by T. A. Grey
“So, let me keep guessing. She finally told you that she wanted to leave you. You threw in the fact that she’d never get custody of Sarina...but then what? How did you get her to agree to the vacation? I doubt she trusted you further than she could throw you if she was smart enough to try to leave you. So, explain to me, just how did you get her to go with you? Did you drug her and fly her out to Seattle on your own private plane? I checked your assets; you do own one. Was your excuse that night all bullshit? No dinner, no wine. You took her out on your yacht with a story you concocted, then beat her ’till she was unconscious and tossed her over the side. Lykaens aren’t impervious to drowning and you damn well knew that. You killed her.”
Brunes’ face paled back to its normal color. He looked down as if thinking...or remembering. “You think you got it all figured out, don’t you, Mr. Erickson?” Brunes stood, his arms crossed, then slowly stepped around the desk until he faced Brayden once more. “Well, you’re wrong about a few things, I’m afraid.”
Brunes uncrossed his arms then leveled a silver pistol on him. Brayden’s only response to the change in the game was a soft breath he let out. Brunes waved the gun around like a witch with a wand.
“Don’t worry, they’re silver infused bullets, just like the Justicars use. They’ll kill you before you can get to me.”
Brayden kept his gaze on the door to his right. “What was I wrong about?”
Brunes’ face morphed into a mask of vicious, seething hatred. “That bitch wasn’t fucking a vampire! She was fucking my guard! My guard! Riding his damn cock like a fucking whore. She was a whore. I am the last king of the lykaen community. The last thing I need is a whore to rule at my side. She did it right here. Right in this house. Under my nose when I went to bed at night. In our bed when I left the house.”
Brayden kept his focus on the gun and the door. Brunes wasn’t one to act alone, that he knew. Some stealthy bastard might be creeping up behind him as they spoke. “How did you not smell him?”
“He was defective. I chose him to be my personal...guard because of a birth defect. Something was wrong with his hormones and he never left a trace. Made him quite useful for certain jobs.”
Yeah, he knew just what kind of jobs a man with an untraceable scent could do.
“How did you find out?”
Brunes narrowed his wild eyes then cocked the hammer of the gun. The hard metal snap made every muscle in Brayden’s body tense, ready. What Brunes didn’t know, was that he was in love and had a woman to find. He wouldn’t be dying here tonight.
Brunes bent over to his knees with laughter. When he stood back up, he was sucking in deep, unsteady breaths. Tears of laughter rimmed his eyes and he wiped them away with his gun hand. “The last person you’d suspect. My own precious daughter.”
Brayden stilled. “Sarina?”
“I’ll tell you...the innocence of a child. She came to me crying one day that she’d seen mommy hugging a man without clothes. It frightened her.”
“Why didn’t you just kill your wife then?”
Brunes’ smile was cold; his eyes dead and vacant. “Killing impatiently leads to mistakes. I’m not an impatient man.”
While Brayden contemplated his escape he asked, “How did you get her to the yacht?”
Brunes smiled wider. “You were wrong about that one, too. I didn’t drug her. She came willingly and compliantly, if a bit sad. I had Sarina taken away. I told her I’d kill her if she didn’t take a little trip with me. Of course, she knew what I meant, but hey, at least I kept my end of the bargain. I never killed Sarina.”
“So you beat her until she was unconscious, then tossed her off the side. Did you pay Daniel to help cover it up?”
Brunes shrugged. “I’ve done many things to see to protection.”
“And you killed Daniel, because...?”
“He was getting soft.” Brunes sighed, then put his finger over the trigger. “You know, you should have left it alone. The case has been closed for a long time. I’m afraid you brought this upon yourself. Just like my bodyguard did by fucking my wife.”
Brunes might have the advantage with the gun, but Brayden had something he didn’t—speed. Brayden dove across the room in a blur of motion. A shot fired. Brayden ducked, then lunged into Brunes. They both slammed into the heavy wooden desk, shoving it across the carpet and into the wall. Wood splintered and cracked. Brayden grabbed hold of Brunes’ arm then slammed it into the corner of the desk. Brunes screamed as the gun fell to the floor. An uppercut slammed Brayden’s teeth together. He tasted blood, but he had anger and determination on his side. He slammed his head forward and caught Brunes’ nose. Bones crunch and blood flowed and some of the anger bunched up inside of him released at the sight.
Brayden stepped back, then hammered two jabs across Brunes. But he didn’t fall. In fact, he laughed a hoarse, wheezing sound as he collapsed back against the desk.
“If only you knew...” he said.
Brayden wrapped his fingers around Brunes’ throat and squeezed applying pressure. Brunes fought him, latched onto his wrist to tug him away, but his strength felt like that of a baby’s next to his own.
Still, Brunes laughed, his eyes wet with pain-filled tears. “I have your woman.”
Brayden’s grip tightened. Flesh, tendons and muscles gave way under his grip. It felt so good he didn’t want to stop. Wanted to keep squeezing until it crushed, collapsed under his fingertips.
“You’re lying.”
The corner of Brunes’ mouth tilted up then his eyes darted behind Brayden. That was all the warning he had before powerful electric jolts shot through his body. His grip fell from Brunes’ throat, his knees went out, then he fell to the floor in convulsions so hard his teeth clanked together and his muscles clenched to the point of pain.
“You can stop that now. Thank you,” said Brunes.
The electrical shocks stopped, but still his body twitched like he was hardwired to an electric shock machine. The convulsions stopped, but still his muscles jumped and spasmed. Arms grabbed his, lifted him, then shoved him into a chair. He couldn’t quite keep his head up. It rolled backwards so that he was staring at the ceiling. No matter how hard he tried to make his neck work, he couldn’t lift his head.
Brunes came into view, towered over him. Then his head slammed left, right, left, then right again as Brunes laid into him with hard fists. The pain didn’t matter. It was a minor flair to the shocks making his limbs twitch. A feminine cry sent his eyes wide. God, he knew that sound. Fuck, no, he couldn’t have her.
“Bring her over here,” Brunes ordered in a hard voice.
A rush of footsteps ran across the room, then there she was standing over him. She’d been crying. Her eyelashes were wet, eyes red. Anger, the kind he hadn’t felt in a long time exploded inside of him. They’d taken her from him, then hurt her. She collapsed against him, sobbing, trailed soft wet kisses across his face before she was yanked away. Finally, his head worked. It hurt like hell, but he lifted his head to take in the scene.
Five heavily armed guards filled the room. Brunes’ face was a bloody mess and that made Brayden smile darkly. Vanessa’s arms were tied behind her back in a way that brought nasty memories of her naked in the forest in a very similar situation. One face, though, he didn’t see in the room.
“Where’s Joseph? I believe he might object to you treating his mate like this?”
Vanessa lunged forward before the guards yanked her back by the arm. She winced and he fervently started moving his fingers, his toes to get his circulation back to normal. If he could buy a few minutes, he could stand.
“They killed him!” cried Vanessa. “They shot him in the head.”
Brunes cast a disgusted glance her way. “Shut her up, will you?”
The guard on her right slapped her hard across the face. Brayden saw red. In a flash, he struck. With two lethal cracks, he snapped the guard’s neck holding her, then shoved Vanessa behind him as the other five guards raised th
eir rifles.
Brunes held up a hand to them. “Relax. I don’t want this to go fast.”
Just then, the windows at the back of the room shattered in a loud explosion. Glass flew across the room. Swat-clothed men stormed into the room shouting commands. One man wore no swat clothes whatsoever.
“Dmetri?” Brayden asked, dumbfounded.
Dmetri’s eyes shone with determination. He flicked him a glance, then swept on the guards with a flurry of attacks and cringe worthy kicks. But Brunes ducked down below the fighting, crawling quickly toward the gun still lying on the floor. Brayden flew to him. He caught Brunes by the back of his long hair, then made his face kiss the floor—hard. He did it again. One for the death of Sarina’s mother, another for Daniel, one for the guard he’d murdered, and twice as many for taking Vanessa and hurting her. He wasn’t finished, but arms flew around his chest pulling him away. He growled at them and launched one brutal kicked to Brunes’ head. The old lykaen’s head whipped back, then he slumped to the ground.
“Never touch my woman,” Brayden growled.
“Relax, man, relax.” Dmetri’s slightly accented voice penetrated through the raging fog in his mind.
He watched Brunes try to lift himself back up, then slump again to the floor.
“We got him. We heard his confession.”
That sent Brayden whirling around. “You were here this whole time?”
“Nah, the butler called the Justicars in. Then they called me. Needed another higher up on the case.” Dmetri grinned, then clapped him on the back. “No way was I going to intrude on his confession.”
A small hand cupped his. He looked down at Vanessa’s face and something inside him broke. He pulled her into his arms, holding her close. She clenched her arms around him as if she needed to be holding onto him as much as he did her. God, it felt good. Almost beautiful.
“Why didn’t you crash in when you heard the first gunshot, asshole?”
Dmetri sobered. “They found Joseph Harrington’s body in a ditch along the highway halfway between here and Justicar’s headquarters. Figured they’d taken her. Figured she was here. We didn’t want to act to soon and cause...any unnecessary problems.”
Meaning, he didn’t want to act too soon and have someone pull the trigger on Vanessa before they’d even stormed in. “Yeah, I got it. Now I’m going home.”
He didn’t even make it to the front door before he lifted Vanessa’s face, looked into her deep brown eyes and kissed her. His heart pounded loudly in his chest.
“I’m so glad you came,” she said brokenly. She gave him a wobbly smile that pulled at all his heartstrings.
“I love you,” he said.
Her eyes flew wide. She gasped.
Then he kissed her again.
Chapter 16
Two weeks later
“And now, this one.”
The pen flew across the black line as she signed her signature on the last page of the document. The behemoth stack of divorce papers had looked so intimidating, but with Brayden by her side, it’d felt like nothing. In fact, she’d smiled the whole way through and happily scribbled her signature and dated the lines where necessary. She was now free.
The clerk looked over the last signature then nodded. He slammed a big stamp over the last page, then stuffed them into a big manila envelope.
“Congratulations. Once these are made official, you can consider yourself divorced, Ms. Kategan.”
Vanessa’s smile was so huge her cheeks hurt her. She turned into Brayden and gave him a big hug. He laughed at her and she liked that too.
“When will I know?” she turned back to ask the clerk.
He glanced at a calendar. “It generally can take up to two weeks for it to go through.”
She lost her smile. Two whole weeks. Two more weeks that she’d still be considered mated to Joseph.
“Come on.” Brayden tugged her hand and led her outside.
The sun looked brighter, the air smelled fresher. Everything was good. Everything except her nagging conscious.
Brayden glanced down at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I feel guilty.”
“About what?”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “I feel guilty because I don’t feel bad that he’s dead. Isn’t that horrible? I mean, here I am making the divorce official, just so I can get my old name back. But, I don’t feel bad about it. Shouldn’t I?”
She didn’t know what his answer would be, but she certainly didn’t expect him to lean down and kiss her in full display of the Justicars heading in and out of their headquarters. It was a warm, tantalizing kiss that brought her blood to a simmer, causing her heart to race. He pulled back just as she started to think of all the nearest locations she could get his clothes off.
“No, you shouldn’t. He deserved what he got. I just wished I could have done it.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? You would have killed him?”
His eyes darkened so fast it scared her. “In a heartbeat. He hurt you for two long years...” his voice trailed off as a finger skimmed down her cheek. “Come on, let’s go.”
With her heart bursting in her chest, she couldn’t stop smiling. God, she loved him. Like really, madly, deeply, insane kind of love. “You never did tell me where we’re going.”
“That’s because I said it’s a surprise.”
Not put off in the least she replied, “It doesn’t have to be a surprise. They’re totally overrated anyway.”
He chuckled, then helped to lift her in his SUV at the curb. “Nothing you could do could convince me.”
Her eyebrow arched and he looked at her and winced. “Don’t even.”
She relaxed into her seat and parted her legs. “Oh, really? Nothing I could do...could convince you to tell me?”
“Baby, don't; it’s a surprise.”
“But, I really want to know,” she said, breathless. She honestly didn’t even care about the secret, but now she was getting hot and by the look in his eyes, so was he. She wet her dry lips and his eyes tracked the movement.
“Baby, stop that. I’m going to start this car, then we’re leaving. That’s it, okay? No games.”
She smiled devilishly at him. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
He narrowed his eyes on her then shook his head, started the car, and peeled away from the curb. Still, she watched him and still, he cast furtive, watchful glances at her.
She scooted closer to him. He tensed. He must be out of it, because he hadn’t even made sure she buckled her seatbelt. Watching the road ahead, as if nothing in the world was happening, she casually lifted the armrest separating them then scooted closer.
His jaw slid left. His hands curled hard over the steering wheel.
“Don’t do it,” he warned in that dark, sexy voice that gave her shivers.
She looked up at him with wide eyes. “Talking to me like that doesn’t help, you know.”
He exhaled a long, long breath.
What was with her desires going wild every time she was in close confines with him, specifically in this car? The last time they’d gotten all hot and bothered, he’d pulled over to the side of the road and things had just been about to get really, really good when they’d been struck by a car.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.
“Don’t think about what?” she whispered, her panties already wet between her thighs.
“About that day on the side of the road. I can see every wicked thought that scatters across your face. You’re like a book, beautiful.”
She sighed then curled around him. He hesitated at first, but then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She liked this. Liked being close to him, smelling his wonderful scent, feeling the strength of his body. Her hand rested on his chest, then trailed down over the hard planes and bunches of muscle. Desire rushed inside her. She wanted to lick her way down it, slowly.
The SUV started slowing. She started chanting a victory in her head then looked o
ut the window.
“What are we doing at the airport?”
“All part of the surprise.”
Pouting, she frowned at him, then scooted back across to her side of the car. She wouldn’t be getting any after all. She shot him a dirty look, which he caught, and then grinned at.
“Jerk.”
“Beautiful.”
Okay, so that was really sweet, and maybe she didn’t hate him after all.
He parked in long-term parking then led her inside. O’Hare was busy, to say the least. People rushing, talking loudly, sitting in seats eating quickly before their flights, or piled up against the wall with a laptop or book in their hands. The excitement started to catch on as he led her through the security checkpoint, then past terminal after terminal.
“Where are we going?”
“To the bathroom.”
Her smile fell. “Oh. No, I meant where are we going?”
“Just answered that, beautiful.”
She glared at his back as he half dragged her through the crowds. They made a right down a hall, this one less crowded, then stopped her outside the bathrooms. The door on the left said ‘men’ and the door on the right, which was much busier, said ‘women’.
“Wait here,” he ordered, then disappeared inside the men’s room.
What the hell was he doing, washing his hands? The man was a vampire; he didn’t have to use any facilities. Her own question was answered a moment later when he came out, grabbed her hand, then pushed her inside. Surprisingly, the bathroom was very white and clean looking. A sweet fruity smell permeated the room. He pulled her inside, then closed the door behind him. The metal deadlock clicked into place a second later.
He was on her in a second, hands on her ass, lifting her against the door. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
His mouth created havoc at her throat, making her legs weak and her will even weaker. “You started it. No way am I going to sit on a flight next to you without taking you first. God, I wouldn’t last.”
