Dangerously Charming

by Deborah Blake

  “Get in the fucking van, lady,” the tank said. “Don’t make us get rough with you.”

  Jenna grinned at him, making him blink in confused surprise. “Bite me,” she said, and swiveled around to lash out with her heel, the force of her booted foot impacting against his balls making him shriek so loudly it startled a flock of birds out of the nearby trees. He fell against the van, moaning and holding himself.

  “Jesus Christ!” his pal stuttered. “Chuck, get off the damned ground, ya big baby.” He swung a ham-like fist at Jenna’s head, the air of its passage whistling in her ears as she ducked under his arm and came up behind him. A kick to the back of his knee made one leg buckle briefly, but he recovered too quickly and turned to face her again, his teeth gritted and fury written in every tight muscle.

  “Crap,” Jenna said, and braced herself.

  “Is this a private fight or can anyone join in?” Mick asked, strolling around the corner. “I mean, I can clearly see you have it under control, and I don’t want to spoil your fun or anything, but I’ve been really, really bored.” His smile lit up the entire space, although Jenna wasn’t foolish enough to take her eyes off her opponent long enough to smile back.

  “Be my guest,” she said, aiming another swift series of kicks at the guy to keep him off balance while Mick got into position. She needn’t have worried. He just threw back his head and roared, running at the tall man like a linebacker on a football field, lifting the thug off his feet with one broad shoulder and tossing him up into the air. Her attacker hit the ground with a crunch and rolled to avoid Mick’s motorcycle boot, which came down in the spot where he’d been a minute ago. The tall man staggered to his feet, but went down again in a flurry of punches.

  Jenna took a second to catch her breath, and when she looked up again, the man was dangling upside down in midair from one of Mick’s large hands, shaggy brown hair nearly touching the dirty ground. Mick held his arm up with the man’s full weight hanging down from it, seemingly without effort. Despite herself, Jenna was impressed. Mick’s blue eyes seemed to glow an unearthly yellow for a moment, as he shook the guy so hard the change fell out of his pockets and onto the blacktop with a chiming, plinking sound.

  “Put me down!” the thug said, squirming helplessly. “It ain’t what it looked like.”

  “No?” Mick said, sounding surprisingly calm. “It looked to me like you were going to kidnap and rape my friend, maybe kill her when you got done. Shame on you.”

  “Jesus Christ! No way! It was nothing like that.”

  Jenna noted with strained amusement that the thug actually sounded offended and appalled by Mick’s suggestion.

  “We’re just doing a job,” his pal said from where he half sat, half leaned on the van, still breathing in labored gasps. “It was nothin’ personal.”

  “A job for whom?” Mick asked, giving the upside-down man another shake, as if to jog his memory, and then dropping him on the ground with a thud.

  The thug held up his hands. “Look, all I know is that some guy named Stu is paying ten grand to have the girl delivered unharmed to a swanky clinic in New York City. All we were supposed to do was grab her and bring her there, I swear.”

  Jenna could feel the blood drain out of her face. Stu? What the hell does Stu have to do with this?

  Mick gave her a curious look. “Do you want me to call the police, Jenna?” he asked. “They can probably find out who this Stu guy is.”

  She shook her head. “We don’t have time for this nonsense. I don’t want to spend hours talking to the cops. I just want to get out of here and get back on the road.” She could feel her body start to shake as the adrenaline rush began to wear off.

  Mick raised one eyebrow, but didn’t argue with her, for which she was grateful. “This seems to be your lucky day, gentlemen,” he said, nudging the one nearest him with his foot. “If I were you, I’d go back to your boss and tell him that if anyone else tries to hurt my friend, this little kerfuffle is going to look like a sixth-grade dance.” He glared from one guy to the next. “Am I making myself clear?”

  The two men staggered into their van and took off like the devil was behind them, which Jenna supposed was answer enough. At least to that question. She had a lot more.

  CHAPTER 12

  FLAMES danced in the middle of the fire pit Day had created with a small folding shovel he’d pulled out of his saddlebags and a pile of rocks. They’d agreed that until they figured out if the goons who attacked Jenna were still coming after her, it would be better to avoid hotels and other populated areas and stick to back roads as much as possible. Considering the state of their wallets, Day thought that this plan made sense for other reasons as well. He didn’t let himself admit that there was something almost romantic about sitting under the stars with a beautiful woman in the middle of nowhere. Particularly a beautiful woman who looked like a sexier Snow White and seemed to glow in the light of the fire.

  He thought he’d seen a sign that said they were near someplace called Jenkins, Kentucky, but he was starting to lose track. Frankly, it didn’t much matter where they were now, as long as Jenna ended up in Texas where she needed to be. And he got to go back to his solitary life in the cabin. Somehow the prospect didn’t seem as attractive as it used to, but since he couldn’t think of any alternatives that suited him better, he supposed it would have to do.

  Day wiped greasy fingers on a handkerchief and put down his plate, which held only the bony remains of the trout he’d caught them for dinner. Across the fire, Jenna did the same, except that she used the grass near where she was sitting. The firelight gleamed off of her black hair, making it look like a rippling curtain of silk as she leaned back with a sigh.

  Day had a feeling he knew what she was thinking about, since they’d been avoiding the subject since the incident earlier in the afternoon. “So,” he said. “Who is Stu? I take it you know the name?”

  Jenna sat up, curling her hands protectively over her belly in what he was pretty sure was an unconscious motion. “He’s the baby’s father,” she said in a soft voice. “My former boyfriend.”

  A strange pang rippled through Day’s chest at the thought of Jenna with another man, although obviously he knew the baby had a father. None of his business anyway, other than to know who to watch out for. At least that’s what he told himself.

  “I guess this Stu wants his baby back, and that’s why he sent those guys to grab you?” Day said. “I would have thought flowers might have been more effective.”

  Jenna shook her head. “The last I knew, Stu was insisting the baby couldn’t possibly be his and accusing me of sleeping around on him. He got me fired from my job and practically drove me out of town. I hadn’t expected to ever hear from him again. I certainly don’t think he wants this baby. I have no idea why he would send two guys after me. I’ve been thinking about it since the attack, and I still don’t have a clue.”

  “Huh,” Day grunted. “Why don’t you ask him, then?”

  “I suppose I could,” Jenna said, taking her cell phone out of her pocket and holding it up to the limited light of the fire. “It looks like I actually have a signal, for a miracle. But honestly, I really don’t want to talk to him.” A tiny shudder ran through her.

  Day stretched out his long legs and levered himself up off the ground to go sit next to her. “Why don’t you put it on speaker and then we can both hear,” he suggested. It made more sense for him to sit close to her if it was just to listen to the call. He wasn’t being supportive or anything.

  Her grateful smile seemed brighter than the flames in front of them. “Okay, that’s a good idea.” She picked a number from her list of contacts and they waited through a few rings. After the fourth one, a man’s voice said cautiously, “Jenna? Is that you?” To Day’s ear, Stu sounded surprised and a little wary, but it could have been the connection, which wasn’t great.

  “Yes,” J
enna said. “It’s me.” Her voice was even and emotionless, but Day could see the tightness around her eyes that he’d learned meant she was upset and trying not to show it.

  “Oh,” Stu said. “Are you okay? Where are you now?”

  Day shook his head at her, but she just made a face at him, wrinkling her nose as if to indicate that she wasn’t stupid enough to answer that from the guy who might be hunting her.

  She glared down at the phone. “A better question might be why the hell you sent two men to kidnap me. What on earth are you up to?”

  There was a sputtering sound from the other end. “I’m not up to anything, Jenna. I’m just trying to find out if the baby is really mine. Since the detective I sent to find you saw you with some tall blond guy, I very much doubt it.”

  The tall blond guy in question raised an eyebrow at Jenna, who mouthed the word jackass back at him.

  “He’s just a friend,” Jenna snarled into the phone. “And it turned out to be a good thing he was there when your thugs attacked me. If you wanted to talk to me, why didn’t you just pick up the phone, instead of sending Frick and Frack to grab me in a parking lot?”

  “Now, now, Jenna, don’t exaggerate,” Stu said in a slightly condescending tone. “They were merely supposed to pick you up and take you to a clinic for a fetal DNA test to prove once and for all this baby isn’t mine. And if it is mine, that there is nothing wrong with it. They never intended to harm you. I gave them specific instructions not to.”

  “How kind of you,” Jenna said acerbically. “Are you just talking about a blood test, or something more invasive? I’m not agreeing to amniocentesis or anything. It’s way too dangerous at this stage of the pregnancy, and there aren’t any genetic issues in my family that I know of.” Some other major issues, of course, but none that would show up on a test.

  “Well, it isn’t as though you wanted this baby anyway,” Stu said. “How terrible would it be if something happened to terminate the pregnancy? Not that it’s likely, really. You’re overreacting, as usual. You clearly had some reason for being so adamant about not getting pregnant; I just want to make sure there isn’t some horrible genetic trait you don’t want passed on. If it’s mine, which isn’t likely. I don’t know why you have to be so difficult about this. It’s a reasonable request.”

  Day could hear Jenna grinding her teeth. “Of course it is. I will happily give you a DNA sample after the baby is born. You’ll just have to wait another five and a half months.”

  A deep intake of breath. “I can’t do that, Jenna. I need to know now. If the baby is mine and it has something wrong with it, it will have to be dealt with right away. And we’re running out of time.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes. “This has something to do with your father, doesn’t it?”

  “Why do you say that?” Stu asked, sounding indignant.

  “Because everything has something to do with him,” Jenna said. “Everything you do. Everything you don’t do. It all leads back to your relationship with him.”

  There was a pause, in which Stu didn’t attempt to deny this. A telling lapse, Day thought.

  “Why didn’t you just ask me before you sent out your goons to take me by force?” Jenna asked.

  “You would have said no,” Stu said. “Am I right?”

  “Yes,” Jenna said. “And I’m saying it now too. Stay away from me. Stay away from my baby. I mean it, Stu. Just leave us alone.” She ended the call and threw the phone into the bushes, then slumped down and put her face into her hands, quiet sobs slipping out from behind her fingers.

  Day fetched the phone from where it had landed, muttering a few curses because of the brambles but otherwise not commenting on her actions. To be honest, he’d wanted to crush it with a rock after that ridiculous conversation, so he thought she’d exercised a fair amount of restraint. He also thought it was a damn good thing that jerk Stu wasn’t standing in this clearing with them, since Day felt even more inclined to take a rock to him—or maybe a boulder, or an entire mountain.

  He handed the device back and settled down next to Jenna, slinging one arm casually around her shoulders as if they sat that way every night. He hated it when any woman cried, but when Jenna did it, for some reason it made him want to howl at the sky like a wolf, or tear large trees apart with his bare hands. Sadly, neither of those actions would be at all helpful, so he settled for asking, “Are you crying because you’re afraid Stu will send someone after you again? I promise, I’ll keep you safe.”

  Jenna sniffed and lifted her head, wiping at her face with the back of one hand. “Thanks, but it’s not that. I’m crying because it turns out that my baby’s daddy is a shit. That kind of sucks. Even if I miraculously find some way to break this curse and keep my baby, my little girl is going to grow up without a father. I hate to do that to her.” She sniffed again.

  Day tightened his arm in a brief, almost imperceptible hug.

  “If it makes you feel any better,” he said, “I hardly saw my father when I was growing up and I turned out okay.”

  “Really?” Jenna said. “Was your father a shit too?”

  “No,” Day said. “He was a god.”

  Jenna stared at him, her mouth dropping open. “Did you just say you’re the son of a god?”

  Day shrugged. “Yes. But don’t get too excited; he wasn’t one of the major ones. Kind of a lesser god in the Russian pantheon. His name was Jarilo, and he was the son of Perun, the supreme god of thunder. My father was a typical birth/life/death/rebirth god, celebrated in the spring and mourned in the winter. He had clout, of course, but dying every year meant that he wasn’t as powerful as some of the other gods. No one really knows if the gods are still around or not, although I’ve always assumed they still exist in one form or another.”

  “Uh-huh,” Jenna said. “I’m sorry; I’m still processing the whole son-of-a-god thing. I guess I wasn’t that far off thinking you reminded me of Thor after all.” Then she blushed, which was sweet, although he didn’t understand the reason for it.

  “You’ve met him?” Day asked. As far as he knew, none of the old gods were around anymore, but you never knew with those guys.

  “What?” Jenna bit her lip. “No, sorry, I was just thinking of the one in the movies. You know, The Avengers?”

  Day had a feeling they were speaking two different languages. “Sorry, I don’t watch many movies.”

  “That’s probably just as well,” Jenna said. “So what does your father being a god”—she blinked rapidly—“um, anyway, what does that have to do with your being a Rider? Did he create the job title or something?”

  Day shook his head. “Not exactly. He created me—and my two half brothers, Gregori and Alexei—to be the Riders. Of course, we didn’t know that when we were growing up.”

  It had been so long since he’d told this story, it felt weird to actually be talking about it. Even the Baba Yagas didn’t know the specifics. It was possible that no one currently living other than the Queen and King of the Otherworld still remembered their origins. Day wasn’t sure why he was telling this almost–perfect stranger, except that she’d asked, and he had no reason not to. Not anymore.

  “So you had a normal childhood?” Jenna said.

  Day snorted. “Sure, if you consider it normal to be raised in the great deep forests of Russia by a Leshonki, the child of a Leshy, lord of the forest and a magical forest guardian with the ability to change shape. And to spend your summer vacations with your father in the realm of the gods, playing tag with your two half brothers amid the cold white palaces in the sky.”

  “Holy crap,” Jenna muttered. “And I thought my childhood was strange. So your brothers . . . Were their mothers, um, Leshonki too?”

  Day laughed. “No, not even close. I don’t know if my father chose his women on purpose to sire children with different attributes, or if he just had eclectic tastes. Mind you, this
was back in the days when the gods got around a bit. Once people stopped believing in them, they apparently lost their ability to conceive children entirely.” And as far as anyone knew, none of their hybrid offspring had ever had children, Greek myths aside. It was something he’d made his peace with long ago. Mostly.

  “I am the youngest of the three of us,” he continued. “Our middle half brother, Alexei Knight, is the son of Jarilo and a woman named Mara. Mara was the daughter of Svyatogor, a great warrior whose name meant ‘sacred mountain’ because he was so large. He was a great hero of the old days; probably not a Human, although no one knows for sure what he was. My oldest brother, Gregori Sun’s, mother, Iduyan, was a powerful Mongolian shamaness. Maybe that’s why he turned out to be so wise; I’m not sure. God knows Alexei inherited the large and warrior-like attributes of his grandfather.”

  “So you weren’t raised together?” Jenna asked.

  “Not at all. We each spent most of our time with our mothers, in their different parts of Russia. Gregori grew up on the steppes of Siberia.” Day shuddered to think of the winters there. He didn’t much mind the cold, but there were limits, even for him.

  “But as we grew older, Jarilo brought us to the Upper Realms during the summer. In theory, it was to spend time getting to know us, but the truth is that the gods are too different from us. He was a distant father at best, always more involved in observing the world of the mortals below or enjoying the entertainments of his own world to take much interest in his children.”

  “That’s sad,” Jenna said, her expressive face creased in sympathy. “I know what it’s like to grow up with parents who are too caught up in their own issues to remember they have children.” Day was surprised by the bitter tone of her voice.