by Tracy Ellen
“I’ve also gotten the feeling he’s watched me a couple of times when I’ve been at a club in the hotel and at the casino last night, but I could be wrong.”
“Anabel, I’m scared for you,” Melly said, running her hands up and down her arms. “Look at me, I’ve got the shivers! It’s a good thing you’re getting married tonight, so you’ll be with your new husband.”
I snorted. “Luke would kick Kyle Koch’s ass if he tried anything.”
Melly nodded, but looked dubious. “I’ve also heard other people have reported Mr. Koch to the police, but nothing sticks.”
We agreed to touch base before I left Las Vegas tomorrow. This time I wrote her cell number down on a piece of paper.
I didn’t nap immediately when I returned to the suite. Ash and Henry stopped by to pick up a few things for Luke. Apparently, Anna was not kidding around when she said we weren’t to see each other before the ceremony. I didn’t mind. I’m a big proponent of less is more where everything about relationships with the opposite sex is concerned, except for sex. Then it was more, more, more.
I called the concierge about my phone. They had good news. The limo service had found it and would be returning my cell this afternoon. The concierge promised to call my room when it was available.
I dialed Stella’s room but received no answer. I left the brief message I was thinking of her and Eric George, and hoped their talk went well. I reassured her everybody understood why she called off the wedding, and how sad we all were over the loss of her baby. I called Mac next, with the same results.
It was disconcerting, but even with a land line in my suite, I felt isolated without my cell phone. I didn’t like to be bugged, but it was nice to feel connected to the outside world wherever I went.
I piled my straightened hair up carefully and took another soothing bath. My makeup was pretty much cried off, so I washed my face and moisturized. Donning a long T-shirt, I was ready to rest for an hour or two.
A knock on my door was room service delivering a cart with plates covered in silver domed dishes. I hadn’t ordered anything, but the waiter read directly from a card. Apparently, my wedding planner thought I needed some lunch to tide me over until after our wedding. I wondered idly if they had decided to go to brunch or not when Luke and I left.
She was right. I ate every bite of a turkey club sandwich and a pile of fresh veggies to dip in hummus. I sucked down the strawberry mango smoothie until my straw hit bottom with a loud slurping noise. Not the best smoothie I’d ever had, as it tasted somewhat chalky, but I have a hard time turning anything mango away.
All the blood must have gone to my stomach to digest my food. I staggered over to the bed and fell on it with a sigh of pure bliss. I wanted to open the drapes, but couldn’t dredge up the energy to move, I was so beat.
When I woke up, it was dark, but for the small circle of light from a small lamp on the bedside table. I recalled Crookie saying the sun set in Vegas around 4:30 PM, so I had a few minutes before Anna would arrive.
I sat up and groggily looked around the bedroom, seeing only indistinct shapes. On the bedside table, I spied a half full carafe of water Luke must have left from earlier today. I chugged a glass. Incredibly thirsty, I greedily chugged until the carafe was empty.
I stood up and shook out my arms and legs, feeling groggy and yet tingly at the same time. Switching on another floor lamp, the first thing I noticed was a beautiful white dress lying across the end of the bed. A typed note was attached that said the dress was for me.
Smiling, I was pleased Luke was stepping up. I had been underwhelmed by his do over proposal, but had faith he’d make it up to me somehow. I had planned to wear one of the cocktail dresses I’d brought, but this was much more appropriate for our wedding, and so slinky sexy.
I pulled the T-shirt over my head and slipped the satin dress over my naked body, reveling in the cool fabric sliding down over my breasts and then my ass. It slithered down my thighs and teased my calves with every step I took. It wasn’t until I had the dress on that I realized how strange it was I hadn’t thought to wear a bra or panties.
The thought flitted away before it even took hold.
I stretched my hands to the ceiling, and then bent down from the waist to sweep them across the floor. My stomach was a mass of butterflies. I was giddy and breathless with anticipation, my finger still tingling madly.
Floating out to the living room, I stopped dead. I didn’t recognize the room. It wasn’t the living room of my suite, or the same furniture. I rubbed my hand along the nap of a velvet throw on the arm of a large chair. The room was invitingly sensuous, so the fact that it wasn’t my suite at the Bellagio didn’t seem to matter.
A murmur of voices and music from beyond the living room door drew my attention. I floated in that direction, opening the door.
I was in a large open space in a big house. Some sort of party was going on and music played loudly, the thumping bass making me want to dance. Strobe lighting blinked on and off, complicating the picture I was trying to make sense of in a dim recess of my mind, even as I floated euphorically around the room. Everyone was dressed in black from head to toe, but for a few people in white satin gowns similar to my own.
I wandered through the party, smiling at people with sharp teeth. I saw flashes of red on white skin, and people bent at weird angles over each other’s necks. I saw wrists being held to slurping mouths, as black eyes smiled at me when I trailed by, and I smiled in return.
I giggled at my dream I was at a vampire ball. I heard my name called and turned slowly. Kyle Koch stood there, smiling fully for once. All his teeth were filed to razor-sharp points.
“Anabel, you’re awake. The dress is as beautiful as I’d imagined.”
I laughed. “Kyle Kochsucker. I get it now. You’re a vampire pimp.”
Turning away, I wandered to a patio door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the cool night. I followed a pathway.
Hearing sirens, I looked over my shoulder.
Through the glass of the patio door, I saw Kyle Koch fly through the air and I clapped, whispering in amazement, “So it’s true vampires can fly.”
I continued walking until I felt sand on my feet.
I heard my name being yelled by a commanding voice I’d recognize no matter what dream I was in. “Luke, my love! My war-god! My Dark Prince! I’m over here in the desert with no jacket on!”
A shadow blurred the moonlight. Suddenly, I was wrapped in warm, strong arms and swooped up to be carried.
“Am I on a horse with no name in the desert?”
Luke laughed shortly as we walked through the dark. “Anabel, you’re with me at Kyle Koch’s house.” At first, I thought he was saying something more to me, but he was speaking into the phone resting in the crook of his neck. “Yeah, it’s Luke. I’ve got her and she’s fine. No, she’ll call you tomorrow.” I felt his tension, but his voice was patient. “I was doing that when the police arrived to arrest him. Yes way.” He muttered a sharp curse under his breath and I was jerked out of my drifting reveries. “Anabel, lean over and tell Anna you’re okay.”
I lifted my head from his broad shoulder and called out, “Hey, Anna, guess what? I was at a vampire ball!”
I giggled at the faraway sound of Anna’s cute, tiny voice squealing like a little piggy, but Luke ended the call after saying firmly, “See, she’s fine and will call you tomorrow.”
“Can we go back to the vampire ball? I forgot to ask that Kochsucker pimp how he knows my full name. I keep forgetting things, but I feel so,” I laughed and swung my arm out wide, “fucking VANtastic!”
“You’re high on Ecstasy.”
“What? I am? No way, I don’t do drugs. Do I?”
Luke ground out, “Koch put pills in the water you drank. Everybody was high in that house.”
“Boy, I see why they named it Ecstasy. What a great E word. I’ve never felt so good in my life. I tingle all over.” I had a sudden alarming thought. “You won’t
tell Crookie that I was out wandering in the desert with no coat on, will you?”
I was distracted by a strange noise near the ground that reminded me of stepping in a pile of dry, crackling leaves in the fall. Luke bounced me violently over to his left arm and made the karate chop slashing move with the right.
The noise stopped abruptly. He bounced me back to hold me in both arms and resumed striding quickly.
“Did you just karate chop slash a snake to shut up?”
“Of course not, that wouldn’t be possible.”
“True.” I giggled. “Are we going to our wedding now?”
“Our wedding was supposed to happen six hours ago. It’s midnight.”
“Why didn’t you show up?”
“I was too busy looking for my missing fiancé.”
“I was missing?” I asked in surprise. “Hmm, I thought I was taking a nap.”
“Kyle Koch drugged you and took you from the hotel.”
“Geez Louise, more drugs? What’s with that guy and drugs?” I laughed giddily in disbelief. “Why did he do that, anyway? Mr. G. was right, he needs to learn to let go.”
Luke carried me across a yard as if I weighed nothing and his voice was quietly grim. “After he admitted drugging your smoothie and throwing you in a laundry cart, and then giving you Ecstasy, my fists weren’t interested in Koch’s reasons. I was too busy giving him a long overdue ass-kicking.”
“I love your muscles. And your hands. I really love your hands.” I sighed dreamily and rubbed the back of Luke’s neck. I loved the image of Luke beating the crap out of Kyle Koch and kicking him across the room, too, but I whispered out loud, “I can’t think too good, but it makes no sense.”
Luke’s tone was curiously reluctant when he replied, “He did scream out you were his soul mate.”
“No way! What a creepy vampire.” I shivered and Luke’s arms tightened around me in response. “You’re my soul mate, spooky Lukey. But did you see his teeth? Don’t let them sharpen my teeth like that, okay?”
“Okay.”
I laid my head back and stared up at the black sky. I wanted to ask Luke many questions. There were important details I was missing, but my thoughts scattered in a million directions, as numerous as the twinkling stars above. As Luke carried me somewhere, I smiled at the stars and whispered hello.
But then one thought solidified long enough for me to say, “How did you find me at the vampire ball?”
“Well, Anabel, it seems you’ve been very busy since we arrived in Las Vegas.”
“I tried to tell you,” I agreed happily. “I have been so busy, you don’t even know!”
Luke snorted, but his voice was coldly detached when he explained, “Your maid friend, Melody, spotted Kyle on your floor near your room. She called and left a voice mail on your cell phone and on our suite extension.”
“Melody is so nice,” I said with a smile.
“When you didn’t answer Anna’s knock at five when she came to our room, Anna came to me. We discovered the calls from Melody--we got your cell phone back from the concierge, by the way. It took a while, but I tracked Mr. G. down to get Koch’s address.”
“Ah, that Mr. G.,” I snorted his name, shaking my head.
He squeezed me. “Yeah, you made quite the impression on Mr. G., but we’ll discuss that later.” Luke’s tone was now coldly furious. “I was in the process of killing Kyle Koch, but then the police arrived to arrest him. I hadn’t called them, but didn’t wait around to find out why they were there. I left out the back way to find you.”
“Wow, we’ve both been busy.” I smiled and hugged Luke tightly, breathing in his familiar scent of clean man with a deep, visceral pleasure. “I’ll bet the cops came for Kyle when his alibi from Catrina, his Head Women of the Queens of the Kochsucker, fell through.” I stroked my cheek against Luke’s and muttered to myself, “I’ll have to call Carrie Bradley and see how her kidnapping went. Hmm, maybe Bobby Darin or Ray Leota can give me the inside scoop. I should tell the cops to question the two incredible hulks--they have their eyes on everything.”
Luke’s big hand covered my forehead.
I laughed. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“You don’t have a fever. I’ve never known anyone rolling on E to hallucinate.”
“Am I hallucinating?” I cupped his face. “Are you really here, my Hero?”
Luke stopped walking and kissed me with a fierce hunger. It was the hottest kiss I’ve ever experienced. I was instantly wet and yearning.
I needed my satyr inside me hard, fast, and now.
“Shh, Sweetheart, I’d love nothing more, but we can’t.”
I wasn’t surprised Luke read my mind and answered, not after that snake move.
I moaned, running my hands over my breasts and down my thighs, sliding the satin dress up high. “Yes, we can. Please, can we do it on that big rock over there?”
“Anabel, Anabel,” Luke murmured and I moaned again in response to his deep voice crooning my name, as his grip tightened and he dipped his head to kiss me again. When he lifted his head, the grim tone was still in Luke’s voice. “You’re killing me, but we have a plane to catch.”
“We do? What about our wedding?” My eyes opened wide. “What about Pig-tails? Man, is she going to be pissed!”
“The kid is pissed, but we will get married, Sweetheart. Our wedding will just have to wait.”
I waved a negligent hand. “It’s cool, baby. Just let me know when and I’ll be there with bells on.” Sparky blinged to life and I laughed. “You heard the man, Ring. What part about waiting do you not understand?”
We came to a road where a darkened limousine idled in the night. Luke opened the door, guiding me in and closing it softly behind us. He rapped on the dividing window. I turned at the reflection of swirling, pulsating lights. Out the back of the speeding limo, I could see police vehicles a hundred yards down the road in front of a big white house.
Luke put his arms around me and I cuddled in close, rubbing my chest against his.
He stroked my back. “Anabel, I know you’re high right now, but you have to listen to me carefully. I have some bad news you need to hear.”
“Oh no, I don’t need to hear any more bad news,” I disagreed, shaking my head until it made me dizzy.
Luke was relentless and his hands cupped my cheeks to stop my head shaking. “It’s your friends, Darcy and Arthur Milton. They’ve been in a car accident. Sweetheart, I’m afraid they were hit by a semi and both killed instantly.”
“Oh no, no, they’re in Tucson, Arizona on vacation,” I mumbled inanely, my stomach clenching in revolt as I stared dazedly into Luke’s sympathetic eyes.
“Arthur’s parents have been calling your cell since yesterday. They said you agreed to become legal guardian to the four little Milton boys in the event of Darcy and Arthur’s deaths.” He asked, “Is that true, Anabel? Did you tell your friends you’d take their children?”
Luke didn’t add “without discussing it with me first”, but his tone clearly implied the words and their accusation floated in the air in front of my face.
“What? No! I don’t know!” Trying to absorb the horrible news of Darcy and Arthur’s deaths, my brain wouldn’t work right and I felt panicky. I cried out, “Oh God, I thought I was agreeing to be their godparent, not their mother! I’d never agree to be their mother! Are the boys hurt?”
Luke held me close, but his voice sounded far away. “No, the boys weren’t in the car. According to Arthur’s parents, even though you’ve signed no papers, Darcy said you’d agreed. She considered it a done deal you were going to be the legal guardian of their four grandsons. Arthur’s parents are coming to Northfield sometime tomorrow afternoon to meet with us.”
‘It’s a good thing your word is golden,’ the mean mommy voice stated gleefully.
I fainted.
#####
Dearest Booklover,
Thank you for reading Family & Fortune. I’ll state the obvious an
d say this book ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. Personally, I love the excitement of cliffhangers in an ongoing series, but some readers can’t stand the suspense of waiting for the next book. I get that, too, so for those people, keep reading on below. I’ve included a special excerpt of Chapter I from Coupled with Chance, the next book in the series available in November for preorder and release in December 2015.
As always, the fans of my books are crucial for my success as a self-published author. Your review not only recommends my titles to other readers, which is huge, but your personal opinion means a lot to me. I love reading every review and appreciate your show of support so much.
Happy Reading,
Tracy Ellen
Excerpt from Coupled with Chance, Volume VI in The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod ongoing series.
(The excerpt can also be read on www.tracyellenink.com)
Prologue
Tuesday, 01/01
10:00 PM (CST)
TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT:
Dearest Anabel,
With everything that has occurred over the last two days, I’m at a loss what to write on the subject line. I won’t attempt to speak to the pain of losing a baby or try to make sense out of the senseless tragedy of your friends’ deaths. Our family already knows life is not a fair game governed by rules we control. Sometimes the untimely deaths of people we love must simply be endured, and then, hopefully over time, accepted with grace.
As for those of us left behind to pick up the pieces, Granddaughter, for years I’ve had the joy of watching you use your unique abilities to find a way to do what you consider the right thing, sometimes against the odds and often against public opinion. Whatever path you choose to take with the Milton children, I have the utmost belief you will successfully triumph over any challenges life throws at you. Remember, you are not alone. You have a solid man in Luke, and you’ll always have the complete support of your family. All my love, NanaBel.