by Eden Ashe
3
Daniel blocked the urge to roar. The Hunter had lost his damn mind. “What the hell do you mean she was the bait?” Daniel asked. “I wasn’t even there.” When Cage held his gaze, Daniel let out a string of curses. “The mark.”
“Yeah.” Cage crossed his arms over his chest, his scarred face closed off. “If they’d wanted her dead, she would be.”
“What the hell do you mean they?” Daniel stood up so quickly his over-taxed body swayed. He planted his feet, locking his body into place as he got into Cage’s face. Fury flashed in the air around them as an inhuman sound reverberated through the room. “You know who did this.”
“No. But I’ll find out.”
“Bull. Shit.”
A slow grin spread over Cage’s face as he straightened, his dark green eyes going flat. “You want to play, fly boy? Let’s play.”
“No.” Seren snapped the word out. She poked Daniel in the back. “My husband is not behind this, you know that. Besides, he’d wipe the floor with you at the moment. You’re not thinking straight and you can barely stand.” Her face darkened as she turned toward her husband. “You. Back off. The man just saved his mate. We both know how well you’d handle it if I were lying on that bed. Neither of you are accomplishing anything, and I will be pissed if I have to clean up more blood because you two are acting like barbarians.”
Cage’s body relaxed slightly, though his gaze stayed locked on Daniel. “The paparazzi will get through security any minute now. Whoever did this isn’t going to be far behind. They’re going to want to finish the job.”
Seren turned, crossing her arms over her chest as she mimicked her mate’s stance “See? He’s helping. Now sit before you fall over, please. We’ll figure this out.”
Daniel did as commanded, though he’d be damned if he’d admit it was because his legs felt like rubber. He was the dragon leader, their king, and the last thing he needed was for any of his people to see him barely holding his sanity together. His head was swimming, his chest was on fire and his alter ego was too close to the surface for the enclosed space.
The involvement of Hunters wasn’t helping his sanity, either. Hunters had been created with the sole intention of destroying dragons, and they took their job seriously. They were strong as fuck, impossibly fast, and ruthless. If one of them had tried to kill Shelby, he wouldn’t stop until she was dead.
“We have to get Shelby out of here.”
Cage nodded once. “Agreed. Luca’s on his way. He can help.”
Daniel didn’t have the energy to question Cage anymore. “How much time do we have?”
“Five minutes. Ten tops.” As if reading Daniel’s mind, Cage nodded. “I’ll go round up an ambulance. It will be our best bet to get her out undetected.”
Seren nodded too. “I’ll prepare the staff, then try to keep the media distracted.”
Before Daniel could warn them against leaving him alone with Shelby, they were gone.
* * * *
Shelby was trembling before she was fully conscious. Unfamiliar noises assaulted her brain. Something felt…
Wrong.
Then she opened her eyes and saw Daniel. Confused, her gaze locked on the giant looming over her, as dark, deadly and gorgeous as she remembered.
Emotions slammed into her as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans. His gray gaze raked over her. The raw fury on his face scared her. She opened her mouth to scream for help, only to gag. Panic struck hard. Gasping for breath, she tried to grab at the tube that had been shoved down her throat, only to find her arms secured to the bed.
“Shelby. Goddamn it, breathe!” Daniel roared. When she continued to gag, he strode to the door, opened it and bellowed. “Seren! Get your ass back down here, now!”
“Hold her still.” A concerned face popped into Shelby’s line of sight. “Shelby, I’m Dr. Seren Cage. I need you to calm down before you hurt yourself and rip open your wound. I can’t remove the tube or the restraints until you calm down. Can you do that for me?”
Shelby jerked away from Daniel before he could touch her, and kept watching the doctor. As if reading her thoughts, the woman nodded once, her voice still calm. “It’s alright. He saved your life.” Reaching up, the doctor shut off the monitors, silencing the alarms. She turned her attention back to Shelby. “I’m going to remove the tube now, alright? As soon as it’s out, we’ll remove these cuffs, and I will answer your questions.”
Shelby nodded slowly, her gaze locked on the small woman’s. When she removed the tube, Shelby gagged again–she couldn’t help it. As soon as it was out, she tugged on the sheepskin restraints attached to her wrists. The left side of her torso felt funny, like it wasn’t moving wholly under her control, but she ignored it as she tried to focus on the doctor.
“Please.” Her voice sounded hoarse. She scrambled back on the bed, putting as much space between her and Daniel as she could. He was too close. He’d moved to the far side of the room, as close to the door as he could get without actually leaving, but he was still too close. She felt it. She focused on the doctor, confused by how weak her voice sounded. “Can you please get these off me?”
“Yes, as long as you promise to remain as calm as possible. I know you’re confused and scared, but whatever’s going on between you and your…Daniel, it’s going to have to wait. Your body suffered a massive amount of trauma so you’ll need time to recover first.” When Shelby didn’t answer immediately, the doctor cleared her throat. “Alright? Both of you have lost a tremendous amount of energy, and neither of you can afford to lose anymore.”
Her throat raw, Shelby barely managed a whisper, not understanding what was going on. “Okay.”
The doctor shook her head as she gently started removing the restraints. She shot a glare over her shoulder at Daniel. “Sit, damn it, before you fall over.”
Shelby sat up so quickly her head spun. She lay back down to keep from falling off the bed. “Wait a minute.” She lifted her left hand, and then waved it in front of her face. It seemed foreign. Unattached. She knew she was confused, but it didn’t exactly cover the jumble going on in her head at the moment. She turned to face the doctor, raising her voice slightly when a loud commotion echoed in the hallway. “What happened to me? Why am I in the hospital? Why is he here?” She pointed a shaky finger at Daniel.
The pregnant doctor was all business as she checked Shelby’s vitals, though her voice was gentle when she spoke. “You were shot.”
Shelby suddenly felt lightheaded. “What? Who shot me?” Her gaze swung back to him. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been the one barely alive. She’d never predicted the amount of trouble he’d bring to her life after one date, but of course if she was lying in a hospital bed, he had something to do with it.
Daniel’s tight, graveled voice lashed out. “We don’t know who shot you.”
The doctor pointed a finger Daniel, before refocusing on Shelby. “It’s being investigated. I called him as soon as I saw the mark over your heart.”
It took a long moment before Shelby worked up the courage to face the damage on her shoulder. The beautiful vintage silver Chanel she wore was gone, remnants of the blood soaked gown discarded into a useless heap in the corner. Her shoulder…was a mess. It was the only way to describe it. Though the wound was raw with blood streaked over her skin, it didn’t look like it had happened recently. She swallowed hard, but it did nothing to stop the panic from rising. “I don’t understand. What does this,” she asked as her fingers brushed lightly over the mark above her left breast before moving up to the ugly stitched bullet wound and hovering over it, “have to do with this?” Her gaze clashed with Daniel’s before she turned to the doctor again. “What does any of this have to do with him?”
Dr. Cage’s body tensed before she turned to the man still hulking in the doorway. “Do you want to answer that?”
Daniel’s lip lifted in a sneer. “No.”
“Daniel!” The doctor snapped.
&
nbsp; “No,” he said, his voice hard and flat. “Drop it, Seren. I mean it.”
“Fine,” she fumed, “but you can’t purr this one away. You need to fix this, one way or another.”
Shelby glanced between them as a strange ache started in her chest. They knew each other. If their body language and the way they talked to each other was anything to go by, they knew each other well. She just couldn’t keep up with the undercurrents enough to grasp how well.
Shelby cleared her throat. “Drop what? What’s going on?” Her gaze narrowed on Daniel. She’d been half in love with him once. Then he’d disappeared, nearly destroying everything she’d worked for her entire life. “How are you screwing up my life this time?”
His large body went rigid. She frowned. She was sure she could actually feel his emotions across the room. What the hell kind of drugs had Dr. Cage given her? It was as if she felt two separate emotions–her own and his.
“Don’t worry, princess,” he snarled. “I’ll be gone the second I’m able.”
“We’re ready.” Another huge man poked his head into the room. Huge, bald and scarred, the man barely spared Daniel a glance before he turned his attention to the doctor, his face softening. “You’re going with. I’m not leaving you here with a rogue Hunter on the loose.” He glanced at Shelby. “Can she walk?”
Rogue Hunter? What the hell? A strangled sound escaped Shelby, her head shaking frantically as she gaped at the new giant. “No. No way. I’m not going anywhere with either of them.”
Dr. Cage maneuvered her pregnant body over to the doorway, patting a hand on his chest. “It’s okay, Shelby. This is my… husband, Adrian Cage. He won’t hurt you.” Seren shook her head at the giant as she switched her attention to him. “No, Shelby shouldn’t walk, and neither should Daniel.”
“I’m fine,” Daniel grumbled.
Ignoring him, the doctor turned her attention to Shelby. “How are you feeling?”
Shelby worried at her lip as she started taking internal inventory. She hurt, but in a far off kind of way. Odd. She lifted her arm, confused when all she felt was a slight tightening instead of the agonizing pain she’d expected.
She frowned. It wasn’t numb, but she didn’t feel under the influence of anything helping to ease the pain, either. It just wasn’t right. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think there was something else inside of her taking away the pain. Like if she concentrated enough, she could hear a heartbeat that didn’t belong to her. Either that, or they were all cracked, and trying to push her into insanity with them.
Shaking it off, she decided not to mention it to the doctor. She wanted out of the hospital, not locked in a psych ward.
Still. “Shouldn’t my arm hurt?”
The doctor paused as she was unhooking the machines still connected to Shelby. “Yes. Try not to move it, even if it doesn’t hurt. I don’t want you ripping the stitches and overdoing yourself.” She straightened, shooting Daniel an arched-brow look.
“Drop it,” he snapped.
The hulking figure called Cage cleared his throat. “We need to move. Luca has the ambulance waiting, but we don’t need the staff asking questions.”
Daniel nodded once. “I’ll carry her.”
“The hell you will,” Shelby hissed as hysteria welled inside of her. “Will someone please tell me what is going on?”
“The hospital isn’t safe,” Dr. Cage said. “We need to move you. Whoever shot you is still out there, and we can’t take any chances.”
Shelby dragged in a deep breath as she started to hyperventilate. That was it. These people were crazy. She’d always considered herself a fairly intelligent person, but damn if she could understand what was coming out of their mouths.
Daniel pushed off the wall and started toward her. She scrambled back on the bed, getting as far away from the fury as possible.
She jerked away as soon as he got close. “Don’t touch me.”
He ignored her as he took her hand. Immediately, the panic building in her chest subsided. His pupils lengthened as he murmured something she didn’t understand, and then her vision went black.
4
A furious Daniel towered over her.
Realizing she was in an ambulance, she scooted back on the stretcher, pulling the sheet tighter around herself. Something was very, very off. There was no pain or range of motion issue with her shoulder. There was just a blackness where the last hour should have been. Whatever was wrong with her, it ran core deep, and had everything to do with the man treating her as if she’d caused all the wrongs in his world.
She let out a pathetic snort. He had vanished on her, leaving her to face the last year alone. The media wasn’t forgiving at the best of times, and they’d had a field day–field year–with America’s Good Girl falling from grace. A dead body, and the disappearance of the man accused of the crime, was too good of a story for the media not to run around the clock for a month straight.
It didn’t make any sense why he hated her. For as much hell as he’d caused her in the last eleven months, professionally and personally, nothing had prepared her for the blast of emotions that rocked her at seeing him standing close to her again. She had no idea what to do with the realization she’d missed him. As soon as she figured out what the hell was going on, she needed deep psychological help.
“So.” She was careful to keep her left arm tucked against her stomach as she tried in vain to put more distance between them. It still didn’t hurt, but the thought of ripping the rapidly healing wound open made her queasy. She’d never been a big fan of blood. Her teeth tugged at her bottom lip as she tried not to worry about how much space he took up, even while sitting on the bench. He was huge. “You’re alive.” When he leaned forward, bringing them closer together, she tried to keep her face impassive. Her gaze dropped to the huge forearms he braced against tree trunk-sized thighs, before she snapped her attention back to his face. He was a lunatic who looked to be on the verge of major violence. She wasn’t so confused she didn’t understand the combination was a powder keg with a lit fuse. “I wasn’t sure. The police said you were gone before the ambulance ever got to the hospital.”
“Disappointed, princess?”
She almost snorted at him. She’d spent the last year hoping he was still alive, and trying not to let the uncertainty drive her out of her mind.“I didn’t get myself shot on purpose, you know. So whatever you’re mad at me about, it’s not my fault. I didn’t ask them to call you.”
“Right.” He dragged his gaze from the mark over her heart back to her face. Though she was sure she was imagining it, she could have sworn his eyes lingered on her mouth. “Just like the Hunter showing up in your bedroom was just a weird twist of fate?”
“A hunter?” She asked, certain she was missing a huge part of the conversation. “Daniel, my house was in the most exclusive part of Los Angeles. There isn’t anywhere to hunt.”
“Ryuu.”
She remembered that word from their first date. He’d told her it was an ancient dragon curse because his sister didn’t like him using cuss words. Funny. She’d thought it was sweet at the time. Now she was sure it just made him bat-shit crazy.
He dragged a hand through his hair, before jerking around and grabbing a blanket off the supply shelf behind him. He threw it at her. “Put it on. Stop shivering, and while you’re at it, cut the crap, princess. I’m not buying it. You know exactly what I am.”
“A madman?” she asked, barely managing to catch the blanket with her good hand. She was good at many things, but physical sports had never been one of them. She awkwardly managed to wrap the blanket around herself, realizing for the first time how badly she’d been shivering. She leaned back against the gurney as her eyes started to get heavy. “Why did you save my life? If you hate me so much, you could have let me die.”
Something dark flashed in his eyes before he clenched his jaw and turned away. Shelby knew she was delusional when, for a brief second, she thought she saw real pain etc
hed on his rugged face. Then again, she’d also thought she’d seen his pupils lengthen, which was beyond absurd. Maybe she had a concussion. She hadn’t thought to ask.
He shrugged, his focus on a spot above her head. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Gee,” she snapped, hating herself for the pain settling hard in her chest, “you do know how to sweet talk a woman.”
He stood so abruptly he hit his head against the roof of the ambulance. He snarled and leaned toward the front of the van to bang on the wall that separated them from the driver. “Are we almost fucking there?”
Shelby winced at the impatient growl in his voice. “You don’t like me.” It wasn’t a question. The answer was written all over his face.
* * * *
Daniel braced both hands against the wall and dropped his head for a long moment, his teeth grinding together. Ryuu. He told himself he wasn’t going to fall for it again. He was not going to let the fear in her eyes get to him. She was an actress, a damn good one, and he’d been played by her once. Once was enough for a lifetime.
Even knowing what she was and what she was capable of, he had this fucked up need to make her world right. He barely controlled the urge to go after and find whoever had hurt her and rip them to shreds, piece by goddamn piece. He had no idea what it said about him, other than it made him the biggest idiot on the planet.
“Look,” he snapped. Once he was sure his split pupils had retracted back to their normal shape, he sat back down. He had no doubt she knew what he was, despite her wide-eyed innocence, but he wasn’t in the habit of flashing it around. One Hunter in his life was enough. “Just stop talking, alright?”
She shivered so hard her teeth chattered. She wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders, glaring at him through exhausted pale green eyes.
A year ago, that fierce frown would have made him smile. It was why he’d been so attracted to her in the beginning. There had been no end to the demands people put on her, but she’d handled it with grace and dignity. The other actors were spoiled brats with massive paychecks, continually demanding one outrageous thing after another, or showing up late, then refusing to come out of their trailers because of one imagined slight or another. Shelby had shown up on time every day, ready to do what they’d paid her to do. More, she’d known everyone’s names down to the lowest tech on the totem pole. When she talked to them, he’d always had the impression she wasn’t just going through the motions, either. She’d listened, genuinely interested.