Alpha Male Incorporated Under Your Protection (22 page)

Did she understand none of this would change when she became a vampire? If anything her skills would get enhanced to the level of perfection.

“I see you were able to control yourself from tearing that poor boy apart when he wondered if Sahara had a boyfriend,” Zander said behind him.

Turning around, Jax glared at his brother. Sometimes he wished Zander wouldn’t make everything a joke all of the time.

“I didn’t lose my temper with that kid,” Jax lied.

“Sure you didn’t. I just made up the fear I sensed coming from the direction as I made my way over here to you.”

Jax frowned at Zander deciding he would have to be the one who changed the subject because his brother wasn’t about to let it go anytime soon. Tonight was Sahara’s big moment and he wasn’t going to mess it up with an argument with his bothersome brother.

“What’s wrong with Sabrina that made you run late? Raya had already cancelled on Sahara earlier because of a late business meeting, so I thought you would be here on time to support her and you weren’t.”

“I don’t want to get into it,” Zander said. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Jax wanted to continue the conversation, but he suddenly noticed how more fans were beginning to crowd around the stage and rush on it pushing Sahara more to the edge.

Taking off from his brother’s side and shoving people out of the way, Jax raced towards his mate sensing danger was close by. As more fans started taking pictures of Sahara with their cameras she held up her hand to block off some of the flashes. All of the attention and craziness from the cameras and the fans was replacing the happiness on her face with sudden fear.

The only thought that raced through Jax’s mind as he hurried towards Sahara was why he had allowed her to be by herself for so long. If anything happened to her before he got there, he would never forgive himself.

Chapter Forty-One

Sahara tried her best to stay calm and cool as the crowd of fans started surrounding her and asking for autographs plus snapping her pictures from every direction. Usually, she didn’t mind all of the attention from her fans, but everything going on with her stalker had put her on edge. One of these people could be the person who wanted her dead for no reason she could think of at all. The one who sent her the letter Jax didn’t know about yet threatening her life.

“Sahara, we need to go!” Jax yelled at her as his towering frame broke through the crowd of fans and rowdy customers.

“I’m coming,” Sahara yelled back as she shouldered her body through the mass of people on the stage. She was almost towards the edge of the platform when someone bumped into her from the back and hissed by her ear.

“You’re going to pay for what you did. It may not be tonight or tomorrow, but I’m going to get you. I can promise you that your bodyguard won’t be able to save you once I get my hands on you.”

Sahara froze in her tracks as the words penetrated her mind and body. Fear like she’d never felt before closed around her heart choking the life out of her. She was so scared stiff that she couldn’t even turn around to see who had just threatened her.

What if the person wanted her to turn around giving them an easier chance to hurt, worse killed her, in front of Jax and everyone else inside of The Kitty Kat club?

“Where in the hell is he?” Jax asked, suddenly breaking through the crowd and appearing in front of her at the edge of the stage.

“He’s here,” Sahara choked out and then gathered up the courage to look over her shoulder into the group of fans still lingering around on stage. None of them seemed like a stalker to her, but sadly one of them was.

“I know he is. I heard his thought. Do you know where he went? Did you get a look at his face?” he demanded pulling her close to the comforting warmth of his body as her heart continued to pound in her chest.

“He was right behind me. He promised to make good on his threats.” God, she wasn’t ever going to forget how his hot breath felt against her neck.

“FUCK!” Jax spun her around and made a beeline for the front door. “We’re out of here! I can’t believe I allowed him to get that close to you. Well, it won’t ever happen again. I can promise you that.”

“Jax, I can’t leave without telling Archer thank you or something,” Sahara protested.

“The hell you can’t!” Jax continued to drag her through The Kitty Kat Club and out the front door. “We aren’t staying in that place a moment longer. I knew this was a bad idea, but I let you talk me into it. Shit! I should have listened to my instincts better. I knew I was right and giving into you almost cost you your life.”

“Jax, what happened?” Zander asked, running out of the door and stopping next to them on the sidewalk.

“My stalker is inside the club,” Sahara answered before Jax could. “Your brother blames me for putting myself in danger tonight.”

The noise from inside the club filtered out through the opened door out onto the sidewalk as Sahara waited for Jax to deny what she just accused him of, but the only thing he did was look back at the club over his shoulder and then at his brother.

“I need to check on things inside of the club and ask a few questions. Maybe someone in there saw something or at least maybe Archer got something on one of the video cameras he had on display in there.

“Can you take Sahara home? Have her pack an overnight bag and then take her back to my house. The security is tighter there than at her house for the moment. I’m trusting you with the most important person in the world. Don’t let her out of your sight for one single minute until you get her under lock and key at my house. I’ll be there as soon as I get done here.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll guard Sahara with my life,” Zander swore as Jax handed her over to him.

Sahara was shocked at how Jax wasn’t going back home with her. He couldn’t leave her, not tonight out of all the nights.

“Jax, I want you to take me home. Not your brother,” she protested, watching as Jax turned away from her.

“Go with Zander. I’ll be at my house right after I’m done here, I promise you,” he told her before going back into the club closing the door behind him.

Taken back by Jax’s dismissal Sahara stood in the middle of the sidewalk hurt and pissed off all at the same time. Jax was her man
not
his brother Zander. He should be the one taking her back to his house reassuring her everything would be okay. But instead of doing that, he left her to go back into the club to look around for a stalker when he didn’t have a clue in hell how the guy looked.

“Come on, we need to go,” Zander coaxed gently taking her by the arm. “I don’t want you standing out on the sidewalk late as it is. I’ll give you twenty minutes to pack when we get back to Frank’s and then we’ll go to Jax’s house.”

Jerking her arm away, Sahara tossed Zander a hard look. “Why bother taking me back to your brother’s house? He just proved he would rather be away from me than with me. Maybe I was right when I suggested earlier tonight that we go our separate ways. Being apart might be the best thing in the end for the both of us.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Zander shouted at her. “You can’t leave Jax. He’s your mate and I won’t lose my only brother to the sleep of the dead!”

Sleep of the dead? Sahara didn’t have a clue what Zander was talking about. Jax hadn’t ever mentioned anything like that to her.

“What’s the sleep of the dead? How will leaving Jax make him suffer from it?” she questioned as her current problem was pushed to the back of her mind. Her concern for Jax grew more and more; she loved him and didn’t want anything to happen to him because of her.

Groaning, Zander ran his hand over his closely shaved head. “I can’t tell you. I’ve already said too much as it is. Jax has to be the one who fills in the blanks since you’re his mate. Can we just go now?”

Sahara desired and wanted to find out more about this sleep of the dead, but she would save her questions for Jax when he got back to his house.

“Fine, let’s go,” she sighed giving in. Now wasn’t the time to get into all of this. Zander wasn’t the person she needed to have this discussion with.

****

How in the hell did his plan not work tonight at the Kitty Kat Club? Picking up the glass off the table, he threw it across the room hitting the wall.

Everything was going ‘perfectly’ at the club. He was right there within touching distance of Sahara and then out of nowhere her damn bodyguard showed up ruining everything.
Shit
! Tonight wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.

Why in the hell didn’t he shoot her when he had the chance the second he got up on her? No, he had to say something to Sahara and that was the reason she was still walking around.

Well, this wasn’t over. He was going to get a second chance and next time he wouldn’t change his plans. No. Sahara was still the person he hated most in the world and he wasn’t about to let her get away with what she did to him.

Chapter Forty-Two

“How did everything go?” Jax asked after he had finished checking his house making sure everything was locked up and secure. He’d spent the last two hours at The Kitty Kat Club going over the videotape, but he couldn’t tell who had threatened Sahara.

There were so many people around her in the video that he wasn’t able to pick out on a clear person and Archer wasn’t any more help to him but he knew the club owner/promoter wouldn’t be.

“Sahara is upstairs in the guest bedroom, but I think you should know something before you go up and see her.”

The odd tone of Zander’s voice kicked Jax into his fighting mood. What in hell had happened while he was at the club?

“What’s wrong with Sahara?” Jax asked, narrowing his eyes. “Did something occur back at the club after I left you with Sahara or did it happen at Frank’s? Shit! Tell me.”

“No, nothing went on at Frank’s. It was back at the club after you left me on the sidewalk with Sahara.”

He wasn’t liking the sound of what Zander was trying to tell him. Had his brother made a move on his mate and now Sahara was hiding from him? That dress she wore tonight would make any red blooded male lose his mind, even his brother who was supposedly in love with Sabrina.

“Tell me what you did to Sahara!” Jax demanded as he closed the distance between him and his sibling grabbing him by the shirt. “Did you do something to her?”

“No, I didn’t do anything to your woman,” Zander hollered, knocking his hand off his shirt. “She started talking about leaving you and I told her she couldn’t because you’d fall into the sleep of the dead.”

“WHAT!” Jax stepped back from his sibling, so he wouldn’t punch him in the face. “Why did you feel the need to tell Sahara anything? I want her to come to me on her own.”

“How could I not tell her? She was threatening to leave you. I wasn’t about to lose you to that damn curse or whatever you want to call the thing when I had a way to stop it. Anyway, Sahara hasn’t made any advances towards you.”

He heard what Zander was telling him, but he still wasn’t happy Sahara knew about the curse and hadn’t heard it from him.

“I’ll deal with Sahara. Why don’t you go ahead and leave? I have things covered now.” Jax was already thinking of a way to deal with the questions he knew Sahara had for him.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Zander said touching him on the shoulder. “I had to tell her. You’re my brother and I love you. You know you would have done the same thing for me.” He gave Jax one last pat on the shoulder, then picked up his black bag off the floor and left the house.

Walking around downstairs, Jax got his thoughts together before going upstairs to deal with Sahara. He didn’t want to fight with her tonight. All he thought about on the drive home was how her stalker had gotten close enough to her and whispered his sick comments in her ear.

This SOB was good which meant he would be dangerous and even harder to catch. He’d planned on making love to Sahara and then just holding her in his arms for the rest of the night. Now, he would have to go through explaining the looming curse to her and what it entailed for their future.

****

“Get out!” The words were hurled at Jax the second he walked into the guest bedroom without knocking.

“Sahara, we need to talk,” he said calmly as he closed and locked the door behind him. He was going to try his best not to let this turn into an argument between them. She had to listen to him and yelling wasn’t going to get them anywhere.

“Why should I listen to anything you have to say? I thought the person you loved should be honest with you. When were you going to tell me about the sleep of the dead?” Jumping up from the bed, Sahara ran up to him. “Why was Zander the one who brought it up instead of you?”

“What exactly did my brother tell you about it?” he wanted to stay focused on what Sahara was telling him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the tight t-shirt and short boy shorts she had on her body. He was already thinking about different ways to strip them off her once their fight was over.

“Zander didn’t tell me much of anything,” she complained. “He told me to ask you and now that I’m trying to do just that you’re staring at my breasts.”

Jax gave Sahara a sexy grin. “How could I not stare at the two most perfect items in the world?”

“No, you aren’t going to sweet talk me into sex. Tell me what the sleep of the dead is. I want to know and I want to know now.”

Great! He knew he wasn’t going to get what he wanted tonight unless he gave Sahara the information that she wanted from him first. Sighing, Jax ran his fingers through his hair tossing it over his shoulders.

Sahara was right. He couldn’t expect her to agree to become his mate if she didn’t know everything about him and his life.

“In my family, the sleep of the dead occurs when a vampire hasn’t found or turned his
unique
woman by his four hundredth birthday.”

“What exactly is the sleep of the dead? What happens to you?” Sahara asked, some of the anger leaving her voice.