Hell's Hilltop

by J. A. Dennam

  The foliage parted and Ty’s silver Camaro finally came into view. Derek sat on the bumper, caught the keys Austin threw him. “So, let’s take a look at our favorite casualty.”

  The trunk opened to reveal the rolled blanket, just as they left it. Derek reached out, lifted a folded corner. He shined his flashlight, which illuminated Rafferty’s pasty white face and a half-lidded eye already cloudy in death. Still, Derek searched for more evidence and came up with a very stiff hand.

  “Rigor,” he said with distaste. “I’d say the asshole’s dead.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Danny

  A quick glance at the mantel showed it was nearing the two o’clock hour. Danny wiped the sleep from her eyes, sat up a little to work the stiffness from her body. She never expected to fall asleep in the high-backed chair she chose to read in. Too much had happened that night and she’d been way too wired.

  The single lamp still burned, illuminating the ceiling-to-floor rows of books around her. This was her favorite place to hide, especially those times when she knew she’d pushed her husband to his limits. Though, Austin was a sight to behold when mad….

  She knew he only worried about her safety. Knew their “go round” was coming despite her attempts to avoid it.

  Danny sighed, got up from the chair and stretched, allowing her blue silk bathrobe to fall down to her knees. After a big yawn and a few recuperative moments to gather her wits, she crossed over to the door, turned the knob and peeked into the darkened hallway. Across from her, their bedroom was still dark, the meager light behind her revealing the bed was still made. Austin must not have come home yet.

  Damn. Her first thought was to check her phone for messages, but then she remembered it was broken. Unable to shake that feeling of unease, she entered her bedroom with the plan to fake sleep when her husband did return. Perhaps avoid his verbal lashing until morning when she was better equipped to handle it. She reached beneath the lampshade, turned the knob, and flooded her corner with light. An imposing figure occupied the chair by the window, wringing a loud yelp from her.

  As soon as her heart resumed a steady rhythm, Danny finally opened her eyes. “My God, you scared the crap out of me.”

  Austin did not move. He didn’t speak, just continued to sit, hunched over with one hand in his thick black hair, the other wrapped around a glass of bourbon. Danny identified his mood, swallowed nervously. “Austin—”

  “Not yet, Bennett,” he interrupted in a rough voice.

  He only called her Bennett when he was truly pissed. More or less acknowledging the century-long feud between their families and the reason behind it: because one side was genetically programmed to piss off the other. It was a miracle that she and Austin had moved past it enough to nurture their love, but it was times like this that brought their turbulent beginning to the surface.

  Danny ran a hand through her own hair, gave it a toss. “I’ll go back to the library until you’re—”

  “Come here.”

  Her look turned wary as she stepped closer. How long had he been sitting there, and how much liquor had he consumed? If need be, she’d pour him another round before he asked to see her—

  “Take off your robe.”

  Damn! How did he do that? Knowing from experience it was pointless to argue, Danny blew her bangs and untied the knot at her waist. The robe parted, slid down her shoulders, but she bunched the sleeves up in her fists and hugged them to her breasts before it could drop altogether. She faced him in her exposed, white lacy camisole.

  Austin sat up, placed the tumbler on the side table and motioned for her to come closer. His jean-clad legs were spread, shirt open down the front revealing the tanned network of muscles that never failed to weaken her knees. A jolt of excitement sliced through her nerves as she closed the distance between them. She opened her mouth to speak. He held up a hand, stopping her.

  “I just want you,” he said in a low growl, “to take off your robe.” Each word was articulated in a way that meant business.

  So much for redirection. With a huff, Danny shed the damned thing, revealing what he expected to find.

  “Turn around.”

  She did it with her eyes rolled toward the ceiling. Soon, she felt his fingers curl around her panties and move them downward, fully baring one cheek. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” she began, fighting off the thrill that placed an inordinate amount of butterflies in her stomach. “It doesn’t even hurt.”

  “Don’t give me that shit,” he rumbled behind her, running a large, calloused hand over the blue bruise mottling her skin. “I can always tell when you’re in pain, Danny. I know your body better than I know mine.”

  But she hadn’t so much as flinched from the pain, let alone walked funny. The bruises weren’t even that bad, because when Rafferty threw her down on the tracks of Hell’s Hilltop, she’d landed with minimal damage.

  “The one on your elbow is worse.”

  Yes, that one hurt much more, but Danny wasn’t worried. “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not what happened.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what I’m thinking?”

  While she turned back around, Danny hiked up her underwear. “I was in no danger on that roller coaster, Austin. You know me. I’m more comfortable up high than on the ground.”

  “Chasing after an unpredictable, clinically diagnosed schizophrenic who tried to kill you before,” Austin contributed, his eyes going even darker than usual.

  “You were no less her victim. Many folks would say it wasn’t wise for you to drive her to the amusement park, but you did.”

  “I’m twice her size, ten times stronger and—more importantly—I’m not carrying our child.”

  He was still much too calm. It was way scarier than the explosion she expected and Danny felt the need to take cover more than ever. “I know,” she capitulated. “I won’t do anything to compromise this pregnancy.”

  “We agreed you’d stay with Melanie. You said you would wait. But, then again, when do you ever wait?”

  “Well….” As she fumbled for the words, Austin relaxed in his chair, waited for her excuse. But, Hell would freeze over before she told him the truth: that a strange voice inside her head practically showed her the way to Rena. “I tried to, but I just couldn’t.” She gave a helpless shrug. “It’s just not in me.”

  The corner of Austin’s lips turned up in a wry smile. “So I’ve heard.”

  Her heart thumped a loud beat. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  The smile faded. After a moment, he stood up, reached behind the liquor bottle beside his glass. “I have something for you.” He picked up a small gold ring, stared at it for a while as he turned it in his fingers. “History is a funny thing, Bennett. Especially with our families. It has a way of cropping up, repeating itself, despite our attempts to avoid the same pitfalls.” He extended the ring in her direction.

  Danny took it, frowned with recognition. She tilted it toward the light to illuminate the small inscription on the inside. ‘J. B. 1889’

  The last time she saw it, only the “J” had been readable, the rest crusted with dirt. “Isn’t this the ring I found out back a few years ago?” She’d forgotten all about it. It was obviously old, buried, and a piece of Cahill property. So, she’d handed it to Mac to give to their boss whom she was avoiding at the time. Before she grew to love him.

  Austin nodded his dark head, picked up the glass and downed the contents. With a loud swallow, he slammed the tumbler back down, making her jump. “I did some checking. It belonged to one of your relatives.”

  The significance of his statement was not lost on Danny. “Someone who entered these walls and was never heard from again?”

  “Precisely.”

  Danny’s eyes widened with the realization. “J. B. stands for Jenny Bennett.” Proof that it wasn’t all hearsay. “She really did die here.”

  Austin shrugged, shoved his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. “I wouldn’t know.”r />
  “Oh, come on, Austin, we all know Tucker Cahill abducted her right off Bennett land. Even you said it when you threatened to do the same with me.” Wait a minute…. Her eyes narrowed, then traveled up the length of his muscular torso until they rested on his hardened expression. “Austin Cahill.”

  A dark brow cocked in answer.

  “Are you threatening me?”

  A slow smile.

  CHAPTER 24

  Melanie

  In the hall, Melanie crouched on the floor with a cocked ear, straining to listen as the argument in the next room heated to a fevered pitch. DJ was fast asleep in the guest room behind her. Neither of them wanted to stay in their apartment alone, so Melanie had decided to wait out the night with Danny in the Cahill fortress. But hell if she could rest at a time like this, especially when things between Austin and Danny were getting so interesting.

  “What am I missing?” said a breathy voice by her ear.

  “Holy shhh….” Melanie slapped a hand over her mouth, instantly silencing her whispered outburst. A mixture of relief and anger leveled out her shock, and only then did she turn toward the man crouching behind her. “Derek, one of these days I’m going to elbow you in the mouth.”

  He grinned that devilish grin. “Did I scare you?”

  “Yes! And I told you to quit sneaking up on me like that!”

  Derek sank to his knees, his lips closing in on that sensitive place below her ear. “You’re just mad,” he murmured as he kissed her skin, “because I caught you eavesdropping on my sister.”

  Her eyes closed and she leaned into his touch. His warm breath, the feel of his whiskers on her neck, the familiar, earthy smell of his powerful body…. Melanie succumbed to the sheer pleasure of having him close once again. Derek Bennett. The love of her life. Back from the dead and more energetic than ever.

  Her hands fisted into the fabric of his T-shirt as he caged her against the wall. “What are you doing?”

  Then he wrapped her legs around his waist until she was straddling him. “I just want to hold you for a while,” he whispered. “Wear you like a sable coat until I’m nice and warm.”

  “As long as you don’t get hot,” she reminded with a huge grin. “No sex until your bullet wound gets better.”

  “You know me,” he argued, rising up to claim her mouth. After a long, heated kiss, he combed his fingers through her hair. “I like to test my limits.”

  Heat pounded in her groin, awakening every fiber of her desire. “It’s one of the many things I love about you,” she groaned, hating that it was the absolute truth. Just when she was about to suggest they go in the next room, a feminine shriek spilled from the Cahill’s bedroom.

  “You have the nerve to justify what he did to her?” Danny shouted.

  Austin’s heated retort. “If she was anything like you, I can relate!”

  “It’s imprisonment!”

  “Don’t think I’m above it, wife. Keep trying me and you’ll see just how nineteenth century I can get.”

  Derek lifted up, frowned in that direction. His spiky hair bore the marks from Melanie’s roving hands. “Instinct tells me to run to her rescue.”

  “Don’t you dare,” Melanie said with wide eyes. “There is nothing more spectacular than when those two fight.”

  His look narrowed in the dark. “Something that happens a lot?”

  Melanie’s forehead smoothed out in dry humor. “She’s a Bennett. He’s a Cahill. What do you think?”

  “I think I need to kick his ass.”

  She giggled, then muffled the sound against his shoulder. Derek spoke quietly into her hair. “Don’t worry, they’re making too much of their own noise to hear us.” He indicated the guest room with a nod. “Is Junior sleeping in there?”

  “Yes. On the bed with Chewie.”

  “Then lets go downstairs where we can be alone.”

  When they reached the mid-level landing, Derek was clutching the banister in a white-knuckled grip. Melanie noticed, tucked herself under his arm and helped him down the rest of the way. She knew he had no business getting physical with her. What little strength he’d gained since being shot had been sorely depleted when he killed Rafferty. The way Danny described it, Derek had tossed the two-hundred pound man as gracefully as a fisherman casts a net.

  On the last step, Derek lost his footing and they tumbled to the wood floor together. He let out a cough that ended in a pained laugh. Before Melanie could recover, he croaked out a, “You okay?”

  Her mind instantly rebounded as she scrambled up to check out the status of his wounds. “I’m not the one with a hole in my chest, Derek.” She yanked up on his shirt. “Here, let me check it.”

  However, it couldn’t be done without lifting the bandage, which was taped to his skin. She peeled back a corner.

  Derek winced. “Chest hair, woman!”

  “Oh, you poor baby,” she crooned, all business as she peeled back some more in order to see in the meager light. His wound looked remarkably good, pink but not angry with only a hint of strain against the few stitches holding it closed. No fresh blood, thank goodness. Directly below that, beneath his pectoral muscle, were the stitches from a cut he’d acquired during a knife fight just hours before getting shot. They were also intact, the two edges of skin already bonded together nicely. It really was a shame Nexifen was never perfected and would never reach the pharmacy shelves.

  “I think you’ll live,” Melanie deduced, carefully patting the bandage back in place.

  When she attempted to rise, Derek grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. “Let’s stay here for a minute. Recoup.”

  Really? His shirt was still pushed up to his chin and his feet were still sprawled on the bottom step, toes out as he stared up at the ceiling. Light flickered around them from the muted television she’d left on. Melanie gave him a once-over before she settled in the crook of his good arm. “You look completely and utterly done,” she said, resting her cheek against his shoulder while her hand splayed over his bared chest. “If it means keeping you down, I’ll get us a pillow. Stay here for the night.”

  In a tired voice, he responded, “If you keep rubbing up against me like that, I’ll get my second wind.”

  Her hand instantly stilled, but she just couldn’t bring herself to withdraw it altogether. “How is Rena?” she asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  Derek curled his arm around her, bringing her closer yet. “She was coming to when Austin and I left.”

  “So Mac and Crystal stayed behind?”

  He nodded. “To watch after her and Ty. They’ll all move out of the cave when it’s daylight.”

  Melanie rolled the thought around in her head. “Part of the reason I brought DJ here was so Mac could have the apartment to himself.” She looked up at Derek’s whiskered chin. “I’m glad Crystal didn’t die.”

  “Me too.” His eyes came open in a half-lidded, lazy sort of way. “I can’t believe it’s finally going to be over.”

  “Shhh, you’ll jinx it.”

  His knuckles rapped against the wood floor, bringing a smile to her face. “Thank you,” she said. “Can’t be too careful. Not after the weekend we’ve had.”

  “Rafferty won’t be making a reappearance. I can at least promise you that.”

  Yes, Derek managed to keep her updated until Rafferty’s body had been thoroughly disposed of. It had been a ritual befitting of a vampire who refused to die… just in case.

  “And I had the pleasure of watching Sophie draw her last breath after she shot you,” Melanie added, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. “She wasn’t on Nexifen, right?”

  “Nah, she wouldn’t take that shit. That’s what we were for.”

  Even now that the worst was over, the thought of Rena’s mother experimenting on Derek in every creative way possible still managed to ignite the fires of hatred within Melanie. “As soon as you take the cure, she’ll no longer have a hold on you. Then it will finally be over.” Oh, shit, not again.
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br />   Before she could knock on wood, Derek’s head suddenly reared up, body tensed. “My, God.”

  The alarm in his voice had her rearing up in a panic. “I knew it,” she breathed. “I jinxed it! Something’s wrong and by the look on your face it’s really, really bad!”

  “They’re having sex.”

  Melanie blinked down at him. “Who’s having sex?” When it finally dawned on her, the relief was staggering. On a groan, she lowered her forehead to his. “You scared me.”

  “It’s horrifying.”

  She smiled. “Want me to cover your ears?”

  His eyes closed again. “Just take an ice pick to my eardrums and let it be over. Fuck. This is torture.”

  When she settled back into the groove of his shoulder, her fingers gave his chest a good-natured pat. “I told you. Those two really know how to fight.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Derek

  Derek came to with a jolt. The hardwood floor beneath his back was unbearably uncomfortable, but it wasn’t pain that woke him. It was the hulking shadow staring down from the mid-level landing of the stairs.

  Melanie stirred beside him, sat up and groaned. The shadow moved and the staircase creaked beneath the weight of very heavy footsteps.

  When Austin reached the ground floor, he regarded them with a grunt and set down the load he carried.

  Danny wobbled on her feet for a moment, retying the sash of her silk robe. “Oh, uh… I figured you two would be sleeping upstairs. Not on them.”

  “Too much noise upstairs,” Melanie explained, rolling to a stand as Austin extended his hand to Derek.

  Derek took it, allowed himself to be hoisted, but was rudely subjected to Austin’s state of undress. “Whoa, Cahill,” he groused, “cover that shit up, will you?”

  “I’m in shorts,” Austin grumbled in response and continued on to the kitchen. “Deal with it. I need a sandwich.”