by Cynthia Eden
Golden eyes. Bright, predatory.
She tried to swallow her fear. It didn’t go down. It was hard for her to clearly see this threat—all she could discern were those golden eyes. Such a deep gold, with big, black pupils. “Nice wolf?”
The beast moved forward, a low, graceful movement. Power flowed from him and as he stalked closer to her, coming a bit into the light of the path, she saw that she wasn’t dealing with another wolf.
Instead, a massive black panther was coming toward her. His mouth opened and when she saw his mouthful of sharp teeth…
“Oh, shit.” Mina didn’t try to stay still any longer. If she remained frozen, they’d just both jump her. Rip her apart right then and there.
That’s what happens when you cross Luke Thorne.
She ran. As fast as she could. The panther gave a high, rumbling cry and the wolf snarled. She kept running. She could hear them behind her, the heavy pad of their paws and the scrape of their claws on the stone walkway.
She could almost feel their breath on her, but they weren’t attacking. Not yet. They’re playing with me.
The dock was up ahead. And the boat was gone.
They’re playing because they think I don’t have anywhere to go.
They were wrong.
Her feet pounded over the wood of the dock. She breathed fast, sucking in the air for energy.
“Mina!”
At the fierce cry, she staggered and looked back. Luke was there, standing about thirty feet away, his bare chest heaving and his hands clenched. He’d gotten out of his cell.
His guards were closing in.
There was about to be serious hell for her to pay.
As she stared at him—it just had to be a trick from the dim light—but she could have sworn she saw shadowy wings behind his body. Big and black, stretching out.
“Don’t, Mina!” Luke yelled at her. “Don’t you even think about—”
She whirled toward the churning waves. She’d already told him before. If she had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea…
The sea would always win.
Mina jumped into the water, flying off the dock and sinking beneath those rough waves.
***
She’d jumped into the water. Water that was far too rough and vicious. Water that would pull her under and take her from him.
“No!” Luke bellowed. The wolf and panther were just fucking standing there, staring at the water. Not doing a thing to help him out.
Wolves couldn’t swim for shit, so the fact that Rayce didn’t jump in wasn’t exactly surprising but Julian? Cats could damn well swim.
He shoved them out of his way and started to leap into the waves after her.
The panther slammed into Luke, pushing him away from the edge of the dock.
“Get your paws off me!” Luke yelled. “What the hell kind of guards are you two? The woman is going to die!”
The panther blinked its eerie golden eyes and backed up.
Luke dove into the water. He sank deep, then shoved back up—not to take in air because he could have stayed down much, much longer—but he popped to the surface so he could call for her again. “Mina!”
He didn’t see her. Just saw the churning waves. They slapped against him. Maybe she didn’t come back up. Mina is still below. The water has her. He’d warned her not to try escaping.
Luke sank beneath the waves again. It was nearly pitch black down there, but he could still see—he could always see in the dark. He looked to the left, looked to the right, searched under the dock in case the battering water had pushed Mina’s slight body under there and she’d become trapped. He didn’t see her, but he had to keep searching, had to—
Hard hands grabbed him. He spun around, and found himself staring into a pair of angry golden eyes.
Cat’s eyes.
Cats can swim so well.
Only a panther hadn’t grabbed him in the water. The beast had shifted back into human form. Julian pointed upward and kicked away from Luke. Then the guy’s naked-ass body was flying upward. Luke followed him, breaking the surface. “She’s down there!” Luke blasted as he drew in a breath. “We have to—”
“Your woman can swim,” Julian Craig’s rumbling voice cut through his words. He lifted his hand and pointed in the distance. “Thought you’d want to know that she was hauling ass that way.”
Luke spun around, slapping the waves, and, sure enough, in the growing red glow of dawn, he saw Mina’s dark head just above the waves. The woman was definitely hauling ass.
“Looks like an Olympic contender to me,” said a deep, amused voice. A voice that came from the dock—Rayce Lovel’s voice. “Or someone who is really, really motivated to get the hell away from you.”
Luke swam back to the dock. He hauled himself up, and the water poured down his body. He was soaking wet and completely furious.
“Didn’t charm her, huh?” Rayce asked, nodding his head. He wore a pair of jeans, nothing else. Like Julian, he must have shifted back to human form while Luke had been frantically searching the water. “Had to happen sooner or later, you know. Every woman you meet won’t just drop her panties for you and—”
Luke grabbed him. It was an instinctual, animal attack. He locked his hand around Rayce’s neck and lifted the guy up into the air, holding him easily even though Rayce was roughly his same height and shared his muscular build.
“Don’t,” Luke gritted out, “ever fucking talk about Mina that way to me. Not if you want to keep living. I can skin you in an instant, wolf or man.”
Rayce’s green eyes had widened.
The dock trembled as Julian pulled himself up. “Hey, guys…let’s all take a breath here.”
Luke wasn’t in the mood for a breath.
Julian closed in, his steps soundless, the way they always were. “This is classic displacement,” he said, his voice hinting just a bit at the British accent he couldn’t ever seem to fully shake, despite the fact that he hadn’t been in his homeland in years. “You aren’t mad at Rayce. You’re mad because that gorgeous lady just gave you the slip—”
Luke’s left hand flew out and locked around Julian’s neck. “I’m furious at both of you assholes because you let her go.”
Julian wasn’t fighting him. Neither was Rayce. If they weren’t fighting, then where was the fun in an attack? Snarling, he shoved them both back. “Get some clothes on.”
“Hey!” Now Rayce was insulted. “Not like we can wear clothes when the beasts take over. You of all people should know that. And I did stop to put on jeans.”
Luke just glared.
“Right, getting clothes,” Julian said quickly.
“And get Marcos out here.” Luke turned to stare at the reddening sky. He could still see Mina, swimming so strongly. But she wouldn’t be able to keep up that pace, not for long. Good thing that Marcos just had the Devil’s Prize in the dock house, right around the side of the island. He’d be there in moments. “I need to hunt.”
Mina wasn’t getting away. There was going to be a price for her crimes that night. He hoped she was ready to pay.
She paused in her swimming right then and glanced back at him. She bobbed in the water. The waves pounded against her, and he found himself tensing. She was too delicate to be out there. Too small. She was going to drown—
She lifted her hand. And, at first, he thought she was waving good-bye to him.
Then he realized…
She was only waving with one finger.
His lips curled. You’ve got to stop doing that, sweetheart. You’re just making me want you more.
She spun away and dove beneath the waves.
***
Garrick McAdams shoved open the door at the dive bar. The scent of ocean air mixed with stale booze as he marched inside.
“We’re closed!” A voice yelled, a grumpy drawl that came from behind the bar.
Eyes narrowing, Garrick headed in the direction of that voice, and as he approached, an older gu
y—balding, with big, bushy brows and a tattoo of a spider crawling up the side of his neck—poked his head from behind the bar.
“Didn’t you hear me?” the guy groused. He was thin and tall, but he hunched over, losing a few inches. “The bar’s closed. Dawn’s nearly here. This shit is shut down.”
Garrick tossed his ID down on the scarred bar top. “I’m looking for a woman.”
The bartender laughed and the spider on his neck seemed to move—a trick of the poor light, surely. “Son, ain’t we all?”
Garrick leaned toward the guy. “A specific woman. Black hair, the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen, about five foot four—”
“Yeah, yeah…” The bartender waved his hand and turned away. “Like I don’t get hundreds of broads in this place every single day—”
He grabbed the bartender’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t forget her. Not after you heard her voice.” After all, Mina James had a very, very unique voice.
The bartender stiffened. “Get your hand off me, buddy.”
“I’m not your buddy.” But he moved his hand back. His fingers tapped near his ID. “If you’d bothered to look, you’d see that I’m Special Agent Garrick Mc—”
“Big fucking deal.” The bartender rubbed his hand over his neck. “You can be Special Agent Fuck Off for all I care. My bar is closed and you need to leave.”
The bartender’s hand fell away.
And the spider tattoo on his neck…it was about two inches away from the spot it had been in before.
Garrick smiled at the guy. “What’s your name?”
The bartender was sweating. A little moisture above his upper lip. A little on his high forehead. “My name’s Screw Off.”
Garrick lifted his brows. “Okay, Screw Off…let me tell you how this is going to work…” He rolled back his shoulders. “You’re going to tell me where Mina James is—”
“I don’t know any fucking Mina James—”
“Or the agents I have waiting outside are going to storm in here.” His voice lowered, heavy with a threat that he completely meant. “And they’re going to take your paranormal freak-ass into custody.”
The bartender blinked.
“They’ll throw you into a cell, and they’ll keep you there until they find out exactly what kind of secrets you’re keeping. They’ll lock you in tight and you won’t—” He broke off, swearing, because a big, black spider had just scuttled across the bar top and headed for him.
The bartender shot back, running toward the rear of the place.
“Got a runner,” Garrick snarled. He was wearing a very small ear piece, one that would have picked up and transmitted his whole conversation with the fleeing man. He knew the other agents outside would take immediate action. “Seal the back exit.” He leapt over the bar top. His feet slammed into the floor and he gave chase, ducking through a small storage room and then flying to tackle the bartender before the guy could grab for the back door.
“Not ditching me, not until I get what I want,” Garrick snapped. He hauled the bartender to his feet. The spider that had been on the guy’s neck?
It was gone.
Because that damn thing came across the bar at me. Nervous now, Garrick looked around the dimly lit storage room.
“You need to let me go,” the guy huffed. “You don’t even want to mess with the friend I’ve got.”
Friend? As in…singular? Like one friend was supposed to intimidate him?
“My friends are all waiting just behind that door.” Garrick inclined his head toward the rear exit. “And one word from me and they’ll throw you into that pit I mentioned. And soon enough, you will be talking.” They always talked.
The guy’s eyes were bulging from his head.
“Your name,” Garrick demanded.
“Eli.”
They were making progress. “Where’s the woman, Eli? Because I know she came here.” He’d already tracked her movements to the dive bar. He just didn’t know where Mina had gone once she left the place. “Let me tell you more about Mina. She’s a woman who sounded like every wet dream you’ve ever had. She would have looked like pure sin and when you heard her talk…you would have been ready to do anything for her.”
He’d fallen into her trap a time or two himself.
Paranormals. They couldn’t be trusted.
Eli was shaking. “H-he’ll kill me…”
“Death is easy.” Garrick’s voice was hard and he made sure his face showed no emotion. In his line of work, emotion just got in the way. “What you’ll have with us won’t be easy.” The words sounded like a promise. They were. “I have to find Mina James. Tell me where she is, now.”
“I-I don’t know!”
He yanked the guy closer. Shit…was that another spider tattoo on the back of the guy’s hand? It had better not start moving toward him. “Mina was here tonight.”
And…Eli gave a grim nod. “But she left! I swear! She left!”
The spider had moved just a little, a bare inch.
Garrick shoved the bartender away from him. “Did she leave alone?”
Eli hesitated.
And we have a winner. “Mina left with a man.” Figured. Probably some dumb ass that she mistakenly believed would help her. The woman had already led him on a chase all the way down to the tip of the U.S. What had she thought? That she’d get on some boat and—
“They rode off on his boat,” Eli admitted.
Yeah, she’d definitely thought she could ride off into the night. She needed to think again. She was too important to his agency. The woman didn’t get to vanish.
She had a job to do.
“Tell me the guy’s name,” Garrick ordered.
But Eli started shaking his head. Back and forth, again and again and…
More spiders were appearing on his skin. At least a dozen of them. On his hands and neck. “What are you?” Garrick asked.
But he saw the answer in Eli’s wide and desperate eyes.
The guy is terrified.
And suddenly, Garrick understood. “The man she left with…you think he’s the one who’ll kill you?”
Eli rubbed at his hands, at the marks that appeared to be tattoos of spiders. “Y-you don’t piss him off…”
“Give me his name. His name, and you walk away.” A total lie, but…
Eli looked up. “You don’t scare me. You’re nothing compared to him.”
The back door burst open. Other agents—two men and a woman dressed in black and wearing bullet proof vests—stood with guns drawn. Garrick nodded to them and then glanced over at Eli. “We’ll see about that.” Then he pulled out his gun.
And he shot Eli, slamming the bullet right into the guy’s chest. Eli went down, not making a sound as the drug pumped into his system. It was a real sweet little blend, one designed to knock out even powerful paranormals.
“The spider trick is interesting,” Garrick said as he approached the fallen man. He toed the guy’s leg, but Eli didn’t stir. “I think my bosses would like to learn more about that.” He motioned to the agents. “Take him into custody.”
“Yes, sir,” Timothy Lang said immediately. That was Timothy, always eager.
Garrick pointed to Madeline Slate. “Our girl disappeared with a man. Knowing Mina’s taste, he’ll be rich.” Mina had grown up with nothing, and she was always like a little girl with her nose shoved up against a fancy window, looking inside at the world others possessed. “The guy has a boat, so we need to start checking the properties near here. Maybe a private house or…” He tapped his chin. “An island?” That would certainly mesh with a rich man’s lifestyle. The mystery man had to be rich and powerful…because Eli had feared the guy. Garrick nodded as he considered the options. “Yeah, let’s pull up a listing of the private islands around here.” He knew they dotted the area. “Mina’s close by, and we’re going to find her.”
She was far too fucking valuable to lose.
He stepped over Eli and headed for the back door. “Oh…” Garr
ick looked over his shoulder.
Timothy was crouched near the fallen man. He was reaching for Eli’s hands, getting ready to cuff the guy.
“Mind the spiders,” Garrick advised him. “I’m pretty sure they bite.”
Timothy’s eyes widened in horror as he looked down at their perp.
Paranormals. Just when he thought he had them figured out…
Something new lands in my path.
Something new…once upon a time, Mina had been his something new. Mina had been his.
Then she’d fled.
He walked outside and saw the red sky. Red sky in the morning…sailors take warning. The old saying slipped through his mind and he smiled. It wasn’t the sailors out there who needed to take warning. Mina needed to be on guard. Because he was coming for her.
She wouldn’t get away from him. Not ever again.
Chapter Five
“How long has she been in the water?” Marcos yelled as he raised his voice over the roar of the wind and the waves.
Too long. Luke’s jaw was clenched tightly. He stood near the search light, moving it back and forth across the waves. She’d been dipping beneath the water a lot, and he’d lost sight of her again. Mina needed to pop her head back up, right the hell then.
“She can sure hold her breath a long time,” Rayce muttered. He sounded nervous. Rare for the wolf shifter.
She’d better be holding her breath. Luke’s hands shoved the spotlight to the left and— “There!” he bellowed. “Port side!”
She was bobbing in the water¸ caught now in the bright light. Her dark hair was slicked back and her hands circled gently at her sides. She should have looked terrified. Should have looked like a damn drowned rat after that frantic swim in those rough waves.
But…
She didn’t.
With the light on her, her eyes shined, hinting at her paranormal powers. Her skin seemed to glow. In that water, she was even more beautiful than she’d been on land. Not struggling, not desperate to stay afloat…
She just drifted there, ever so easily, as if she’d just been waiting for him.