Checkmate

by Annmarie McKenna

  Eli punched the steering wheel, ignoring the pain flaring over his knuckles.

  Nikki sat up and twisted in her seat to look back, then turned to him, her eyes filled with horror. At least she knew the monumental effect this could have on her life. She was supposed to be dead to the world, not off gallivanting in public.

  “Oh, God. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  Eli’s breath hitched in his throat.

  “I can protect you, Nikki-Raine. Never doubt that.”

  She nodded and took his hand in a death grip. “I know.”

  Somehow he managed to steer with the hand she still held—which dragged her across the seat closer to him—and fumble with his phone.

  “What are you doing?” Nikki snuggled into his side where he felt her body tremble.

  “Trying to find out who sold you out.”

  She jerked upright. “How do you know—”

  “No one knew we were coming, Nik,” he growled. “The only fucking way that reporter showed up is if someone pointed them in the right direct— Morales,” he barked. “Find your fucking leak before I do, or so help me God, you’ll have a cop killer on your hands.” Not that they’d be able to prove anything beyond a wild animal attack anyway.

  Nikki hissed and her fingers tightened on his arm in warning. He shrugged it off. Nobody was going to mess with his mate.

  “Right. That’s why there was a goddamn reporter waiting for us to come out.”

  He paused to listen to the bunk Morales fed him and to get on the highway. They couldn’t get far enough away from here.

  “You better hope to hell her face doesn’t show up in tomorrow’s paper.

  “Yeah. You do that.” Eli slammed the flip shut and tossed the cell onto the dash.

  Nikki sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said again, sinking into his side.

  Fuck.

  He wrapped his arm around her and held on for dear life, renewing his vow that nothing would happen to the woman who held his heart in the palm of her hand.

  * * *

  “No. No, no, no, no, no.” He scrambled for the remote and hit the volume button. Her face took up the top right quarter of the sixty-inch screen, big as day and minus the bullet wound to the head.

  He threw the remote at the wall. It slammed into a mirror, shattering both the plastic casing and the glass before falling to the floor with a thud.

  “Motherfucker.” Still alive. And she’d been at the fucking police station according to the background image. The cameraman had done a good job capturing her surprise through the window.

  He’d been played. His own fault, really. A better man would have made sure. Gone to her funeral and opened the casket, cut out her heart, eaten her liver. Something. Instead, he’d fucked up and believed the fucking cops. Like there was a million reasons to trust anything the cops said.

  Now he knew the truth. All this time he could have been doing something about the bitch and here he was, sitting back and luxuriating in the process of finding a new player. The thrill of the hunt was what it was all about.

  They’d denied him that right. Taken away from him the one thing he cherished. He’d have to scrap his plans for the teenage couple and find where the cops had stashed little Ms. Taylor.

  He dragged a pen and paper from the drawer in his kitchen and sat down to make a list. Lists were good, kept everything organized and handy. He liked lists.

  First things first, find a mole. Someone on the police force he could use to rat out her whereabouts. Second, scope out the place they thought was safe enough to keep him out. Third, eliminate the target.

  He smiled and sat back in the chair, folding his arms across his chest. He’d take the weekend to find the stuff he needed and make his move Sunday night. He had Monday off, so things would work out perfectly and he’d have the extra day to come off his high.

  His cock hardened beneath the scrubs he still wore, tenting the material beneath the tie. He chuckled at it. “Greedy little bastard, aren’t you?”

  He loosened the bow and stood to let the pants fall from his hips. The slit glistened with a drop of pre-come. Imagining it was Nicole Taylor’s mouth he fucked after binding her, he wrapped his fist around his cock and pumped. He’d have to add this scenario to his list. Fucking her mouth, ramming his cock down her throat while she could do nothing to prevent it.

  Just the thought of her face shoved full of his dick, tears streaming out of her eyes, her nose running, made his balls draw up. Two pumps later and thick streams of his semen shot into the air. His knees shook as he continued to stroke himself, wringing every last drop out of his cock.

  Damn, he couldn’t wait.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “How did you do this?” Nikki whispered, staring at the computer screen with tears running down her face. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, and her fingers dug into the skin just above her elbows.

  Eli sighed. Standing behind her, he massaged the tension in her shoulders. It was the least he could do after not being there for her all those months. He shrugged, knowing she couldn’t see the action.

  “It’s what I do, baby. Surveillance, security cameras. It wasn’t hard to set up a closed-circuit TV for this. I know you wanted to be there and I’m sorry you couldn’t be.”

  Her legs wobbled, threatening to collapse, so he left her to wheel the chair closer. He pushed it to the back of her knees and further, forcing her to sit before she fell. Without a word, she took his offering and propped her arms on the desk. Chin in the palm of her hand, Nikki watched the funeral of her best friends.

  “They were so fucking young,” she choked, and a fresh batch of tears flooded her face.

  Eli retrieved a box of Kleenex and set it in front of her. A lump formed in his throat. He wished on all the stars in the sky she didn’t have to go through this.

  “All this time I’ve been hiding when I should have been spending time with them.”

  He rubbed between her shoulder blades. Nothing he could say would make this any easier for her, but he tried. “You were only doing what your body and mind allowed you to. You aren’t a coward, and even if you had spent this time with them, it still would have happened.” He didn’t mention how she most likely would be dead also.

  Nikki blew her nose and leaned closer to the screen. A woman stood at the podium, reading a eulogy.

  “I should be doing that.” With a shaky finger, she pointed to the screen. “That’s supposed to be me. I’ve let them down,” she wailed.

  Eli’s breath hitched. Damn that fucker to hell. He knelt beside his mate. Comfort was the only thing he could offer outside of hunting the son of a bitch down and killing him. Doing so would leave Nikki unprotected and no way in the world would Eli allow that to happen. Maybe if Caelan didn’t have other duties and imminent baby worries of his own, but it didn’t matter. For the moment, Eli had to trust the police enough to do their job.

  “Oh, God,” she cried.

  Eli looked at the monitor. Another casket was being carried in. A woman’s cry echoed throughout the church. Nikki laid a finger on the screen, stroking the woman’s image.

  “Kelly’s mom,” she mumbled. “She must hate me.”

  God damn it. “Come here, Nikki-Raine.” He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her to his shoulder.

  Her body shook with heaving sobs and sniffles. Eli held her through the letdown. She needed this more than anything. Wouldn’t do her any good to keep it bottled up. He soothed her with slow caresses the length of her spine and murmured assurances in her ear.

  “I love you, Nikki.” He kissed her temple as her body began to settle. The fury would come again, no doubt, but for now she seemed to be quieting. “We will find the bastard who did this. I promise.”

  It was a promise he wouldn’t break. One way or another, if he had to search until the day he died, he would find the asshole responsible for causing Nikki so much pain.

  She nodded against his shoulder, a silent s
ort of trust in him.

  The door clicked open behind Eli. Nikki stiffened in his arms. Eli turned. Caelan stood in the doorway, a solemn look on his face. He hitched his chin, beckoning Eli over. Eli gave a short incline of his head before kissing the top of Nikki’s head and squeezing her in a tight hug.

  “You okay?”

  She sniffled and nodded again, then drew away from him. Her face was splotchy red, tracked with tears. He thrust a Kleenex at her before rising.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  She didn’t respond, and he didn’t expect her to. He moved away.

  “She okay?” Caelan asked, drawing him into the hall.

  “No.” He turned and watched her. She bit her thumbnail and stared at the screen. Even from this distance he could see the sheen of tears in her eyes.

  “Detective Morales is here. He wants to talk to you two.”

  Hearing the urgency in his voice, Eli swung his gaze back to Caelan.

  “She’s watching the funeral,” Eli hissed. “Now’s not a good time.”

  “I think you’ll want to hear this, E.”

  Intrigued, Eli dropped his shoulders. “Fine.”

  He followed Caelan to where his brother had left Morales standing by the front door. The detective held his hand out and Eli accepted.

  “What’s going on?”

  Morales grinned from ear to ear. “It’s over.”

  “What?”

  Eli spun at Nikki’s stunned gasp behind him. He hadn’t even realized she’d followed them. Opening his arms, Eli coaxed her to join him. She didn’t hesitate. He enfolded her in a hug and tilted her face up to drop a kiss on her lips. Her face was still a marbled red color and her nose ran.

  “How?” she croaked.

  Morales shifted his stance. “We’ve been staking out the house, waiting for this mysterious boyfriend to show up. He finally did.”

  “Are you serious?” Nikki asked.

  “Yes.” The detective smiled again. “Got there late last night. We arrested the suspect and brought him in for questioning. You were right about the J. His name is Josh Summerton. He’s been begging for his lawyer and he’s got a rap sheet a mile long. Rape, burglary, even had a restraining order slapped on him for stalking a woman. Plus, he has absolutely no alibi for the night of the murders. Says he was in a hotel room all alone.”

  “But did he do it?” Eli growled.

  Morales shrugged which didn’t make Eli feel a hundred percent better.

  “There was no evidence at the scene. Pinning this on anybody is going to be difficult, but I’m confident we’ve got him. Crime Scene unit has been swarming his house all night and morning. We pulled his records and have people looking at his computer. The phone is clean. It’s like he doesn’t use it. We even found several pre-paid cells at his place. He’s done a lot of traveling, has weekends blocked off on his calendar, and he’s one meticulous son of a bitch too, by the looks of his apartment. But here’s the clincher. He’s a nurse at the hospital. How the hell he ever got a job as a nurse is something we’ll be looking into, but we suspect he’s been using an alias.”

  Eli fisted his hands, one of which got tangled in Nikki’s shirt. She drew in a sharp breath and her body went rigid beneath his arm. Nikki turned into him and buried her face on his chest, sobbing.

  “We’ll know more tomorrow and I’ll give you a call then, but for now, I think it’s safe for you to relax your guard a little. This guy is looking like our prime suspect. And hey, if you were innocent, wouldn’t you be all over the ‘I didn’t do it’ speech? Not a word out of this guy,” Morales said, popping his gum.

  Eli shook the man’s hand. “Thank you.” If his breathing came a tad easier, no one needed to know it but him. Now he’d be able to concentrate on Nikki and their future.

  Everything seemed to be happening so fast. First the three shitheads had been arrested and now this. Eli cocked his head as he watched Morales climb into his unmarked squad car. How in the hell was it possible this was all coming to a head?

  Why the fuck was he questioning it?

  “It’s really over?” Nikki turned her face up to his.

  He idly played his thumb over her shoulder. “Looks that way,” he muttered. If only he could get rid of the nagging feeling it wasn’t.

  * * *

  A shrill ringing made Nikki jerk in his arms. “Shh,” he quieted her and rolled out of their bed. The clock glowed a red 6:28 in the morning. Eli snatched the phone from his nightstand and pushed the talk button before it could ring again.

  “Graham,” he said softly, not wanting to disturb Nikki. He turned back to her. She’d rolled onto her side. The creamy expanse of her back and buttocks beckoned him to return under the covers. His cock hardened.

  “I need your help over at the Stanton’s. They’re having trouble at the border again,” Caelan groused.

  “Jesus. Couldn’t they have waited until a reasonable hour?”

  “Tell me about it. I’ve been here since five.”

  “Fuck.” Eli swiped a hand over his face and looked at Nikki again. Her shoulder rose and fell with each soft breath. He didn’t want to deal with anything else other than sleeping with his mate right now.

  “Yeah,” he grumbled. “No, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Not we, E. You’re better off leaving Nikki at home,” Caelan said.

  Eli paused, waiting for his brother to elaborate on why. When he didn’t, Eli asked, “What do you mean leave her here?”

  “Things might get ugly, E. You don’t want her in a dangerous situation.”

  No, he didn’t, but he also wasn’t ready to leave her alone. “God damn it. Fine,” he hissed after a minute, and slammed the phone into its base.

  Nikki screeched and reared up. Her hair flew in a crazy tangle around her head. For a second, Eli forgot about what had to be done. He smiled at the untamed look of his mate. If it weren’t for the fact her eyes were sleep-hazed, he would swear they’d just had a wild romp between the sheets.

  “What happened? What’s going on?” she practically yelled.

  He chuckled at her struggle to join the ranks of the living.

  “I have to leave,” he said through clinched teeth.

  “Oh. Okay.” She flopped onto her pillow and snuggled in again. “Later.”

  Eli snorted. “Don’t get so upset, huh?”

  “What do you wan’ me to say, E? I’m tired. Your fault. Get lost.”

  He came around the bed so he could see her face. “I want to take you with me.”

  “No.”

  Eli bent and placed his palms on the bed a foot away from her body so he leaned over her. “Excuse me?”

  “No.”

  He gritted his teeth and counted to ten. “Get your pretty, little, smart-ass butt out of this bed and get dressed.”

  Nikki opened one eye and stared at him. “No.” She turned her face away from him and yanked the covers over her head.

  Exasperation filled him. He tugged on the blanket. “I don’t have time for this, Nik.”

  “And I don’t have time for you badgering me when I’m trying to sleep,” she mumbled under her shield. She whipped the covers off. “If you had left me alone at all last night, I wouldn’t have this problem. Now, shoo.” Her eyes slid shut, blocking him out.

  “Damn it, Nikki-Raine. I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “Why not?” she groaned. “Morales said everything was safe now. Go, save the world or whatever it is you werewolves do.”

  He growled low in his throat. “Just because he said it was, doesn’t mean I’m going to take any chances.”

  “I won’t leave the house. You can call me every ten minutes if you want.”

  His growl turned to a snarl.

  She sighed. “It has to stop sometime, Eli. I can’t live in hiding forever. If the police feel confident, then I guess so do I.”

  “Damn it. I hate it when you’re reasonable.”

  “Me too. G’night.�
��

  “What if I want you to come with me?”

  “That’s a misguided attempt at making me feel guilty so I’ll come with you and therefore be safe in your eyes,” she muttered.

  Eli stood. Son of a bitch, she was a stubborn woman. He chewed on his thumbnail as he watched her sink into sleep once more. Could he do this? Could he leave her here without him or Caelan?

  Caelan was probably worse off than Eli anyway with Tieran being so far pregnant. He wondered how much shit Cael’s mate had given his twin before he’d left in the early morning hours.

  His shoulders dropped. At this second, pack business took precedence. If Morales hadn’t told them the news earlier, little miss tiredness better believe he’d have packed her in the car. He scrambled for clothes, showered and dressed in less than ten minutes.

  “I love you.” Eli kissed Nikki’s temple.

  “Uh-huh. Nove oo too,” she said into her pillow.

  * * *

  Nikki stepped out of the shower onto the fluffy bath mat and wiggled her toes in the softness, delighting in the feel of it. It had been too long since she’d indulged in such a simple pleasure. Way too long. The amount of time she’d spent hiding in her parents’ house to be exact. And here she was doing the same thing at Eli’s. Hiding. Well not anymore.

  Somehow she’d gotten Eli to actually leave the house this morning without her. He’d called a few times, thank God it hadn’t been every ten minutes like she’d suggested he could. Talk about overbearing. For the first time in a long time she felt safe from the intrusions of the outside world. Not even the news broadcasting her face a couple nights ago had dampened her spirits.

  Okay, it had. Big time. Then the funeral had done a good job of bringing them down even further. But now it was over. Nikki felt guilty for the tiny bit of giddiness flowing through her. Why should she get to be happy when her friends were dead?

  Eli went a long way in redirecting her thoughts whenever he saw them leading in the wrong direction. Her clit tingled in reaction to how he handled her depression.