Unleashed (Unmemorable Series Book 2)

by A. P. Jensen

  “Its possible,” Cain bit out.

  She shook her head. She couldn’t believe it. “No. He has no part in this.”

  Cain said nothing and they stared at one another. How’d they go from lovers to enemies in a matter of minutes?

  “There’s signs of Unmemorable interference,” Cain continued.

  “They can be assholes, but murder?” she asked hoarsely, tightening her grip on the knife. “No.”

  “No one can remember exactly what happened and there’s conflicting descriptions of the enemy, but they agree on one thing.” Cain’s blue eyes burned with unholy light. “Angel was there. He bashed in Grandpa’s head. He’s in a coma and they don’t know if he’s gonna make it. I need to get the hostages back.”

  She could barely breathe as she nodded. “Yes, you need to get Maggie back.” She couldn’t resist adding, “The Unmemorables loathe Angel. They wouldn’t work with him.”

  “Even to get back at Rich?” Cain shot back.

  “They could have taken him out at the cabin and they didn’t!” she said, voice rising.

  “Maybe Jackie wouldn’t take out Rich, but there are other Unmemorables who have a score to settle with the Council, especially Rich.”

  “But they wouldn’t take children. You should have seen them with Sunshine yesterday...”

  “We’re not discussing this. We need to go.”

  “Go?” The fucking Council and Battalion were tearing her beautiful Christmas up right before her eyes again.

  “Yes, we’re leaving now.”

  “No.” Even as she denied him, she saw his face tighten with strain.

  “No?”

  “I’m staying with the Unmemorables.”

  “You belong with me, not them.”

  “They’re my family.”

  The genial man who loved her through the night was nowhere in sight. He was Cain the assassin now and she didn’t know how to handle him.

  “As soon as you break the curse, you’ll never see them again,” Cain said with brutal honesty.

  “I’ll deal with that if it happens,” she said and tried to keep calm.

  “You can’t trust the Unmemorables. They want something from you. That’s the only reason they’re making an effort and bringing you presents. You think they really care about you?”

  She took the verbal blow without flinching. Yup, her first Christmas was turning to shit. “I trust them, Cain.”

  “I don’t have time for this,” he said through clenched teeth. “Maggie’s gone along with four other kids. Get packed.”

  “I can’t go to Council headquarters.” She knew that absolutely.

  Cain got in her face and she held her breath.

  “You think I’d let anything happen to you?”

  She wanted to reach out to him, but there was something inside of Cain that was on the verge of being unleashed and she didn’t want to see it break free. Cain’s eyes were cold blocks of rage she wanted to retreat from, but she held her ground.

  “No, I don’t think that,” she said and put a hand against her throbbing temples. Why the hell was everything happening so fucking fast?

  “There’s no time for this. My family needs me. We have to go.”

  “And my family needs me here,” she said and mentally braced when his body locked. “You need to hunt and get Maggie back. I need to figure out this curse.” Just the thought of Angel’s hands on the little girl made her sick. Cain was the Council’s best chance at finding the hostages and he had to go.

  Cain stalked forward. One hand wrapped around her waist and the other cupped the back of her head. His mouth closed over hers. It was a hard, punishing kiss. She didn’t pull away. She gave him back her own fear and anger. The Battalion’s attacks were getting more frequent and merciless. She believed in her heart that she had to stay with the Unmemorables. She couldn’t help the Council or Cain, but she could focus on her objective—finding out how to break this curse.

  Cain pulled back and stared down at her. “After everything I’ve done, you still don’t trust me.”

  “What?”

  He released her and waved his hand, indicating the house and somehow reminding her of how he’d been caring for her since the Battalion attacked her apartment. “This is the second time you’ve chosen them over me. They need you to break the curse. I want you because of you, nothing more.”

  Raven’s throat constricted. She stared at him, trying to think of something to say to defend herself.

  “I gave up everything for you,” Cain said.

  He grabbed his duffel and walked through the open door. How the hell had Christmas turned into this emotional nightmare? Cain had always been so gentle with her that this turnaround left her paralyzed. When thought returned, she rushed after him. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but he couldn’t leave like this. She rushed downstairs and opened the door to the garage. The SUV was gone. Heart pounding, she ran past the silent living room and threw open the front door, but there was no sign of him. Cain was gone.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Jackie asked.

  She slammed the front door and leaned back against it. “The Council was attacked last night. They took Maggie. Cain went hunting.”

  Gentle hands tugged her from the door and guided her to the couch. She shielded her face with her hands. Had she just blown everything? She loved Cain so much that she felt as if her heart was breaking. This was her first and only relationship and she was screwing it up. Were they over? Had she chosen the Unmemorables over Cain?

  “You okay?” Jackie asked.

  “Should I have gone with him?” she whispered.

  “No,” Luester said immediately.

  Her mouth twisted. “You’re saying no because you need me to break the curse.”

  Luester looked taken aback for a moment and then, “There’s a reason the Battalion hit the Council last night. Going to the scene of the crime isn’t smart. You’re safer here.”

  She scrubbed her hand over her face, trying to banish the sting of tears. “Cain thinks I’ve chosen you guys over him again and Bernt thinks Unmemorables helped Angel.”

  “That’s utter bullshit,” Jackie said immediately.

  She swallowed hard and looked at them each in turn. “Is it?”

  “Yes,” Luester said harshly, “it is.”

  Happy plopped an omelet on her lap. “Eat,” he ordered.

  She felt sick, but she forked up a bite anyway. There was coffee and alcohol churning in her stomach. It wasn’t a good combination, especially after that scene with Cain. If she didn’t put something in her stomach soon she would throw up. The fluffy eggs felt like rubber in her mouth.

  Raven ate her breakfast in silence and the Unmemorables’ voices buzzed in the background. She trusted Cain, but she didn’t trust his family. Couldn’t he understand that? Cain was a one in a million and she didn’t want to lose him, but she was supposed to be here, trying to figure this out. Sometime after visiting G-Ma, she’d decided to believe the prophecy. She knew it was crazy, but if she was the only female Unmemorable in centuries that had to mean something, right? She didn’t care about the bad parts of the prophecy, all she cared about was breaking the curse. She couldn’t worry about the Unmemorables’ ulterior motives. All that mattered is they had the same goal. After they figured out how to reverse the curse, she’d worry about the repercussions.

  “What’s our next step?” she asked.

  Harvard shrugged. “We were hoping Cain would be able to help us locate a Belrose descendant.”

  She stared at him. “In France?”

  “He’s gone on less before.”

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  They glanced at one another and didn’t answer. She sighed. They were snitches and good enough not to blurt out what they knew. Cain was gone and there was no knowing for how long. She turned to Jackie. “Can you track someone by ingesting what you have left of Cain’s blood?”

  “I can sense Cain’s
tracking talent, but it’s not a dominant trait and I don’t know how to use it.”

  “You don’t know another tracker besides Cain?” she persisted.

  They glanced at one another and she figured they were on a different telepathic frequency because she couldn’t hear a thing.

  Harvard answered, “We do, but he’s hardly around.”

  “Call him,” she ordered.

  Jackie gave her an uneasy smile. “Raven, Bones isn’t the kind of guy you just call...”

  “Do you want to break this curse or not?” Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. She had to do something. She just gambled her relationship with Cain for this cause and she’d be damned if she just sat here talking rather than doing something.

  While the guys did an intense battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors she went upstairs to pack. When she came downstairs the guys were bright-eyed and twitchy.

  “So?” she asked as Bam Bam snatched her duffel and stuffed the guns and Kevlar vest inside.

  “Bones is at headquarters,” Jackie said.

  “Did he say he’d help?” she asked.

  Jackie winced. “That’s not the kind of thing you ask Bones over the phone. He answered long enough to tell me he’s in Vegas and hung up on me.”

  Raven watched Harvard pull the plug on the Christmas tree and the lights winked out. Happy cleaned up the kitchen while Bam Bam and Jackie fiddled with the alarm system. Five minutes later, they ushered her into the SUV and they sped down the freeway.

  “Bones wasn’t home when you guys left this morning?” she asked.

  “We were on the Strip last night,” Bam Bam said with a lecherous grin.

  While Bam Bam and Ace boasted about their sexcapades on the Strip, she crossed her arms and stared moodily out of the window. The Battalion was responsible for more lost lives. Angel killed casually and cruelly. Raven never endorsed Christmas, but that was low to attack during a celebration. Why hadn’t Rich Seen or predicted what would happen? That was his talent, yet Angel managed to get onto Council property and bash his head in. Her stomach pitched as she pictured Maggie singing Disney songs. Cain would get her back, she assured herself.

  It was a beautiful day in Las Vegas, which did nothing to assuage her temper. She pulled out her phone and saw that she didn’t have any messages or calls. The lighthearted ribbing of the guys around her made her want to scream. If the Council couldn’t combat the Battalion, who would? The guys didn’t seem shocked or appalled by the attack, which struck her as odd. She knew the Council and Battalion were enemies, but to kidnap children and slaughter innocents brought home to her what a barbaric world she’d stepped into.

  When the SUV stopped in front of the Unmemorable mansion, she leapt out and strode toward the front doors. She wanted to see Bones and the only thing she wanted to hear from his lips was, “Yes.”

  Jackie grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.

  “Bones is different from us. He’s a solitary guy,” Jackie said.

  “He doesn’t feel at all,” Happy said bluntly. “He’s a stone.”

  “He sounds fantastic,” she said dryly.

  “I think he likes our curse,” Bam Bam added. “I don’t think he’s going to help, but maybe the novelty of having a woman ask might intrigue him.”

  She wasn’t in the mood to beg anyone for a favor. She needed a tracker, period. She was sure this was the right path forward. She wasn’t having a great Christmas so Bones had to suck it up and take one for the team. No matter how cold Bones was, he couldn’t top Angel.

  Raven strode into the Unmemorable mansion, which was unusually quiet. There was no pumping music or muscular men walking around. The guys around her stopped and looked at one another.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Jackie.

  “Something big.”

  The kitchen and gym, the biggest congregating places, were empty.

  Raven turned to face them. “You guys help when things go off the rails, right? Are you going to help the Council find Maggie?”

  “They’re our enemies,” Luester said with a look of disgust.

  “But she’s a little girl,” Raven said through clenched teeth.

  “Not our jurisdiction,” Luster said with a shrug.

  She was about to pummel him when a loud shout echoed from Gerald’s office. She jogged down the empty hallway and shoved the double doors open. Gerald, Big Daddy and another man were the only ones in the room. Gerald glared at her with fuming eyes, slammed his hand on the desk and continued to shout. Raven wasn’t listening. Her eyes were riveted on the stranger in the room. A blast of adrenaline coursed through her. The man had shoulder-length black hair, brown eyes and sharp angles on his face like a Cherokee Indian. The eyes that met hers were blank and empty. She snatched the knife from her pocket. The blade was impressive enough to make Gerald go silent.

  “Who are you?” she asked the stranger.

  “You don’t ask the questions in my office,” Gerald snapped. “And you don’t barge in and draw weapons. Put the knife away.”

  “Who is he?” she asked and ignored Gerald’s command.

  Jackie, Luester, Happy, Harvard, Ace and Bam Bam stopped in the doorway behind her.

  The stranger inclined his head. “You can call me Bones.”

  She pointed the knife at him. “You watched me fight them off.”

  Nightmares bombarded her mind. Six years ago, when she was living in Chicago, two men had jumped her in an alley. They pinned her facedown on the ground and ripped her clothes while her cheek scraped against cold asphalt. She had been terrified and wondered if they’d let her live after they raped her. One of the men laughed as she screamed and rage had taken over. She managed to break one hand free and grabbed a metal scraper from her back pocket. She used the tool at the restaurant they were cleaning post construction. The men laughed when she brandished the scraper until she slashed it at the closest man’s face. The man howled and lurched backward. While the other bashed her on the back of the head and tried to take the scraper away from her, she used what strength she had to slash him across the stomach. Blood gushed over her before the man fell backward, screaming and clutching his abdomen. She got to her feet with the bloody scraper in one hand and faced the man she hit in the face. He pulled out a gun, but before he could fire a shot, she tossed the scraper. It imbedded in his neck and he crumpled to the ground, twitching.

  Raven had trembled so badly she could barely stand and grasped the edges of her torn shirt to hold it together over her bra. She sensed someone watching and looked up. A man stood beneath a streetlight, a figure all in black at the opposite end of the alley. They stared at one another for a long minute. She waited for him to make a move toward her, but he stayed where he was. Without a word, he calmly walked down the sidewalk and out of sight.

  Bones hadn’t changed in the years since the attack. For years she had wondered who he was. Were the men she killed his goons? Did he watch women get raped for sport? Bones’s face haunted her dreams. Her mind replayed those desperate moments in the alley and she felt chilled. A quick scan of his body told her that Bones had at least ten weapons on his body that he concealed very well.

  “You’re the one everyone’s talking about,” Bones said thoughtfully. “If I’d known you were an Unmemorable, I would have brought you in that night.”

  She widened her eyes innocently. “Oh, since I was just a random girl, you let me go on my merry way?” She dropped the innocent act and glared at him with disgust. “You’re such a gentleman.”

  “That’s enough,” Gerald said. “Where’s Henson?”

  “Cain left to help the Council. His sister was taken,” she said without looking away from Bones.

  “Why’d you barge into my office?”

  She bared her teeth at Bones before she turned to her father. “Just wanted to say Merry Christmas, Daddy.”

  Gerald’s face reddened and his mouth worked furiously, but he was at a loss for words. Raven heard a smothered snicker
from Bam Bam before she whirled around and pushed past them to get out of the office. She strode down the hallway with her ears ringing. It took every ounce of control she possessed to put the knife back in her pocket without making Bones pay.

  Chapter Twelve

  “What the hell just happened?” Luester hissed as he followed her to the foyer. “Aren’t you going to ask Bones for help?”

  Raven ignored him and turned to Jackie. “Drink all of Cain’s blood. We’ll use whatever tracking talent you gain from that.”

  Jackie gripped her by the shoulders and gave her a small shake. “What’s going on? How do you know Bones?”

  “He watched me almost get raped,” she said and jerked away. “I killed two men that night.”

  Jackie had an uncertain look on his face that she didn’t appreciate. They were all giving each other side glances. She knew they were on a different telepathic frequency again, which pissed her off.

  “Are you sure it was Bones?” Ace asked cautiously.

  She gave him a withering glare. “I’m not likely to forget his face and he just confirmed it.”

  “Bones is . . . odd, but I can’t believe he’d watch a woman get raped,” Happy said defensively.

  “I’d rather go back to Cain’s house than ask that bastard for help,” she said, clenching and unclenching her fists.

  Luester folded his arms across his chest. “He’s the only choice we’ve got.”

  “Only choice for what?”

  Raven whirled around and barely resisted the urge to attack. Bones’s face brought up years of nightmares. Even after she fought off those men in the alley, Bones didn’t say or do a thing. He just walked off as if he was reading a sign rather than watching a fight to the death. That night marked the beginning of the chronic attacks and her fight for survival.

  “We don’t need your help,” Raven said.

  Bam Bam and Harvard looked uncertain. Luester gave her an impatient look while Ace and Happy looked up at the ceiling.