Not understanding quite how Ara managed it when she had killed the gunman, Liv had set up an experiment. She wanted Ara to boil water in a glass to replicate her actions. After several half-hearted attempts, she grew frustrated when she couldn’t manage it. But when Liv had pretended to threaten Reaper in order to manipulate her, the water boiled over the rim in a violent motion. At that moment, she realized that her powers were innate, and she used certain defensive weapons when someone she cared for was at risk. It wasn’t something that she could manage by practicing, so they had moved on to working on other techniques. Liv looked quite pleased with herself, while Ara felt vaguely sick.
But during her training, Reaper had pushed her and the others to work harder, and she had been grateful. She had grown stronger within a short span of time. Although her confidence grew as well, the worry that she was a risk to the others was never far from her mind.
Each day she looked forward to training, but she also found herself missing time with Reaper. She trained with everyone but him, and by the end of the day, it felt as though she hadn’t seen him in years, instead of hours. Her heart accelerated the moment training ended, ready to spend the evening alone with him in the privacy of his home.
Whenever he called an end to their training, her body tingled in anticipation. He could sense her need for him and would whisk her away before she had a chance to thank the others for their help.
After they arrived home, they made dinner together while she enjoyed the closeness they shared. She was able to touch him whenever she wanted, and soon after dinner, he carried her upstairs.
Each time he made love to her, there was a desperation in both of them that increased their need for each other. She wanted to lengthen their time together, but soon the sensations grew overwhelming and her body released in a powerful orgasm as sparks exploded behind her eyelids. He left her breathless and spent, and yet she craved more from him. Everything from him.
At night, they clung to each other, skin touching skin as they slept. Whenever training or the possibility of the future crowded in on her, he would always sense her anxiety and pull her into his arms until the feeling passed. At times, she could feel his arms shake because he worried as much as she did. But each time reality invaded their private space, she grew angry. They shouldn’t have to put their lives on hold because a psychopath was after her, and she became determined to forget about everything but Reaper and enjoy their time together.
They never spoke about the future and she didn’t bring it up, worried that he had no real answers for her. Although she fell more and more for him, she had no clue of his feelings. He was protective of her, possessive even, and couldn’t get enough of her when they were alone, but she knew that physical intimacy wasn’t a promise of the future. His desire for her could cool, and then he would be relieved that he never made her any promises.
She wished she had answers, but none came to her, so she dismissed her negative thoughts.
In the meantime, they were together and she was happy.
A knock on the front door pulled her out of her thoughts, and her mouth turned down in a frown. She glanced around, knowing that Ghost and Gunnar were around somewhere, and Liv and Seth were down in her lab, working. She heard no footsteps coming toward her, but she still waited for several minutes to see whether there would be another knock. Nothing came.
“Hey, guys,” she said.
She glanced around with confusion, knowing that Reaper had demanded that Ghost and Gunnar stick close to her, but no one answered. Even from the living room, Liv should have heard her, but the quiet of the house told her that she was alone.
With trepidation, she walked toward the reinforced door and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, searching for her courage that had fled. She clutched her hands into fists when she realized they were shaking, and blew out a disgusted breath.
“Stop being a coward.”
With quick motions, she strode to the door and glanced out of the peephole to find…nothing. A short laugh burst through but cut off just as quickly.
Her hand reached for the handle and after a deep breath, she opened the door as she braced herself for either the shot to come from an ambush, or another hired thug barreling toward her, sent to kidnap her. She glanced around the forest that surrounded the house, but she couldn’t see any shadows or movement anywhere within sight. Stepping out onto the porch, she calmed her breathing and listened for any sound that might indicate someone walking around in the woods, but heard nothing.
As she reached for the door behind her, eager to get back inside, her foot knocked against something on the porch. She glanced down and sucked in a startled breath as she read the writing on the envelope in bold cursive.
Freak.
With another quick glance around, she snapped up the envelope and stepped back inside. She slammed the door with more force than necessary, and relaxed when all five locks were engaged. A shiver passed through her as she leaned against the front door, too afraid to walk deeper into the house. She didn’t want to bring the evil that the envelope was sure to contain into the house, but she needed to know what he wanted from her.
After a deep breath, she glanced at the envelope to see whether there had been anything else written on it, but there was only one word on it.
On shaky legs, she walked toward the chair closest to the door and dropped into it. Before she could talk herself out of it, she ripped opened the envelope and watched with dread as an index card fluttered to the ground. By instinct alone, she reached for the card and flipped it over so she could read the messy print on the other side.
You took someone from me, killed him, you vicious bitch! In return, I took someone you care about from you. You’re next! I have so many plans for you before I finally take your life…
A sob escaped from her for a split second before she shut down her panic. Although she knew that she wasn’t his prisoner any longer, he still had a way to get to her, knew where she was. If he knocked on the door himself, he must’ve known that she was left alone.
At that thought, her hand shook and something else fell from the manila envelope clutched in her hand. She reluctantly plucked it off the carpet and almost choked.
He had sent her a USB drive. He wanted to taunt her, to show her that he had all the power over her. Her instincts screamed for her to wait until she could show it to Reaper, but she refused to be weak any longer.
She slid the laptop on the coffee table close to her and inserted the drive. Her eyes widened as she noticed it contained one video file. Before she clicked on it, she steeled her spine in preparation of possibly seeing her abductor for the first time, and pressed play.
“Solomon.”
A weight in her chest squeezed the breath from her as Solomon came into view. She understood the man’s words now. He had been the one who had killed Solomon. Not by his own hand, but by ordering Dr. Ames and the others to experiment on him. Although she understood that this video was going to show her how Solomon, her friend, died, she couldn’t drag her eyes away from the screen.
The moments passed in excruciating slowness, and although some part of her understood that her friend was dead, she willed the video to show her something else. She held on to that hope until that last moment.
Solomon had seen no way out, and had killed himself. The guilt that had been her constant since he’d disappeared hit her tenfold. She could have fought when they took him from their shared rooms, she could have destroyed them, but she watched him disappear without saying a word. Her chest compressed with pain that made breathing impossible, and hatred for herself equaled her hatred for those who had killed Solomon.
Before her mind had a chance to shut down like she prayed it would, she wondered what this man would do to Reaper. He had to know that she went home with him every night, and knew exactly where to find her and how to leave a message on the night that most of the assassins were out on a mission to find him.
She had to leave, had to put
distance between Reaper and herself. She didn’t care whether he killed her, but she couldn’t live if anything happened to Reaper.
She loved him.
But no, she could never tell him, never have a life with him.
The pain and fear made planning her escape sluggish. She needed money, and wondered whether she could ask Liv if she could borrow some, but she had to leave before Reaper and the others came back and she had no idea where Liv was.
“Ara?”
She heard someone call her name, but didn’t have the strength to lift her head. She had to make them understand; she needed help to escape.
“Need…to…go,” she mumbled.
“What?”
She pried her eyes open and flinched as she spotted the rage in Ghost’s light-blue eyes. “Have to get away from Reaper. He’s going to kill him because of me.”
She watched as his eyes glanced at the laptop, and watched as they widened at the image of Solomon bleeding to death on the floor of the lab.
“Fuck, fuck!” Ghost shouted. He reached for her, but she flinched away from him.
She tried again to make him understand. “Please, Ghost. I can’t see Reaper die. If I leave, he’ll be safe.”
“No. If you leave, it’ll kill him.”
Ghost lifted her into his arms and ran up the stairs to a spare room. He settled her under the covers and glanced down at her for a moment. He must’ve made a decision, because he shouted for Liv and she appeared within a moment. “Can you give her something to sleep?”
“What happened?” Liv hovered over Ara, worry evident on her face.
“She watched what you smuggled out of Standard. The bastard sent it to her. She thinks that if she leaves, Reaper will be safe.”
Liv’s face softened as she brushed a strand of hair away from Ara’s face. Ara watched as the woman who had become her friend, her first real female friend, bite her lip as she tried to get the words past her throat. Finally, Liv glanced down at Ara and smiled a knowing smile.
“Reaper will be devastated if you leave him. Although he’s the quiet one, it’s obvious to all of us that he cares for you more than anyone in his life, ever. I know you think that this man could hurt us, but the assassins are the fiercest fighters you will ever meet, and they would never let this man hurt you or Reaper. Don’t hurt him or yourself by leaving,” Liv pleaded.
Truth be told, she understood that she couldn’t survive long without Reaper. The panic started to subside, and she felt a flush of embarrassment at her actions. She let this man get to her, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
“I’ll stay,” Ara said.
Liv smiled at her. “I’m going to give you a small sedative. I’ll let Reaper know what happened as soon as he gets back, but for now, you need rest.”
She barely felt the pinch on her arm, and within moments, she settled back onto the pillows and allowed the blackness to overwhelm her.
Chapter Thirteen
Reaper
Reaper had hoped that their trip would be more fruitful, but other than a sliver of a lead, they had no more information to go on than when they started. Xander had been excited to get it, and even hours later, Reaper had to admit that at least it was a start.
There had been several leads to four different benefactors who had contributed to Dr. Ames’s research, and they had driven to Denver in order to chase the possibility that they had found who was after Ara. Three of the supposed moneymen had led back to the same shell corporation that listed no owner, nor did they state exactly what line of business they were in. The fourth, however, led them to a dead man.
Martin Phillips had an extensive criminal record. Stealing cars, breaking and entering, and drug possession with intent to distribute. They wondered how a low-level drug dealer masterminded a shell corporation that made close to a billion dollars annually, with no traceable income stream. It had taken them all day, but Xander had discovered, through public records, that Martin Phillips died from blood loss due to a gunshot wound. The details were vague, not indicating how he received the wound or the location of the wound itself. There had been no date of death listed, no next of kin, and no physical description of the man.
“Someone has deleted all aspects of this man’s life, only leaving enough for the state to issue a death certificate. The birth certificate has been changed, deleting the mother and father’s first names, and I can’t find one photo ID of the man in the system. It’s like he’s been erased, which is next to impossible,” Xander muttered.
They concluded that whoever wanted Ara had powerful ties. He was able to erase her entire existence, but yet he left traceable evidence to a man who had been dead for years.
“He’s fucking playing with us,” Reaper said aloud.
The moment Ghost had ordered him to go with the team to track Xander’s lead, Reaper had worried about leaving Ara alone. He knew that Ghost and Gunnar would keep her from harm, but it still bothered him that this fucker was one step ahead of them the entire time.
Not the whole time. I got to her first.
Finally, Ax turned on the road that led to Kai’s house, and Reaper blew out a heavy breath, relieved that Ara would be in his arms soon. Before he could finish the thought, Reaper’s shoulder slammed against the side of the door, leaving an indentation, before he sensed the car start to sway.
He opened his mouth to shout at Ax, but when he looked at the shifter, the words died in his throat. The way Ax’s eyes bore into the road ahead of them made Reaper aware that something had gone terribly wrong. His hand shot out and gripped the dash just as Ax slammed on the brakes. His eyes traveled to a massive sinkhole in front of the car.
“Fuck.”
Seconds after the car had come to a complete stop, Reaper understood what had happened.
He pushed open the door and glanced around to scout the quickest way to get back to Kai’s. Before he could explain his actions to the others, he leapt across the part of the road that had disappeared moments before, and shifted into his wolf by the time his paws landed on the other side. He darted into trees and as the ground shook harder, he let out a long, low growl.
Ara’s doing this, he communicated this to the team.
How? Why? What the hell? The questions ricocheted in his mind, but he couldn’t distinguish the voices. He needed to get to Ara.
Later. Be safe.
Reaper cursed himself because he hadn’t realized how powerful Ara was becoming. Fear pushed him harder, wondering whether someone was trying to reach her. Either way, her defensive weapons were stronger, but she was his to protect.
Mine! She’s fucking mine!
His wolf whined as the shaking increased, and within minutes the house came into sight. He picked up his pace.
Kai, I’m close.
The door opened and he ran through it without stopping. He slid to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, before he bolted up to where he sensed Ara. He barreled through the open door, and stopped dead as he took in the scene in front of him.
A pain in his chest, something that he’d never felt before, pulsed hot. Liv hovered over Ara, who was curled into a tiny ball in the corner of the king-sized bed. Ara whimpered as she rocked herself back and forth; tears streaked down her face, as she mumbled something he couldn’t quite understand at that distance. He strode closer, and what he heard made him want to kill.
“Don’t kill him! Don’t touch him! Reaper, Reaper,” she mumbled.
His nose butted against Ara’s hand, and he chuffed when her fingers slid through his fur and pulled him closer.
“Ghost told me that the bastard sent her the video of the lion-shifter. She was worried for you and thought it would be safer if she left, but I convinced her to stay. I gave her a sedative to help her sleep, but I think that she’s had a reaction to it. I tried to wake her, but she…wouldn’t,” Liv said through tears.
Reaper whined his understanding without taking his gaze from Ara. Liv nodded and turned toward the doo
r to give them space. He waited until the door shut before he shifted back and lifted Ara into his arms. As soon as Ara was cradled close to his chest, the shaking around them stopped and he blew out a relieved breath.
“I’m here, beautiful. You’re safe, I promise. I would never let anyone hurt you. Look at me, Ara,” he begged.
Her head lifted slowly, as if she were shaking off the last remnants of sleep, and met his gaze. She blinked at him, her face pinched as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.
He growled, low in his throat, and felt her arms as they banded around his waist. He bent down and captured her lips in a kiss that was meant to be reassuring. Instead, it turned into an inferno within moments. It tortured him to pull back, but he needed to reassure himself that she was safe and in his arms. They stared at each other for several long minutes before she spoke.
“Reaper?”
“Yes, beautiful?”
“I’m sorry.”
“There is nothing to be sorry for,” Reaper said before his lips found hers.
The horror of the night had Ara clinging to him, kissing him back with fervor. He gathered her into his arms as he sat back against the headboard, and slanted her face before he devoured her mouth. His arms clutched her closer, and she sucked in a breath when she realized that he lay naked underneath her. She moaned her response, but took him by surprise when her teeth nipped at his bottom lip before she soothed the area with her tongue.
There was a desperation in both of them as her lips reconnected with his, and this time, his tongue darted in as he tasted her. The fear he sensed in her as he rushed into the room receded. Desire took over, and when she lowered her heat against his rigid cock, he surged up to meet her and moaned when his cock brushed against the fabric of her jeans.
“Reaper, I need you.”
Wanting to soothe her and show her how much he wanted her, would always want her, he reached for her t-shirt. Somewhere between him wanting to reassure her and her sexy moan of need, his patience had fled, and he ripped the material and discarded it on the floor, forgotten. Her bra soon followed, and he leaned forward and licked one nipple in a long stroke.
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