Soulmate: Feel My Heart Beat Book 1

by Delmire Hart

  “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked as he tried unsuccessfully to shake her off again.

  “It just seemed like you wanted company.” She shifted so that her breasts were pushed up against his arm and Daniel felt disgust creeping in behind the discomfort.

  “You might want to try that with someone else. He’s gay.” Marcus rolled his eyes as Daniel protested the label. “You’ve never slept with a woman and your romantic soulmate is a man. You may as well be gay. It’s an easy explanation to get the girls off you too.”

  When the woman still didn’t move, Marcus waved Ueda over. The guard had been hovering close by, looking suspicious of the unknown woman’s intent.

  “Excuse me miss, but this area is for VIPs only. If you would please allow me to escort you out.”

  The guard's tone let everyone know in no uncertain terms that it was not, in fact, a request. Daniel breathed a small sigh of relief when she removed herself from his arm and followed Ueda, looking sulky. She flashed him a look over her shoulder and winked before being led away. He frowned after her before turning back to his friend. It wasn’t long before more of their group joined them at the booth and the incident was soon forgotten.

  It was later when Daniel made his unsteady way to the bathrooms that he remembered the woman. He had just located the bathroom sign, when suddenly he was turned around and forced back against the wall. She was right there, pressing herself up against him and giving him that same look as earlier.

  “Hey there, honey, I think it’s time we had some fun, don’t you?”

  Daniel tried to struggle but he was disoriented with the alcohol flooding his system. All he knew was that he really didn’t want her that close to him. She pressed up against his chest and slowly ground herself against his hips.

  “No. Just…back off.” He tried to move away again, but she was easily able to pin his inebriated form in place against the wall.

  “Sorry, honey, but I have something for you.”

  She leaned up closer to him and parted her lips. He could see something that looked like a pill sitting against her tongue and he turned his face away. He couldn’t think straight but he knew he didn’t want that, whatever it was. She was still trying to force her lips against his when suddenly she was yanked backwards.

  Ueda had her by the hair and there was a cold, hard look in his eyes. The woman choked on something, gasping and struggling, but Ueda only held her firm. Daniel leaned heavily against the wall as he watched with wide eyes. He could see the moment she gave up and swallowed whatever it was she had been trying to force on him. She sagged against the hold as Ueda tightened his fist.

  “I think you’ve overstayed your welcome. Come with me quietly and I’ll let you leave the premises with some level of dignity.”

  She gave the smallest of nods and Ueda let go of her hair, instead firmly grabbing her shoulder. Daniel could see that she was trembling and suddenly realised why.

  “Wait!”

  Ueda turned back to Daniel in surprise.

  “She was trying to get me to swallow something.” The guard's face turned murderous. “That’s what she was choking on. She swallowed it instead.” He nodded.

  “Thank you for telling me, Daniel.” Ueda waved at someone out of Daniel’s line of sight and another guard approached. “Tony, please see Daniel back to their table once he is ready.”

  The slightly smaller guard nodded and moved to let his team leader past with the woman in tow. Daniel took a deep breath and pushed himself unsteadily off the wall to finally made his way into the bathroom. He was suddenly incredibly glad they had gone to one of William’s clubs.

  ***

  Stefan leaned back in his chair with a huff of annoyance. He hadn’t really been holding his breath that this particular plan would work but it would have been such a perfect thing if it did. The little tramp had tighter security than he planned for and even then, they were far more vigilant than expected. He was used to tight security that had cracks to sneak through. This team only had the barest of discernible cracks. He watched the security feed from Flux on his laptop and listened to the chatter over their radio. Nothing came up about the woman over the club’s radio. It must all be going through Synnite’s channels directly. He clicked his tongue in irritation.

  It had been such a good plan too. Get the little hussy while he was all defenceless with the alcohol, slip him a little liquid ecstasy and watch as he did the one thing William hated most. Betrayed him. Not only that, betray him with a woman. Stefan shivered in delight as he imagined those deadly golden eyes frozen over with hate as he looked down upon the tramp begging for forgiveness. At worst, he would throw him out the door, at best he would end up six feet under. Looks like he would have to ramp up his efforts, however. It was well worth attempting to get him out of the way the easy way first. Such a shame it didn’t work.

  At least nothing could be traced back to him. The woman was hired through Anya, another of the poor lost souls barely free from the human trafficking circuit. Anya used her real name, not her fake name. No, little Anya Jackson was not a real person. Nor were her papers and licence real. All forged by Stefan after he ‘rescued’ her from being trafficked. He had her cast off her old name under the guise of new beginnings but occasionally it proved quite useful. The woman was so grateful to Stefan as her saviour, she was willing to do almost anything to help him out. She was the second ‘rescue’ that Stefan had planted in the club and both had proven to be not only extremely loyal to him but very resourceful as well.

  But he had other plans in motion, anyway. Mino was all prepped and ready to go, a rabid dog straining his leash as it scents the first hints of fresh blood. Blood fed to him through Stefan although not directly. Regardless, it was him pulling all the strings. It had taken months to get where he was now but he would only have to wait a little longer.

  Unfortunate that this plan had been unsuccessful, it would have been nice to remove the tramp the easy way. But William was due to conduct another inspection of his club soon in person and the thought was thrilling. Only a little wait and those eyes would be back on him. He could wait a little. After that, he had a new plan to put into action. And this time, those beautiful, cold golden eyes would be forever fixed on him alone.

  Chapter Twenty-two: Heartbeat

  “Sir, we have received the final report from Ueda.”

  William looked up at his secretary and let himself be pulled from his dark musing. He had been in a meeting with an important client when the events with Daniel had unfolded. So far, he had only received an overview of what happened from Demetrius, who had been called directly about how to proceed. He had instantly been taken over by a cold rage at the thought of someone trying to set up Daniel and harm him. Unfortunately, he still had one more late-night meeting or he would already be on his way to the club. He nodded at Ken to continue.

  “He was able to get a few details before the woman succumbed to the drug she swallowed in Miller’s stead. The woman has since been taken to the closest hospital as her reaction to the drug was severe. Eve Garcia, 26 years old, and not officially employed. She was hired by a ‘Chi’ and promised a large amount of money should she successfully slip Miller the drug and ‘take advantage’ of situation. She was also told they would know if she succeeded and was supplied with the drug by this Chi. She referred to it as liquid ecstasy, a street name for GHB. It suggests an inside job, especially with how personal in nature it is. The plan seems designed more towards you, Mr Hunt, and causing a fallout between you and Miller. Your stance on betrayal is well known.”

  William leaned back in his chair and fixed Ken with a hard look. “This reeks of Stefan.”

  The secretary nodded in agreement. “Stefan has not left his house this evening nor conducted any suspicious activity recently. Only going to and from Syndrome, his home, and a few other public locations. Regardless, I concur.”

  William grunted as he fished out another cigarette. At the rate his nerves were being frayed t
his evening, he would start resembling an old-fashioned train. “That means he has rats in the club doing his bidding.”

  “I believe so.”

  “Find them.”

  Ken nodded again before pushing up his glasses. He seemed almost tentative as he spoke. “Mr Hunt, if I may.” He paused, waiting for William to gesture for him to continue. “I would like to suggest not punishing the woman further. Her reaction to the drug will leave her in hospital for some time yet, I believe it is apt punishment considering.” William scowled but nodded his agreement. “We also need to continue to tail Stefan. We have yet to discover what he is doing with Lawrence, so it may be dangerous to remove Stefan until we know exactly what is going on.”

  William took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He was right, he knew he was right. But he was itching to put a bullet between Stefan’s eyes.

  “Fine,” he gritted out. “But I want to know the minute we get more information.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  ***

  Daniel was rather drunk. In fact, nearly the entire group was drunk. Marcus sighed and looked over the table with fond amusement. A few were still off dancing while Rafael and Scott chatted up a pair of girls. Another conversation was taking place on the other side of their booth and he was, of course, stuck being sober with a drunk Daniel. Who had devolved into talking only about his soulmate and a few slips of the tongue that provided Marcus with far more information than he ever wanted to know. He really, really didn’t want to know that his friend was learning how to deep throat successfully.

  Nope, he didn’t need that mental image. Hopefully he didn’t get any more information about William’s dick before actually met the man. Even better if he got no more R rated oversharing from his drunk friend at all. Thankfully Daniel now sat with his head pressed against the table no longer speaking.

  The guard who seemed to be in charge of Daniel’s security force strolled over and dumped a water bottle on the table above the photographer’s head. He lifted his head at the sound.

  “Please drink the whole thing, Mr Miller.”

  Daniel groaned and let his head slump back down onto the table. “’s too hard. The room won’t shtop spinnin’.”

  Marcus reached over and opened the bottle for him, sharing an amused look with the guard. “I’ve got him.” The man nodded and moved back to his position near the VIP entrance. He poked his friend's shoulder and made him sit up and take the water. “Come on, Danny, he’s right.”

  “Whhhhhy?”

  Marcus raised his eyebrows. “Because no one wants to deal with a shitty, hungover you in the morning. You know drinking water helps, right?”

  “Tha’s not what I meeaant. Why Daaaanny not Dan? Why you tooooo?”

  “Oh. Your guards have been calling you Mr Miller all night. I’m not about to let it go to your head.”

  Daniel pouted and grumbled, “’s only becaussse they know I dun like it.”

  “Really?”

  “I needed to clear my head earlier. Sooooo, I went running. Acrosssh roof top. They didna like it. ‘s pay back.”

  “I see.” Marcus chuckled at the disgruntled look on his friend’s face. That was a pretty funny way to get one back. It made sense, though, they were his guards, and they couldn’t do anything that would be unprofessional. This way that was far from being a problem. It was quite clever really.

  “Ooh, I found out about ‘illiam. Why he wash bein’ weird. ‘is girlfriend and friend died in front of him. He blamed hisself. I jush don’ know how to take away tha’ pain.”

  Oh wow. That was a lot more serious than he had thought. “We should talk about this when you are sober. Although knowing you, you’ll put your foot in it well before that and somehow sort it out yourself.”

  Daniel pouted at him but finally accepted the water and drank half the bottle in one go. The photographer continued to mumble under his breath but Marcus left him to it. He made his way over to the bar and got a few more bottles of water to hand out. It was a good idea to start on the others too. May as well try to make it so they are less miserable tomorrow. He was just approaching the table to hand out the bottles when he noticed one of Daniel’s guards bowing slightly to another man who stood beside him. He was tall and imposing, dressed in a well-tailored suit with slicked-back dark hair and dangerous aura. That matched a certain friend’s description of their new soulmate.

  The man headed over as Marcus dumped the bottles on their table and he leaned over to poke Daniel’s shoulder. He raised his head off the table again and unfocused blue eyes blinked at him dazedly. “Hey, I think your man’s here.”

  Daniel blinked at him before comprehension dawned. He sat up and looked around before zeroing in on the man approaching. “’illiam!” His friend tried to launch himself from the booth but his coordination was not there and he stumbled, falling into William’s arms. “’liam.” The blonde buried his face in his soulmate's chest and wrapped his arms around him. He watched as the man moved his arms to wrap around his friend in return.

  Marcus smiled at the sight. “You must be William.” Golden eyes looked up and locked on him.

  “And you must be Marcus?”

  He nodded in return. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Especially after the earful I got tonight.”

  William raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” Marcus watched in amusement as the man pried Daniel’s wandering hands away and moved them to his back, trapping both of his wrists in one hand. It was altogether far too efficient and an almost practised movement. Daniel didn’t seem to mind one bit and, if anything, was wriggling in his grip more while giving him bedroom eyes. Marcus really didn’t need that little insight into their relationship.

  “He’s a very open and, well, oversharing drunk. I really don’t want to know any more about your private lives.” He laughed as he grabbed a water bottle to hand to another drunk friend as they wandered past. “The drunker he got, the more he spoke of you and the more likely he was to accidentally overshare.” William smirked at him and looked down at his soulmate in amusement. “One of his guards started feeding him water so hopefully he’ll be okay.”

  “I’m fiiiine. Totesssss fine.” Daniel’s voice was muffled against the fabric he had buried his face into. Both Marcus and William shared an amused look.

  “We’ll have to get you more water on the way back.” Daniel whined and Marcus laughed at the comment.

  “Looks like he’s in good hands.”

  William’s expressed softened when he looked down at his lover. “I might not deserve him but I’m not about to let him go. He is mine to look after.” Marcus’s eyebrows shot up but William was still looking down at his soulmate and didn’t notice his expression. “Come on, kitten, time to go home.”

  Marcus snickered at the pet name. Rafael would love that once he found out. The group said their goodbyes and Marcus watched them leave, William’s arm wrapped Daniel’s waist. They were cute. Except for that comment, especially after what Daniel mentioned earlier. He quickly sent a message off to his friend about it. He wouldn’t get it until tomorrow when he was sober and then he could decide what he wanted to do with that information.

  ***

  Daniel finally decided it was time to drag himself out of bed. He had woken up a few hours ago to find himself in William’s bed with a water bottle and painkillers on the bedside table. He had gratefully downed them before curling back up to sleep off his hangover. Thankfully it wasn’t so bad, especially since he barely remembered the later part of last night. He must have been pretty drunk but someone probably forced water on him. He was incredibly thankful now. He was a little sore below the waist as well so William must have gotten his hands on him at some point last night. Presumably that was how he ended up in his bed.

  He reached over to the bedside table and grabbed his phone to check the time. It was just before lunch and there was an unread message from Marcus. He opened it curiously, noting that it was sent last night.

  Hey, man, I know you
won’t get this until tomorrow but I thought you might want to know. I met William and he mentioned he ‘didn’t deserve you’. Hope the hangover’s okay!

  Daniel froze staring at his phone. He didn’t deserve him? What the hell? Was this because of what happened in the past? He hadn’t planned to talk to William yet. The message he received from Ken with the date and location of the grave said he had five weeks before the anniversary of her death. But…he couldn’t sit on this information. Daniel put the phone down and got up, throwing a t-shirt on before going in search of William. He ran into the man in the hall as he was just leaving his home office. He got a small smile once spotted.

  “Good morning, how are you feeling, kitten?” He stared at him, trying to see the cracks in his expression he knew where there. William’s brows furrowed at his lack of reply. “Daniel?”

  “I…you…” He frowned before starting again slowly. “I got a message from Marcus, he said that you said you didn’t deserve me.” He watched carefully as William’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Why do you think that?”

  “Daniel…I’m sure you’re aware by now that I’m not a nice man.”

  The photographer shook his head. “That’s not it. You’re pretty unapologetic for who you are...except…does this have something to do with Amelia Jones and Trey Morris?”

  William’s eyes flew wide at the names before they narrowed dangerously and he demanded, “Where did you hear those names?”

  “I asked Ken and he told me.” William’s face suddenly closed off and became impassive. Daniel felt a wrenching in his chest at seeing the mask. “NO!” he yelled. “No! That goddamn mask you put on is exactly the reason I had to ask him. I felt it. I felt your pain that day you had the nightmare. That’s why I kept asking about it.”