Nevermore: Crossbreed series book 6

by Dannika Dark

  After I locked the front door, I frantically ran a towel under the kitchen faucet to clean his face and search for wounds. Was he stabbed? Shot? Mauled? I couldn’t tell.

  Blood oozed from a gash on his head. There were bruises and cuts on his knuckles as well as his face. I lifted his shirt, scanning him for wounds, but didn’t see anything except patches of skin darkening to sickly colors.

  “What’s going on?” Crush asked, his voice raspy. He grimaced and held his ribs when a series of coughs forced its way out. “Is that Switch?”

  “He’s hurt. What do we do with him?”

  “Put him on the bed. If he shifts in here, we’ll have no way out. We can shut the bedroom door and keep him locked up. Here, let me help.”

  “No, you can’t help or you’ll hurt yourself even more. Sit down.”

  He glowered. “Hold on. I’ve got an idea.” Crush disappeared into the laundry room and returned with a creeper—a flat board with wheels he used when getting beneath cars. “I bought a new one last summer and keep it in the garage, but I hate throwing shit away.”

  After he set it on the floor, I pulled Switch to a sitting position, and together we managed to get the board beneath my injured friend. I had no alternative but to pull him through the house by his arms, even knowing that one of them could have been broken or dislocated. Once inside the bedroom, it was a Herculean effort to get him onto the bed, and when I realized I just wasn’t strong enough, I rolled him off the creeper and made a nice spot on the floor between the bed and the closet.

  Crush stepped over Switch’s legs and opened the closet door.

  I did a double take when I saw him take out a cane. “Where did you get that?”

  “I busted my knee a few years back on my bike. It came in handy, especially for clobbering sons of bitches over the head.”

  “So you’ll use a cane but not crutches?”

  “A cane is classy.”

  At least he was being sensible. The last thing I needed to worry about was two men down. I shook Switch. “Wake up! You need to shift. Wake up!”

  “If he’s got a brain bleed, there’s nothing we can do. The pressure will swell up in his head.”

  I glared up at him. “You’re not helping. Give me a solution.”

  “Aspirin might reduce clots. Ice? I’m not a medic.”

  “You could have fooled me by the supplies in your bathroom.”

  I flew past him into the bathroom and tossed stuff onto the floor in search of aspirin. Then I hurried into the kitchen for a bag of frozen french fries.

  Crush had sat down on the foot of the bed, his eyelids heavy. “I didn’t hear a damn thing. Switch came in and gave me my pills, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

  “I thought you were going to take it easy on the heavy meds today?”

  “I needed something stronger. The pain is worse at night.”

  I dumped the aspirin onto the bedside table and dug through the drawer until I found a switchblade. I used the flat end to crush a couple of pills and then sprinkled the aspirin into his mouth. Hopefully that would dissolve and make some kind of difference. I removed the bloody towel from his head and placed the bag of fries on top of the wound.

  “How do I get ahold of General?”

  “That’s my business to deal with.”

  “Not anymore.”

  The bed creaked when he turned around. “And what does that mean?”

  “It means I took all your debt. General transferred it to me, and Switch lying here dying makes it every bit my business. If I don’t pay them something, they’ll kill you too.”

  “You what?” Crush stood up and poked my back with his cane. “Look at me.”

  I shifted in my spot on the floor and turned toward him. When he saw the look on my face, he knew I wasn’t lying.

  “There’s money on the table—enough to tide him over. I didn’t think he’d do this, not when I was on my way home with the cash. I’ve got plans to get the rest later, but if I don’t give him his down payment, there’s no telling what he’ll do next. How do I get ahold of him?”

  “I didn’t ask you to take my debt.”

  “You didn’t have to. You’re in over your head, and if I don’t do something to help, I won’t have a dad anymore. Do you think I came back just to watch you throw your life away because of pride? We’re a family, and families stick together. End of story.”

  He squeezed the grip on the cane as if he wanted to crush it in his palm. Tears were shining in his eyes. “General won’t come back, not tonight. Let’s patch up Switch and I’ll give you the details after.”

  He headed into the hall.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “To call Ren. He’s an alpha. Maybe he can wake him up with alpha magic.”

  CRUSH’S BONES ached as if an eighteen-wheeler had run over him. The young man inside him wanted to brush it off and get back to work, but Father Time was a mean motherfucker, and Crush wasn’t the same man he once was. His body required rest, but the longer he lay in that bed, the stiffer he became. His joints had locked up, making him sore all over, and that was why he’d asked Switch for the pain meds. Now that he had a moment of clarity, all he could think about was how old people got atrophy from lack of movement. Crush needed to get off his ass and move around no matter how much it hurt. Only dead men lie still. The fact that he’d slept right through a man almost getting killed left him sick to his stomach.

  He sat at the kitchen table, thinking about how a drink would dull not only his pain but the guilt. Had he not taken the strong painkillers—and he didn’t even need that many in the first place—this would have never happened. He would have heard General and his boys outside and had time to get a gun and run them off his property like he’d already done once before. No, right now he needed to feel the pain. Even though he’d been clean and sober some twenty years now, it scared him how those pills had affected him in the same way. His struggle would always be a daily one, so he swore off taking any more prescription meds.

  Crush put his head in his hand. Now Raven was tangled up in this mess. She was the one he’d been trying to protect in the first place by taking out the loan. Not only had he wanted to be the person to bury her Creator, but he also didn’t want her looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. She was his whole world—the only goodness that remained of her beautiful mother. His job was to protect her the best way he knew how, and seeing her do the same for him broke his damn heart.

  He finished off his orange soda when he heard a motorcycle pulling into the yard.

  Crush bit down on the pain—mostly settled in his foot—and used his cane to take the weight off his ankle as he stood up and opened the door.

  Ren parked his bike and then met him at the top of the stairs. He looked just as he did the day they met back in the service. Maybe a couple of grey hairs mixed in with the black, but still the same tough bastard he always was. Being around Ren made him feel like a young man. In reality, Crush looked more like his father or older brother.

  The one thing Crush could always count on was Ren’s loyalty. When he’d sent a vague message to hurry over, Ren didn’t ask for details or complain that he was busy. He simply replied with: On my way.

  Ren looked him over from head to toe. “What the hell happened to you?”

  “This isn’t about me. Switch is inside, beat up bad. Raven’s in there trying to wake him up, but he ain’t responding.”

  Ren nodded. “I got this.”

  As his buddy moved past him, Crush studied a grove of trees across the road and caught sight of a shadowy figure watching him from afar. It could have been one of General’s boys, but he suspected he knew who it was.

  Letting the door shut behind him, Crush carefully descended the steps, cane in his left hand and a firm grip on the railing with his right.

  “Come out where I can see you, Vamp,” he said quietly, testing his theory.

  The figure near the road came into view and
walked unhurriedly the rest of the way to meet him in the yard.

  “You ride a bike?” Crush asked.

  The Irishman frowned. “How did you know? I parked a ways down the road.”

  Crush poked Christian’s buttoned-up trench coat with his cane. “Bug debris. And I know windblown hair when I see it.”

  Christian raked his hair with his fingers. “What happened to you?”

  “I got run over by a truck.”

  “Sure it wasn’t from getting off the toilet?”

  Crush struck him in the face with his cane, but Christian didn’t even flinch. Vampires had a high threshold for pain, and it kind of pissed him off. “Damn Vampires,” he muttered.

  “Are you langered?”

  “Am I what?”

  “Have you been drinking? Is that what happened? I don’t see your truck out here. Did you get in an accident? Owe some insurance money?”

  “First of all, I don’t drink.”

  “Your pupils are slow to dilate.”

  “I took pain pills,” he ground out.

  “And what if I don’t believe you?”

  Crush pulled the lining out of his pants pocket. “I’m all out of fucks to give. I got roughed up and took some pills to help me sleep. What are you doing here?”

  “If Raven’s in trouble, I have a right to know.”

  “Do you? Because something tells me that whatever you two had going on isn’t as solid as you’d like to think.”

  “What has she said?”

  Crush shifted his weight. “It’s what she hasn’t said. It’s why you’re standing in the shadows like a damn fool, trying to eavesdrop on her life instead of giving her a call. I haven’t heard her phone ring once. So maybe you need to back off.”

  Christian lowered his gaze. “Did she mention what happened earlier tonight?”

  Crush had a gut feeling that Christian had been toying with his daughter’s heart, but he could also see the love in his eyes just as clear as day. A man couldn’t hide that look even if he tried. “Raven’s one of a kind. No one deserves her. She’s tough but loyal. She’ll do anything for those she loves. Anything. If you can’t knock on that door and give her your heart, then you need to step off my lot. Love is more than just wanting someone. I wanted someone for years, but it wasn’t enough. You’ve got to be all in. Do you know what that means? It means you don’t stick your heart halfway in any more than you would your dick. There’s no halfway when it comes to a woman’s love. If you did something to hurt her, then you better make it right. But now isn’t the time, so get the fuck off my property. If I see you lurking in the woods again, I’m gonna get my impalement wood out of the closet. Got it?”

  Without another word, Crush turned around and tried to walk off like a man, but ego hurt like a bitch when you had a cane in your hand.

  At least he’d said his piece. He didn’t know much about Raven and Christian’s relationship, only that Raven had strong feelings for him. The more people tried to keep their lies a secret, the more obvious it became. It wasn’t Crush’s place to judge Raven’s choice of men, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to roll out a red carpet for anyone unless they proved their worth. Just seeing him linger outside like a rejected schoolboy made Crush certain that Christian wasn’t ready to commit to anyone full steam. Raven didn’t deserve the same fate as her mother. Not by a long shot.

  Once inside, he heard a loud yelp seconds before Raven bolted from the bedroom, her eyes saucer wide.

  Ren slammed the door behind her, shutting himself in with Switch.

  Crush suppressed a smile. “Sounds like your friend’s gonna be okay.”

  CHAPTER 19

  It must have been three in the morning. Ren had left a while ago, but neither Crush nor I could sleep with all the barking. When the noise quieted, I poked my head into the bedroom to see if he had shifted back. A small slice of light from the hall revealed a sleeping wolf curled up on the bed.

  After closing the door, I tiptoed back into the living room and sat down on the sofa.

  “He better not shit in my bed,” Crush grumbled from his recliner, the footrest kicked up and a blanket over his lap.

  Not all wolves are housetrained. We’d found that out the hard way at Keystone when Viktor sometimes shifted in the house and no one let him out.

  I reached for the tequila bottle on the corner table and pulled a blanket over my legs. “Ren said he’d probably stay in wolf form. Something about their animal going into protective mode. Thanks for calling him.”

  Crush glared at the bottle in my hand. “Haven’t you had enough?”

  “Not nearly.”

  “Mind explaining what happened tonight? Something tells me Switch isn’t the one that put you in that black mood.”

  I took one more swig from my tequila and screwed the cap back on. I doubted Crush wanted to hear my relationship problems, but the alcohol had lubricated my mouth and emotions. “When I left Keystone to stay here, I left things unfinished with Christian. We had a fight about him keeping secrets, and we haven’t had a chance to resolve it. When I went back there tonight to pick up the money, I walked in on him and Lenore.”

  “Who the hell’s Lenore?”

  “The whore who gave me the loan,” I said, nodding at the money on the kitchen table. “Lenore the whore.”

  “Why does it matter who it was with?”

  I flung the blanket off my lap. “Because she knew Christian and I had something going on.”

  “I thought you had a falling out?”

  “We did, but she didn’t know that. Well, she kind of knew, but I didn’t give her any details. She knows we’re partners, and she knows there was something between us. You just don’t do that to people unless you’re trying to stick it to them. She intentionally went out of her way to seduce him.”

  “What if Christian seduced her?”

  I straightened my legs in a fluster and put my feet on the shag rug. “Whose side are you on anyway?”

  “The side of common sense.”

  “Common sense doesn’t live here anymore.”

  “Maybe you’re better off alone.”

  “It’s not even about that.” I scowled. “This is what I get for trusting someone. And I’m not just talking about Christian, but I trusted Lenore. She was going out of her way to help me with a loan and doing it with a smile. She invited me over for tea and gave me the impression she wanted to be friends. You should have seen the smile on her face when she handed me the money in nothing but a thong and high heels. She knew I was on my way over. That bitch enjoyed every second of my stunned reaction.”

  “Let it go.”

  “I can’t. I’d love to just walk away and never see her again, but I still owe her a favor for that money. One she can call on anytime. And besides that, she’s helping me with the rest of the money. I don’t have any time left to look for alternative solutions. She’s going to call with information, and I’m afraid to talk to her.”

  “When has Raven Graves ever had trouble speaking her mind?”

  “If I lose my temper, she has the power to rescind her offer. This is our lives we’re talking about—mine and yours. Not to mention the wolf locked up in your bedroom. It’s gonna take a huge spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. I don’t ever want to see her again after our deal is complete, but that’s impossible as long as she still holds that favor in her pocket. And now that she’s working for the higher authority, I’ll see her at parties. Viktor likes her so much he’ll probably invite her over. This is a nightmare.”

  “You didn’t have to take on my problems.”

  “And you didn’t have to take on mine.” I set the bottle on the floor, my eyes downcast. “Why am I not enough?”

  Crush grabbed his nail clippers from the end table. “I don’t recognize you anymore.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He clipped his thumbnail. “I don’t understand what you see in that Vampire, but seeing as you’re half, maybe I get why you�
�re drawn to him. They say opposites attract, but sometimes the differences are what tear people apart in the end.”

  Crestfallen, I let go of the bottle. “Christian isn’t like anyone I’ve ever known. One minute he’s an arrogant bastard, and the next he’s doing something unexpectedly romantic and thoughtful. How can I love both halves if one of those halves is always hurting me? We made promises to each other—promises he didn’t keep. What if we’re both just too damaged to make a relationship work? I don’t even know where to start.”

  “Nobody gives you a manual on love. The rules are different for everyone.”

  “I give up.”

  He clipped another nail. “How long is this going to go on?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He set the clippers back on the table. “Even though I think the man you love is a peckerhead, giving up isn’t the Raven I know. When did you become a quitter? If he wants to give his heart to a cold bitch, then he gets what he deserves. But show that bastard what he’s giving up.” Crush leveled me with his eyes. “If another woman is staking her claim on your man, then you gotta fight. Fighting isn’t just for the men. You’re not a damsel. If that bitch is standing in the way of something you think might be worth holding on to, then you need to tell her how it is.”

  “And risk the only chance I have at getting the rest of the money?”

  “People like that will walk all over you because they pin you in a spot where you can’t move. That’s why she went after your man. She’s testing how much control she has over your loyalty. What they did or didn’t do isn’t your fault. Everyone has control of their own actions, and if you don’t want to give him a second chance, that’s all right by me.”

  Crush was right. I’d been waiting for Christian to come around and apologize for hiding my father’s secrets, but that gave him all the power. There was too much ambiguity surrounding our relationship, and I needed to make my feelings crystal clear. Had we not had the argument, would Christian have gone public with his feelings? I’d never know unless I laid my cards on the table. Maybe then we could move on with our lives, no matter which direction it took us. As lovers or just as partners. How could I expect him to meet me halfway if I wasn’t willing to do the same?