Night's Blaze

by Donna Grant

“It was me,” he confessed and walked around her tiny kitchen. “I’ve been watching you. You’ve done quite well despite not having your parents’ money. And here I thought you’d go rushing back to them. Still feel guilty about that, don’t you?”

  How she wanted to scratch that smug smile off his face. Looking at him now, she couldn’t fathom what she ever saw in him. He was marginally good looking, but he had an awful temper and little respect for anyone but himself. He used people, just as he’d used her.

  Why hadn’t she listened to her parents? They saw what he was, but Lily thought she knew better. She had four broken bones, a multitude of scars, and nightmares to prove how wrong she had been.

  An image of Rhys flashed in her mind. She tried to hold on to it, to his strength, but Dennis intruded once more.

  Dennis moved to stand in front of her, the smile gone. His fingers bit into her arms. “I’m back, Lily. I’m back in your life, so you’d best remember your place quickly. Wipe that look off your face before I remove it for you.”

  She poured every ounce of hate and loathing through her eyes. Even when she saw his hand coming, she didn’t stop.

  Lily hit the door, her head slamming against it with the force of his slap. Her feet came out from underneath her, and she slumped to the ground. The only thing keeping her sitting up was the door. She blinked, the room spinning and her ears ringing. She also tasted blooded, proof that her teeth had cut the inside of her cheek.

  “You must think I like hitting you,” Dennis said with a tsking sound.

  She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but her cheek was numb.

  Dennis laughed and roughly hauled her to her feet. “Well, in truth, Lily, I enjoy it very much. I told you I’d break you. I thought I’d done it, but you were too good of an actress. This time, you’ll be broken one way or another.”

  That last threat wasn’t idle. She could hear it in his voice.

  Lily tried to fight him as he dragged her to the sofa and shoved her onto it. She wiped the blood from the corner of her lip and sat up, glaring.

  “I’ll be happy to beat you until you can’t stand. I’ve done it before, so you know I’m more than capable, but I need you to go into work tomorrow.”

  Work? Why did he care if she went into work?

  “Asshole,” she mumbled.

  That stopped him as he was turning away. He looked back at her. “What was that?”

  “I called you an asshole,” she said loudly.

  “I’m so much more than that, darling. Shall I tell you?”

  She held his gaze, terrified and nauseated at the same time. Dennis had made life a living hell. It took everything she’d had to leave him, and to have him back in her life now? It didn’t seem fair.

  “It’s no accident I’m here,” he said as he resumed his seat in her chair. “I’ve the added benefit of having you again, but that’s not the only reason.”

  “What benefit could I be to you?” she asked scornfully.

  He lifted a bottle from the table next to him, showing her the double dragon logo. “This is fine whisky.”

  Lily touched the cheek he’d hit and felt the heat of it. She looked from the bottle of Dreagan whisky to Dennis. “I only work in the store.”

  “That’s all I need.”

  “Why? So you can steal whisky?”

  Dennis laughed loudly, an evil light coming into his eyes. “You’re going to get me onto Dreagan.”

  “Anyone can come to Dreagan.” Lily wasn’t sure if he was that simple, or if hitting her head had rattled her mind a bit.

  Dennis poured a splash of whisky in a glass and lifted the glass to the light. “I’m going to want to go places the public isn’t allowed.”

  “No.” No way would she be a part of something like that. She liked everyone at Dreagan too much, liked her job there.

  Dennis sipped the whisky and licked his lips. “So predictable. I knew you’d say no. It’s why I’ve got insurance.”

  She really was going to throw up, because there was only one thing that could make her agree to do anything—her family.

  “I’ve seen how friendly you are with those at Dreagan, and how they rush to your side when you’re in trouble. If you don’t do what I say, I’m going to kill one of them. Perhaps one of those who work in the shop with you? What are their names? Cassie, Jane, and Elena?”

  As Dennis said the names, the faces of Hal, Banan, and Guy popped in her head. Those men—any at Dreagan, really—would rip Dennis in half for even thinking of harming their wives. All she would have to do is go to them and tell them.

  Let Dennis think he was winning and getting what he wanted. Hal, Banan, and Guy would be there waiting for him.

  “And when is this supposed to take place?” she asked tightly.

  “Tomorrow.”

  Lily suddenly realized she wasn’t as afraid of him as she used to be. She’d left once. She could do it again. She had also survived many of his beatings. She stood and walked to the door where she unlocked every dead bolt and then held it open. “I need time to scout the area.”

  Dennis drained the rest of the whisky in his glass and set it down on the table before he rose. He walked to her and paused in front of her. “You’ve got a day.”

  She let out a sigh when he began to walk through the door. Then he stopped and backed up, carefully shutting the door. He looked at her with a cold, confident smile.

  “Let me be very clear,” he said with a smirk. “If you think to go to anyone at Dreagan and tell them what’s going on, they won’t believe you.”

  She made a sound at the back of her throat. “Of course they’ll believe me.”

  Dennis raised his ginger brows in mock surprise. “How naïve you still are. Do you think anyone has seen me? How do you think it’ll sound to them when you tell them you’ve seen and heard me for weeks, but only just came face-to-face with me tonight? You’ll appear touched,” he said and pointed a finger at his head.

  Lily’s stomach rolled. No matter how daft she seemed, she would tell someone at Dreagan so Dennis could be stopped.

  “On the off chance they do believe you, I’ll do more than kill one of them,” Dennis continued. “I’ve got a backup plan.”

  She had been waiting for this. He was going to threaten to kill a member of her family. Lily steeled herself, wondering who he would choose. Her father, who Dennis hated with a passion? Her mother, who had made her distaste of Dennis perfectly clear? One of her three sisters, all of whom had told her—in front of Dennis, no less—that she could do better? The only one safe was her brother.

  Dennis pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and held it up for her to see the screen. Lily stumbled backward until she ran into the counter of the small bar in the kitchen when she saw her brother’s face.

  In the four years she had been gone, Kyle had developed into a fine-looking young man. He was her father’s pride, the only son of five children, and the baby of the family.

  “Kyle is quite funny,” Dennis said, a knowing look in his blue eyes. “We’ve become very close, he and I. It started out innocently enough by telling him I was trying to get you to come back to the family.”

  Uncontrollable rage welled up inside Lily. For the first time in her life, she wanted to hurt someone. No. She wanted to kill.

  Dennis, the charmer who had wooed her so effectively four years ago had now wormed his way into her brother’s life. Why? She hadn’t even been at Dreagan then. None of it made sense, but it didn’t matter.

  “Focus that hate, Lily,” Dennis said as he closed the distance between them, leaving the screen of the mobile phone up so she couldn’t look away from her brother’s smiling face. “Use it against Dreagan.”

  “I will kill you for this.”

  Dennis chuckled. “You? I doubt that, darling. Kyle is such a clever lad. He wants to make a name for himself, you know. He doesn’t want to use the family name to do it either. He wants to prove to your father he can do it alone.”

&n
bsp; Lily gripped the counter behind her and wished the knives were closer so she could plunge one into Dennis’s black heart.

  “You hate that Kyle and I have become close, don’t you?” Dennis asked. “How do you feel about us spending weekends together? It hasn’t been easy explaining your continued absence, but Kyle is so hungry for a companion near his age that he isn’t thinking about you as I show him how to do things.”

  “What things?” she said through clenched teeth.

  Dennis’s smile was slow, taunting. “It was so easy to lie to you all those years about what I really do. I work for one of the most dangerous men to walk the earth.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Do you recall that trip to Japan I took? I really went to France. I’m sure if you think back you’ll remember reading how a wealthy businessman was killed. That man tried to cheat my boss.”

  “And you killed the businessman?” Lily’s body went cold, because she did remember reading about a man being murdered in France while Dennis was supposed to be in Japan.

  “You accepted every lie I told about where I was going, and why I made the money I did. My boss rewards loyalty, and kills traitors without blinking. He’s vicious and unyielding, and he’s taken quite an interest in Kyle.”

  Lily’s eyes were fastened on the small screen as Dennis touched the play button and the video began. Kyle was laughing, his dark eyes crinkled. His black hair was cropped short on the sides, and left longer on top. Kyle sat beside Dennis on top of a wooden picnic table, their friendship obvious from how Kyle interacted with him.

  Dennis stopped the video and lowered the mobile phone. “If you don’t get me onto Dreagan, I’m going to bring Kyle into the fold. He’ll disappear, Lily. He’ll become a killer, sell drugs, steal, and whatever else our boss tells him to do.”

  “You took quite a chance befriending my brother on the off chance that I would become useful to you,” she said derisively.

  Dennis chuckled. “Do you really think you stumbled upon the job at Dreagan accidentally? We pushed you there.”

  “Liar.”

  “You did what we wanted, and went where we wanted. If you hadn’t gotten that job at Dreagan, we’d have ensured you got another one. I hope this clears up any hope in your mind that you can get out of helping me achieve what I need to do. If not, one of your new friends is going to die, and you’ll never see your brother again.”

  It took Lily a moment to realize Dennis was gone. She glanced at the locks on the door, but didn’t bother to turn them. He had gotten in once. Nothing would stop him from getting in a second time.

  She walked to her bedroom and sat down on her bed, the entire conversation with Dennis running through her mind. Lily didn’t want anyone from Dreagan getting hurt, but not a single one of them mattered as much as her brother.

  From the moment Kyle came into the world, he was happy. He brought smiles to everyone’s face he encountered. There was a light inside him that burned brighter, a spark that drew others to him.

  Because of her, Kyle had been drawn into a world he knew nothing about. A world that would destroy his light in an instant.

  Lily had no choice but to help Dennis. The thought left a bad taste in her mouth, but Dennis was sorely mistaken if he thought she would sit back and not retaliate.

  She would get her brother away from him, and then she would hunt Dennis down and kill him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Rhys walked by Lily’s flat four times. He told himself it was just to make sure she was home and safe, that he had no intention of going inside. But every time he got close to her door, he found himself heading right to it.

  He finally got tired of fighting it and started toward her door. It suddenly opened, and a man stepped out. Rhys halted in his tracks halfway across the street. Of course someone as beautiful and kind as Lily wouldn’t be alone.

  Rhys hated the jealousy that rose up, but that was nothing compared to the urge to rip the mortal apart. Lily was his. He knew it to the bottom of his soul that they were meant to be together throughout time.

  He stopped his thoughts right there. Lily wasn’t his. Lily was only a human who he wanted with every fiber of his being, someone he would watch over until the day of her last breath.

  Rhys turned and retraced his steps. He kept hidden until the mortal was gone. Then his gaze went back to Lily’s door. It seemed like yesterday that he learned her flat was broken into and she was missing. His mind ran rampant with all the ways she could be hurt, and he wanted to kill whoever had dared to harm her.

  He felt the same for the man who scarred her, the man who made her fear. If he couldn’t have her for his own, he could make sure that the man responsible never got near her again.

  “You’ll no’ have to fear him again, Lily,” Rhys vowed.

  He should’ve felt better. Why then did the ache in his chest intensify?

  There was only one way to lessen it. He had to see her. Rhys strode across the street and walked up to her door. His hand was raised to knock when the door opened. As soon as he saw Lily’s pale face, concern flared.

  “Rhys,” she said, her shoulders sagging as if in relief.

  He frowned and glanced over her head inside the flat. “Are you all right?”

  His worry intensified when he swore he heard her mumble under her breath, “I am now.”

  “It’s just been a long day,” she said louder.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  She shook her head. “I would actually like to take my mind off of it.”

  “Let me help.” Rhys understood all too well about wanting to forget something horrid. He suffered through it every day he couldn’t shift.

  Her dark gaze met his, visibly relaxing. “I’d like that very much.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Anything,” she said as she grabbed her purse.

  Rhys stepped aside when she walked out of the flat and closed the door behind her. He waited as she locked all three dead bolts, his heart thumping wildly at getting to spend some time alone with her.

  He didn’t miss how she looked nervously around the street. Her hands shook when she tried to put her keys in her purse, and they ended up falling to the sidewalk.

  Rhys bent and grabbed the keys. He then dropped them into her purse and caught her gaze. “You doona need to fear anything as long as I’m near.”

  Her head dipped, her breath catching in her throat. She swallowed hard and lifted her face to his. “Thank you.”

  It took everything he had to step back and not kiss her again. She had no idea how appealing she was, how he hungered to taste her—to claim her. Rhys began to walk, and she fell into step beside him. He shortened his strides to walk with her.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “For a walk.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  Rhys felt the knot in his chest loosen the longer he was with her. He talked of mundane things such as the weather and work, anything to take her mind off whatever was troubling her. How he wished she would confide in him, but it wasn’t like he was the best at telling others what bothered him. Which was why he didn’t push her. If she wanted to tell him, then she would. Until then, he would take her mind off it.

  He took her past the small park to a trail used by hikers and runners. It took them over hills and into the forest as well as past a small loch. Her smile grew, her eyes brightening once more. Rhys hated to admit it was the first time he had done something like this with a woman, but he felt as if time had been waiting for Lily to enter his life.

  While she looked at the scenery, he watched her. He loved the way she would pull her long hair over one shoulder when she bent to inspect something, how she gently touched the petals of the flowers. Everything she did was fluid and elegant.

  Rhys took every opportunity to touch her. Their hands skimmed on several occasions, as did their bodies. He touched her hair multiple times without her ever knowing it. Each time was burne
d into his mind and soul—and she sank deeper into his psyche.

  “Where did you go when you left Dreagan?” she asked as they walked along the path.

  He waited until they reached the top of the summit of the hill to look out over the land. Rhys waited until she stopped beside him before he said, “I was on Dreagan.”

  “Well, there are sixty thousand acres,” she said with a small smile.

  His lips softened when he looked at her. “I just needed to get away.”

  “I did that once.”

  “How did it turn out?”

  She folded her arms together. “I’ll let you know. The fact is, Dreagan is an escape for me. I don’t know what it is about the land, but I can’t wait to get there. And I hate to leave it.”

  “It’s magical to be sure.” He sighed. If only she knew just how much magic was there. She was obviously able to feel some of it to have such a strong pull to it.

  “You’re very lucky to have it as your home.” She turned to him then, her gaze searching. “You seem different.”

  He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I guess I am.”

  “I am too.” Lily hastily looked away and rubbed her hands on her arms.

  “You’re chilled.” Rhys could’ve kicked himself for not having a coat to give her. “You should’ve told me.”

  Lily chuckled as she spread her arms to encompass the view. “And miss this? Never.”

  “I wouldna advise coming in the morning. It’s full of runners. I’m surprised there are no’ more people up here now,” he said and turned her to begin walking again. “The trail makes a loop around the village.”

  “I know where I’ll be coming from now on.”

  Rhys was about to tell her to watch the root, but her foot hit it before he could. Lily pitched forward. His arms snaked out and grabbed her, yanking her against his chest to keep her from tumbling down the hill.

  Her lips were parted, her pulse rapid at the base of her throat. She had her hands fisted in his shirt tightly. Rhys’s own heart was pounding at the thought of her hurt in any way. He knew he’d grabbed her roughly, but it was his first reaction. The fact he responded so hastily confirmed how much he loved her.