The moment Donovan made his way around the car and to me, he wrapped his arm around my waist, sitting low and cupping my hip.
The dimly lit club had diners to the right, drinkers at a bar to the left, and an R&B band playing ahead. It all combined into a mixture of smoke, perfume, and booze that promised sex and debauchery.
The place had a dark gothic feel and a mix of every creature I’d come to know. I’d gotten better at identifying shifters in the last couple of weeks. There was a smoothness to vampires that was easy to spot, but a raw sexuality present in shifters that was subtler.
A waiter showed us to a velvet-covered booth, with a candle burning on the table in a dim corner of the room. I slid in, and Donovan followed, keeping me close to his side with his arm at my waist.
“Bottle of Mazis-Chambertin,” Donovan said to the waiter before turning to me. “Are you hungry?”
“No, I’m fine.” I cleared my throat, as if my agitated tone had been caused by a tickle.
He narrowed his eyes on me and then said to the waiter, “Bring some platters.”
The service was nearly immediate. If I was hungry, the audience was dulling it. Every set of eyes were on us; some looked away as soon as you caught them in the act. Some stared brazenly.
He dipped his head low. “Drink. You’re too stiff.”
The deepness of his voice and the feathering of his breath against my ear sent shivers through me.
“Are you cold?” he asked, a slight teasing tone to his voice, as if he knew exactly what was wrong with me.
My cheeks warmed. I couldn’t pull away, so I did as he suggested and drank some wine. If I didn’t, I’d never make it through this night, through this show, without melting.
I put the glass down, hesitating to drink more. I eyed the wine, wondering how many sips and glasses it would take to get me to the magic number in between the nots: not caring that everyone stared and not falling down drunk. It was a fine balance to strike between calm and sloppy.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered,” he said. He would. That was the thing I’d learned about Donovan. If he said he had your back, he did. He’d be loyal to a fault. There was a reason he was the pack leader of D.C. As much as I wanted to hate him for who he was, one of the leaders of the scourge who’d ruined my world, I couldn’t get the feeling to stick. It was becoming crowded out by too many other messier feelings.
He’d warned me last night that there were no happily ever afters with him. I hadn’t needed it. Only a fool would think there would be a happy ending with him. I’d made him an offer last night that I couldn’t afford to give. I was losing everything in my life, my home, my father, and soon maybe my sister… I couldn’t afford to lose any more parts of me and stay in one piece. If I did, I feared I’d have nothing left.
Donovan moved his hand from the curve of my hip to my waist as if it were the most natural thing for it to be there. I turned to him, trying to act as if this were real as well as he did.
From the stilling of his fingers, it was clear I wasn’t that good.
Donovan wrapped his hand around mine, tugging me out of the booth with him.
“Julio, I need to borrow your office for a moment,” Donovan said, pausing in front of a short, balding man who appeared human.
“Of course. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you,” Julio said eagerly.
Donovan brought me down a hallway with waiters passing back and forth, through a bustling kitchen and into what had to be Julio’s office. He locked the door behind us.
“You need to relax out there. This isn’t the show I had in mind. Do you want an end to this?” He turned and watched me as if he couldn’t quite comprehend the problem.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying.” I leaned on Julio’s desk.
We weren’t on a date. We were here to bring about an end, to step on the gas and force Mallard to make a move. I might be dressed the part, but I was blowing the act.
“No. You’re not,” he said, angrier than the subject warranted. “You’re so busy trying to convince yourself you don’t want me that you’re selling it to the audience out there as well. And the worst part of it is it’s a fucking lie.”
My face warmed but I wouldn’t let a little embarrassment back me down. I wasn’t the only liar here. “So you want to talk truths instead? Why do you keep helping me?”
He stepped closer until his legs brushed mine. I shifted back on the desk. He leaned in.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling in my forfeiture. You owe me a debt, remember? The one you were so eager to pay last night?” he asked, an edge to his voice I wasn’t accustomed to hearing.
“One that you warned me against, or have you forgotten?”
“I changed my mind.”
He hoisted me up the last few inches to the top of the desk.
“Spread your legs.” His voice was deeper than normal, tickling at something inside me.
I should’ve left my legs crossed, but when he spoke to me in that voice, my body reacted on its own. He stepped in between them and put a hand on the top of each leg, wrapping his thumbs around my inner thighs, as he dragged his hands upward until my dress was bunched around my waist.
His eyes went to the tiny piece of black lace. “Did you put these on thinking of me?”
I had, but I’d never admit that. “No.”
“Liar.”
He ran his thumb over the fabric, and then pressed right at the apex. “You still saying you have no interest in me at all?”
“No.” It was a ridiculous answer considering I was panting as he rubbed me.
He pushed the lace to the side and then dipped his finger inside me. A moan fell from my lips, seeming to undo him along with me.
His mouth met mine, his tongue plunging within.
Twenty-Six
Donovan
Penelope’s lips were parted, her pulse racing, her body molded to mine, when my phone rang and continued to ring. When it stopped ringing, a message dinged. Then it rang again. There was only one person who’d light my phone up like that, and only one reason he’d do it.
“Fuck.” I straightened, leaving a doe-eyed Pen leaning against the desk, so primed and ready that it was painful to see.
I pulled my phone out while she straightened her clothes, slowly coming back to the here and now.
Huddy: Shit hitting the fan. Need you at the club immediately.
I tucked my phone back into my pocket as she righted herself, looking slightly dazed.
“We’ve got to go. There’s something I need to handle,” I said, as if nothing had happened and I hadn’t almost fucked her on Julio’s desk.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
“No,” I said, not sure if I was relieved or frustrated by the distraction from her.
She nodded, smart enough to not ask anything else. She ran a hand over her dress one more time as I opened the door. It didn’t matter. Her lips were swollen, and her hair was tousled like she’d been fucked royally. Our initial show hadn’t accomplished anything, but our exit surely would. We walked out of the club with every pair of eyes on us, and they were thinking exactly what I’d wanted.
Fifteen minutes later, we were entering the most dangerous part of town, the place where rebels met up and black-market goods were sold. It also happened to be where my club was, because I liked a nice distance from the everyday pedestrian. If there was a problem with someone here, they probably deserved it.
I pulled the keys from my pocket and put them in her hand. “Lock the doors. This car is nearly indestructible. The windows are bulletproof. No one can touch you if you stay inside. As long as you don’t get out of this car, you’ll be fine.”
“Why don’t I come with you?” she asked.
“Not a good idea.” I had no idea what kind of mess I was walking into, what I’d have to smooth over. She might rile them up worse, and I wouldn’t be able to focus.
She looked at the keys, and I already didn’t
trust her to do as I said. Following orders was not in her DNA.
“Pen, do you hear me? Do. Not. Move.”
“Okay,” she said, as if I’d said the order ten times already.
“I mean it.”
“I know, and I heard you.”
“I’ll be back soon,” I said, shutting the door and then waiting for her to hit the lock button.
I wove through the alley maze, trying to keep calm. I didn’t know what made me more agitated, the stubborn woman in the car who I didn’t trust to stay put or the mess I had to deal with up ahead.
Huddy was walking out the door to meet me as soon as I neared, as if he’d been eyeing up the monitors, counting the seconds until I got there.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“Some low-level vamps were harassing Bram at a bar tonight. Some of the other guys heard about it. Now Ralph’s brother—who’s already on a rampage because of what happened—and Razor went to track the culprit. No one can find them and the club is bursting with anger. Half the pack is ready to go after the vampires tonight, and half are trying to stop it, knowing the bloodbath that will come if they do.”
It was worse than I feared. “If someone dies tonight, there’s no going back.”
The pressure had been building for too long. The lid was going to blow soon, and there was nothing I’d be able to do.
“Already sent Kia and a few others to try to track them down before they find the vamp.”
I nodded, preparing for the mess I was about to walk into. As it was, I could already hear the yelling through the closed door of the club. “I need you to go get Pen. I parked a couple blocks over and left her in the car. Get her home while I calm this mess down.”
“You sure you don’t want me to stay and help? I can send someone else.”
“She’ll never open the car for anyone else, and I need her out of here.” The idea of calming the pack down while I couldn’t stop thinking of Pen in the car was already pumping me up. I needed her back home and away from this place.
Huddy nodded. “Don’t worry. I got her.”
I brushed past him and went into the main club room, where the entire place seemed about to break out into fists. The simmering anger in the crowd lit the place up with an energy you could feel.
Heads turned to me and the room quieted as I made my way to the stage area. Both sides of the fight were anxious to see what side of the line I’d take. It wasn’t an easy call when my heart and mind were split between the two.
Werewolves were a pack, above anything else, and you couldn’t expect them to watch their family get slowly harassed and picked off. Not even an alpha could keep that under control for long. The truth was that I didn’t want to anymore. But if I did let them loose, and the pact fell, there were three hundred million humans ready to pick us off.
In truth, what was the pact anymore but a bunch of lies we all agreed to as we went about doing as we pleased? The vampires kept taking shots, and now the werewolves were going to take some back. We had a council that could be bought off. We were getting pushed too hard, as if they wanted the pact to fail. The entire thing was a charade.
I waited until the room was silent, and I had every set of eyes on me, before I spoke.
There was only one option left. I either led them where we were headed or we fractured. We wouldn’t have a chance to get killed off by the humans. The vampires were going to do it first, which might’ve been the vampires’ plan to begin with.
“You’re right. I’ve had enough of this bullshit too.”
A roar went through the crowd, as if they’d begun to doubt my loyalty to them as I toed the pact line. It was like being sliced open. I held a hand up, asking for silence again.
“The next strike against us, we hit back. But we can’t be stupid about this. We sit and wait. When we do it, we’re smart about it and no one touches anyone without my say-so.”
Heads nodded and murmurs of “Hell yes” and “Finally going to start hitting those fuckers” were heard.
“The gloves are off. Now everyone calm the fuck down and have a drink,” I said, to a roaring cheer. I raised my thumb to the DJ booth and the music blared to life.
I caught sight of Huddy walking back toward me. There was no way he’d gotten to my house and back already, but I didn’t see the stubborn woman behind him either. “What happened? Where is Pen?”
“I found your car, but she wasn’t in it.”
“I’m going to strangle that fucking woman.”
Twenty-Seven
Penelope
I flipped the key fob in my hand as I waited, feeling like a sitting duck in spite of Donovan’s assurances about how secure the car was. This wasn’t like walking down the street, going through the shops with a gazillion witnesses. You didn’t come to this area if you were human, unless you were on a suicide mission. I didn’t even have a phone. My battery was dead, and there wasn’t a charger in here to fit my dumb phone.
I sat and waited, prepared for a problem. If the vampires who wanted information on Donovan had followed me closely enough to get a note slipped in my shopping bag, there was little chance they wouldn’t know I was here now.
When Doesn’t Matter rapped on my window a few minutes later, I didn’t jump. I’d been expecting him since the moment I was left here alone.
“Either get out of the car or I can tell Donovan why I’m here,” Doesn’t Matter said.
“Tell him what? That I gave you nothing? Go home,” I yelled through the window.
“Are you so sure that you want him to know your sister is with the resistance and that she has the Sucking Sickness? That message can be delivered to this entire neighborhood. All I want is to talk. We can either to make this ugly or not.”
“We can talk through the window.”
He took a step back, opened his mouth, and said all too loudly, “Penelope Abbot’s—”
I got out of the car before he said another word. I knew what he’d say next and that a crowd would surely come soon if he carried on.
“What do you want? You ask for a lot and produce nothing.” I went on the offensive or he’d think I was weak. That was never a good thing when it came to monsters.
“My employer is becoming impatient.”
“So am I. Show me a cure and I’ll get you what you need.”
“Maybe you get us what we need or we kill you instead.”
That pointed to two things. They weren’t using my sister anymore because they probably couldn’t get to her. Sassy was safe—I hoped. They might know she worked with the resistance, but if they knew where she was holed up, they would’ve already taken her to use her against me.
And they couldn’t get me a cure, as I suspected. The only thing they had was my life, and my gut said they were afraid to cross Donovan to that extreme.
They were bluffing, saying they had a royal flush when I held all the aces. Still, that didn’t mean I couldn’t push Doesn’t Matter into killing me now.
“You need to show me…”
He was gone. I looked to either side and immediately knew why, as two shifters approached from only feet away.
“Who are you? Why are you by Donovan’s car?” the taller blond one asked.
“I’m with Donovan. He told me to wait here.”
“If that’s true, what the fuck are you doing with a vampire?” his black-haired companion asked.
“I wasn’t. He approached me. I didn’t know what he wanted,” I said, taking a step back. They continued to approach.
The black-haired shifter turned to his blond friend. “She might be the one we heard about.”
The blond looked at me again. “If so, why’s she talking to a vamp?”
“Let’s bring her in to be sure,” the black-haired one said.
If they took me in, they’d tell Donovan I was talking to a vampire. How was I going to explain that? I wasn’t even supposed to get out of the car.
“You don’t need to do anything. I’m s
upposed to wait here.” I reached back, feeling for the car. They stepped forward. My hand met air and the heel of my shoe got stuck in the grate. I went down, scraping my arms in the process.
They wrapped hands around my upper arms, hoisting me up. I was half carried, half dragged, while the grate stole my shoe.
“Get off,” I said, tugging at hands that felt like iron manacles. I limped with one heel as they dragged me down a row of dark alleys, my bare foot hitting random puddles of melting snow and other things I preferred not to have a name for.
I could hear music in the distance as they finally stopped dragging me forward.
“I don’t know if we should bring her into the club,” the black-haired shifter said. “Humans aren’t welcome in there. We should bring Donovan to her just in case.”
“Good point. You wait with her,” the blond said.
“No. Then you get the credit for catching her talking to the vamp? You wait,” Black Hair said.
At least I was going to see Donovan soon. Even having to explain the vampire was better than sitting here with these two mo-mos.
“We’ll lock her in the shed.” Blondie sounded proud of himself for coming up with a solution.
“You’re going to shove me in a shed?” I asked, not quite believing them. But there it was, a fucking shed, and they began tugging me over to it.
They opened the doors, and the thing was jam-packed with all sorts of items, from power tools to gas cans.
“Get in!” the blond said.
I squeezed into the packed shed for only one reason: the quicker I did, the faster they’d fetch Donovan.
I found a corner to curl up in as the doors swung shut. I heard the bar go down across the door and then the sound of a padlock snapping home.
There was really no need to panic. These things weren’t built that well, and there was enough equipment in here to bust out. There had to be a hammer or sledgehammer. If I had to, I’d find it, bust a hole in the wall, and climb out. It wasn’t exactly a vault.
Gut Deep: Torn Worlds Book One Page 16