to regain her bearings and get her control back. All she wanted was a shower and a warm bed, so she could get her head on straight. He clearly wasn’t in the mood for talking, and she wasn’t in the mood to try and wrestle answers out of him. In the morning, after she’d had a good night’s sleep, she would be prepared to deal with Zander and tackle the first few items on her unending list of questions.
“I’m not really hungry. Where are we, anyway?”
“Utah. We still have about ten or twelve hours of road between us and the ranch.”
“Utah, huh?” She looked around and tried not to look as unimpressed as she felt. “For the past three hours, it’s all looked the same.”
“We’ll be passing through more mountainous terrain tomorrow.”
He continued avoiding her gaze, and her stomach flip-flopped as disappointment welled. Zander was doing his damnedest to keep his distance from her. It was for the best. She knew that. Then why was she feeling let down?
“Great.” Rena gave him a thumbs-up. “Listen, I’m exhausted, and I have a hunch you’re going to want to hit the road right after the sun comes up. Let’s just get our rooms and then to each his own. Okay?”
Zander didn’t look at her but gave her one of his guttural grunts as he removed his helmet. Any attraction she felt for him withered amid his clear disinterest in her. Typical. She had finally met a guy she was hot for and he was acting like she had the plague. She had put plenty of men in the friend zone in her day, but this was the first time someone was doing it to her.
It sucked.
He handed Rena her bag off the back of the bike and, without another word, headed for the motel office. She went with him, matching his silence with her own but all the while trying to pinpoint when everything went to shit, and the answer was obvious.
Zander’s chilly demeanor toward her had everything to do with Vito. She knew it. They had obviously known each other before, and based off their combined reactions, it wasn’t exactly a happy reunion. Whatever went down between the two men must have been a bad scene.
Okay. Fine. She could get her head around the weirdness of the fact that they knew each other. But seriously? What were the odds?
What bothered her more than the rest of it, though, was that Zander was acting like Rena had betrayed him somehow, or was in cahoots with Vito.
What a tangled mess. She knew they had to sort it all out, but she was too exhausted to even attempt it at the moment. Rena needed sleep and some alone time to get her bearings back.
She adjusted the shoulder strap of her bag as they stepped inside the small motel office. An older man, maybe in his late sixties, was watching Jeopardy! on a small black-and-white television while smoking a fat, stubby cigar. He hoisted his rotund body off the chair with a grunt and waved them over to the counter.
“You folks looking to check in?” He puffed a cloud of cigar smoke before placing the burning stub in a well-used crystal ashtray. “I only got one more room left, so you’re in luck.”
Zander’s energy signature whisked faster around her at the same instant her own heartbeat ratcheted up a notch. Or twelve.
“Great,” she said under her breath. “More cozy togetherness.”
“You’re welcome to go somewhere else, but the next closest place is about seventy-five miles up the road, and ain’t no guarantees they’ll have two rooms neither.”
She fought the urge to comment again and sliced a glance at Zander, who didn’t seem to be bothered by the situation at all. Jeez. Did anything get under this guy’s skin?
“Oh man,” Rena sighed. “I can’t do another hour on that damned bike tonight. I need sleep. So please tell me it’s a room with two double beds.”
“Sorry, sweetie.” The man laughed, a raspy, phlegmy sound, and winked at Zander. “Just the one. But it’s a king-size bed, so there’s plenty of room, if that’s what you’re lookin’ for.”
Rena was about to tell the old pervert to shove his cigar up his nose, but Zander interrupted.
“We’ll take it.” He pulled a wad of cash from his pocket. “How much for one night?”
“Don’t I get a say in the matter?” she asked incredulously.
“You’re the one who said she didn’t want to ride for another hour. We could camp, but I only have one tent, and you don’t seem like the outdoorsy type.”
“But…” Rena let out a sound of disgust, because he was right. She hated the notion of camping, and the motel was all the roughing it she wanted to deal with. “Oh, for goodness’ sake. Fine. We’ll take the room.”
“Right then. That’ll be eighty-five for the one night, and I’ll need a credit card for a security deposit.”
“Never use ’em.” Zander peeled off three crisp one-hundred-dollar bills and placed them on the red counter. “How about three hundred and we call it even?”
“Fine by me, son.” He scooped up the cash with his pudgy fingers before handing Zander a room key with a red-and-blue, diamond-shaped plastic tag. “Unit twenty-five. All the way down at the end. The diner’s open all night, and we have the best pecan pie this side of the Mississippi. My wife, Myrtle, she bakes ’em fresh every day.”
“Thanks.” Zander nodded and went to the door. “You coming?”
Was a hint of a smile playing at his lips, or was she imagining it?
Rena let out a huff of frustration and brushed past him and out to the sidewalk. When they reached the room, it was as uninspired and boring as she had expected it to be, but the bed was enormous. It took up most of the space in the red, white, and blue motel room.
The bed was big, but the room was small, and when Zander stepped inside and closed the door, it got even smaller. Rena swallowed the lump in her throat and did her best to ignore him. Without waiting for him to say a word, Rena tossed her duffel on the bed and poked her head in the bathroom. It was simple and sterile-looking, with a tub and shower.
“At least it’s clean,” she said with a weak smile.
She lingered in the bathroom doorway for a moment, uncertain of what to do next. Before stepping into this room with Zander, the idea of getting in the shower had sounded awesome. Now, with him right there, in such close proximity, it seemed like a rather frightening prospect. Not because she thought he would hurt her or take advantage of her. Quite the opposite. He seemed annoyed by her presence.
For the first time in many years, Rena was unsure of herself.
“Uh…do you mind if I shower first?”
“Do whatever you want.”
Rena winced and folded her arms over her chest, instinctively wanting to shield herself from Zander’s frosty attitude. He was angry with her, but she didn’t have a damn clue as to why. Even worse, she cared that he was upset with her, and she found that more unsettling than anything else.
Rena bit her lower lip and finally forced herself to ask the question, even though she was afraid of the answer.
“Why are you angry with me?”
Zander remained silent and tossed his leather jacket on the bed. He turned his back to her and stared out the window with his hands settled on his narrow hips. His tense energy signature bounced around the room like a ricocheting bullet, and she fought the instinct to duck.
“I get visions, but I’m not a mind reader,” she whispered.
The conversation, the one she had been avoiding since leaving Vito at Sunnyfarm, was about to go down, and it scared the shit out of her. Not Zander. She wasn’t afraid of him. Her gaze skimmed over his broad-shouldered form, and the tension in his body was matched by the agitation in his energ
y signature. There were secrets buried beneath the surface, and she knew, deep in her gut, that they had something to do with Vito and with her.
And that was what scared her.
What did Zander know about Vito? More to the point, did she really want to know? Not really, but she was sick and tired of the blank spaces that riddled the past, and she sure as hell didn’t want any more of them in her present. And definitely not in her future. She squared her shoulders and struggled to keep her voice calm.
“Okay,” Rena said quietly. “You’re obviously pissed at Vito and at me, but I have no idea why. You wouldn’t talk to me back at Sunnyfarm, and you’ve given me the silent treatment for the past several hundred miles. The only reason I’ve put up with it is because technically, you’re my client, so how about we stop playing games and you fill me in on how you know Vito?”
“Bullshit,” he said gruffly.
Zander grabbed the edges of the red-and-white-striped drapes and tugged them closed before spinning around to face her. The feral look in his glowing, crimson eyes made her take a step backward, but Zander didn’t move. He stayed where he was but continued to glower at her.
“Excuse me?” Rena let out an incredulous laugh.
“Nobody can hide from you, Rena. That’s what you said. Right?”
“Yes, but—”
“You can touch an item, anything, that he’s held, and you could have seen right past his facade to who he really is.” Zander moved toward her, slowly closing the distance between them. “So don’t stand there and tell me you don’t know what he did or what he is capable of.”
He was close now, his body so near to hers, his musky cologne with the hint of leather swamped her senses, making her dizzy. But Rena held her ground. She never backed down from a challenge, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to start now. Especially not from this accusation. Rena was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
“How dare you presume to know what I can or can’t see?” Her eyes tingled with the surge of emotion, and she let them shift. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.”
“And you don’t know a damn thing about Vito or what he’s done! Given your psychic ability, I can’t for the life of me figure out how that’s possible.”
“I only use my powers when I want to or need to,” she shouted. “I told you, I learned how to control it when I was a kid, because if I hadn’t, I probably would’ve gone bonkers by now. And I don’t get any say in what I see, only if I want to see it.”
“I think you’re lying to protect the old son of a bitch.”
“Don’t talk about him like that, and don’t call me a liar.”
He took a step closer. “Then tell me what you know.”
“I know he loved his wife and daughter more than life itself.”
“Is that what he told you?” Zander scoffed, a low, gruff sound filled with contempt. “Love is a lie, Rena. It’s fleeting and a futile emotion that brings nothing but pain and misery.”
“Well, I’m sorry to burst your cynical, unfeeling bubble, dragon boy, but it’s what I saw.” Rena leaned in and took two steps toward him, so only inches separated their bodies. “And don’t lecture me about the dangers of loving people or caring about them, okay? I know all about the pain it can inflict. I have a lifetime of proof. Do you have any idea what it’s like for a six-year-old to be shoved aside like she’s defective merchandise?”
Rena’s voice wavered, and all the pent-up emotions, the feelings of rejection and loss, the ones she had stuffed down deep inside, began to boil over.
“Do you have any idea how many foster homes I’ve lived in?”
“Rena—”
“Twelve.” The word was clipped and strangled, and her throat was thick with impending tears. “Twelve, Zander. It got to the point where I didn’t even bother to unpack my bags. Not one family—not a single one—wanted me. No matter how much I begged or pleaded. Nobody would let me stay. I was a freak, a little weirdo who knew stuff she couldn’t possibly know and made the bigger mistake of talking about it. Even the social workers looked at me like I was a mini mental patient. After being tossed from one place to the next, I finally split. I ran away and lived on the streets in Vegas.”
“I didn’t know that,” he said with something that sounded a lot like regret.
“Vito does, or he did before he lost his marbles. I was picking pockets and, eventually, using my gift to get money out of tourists with a fortune-teller bit. Vito came around from time to time and tossed money in my hat. Never asked me for anything or tried to hit on me. He was just a nice old man. Until one day, he offered to teach me his business, and that’s when I looked in his memories. All I saw was a lonely old guy weeping and grieving for his wife and daughter. He loved them, and that was all I needed to know.”
“You should’ve looked further, Rena.” His voice was deadly quiet but carried a wallop. “Then you would have seen the truth. He isn’t the man you think he is.”
“I’ll tell you my truth,” she seethed. “Vito took me off the street when I was seventeen. He clothed me, fed me, and treated me like I was his family. He is the only person on this planet who ever gave a crap about me or my well-being.” Rena poked him in the chest with one finger, punctuating her last word—all of it fueled by her love for Vito and her fierce desire to protect him.
Zander grabbed her wrists and tugged her up against his firm, unyielding body. His eyes glowed brightly at her between the long strands of hair that always drifted over his forehead.
“He’s a liar and a murderer,” Zander said. “He doesn’t care about you any more than those other people. He’s been using you, Rena. Plain and simple.”
“From where I stand, you’re the guy who’s been shady from minute one.”
“His name isn’t even Vito Fox.”
Rena stilled but said nothing as Zander’s gaze flickered over her face as though seeking her reaction, but she gave him none. His thumbs rasped along the inside of her wrists, and his chest expanded and contracted against hers. It was remarkably unsettling to be attracted to someone who was also pissing her off.
“So what?” she huffed, trying to focus on how annoyed she was instead of the shimmer of lust. “People change their names all the time.”
“His real name, the one I knew him by, was Victor Pamchenko, and I can promise you that he’s done nothing but lie and manipulate you from the moment he found you.”
“Let me go.” Rena tried to pull herself free from his ironclad grip, but it was no use.
“Do you really think he found you by accident, Rena?”
He walked her backward as he spoke, and she gasped when her butt met the wall. Zander pressed her hands there, along either side of her head, and held her in place. She arched her back in an effort to make him move, but all it did was press her breasts against his chest.
He didn’t give an inch. The man was an immovable force of nature.
“You said he treated you like family?” Zander’s voice was quiet and gruff, barely above a whisper. “That’s because you are his family—his clan.”
“What are you talking about?” Rena said in a shaky whisper.
A feeling of dread curled through her like smoke, because somewhere, deep down, Rena knew what Zander was going to say.
“Victo—Vito is Amoveo, from the Fox Clan.” Zander’s jaw clenched. “Just like you.”
“He can’t be.” Her throat tightened, thick with emotion as she fought to comprehend what Zander was saying. “That’s ridiculous… He’s not a shapeshifter. I would’ve seen that.”
But even as the words tumbled from her lips, Rena knew she wasn’t being honest with him or with herself. She had no control over what she saw in her visions. If what Zander said was true, then the one person in the world she believed loved her…never did.
“Oh, not anymore,” Zander bit out. “Bu
t he was a shifter from the Fox Clan… He’s Amoveo…like you…and her.”
Her gaze swept up his throat and over the hard lines and sharp angles of his square jaw, as a few more pieces began to fall into place. Fox Clan? Memories of the vision and the young woman in the yellow dress came flooding back, and Rena’s blood ran cold.
“The girl in the woods,” she murmured. Her eyes locked with his as the truth began to come into focus. “The one you and your brother fought over…I-I saw her…she changed into a fox. You mean she was Vito’s daughter?”
“Arianna.” Zander nodded.
“Oh my God.”
Rena knew it was true. That was the name Vito called her in his dementia-filled moments. A chill whispered over her flesh, like the kiss of death, as the name, the one Vito had called her countless times, hung in the air like a dead weight. Her stomach churned as the horrible, ugly truth settled over her with brutal force.
Arianna.
All this time, the one person she thought had truly loved her didn’t love her at all. Not really. Instead, he had been using her to replace his dead daughter. A deep ache welled in Rena’s chest, and tears stung the backs of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of Zander.
“But you aren’t her,” Zander murmured.
“No, I’m not,” she whispered. “I’m just a freak of nature. Not human. Not Amoveo. But something unwanted and in-between.”
“You are not unwanted, Rena.” Her name dragged from his lips gruffly as the weight of his body pressed harder against her. “And no one has the right to make you feel less than the beautiful, remarkable creature that you are.”
His glittering gaze skittered over her face before lingering on her mouth. His hips tilted. Rena sighed as she slipped her leg between his and was met with hard heat. It was erotic and enticing to have his body pressed along hers. To be pinned between Zander and the wall with nothing separating them but the thin fabric of their clothing. His chest rose and fell in time with his heavy breathing, contracting and expanding, and making her acutely aware of every spot where their bodies met. She opened her clenched fists and immediately tangled her fingers with his.
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