Taking Root (The Eros Tales Book 1)

by Katherine McIntyre

  She couldn’t afford to run into him again, because he knew. And if he started announcing Samantha Peterson had returned to town, her handlers would pluck her out of here before she’d even logged a month in this place.

  Danny picked up her phone and called Camilla, one of the Horntrees’ personal chefs—also the only one her age who she clicked with. “You free?” she asked. “Let’s hit the town tonight.”

  ***

  Danny’s heart pumped to the bass beat reverberating from Notes Nightclub as she approached. Camilla waited outside the entrance of a brick warehouse, the neon-lit sign and pulsing electronica an indication of what waited for them inside.

  Camilla’s red skintight dress dragged stares her way, and her matching red lips made her thick raven hair and tawny skin pop. Danny tugged at the neutral mini dress that came to mid-thigh, the ruched sides and high neckline a mixture of tasteful yet sexy. Either way, she’d be able to move in this thing, and she’d arrived to lose herself in the music.

  “After the way Mrs. Horntree’s been raging all week, I need a drink, stat,” Camilla muttered by way of greeting.

  Danny nodded, reaching to her hips for pockets that didn’t exist. Her key, cash, and switchblade had been stuffed into her heeled boots, because no way would she be toting some tiny purse through this place. “Is she always this bad?”

  Camilla tilted her head toward the door, and they headed to where the bodyguard waited at the entrance as she continued. “The woman goes in cycles. Bitchy to raging—right now we’re in the throes of raging bitch.”

  “God, how do you deal with it?” Danny complained as she lifted her arms so the bodyguard could pat her down. A moment later, the burly guy nodded them into the club. She grabbed the thick steel door and yanked it open, the music blasting so loud it reverberated through her bones, just the way she liked.

  “Experience, the lure of cold hard cash, and a lot of alcohol,” Camilla called as they wound their way past the open foyer and coat check, stopping to pay for their wrist bands. Bar joists ran the length of the raised ceiling, traveling the same direction they did toward the open doors of the club. Beams of light flashed in every direction, deep blues, purples, and yellows blinking to the rhythm of the music. There was a dance floor somewhere there—she assumed by the mass of bodies thrashing around under the pulsing lights separate from the folks crowding the backlit bars on either side.

  Further away, a DJ stood behind his rig on stage, spinning while geometric shapes projected on the wall behind him. Danny stood still for a moment, soaking in the whole experience as Camilla cut through the crowds on a straight line to the bar. Even though she wanted to bolt to the dance floor and swing her hips to the rhythm until two in the morning, she’d dragged Camilla out in the first place—it’d be rude to ditch.

  Danny bit back her sigh and tamed the adrenaline sparking to her fingertips as she followed Camilla’s path to the bar. She tapped her on the shoulder. “I owe you a drink for not leaving the new girl out to hang. What do you want?”

  “Dry martini,” Camilla said, squeezing into the gap of space along the bar. Danny leaned in behind her as she tried to get the bartender’s attention. “You know,” Camilla glanced over, “I don’t require supervision. I’m happy sitting by the bar and people watching if you want to throw yourself in the middle of that sweaty mess.”

  Danny restrained the urge to throw her arms around her in a hug. Most folks didn’t react well to surprise contact while getting to know one another. “Thanks for being a slice of sanity,” she said instead. “Moving to a new town can be a bitch.”

  “Martini is sufficient thanks.” Camilla grinned, her crimson lips and glittering eyes giving Danny a major case of envy. The woman was catwalk gorgeous. Even though Danny had dolled up with smoky eyes, rose lipstick, and flat-ironed copper strands, she hated the ruddiness of her skin and how quick she burned and flushed. The bartender swaggered over, leaning in to get her order.

  “Martini for this one,” she called out, jerking a finger in Camilla’s direction before slapping a bill on the counter. “Keep it.” She wasn’t feeling the need for a drink—not the way the urge burned through her to get out on the dance floor and move.

  Danny stepped to the throng of moving bodies right as the DJ faded into a new song. This one started out with a slow beat that built and built into a crescendo that begged to hit an explosive refrain. She found the first gap closer to the dance floor and slipped in with ease as she bumped to the pulse of the music like the rest of the crowd. All around her, arms flew around, legs pounded the ground, and folks immersed themselves in the sound.

  The air smelled like sweat and the sharp notes of Calvin Klein’s Obsession mixed with whisky and ale. Bright blues cascaded over her, and she shut her eyes, twisting to the rising beat as the song reached a crescendo. Around her, people threw their hands in the air and cheered when the refrain throbbed through the speakers. Like this, she didn’t feel so alone. Here, she could pretend at the end of the day she wasn’t returning home to an empty apartment and traveling from town to town like a circus.

  A new song wove in, this one featuring more of a trance vibe, and she swung into the rhythm, catching glimpses of a chick grinding on a guy beside her and a wiry dude thrashing around to the music, arms flailing like he’d lose them. Her heart pumped, and drops of sweat traveled down her body as she danced with the rest of the crowd. The beat carried her away like a midnight drive, the reverberating waves of sound and the movement helping her unwind.

  Her ankle began to buzz—the ringer on her phone.

  Danny let out a low curse as she screeched to a dead halt and slipped through the seams of the crowd to exit the dance floor. She snagged her phone from her boot. Only one person could be calling her at this hour. Her heart already pumped in double time, but this skyrocketed her pulse. She lifted the phone to her ear as she made a beeline for the exit.

  “Hey, it’s me,” Danny answered as she slipped through the front doors to the fragrant Charleston night, the saltwater woven through the cool spring breezes. “What’s going on?” She didn’t bother looking at the screen—her handler in Witness Protection was calling. She stepped away from the entrance to lean against the bricks like a couple of other folks who got the same idea, either on their phone or catching a quick smoke break.

  “Kyle Peterson was sighted in Philadelphia,” Eve responded, the familiar voice something Danny always clutched onto. “We have removed your mother from the area and are transporting her to a different city.”

  Danny’s chest tightened. Word of her father on the move meant an imminent change of location. “Where am I relocating to?”

  “You’re not,” Eve responded. “We have a crew closing in on him, and we think he might try to find you if he managed to track down your mother. We’re going to have a squad following his trail but also one waiting for him in Charleston.”

  “So, I’m the bait?” Danny asked. She stared at the night sky studded with stars. The tightness in her chest didn’t release.

  “If you’re up to it.” Eve spoke in a matter of fact tone, like the operation was a done deal, but if Danny said no here, her handler would shut the whole thing down in a heartbeat. Danny didn’t have many people she could trust in her life, but her handler was one of the few. Every memory of her father came through a broken lens, shattered in the wake of the rash of murders he was responsible for. And after witnessing the locked room in their basement—the Feds had everything they needed to toss him in jail for the rest of his life. If they could catch him.

  Her skin crawled. She needed to answer, but the words gummed in her mouth. Her mind splintered at the idea of him heading anywhere nearby, white noise rising to blank out the memories it took years of therapy to resurrect. The longer Kyle Peterson remained a free man, the more of a chance he had to kill again. Even if the fear shot through her like Novocaine, she knew what she needed to do.

  “I’ll be the bait,” Danny responded, even as the ground s
pun beneath her. Dancing wouldn’t be enough to cut the stress tonight. She needed a stiff drink and a tumble in the sheets with a stranger.

  “Good,” Eve’s voice heated in response. “The squad will meet at your apartment tomorrow.”

  “Roger that,” Danny responded, attempting light and casual even though it tumbled out like a death sentence. Based on how this played out, it very well might be. She sagged against the bricks behind her, the scrape across her bare arms reminding her of where she was. The music pulsed through the building, spilling out through the front doors, but the magic from before disappeared in the wake of a single phone call.

  She slipped the phone into her boot with a sigh before striking a path toward the entrance. As she headed past the bouncers, she lifted her wrist to display the flimsy band and return inside. Danny needed something heavy on the gin before her nerves could settle enough to step out onto the dance floor again.

  Her heels clicked on the tile as she entered the club, the heat and pounding music washing over her. Camilla was a rose amidst hydrangeas in her bright red dress, sitting at the same spot along the bar, except she’d gained some friends in the interim. Danny couldn’t suss out who Camilla talked to, but she didn’t care if she cockblocked. She needed someone to latch onto.

  When she got close enough, Camilla spotted her and waved her on over, the welcoming gesture settling some of the percolating unease. Her friend chatted with a guy and girl, both the sort of tall she’d never be.

  The guy turned around to follow Camilla’s gesture, and Danny pumped the brakes.

  His trim black button-down displayed broad shoulders and a tight, muscled frame, highlighting olive skin she wanted to lick. His dark hair was styled with some gel, long enough to run her fingers through. The man was sex on a stick and everything that got her hormones revving. Except those blue eyes were unforgettably intense, ones she’d seen a week before when she ran into him in the Gin Mill.

  Despite or maybe because of her careful attempts to avoid him, here he was again. Adrian Dukas.

  Chapter Four

  The whole point in tagging along with Lex was for Adrian to meet some women who weren’t family or coworkers. Lex was the one insisting he spread his seed across the land, something he preferred not to hear from his own sister. With her at the helm, they’d started chatting up a gorgeous woman, red lips like sin and dark, seductive eyes. Yet he didn’t even have a chance to start asking her questions before his sister swooped in for the kill, full flirt mode engaged. Based on the way Camilla twirled her hair in response to Lex’s advances, he wasn’t her type in the slightest anyway.

  The electronica pounded beneath his feet, reverberating through the room like they weathered a full-out stampede. After another long shift and even less sleep, the noise managed to keep him awake, but five minutes in and this music already grated at his nerves. He was more of a soulful jazz guy, preferring the ambiance and vibe of the Gin Mill any day. Adrian heaved a sigh, standing around with his bottle of overpriced IPA and feeling more like a prop while his sister salivated over their new friend.

  Camilla perked up and began waving to someone behind them. Thank fuck. Maybe if she had a friend, he’d at least have someone to talk to while he ignored his sister’s mating dance.

  He turned around and forgot everything. Where he was, who the hell swerved around him, even the obnoxious bass beat of whatever spewed through the speakers.

  The woman who stood before him would’ve demanded his attention even if he didn’t know her. Her hair glowed like liquid flame, and the tan minidress clung to curves he’d committed to memory. The neon lights illuminated her pale skin, turning her freckles even darker, and her jaw dropped the moment their eyes locked.

  Danny Reynolds.

  “And she’s back,” Camilla called out from beside him. “I thought you’d ditched me.”

  Danny strode past him, even though the corner of her mouth lifted in a smirk as she tore her gaze away. “Now what sort of asshole do you take me for?” she asked, sidling up to Camilla with the familiarity of a friend.

  His mouth dried at the sight of her, the reappearance a one-two punch to the gut. After a week passed with no sight of her, even though he’d tried to frequent the Gin Mill for no other damn reason, Adrian figured she’d vanished into thin air again. The girl he’d known in high school had done so spectacularly in a swirl of rumors about her father.

  Lex passed him a lifted-brow glance, paying attention to him for the first time since she’d gotten Camilla in her sights. His sister possessed a lion’s dedication and intensity when it came to her one-night stands, something Adrian never could swing. Either he was uninterested or he became entranced to the point of obsession. And no one had ever captured his attention like Samantha Peterson, or as she currently called herself—Danny Reynolds.

  “Make some new friends?” Danny asked, her voice light even as her scorching gaze slipped to him.

  Camilla waved a hand at the two of them. “These guys decided to keep me company. Lex has spent the last ten minutes telling me about her made-up carnie experiences. Something about tightrope walking?”

  Lex flashed one of her charming grins in Danny’s direction with the predatory look of a snake before it struck. Yeah, fuck no. Captain Cockblock already interfered once tonight.

  “Danny Reynolds,” she said, nodding her head at Lex as she played with the hem of her skirt, drawing his attention to creamy thighs he wanted wrapped around him in a real way. Instead of staring at her like a dog in heat, he slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked forward on his heels.

  “Do I know you from somewhere?” Lex asked, her brows narrowing. Because Alexis Dukas never forgot a pretty girl—and Danny was sunrise over the water stunning. Danny’s lips pressed together, and he caught the way her shoulders tensed like a deer ready to bolt into the woods. Not again. He wouldn’t let last time repeat.

  Adrian stepped between them and extended his hand. “Want to dance?”

  His heart started marching in double time when he caught sight of her again, but as they locked eyes, time froze between them. She stared at him with wide eyes, like the shifting greens of a windswept meadow.

  “Go ahead,” Camilla encouraged. “That’s what you came here to do, right?” Her stare lingered on Lex. Their presence wasn’t wanted here.

  Danny swallowed hard, and he didn’t miss the way her gaze darted to the door. However, as fast as the brief panic descended, her expression shifted. Her lips curled into a wicked smirk, and she placed her callused hand in his.

  “All right, stud. Let’s see these dance moves of yours,” she responded, and the years melted away. Back then, she was the girl who leapt into the icy water first, the loner who’d snark back at assholes on the football team when no one else stood in her corner. Even now, he could see her rallying.

  He squeezed her hand and took the lead toward a dance floor barely visible under the swarm of people stomping and thrashing around. Honestly, he’d avoided this spot since he stepped into the club. Throbbing bass beats and sweaty strangers held no allure for him, and the whole place reeked of loneliness. However, he’d even enjoy the nightmare zone he’d left behind at the hospital if it meant stealing another moment with Danny.

  Even with the light way she rested her hand in his, a gravity settled into the touch, a grounding source for the electricity percolating between them, waiting to strike. So many bodies crushed together made for an impenetrable crowd, but the second Adrian spotted an opening, he slipped through, tugging Danny with him. The temperature shot up to sweltering, and drops of sweat pricked his forehead. The beat of the electronica reverberated the dance floor beneath them, amplified by the stomping boots and thrashing arms all around.

  The moment he secured a square inch of space, Danny slipped her hand from his. The severing of their connection was a shock of cold water to his system.

  She closed the space between them, her body a mere inch away, and she began to sway to the pulsing beat of t
he music. Fuck, she was gorgeous. Her eyes never left his, pure spellbinding seduction. Adrian wasn’t one for dancing in a crowd, this grating music, or clubs in general, but he gained a newfound appreciation in watching the way Danny swung her hips. Before he could argue with himself, he moved on gut impulse alone and slipped his hands around her waist.

  Her following smirk traveled straight south. She leaned into his ear, her lips almost brushing it as her hot breath kissed his skin. “Thanks for the rescue back there.” He kept a firm grip around her slender waist, and the way she swayed in front of him launched his mind to messy sheets and his bedroom.

  He locked gazes with her. “Not a problem, Danny.” He emphasized her name, and a knowing sparked in her eyes. Danny bit her lip again, a reflex she hadn’t abandoned from the older days. For whatever reason, she’d left her old name and life behind. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious, but if ignoring the past kept her around a little longer, he’d bury those questions. He might’ve been smitten with Sam Peterson back in the day, but the woman standing before him ensnared his interest all over again.

  “So, what dragged the doctor out to the club?” she asked, dancing so close he could feel the heat combust between them. “This doesn’t look like your scene, Dukas.”

  Adrian rolled his eyes, casting a wayward glance to his sister and Camilla. “Lex thinks I need to get my dick wet.” The second he repeated his sister’s words, he regretted it. Christ Almighty, he needed to get out more and remember how to socialize like a human being again. Right now, he fumbled blind.

  Danny let out a laugh, her eyes sparkling. Instead of pulling away, she twisted to pivot her hips around and back again, moving closer and closer to him. Adrian swayed in return, running his hands down the length of her waist until he gripped those sloping hips. His cock ached at her proximity, at that pert ass inching closer to him. She moved in time to the beat of the music, the pulse of the electronica reverberating through the dance floor, through his body, and through his bones. While he danced with her like this, the rest of the bodies writhing around them vanished, as did any self-awareness when he lost himself to her seductive rhythm.