by Renee Rose
How did she just vanish into thin air?
Three Years Later
Chapter One
Amber
I step into the elevator, propping the door open with my foot to hold it for the people I hear approaching.
“Thanks.” A deep voice resonates in the small space. A large hand tattooed with a the phases of the moon wraps around the door followed by a blue-eyed giant of a man. Underneath his faded T-shirt and tattoos, he’s got muscles like Conan the Barbarian. He looks like he could eat me for lunch and still be hungry.
Two younger men, just as hulking in size, flank him. Shaved heads, a mess of piercings, and more tattoos. I have to stop myself from recoiling.
What are the Hell’s Angels doing in my apartment building?
Don’t show fear. The first thing I learned in foster care. Study the threat. Again, foster care, though the lesson carried over to the courtroom nicely.
I draw myself up to my full five foot, three inch height. I’m a badass, too. Maybe I don’t have giant ear gauges or an eyebrow piercing--ouch, talk about suffering for fashion-- but I’m wearing pointy pumps. They’re pinching the hell outta my feet, but with a three inch spike heel, they’ll double as a weapon.
“Visiting someone in the building?” my voice has a dubious lilt. I’m not actually a snooty bitch, but when my safety is compromised, the claws come out.
The first guy gazes down at me and the corner of his mouth twitches. “No.”
At least this guy looks somewhat normal, except for his huge size. Scratch Conan the Barbarian. This guy is all Thor, right down to his square jawed good looks.
The three guys file onto the elevator, filling the small space. There’s so much testosterone in here, it’s a wonder I can breathe.
I lean against the wall, hope these guys aren’t up to no good. I don’t want to judge, but I wouldn’t have survived childhood if I ignored a threat. And these guys look rough. Their presence makes my skin prickle. Not the stomach-roiling of a full blown vision, but a slight buzzing that can only mean one thing.
Danger.
I stare at Thor’s barrel chest, the raised contour of muscle standing out under his T-shirt, and wait for him to explain why The Three Thugs are here.
He says nothing, but one of the younger guys smirks at me.
My hand flutters to my neck, ready to knead away the tension at the base of my skull. I cover the defensive gesture by checking to make sure my updo is secure before pushing the button for the fourth floor. “Which floor?” I project my best “I could kick your ass in court” lawyer persona.
“Same as yours,” Thor drawls.
Is that a come on? Or a threat? Are they following me? No, that’s silly. They could’ve just grabbed me in the parking lot if they wanted.
Thor keeps looking at me, though I refuse to meet his eyes. I hold my briefcase in front of me like a shield until the elevator stops and the doors slide open to my floor.
Please don’t let them be after me. Paranoia, my old friend. I’m being judgy here, but the whole reason I’d moved into an apartment building instead of buying a house was to feel safe.
You’ll never be safe.
Cell phone out at the ready, I wait for the motorcycle gang to get out first. Let’s see if they actually have someplace to go. The men saunter off, heading past the door to my apartment and--oh crap--they stop at the very next door.
No. Way. It couldn’t be. “Y-you’re my neighbor?” I’ve lived here a few weeks, but haven’t met anyone, yet. The new high rise is right downtown, and the rent is pretty high, even for my salary. Not be rude, but these guys didn’t look like they could afford the place. Unless they are drug dealers. Which would be just my luck.
“Is there a problem?” Thor asks.
“Ah...no. Of course not.” Not until you throw a disgustingly loud party complete with biker babes and too much booze. Frankly, I can’t believe they haven’t already. These guys look like trouble with a capital T.
I slide my key into the lock, glancing back to make sure they’re really going into their apartment. Thug Number Two--the smirking one-- lunges at me, snarling like a ferocious dog.
I scream and drop my briefcase, cringing against the door. Thug Number Three laughs.
Thor grabs the scruff of the barking man’s shirt and yanks him back. “Knock it off,” he says. “Get inside. You don’t need to scare her.” His eyes land on me again. “She’s doing a good enough job of that herself.”
The two young men stroll inside, still chuckling. I grab my briefcase. Tendrils of my hair have broken free from my hair clip, and I swipe at them to hide my flushed cheeks. Damn punks. My hand shakes and I hate that most of all. I didn’t survive childhood just to cower in doorways.
My head feels a little tight, herald of an oncoming vision. I haven’t had one in a while, so this one should be a doozy.
Great.
Heart hammering against my ribs, I enter my apartment and start to shut my door. A steel-toed boot jams inside the doorway, stopping me. My eyes fly up to Thor’s face, landing on the startling blue eyes. The corners crinkled and he gives me a predatory half-smile.
I shiver.
“I’m Garrett.” He extends his large hand through the gap in the door.
I stare at it for a full two seconds before good manners win out over fear. I transfer the phone to my left hand to take his palm. The heat from his hand envelopes mine, a shock of connection running up my arm. A strange sense of knowing runs through me--like this guy and I are old friends, and I’ve just forgotten.
I shake off déjà vu. Just another piece of the crazy to keep at bay.
“Sorry Trey scared you. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” His voice is deep and velvet-smooth, matching his rugged good looks. He appears older than I’d initially guessed--five or ten years older than my twenty-nine years. Too old to be dressing and acting like a punk.
“Are--” I clear my throat, trying to sound conversational instead of paranoid. “Are all three of you staying there?”
“Yeah. So you’ll be safe with us around.” He flashes a full smile that takes my breath away. He has deep dimples and remarkably full lips for such a manly man. Chris Hemsworth has nothing on this guy.
“I wasn’t exactly looking for protection,” I say. “But yes, I’m sure you’re capable of scaring away anyone who…” I trail off, losing my stream of thought in the cerulean blue of his eyes. I give myself a mental pinch. “Would you mind removing your foot from my door?” I’m going for cool, calm and collected, but it comes out sounding a little tart.
He gives me a lazy smirk. “You never told me your name.”
“I know.” I look pointedly down at his foot.
He makes a tsking sound, folds his arms and leans against her doorframe. “Sassy,” he remarked. “I don’t usually like that in a woman.”
“I don’t need your approval.”
He raises a brow. Heat rushes through me, warming the roots of my hair. Damn him.
He withdraws his boot and my tight hold on the door makes it slam in both our faces. I yelp like an idiot.
I draw in a long, shaky breath. Something has let loose in my belly and somersaults around like a balloon releasing its air.
Locking the deadbolt, I press my ear to the wood and listen. Three seconds pass before I hear footsteps walk away. I sag against the doorway, put a hand to my head. The slight throb is gone.
What in the hell was that all about? Tomorrow I’ll call the building management and find out just exactly who those guys are and whether there are any complaints against them. For all I know, my apartment might have come available because no one wants to live next to those guys. I sure as hell don’t.
I toe off my pumps and set my briefcase on the table while speed dialing my best friend.
“Hey, girl,” Foxfire answers.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Trying to keep busy...you know, to keep my mind off it.” Foxfire caught her boyfri
end cheating the weekend before and kicked him out. About time, but break ups suck, so I’ve appointed myself Foxfire’ number one cheerleader and activities coordinator until the risk of her caving and asking him back is over.
“Do you want to come to my place? We could watch Netflix and chill.” I’m ready for a bit of mind numbing television tonight. Nothing like silly reality shows to keep my crazy visions at bay. If only it helped my headaches.
“No thanks,” Foxfire sighs.
I sense a sad spiral coming on, and scramble. “Hey, you know what we should do?”
“What?”
“Go out dancing tomorrow night. The Morphs are playing at Club Eclipse.”
“I don’t know. I don’t really feel like it.”
“Are you kidding me? They’re your favorite. You’re always telling me how good they are in concert.” Most days, I avoid clubs, bars and any other loud spaces like my sanity depends on it. Which, given my tendency to have visions, it just might. Foxfire, you better appreciate this. I take a deep breath and I lie my face off. “Now I really want to go.”
“You? You hate going out. Usually I’m the one dragging you.”
Crap, she’s right. Between my career and my hallucinations, I tend to lie low. Risk having a vision at a rave? No, thanks.
“Uh, yeah, and now I miss it. I know you don’t feel like it--that’s not the point. The point is to force yourself to get out and be social.” I use the argument she’s used on me many a time. “I bet a million guys hit on you.”
Foxfire snorts. “I doubt it. But I’d love a Cosmo.”
“Me too.” It’s my turn to sigh.
“So what’s with you? You were in court today, right?”
“Yep. Won my case. Afterward, the judge called me up to the bench and I got worried I’d made some kind of mistake or offended him.”
“So what did he say?”
I chuckle. “He wanted to give me a restaurant recommendation. He knows I live downtown and I guess a new Italian restaurant opened.”
Foxfire laughed. “Nice. They love you down there.”
“I don’t know about that. But it felt good.” I grab a sponge from the sink and wipe down the counter, even though it’s already clean. Tidying things always makes me feel better. “So...I just met the guys who live next door.”
“Oh yeah?” Foxfire says in a suggestive tone.
“No, not like that. Scary-looking guys,” I say, recalling Garrett’s blue eyes and dimpled smile. Maybe he’s not that scary. But he definitely left me feeling flustered and off-kilter. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell if they were intimidating me or flirting.”
“You sound interested.”
“No, definitely not.” It’s a lie. My hand tingles where Garrett grabbed it. What would he be like in bed?
Not that it matters. I don’t want him in my bed, ever. And good in bed doesn’t mean he’ll be a good neighbor.
“Are they hot?” Leave it to Foxfire to read between the lines.
Even though I’m alone in my apartment, my cheeks grow warm. I let out a strangled chuckle. “Um...yeah. One of them was--is--whatever. But not my type. Definitely not my type.”
~.~
Garrett
I lift my palm to my face and inhale the scent still lingering from the pretty blonde human. She wore the hell out of that short fitted skirt and jacket, and as much as she wanted to project prim and proper, I smelled her interest. She was aroused. By me. And when we touched hands, I’d felt the shock of something.
My fingers still tingle from our connection.
I smelled a little fear on her, but mostly the notes were warm and sultry, sugar and vanilla. My wolf didn’t want to scare her--which is a first. He usually likes throwing his weight around, and usually feels only impatience for human women. Why would I be interested in a human? And she definitely is all human--I went in close to be sure.
I plunk down on the leather sofa. Trey and Jared have already opened bottles of beer and stand out on the balcony, talking loudly. Probably not the best for new neighbor relations.
Maybe I’m getting too old to live with my pack brothers. My mom’s been telling me for years I needed to take a mate, act like an adult, and make the Tucson pack into something more than an MC club of mostly male shifters. We live loose and free, but the fraternity feel makes most wolves wanting to start a family move away to my father’s pack in Phoenix, or out of state.
My phone rings and I check the screen.
“Hey, sis,” I answer the call.
“Hi, Garrett,” Kelsey sounds breathless. “Guess where I’m going for spring break?”
“Um...San Diego?”
“Nope.”
“Big Sur?”
“Nope, not California.”
“Where, kiddo?”
“San Carlos!”
“No.” San Carlos is a Mexican beach town several hours south of Tucson, but according to the news, is having trouble with drug cartels.
“Garrett, I’m not asking.” At twenty-one, Kelsey’s still the coddled baby of the family, who wants full autonomy when she demands it, and full support--financial and otherwise--the rest of the time.
I was fourteen when Kelsey, an “oopsie-baby” was born, so she’s more like a daughter than a sister. “Oh, you’d better be asking or we have a big problem.” I sharpen my tone. My folks only allowed Kelsey to go to University of Arizona because I live close enough to watch over her. I might be an easy-going guy, but I’m still an alpha. My wolf doesn’t tolerate tests of my authority.
“Okay, I’m sorry, I was asking,” she capitulates, changing from stubborn to pleading. “Garrett, I have to go. All my friends are going. Listen--we’re not going to drive through Nogales--we found out there’s a safer route. And we’ll be in a big group. Besides, I’m not human, remember? Drug gangs can’t harm me.”
“A bullet to the head would harm anyone.”
“I’m not going to get a bullet to the head. I won’t be buying drugs, obviously, and I won’t be around places where stuff like that goes down. You’re being way too overprotective. I’m an adult, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Don’t get sassy.”
“Pleeease, Garrett? Pretty please? I have to go!”
“Tell me who’s going.”
A pro at wrapping people around her little finger, Kelsey picks up on my crumbling resistance. She plows eagerly into her description of the group. Four boys, five girls, of which two are couples. All human, besides her.
If they were wolves, I’d put my foot down about the mixed genders--not that I’m old-fashioned. With humans, though, no male would be capable of overpowering my sister in any scenario. Still, a spring break beach trip sounds like it would consist of too much drinking and partying, which always results in poor decision-making.
A whoop from the balcony makes me glare at my roommates.
“I want to meet these kids,” I tell my sis.
“Garrett, please! You will totally embarrass me. That’s not fair.”
“Then my answer is no.”
She huffs into the phone. “Fine. We’ll stop by on our way out of town to say goodbye.”
Very clever. I’d be the biggest jerk on Earth to pull the plug on her trip at the last minute. My dad would do it, but not me. Which is the main reason Kelsey picked a college in my town, versus staying close to home.
“Okay. When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
“You’re calling to ask permission the night before your trip?” I growl into the phone.
“Well, I was trying to avoid the asking permission thing,” she says in a small voice.
“You’re lucky you reconsidered.” I force my hand to relax. I don’t want to break another cellphone.
“So I can go?”
“You will not allow anyone to drive drunk at any time.”
“Right.”
“And you will never drink more than two drinks in one night.”
“Aw, come on, Gar
rett, you know I can drink more than that.”
“I don’t care. I’m giving you my stipulations. If you want to go, you’d better agree to them.”
“Okay, okay, I agree. What else?”
“I want a check-in text every day.”
“Got it.”
I sigh. “Did you get Mexican insurance for the car?”
“Yep. We’re all set. I’ll see you in the morning. Love you, big bro. You’re the best!”
I shake my head, but smile as I hang up. Whoever mates my sister has my pity. It’s impossible to deny her anything.
“Hey, boss, you headed to the club tonight?” Trey ambles in from the balcony.
“Not tonight,” I examine my phone for cracks. Kelsey brings out the protective side of me unlike any other. At least, until I met little Miss Prim ‘n Proper next door. For some reason, I’ve already decided she’d under my protection, whether she likes it or not.
“’Cause I was thinking about inviting our new neighbor out. See if she has a wild side.”
“No,” I growl. My phone crunches in my grip. Rage flares up out of nowhere, surprising the hell outta me. “Leave her alone.” Trey’s eyes drop to the floor. Beyond him, Jared freezes.
“Just stay away from Amber.” My wolf is close, making my voice husky.
“Yes, Alpha,” Both wolves bow their heads.
Instead of an explanation, a growl rises in my throat. I’m Alpha. I don’t have to explain.
“No more drinking on the balcony,” I add with a glare. When I open my hand, pieces of my cell phone drop to the couch.
My anger fades as they slink away, but the feeling of satisfaction remains. My wolf is happy we protected Amber. But why? What does one little human matter to me?
Alpha Danger, Book 2 (coming soon!)
I am an alpha wolf, one of the youngest in the States. I can pick any she-wolf in the pack for a mate. So why am I sniffing around the sexy human attorney next door? The minute I catch Amber’s sweet scent, my wolf wants to claim her.
Hanging around is a bad idea, but I don’t play by the rules. Amber acts all prim and proper, but she has a secret, too.