Craving Eden

by Tianna Xander

  Jake might be the sheriff of this small town, but even he had to admit that the head of a criminal organization wasn’t someone he was used to having to investigate in Haven.

  Sam led several strangers as they all rushed into the room. None of them had weapons. She didn’t know if it was because they didn’t have time to grab them or because they didn’t need them. Eden wondered if Jake only wore a gun to look the part because goodness knew that he didn’t seem to need it.

  Relief swept through her when she saw Jake’s beta. Eden released a relieved sigh when the others took over, grabbing the men and dragging them from the house.

  The crisis over, she rushed to Jake, needing to see that he was unharmed. He stood, brushing off the seat of his pants, his expression grim.

  “Are you okay? Let me see your leg.”

  “I’m fine. It’s almost healed already.” He sighed. I don’t have any more uniforms here. I’ll have to run back upstairs and change, so Harper doesn’t see the blood.”

  Eden bent to inspect the hole over his thigh, amazed to find nothing but a small round spot of new pink skin.

  “I planned to kill that bastard.” A muscle jerked in Jake’s jaw.

  “Why only that one?”

  “I wanted to kill them all for breaching the walls of our home. But he had his weapon pointed at you. That’s why.” He growled, the low sound coming from deep inside his chest.

  Ten years ago, that growl would have terrified her. Not now. Now, it only served to remind her that she and Harper were safer with him than anywhere else they could go.

  “They all had their weapons pointed at us.”

  “Not us.” He shook his head. “You.” Jake pointed to the spot where the man had stood. “That one had his gun pointed at you.” He met her gaze, his own haunted. “I can’t lose you again.” He thinned his lips, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “I won’t lose you again. It would kill me.”

  “You didn’t lose me.” She moved closer, slid her arms around him, and rested her cheek against his chest. “I’m still here.”

  Eden glanced at the clock. “Oh, my goodness! It’s almost three o’clock. We need to get Harper.” She looked around them. “The house is a mess. What will we tell her?” Eden had managed to keep Edward from her daughter since she’d left him. How would she explain this mess to her?

  “Yes.” He nodded and glanced around the room. “It is a mess. I’ll have Sam get some men to get this cleaned up while we’re gone. There’s no need to worry the child.”

  Jake wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to the door.

  “Sam, come here for a minute.”

  “Yes, sir.” Sam walked up the porch steps, limping slightly with his right foot. “His faded jeans were dusty and smeared with blood.”

  “I hope that’s not your blood, Sam.” Eden reached out to take his outstretched hand.

  Sam bowed and gently shook her hand before he released it.

  “It’s not mine.” He glanced down at his leg and then grinned. “One of our new friends,” he said, gesturing to the men who sat on the lawn nursing various injuries. “Decided to bleed all over me when I punched him in the mouth.”

  “Oh. I’m glad you’re okay.” She glanced at the other men who stood guard over the criminals who broke into Jake’s home. “Is everyone else—“

  “All of our men are fine. Don’t worry about them.” Sam interjected before she could put a voice to her fears. “But the one Jake punched in the throat didn’t make it.”

  “Good.” Jake scowled at the group. “I intended for that one to visit the morgue anyway. Will you take care of the paperwork for me?”

  “Isn’t that my job,” Sam asked with a grin.

  “Thanks.” Jake turned to Eden. “Maybe I should send you somewhere safe until this is over.” Jake grasped her shoulders, his expression pensive.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Edward would just follow me.”

  “Not if he couldn’t find you. I have a plane. I could take you somewhere Edward’s men would never think to look.”

  “He would find me. I don’t know how he does it, but he always seems to show up where I am within a couple of weeks, no matter how well I cover our tracks.”

  “Maybe he’s got a tracking device in your things.”

  “I don’t know how he could.” She wracked her mind, trying to think of how Edward could track her. What item did they carry with them everywhere they went?

  It couldn’t be an article of clothing. They’d replaced everything they left with at one time or another. Harper outgrew her things, and Eden’s clothes had worn out.

  Eden’s eyes widened when she realized how Edward had found her all those times. She sold her expensive clothes on consignment and traded her car in for cash and a less expensive, fuel-efficient model.

  The only thing she still had with her was the watch her ex had given her for her birthday a couple of months before she left.

  Once she left Harper with Jake, Eden had planned to sell the watch to pay for a small apartment. She figured it should be good for a couple of month’s rent.

  She’d hocked it, on a few occasions and it sat in a pawnshop for a while before she could afford to pay for it and get it back. The few times she’d left it in the pawnshops was the few times they’d been able to stay in one place for more than a week or two since Harper turned seven.

  Something told her just to leave it the last time. It had no sentimental value, and it was her last link to her ex-husband. She’d only gotten it back because she couldn’t bear leaving something so expensive to a pawnbroker.

  They made enough money off other people’s misfortune. They didn’t need to make money off her, too.

  “I think I might know how he’s tracking me.” She took off her watch, held it up, and waved it. Maybe we should drive somewhere and toss it in a lake.” Eden frowned at the diamond-encrusted face. “I should have known he was sneaky enough to put a tracking device into it, the bastard.”

  Jake reached out and took the watch.

  “I’ll buy you another.” He smiled. “Hell, I’ll buy you one for every damned day of the week if you want.”

  He gestured to one of the men standing guard over their assailants.

  “Carson, I’d like to have a word.” He pulled the man aside, bringing him closer to Eden, but far enough from the men, they’d detained that they couldn’t hear. He held up her watch. “Take this and put it in the Sherriff’s Office when you arrest those men. Also, make sure they all know only one of them gets a phone call. I want him to call their boss.”

  “Sure thing, sir.” Carson grinned. “Does this mean we’ll be having more fun soon?”

  “I hope so, Carson.” Jake grinned and slapped him on the back. “Let’s hope their employer takes the bait and visits us himself. I can’t tell you how much I’d like to meet the bastard.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Let’s go pick up our daughter from school, shall we?” Jake ushered Eden to his crew cab pickup and waited for her to slide into the passenger seat.

  He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply when her scent engulfed him. There was nothing like the sweet smell of his mate to make his body come alive, and every muscle clench with need.

  “What are we going to do?” Eden said as Jake climbed behind the wheel.

  She stared out through the windshield at his men as they prodded their prisoners onto their feet.

  “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot we can do. We’re going to have to wait for your ex-husband to arrive and make his next move.” He frowned at that. “He is your ex-husband, correct?

  God, he hoped so. He couldn’t marry her if she was still married to the asshole.

  The man could have an accident. It wasn’t as though he was a paragon of virtue. Hell, Jake would do the women and young girls of the world a favor if he killed the sick bastard. A slow smile curved his lips at the idea.

  “Yes.” She nodded. “I filed for divorce after I turned over the
information on his sex slave ring to the police.” Eden turned toward him and smiled. “You’d be surprised how quickly a divorce will go through, and how understanding the judge can be when your ex is a heartless criminal bastard. I wouldn’t have been able to stay on the run as long as I had if the judge hadn’t awarded me half of what Edward had in his U.S. bank account. The money in his U.S. accounts had been from all of his legitimate businesses. I didn’t want it, but it helped us stay hidden all these years, and at least it wasn’t dirty money.”

  It was too bad she didn’t decide to come to him sooner. No matter how angry he had been, he would have kept them both safe.

  He would have protected them even if Harper hadn’t been his daughter by blood. Just being his mate’s child put her under his protection and that of his pack.

  Eden’s smile faded, and she turned to stare through the windshield again. “He sold boys and girls as young as eight, Jake.”

  Her eyes glistened with tears as she stared through the window, most likely remembering the details that led up to her escape.

  “How can he live with himself? How can I live with myself? I let it happen. I remained blissfully ignorant and let him just go about his business as though there was nothing wrong.”

  A tear dropped from her lashes, like a liquid crystal sliding down her cheek. Another followed, and another until she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

  “How could I have been so blind?”

  “You weren’t blind. The bastard was obviously very good at hiding the things he did, or you would have caught on long before you did.”

  “It still wasn’t soon enough for hundreds of women and children.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket, wiped her eyes, and then blew her nose.

  “I ruined his business and his plans. I’m sure he planned to sell us. I heard him talking to someone on the phone about an order he would fill, but it would take at least six years. It was for a green-eyed figurine. I got suspicious because of the way he looked at Harper. She was only a few months old at the time, but even then, she had gorgeous green eyes. Your green eyes.”

  “He’ll never touch our daughter, Eden. You know that. The bastard will have to go through the rest of the pack and me before he gets to you.” He’d call in every member of their pack if he had to. No one would touch his daughter or his mate if he had anything to say about it.

  “I-I know you’ll do your best.” She met his gaze and gave him a trembling smile. “That’s why I brought her to you. I knew you would protect her.”

  “I’ll protect you both from him. So, you think he’s after you for revenge?”

  Retribution was the only reason he could think of for her ex-husband still to have such an interest in finding her and their daughter.

  Why hadn’t the bastard moved on to someone else? Jake had to ask, even knowing that Eden would never wish that fate on anyone.

  “I think so. Why else? It’s not as though he couldn’t find another green-eyed child in the world. Not that I would want to trade our safety for someone else's. If it’s not revenge, he sure has been wasting a lot of time and resources hunting me down. When he could easily find another.”

  Maybe he thinks you have something else that could prove more charges against him.”

  “I don’t know what it could be. I didn’t take anything with me but the watch and Harper.”

  Jake had a sinking feeling that their daughter was the objective. He couldn’t think of a way to hurt a woman more than taking her child from her and selling it into sexual slavery. It was a fate worse than death.

  “I think he still wants Harper.” Eden turned her gaze to Jake, her eyes wide with fear. “I think he wants to take her from me and sell her to the highest bidder.”

  “He could want you as well.” Jake turned out onto the highway and headed toward town. “How else would he take his revenge on you?”

  “You’re probably right.” She shuddered and turned to look through her window. “How will we stop him? How will we keep him from my baby?”

  “We aren’t doing anything. You will stay safe with our daughter.” There was no way in hell Jake would let either of his precious females get anywhere near Edward and his men. He’d put guards on them twenty-four hours a day if that’s what it took.

  It would only take one man to pull a gun and put it to one of their heads and force Jake to let them go.

  Jake only had two weaknesses, and they were both precious to him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Eden didn’t say anything when their daughter got into the backseat of Jake’s huge crew cab pickup. She’d planned to give Harper the time to tell them about her day when she joined them.

  Harper was no one's fool. She stared at them for a few moments and sighed.

  “We have to leave again, don’t we?” Her eyes filled with tears as she stared through the window. “I thought things would be different here.” She glanced at Jake. Are we going to have to leave, Daddy?”

  Something squeezed Jake’s heart when she called him that with such disappointment.

  “No,” Jake replied, his hands gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles turned white. “You aren’t going anywhere. Haven is your final stop.”

  He glanced back at her so she would see that he meant every word. “Together, we’re all going to make a stand, and your mother’s ex-husband will leave us all alone forever.”

  “How can you be sure?” Harper nervously plucked at the new backpack Jake bought for her. She swung her legs back and forth, repeatedly kicking the back of the seat.

  Her big green eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip trembled. It was obvious she was tired of hiding from the bogeyman.

  “I want to stay here with you, Daddy.”

  Jake stopped the car, got out, and opened the back door. Kneeling, he took her hands in his and met her gaze.

  “You will stay here with me. Both of you will stay here.” Smiling, he cupped her cheek, his thumbs brushing away her tears. “Don’t think for a minute that I’m going to let you go. Now that I’ve finally found you, the three of us are going to be a real family.”

  “We found you, Daddy.” Harper smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed his cheek.

  “Yes, you did.” He cleared his throat. “Just because you and your mom hunted me down, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you whole big bunches.” He held her for a few moments before he pulled away with a smile.

  “It took you less than ten minutes to wriggle your way into my heart, squirt.” He tapped her on the nose. “You’re stuck with me now.”

  Standing, he shut the door and climbed back behind the wheel.

  “I’ll take you both to another country if I have to. So, stop worrying before it gives you wrinkles.”

  “I’m too young to get wrinkles.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you, squirt. I was talking to your mom. She doesn’t need more wrinkles. She has enough as it is.”

  “What?” Eden glared at him, and he just winked at her. “Of all the ner—“

  “Mom doesn’t have wrinkles. She has laugh lines.”

  “Oh, is that what they’re calling them these days?”

  “That’s just about enough out of you, mister.” Eden bared her teeth, then reached out and thumped him on the arm.

  They spent the rest of the trip back to Jake’s home, teasing each other so mercilessly they were all laughing and giggling when they pulled into the driveway.

  Sam was there, sitting on the front porch, He’d changed his clothes, but his dark hair was still mussed from the altercation earlier in the afternoon.

  “How was school today, squeaker?” He said as Harper ran to greet him.

  “You were right, Uncle Sam.” She rushed to him, her cheeks flushed, a smile on her face.

  Stooping, Sam swept her up, his blue eyes twinkling as she regaled him with stories of the friends she’d made and what adventures she’d had on her first day of school.”

  “I’m glad you liked it.”
He winked with a grin. “Didn’t I tell you there was nothing to worry about?”

  “Yes.” True to form, she kissed him on the cheek and then wiggled so he’d set her down. “Where’s Charlie?” She looked around for Sam’s German Shepherd Dog.

  “He’s at home. We had a problem earlier, and I didn’t want him to get hurt. So, I left him locked in the house.”

  If he hadn’t left Charlie locked up, the dog would have eventually made its way to Jake’s, looking for Harper since the two had become fast friends over the last several days.

  “Oh.” The excitement and cheer faded from her expression. That man came looking for us again, didn’t he?”

  Sam glanced between Jake and Eden as though asking what he should say in answer to that.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Jake answered for him, his expression grim. “Some people who work for him visited, and we told them all to go away.”

  Eden pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. She had an idea of what was coming next.

  “I would have thrown their butts in jail if I were the sheriff.” Harper crossed her arms with a glower and met Jake’s gaze. “So, why didn’t you?”

  “Actually,” Sam replied with a grin. “That’s exactly what he did.” He tapped her on the nose. “I guess you really are the sheriff’s daughter. You even think like him.”

  “Come on, Harper. It’s time to go into the house and change into play clothes. Do you have homework, or was the teacher easy on you because today was your first day?”

  “I have homework.”Harper sighed. “Can’t I do that later?” She batted her eyes at Sam. “Can I go over to your house and lib, liber…” She glanced at Eden with a sigh. “What’s the word, Mom?”

  “Liberate?” Eden guessed.

  “Yes. That’s it. Can I go liberate Charlie?”

  “Well, now, I dunno, squeaker. You haven’t squeaked for me today. I think the toll troll wants a squeak.” Sam set her down, knelt, and started to tickle her.