Toni surrendered with a spiteful laugh. He hadn’t changed at all. “No, Christian, I haven’t broken your rules by making any permanent arrangements. I have my car. That’s it.” She narrowed her eyes when a look of pure amusement swept across his face, instantly churning her doomed feeling into seething anger. “Look, if you’re gonna throw me out or kill me, could you get on with it already? It’s getting late and I don’t have much time to run before the sun comes up. You’re at least gonna be a good sport about this, right?”
His sharp features took on the texture of concrete. “I will arrange for you to stay in a suite at my hotel. When you arrive in the lobby, give the desk clerk your name and he’ll take care of your needs.” One of his brows rose slightly as his eyes moved over her. “I’ll also have him make a few calls in order to procure you an article of clothing more befitting a woman. I expect you dressed appropriately when you arrive at my office tomorrow evening, where we’ll finish discussing your official request to stay in my city. Be there at Midnight, not a second later.”
It took everything Toni had not to look down at the sidewalk to see if her jaw had landed on one of his expensive Italian shoes. What did he say? Was she still sleeping?
Was she really in Chicago?
She barely registered the weight lift from her body as Christian’s gaze shifted up to Drake, who at some point during the conversation had moved to stand behind her.
“Mr. Black, it’s a pleasure as always,” he said as he extended a hand, which Drake easily accepted. “Since it would appear my Head of Enforcement felt so comfortable leaving Miss Tutoro in your capable hands, you’ll understand if I ask that you remain with her for now. Unfortunately, I have it on good authority that once Brick and 8-Ball finish sanitizing the scene on Rush Street, they’re going to find themselves otherwise occupied for a time.”
Toni stiffened at his words. “Christian, please don’t hurt them. I’m the one who called 8-Ball. He warned me not to come, but I didn’t listen. If you’re gonna punish someone, punish me. It’s my fault. They don’t deserve to get…” Her words faded into mumbles as Drake’s big hand clamped tight over her mouth.
“I’ll stay with her, Lord Locke. It’s not a problem.”
When the monster inside her thrashed and growled, Toni committed to the only action that blind instinct would allow – she sank her teeth into one of Drake’s meaty fingers.
“Ouch!” He ripped is hand away from her mouth. “I can’t believe you just fucking bit me! I should’ve known better.”
She whipped around to face him and jammed a finger into his chest. “Don’t you ever try to silence me again! Brick and 8-Ball are my friends, and I don’t wanna see anything happen to them. And I’d rather be put in the sun for five seconds because I said too much, than stand here knowing they might end up with some punishment they don’t deserve. I don’t even know you that well, but if Christian tried to pin you as an accessory to this whole, awful situation just because you’re standing here with me, I’d do the same for you!”
He couldn’t have looked any more shocked if she’d hoisted her leg up and kicked him in the junk. “You’d endure a Trial By Sun, for me? Lady, you don’t even know me.”
“I may not know you, but so far all you’ve tried to do is help.” She withdrew her hand. “You didn’t have to offer to stay with me so 8-Ball could go with Brick, but you did, and I appreciate that. It means a lot more to me than you’ll ever know.” She turned away from him as the stupid tears she’d been fighting all night welled up yet again. “I’d do anything for my friends. So just keep your big hands away from my mouth and we should be fine.”
Toni drew a deep breath in an attempt to pull her scrambled emotions together, then eyed Christian, who had a smile she could only describe as evil stretched all the way across his face. “What the hell are you smiling at now?”
He actually laughed at her. “Nothing, Miss Tutoro. Nothing at all.”
She fisted her hands. “Please, just promise me you won’t hurt them.”
“I have absolutely no intention of hurting them. After all, it does me no good if my Enforcement Team is out of commission.” If it was possible, his smile turned even more malicious at the edges. “However, I’m sure they’ll wish I had offered a physical punishment by the time I finish speaking with them about the disrespectful practice of keeping secrets from their Lord. If I remember correctly, don’t those of the Warrior lineage just love a good, long lecture?”
When Drake’s loud laughter boomed behind her, Toni had to smile. If there was one punishment she knew 8-Ball hated, it was some Trump giving him the verbal what-for. He’d always complained that Trumps had a bad habit of using words bigger than their egos, which as far as he could tell, no board room could hold without serious structural damage.
Not that 8-Ball was really one to talk when it came to huge egos, but she’d gladly take him and Brick being on the business end of a lecture over the possible alternatives any day.
“Now, Miss Tutoro, if you would kindly excuse me, I have other pressing business this evening. And please, do find yourself a coat. It’s far too cold to be out in the city without one. Actions as such make the humans look twice.” He gave a curt nod before he turned and walked back to his car. “Oh, and Mr. Black,” he called as he slid into the backseat, “please see to it that your charge arrives at my hotel within the hour.” He’d no more than finished his request before the door closed and his car was gone.
Toni watched as the glowing red taillights of the Lord of Chicago’s white Mercedes quickly faded in the distance. What the hell had just happened?
You’ve entered the Twilight Zone, that’s what just happened. She nodded in response to the voice in her mind. The last courtesy she’d expected when Locke had stepped out of his car was the offer of a meeting and a suite at his hotel. A swift kick in the behind and a warning to be out before sunrise, most definitely, especially since that was the response she’d gotten from the Lords of other cities as soon as she told them her name. But a warm place to stay without the threat of being hunted by the Enforcement Team…not even close.
Now, if she could only keep her mouth under control at the meeting…
She turned and looked up at Drake at the thought. Apparently, the meeting wasn’t the only place she needed to keep her mouth to herself.
She rested a hand on his forearm. “I’m sorry I bit you.”
He wrinkled his nose like a five year old and made a production of rubbing his booboo. “Me, too.”
“Oh, please.” She grabbed the offended hand and pressed a kiss to the wounded finger that had probably healed the second he’d removed it from her mouth. “There. All better.”
He jerked his arm back as though she’d touched him with an open flame. “Don’t do that.” The pain in his eyes deepened right before that invisible curtain slammed back into place. He flashed a smile that wasn’t true. “The last place my fingers need to be is anywhere near your mouth. You’ve already proven you’re a biter.”
Toni mirrored his false smile, even though what she wanted to do was ask why he kept trying to be someone else. But then, she knew all too well what it felt like not to be happy with who you were. She’d felt that way for the last three years, and to this day, she’d give anything to go back to who she was before. Back to a time when her life consisted of more than running to stay alive, back to before one night and a few bad decisions changed everything.
She stared down at his hand. “If I hurt you, Drake, I really am sorry.”
A long moment of silence stretched between them before he asked, “Can I ask you a question?”
She nodded, but couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Sure.”
“Why do you apologize so much?”
“Because…” She bit at the inside of her bottom lip then cleared her throat. “Because I promised myself a long time ago that I’d never waste a chance to tell someone how I really feel. That I’d never walk away from someone I knew I’d hurt without tel
ling them I was sorry…even if they couldn’t hear me.”
“Well,” he sighed, his voice seemingly filled with the same regret she felt. He rested a warm hand on her shoulder, sending a shiver down her spine. “Even though my finger will probably get all infected now and swell up like a bloated corpse, I want you to know that I’ll probably forgive you someday.” He slid his hand down her arm and squeezed her fingers tight. “But today’s not your day…and tomorrow ain’t lookin’ too good either.”
She ripped her hand away from him when he burst into a loud fit of laughter. “Oh my God!” She grabbed a fistful of his long hair then yanked his face down to her level. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you say something like that to me? What did I ever do to you?”
“Ow, ow, ow. You’re hurting me. Say you’re sorry! Say you’re sorry!”
She tugged hard on his hair again, but this time all she could do was laugh at the exaggerated way he bent at the waist and contorted sideways as his face scrunched up. “You’re just not right.”
He flashed the most beautiful, most genuine smile she’d ever seen. “Yeah, but now you’re laughing.”
She slowly released her hold on his hair, noticing for the first time how soft the dark strands felt as they slipped between her fingers. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had tried to make her laugh. Couldn’t recall, aside from 8-Ball and Brick, the last time she’d been touched by a vampire who wasn’t trying to kill her.
She looked up at Drake, watching the way his eyes seemed to lighten a little more every second he stared back at her, until not even a trace of the sadness remained. Where the darkness had gone or why, she didn’t know, but she’d been alone and unwanted for so long that she wasn’t sure whether to smile because he made her feel so good, or cry because she knew she didn’t deserve it.
You don’t deserve it. Toni swallowed the jagged knot tightening her throat and backed away from the man who had no idea what kind of monster he stood so close to. “We should probably head for Locke’s hotel.” She tucked her hair behind her ears as the frigid wind picked up around them. “When we get there, I’ll see if I can find someone who knows him. Maybe I can get his number and talk him into letting you go. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than be stuck with someone like me. Someone you don’t even know.”
“Oh. Hell. No.” He folded his arms over his chest while that adorable, lopsided grin from earlier reformed on his lips. “I’m not going to the hotel yet. I’m not moving an inch until you say it.”
She blinked at him. “Say what?”
“Say what?” His mouth gaped open like a suffocating fish. “I want you to say you’re sorry for pulling my hair. I want you to say you’re sorry for almost snapping my spine in two.” He scuffed one of his big black boots against the sidewalk. “There’s ice down there, ya know. I almost fell, and I don’t have health insurance yet.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. I want an apology.”
She moved to stand in front of him again. “I’m sorry that I bit you. I’m sorry that I pulled your hair. And I’m sorry if I hurt you, because that’s not what I wanted.” She tipped her head back and stared into his eyes. “And I’m sorry that the longer you’re around me, the more I’ll have to say I’m sorry…because I will hurt you again. I’m sorry Brick and 8-Ball had to leave. I’m sorry you got stuck with me. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t be in this city for more than an hour without fucking everything up again. You have no idea just how sorry I am. But I promise I’ll do everything I can to get Christian to let you go. Now, can we go to the hotel?”
“Wow.” His blue eyes widened as he inhaled a deep breath. “When you Warriors swing…you really go for the fences don’t you? And then that fence, and that one, then the one over there, then you run back to where you started and do it all over again.” He shook his head. “Truthfully, I don’t know how you do it, because I’m getting tired just watching you.”
Toni gave in to the light tugging sensation at the corners of her mouth when Drake started laughing again. Deep and damningly contagious, the rich sound rolled over her in a soothing wave, making the air feel just a little bit warmer, a little less empty.
“I have an idea.” He rubbed his hands together then blew a breath between them. “How ‘bout you pick a mood and stick with it for five minutes, I’ll worry about what I’m getting myself into, and we’ll head to the hotel where they have this great invention called heat.”
She studied him for a minute, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the way each breath that slipped past his lips became a burst of steam as it mingled with the cold air, and how his tongue darted out every so often to moisten those lips.
Everything about him was human…
And from what she could tell, he didn’t even try. He didn’t stop to concentrate every few minutes. Didn’t appear to give as much as a second thought to the human functions he maintained. He imitated life with perfection, down to the very last detail, as though he’d never lost it.
She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek as jealousy tingled through her again. He was right. She seriously needed to get her emotions under control. She’d already bitten the poor guy once because she’d let the beast get the better of her, the least she could do was pick one fence to swing at. Besides, how much damage could she do to him in less than 24 hours?
You know exactly what you could do. Focusing back on Drake, Toni ignored her conscience and plastered a smile on her face. “I like your idea. Do you need a ride or do you have a car around here somewhere?”
He inclined his head towards the parking lot. “That yours?”
She looked over at her ‘79 Trans-Am. “Yeah, she’s my baby.”
“You sound pretty proud.”
“My oldest brother built her.” She smiled, even though the memory stung. “He used to let me help. Not that I really did anything other than hand him tools, and half the time they weren’t even the right ones.”
“He give it to you for your birthday or something?”
She shook her head. “Nope, he left before she was finished. I was ten. Then my dad died a couple months later. So I asked my mom for books about cars, which she was totally against because she said girls don’t work on cars.” She drew a breath and tried one more time to fight her tears. “But I talked her into it eventually, and then I finished what my brother started. I figure if I ever find him…if he’s still alive, I’ll give her back. Kinda like a coming home present.”
“You don’t know where he is?”
“Nope. We never heard from him after he left…but I’m glad he got out when he did.” She spun around and headed for her car. Staring straight ahead, she pushed the memories firing in her mind as far back as possible then pulled her keys out of her pocket and jingled them over her shoulder. “Do you want a ride or not?”
“Uh, something tells me I’m not gonna fit in there.”
When she reached her car, Toni opened the door and looked inside before she cast a glance back to Drake, who still stood on the sidewalk. He was probably right, especially since he was a good foot, if not more, taller than her and easily twice as wide.
“You could try.” She sucked in a breath through her teeth as she recalculated the visual measurements. “I could take the T-top off on the passenger side. It might work.”
“No, no.” He raised his hands. “I have absolutely no desire to find out what it feels like to be a sardine. Why don’t I just meet you there?”
“Do you not have a car?” When he only stared at her, she tipped her head to the side. “The hotel’s at least twenty blocks away. There’s no reason for you to walk all the way there in the cold. We can make it work.”
“I don’t need a car.” He cracked a devious smile as his eyes flicked between her and the dark alley across the street. “In fact, I bet I beat you there. And I’m willing to put money on it.”
She couldn’t hold back the laugh bubbling up inside her. T
he man was dreaming. “What are you gonna do? Run? It’s not even fair.” She smacked the roof of her car. “I know exactly how much horsepower this baby puts out. You don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of beating me.”
“Oh, what’s this all around me?” He made a production of blinking as he turned from left to right. “Why, it’s snow! And it’s everywhere!” He reached into his pocket then waved what looked to be a fifty dollar bill at her. “Care to put your money where your mouth is, Warrior? That’s right. I just issued you a challenge.” He clucked his tongue at her. “What would Brick and Baller say if they knew you chickened out?”
“I’m not chickening out.” She leaned in and started her car then stood back up and smiled at him. “I just don’t wanna see your heart break or your ego burst when you lose to a girl.”
When he shuffled his feet then made a break for the alley, Toni jumped into her car and took a brief moment to situate herself. After closing the door and strapping on her seatbelt, she cranked the wheel and slammed her foot down on the gas. She easily steered out of a spin as the tires connected with the snow slicked street, then smiled and aimed for Lord Locke’s hotel.
There was no way Drake could beat her.
But as she sped past the alley he’d disappeared into, she swore she heard him yell, “I don’t lose!”
She gripped the wheel tighter as she whipped around a corner.
Neither did she, at least not when it came to racing.
Chapter 4
Natasha Stryker watched as three large wolves trotted down the alley towards her. To this day, she still didn’t understand how they managed to duck animal control and stay out of human sight. A pack of wolves stalking the streets of a bustling city like Chicago wasn’t exactly something most people considered normal.
She cursed as she pulled her cell phone from her coat pocket and checked the time. The sun would be up in a matter of hours and she still had other plans to set in motion. Not only did this meeting need to end quickly, but it had to end in her favor.
Eternal Hearts Page 5