by Noah Harris
Ruthless
Passion
Noah Harris
© 2016
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are all invented for the reader’s desire. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all unintentional.
This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for a MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY.
A drifter named Duncan is a vampire that doesn’t know how to keep a low profile. His humanity keeps getting in the way. He finds himself helping Derek Strange. Derek is a billionaire with a ruthless streak in business and in his personal life. He meets Duncan after he comes to his rescue against enemies from the Yakuza. One of his enemies knows Duncan and warns him that things are going to turn ugly if he interferes again. Duncan at first promises to stay out of it, but feels drawn to Derek by his animal magnetism. They know that each one is different, but they have no idea how different they really are. Can he teach Derek that there is a better way before the Yakuza comes in force? Is their love doomed from the very beginning and what happens when they find out that they are forbidden to touch one another?
LeeAnn Rondo, this one is for you. Thank you for the support.
Table of content
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter one
I’d been known by many names and time goes by in the blink of an eye. Being immortal might sound like the best thing in the world, but it’s not fun to see your friends grow old before your eyes. I never wanted this curse, but it was given to me, and I had to live with it. I was going by the name of Duncan, as my previous name of Devon was no longer viable. I had a tendency of sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. I don’t know why it even mattered to me, but humans are that last vestige of my soul that I’m still trying to hang onto.
“Is there anything else that I can get for you?” I looked up with a bemused smile on my face. This comely young blonde was a delicious little treat that I would’ve loved to sink my teeth into. “I get off in about a half hour. Maybe we can do something together.” Most guys would’ve been interested in her other assets including her bodacious figure and not to mention a pair of breasts that defied gravity. My interest lay in the throbbing presence of that vein on her neck.
“Coffee will be fine. I’m getting back on the road, and I just needed this jolt of caffeine to keep me going. I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline.” It had always been this way, and women seemed to flock to me like bees to honey. If I were to succumb to those urges that burned within my loins, I would have to fake it. “I know that you can’t help yourself, but believe me, I am not the man that you want to get involved with. I’m dangerous, unpredictable, and I can turn into a monster.” She thought that I was joking, but this was far from a joke.
“If you change your mind, my address is on the back of the card with my phone number. You don’t have to leave town right away. I’m sure that I can show you some hospitality.” She motioned with her head towards a red-headed waitress. The idea of taking them both on at the same time was not really where my tastes lie sexually. I could play along with the best of them, but something more masculine was to my liking. “You can’t say that you’re not tempted.” She was right; I was tempted to drain them dry and leave them to be found in a most grotesque way.
“Again, the offer is much appreciated, but I really don’t have the time.” Time meant nothing when it came to being immortal. I traveled down the road trying my best to keep out of trouble. “This town has a lot to offer. I’m sure that you can stick around for the weekend.” The fun that I had in mind was decimating this town and leaving only tumbleweeds in my wake. These people had no idea that there was a murderer amongst them. Had they known, they probably would have become some kind of ungodly hoard with pitchforks. I don’t know why I went there, but that was what happened the last time in 1851.
The waitress with the name tag Joanne curled her fingers through her hair and then she walked away with a shake of her hips to get my attention. Before this happened to me, I knew that I was gay and that not even the most beautiful woman could give me what I wanted the most.
I had this dark and mysterious, brooding attitude, and I guess I projected something of a bad boy. My black hair was slicked back, and I had a five o’clock shadow on my face. My eyes were the windows to the soul. I could easily manipulate anybody into doing my bidding. There were only a few that had the DNA or chemistry that was not affected by me. I’d been searching for a long time for somebody like me, but I’d yet to come across anything of the sort.
I hadn’t aged in over 200 years and I still had that 20-year-old face with the experience of somebody that was much older. I may look like the boy next door, but I was not the one that you wanted to bring back to mother for dinner. My idea of a job was to find temporary employment and usually underneath the table. The one thing that I didn’t need was the IRS climbing up my ass. I didn’t exist, and I planned to keep it that way for, as long as possible.
I walked out of the diner, feeling the heat of the Nevada sun burning down on me. Thankfully, it’s an old wives’ tale that the sun will burn me and turn me into a crispy critter. It doesn’t do anything for my complexion. I still looked like an albino ghost in the right light. I had a green army sack over my shoulder. It had all of my meager possessions inside.
“Joseph, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. You slept with my sister, and you expect me to turn a blind eye. I’m done with you, and you’ll find your clothing on the lawn when you get home. The doors will have the locks changed. Don’t think for a second that I’m not above telling your mother about what you did. Do you think that she will be very happy with your behavior? You know that she thinks of you, as the golden child and I have no problems poking a hole in her theory.” I heard this woman’s voice, and I turned towards a blue pickup truck that had a woman poking her finger into the chest of some redneck. He was wearing a worn, tattered red and black hunter jacket and a pair of jeans with that of a trucker’s wallet attached to a chain.
I knew what was going to happen, and I had a decision to make. Could I walk away and let them handle this on their own, or did I intervene and make a spectacle of myself? Her attitude was expected, especially after finding out that the one that she was sleeping with was doing her sister. For him to think that this could be swept underneath the rug made him either a fool or someone that thought that he was above being called on the carpet.
“Jessica, if you don’t stop poking me, then you and I are going to have problems.” I watched, hoping that I was wrong and then he grabbed her wrist and made her cringe at his touch. He was obviously stronger, and he was using that considerable weight to intimidate her into some kind of submission. �
��You’re not going to tell my mother anything, or you will regret it. Do you hear me? Look at me and tell me that you understand what I’m saying to you.” This was getting dangerously close to domestic violence and then she collapsed onto her knees with a tear rolling down her cheek.
He looked smug like he was doing the world a favor by keeping her in line. She looked up, and I could tell that the pain was genuine. It was in the expression on her face and by how fast her pulse was racing out of control. I could have walked away and not bothered to get involved, but that was not how I was raised. I had been cursed, but I still held onto a distinction of what the difference between right and wrong was.
“You’re hurting me.” Her pleas were falling on deaf ears and, unfortunately, that meant that somebody stronger than him was going to have to take matters into their own hands. I strolled over the hot pavement, my steel toed boots making my presence known.
“I don’t think that is any way to treat a lady. Perhaps you should pick on somebody your own size. What you’re doing makes you less than a man.” I knew that I was antagonizing the situation, but at least, he let go of the girl. “You have to know that there’s no excuse for treating a girl with that kind of disrespect.” He was bigger than he appeared from my vantage point. I would say that he was over 250 pounds of solid muscle, and that outweighed me by a good 70 pounds. He was tall. He looked like a man that knew that his size could get practically anything he wanted.
“I don’t know who you are, mister, but you don’t want any part of this.” The ‘this’ that he was referring to was the ham hock fist that looked like it could punch out a rhino with one shot. “I’m going to give you one last chance to walk away and then things are going to get ugly.” He didn’t know how truthful that statement was.
I paced back and forth, slapping my forehead with my hand and then I turned towards him “I’m racking my brain, but I can’t think of anything that I would rather do than to protect the ladies honor. You have given me one choice, so let me reciprocate in kind. You should really turn around and walk away, or you’ll find yourself in the hospital.” He actually laughed and slammed his fist down onto the hood of that old blue pickup. The resounding crack against the metal was meant to make me jump out of my skin, but it didn’t even make me flinch.
“I’m sorry that it had to be this way, but you’re going to have to drink through a straw for at least a month.” I knew what he had in mind. He came towards me in an almost slow motion blur. I couldn’t show my hand, or there would be even more questions than I could answer. I had to play this right and the best way to do that was by looking like I had been trained in a military fashion.
I could’ve easily grabbed his fist and broke every bone in his body, but that would only incur suspicion. Instead, I moved down and around him, placing my hand up underneath his chin from behind with my arm draped across. I easily pulled back with enough force to make him realize that he was in a losing battle. “I’m going to put you to sleep. When you wake up, I hope to… I hope that you realize the error of your ways.” I was going to say God, but I was worried that somehow he would smite me. I wasn’t exactly religious, but being something of this kind of demon had made me vividly aware that I was not considered one of his children.
“You’re making me mad. That’s the last thing you want to do.” He was actually willing to fight back. He brought his elbow back into my chest only to feel like he was making contact with concrete. He howled in pain, but that did not stop him from thrashing like a fish out of water. I held him firm, putting a little bit more pressure so that he would be in dreamland before he knew it. Suddenly I heard the crashing of a bottle, and I turned to see that his girl had decided to help him. That usually didn’t happen, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. I should’ve realized that she was stuck on the brute and didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Hurting him was a little different, than telling his mother.
“Put him down. I can fight my own battles, and I don’t need you to make things worse.” I stared at her, but I understood that after I was gone that she would have to deal with the aftermath “I’m asking you nicely, but my patience is wearing thin.” By sticking up for her man, she was eliminating the chance that he would turn his displeasure in her direction. He might actually see her, as someone that he could make a life with. Who was I to take that away from either one of them? I made sure that the man went slack in my arms before I slowly lowered him to the ground.
I backed away with my hands up in a kind of mock surrender. “I was just trying to help, but if you can handle this on your own the more, the better. I have a ride waiting for me anyway. It was never my intention to make things worse for you, and I hope that you can forgive me.”
Chapter two
“I saw what you did back there, and I have to admit that you put some of the guys that I went to boot camp with to shame. You moved with such grace that there didn’t seem to be any kind of wasted motion.” My denim shirt was sticking to my skin. I had the window open to alleviate some of this dry heat that was making me sweat. The man was named Hank. He was a truck driver that was willing to take me a few 100 miles down the road. Las Vegas was close by. They say that it’s the city of sin. I guess I was about to find out for myself.
“I knew that I was stepping in it from the moment that I touched the man. That woman should’ve been grateful, but I understand that she needed to save face. I doubt that she would’ve used the bottle, but maybe I’m a little naïve when it comes to the matters of the heart.” He had his baseball cap on with his favorite sporting team on it, although I really didn’t know what that was. I wasn’t much into sports and life was too fleeting to worry about such nonsense. At least, it was fleeting for most, but for me, it was a never ending cycle.
“You haven’t said a word for the last 2 hours. I don’t know how you can do that with this kind of awkward silence in the air. I’m always one to make idle chitchat, but I didn’t want to interrupt your thoughts. I don’t know why you’re going to Las Vegas, but it’s probably going to chew you up and spit you out.” I’d never been to Las Vegas. I never had any reason for getting sucked into the one-armed bandit or the legalization of prostitutes.
“I think that I will be perfectly fine. When we get to the state line, I’ll be leaving you, and I do hope that I didn’t take you out of your way.” I did like to talk and the best way to wile away time was to watch the scenery fly by. “I do believe that this city will suit me for my purposes.” I could’ve easily made a mint off of other people’s suffering, but I decided to play a straight-laced lifestyle. I worked for what I earned. Manual labor was no stranger to my hands, although you wouldn’t know it from looking at my porcelain skin.
“Is there a reason why you came here? I only ask because most people are either running away from something or running toward something.” For a man that probably didn’t finish high school, he was more astute than I gave him credit for. I really didn’t know what brought me here, except for the last few months my footsteps were being drawn in this general direction “I don’t mean to pry, but you seem like you have a story to tell.” If I were to tell him my true story, then his face would turn, as white as I was. He would most likely either kick me out of the truck or stop in the middle of the highway to walk away in a dazed trance.
I was feeling peckish, but I was more selective about my choice of meal. I usually relegate it to those that found me to be intriguing. There were times during the years that I had found one person that allowed me to suckle at their life source. They were considered vampire groupies. They were under the impression that I could change them into what I was, but I’d never been able to do that. It wasn’t until they got clingy that I finally had to cut them loose. I didn’t kill them, but I did walk away in the middle of the night and never looked back.
“I’m not running from something, but I might be running toward something. I guess only time will tell.” I saw the Las Vegas border in the distance. My enhanced vision
was able to see it long before Hank had even a glimmer of the lights that was about to greet his eyes.
“I think that I should warn you that this town is very unforgiving. I only pass through doing my rounds. I get in, and I get out, as fast as possible. I suggest that you do the same thing. Las Vegas is the place where dreams come to die. There are very few that make it big in this city. To be honest, I’ve fallen victim to this town myself. It wasn’t, until after I lost my child’s scholarship fund that I had to take a step back. I almost lost my family, but I managed to crawl back and beg for forgiveness. I have what my therapist calls an addictive personality. I am afraid that one day I’m going to slip, and my life will be flushed down the toilet. I wished that there was some way that I could get this monkey off my back once and for all.” His air brakes brought the truck to a stop right beside the sign that said welcome to Las Vegas.
“I think that I can help you with that, Hank.” When he turned towards me, I knew that I had his undivided attention. Looking deeply into his eyes, I saw a way to give him something more profound than just money for the ride. “You will never look at gambling, as a way to escape. You’ll see it, as an evil and you will avoid it like the plague. You don’t have an addictive personality. You will never become addicted to anything ever again. You’re your own man, and you have your own mind.” He was staring at me without blinking. I knew from the moment that I got into the truck that he was susceptible to my ways.
I climbed out, and he suddenly blinked back into focus. “I hope that you find what you’re looking for. Remember, what you might be looking for might not be exactly what you think it is. Take it from a guy that knows. The universe has a funny way of balancing the good and bad.” The hypnotic suggestion that I had given him would make him easily able to resist those things that he found too hard to walk away from. Gambling would never be a sickness for him any longer. It kinda gave the heart that didn’t beat in my chest a jolt to remind me that there was still a human being in there somewhere.