by Olivia Arran
“A vote? Really?” Scar drawled from where she stood next to me.
Vin shrugged, his lips twisting in a smirk as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “You want to get this shoot finished, right?”
I nodded, all the while trying to ignore the tightening in my chest.
“Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen with Cole around. Not with you dressed like that and frolicking with action man over there.” He gestured vaguely below my chin, his eyes not moving from my face.
The man looked like he was going to have a seizure, or die trying. “Have you never seen a woman in a swimsuit before?”
He cast his eyes heavenward, as though praying for salvation. “Not my team member’s mate, I haven’t.” Turning on his heel, he stalked away, leaving us no choice but to follow.
My denial died on my lips. There was no point—they all knew Cole and I were mates. And that he’d rejected me.
Scar’s eyes were glued to Vin’s ass, her lips parting at the sight of the solid denim-clad muscles clenching with each stride.
“Vin?” I whispered, wiggling my eyebrows in question.
Dragging her eyes away, she winked. “No harm in appreciating the beauty around me, is there?”
A laugh I didn’t know I had left in me burst from my mouth. Hugging her into my side, I bumped her hip with mine. “No, there’s definitely nothing wrong with it.”
“Behave, ladies,” Vin threw over his shoulder.
“And his accent is so cute!”
“Uh-huh, very prim and proper,” I agreed.
“I wonder what it would sound like whispering dirty—”
“Enough!” Vin exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. He tapped his ear piece. “Guys, does anyone else want to come down here and deal with this abuse? Yes, I’m being abused. No…just wanting me to talk dirty. Angel, stop. That’s not a good idea. On second thought, stay there, I’ve got this.” He let out a theatrical sigh and then pointed at a shady area, just off set. “I’ll be over there. Yell if you need me.”
Without turning around, he marched over to his designated corner, the tips of his ears suspiciously red.
“Who knew? A shy wolf!” Scar murmured, watching him leave.
“I don’t think he’s shy. It’s probably more about who we are.”
“Exactly!” She snapped her fingers, popping a hand on her hip. It was her favorite pose for confrontation, as I was fast remembering.
“What?”
“You’re Cole’s mate. There’s no changing it. You two have got to stop hiding—”
I clamped my hands over my ears. “La la la la! Enough! Leave it, Scar, I’ve got to work.”
“Fine,” I heard her mutter. “Only trying to help. You’d thank me for it later, I know you would.” She dropped down onto the ground in a graceful sprawl, her dark hair fanning around her.
Leaving her to sulk, I walked onto the set. Dropping my robe into a waiting crewmember’s hand, I smoothed a hand over my hair. “Where do you want me?”
Michael broke off from his conversation with a cameraman. “Set up like last time. Rise up from the water and take it from there. Where’s Jorge?”
“Here!” Jorge sauntered onto set, his naked chest glistening in the sun.
Looks like someone convinced his makeup artist to go extra on the oil again… I stifled a shudder, already dreading the inevitable slip and slide when my wet skin met his. “Okay—”
“Ms. Silk?” A voice called out.
I paused, glancing over my shoulder. A man hovered at the edge of the boundary, a bunch of flowers and a letter in his hand. He was chewing his lip, bouncing from one foot to the other.
“Not another goddamn fan,” Michael muttered under his breath. “Someone deal with him.”
“But... Ms. Silk! I need to speak with you!”
Already halfway to the lake, his voice drifted on the air. Was this him? My fan turned stalker turned psycho? “I’ll speak to him,” I called out, changing direction.
He looked harmless, dressed in a tracksuit and sporting a slick comb-over that did nothing to hide his shiny scalp. Wishing I was still wearing my robe, I stopped a few feet away from him.
“What do you think you’re doing, Natasha?” Vin’s furious voice startled me. He pushed in front of me, giving me a good view of his back. He and Cole had something in common. I peered around him.
Mr. Tracksuit seemed to wilt under Vin’s glare, his shoulders sagging and spine crumpling. He thrust a slightly mangled bunch of flowers forward, petals scattering. “Who are you?” he muttered.
Vin crossed his arms over his broad chest, his T-shirt straining over his biceps. “Ms. Silk’s security. Who are you?”
“Jeremy.” His voice was thin and reedy. “Ms. Silk, these are for you. I... I just wanted to meet you.” He craned his neck to look at me around Vin, his eyes widening as they traveled the length of my body, beads of sweat breaking out on his brow.
My skin crawled under his gaze. I hugged my arms around my chest, managing to twine one around my hips. Now I really wished I was wearing my robe.
“I’m a big fan. I have all of your pictures, and copies of all the commercials and movies you’ve been in. All of them,” he babbled, still holding the flowers.
I plastered on a smile, my face aching with the effort. Only one more scene and then I never have to do this again. “Thank you, Jeremy. And thank you for the flowers, they’re lovely. Vin, would you take them for me please?”
I leaned in and gave Vin a little shove. A strange screeching noise reached my ears, muffled and scratchy. Reaching up onto tiptoes I followed the sound, zeroing in. As he reached out to snatch the flowers from Jeremy, I did a little snatching of my own, plucking his earpiece out and shoving it into my own ear.
Cole’s voice roared through the tiny speaker. “Get Tasha away from that motherfucking slime ball now! If he manages to lay so much as one hand on her, I will personally detach your balls from your body and feed them to you! For fuck’s sake, Vin, your only job is to keep her safe! If something happens to her then I won’t have anything left to lose and I will hunt you down and—”
I tapped the speaker like I had seen the guys do many times. “Uh, Cole?”
The rant stuttered into silence, then, “Tasha?”
“Would you really detach Vin’s—”
“I would,” he growled.
“What would he detach?” I heard Vin ask, but he sounded a million miles away.
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with this knowledge. Nothing, I decided. I handed the earpiece back to Vin and turned around to make my way back to the lake.
Cole
“Tasha?” I was crouched near the top road, supposedly screening vehicles as they made their way into the park. In actual fact I was assigned the only position from which I couldn’t see the lake. Which meant I couldn’t see Tasha. Originally it was a very good idea, given that she was shooting that scene today.
Claws shot out of my fingers, the world around me flaring with color as my wolf battered at my skin. He liked the idea about as much as I did. It had taken the whole team to convince me to change position, to stay away from Tasha today. Eventually they had hauled Macey onto the phone to convince me.
Something I shouldn’t have agreed to. I couldn’t protect her from up here.
“Tasha,” I tried again.
“She’s back on set. I have the flowers. Nothing suspicious,” Vin answered, his voice carefully neutral.
Well, it wasn’t every day that you witnessed your friend and team member finding and rejecting their true mate.
“Got it. You keep a close eye on her.”
“I am. Try and relax, we’ve got this.”
It was telling that the other guys were maintaining radio silence, especially Angel, who always had something to say. I wasn’t sure exactly what it said though. They’d been pretty closed-lipped since finding out about the situation between Tasha and me.
/> I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension. “Tell me as soon as it’s over.” I pushed what that meant to the back of my mind. Tasha had contracted us for two weeks, and it didn’t matter that she’d wrapped the job up in one—I was sticking it out for two, whether she liked it or not. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Not yet.
“Will do.” Vin tapped out.
I stood up, stretching out the crick in my spine. Giving my shoulders a tug, I glanced around. Nothing. Silence. Shrugging off the unease, I circled around, following a path down into the woods. There was the spot where I’d pushed her to the ground, where we’d tangled, wild and abandoned and angry. A soft breeze lifted my hair, carrying with it the smell of moist leaves and rabbits. There wasn’t a rabbit in sight though; they’d hopped off at first whiff of the predator walking among them.
Something nudged at my senses, a wisp of a feeling or an echo of memory. I tapped my ear. “Greg, report.”
“All clear on the monitors.”
“The fan?”
“Watching but not moving closer. He’s taking pictures though. Do you want him stopped?”
My teeth clashed together at the thought of Tasha immortalized digitally for that weirdo’s pleasure. Then I reminded myself that she was being immortalized on film, for everyone to see. “No point.”
“Got it.”
I tapped out. Something was bugging me. My wolf senses were tingling, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Everyone was on set, with all my main suspects accounted for. The stalker fan was being watched. So what was it?
My feet continued walking without any definite direction, but it didn’t surprise me to find myself at the edge of the woods. Across the park was the lake. And Tasha. Taking a deep breath, I tried to talk my feet into turning back around, but they were stuck. The air filtered through my nose, the tastes of the park settling on my tongue. A bitter tang soured my mouth, metallic and oily and—
I jabbed my ear piece. “We have a sniper,” I snapped out in a low growl, already moving.
“Where?” someone echoed back, along with a string of lively curses.
“I don’t know. Yet.”
“I’ll get Natasha,” Vin huffed out.
In seconds I’d pinpointed everyone’s positions. But I couldn’t see a telltale glint of metal. “No, I’ll get her. You’re close to Scar—he might go for her if he can’t get a shot at Tasha.” I was already sprinting, the park blurring, my entire focus zeroing in on the woman in front of me. Chest pounding, my heart thundering in my ears, my arms were pumping and thighs burning. I saw Vin tackle Scar to the ground, covering her with his body. Tasha hadn’t seen me. She was still playing her part in the lake, the water lapping at her knees. Jorge was wading toward her, his mouth set, his stride determined.
Static crackled in my ear. “Cole, you’ve got to hear this—”
“What?” I bit out, cutting Greg off. Nearly there.
“The flowers came with a letter.”
“And?”
“They weren’t from the same person. The note tucked into the bouquet is in a different handwriting.”
“Another stalker?” I hit water, choosing the most direct path.
“No. This is a death threat. You’re right, you’ve got to get to her. He means business.”
Jorge reached for Tasha, his arms closing around my mate. He cupped her jaw roughly, angling her face toward the camera, and captured her mouth.
She moaned, her arms slipping around his neck, her body molding against his.
Red flashed in front of my eyes, rage flaring and firing through me. She’s just a good actress… “No!” I shouted. This shouldn’t be happening…
Tasha whirled around, sending water sloshing and lapping toward the shore. “Cole! What’s happening?” Her eyes widened, looking past me. “What is Vin doing with Scar?”
I closed the gap, fingers reaching out to snag her hip. A crack echoed through the air, sending birds screaming for the sky. Pain sliced through me, a red-hot trail burning bright with agony. “Is somebody on him?” I managed to grunt out before falling back into the water.
“No! Cole!” Her screams tugged at me, her hands patting and smoothing my chest.
I couldn’t open my eyes. The darkness was dragging me down, seductive and heavy.
“…Not meant to be like this…” The words were a low hiss, foggy and indistinct.
Chapter Twenty
Natasha
He was sinking, blood spiraling out and tainting the water crimson. I dragged his head up, yanking at his shoulders. “Help!” He was too heavy! I tugged again, my feet sliding on the pebbled lakebed. “Please! Someone help me!” I screamed. Jorge was nowhere to be seen, having hightailed it out of the lake seconds after the shot had been fired.
I had to stop the blood. There’s too much blood! “Cole, you can’t leave me. You can’t!”
“Get down, Natasha!” Vin’s voice screamed at me.
Panicked screams drifted on the air. There were sounds of the crashing of people fleeing and searching for shelter.
Another crack snapped through the air, and the water next to my elbow jumped as a bullet whizzed by, grazing my arm.
Cole grunted, his body jumping in my arms. More red pooled around us.
Vin roared at me, already running flat out toward us, “Get the fuck down! He’s still out there!”
I couldn’t bring myself to worry, not when the man I loved was dying in my arms. Loved? When had that happened? I shoved his sopping wet hair back, smoothing it gently away from his face. He was pale, his face drawn up in what must be agonizing pain.
His eyes blinked open, blurry and unfocused, his chest rising as he sucked a rattling breath in through his mouth. “Tasha? What—? Is he—?” He blinked again, giving his head a shake.
“You’ve been shot,” I whispered, willing him to tell me everything was going to be all right. That he would heal. It took a lot to take a shifter down, and whether they survived depended on their strength. Cole was strong. I knew he was.
“I can tell,” he grunted. “Did the guys find—”
His words were cut off at the loud crack of another shot being fired. In seconds he had rolled over, pressing me beneath him, his arm under my head the only thing keeping me from drowning. He arched, his body shuddering as his mouth twisted in a grim parody of a smile. Tapping his ear, he panted, “Have you got him yet? That last one fucking hurt!”
“Have they?” I demanded, the cold from the lake infusing my bones with ice. He couldn’t just lie there on top of me all day taking bullet after bullet!
“Not yet. They’re closing in.” He frowned as his earpiece squawked to life again. “No. Take him alive,” he murmured, his eyes pure emerald and glinting with eagerness.
I held my breath, not daring to speak.
“They’ve got him.”
Relief flooded me as his words sunk in. Breath exploding from my lungs, I hugged him as tightly as I could. Then, remembering his wounds, I immediately let go. “Shit, Cole, I’m sorry! Did I hurt you? Are you going to be okay? Will you heal? Don’t you dare die on me!”
Amusement tugged at his lips, the corner of his eyes crinkling as he lost the fight, a wide grin spreading across his face.
He was fine. Or rather, he would be fine. I closed my eyes, the adrenaline that had been thundering through my system leaving me with a bang. I was cold and tired and confused by everything. Most of all him.
Warm lips pressed against mine, insistent and tantalizing.
My eyes flew open in shock.
He deepened the kiss, his tongue tracing the seam of my mouth, arms tightening around me, his fingers sifting through my hair to cradle my head.
Punched full of holes, soaked to the skin, and half-drowning in an ice-cold lake, and he was asking me to make out with him? Well, who the hell was I to argue? My lips parted on a sigh, inviting him in.
A low rumble of appreciation vibrated against my chest, his tongue dipping into my mouth an
d swirling with mine in a playful dance. He broke away, pressing a kiss to one corner of my mouth, then the other. “I couldn’t help myself,” he admitted, looking a little bashful, but mostly pleased with himself.
“You couldn’t?” My voice was breathy. Dammit!
He nodded, stealing another kiss, this time short and sweet. “You’re safe. I had to.”
And what did that mean?
He struggled to stand, tugging me up with him. Swaying a little, he gave his head a quick shake, annoyance clouding his expression. “I think we’re done for the day. How do you feel about digging some bullets out of me?” Grabbing my hand, he winked at my shocked expression. “Okay, I’ll let the guys dig them out. But you’ve got to promise me you’ll be the one to kiss me better.” Sliding an arm around my waist, he secured me to his side and started trudging to the shore.
Had I missed something? A blow to the head maybe? Confused and bedraggled, I didn’t pull away. “Why—?” I glanced at him, seeing his wounds for the first time. It was a miracle he was still standing. He’d been shot in the chest, the thigh, and the shoulder. Blood still oozed from the chest wound. “Why aren’t you healing?”
“I am. Mostly,” he grunted, his face as white as a sheet under his tan. “Thigh and shoulder are fine. The bullets passed straight through. They’ll take an hour or so. My chest is a different matter. Need to dig it out before I can heal.” He staggered to the side, dragging me with him.
“Hey there.” Vin waded into the water and grabbed his arm, hooking it over his shoulder. “Let go of Natasha, man.”
“No,” Cole ground out, his hand flexing and digging into my side. A low growl trickled from his lips, his eyes glowing.
Looks like I’m staying put.
Vin looked over at me, his eyebrows raising in silent question.
“I’m fine. We need to—”
Vin nodded, relief spreading over his face. “I know.” He dragged us both out of the lake and started to lower Cole to the ground.
“Not here. In the van. And then I want to speak to our prisoner. I have a couple of questions for him,” Cole snapped out between gritted teeth.