by Dannika Dark
“He’ll toss me out on my ass.”
“Look at what you did for Ben; do you think your brothers wouldn’t do the same for you?”
He centered his eyes on mine, pain glittering in their depths.
I stroked his cheek and pinched the hair on his chin. “I know you love him, but if Austin turns his back on you, then maybe he doesn’t love you as much as you deserve to be loved.”
“Maybe I don’t deserve it. Ever think of that?”
My hand slid down to his arm, and I traced my finger across the shadows of his ink. I liked the way he let me touch him even though he sat stoically, as if he didn’t deserve affection. Wheeler reminded me of the Tin Man—all rusty and impenetrable on the outside, devoid of a heart. But who could have guessed that beneath all that armor was a man capable of unwavering devotion and love? I saw it in the way he protected his pack no matter the cost to himself. Could I have done the same for another?
I wondered.
“I’ve never met anyone as dangerous and intelligent as you, Wheeler. Lexi tells me all about her brothers, and I know the kind of work you’ve done for them as well as in your past. That’s a beautiful mind to waste in that enormous head of yours.”
“I’ve never had a woman compliment me for having a big head.”
“Now that I doubt,” I growled sexily.
Wheeler suddenly leaned forward and gripped the seat in front of him. “Shit.”
“What is it?”
“Eleven o’clock. We’ve got company.”
Two men walked swiftly toward us—men in dark clothes with stern looks on their faces as they passed beneath a streetlight.
“What do we do?” I whispered.
Wheeler looked at me wide-eyed and suddenly gripped the back of my neck, pulling me into a crushing kiss. His tongue glided into my mouth in a velvety stroke, and the seat made a terrible sound as he shifted the weight of his body onto mine.
“Wait, not like this,” I whispered, pushing him away.
His eyes searched mine, looking like a time bomb ready to blow. The men were nearing the car, and when he turned to look at them, I straddled him and melted my lips against his.
Wheeler groaned, his fingers biting into the back of my jeans, where he held on as if he were riding a roller coaster. I shifted my hips and felt him hardening beneath me. The kiss went deeper, and suddenly I couldn’t get close enough to him. His whiskers scratched my chin, and his taste was dark and wonderful. My fingers tangled in his hair—pulling and fisting as I rubbed my body against his chest.
A fist pounded against the glass, but Wheeler ignored them. His mouth slid greedily down to my throat while lifting the hem of my shirt. Suddenly, he pulled my bra aside and sucked on my nipple.
I cried out, scraping my fingernails on the nape of his neck. I rocked my hips again, feeling a swell of desire culminating within me.
In the distance were murmurs and fading footsteps—hardly noticeable over the sound of my heart pounding against my chest or the sound his lips made as they came away from my breast before he quickly followed with a gentle bite. When I looked down and saw my nipple between his teeth and the carnal lust in his eyes, I wanted more.
His touch was electric, and Wheeler couldn’t stop running his hand over the thick curve of my hips.
I pulled back his hair and stole a kiss, whispering against his lips, “Fuego.”
“Huh?” he said, out of breath, not understanding I wanted him to know his touch was like fire.
The car door was wrenched open and I winked at him before climbing off. Reno got in and turned around two seconds after I’d adjusted my shirt.
His eyes darted back and forth between us. “Do I want to ask?”
Cool as a breeze, Wheeler steadied his voice and nodded toward the window. “Two of his men came up to the car. We had to throw them off.”
Reno glanced down at Wheeler’s erection. “I’d say it was a success. Look, he doesn’t appear to have any Vampires working for him. In fact, they look pretty human to me.”
“Not surprising,” Wheeler said, raking his fingers through his disheveled hair. “Men get paranoid about Vampires turning on them. Most of the big shots I worked for didn’t keep any on the premises. Fear of eavesdropping and all that.”
Reno reached into the floor of the passenger seat and pulled out a gun, turning the grip toward us. “The guard in back took a smoke break and fell asleep in a chair before I left. I saw one downstairs, two out front, and they don’t keep the back door locked. If it is, then you’ll have to search one of the guards for the key. You take the back and I’ll handle the two jokers out front. The gun is for inside use only. This is a last resort if all else fails. Naya takes the gun for protection. Think you can handle it?”
I adjusted my hair. “If one of the men in the house spots me, I have a better distraction. With you, they’ll know something is afoot,” I said, touching the gun. “Maybe you should let me go in first as a decoy. They might think the boss sent them their early Christmas bonus.”
“I don’t like that idea,” Wheeler grumbled.
Reno’s eyes swung over to his. “Why not? Sounds like a plan to me.”
I pushed Reno’s hand away. “I don’t need a gun.”
“The fuck you don’t,” Wheeler spat.
These men were too much. “Darling, I’ve got two secret weapons that will bring any man to his knees. Care to disagree?”
In the backseat of that dark Camaro, Wheeler’s cheeks flushed. He seemed aware of it and pinched the bridge of his nose, hiding his face behind his hand. “And if they make a call?”
Reno glanced over his shoulder through the windshield. “By then, we’re in. We haul ass and go through every room. When we find her, I need one of you to pull the car up front so we can get the hell out of here. Is your car fast enough?”
Wheeler patted the seat. “She’s never let me down yet.”
Reno pushed open his door. “Let’s go.”
By the time I climbed out of the car, Reno had taken off.
Wheeler grabbed my hand and we sprinted through a dense thicket of trees toward the back of the house. Delgado had money, and most wealthy men didn’t fence in their backyards. Sometimes they had low walls in the distance around the property, but usually there were acres of private land. That’s what he had, and the trees provided enough cover until we neared the side of the house. There was a large fountain making enough noise to conceal our heavy breaths.
The guard moved within sight, armed with at least two weapons I could see.
“Now what?”
“I kick some ass,” Wheeler said.
I gripped his arm tightly when he took a step forward. “He’ll see you coming. He’ll radio for help.”
“Well, kitty cat, what’s your plan?”
I peeled off my shirt, bent down, and tucked a leaf in my hair. “Men just love to play hero.”
Before he could argue, I jogged toward the guard, stumbling and out of breath. When he pulled out his gun, I quickly tripped to appear helpless and injured. Then I flipped onto my back, holding my chest. “Please help,” I whispered.
He peered down at me, mesmerized by the rise and fall of my ample breasts beneath the lacy fabric of my black bra. Then I heard a thwack, and his knees buckled. Wheeler had crept up behind him and smacked him over the back of the head with the butt of his gun.
I leaped to my feet and grinned victoriously. Whee! This was fun.
Wheeler knelt down, disarmed him, and pulled a pair of cuffs from the back of the guard’s pocket. “Well, isn’t that convenient?” He locked the man’s hands behind his back and tightened the cuffs.
“Sure you want to waste those on him?” I lifted my nose and sauntered around him, feeling his molten gaze on me for a fraction of a second. Then I heard fabric tearing. Wheeler held a strip of material in his hand and balled up another, shoving it into the man’s mouth before tying a gag.
“That’s not my shirt, is it?”
&nbs
p; He winked. “Sure looks like it.”
I put my hands on my hips and feigned annoyance, but without knowing how many guards were inside, maybe a woman in a bra would temporarily stun them before they considered firing on us. It sure seemed to have worked its magic on this poor fellow.
Wheeler dragged him around a large bush by his ankles and then stared at him for a minute. “See anything we could use to tie him to a tree?”
“How about that rope?” I suggested.
His eyes flicked up in surprise.
“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? Just leave him and let’s go!” I carefully approached the back door, crawling in front of the bushes to avoid someone spotting me through one of the windows. Delgado must have liked his backyard view, because he had windows that went from floor to ceiling.
When it looked clear, I turned the doorknob and slowly stepped inside. A cool gust of air teased my hair back, and I listened for an alarm. Nothing.
The living room had all white furniture. I stood amid white leather sofas, white marble flooring, and a pristine white rug without a spot on it.
“Just in case you’re wondering, you didn’t die. This isn’t heaven,” Wheeler whispered sarcastically against my ear.
Voices murmured in the distance, and I quickly moved toward them. Wheeler’s arm flew out in front of me, holding me back so he could peer through a large doorway. He pointed to the left, signaling their location.
Wheeler skulked around the wall, and my anger began to bubble. My mother had always said I had a temper like a volcano—dormant for years until provoked by the wrong person. This wasn’t a man’s job, so I brazenly walked into the room with my catlike strut and straight toward the voices.
Much to the dismay of Wheeler, who had found a hiding spot behind a nude statue.
“Does anyone here know where I can find Damian Delgado?” I announced, moving as sultrily as a woman could.
Two men reached for their guns and hesitated, looking at me and then each other with stunned expressions. They wore black suits with slim ties.
“Hold it right there,” one of them said. “Don’t move.”
Ignoring him, I summoned a naughty smile and approached that man. “I spoke with the guard outside, and he said it was all right to come in. Are you Delgado?” I asked, running my hand down his chest. “He called my boss—asked for his best girl to show him a good time.”
The one on my left with the thick sideburns tucked his gun back in the holster. “You have the wrong house. You’re going to have to leave.”
“Wrong house? But he gave me this address! Doesn’t he live here?”
“Not tonight, he doesn’t.”
I lowered my eyes, ignoring the chatty man on my left and giving all the attention to the guard in front of me—the one who looked like the man in charge. My fingers slipped between the buttons of his shirt so I could touch his skin. “That’s a shame. I’m paid through the night. I got an extra bonus to do whatever he asked of me.”
“You’ll have to get a refund,” the guy with the sideburns said.
“Shut up, Mark,” my guy said tersely. “Let’s just think about this.”
“I think we’ll be in deep shit if we…”
I unbuckled the guard’s pants and slid them to the floor. I knelt down and gazed at him with provocative eyes. That took care of the gun attached to the belt around his waist. All he had left was the one in his hand.
“Oh, shit,” he said, out of breath, grabbing the frame of the door.
I stroked him with the palm of my hand. “Do you think your friend will join us? I want to suck on you while he’s behind me.”
By that point, Mark—the guy with the sideburns—was sold. He set his weapon on the table and fumbled with the latch on his own belt. Most guards in the Breed world weren’t as gullible as this, so that told me they were not only human, but Delgado surrounded himself with idiots.
I stood up, undoing the button on my jeans, looking every bit as anxious to get this threesome on the road. The man in front of me tucked his gun back into the holster beneath his jacket and then began stroking himself. So I turned to Mark and licked my lips seductively. His eyes hooded, and when he bent down to take off his shoes, I kneed him in the nose.
Blood spattered everywhere, and I elbowed the other guy in the ribs before pulling the gun out of his holster and sliding it across the floor. When I stood back up, he wrapped his arms around me like a boa constrictor. I used this to my advantage and pulled my feet off the ground, kicking Mark in the chest. He flew against the wall, gasping for breath.
Wheeler appeared out of nowhere and clamped his hand around the throat of the man holding me. I wriggled free just as Mark leapt to his feet, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his arm.
I lowered my eyes to his crotch and giggled out of control. It made him look, and when his own pride distracted him for two seconds, I scratched him in the face with my nails. Pain exploded in my eye when he swung his arm around and struck me, causing my panther to snarl. I tempered that fury and channeled it into my attack.
I’d never been in a fight like this, and I hadn’t known a punch could hurt so much. I grabbed a small statue from a glass table and struck Mark over the head with it. Spatters of blood painted the walls like a Pollock work of art. Before he could rise up, I struck him again.
The other guy was at a disadvantage with his pants wrapped around his ankles, and it took only moments before Wheeler incapacitated him as well.
I gulped down a breath and placed a hand over my racing heart as I looked around the house. It was large enough that no one upstairs would have heard us.
“Where’s Reno?” I asked.
He snatched my wrist and we rushed through the room, analyzing the layout of the house. When we hit the kitchen, we backtracked into an open area with a massive crystal chandelier above our heads and a circle of gold rings beneath our feet.
We rushed up a flight of stairs and I hurried my pace when I heard a commotion. A voice shouted, something crashed, and Wheeler climbed two steps at a time until he was out of sight.
“Wait!” I shouted. I reached the top of the stairs, panting and holding on to a stone lion as I focused my attention on the noise coming from a wall straight ahead. The banister looped around in a semicircle to my left with an open lounge. The carpeting up here was chocolate brown, and the furniture white.
Doors didn’t line the hall, but rather entranceways. On the right, I glanced into a sitting area with a door. There were two brown chairs and a plant between them that reminded me of a doctor’s office. I moved farther down toward the noise until the hall curved left, revealing a row of doors.
My legs propelled me forward at breakneck speed when a woman shrieked. “Skye!” I shouted. “Skye!”
Fists were flying and a mirror crashed to the floor as Reno fought a guard. Inside an open doorway, Wheeler was sitting on a man’s chest with his hands wrapped around his throat.
Skye was on the bed with her knees pulled up. I rushed to her side and pulled her into my arms. “Let’s go!”
Something held her back, and then I noticed the handcuff attached to a thick slat of wood in the headboard. “Wheeler! I need a key for handcuffs.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m a little busy.”
“Can you stop choking him for two seconds? I need a key.”
“If you wait two more seconds, I’ll have that key.”
I cursed and hurried around the bed, shoving Wheeler off-balance. The man gasped, struggling to pull in air. I flipped him over and felt in his pockets until I found what I needed.
“Now you can finish,” I said with annoyance.
After removing Skye’s cuffs, I cupped her face. She looked dreadful. “Honey, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I want to go home. Please take me home.” Her arms were shaking and she tried to grip my shoulders. I couldn’t tell if she had been hurt since there were no marks, but she appeared weak and exhausted. I
helped her up and we moved toward the hall.
By then, Reno had knocked out the guard he’d been fighting.
“Take her,” I said.
He hooked his arm around Skye’s narrow waist. “I got you.”
“I have something I need to do,” I said, jingling a set of keys in my hand. “If there’s anyone else in here, I’m not leaving them behind.”
“That could be problematic if Delgado comes home early. Wheeler, get your ass out here! Pull the car around; we’re done!” Then he turned his dark brown eyes to mine. “Let’s go. We don’t have time.”
“I’m right behind you,” I lied.
Reno picked Skye up and ran down the hall. Ran.
I went through several keys before finding the one that opened the door across from us. Empty.
I tried a second door. “Hello?” Another empty room. When I hit the third room, a voice yelled out from inside.
This room looked nothing like Skye’s. It was barren of furniture, and Delgado had shackled and chained a young man to a metal ring in the cement floor. This sweet boy didn’t look older than twenty, although in Shifter years he could have been ancient. The youthful glimmer in his eyes tipped me off—the one that showed me a boy scared witless.
I fumbled through the keys until I found an odd-looking one.
“I’m here to help you,” I said. “Don’t hurt me.”
“I won’t, I won’t,” he promised. “Just get me out. Hurry! Hurry! He’ll come back. He always comes back.”
“Why are you in here?”
“This is where he keeps his personal pets,” he said under his breath.
I brushed my hand over the short curls of blond hair. “It’s not your fault. Nothing that’s happened is your fault, including whatever you’ve done to survive.”
It dawned on me that I was looking at a man who could have easily been Wheeler all those years ago. Maybe if someone had said those words to him just once, it would have made a difference.
The young man sobbed, holding his wrists up and looking at them as if they were marked, which they weren’t. He grimaced, and the torment he had endured played across his features like a silent film. That’s when I knew Delgado had been using this boy for more than just fighting.