Claws and Fangs [Men of Passion, Colorado 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jane Jamison

  They took a moment to let what he’d said sink in. Kelly’s mouth was a thin line, and her sweet face was closed in as she fought to keep her fear contained. Even now she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.

  “What have you got in mind, Jude?”

  They all watched him, which made it harder to say what he thought. “We do what the kidnapper said. We take Kelly to the warehouse and exchange her for Lilly.”

  If Riker hadn’t jumped in front of Damon, Jude would’ve found himself flat on his back with his brother shifting on top of him. He would’ve either had to fight his brother or let him rip out his throat.

  “Easy, Damon. I didn’t say we’re going to let whoever this is take her. We’ll just make it seem like that’s what we’re going to do.”

  Tension flowed off Damon, but he was relieved when he saw his brother’s body relax. Jude backed away. “What do you have in mind, brother?”

  “I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  “But wait.” Kelly grabbed Riker’s arm as she directed her questions to Jude. “The note said I was supposed to come alone. If you three come with me and they see you, then”—a tear finally got loose and slid down her cheek— “they’ll hurt Lilly. Or worse.”

  “No, they won’t.” Riker wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “We can be very quiet and sneaky when we want to.”

  “Let’s get going. It’s eleven thirty now.”

  Jude opened her apartment door and let the others go first. He’d acted as confident as he could, but his gut was churning.

  What the hell would they do once they reached the warehouse? As a vampire, he could blend in with the dark. But as werewolves, Riker and Damon would stand out like lighthouse beams on a sandy seaside. Kelly was the only one who could show herself, putting her at risk. He ground his teeth together and followed the others out to his pickup.

  * * * *

  Twenty-five minutes later, Jude brought the pickup to a stop about a block from the old Milton warehouse. The location seemed appropriate to Riker. Old Wallace Milton had run a shoe factory in the early days of Passion. But his shoes never sold well. Nonetheless, the business seemed to flourish. Five years after opening the warehouse, the authorities got wind of what Old Wallace was really selling and raided the place. They’d found fifty illegal immigrants as well as over two million dollars of street drugs. Old Wallace had spent the remainder of his life behind bars, and the warehouse had stayed empty. It was as if any prospective buyers thought the place was cursed from the less-than-aboveboard enterprises it had housed.

  “What’s the plan, Jude?” Riker had his doubts that Jude had a plan, but he hoped he was wrong.

  “This is going to be rough, and you two”—Jude gave Riker and Damon a telling glare—“have to keep it in check. Don’t go doing anything you’ll regret.”

  “Have you given yourself that same speech?” Damon’s inner werewolf fought to come to the surface. Riker could see the battle to keep control in his friend’s eyes.

  “Do you have a better plan, Damon?” The edge in Jude’s voice was sharp.

  Jude was more on edge than Riker had ever seen him. He hoped that wasn’t a bad sign. “Go on, man. We’re listening.”

  Jude took a deep breath then laid out the plan for them. “Kelly will go into the warehouse alone, garnering the kidnapper’s attention. Once she’s inside, we’ll enter from three different sides and hope to get the drop on the kidnapper even before he gets close to Kelly. If we do, the rest will be easy. We’ll overpower him, free Lilly, and keep Kelly safe.”

  “And what if we don’t get the jump on him?” Riker’s hackles rose, a sure sign that his own inner werewolf was raging to get free.

  Damon kept his face averted from Kelly. Fangs slipped over his lower lip and bits of amber glowed in his eyes. “Yeah, Jude. What then?”

  Jude’s glare could have frozen the lava from an erupting volcano. “We attack.”

  * * * *

  Kelly trusted her men. Why did she think of them that way? And yet weren’t they hers? Who else would’ve come to her rescue like they were doing now? She shook her head and wondered if the kidnapper could hear the pounding of her heart. It sounded horribly loud to her ears.

  Although she tried not to look at him, she could see Damon creeping behind the boxes left behind from when the warehouse had been open for business. His eyes blazed a strange amber color, but she couldn’t take time to question that now. She was their bait.

  Forcing her feet to move, she walked toward the center of the building. The area was open, free of anything the men or the kidnapper could hide behind. So far she’d seen nothing of Lilly or the kidnapper, and she prayed they hadn’t been discovered, causing the kidnapper to flee and take Lilly along with him.

  Her nerves were frayed, but she held her head up high and glanced around. She was vulnerable, standing alone in the open. If the kidnapper meant to kill her, she made an easy target.

  A noise to her left startled her, and she yelped, spinning toward the sound. She clenched her fists and waited. And waited some more. But nothing else happened.

  Please show up. Please don’t hurt Lilly.

  She repeated the pleas over and over as though making a chant of them would somehow keep Lilly and her safe.

  Who could be so cruel as to take a wonderful girl like Lilly? How could anyone use an innocent person like Lilly to get at her? But what had she done to make someone hate her so much? Anger whipped its ugly head inside her, but she welcomed it. Anger was a lot better feeling to have than fear.

  “Kelly.”

  She whirled around to face the opposite direction. “What the hell? Clyde?”

  Clyde Spear stalked closer to her. His eyes blazed like a man possessed. He’d dressed in a suit and tie but still wore his worn-out sneakers. Several days’ growth of a beard covered his fat-softened jawline. “Kelly, I’ve waited so long for this moment.”

  Kelly backed away from him. “You took Lilly?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Who? Oh, yes. Your friend. That’s right. I took her.” His voice sounded mechanical, reminding her of a robot.

  “I’m here like your note said to do. So where’s Lilly?” She glanced around her again but didn’t see either Lilly or her men. Were they searching for her? Was she supposed to stall Clyde while they looked?

  “She’s fine.” He took two steps toward her.

  She held up her hands. “Don’t come any closer, Clyde. Not until you let Lilly go.” She pushed away the revulsion and anger she felt for him. If it meant keeping Lilly safe, she’d play along.

  He squinted, confusion making deep wrinkles in his forehead. “Let her go?” As soon as the confusion came, it left, leaving him with eerie glazed eyes.

  “Clyde, are you all right? You seem like you’re in a trance.” He didn’t seem right to her. Had he injured his head and caused his mind to go wrong? Had his drinking finally scrambled his brain? Not that it mattered. If he’d hurt Lilly, she’d claw his eyes out with her bare hands.

  “Come to me, Kelly.” He held out his arms.

  She shook her head, forcing her expression not to show her fury. “Clyde, you’re not acting like yourself. I tell you what. You tell me where Lilly is, and we’ll go with you to the hospital. Will you do that?”

  “Hospital? No. I came here for you.” He moved faster toward her.

  She backed up, stumbled over a strip of metal, and landed on her back. Clyde cried out and rushed toward her. “No. Don’t touch me!”

  A growl echoed in the warehouse and brought Clyde to a stop. His eyes widened then cleared.

  “What am I doing here?” He gawked at her then reached out to help her up. “Kelly, are you okay?”

  She held her hands in front of her. “Leave me alone. What’s wrong with you?”

  An explosion erupted in the far corner of the building. Clyde yelled at the same moment Kelly screamed and covered her ears. Smoke billowed out the broken windows of the warehouse and rolled
toward her. She scrambled to her feet, ready to run. Clyde dashed toward the other side of the warehouse.

  Horror filled her as more growls and a howl ripped through the air. The billowing black smoke tumbled toward her.

  “Lilly? Where are you?” Kelly screamed her friend’s name again, but the noise coming from the area of the explosion was so loud she could no longer hear the sound of her own voice.

  “Damon? Jude? Riker?” Her throat burned as she called out for them. The black cloud rolled toward her.

  “Lilly, answer me!”

  “She’s a little indisposed right now.”

  Kelly whirled around to find Tess standing right behind her. “You? You’re the one who took her? But why?”

  “The bitch is just a pawn. It’s you I want.”

  How could she hear her? Yet it was like Tess was talking inside her head. “But why? What did I ever do to you?”

  “You’ll know soon enough.” A snarl filled Tess’s face, morphing it into a mask of hatred. Red flashed in her eyes as the tips of fangs eased over her lower lip.

  She started to back away, but Tess grabbed her and met her gaze.

  Darkness swamped over Kelly as an invisible force leaked into her. Her arms and legs felt detached from her torso. With a groan, she blacked out.

  Chapter Nine

  Damon, Jude, and Riker split up and searched the building from top to bottom even though they knew it would be a fruitless task. Clyde and Kelly were nowhere to be found.

  They met back at the place where the explosion and fire had started. Once the explosion happened, they’d dashed over to find a small fire consuming a large pile of boxes. Getting the fire out hadn’t been difficult, but it had cost them valuable time. Time during which Kelly had disappeared.

  “One of us should’ve stayed with her.”

  Jude was right, but Damon wasn’t in the mood. “You didn’t put that in the plan. If you would’ve stayed near Kelly when all this went down, we wouldn’t be standing here staring at a bunch of ashes.”

  Jude’s eyes flashed, but he said nothing. His brother wasn’t the only one to blame. He and Riker had screwed up just as badly.

  They leaned over the smoldering pile of boxes. Or rather, what was left of the boxes. “What the hell happened?”

  Jude and Riker stared at the place where the bomb had gone off as Riker bent closer and sniffed. “I can’t be sure, but I’d be willing to bet it contained a shitload of firecrackers.”

  “We lost both Lilly and Kelly because of a bunch of firecrackers?” Jude paced back and forth. His eyes blazed red as the vampire side of him took over. His shirt was torn, but he still managed to appear his same put-together self.

  “We got schooled, that’s what happened.” Damon let the growl rumbling in his throat ease from between his fangs. “We fell for the diversion and fucked up. Now not only didn’t we get Lilly back, we’ve lost Kelly.”

  “I say we find Clyde and scoop his eyes out with a spoon.” Riker stood and strode away from the ashes only to return again. His werewolf was charging toward the surface, and shifting was too close for comfort.

  “I’d rather glamour him and make him do it himself.” Jude crossed his arms, his face expressionless, but his eyes fired with hatred.

  Damon ran a hand through his hair. “I doubt we’ll find him. Besides, he’s not the one in charge.”

  Jude crooked his neck, taking back his fangs and returning his eyes to their normal black. “Then who?”

  “Can’t you smell it?” He hadn’t picked up the scent until after the explosion, when he and the other two men had run toward the sound and smoke.

  Riker sniffed hard then shook his head. “I’m picking up a stench, but I can’t place it.”

  Jude glared at them. “What is it, Damon? Come on. I don’t have your sense of smell, so tell me.”

  “Remember when I dragged Tess out of the restaurant?” He paused, waiting for them to speak, and when they didn’t he went on. “Once we were outside and away from all the aromas of the food, I got a good whiff. Or should I say a bad whiff? The thing that Riker and I smell is her new perfume. It stinks like hell.”

  “Tess did this?” asked Jude.

  “Yeah, and I’m an idiot for not guessing she was behind this all along. When I told her we were still not interested in her and we never would be, especially since we’d found Kelly, she ranted and raved about getting rid of Kelly. I didn’t take it seriously and forgot about it. Hell, who knew Tess would go this far? I didn’t think she had it in her.”

  Jude whacked his shoulder. “Damn it. Haven’t I told you often enough not to underestimate her? She’s a vampire, and as such she’s capable of doing anything.”

  “But what about Clyde?”

  Damon shook his head. “Jude, tell our friend about Clyde.”

  “She probably had him under her spell so he’d do anything she wanted. Hell, I’ll bet everything I own that she has both Lilly and Kelly under her spell now, too.”

  “How about the man who brought the note to Kelly? Do you think he’s a part of this?”

  Damon felt like Riker was grasping at straws, but it never hurt to ask.

  “No. He was probably just some poor guy that she glamoured into delivering the note.” Jude shifted on his feet, the only sign that he wasn’t as in control as he looked.

  Damon brought his lips back into a snarl. “Damn vampires.” He noted the sour look Jude gave him. “Don’t get your bat wings in a bunch. I didn’t mean you.”

  “I swear, when we find that little bitch, I’m going to make her wish she’d stayed in her coffin.” Riker’s snarl turned into a growl.

  “Are you two serious right now? What’s with all the bad vampire references? Have you ever seen me inside a coffin?”

  “Sorry, but I’m kind of upset.” Riker snarled at Jude but backed away.

  Jude kicked at the last vestiges of the smoking pile of boxes. “If Tess hurts one hair on her beautiful head, I’ll take her to the ground myself.”

  “Enough about what we want to do to the vamp. The question is, what do we do now?” Damon shrugged his shoulders, working to put his animal back inside his internal cage.

  “We wait until Tess contacts us.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? We have to do something. We could check Tess’s place and ask around town.” Riker’s amber eyes flashed then mellowed as he brought his wolf under control.

  “She’s smarter than that. The only thing we can do is be ready when she contacts us.” Jude turned on his heel and led them out of the warehouse.

  The ride back to Kelly’s apartment was filled with silence. Each man was lost in his thoughts, fears, and anger.

  Once there, Jude glamoured the apartment manager into letting them inside her home. Damon could see the hope he felt die on their faces as they realized Kelly hadn’t made it home on her own. Not that they’d expected her to, but hope was a strange thing that had a life of its own.

  “I don’t understand why we came here. Wouldn’t Tess be more likely to contact us at one of our places?”

  “Maybe, Damon, but I doubt it. She’d know that we’d have guards watching for her there. At least on the ranch. Besides, she sent a messenger before we knew that Clyde was doing her dirty work. I doubt she’ll make direct physical contact again.”

  “Then how?”

  Damon did as Riker and looked to Jude for his answer.

  “I’m guessing by phone or text message.”

  The silence returned, with each man trying to relax but then coming to his feet again to pace the small apartment. Jude, ever the calm one, at least by appearance, stared out the front window. Damon and Riker tried not to run into each other as they strode back and forth. Minutes turned into agonizing hours.

  * * * *

  The ringing of Jude’s cell phone brought them together in the middle of the living room. Jude answered and put the call on speaker. “Where is she?”

  Clyde’s emotionless voice came through
the speaker. “Do as I say, and they won’t be harmed.”

  Jude shot a warning glance at a growling Riker. “I’m listening.”

  “Go to the small cabin on your ranch. In the cabin, you’ll find directions on how to find them.”

  “Are they unharmed? Tell your master that if she hurts either one—”

  The call ended before Jude could finish his sentence. Damon fought to keep the rage from turning his wolf free. Instead, he strode toward the door. “Let’s go get that bitch and her servant.”

  * * * *

  The ride to the ranch was the longest one Damon had ever known. Although the trip took only thirty minutes, it seemed to drag on forever. At last, Jude pulled the pickup in front of the small cabin they used to get away from the main ranch house. The men had spent many days relaxing, playing cards, and fishing at the nearby pond.

  Damon hit the ground running and burst through the door, not bothering to wait until Jude could unlock it. His brute strength sent the door banging against the wall. Scanning the room, he searched for any sign of the girls. But the only new thing he saw was the white sheet of paper sitting on top of the small kitchen table. He snatched up the note and started reading aloud.

  “Can you pick which girl gets to live? Choose the wrong one and they both die. One girl rests by the pond. The other swings in the trees by the picnic meadow.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Riker walked around the rest of the interior, his hands flexing to keep his claws from coming through the ends of his fingers.

  Jude turned his back on them to stare out the window. Damon gritted his teeth, the anger he felt for Tess feeding the irritation at his brother. At times he found the vampire’s cool exterior difficult to handle.

  “Here are the options. It means that if we choose Lilly, Kelly will die. If we choose Kelly, then Lilly will die. But the kicker is, if we choose the girl Tess doesn’t want us to choose, then they both die.”

  “So either way someone dies.” Riker snarled then tossed a chair, slamming it against the wall and breaking it into pieces.