Savage Sons (House of Winterborne Book 2)

by Luanne Bennett

  We pulled up to Avery’s building just in time to spare me from telling him about Wesley Foster’s dirty little secret. “It’ll have to wait until we get home. Thanks for the ride, Edward.”

  “It’s my job.” He shrugged. He was having far too much fun with this.

  Hawk wasn’t happy about being left in the dark, but he got out and motioned for me to lead the way. “We will be discussing Brooklyn when we get home,” he said, following me into the lobby.

  Home? I liked the sound of that. Maybe I’d talk him into moving into the penthouse and finally know exactly where he lived. Start an even bigger war with Cabot. I glanced back at his brooding face. Then again, maybe not.

  We took the elevator up to the tenth floor, with Hawk giving me the silent treatment. I couldn’t blame him. I intended to tell him about Brooklyn, but between dinner and the best sex of my life, I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

  After what felt like an eon trapped with Hawk and his dark mood, the elevator door mercifully opened. On the way down the hall to Avery’s apartment, I warned him about her lack of a filter. “Don’t be offended by anything my sister says tonight. She can come off a little rude, but she doesn’t mean it. She’s just clueless sometimes, and she’s a snob.”

  “Well then,” he said when we reached the door. “Can’t wait to see her again.”

  I knocked, feeling nervous about walking into my own sister’s apartment. As footsteps approached the door, I found myself glancing at Hawk’s shirt to make sure it was tucked in properly. God, what was wrong with me?

  When the door opened, I got an eerie feeling as the man on the other side slowly smiled at us. He was tall, and there wasn’t a jet-black hair out of place on his head. A cocky confidence came through within a second of laying eyes on him. He was also wearing a ridiculously expensive suit. Avery’s type to a tee. He looked at Hawk for a moment and then turned his piercing brown eyes to mine. It was like he was reaching inside my head. Reading me.

  “You must be Morgan.” He extended his hand without relaxing his intense gaze.

  “And you must be Decker.” I shook his hand, noting his cold but firm grip. “This is Hawk.”

  He finally dropped the staring act and properly greeted Hawk with a handshake.

  As we followed him inside, Hawk glanced at me as if he was wondering if we were thinking the same thing—Avery’s new roommate didn’t feel quite right.

  When we reached the living room, Decker glanced down at the bottle in my hand. “Can I take that from you?”

  “Oh. Yes.” I handed it to him, and his fingers brushed against mine, that same cold feeling penetrating my skin. It was like he’d been holding an ice-cold glass just before opening the door.

  “Morgan? Is that you?” Avery yelled from the kitchen.

  No, it’s the mailman.

  “Yes.”

  “Come into the kitchen please.”

  I glanced at Hawk, trying to decide whether I should leave him with Decker or drag him into the kitchen with me. Which would be more painful?

  But he spared me the decision by starting a conversation with our host to reassure me he was capable of fending for himself. “I hear you’re a Buddhist,” he said as an opener.

  Cringing, I headed for the kitchen. When I walked inside, Avery was arranging something that looked like a rustic loaf of bread on a long platter. The apron protecting her red dress was spotless. The bread was perfectly baked with decorative scores along the top forming a leaf pattern.

  “Since when do you bake?” I asked, noticing a distinct savory aroma. Or eat bread?

  She grabbed a sharp knife. “I don’t.” Then she carefully cut off the end, revealing a bright pink center that immediately filled my nose with the telltale smell of roasted meat. “It’s beef Wellington. I ordered it from a French restaurant down the street, and don’t you dare say anything.”

  At first I was appalled that she’d serve me red meat, something she knew I’d sworn off years ago. But then my mouth started to water as the smell triggered my newly developed taste for anything containing blood. I’d eaten a steak the night Ryker forced me into my transition, and I wanted nothing more than to sink my teeth into that beautiful pastry-wrapped tenderloin.

  “Does it have bacon inside?” I was a traitor to my own ethics. But I drank blood, for God’s sake. My ethics had flown out the window.

  “Prosciutto.” She nodded to the oven. “Get the vegetables out of the warming tray for me please.”

  I grabbed the oven mitts and removed a pan of roasted carrots and potatoes. “Does Decker think you made all this?”

  “Of course he does. He just got home a few minutes ago. Can’t have him thinking I’m incapable of cooking him a meal.” She garnished the platter with a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme and stepped back to give everything a good look. After brushing a stray lock of hair from her eyes, she blew out a breath and smiled. “Everything’s perfect.”

  How the hell did she pull off breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily basis? She couldn’t send Decker on errands before every meal. Then I remembered her housekeeper. Avery probably paid her extra to cook.

  “I’m starting French cooking classes next week.”

  Lord, she’d gone off the deep end.

  When we walked into the dining room with the food, Hawk and Decker were by the living room window, deep in conversation. But by the look on Hawk’s face when he saw us, he was thankful for the interruption.

  “Dinner is ready.” Avery’s voice was higher than usual and had a lyrical lilt to it. Not at all like her usual impatient tone. She smiled at Decker and placed the platter of beef Wellington in the middle of the table. “I hope you like it,” she whispered to him as he walked up to the table and pulled out her chair.

  “I hope so too.” His eyes showed no trace of amusement.

  Her smile faded as she sat down. Knowing my sister, he’d just planted a seed of doubt with his careless remark. Avery was the queen of letting comments roll off her back, especially when spoken about mundane subjects, but I could see her mood change before my eyes. Decker knew exactly how to push the right buttons.

  “The Wellington smells fantastic.” I glanced around the table for the bottle of red wine I’d brought. We were definitely drinking tonight, if only to loosen up the asshole sitting across from me so I could extract some information from him.

  Decker glanced over at it on the coffee table, and I swear he smirked at me. Avery started to stand when he made no attempt to retrieve it, but I stood up first.

  “Sit down, Avery, I’ll get it.”

  After grabbing the bottle, I stopped in the kitchen to find a corkscrew. When I shut the drawer and turned around, Decker was standing behind me.

  “You don’t like me very much, do you?”

  I met his eyes. “What on earth gave it away?”

  He took the wine and corkscrew from my hands. “It’s called mirroring,” he said, opening the bottle. “It’s an effective therapy that allows a patient to become more sensitive to their interactions with other people. By treating Avery in the same manner she’s accustomed to treating others, she recognizes her faults.”

  “So she’s your patient, and you thought she needed to be treated for her faults?” Arrogant bastard.

  He gave me that condescending smile again. “No. She did. It was her idea, and I’m more than happy to help her become the best version of herself.”

  The best version of herself? What kind of psychobabble was that?

  “Decker?” Avery walked into the kitchen and took the wine from his hand. “Your dinner is getting cold.” She glanced back and forth between us. “What are you two up to in here?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “Decker was just helping me find the corkscrew.”

  We followed her back into the dining room and resumed dinner, but I couldn’t get his words out of my head. The way he was treating Avery was a mirror image of how she treated others, so even though I didn’t like it, I guess it was poss
ible she’d agreed to this “therapy.”

  “Where are you from, Decker?” I casually asked, taking a bite of beef.

  He swallowed his mouthful of food and took a sip of wine. “I’ve lived many places, but Connecticut is where I lived before moving to New York.”

  “Really? What do you do for a living?”

  “I’m in politics.”

  “Hmm. Planning to run for mayor?” I cut into a carrot and refrained from smirking. When I glanced at Hawk, I thought he was going to lose it.

  “Not Decker,” Avery said, smiling at him proudly. “He manages Benjamin Fuller’s campaign.”

  “Seriously?” Benjamin Fuller was a Republican running for US Senate. “I thought you were a spiritual advisor?”

  Avery’s face flushed as she shot me a look. I guess it was supposed to be a secret. Good thing I hadn’t mentioned him helping her shed her immortality.

  “I am, but politics pays the bills. My spiritual work is done in service.” He glanced across the table. “What do you do for a living, Hawk?”

  I could see that Hawk was caught off guard, evidenced by the deer-in-headlights look on his face. “He’s a writer,” I blurted out.

  “Interesting. Fiction?”

  “Something like that,” Hawk replied, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

  Avery decided to chime in. “A writer, huh?”

  “So what exactly does a campaign manager do?” I asked Decker before Avery could blurt out something about Hawk being a shifter. She was good at sticking her foot in her mouth and explaining things after the fact.

  “My main job is to make my boss look good to his future constituents.” He finished his dinner and pushed his plate to the side. “Avery has told me all about Winterborne’s. We have a few fundraisers coming up, and we were thinking of holding an auction. We already have commitments from wealthy donors. High-end of course. Jewelry, paintings. Things of that sort. It isn’t cheap to run for Senate.”

  “I’m sure it isn’t,” I said. “Did you have Winterborne’s in mind?”

  “We’ve been talking to Christie’s, but now that Avery and I have found each other, it makes sense to consider Winterborne’s. All parties would benefit from the publicity.”

  Winterborne’s didn’t need the publicity. Nor did Christie’s or any other major auction house in the city.

  He must have sensed my hesitation. “I’ll tell you what. We’re having a party at the Whitney on Friday. A fundraiser. Why don’t you attend? I’ll introduce you to Benjamin so you can see for yourself if you want to get involved with the campaign.”

  “That’s nice of you. I’ll see what’s on my schedule and get back to Avery.”

  We finished dinner and adjourned to the living room to carry on with the charade. I still didn’t trust the man, and by the odd looks Hawk had been giving him all evening, he didn’t seem to trust him either. There was something about his eyes that made me uneasy. And then there was the fact that he knew about Avery’s immortality and didn’t seem to be surprised by it. I doubted he was mortal at all, but I couldn’t pinpoint what he was.

  After an hour of small talk, I helped Avery clear the table and put the food away.

  “Well? What do you think of Decker?” She’d never asked my opinion on anything before.

  “What is he?”

  “What do you mean?” She refused to look at me and kept shoveling perfectly good food into the garbage disposal.

  “You know exactly what I mean. He might be a campaign manager, which I’ll believe when I see it for myself, but he’s no spiritual guru. And I’ll be damned if he’s mortal. Jesus, Avery, I can sense it.”

  She dropped the platter in the sink and gripped the edge of the counter. “I don’t care what he is!” I swear I heard my borderline narcissistic sister sniffle.

  “Avery? What’s happening to you?”

  She composed herself before turning around to face me. “He makes me feel.”

  “Feel what?”

  “Anything. Everything. He just makes me feel.”

  I thought about the night before when Hawk and I nearly devoured each other. The intensity of it was indescribable. “You mean… in bed?”

  She grabbed a kitchen towel and wiped her hands, glancing at the mess in the sink. “Lilly can clean it in the morning.” When she looked back at me, it was the sister I knew. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s always been so easy for you. Men, school, your position with the clan.” She waved her hand in the air. “Everything always just fell into place for you.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She was the smart, ambitious one. Avery always had a boyfriend. I guess we didn’t know each other as well as we thought. “You’re right. I don’t understand. Decker is controlling you, and it’s scaring the hell out of me.”

  She straightened her spine and smoothed out her dress. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m truly happy for the first time in my life. Decker can be the devil for all I care.” Putting on a pleasant smile, she headed back to the living room.

  I followed her out and told Hawk it was time to leave. After calling Edward, I looked at my sister, who had disappeared and become a stranger again. “I’ll let you know about Friday.”

  We thanked them for dinner and headed out the door.

  “Are you thinking the same thing I am?” I asked Hawk as we stepped into the elevator.

  “You mean do I think he’s human?” He shook his head and let out a bitter laugh. “I think your sister has a big problem on her hands. That guy has vampire written all over him. I can smell it.”

  Chapter 10

  My phone on the nightstand said 3:33 a.m. The tapping was loud enough to wake me, but Hawk slept right through it. Careful not to disturb him, I climbed out of bed and walked over to the window. Spatza, the Flyer queen’s servant, was hovering eerily on the other side, the same way she had the night she brought me the black opal that had been used as payment for the staged attack on Rebecca.

  I pointed toward the terrace and left the bedroom to meet her outside.

  “What do you want?” I was still angry at her queen for refusing to come forward to clear Hawk’s name.

  She fluttered in place like a dark fairy, her wings resembling black lace. “The queen summons you.” Her voice was raspier than I remembered, and she had a deep cut across her right cheek that looked like it was just beginning to heal.

  “What does she want?”

  “I cannot say, but when the queen summons you, you come.”

  “It’s the middle of the night, and no one summons me.”

  Spatza’s eyes grew wide. “But it’s the queen!” She turned away for a second and then meekly looked back. “She will punish me if you don’t come.”

  The queen had made no secret of her distaste for me, so it must have been important for her to request my presence. “I’ll have to put some clothes on. Where?”

  Her eyes relaxed as a tiny grin appeared on her face. “The stones. Don’t be late!”

  “Late? What time is late?”

  Without answering, she flew back toward the park and disappeared into the trees.

  I went back to the bedroom and looked at Hawk, considering if I should let him sleep. He only slept this peacefully at night when he was with me, but I’d never hear the end of it in the morning if I went to see the queen alone.

  “Hawk.” I sat on the edge of the bed and shook him gently. “Wake up.”

  He rolled over and squinted, glancing at the window to see that it was still dark outside. “What’s wrong?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbows.

  “I just had a visit from Spatza.”

  It took a few seconds, but the name finally registered. “The Flyer?”

  I nodded and stood up to get dressed. “I’ve been summoned by the queen.”

  “What for?”

  “Hell if I know. Spatza wouldn’t say, but I’m guessing it’s important.” I slipped a pair of jeans on and pulled a sweater over my he
ad. “Are you coming?”

  “Of course.” He jumped out of bed and put his clothes on. “Are we meeting her at the stones?”

  “Yeah, and Spatza warned me not to be late, whenever that is.”

  He snickered. “When the Flyer queen requests your presence, she means now.”

  “Well, I’m a queen too, so she needs to practice a little diplomacy. You should have seen Spatza’s face when I told her no one summons me.”

  We headed out of the bedroom and looked at each other.

  “How do we want to do this?” he asked.

  “The terrace.” I headed for the door. “I’ll travel and meet you at the entrance across the street.”

  Hawk spread his arms but stopped before shifting. “It’s probably better if you go first.”

  “Good point.” I’d gotten pretty good at traveling, but my skills were still a little iffy at times. I focused on my destination, and within seconds the terrace disappeared and I was standing on the sidewalk next to the park. Hawk circled the sky above me and landed on the bench a few feet away.

  “You’re getting really good at that,” he said, heading for the entrance. “Now let’s go find the queen and hope she doesn’t get pissed because you brought me.”

  We’d made it about ten feet inside the park when we were both suddenly lifted into the air. The Flyers carried me toward the stones while the ones holding Hawk lagged behind. Their talons gripped my arms so tightly I thought they would puncture my skin. But it was better than being swarmed by them like the last time we came to find the queen. They left gashes all over my face.

  The Flyers dropped me in the center of the circle.

  “Where’s Hawk?” I yelled as they few off. As I climbed to my feet, the center stone began to move, and I found myself back in the dark abyss somewhere below the earth. I closed my eyes and waited for the show to begin, and then I heard her voice.

  “You’re late.”

  When I opened my eyes, the queen was standing in front of me, with Spatza cowering in her usual spot behind her master, her dark wings dragging against the stones like a black blanket.

  “It’s the middle of the night. I got here as soon as possible. And let me remind you I’m also a queen and I don’t like to be barked at.”