by Cat Miller
Gage unlocked the door and swung it wide open. “Tessa, it is my great pleasure to inform you that all charges against you have been dropped. You are free to leave whenever you are ready. I would like to personally apologize for your imprisonment and also as a friend of Griffin I’d like to thank you for the risk you took to protect his family.”
Tessa acknowledged his heartfelt statement with a nod.
Gage addressed Griffin, “I’ve got that meeting, so I’ll head out.” He then retreated down the corridor and out the door that connected with the Council chamber.
Griffin stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to say. How did you thank a person for all the things she had done for him and him family? How does a man apologize effectively for the deceitful actions of his mate? Tessa still hadn’t moved an inch. She looked like an injured animal trying to hide from a predator. Tessa finally broke the tense silence but she didn’t turn around.
“How is JR?” she asked. “I haven’t had any visitors to give me news. I’ve been worrying about his reaction.”
“He is doing well. You saved his life. I’ll never be able to repay that debt.”
Griffin could hear the tears in her voice. Giving in to his body’s need to touch her, Griffin lifted her stiff body from the steel of the bunk and sat to deposit her on his lap. She didn’t struggle, nor did she relax when her face rested against his chest, so he began to stroke the honey gold of her hair. Her breath against his chest through his shirt sent chills coursing over his body. She began to tremble against him and he knew he wasn’t the only one affected by their contact. The starch went out of her spine and she melted into his embrace.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispered against her forehead, “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. I wish I had been there for you and Soleil. I had no idea what Sarah was telling people until today. I know it doesn’t correct the wrong done to you but I am sorry it took me so long to get to you.”
They sat there for a long moment while she allowed him to hold her. It felt so good after all the years of heartache to just be able to touch her, to smell the warm vanilla scent that had driven him crazy. The world felt right for the first time in twenty-one years. It was like all the missing puzzle pieces fell into place.
“I love you, Griffin,” Tessa quietly sobbed.
Griffin’s heart soared and ached all at once. He hadn’t heard those words since the day he left her with their newborn baby, but the tone in her voice said it wasn’t a good thing.
“I love you, too.” He kissed her brow. “Can we go someplace and talk for a while? I can get a room somewhere and we can talk without interruption.” He prayed she would say yes. Griffin knew if he got her alone they could come to some understanding about the future.
“Are we going to talk about you and me? Are we going to talk about being together as a family? Are you planning on getting a divorce? I know you are mated to Sarah but I understand that you also gave her the honor of a legal human marriage for your human public image. Is that what you want to talk about?” She sounded calm but he could see the storm on the horizon. Tessa lifted her head to look him in the eye for the answer she plainly knew was coming.
“Baby, you know it’s not that simple. I wish you would give me the chance to explain. When our people agree to an arranged marriage it is legal and binding. Our reputation as a family as well as a fortune is at stake. We contract agreements that link two families financially and socially for a lifetime.”
Tessa seemed to take in this new information and swish it around in her brain for a minute. He resisted releasing her when she tried to pull away, until he heard footsteps rushing down the corridor. She got to her feet just before Doc Stevens burst into the cell. He wrapped his arms around Tessa in a manner that was entirely too familiar for a doctor-patient relationship. Griffin was no fool. He knew it was Reilly that had been kissing his mate just days before when he lost his temper and destroyed his office.
“I have been sick with worry.” He kissed her temple, seeming to not even notice Griffin sitting there watching the exchange.
“They were so rough with you when you were apprehended. I wanted to examine you for injures but they said you weren’t allowed visitors. Not even a damn doctor.” He pulled back to exam her face then swiftly went to his knees and attempted to lift her shirt. “The way they tackled you I was concerned for broken ribs.”
Tessa pushed her shirt down but not before they got a look at her black and blue rib cage and hip.
“Reilly, could I have a few moments alone with Griffin? I promise to allow a full exam when we get back to the clinic.” She smiled wanly at his concerned grimace. “Just give a minute, okay?”
Reilly Stevens got back to his feet. He looked directly at Griffin when he answered her. “I will be waiting right down the hall to take you home.” He kissed her temple again and walked away.
Griffin was ready to rip that pushy bastard apart. Tessa did not belong to him, nor did he miss Reilly’s taunt about taking her home. To his damn home. Griffin stood then and crowded Tessa intentionally. It made her nervous and had always helped him get his way in the past. Nobody wanted two hundred and twenty pounds of pissed off vampire in their face.
“I love you so much. I would have done anything for you. I suffered years of loneliness and fear. I raised our child alone. I hoped, I prayed, I begged, and I pleaded with you for years to hear me, to love me in return. You ignored me. I knew you could hear me. I guess that was easier for your binding financial agreements. Not to mention the embarrassment you have endured due to my filthy humanity.”
Griffin tried to interrupt but Tessa was on a roll. She put space between them and gave him a look that let him know his intimidation tactics hadn’t worked.
“I have often wondered if you wished that Danielle hadn’t come back into your life.”
“That is a cruel thing to say, Tessa. Whether you choose to believe it or not, I suffered when I lost you and our baby. I don’t care how much drama it has caused. I want you both in my life…” she cut him off.
“Really? So what do you want from me, afling on the side? Will you continue to treat me like the dirty little secret I have been since the day you met me? Will you put me up in a suite somewhere so you have easy access to your pet human?” she hissed.
“That is ridiculous,” he argued.
“Is it? What exactly did you want to get a room to talk about?” she arched an elegant eyebrow and waited for an answer.
Griffin felt sick. That was exactly what he was going to ask her for, minus the pet human part. He had always loved her, humanity and all. Tessa softened and suddenly her eyes filled with tears. He tried to hold her but she swatted his hands away.
“I have a chance at a real relationship and I intend to take it. Please don’t approach me again with offers to be your whore. There is nothing left for us to talk about.” She turned away but Griffin grabbed her and pulled her back against his chest, his arms wrapped around her trim waist. The vanilla heat of her body swamped his senses. He loved her. It couldn’t end this way. Tessa lifted one hand and stroked his arm soothingly. She began to speak softly.
“People used to believe the earth was flat. I would never have believed that nonsense. God would never be so cruel. We all choose our own path in life and make our own mistakes. We hurt people or we help them, one way or the other, whether it’s intentional or not. But the earth is round. So eventually we cross that path again and are confronted by our triumphs and our tragedies, our loved ones and the ones we lost. The hearts we injured along the way will always make the round and show up again. I prayed for nineteen years that you would hear me and come back. I would have forgiven anything, everything, to have you love me again.” Tessa paused and lowered her head.
“I hope you have enjoyed seeing me again, hurting me again, and killing me, again. Because the next time you cross my path it will all be different. I still love you, Griffin,” she whispered. Tears tracked down both her chee
ks.
Relief flooded Griffin and he was finally able to breathe. If she still loved him Griffin refused to believe it was over between them. As long as she still loved him, he had a chance. Tessa continued.
“I would have done anything for you. I would have died for you, Griffin. But I can’t live for you anymore. I’m moving on with my life, blood-bond be damned, the same way you have done. I have nothing left for you, Griffin Vaughn, my husband, my mate. You are unforgiven.”
ELEVEN
Candice had been working with a Wrath special task force for a week. Her meeting with Gage Paris had gone far better than she had expected. Honestly, when she approached the warrior chief, she expected him to dismiss her out of hand solely because she was female. Then she would have told him to kiss her feminine and quite firm ass. What a pleasant surprise to find the leader of the warrior class to be more than willing to not only work with a female, but to actually listen to her opinions and take them into consideration.
The chief approved her request to shadow a Wrath team that was making frequent trips to the Southern States because of organized and well-armed pockets of revolutionary minded vampires who wanted to overthrow the human race. Idiots. They claimed to be tired of living in the shadow of their prey. The leaders were spouting bullshit with what sounded suspiciously like the same vampire supremacy drivel they heard from discontent vampires locally. In the same areas they found these troublemakers, there seemed to be a high rate of missing persons, mostly humans, but a few vampires too.
The task force was on a mission to locate the cells of fanged terrorists and shut them down before they could cause enough trouble to reveal the vampire nation. Candice was going to be looking for connections between the missing humans and vamps in both areas while the task force members would work on tracing the pockets of discontent back to the Rogue.
Gage was convinced that the influence of the Rogue was farther reaching than they had initially believed. The only way to prove or disprove his theory was to get the bad guys talking, find out where they got their ideas, and who was financing their operations. Most of the cells consisted of underprivileged vampires that were sick of scraping by in life, who were led by one or two well organized ex-military types. The pattern was repeated over and over. A pocket of trouble would pop up and be reported to the nearest Enclave, and then they would attempt to track and apprehend the perps on their own. When the human and vampire missing person reports began to cause panic and threaten to expose the local vampire population, it was reported to the Wrath.
When the Wrath made the scene, it seemed as if the perps were always one step ahead of them. They tracked the perps to a home base that always contained a few heavily armed, but untrained, lackeys the warriors believed to be sacrificial lambs. They would fight to the death to defend their stronghold, but when the warriors breached their defenses, they would find nothing worth defending. They would always find provisions and accommodations for plenty of people but no perps to interrogate. It looked like the perps had forewarning and evacuated, leaving behind a few men to distract the warriors while they slipped farther away. They often found cages and sometimes they would find dead vamps and dead or dying humans. It was a nightmare.
A knock at her back door made Candice jump and pulled her from her morbid musings. She knew exactly who she would find on the other side of the ruffled curtain covering the window on the kitchen door. Only one person ever found it necessary to make a sneaky rear door entrance.
“Hi, Candy. Have you missed me?” Derek kissed her on the cheek when he slid past her and into the kitchen. He walked to the fridge and starting pulling out the fixings for a sandwich. Well hell. There went her lunch for the rest of the week. She didn’t mind. There had been many a night, when Derek was a teenager, that he would show up at her back door looking for food or a friend to talk to, but she drew the line when he attempted to drink straight from her milk container, snatching the carton and pouring him a glass before she responded.
“No, I can’t say that I have missed having a sharp pain in my ass,” she teased before she slid onto the stool next to him at the counter. There were crumbs and a trail of mustard running across the black granite surface. Derek leaned over and left a mustard smeared kiss on her cheek.
“Come on, Candy. What would you do without a mooching criminal to brighten your day?” He chuckled and resumed devouring his first sandwich. She knew he would eat at least two.
When she really thought about his question, it made her heart heavy. She had no family. They had disowned her when she left the life of the socially elite to pursue a more fulfilling existence. Derek had been the only person she allowed close to her heart. What would she do if she didn’t have his sporadic visits to look forward to? When she didn’t come back at him with a cutting retort, Derek stopped eating.
“What’s going on with you, Candy? You seem…sad. It’s not a good look for you.” Derek poked her in the side, “I know I’m just a sharp pain in the ass, but you can talk to me about anything.”
****
Derek heard through the Shade grapevine that a vampire who chose to be a cop for the humans was going to be partnering with the Enclave to figure the missing person problem and apprehend the perpetrators. He knew it had to be none otherthan his adoptive big sister. She was one of a kind. He had come to investigate and see if he could get her to talk about what information the Enclave already had on the subject. None of his contacts were high enough on the food chain to get any solid information from the Wrath.
He knew it was underhanded to use her love for him to get information, but he had to do what he had to do, just like he had to in any other situation. Candy was the only person that had ever made him feel like he had a home and someone to turn to when things got tough. When he needed a shoulder to lean on or a meal that didn’t involve tapping a vein, Candice had always been his girl. She had stood between him and insanity more than once. Some of the things he’d done in his life for the sake of his mother had been horrific. So now he tried to convince himself that this was nothing. It was just a little harmless information gathering, right?
Derek was doing his best to pretend this was a visit just like any other when Candice’s behavior began to seem odd to him. She hadn’t fussed at him for making a mess or made any comments about him eating her lunch provisions. She hadn’t even smacked him in the head for trying to drink from the milk carton or for purposely getting mustard all over her cheek. Something was wrong. He just hoped it was the stress of working and dealing with the Enclave and not anything more serious.
If nothing else, it was a good opening for him to ask her what she’d been up to. Derek decided to finish his sandwich before beginning the inquisition. It would seem odd to her if he didn’t worry about his stomach first and the rest of the world last.
“What’s going on with you, Candy? You seem…sad. It’s not a good look for you.” Derek poked her in the side, “I know I’m just a sharp pain in the ass, but you can talk to me about anything.” He held his breath, waiting for an answer, but Candy just stared off into the distance.
Derek pulled Candy off of her stool and dragged her into the living room where he flopped onto her recliner and pulled her onto his lap. She snuggled into the comfort he offered, but ignored his question.
“You might as well spill it, Candy. I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong.” He kissed the top of her head. Her silence had him worried. This was about more than just stress from work. She would have admitted to that and told him to mind his own business.
“I really hate it when you call me that.” She humphed.
“I know.” He smiled and waited.
“I’m lonely,” she confessed. “Sometimes I miss having a big family and lots of friends. I was just thinking about the fact that you are my family and the only true friend I have.” She snuggled a little closer, petting him like she had when he was much smaller and she would hold him in her lap, giving comfort when needed.
Da
mn. That made what he was doing so much harder. They were family and he was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to manipulate your family members.
“I thought you hated other people. You only tolerate me so you have someone to beat on when you need to release your pent up rage. Don’t think I don’t know you just keep me around for the sparring matches. It’s not like you can really let loose on your weak little fellow officers,” he joked, trying like hell to lighten the mood. She giggled.
“Well that is about to change. So, watch out kid. I have lowered myself to offering assistance to the Enclave. They need help with a few things.”
Derek wanted to laugh. He knew how bad she had wanted to be a warrior and working with the Enclave would be a dream come true for Candy. But he let her believe he had no idea she had approached them. It was good for her ego.
“I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew those idiots would wise up and see what an asset you could be, once they pulled their heads out of their asses,” he smirked.
She laughed out loud, “Yeah. It was just a matter of time.”
Derek was quiet, trying to think of where to go from there. How was going to get Candy talking? Candy broke the silence first.
“I met a guy, a really hot guy that acts like I don’t exist. It pisses me off. The arrogant bastard just treats me like one of the guys.”
Here was the real reason for her pouting. After he talked her through this, he could steer the conversation back to the important matter at hand.