Checkmate

by Annmarie McKenna

  Derek swallowed, his jaw ticking, confirming Eli’s suspicion that something bad had occurred.

  “I’ll tell you in the car.” Derek’s voice cracked. He bent over to pick up one of Eli’s suitcases before turning his back on Eli and striding toward the exit.

  Not good. This was not good.

  Ten minutes later, they were sitting in Derek’s SUV driving west on Highway 70, headed toward St. Charles county, where Derek’s family and Eli’s pack both lived.

  “Don’t keep me in suspense here, Der. What the hell is going on?” Eli settled his arm along the doorframe and turned in his seat to face Derek. The muscle was jumping once again along his jawline.

  “It’s Nikki. She’s in big trouble, and we need your help.” He glanced Eli’s way, his eyes pleading. “You couldn’t have gotten here at a better time.”

  Eli’s heart stopped and he closed his eyes to ward off the pain swamping his chest.

  “Is she sick?” He had to force the words out of his mouth, scared to death that Derek would say yes. That he wouldn’t have the chance to claim her as his mate before she was gone.

  Derek shook his head. “No. Worse.” Derek maneuvered the car onto the Rock Road exit lane, then parked in a lot not far from the highway. “She witnessed a murder last night. The killer got away.”

  Eli exploded. “Why the fuck didn’t you call me?” His wolf rippled through him, fighting its way to the surface, ready to rip apart the man who’d dared draw his mate into a violent situation.

  “And what the fuck were you going to do?” Derek shouted. “You were halfway around the goddamn world, probably already packing to get on a plane. You couldn’t have gotten here any sooner.” He drew in a sharp breath and gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

  “Where is she?” Eli rasped, aware that yelling at each other was not going to get anything accomplished. He clenched his hand into a fist and fought the urge to punch something.

  “The hospital.” Derek’s answer was just as grim as his face had been earlier.

  Eli whipped his head up. “What for?”

  “She was shot trying to get away from the sick fuck. Not bad, more like a scrape, but they kept her overnight.”

  Eli wrenched the door open and stumbled out, puking on the ground before he could get two steps. He’d been out pulling babysitting duty half a world away to a goddamn werewolf dignitary, and Nikki was here getting shot. Just the thought of what a bullet would do to her tender flesh had him heaving again. A monumental battle ensued inside him between his wolf’s need to protect his mate and his human’s need for revenge.

  Derek’s shadow fell over him.

  “That was not the reaction I was expecting. You want me to break your nose now, or wait ‘til you’re out of your misery?”

  Eli straightened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Oh, come on. She’s my baby sister, my only sister, but I didn’t puke my guts out when I heard what happened.”

  “Back off, Der. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he growled.

  “You been with her?”

  Derek was obviously itching for a fight. Eli wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “No, but if I had been, it wouldn’t be any of your business.”

  The fist caught him just below the eye. Eli took it, the momentum dragging him to one side, but otherwise, he stood his ground. Derek hopped around, shaking his hand out. When he stopped, he propped his hands on his hips and cocked his head to one side, leaving Eli feeling like a bug under a microscope.

  Long seconds passed until both men caught their breath. Eli’s cheek throbbed, letting him know that within minutes he’d have a shiner.

  “You love her? Did you”—he waved his hand in a circle—“mate her or whatever it is you do?” Derek asked.

  Eli contemplated what to say. How could he tell his best friend he loved his sister and wanted to do all kinds of things to her delicious little body? He couldn’t.

  Eli nodded. “She is my mate, but no, I haven’t claimed her. I was planning on doing that when I got back here.” He turned and climbed into the SUV.

  Derek followed suit, sliding into the driver’s seat and taking off toward 70 again.

  “How long have you known, E?” Derek demanded softly.

  Eli sensed a good amount of pain coming from his best friend. “About a year.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  “What did you want me to say? Excuse me, my wolf has just announced that it’s found its mate, and guess who it is?”

  “You fucking hurt her…”

  “I won’t.”

  “What about Caelan? Does he know? Is he good with little brother taking a mate?”

  What the hell was going on here? He’d never seen Derek act like this before. Granted, Eli had never told his best friend he wanted Nikki for a mate, but he also never thought Derek would be anything but happy for them both.

  “Are you trying to justify me being with your sister or something?”

  “No. Yes.” He pounded the steering wheel with his fist. “I don’t know. Son of a bitch. It’s just that…she’s not gonna take this well right now. Caelan knows it. I wondered if he’d tried to talk you out of it or something.”

  “What does Caelan know?” Eli growled.

  Derek shrugged. “I called him. He knows what’s going on. Nikki’s not really comfortable around men any… Shit.” Derek slapped at the steering wheel again, clearly frustrated.

  He wasn’t the only one.

  “Not comfortable with men?” Since when was Nikki Taylor not comfortable with men? Most of the time she played better with the boys than the girls. Had been that way for as long as Eli had known her. She’d take a T-shirt and jeans over dresses any day. For her, nice clothes were reserved for church, sometimes not even then, and weddings or funerals.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Derek fudged.

  “What the hell has gotten into you? Caelan has no say in who I mate with. I don’t even have control. Jesus, just ask him about finding his mate. When he met Tieran, we were hunting that killer, remember? She had a vision and thought it was me killing those women. Did you forget about my being arrested and conked over the head, and framed for the murders? If you were married, would you leave your wife if she’d been the one to put your brother in jail? No. You wouldn’t and Caelan didn’t either, because as a mate, he physically can’t. It would kill him.” Eli rubbed a hand over his face and tried to pull back on the escalating shouting. “Like it will me, once I’ve claimed Nikki as my own.

  “We’re men too, Derek,” Eli continued, calmer now. “Each of us takes a mate whether we’re head alpha or not. We just don’t get to choose who our woman will be, some sick twist of fate does.” He grunted. “Fate happened to bring me Nikki, and I couldn’t be prouder or happier. She might not take to the whole idea right away, but once it’s done, it’s done. We’re one soul for life. Sooner or later she’ll figure that out, and you fucking know all this, Der, so why the questions?”

  “Some shit happened… I’m not supposed to say anything to you. I promised her I wouldn’t.”

  Eli sat up. Suddenly they were keeping secrets from each other? “Don’t start something you can’t finish. If something happened I need to know about, you better get your ass talking. I don’t care if she made you swear on your grandmother’s grave.” This day just kept getting worse and worse. Instead of coming home and seeing Nikki-Raine’s beautiful smile for the first time in eight months, Derek kept dropping ugly little bombs.

  What could be worse than getting fucking shot at by a murderer? Ominous dread crept along his spine.

  “She was…”

  “She was what?” Eli gritted out when Derek took too long to finish.

  “Attacked, all right? She was attacked one night as she walked to her car.”

  “When and how?” he asked with deadly calm. Attacked could mean a lot of things. Someone could have written on h
er forehead with a blue marker, she could have been bitten by a dog, mugged or…

  Derek’s sigh filled the car, deep with resignation. “Right after you left. Some dickheads cornered her in a parking lot—”

  “Pull over. Now!”

  He did, slamming on the brakes and sliding to a stop on the shoulder.

  Eli drove his fist into Derek’s unsuspecting chin. “Goddamn it.” He shook his hand, testing the already bruising knuckles by bending them, and fighting to keep his wolf in check.

  “Son of a bitch.” Derek groaned beside him. Now they had both taken their potshots and could get on with their lives.

  “I’m not even going to ask what your excuse was for not calling me eight months ago, just tell me what the fuck happened.”

  “I can’t tell you much.”

  “Tell me, or so help me God…”

  “That’s just it. I can’t. Three men accosted her as she walked to her car from the mall. They tried to force her to the ground. Somehow she got away, but they followed her car and ran her off the road. We think.”

  “You think?” Eli hissed.

  Derek looked him straight in the eye. “There’s no tangible evidence it was the same car she’d seen the men next to in the lot. It was dark and she couldn’t see well and afterward she had a hard time remembering anything about the accident itself. Her injuries were serious. She had to have a few surgeries that didn’t completely fix what was broken and she’s terrified of seeing you. That’s all I know. That and the fact she changed after it happened. Moved back in with Mom and Dad, doesn’t go out much at night unless she has to, or date.”

  Thank God for that. At the moment, Eli was likely to kill any man who got within fifty feet of her.

  “Was she raped?” he rasped. If she’d been fucking raped, and he hadn’t been here to prevent it… But terrified of seeing him? Why? What the hell did she think he’d do? Reject her? Inconceivable.

  “When the police hit a roadblock, I immediately went to Caelan. Against her wishes, E. She begged Caelan not to tell you, like she begged me. Caelan very reluctantly agreed. At the time, I think he could see how scared she was about seeing you and there was no reason to upset her even more. We did everything possible to find out who did it, but ended up with nothing. You couldn’t have done anything different. It still would have happened.”

  Derek spoke softly, and had apparently learned to read minds while Eli was away. He must have been talking to Eli’s psychic sister-in-law lately. He ground his teeth until his jaw hurt. Derek was right, it probably still would have happened. But at least if he had been here, he could have helped get her back on her feet. And taken the bastards out as only a shifter could.

  Except, if Caelan hadn’t been able to find them there was a good chance he wouldn’t have been able to either. His brother was one of the best trackers around, despite being duped by that murdering son of a bitch traitor of a shifter a while back.

  Eli swiped his hands down his face, ignoring the throbbing in both his knuckles and his cheek.

  “At least now I know why she didn’t want to tell you.”

  “What do you mean?” Eli jerked his gaze up. He had no clue what Derek was talking about.

  “Are you that dense? She loves you.”

  Chapter Four

  Nikki tried to sleep, she really did, it just wasn’t happening. The bed was too hard, the pillow too starchy, her shoulder burned like hell and she had to lie on her bad side. The one she’d never been able to sleep on, but had to now because she’d been shot on her good side. Skinned anyway. She’d hate to know what it felt like to actually be shot.

  Shot. A murderer had shot at her because she’d seen him. Thank God it had only been a flesh wound. What he’d done to her friends was unconscionable. And he was still out there. Looking for her, if the police were correct in their assumption. Nikki sniffled and gripped the blanket tighter around her chin, knowing it wouldn’t protect her from the man who’d tried to put a bullet through her head.

  All night long she’d cried about the senseless waste of the lives of her friends. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t been around much in the better part of the last year. At one time they’d all been very close. Now they were gone and she’d never see them again. Would she ever see anything past the horrific end of their lives? A sob stuck in her throat, choking her, but no tears came. There weren’t any tears left to cry.

  Derek had stayed through the night, staking himself out in front of the door, cracking his knuckles and frowning at anyone who opened it. As if the man would try to get at her here. As if Derek would be able to stop another bullet meant for her. They’d both be dead and it would be all her fault.

  This morning her dad had shown up again and relieved her brother. The police followed shortly thereafter, asking another round of a bazillion questions, most of which she couldn’t answer. Still. Things hadn’t changed any since she’d gone through them last night. The most she’d had to offer had been what she’d seen of the killer’s dark hair in the mirror and what her friends had said about Lou’s weirdo boyfriend. Since she’d never met the man, no, she couldn’t give them a description, much less a name. And no too, to the question did she think he could have done this? She had no idea. Didn’t they get that she didn’t know him?

  Not only that, but her brain was fried from whatever the doctor had given her so she couldn’t think straight. She thought it had been something for anxiety. Or pain, maybe. Both, more likely. Last night she’d been a complete basket case and she’d welcomed anything that might soften the blow of what had happened.

  Today she was marginally clearer and had a vague recollection of a conversation she’d had with Lou in the hospital all those many months ago. Lou had talked about her boyfriend and how sometimes he seemed like he was far away. As if he were lost in thought or something. Lou had seemed genuinely happy with him though, and he certainly didn’t seem to put too much pressure on her.

  What kind of help would those shady, drug-hazed memories be anyway? She’d spent a long time in the hospital when Lou had met him. After leaving, Nikki had sort of shut herself off. Hidden would be the best word, like a coward. She should have stayed in hiding so she wouldn’t have seen the gruesome—

  Stop! Nikki slammed the door on the direction her brain was going. Reliving it did nothing but bring on the tears. She just wanted to sleep. To forget about what had happened for a few blessed minutes. But had she been able to do that yet? No.

  When the police had finally left, her mother had asked her pastor to stop by, so she’d cried again, all the while being patted and told that it was all in God’s master plan. Right now, what she really wanted was to tell God just where he could shove his master plan, because it sucked. When the patronizing pastor had finally left, exhaustion set in.

  “Hey, Nikki-Raine.”

  Oh God. No. No, no, no. No one called her Nikki-Raine but him. Why, God? Was it because I told you what you could do with your plan? Please tell me I’m hallucinating the deep voice behind me. Please! She squeezed her eyes shut. He could not see her right now, ever, and damn it, where had he come from anyway? Wasn’t he supposed to be off guarding some head of state or something? He couldn’t be here. Not now.

  “You awake, baby?”

  Baby? He’d never called her baby before. His big hand, callused she knew, rubbed a path down her blanket-covered leg from knee to ankle. Nikki froze and held her breath. He’d never touched her this way before, either. Her pussy flooded, creaming her panties, and her tummy jumped. She jerked at her body’s response. How could she feel this way right now? Right when the world was wrong? How could anything feel this right? At any rate it made her blessedly forget the physical and emotional pain she was in, if only for a few seconds.

  Do it again, she begged silently. Just once more. If this was all she could get from the man she loved, she’d take it.

  He did. A tender stroke that had her swallowing back a wave of fresh emotions that threatened to choke her
.

  “What are you doing here?” She forced the words around the pain.

  He chuckled once, the sound slamming through her system, making her whole body jerk with the deep baritone. “Your mom hired me. I talked to her after Derek picked me up from the airport.”

  Hired you for what? Personal security, his business, you idiot, what else. That’s why he was here. To babysit her. The bed dipped behind her butt, unbalancing her just enough that she had to tighten her already crushing hold on the blanket to keep from rolling to her side. Not only would her shoulder burn like hell, but he’d also see her face.

  And probably leave.

  “And we need to talk.” His hand stopped tracing her calf muscle and gave it a squeeze instead. “But first, you need to get up so we can get you out of here. It isn’t safe.” He started to stand, still holding her leg.

  No way was she leaving here with the one man who could destroy her, shattering her heart into little bits with one look.

  “Uh-uh.”

  His hand tightened around her calf and she winced.

  “Excuse me?” His tone reeked of disbelief, reminding her of all the times he’d talked to her as a child, back when she’d been a pest to him and her brother. “Goddamn it, look at me, Nikki-Raine.”

  She sighed. She hated it when he used that nickname. He was the only one who did, and he never made it sound like she dreamed it should. Like a man who wanted to jump into bed with her. Or on the floor, or against the wall, or the table. She wanted to try all those things. With him. Eight months ago she might have still had a chance. Now she no longer had that option.

  Why wouldn’t she look at him? He’d known her her whole life, had seen her at her worst, and now suddenly she didn’t want him to see her? Hell, at her senior prom, he’d nearly ripped the fucking head off her date, who’d decided to leave with another girl. She’d run from the hotel, mortified and sobbing, and called home for someone to pick her up. Derek and Eli had been there playing pool and had driven off to get her before even hanging up the phone.

  When she’d run to Derek as he stepped out of the car, her face red, her nose running and her eyes puffy from crying, Eli had wanted to intercept her and take her into his arms. He wanted to be the one to console her and it had taken all his willpower not to. Not with him being twenty-three and her just eighteen. Jailbait. At least that’s how he’d thought of her at the time. She might have been legal but something had felt wrong about it. Not to mention the fact he was a shape-shifter, something he’d always thought would repulse her.