by Alice Brown
Cassie glanced down at herself. “I guess I look like something the cat dragged in, but you…” she stopped for a second as she studied her friend. She couldn’t remember her friend ever looking this good. “You look like a million bucks! Something must be agreeing with you out here in the Lone Star State.” She really was happy for Betty. She’d never seen her friend so radiant, so happy. Life in Texas must be pretty good for her, she thought a bit gloomily.
What would it be like to be that happy? Cassie wondered. She couldn’t help but remember the dream she’d had starring her gorgeous escort. In her dream, he’d had feelings for her. What would it be like to have the attention of a man such as Donte Chaverez? What would it be like to be on the receiving end of a love as she had experienced in her dream? His lips were so tender when they had finally touched, as if he knew she was scared, and was doing everything in his power to put her at ease. But just when things started getting good, poof! Out came her nightmare demons and chased away all the good. Hell, she couldn’t even dream about being happy, how in the world was she supposed to try to ‘act’ happy?
She half paid attention as Betty introduced her sister, Sissy, and the three women started walking toward the car that waited for them. Donte and Walter held back a bit.
“Did you run into any problems? Anything I need to know about?” Walter asked as the two of them started slowly making their way to the car.
“Yes, something I don’t understand. Her mind is being manipulated by Betty’s ex.”
“What? How is this possible?” Walter stopped and turned to his friend. “Tell me everything.”
“Well, you already know she’s my mate. I jumped into her mind after she fell asleep, just to slightly manipulate some top thoughts into a dream. Which was going wonderfully, but just as she let her guard down to begin to feel anything for me, Gregory showed up in the dream.” Donte ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I don’t know how in the hell he managed it, but the image of him threatening to kill her, as you might guess, stopped her in her tracks. The image of him didn’t last, he was only there for a short time, but it was enough.”
“Where were you when this happened? Could he have been close enough to be doing this?” Walter asked in concern.
“No, we were on the plane. This just happened a few hours ago. We were in the air, and had been for about an hour when all of this happened.”
“Damn. Okay, we need to start covering some bases. This could be the work of black magic, or a number of other things, none of which we see very often anymore.”
“What’s the chance he’s trying to track her to discover where Betty is?” Donte asked, as they started walking again.
Walter stopped again abruptly. “Shit! Didn’t think of that one!” He reached over and placed his hand on Donte’s shoulder. “Good call. At this point, we need to assume the worst. If he is using black magic or something similar to find Betty, our best bet would be not to have her stay at my house.” He looked ahead at the women. “But damn, she needs someplace safe to rest and finish healing. It looks like that bastard really did a number on her.”
“You know she is more than welcome to stay at my house, just not sure how easily she is going to agree with the suggestion. She’s not very trusting at the moment, but considering what she just went through, can’t say I blame her.”
“Hmm, well, we’re going to need to do something, because if she goes to my house and he is tracking her, all we’re doing is leading him straight to Betty. Although a small part of me would love to see that monster’s face when he realizes his ex is now a vampire!” Walter grinned at the picture his mind conjured up, Betty holding her ex by the throat, choking the air out of him until he turned blue.
“Yes, which leads me to wonder why he is dealing in the black arts, or whatever he is in. You don’t think he already knows she’s one of us, do you?” Donte asked as they made their way once again to the car.
“I don’t know, Donte. But I think we need to bring all of this up at a staff meeting and get as many viewpoints on this as possible. I don’t like the feel of this. I think we’re missing something, and we need to figure it out quickly.”
The two men got into the car where the women were talking non-stop, oblivious to the danger that seemed to be lurking. Walter put the car in drive, and headed out of the small airstrip.
“Betty, I’ve been thinking. It might be best if you and Cassandra were not staying together on a full time basis. We don’t know what tracking means Gregory has at his disposal, and if he’s able to track her down, it would lead him straight to my house. Unfortunately, with my heavy work schedule, that could prove disastrous if I’m not around.
“Cassandra, I’ve asked Donte if you could stay in his spare room and he has agreed if you’re comfortable with that. You have my word he’s a gentleman, but if you prefer, the rangers have several safe houses available. I can make arrangements for you to stay at one of those, but you’ll need to have a ranger staying with you for protection there as well. It’s your call.”
Donte glanced over to Cassandra. Shock was clearly on her face. He hated the way everything was going. She had been under the impression that she was going to Walter’s house to stay with her friend Betty until a moment ago. Now, so she didn’t endanger her friend any further, she was being asked to stay with a man she had only met twenty-four hours ago.
He waited until she noticed him looking her way. “I promise to be a perfect gentleman and you will be safe. I give you my word.”
“Wh-what am I to do when Donte is at work?” her voice quivered as she asked the question. She felt so out of the normal realm of things. Someone tracking her just to find someone she knew? Beating her when she couldn’t tell him where her friend was. Things like this just didn’t happen to her. Up until a few days ago, her biggest problems were trying to keep her car running long enough to make it back and forth to work, and how to stretch her money to pay rent, electric, gas, and food.
She glanced over to her friend. She would never knowingly put her friend in danger. Even when Betty’s ex showed up and beat the daylights out of her, she never gave him a hint as to where her friend was. The only thing she could have told him at that time was Texas, somewhere in Texas, but she didn’t even tell him that. She had lied and said she hadn’t heard from Betty since she had been hospitalized, and had no idea where she was.
She reached over to take Betty’s hand. “It’s fine. I can stay with Mr. Chaverez. He stayed with me last night and was a gentleman.” She squeezed Betty’s hand. “Maybe we can figure out a safe place to meet?”
Betty gave her a bright smile, before her brother-in-law, Walter, jumped back in. “You know, while Donte is working, the safest place for you to be is at headquarters.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, his sight going to Betty. “Same for you, Betty. We need to start taking his threats a bit more seriously, especially since he’s out of jail and has already attacked one person. We need to go ahead and brace ourselves for the fact he may very well show up here. He does know you have family out here. It wouldn’t take much for him to look us up.”
Sissy, Walter’s wife, reached over to place her hand on top of Cassandra’s. “Walter’s right. I’ve known Donte for many years now, you will be in good hands, hon.”
Cassandra nodded her head at Sissy, and glanced over to Betty. She didn’t want her friend to worry. She’d been through enough. “It will be fine, Betty. The men are right, it’s always better to be safe. Speaking of which, where’s the little pipsqueak?” she asked, referring to Betty’s young son, Timmy.
“He’s still with his grandfather. He was due to come home about a week ago, but when we got word that Gregory was out of jail, we decided it may be safer for him to stay where he is right now.”
Cassandra nodded, glad to hear the young boy wasn’t in the line of danger. It had made her sick to her stomach to hear how Gregory had turned his drunken temper on the little boy the night he attacked Betty.
; As the car turned into a nice, quiet neighborhood, Cassandra wondered what kind of house her host kept. He showed up very well dressed yesterday, wearing a dress shirt and slacks, but she got the impression he was much more comfortable in jeans and t-shirts, similar to what he had on today. She hoped she wasn’t going to be walking into a bachelor pad, complete with dirty beer cans flung everywhere, and pizza boxes stacked in the corner.
Walter pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be a well-kept modest home. The flowerbeds in the front yard looked very well tended, and the lawn freshly mowed. Hmm, if the outside looked this good, maybe there was hope for the inside.
Everyone climbed out and made their way to the front door. Donte pulled a set of keys out of his pants pocket and unlocked the door. She watched he and Walter walk in first, taking a quick moment to look around, as if to make sure it was safe.
Betty and Sissy stopped at the threshold. “You probably need to get some rest, so I’m going to let you get settled, and I’ll probably see you tomorrow since both the guys will be at work,” Betty stated as she reached over to give her a hug. Once she had Cassandra within her embrace, she whispered, “Trust me, Donte is a jewel. Just give him a chance. He really is a nice guy.” Then her friend released her, stepping back, getting ready to leave.
“Umm, yeah, I’ll probably see you tomorrow,” Cassandra replied, still trying to figure out how she came into this situation to begin with. And what did Betty mean by “give him a chance”? A chance at what exactly? She was only staying with him because they seemed to think it was the best way to keep Betty safe. Sure, he was a good looking, chivalrous, soft spoken, well-mannered ranger, but she wasn’t stupid. A guy like him wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like her.
She turned to see the two men shake hands. “I’ll see you at the office tomorrow morning. Call me if anything happens,” Walter stated then turned, glanced at her, and bowed his head slightly acknowledging her. “Ma’am, Donte will take good care of you. If I didn’t trust him implicitly, you wouldn’t be staying with him.”
The front door closing had a ring of finality to it, and she rubbed at the goose bumps running up and down her arms. She looked over to her host for some direction.
“Okay, well, are you tired? Do you want to lay down?” he asked in an effort to end the uncomfortable silence between the two of them.
Standing there, watching him, she wasn’t sure what she was. Yes, she was kind of tired, and she definitely hurt. But if she did lay down, would her brain shut off long enough to allow her to rest? “Umm sure, I guess so.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal and then immediately winced. Damn ribs.
“Let me show you to your bedroom.” Donte turned and started walking down the hall, leaving her to follow.
He turned into a doorway a quick moment later, and she was pleasantly surprised at what was before her. She had noticed that the parts she had seen of his house looked to be very clean. No old pizza boxes lying around. No soda bottles or beer cans. The coffee table in front of his couch in the living room had been clean of all debris except a couple of magazines and a laptop.
The room he was offering her now was decorated way more than she ever expected a bachelor’s extra bedroom to be.
“I hope this will work for you.” Cassandra was surprised to hear the anxiousness in his voice. Why would he care what she thought of his home?
She turned and gave him a small smile. “It’s great. Thank you for letting me stay here.”
He stared into her eyes for a moment, then slowly raised his hand until he could reach hers. He brought it to his lips, kissing the back of her hand, in an old-fashioned way she found endearing, if not a bit odd. Men just didn’t do things like that anymore.
“No need to thank me. It is my pleasure to have you here, cariño.” His Hispanic accent was thick, his voice deep, and she found herself drowning in his dark eyes. They stood facing each other, eyes locked, her body suddenly unable to move, barely able to breathe. He continued to stare into her eyes, his lips barely brushing the back of her hand. Then just as fast as she had fallen into his trap, her nightmare came roaring into her mind, reminding her of why she was there to begin with.
Donte watched her facial expressions carefully. He couldn’t believe how thick his accent was when he opened his mouth. He hadn’t let the accent surface in too many years to count, except for the occasional use of his Hispanic roots for work. Poor Nathaniel knew very little Spanish, and he was forever giving his friend a hard time about it.
But as he watched her emotions skitter across her face, he saw the exact second her nightmare hit. Her breath hitched, her heart started pounding, and she jerked her hand away as if he had burned her. Since he had been watching from the recesses of her mind, he had a bit more understanding as to what was going on.
She stood visibly shaken in the middle of the room, looking like a lost soul, not knowing which way to turn, which way to go. “Did I frighten you, little Cassie?”
She closed her eyes as she desperately tried to dispel the images of the monster haunting her. “No, it wasn’t you. I was just quickly reminded of why I am here, and the danger that’s still lurking.” She turned to glance at the queen size bed. “I think I’ll take that rest now, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, Querido, make yourself comfortable. I’ll check on you a bit later.” Not knowing what else to do, and cursing the man who had stolen the moment the two of them were sharing, he turned and walked out the door.
Donte waited a little while, giving her time to fall asleep. He walked into his pristine, but very bare kitchen. “Crap!” he muttered to himself as he grabbed his phone out of his pocket.
“Damn, son, you having problems with your houseguest already? We haven’t even been gone an hour yet.”
“Yeah, real funny, man, real funny. I have a few problems. First of all, she has no clothes, and I have no food in my kitchen,” Donte hissed out, trying to keep his voice down so as to not awaken his houseguest.
“I know. We’re out shopping now and should be back at your house in about another two hours. Anything else?”
“Yeah, it happened again. I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of a spell he has over her. Every time she starts to relax around me and let down her guard, he pops up in her mind, threatening her.”
“I’m going to try to get her to talk about that tomorrow at the staff meeting. I think we are going to need the team’s involvement on this one.”
“Hmm, not sure how that one is going to work out, man. She’s real skittish around people she doesn’t know, especially men. You might get more out of her by getting the ladies involved.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Okay, we’ll see how things go when we get back there tomorrow morning, and wing it from there.” Donte pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, not believing what he just heard.
“Did I just hear you say we’re winging something? The man that always has a plan, a backup plan, and an ‘aw-shit’ plan for everything?” Donte asked in total disbelief.
“Yeah, well, we’re talking about the female species here. They always make me nervous, and you know when they are involved, nothing ever goes as planned.” Donte grinned as he heard Walter’s female companions giving him hell over that comment.
He hung up the phone, and for the first time in a long time, was at loose ends with himself. What was there to do while he waited for Cassandra to wake up and Walter, Sissy, and Betty to show back up with supplies? He walked into his living room and fired up his laptop. At least he could do a bit of research while he waited.
*****
Where the hell had the bitch gone? Gregory had watched Betty’s friend, Cassandra, leave the hospital earlier with some really well built guy. A boyfriend maybe? If that was the case, he’d lucked out the guy hadn’t been at her house the day he’d decided to confront her as to where that bitch Betty was.
He’d discreetly followed Cassandra and the mystery man, thinking they were eith
er heading for her house or his, but was surprised when the car took them to a small private airstrip. Damn if security wasn’t tight there! Just what the hell were they hiding anyways?
Had Betty’s friend been involved in a lot more than he knew? Could she be involved with a drug lord or something? Eager to find out where the plane was taking her, he’d hung around the airstrip all day long, trying to figure out a way around security, but so far he hadn’t had any luck. He’d even tried going in on foot. He just needed to get to the little building where there was bound to be logs kept on all the incoming and outgoing flights. Since hers had been the only outgoing all day long, then had arrived back on the airstrip approximately six hours after it left, it shouldn’t be too hard to find the information he wanted.
But by that night he’d given up trying to sneak his way in and had come up with another way to get the information he was seeking. He’d just use the spell he’d placed on her right after he knocked some sense into the bitch. He’d used it earlier this afternoon, and found her asleep and dreaming, which was fast proving to be the easiest way to access her. In her dream, she’d been with the guy she’d left the hospital with, signaling to Gregory that this was either her boyfriend or the woman had an active imagination. When he was able to get through to her using the spell, she had been dreaming of sitting by a creek with the man. He assumed she fell asleep on the plane since it had only taken off an hour prior. Surely it was much too soon for her to be so settled somewhere. He had to admit, he was a little surprised to find the mystery man there. As in there with her, not only in her dream, but he got the feeling his presence was actually there in her head. Weird. What were the chances this guy knew the same magic Gregory now knew? If that son-of-a-bitch inmate had taught him some sort of second hand mumble-jumble magic that only half way worked, he’d go back to prison just to kick his ass. Nobody got away with doing him wrong. Nobody.
Suddenly, Gregory remembered Betty having a sister and brother-in-law down in Texas. And if her father was still alive, he lived in Atlanta. Although he hadn’t allowed Betty any contact with her family in several years now, there was no guarantee the old man was still alive. But if he was, chances were good Cassandra was heading to one of those two places. Hmm, which one to try first?