Bloody Broken (A Bloody Series Book #2) (5 page)

    “I’m trying to explain to you that you can trust me.”

    “Oh, yes, because thrusting your tongue down someone’s throat really goes a long way towards forming trust between friends.” He just stared at her. She looked away. So, she hadn’t tried to stop him. Yeah, she got it.  He still shouldn’t be doing it. Or rather, maybe he shouldn’t stop once he started. She wasn’t sure yet. But trust? That wasn’t something she just gave out. He had to earn it.

    “Those Weres, the ones that attacked the news crew in Columbus, what happened to them?” She asked.

    “Stephan Kowalski, the leader, was rounded up November first, along with nine others. Four were killed in the initial confrontation. The others were given to Master Orleans personally, and after getting his confession from all of them, they were executed in Boulder. Six more have been caught since that night. Your name was the only one brought up from the group that we couldn’t find, but as you had left the group before the attack, it was overlooked. Until last week. Beta Orleans contacted my people with information that a new branch of the group had sprung up here in Boston. Your name came up again. It seemed like too much of a coincidence. There are Vampires involved now, we were told, so that’s why I’m here. If you truly had nothing to do with the attacks, I need to know why you are here. If you know anything, you have to tell me. I can’t clear your name if you don’t talk to me.” He had grasped her hands in his in earnest. She stared down at his large hands holding her small ones.  He was telling the truth about the group from Columbus. At least the story she had heard after she left. Should she trust him? Her instincts had never steered her wrong before. She wasn’t joking when she had told Kenny she was psychic. A gift from her deceased Inuit mother. Her body definitely trusted him. Did that mean anything? She snorted. He looked questioningly at her.

    “I’m going to regret this, I know it,” she mumbled. His grin was heartbreaking as he squeezed her hands.

    “No, I promise. I’ll see to it personally that you are taken care of.” He pulled away and walked back to the living room. His leather jacket was thrown over the back of her ratty recliner.

    “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep,” she whispered. She picked up her stilletto from the floor and followed out with him.

   
Chapter Four

    Despite the chill in the air, Adam was sweating as they exited her building. Only centuries of practicing self control had kept him from taking Victoria up against the counter in her kitchen like an animal. And admittedly, he hadn’t been practicing much self control lately. He’d been taking girl after girl in wild abandon for the last year at least. Looking back now, Dominic was right. He had been skipping work more often lately, letting the younger Vamp pick up his slack. That Dom was capable of doing the work wasn’t a good excuse for his actions. He didn't want to contemplate what it meant for his sanity. That vacation was starting to look better and better. As he walked along the street, Victoria behind him, he realized she hadn’t said a word since they left the apartment.

    “My car is just up the road,” he called back. She didn’t respond. He turned to make sure she hadn’t run off on him again. She had stopped, but he couldn’t figure out why. Then her head snapped up.

    “What…” He started to ask, but she was staring off across the street towards the open field beyond, hostility rolling off her in waves.

    “You!” She roared incredulously. Then she took off, clearing the street in the time it took him to figure out what she was running after. Under an oak tree there was a white wolf scrambling to get out from under a park bench. It made it free and took off like the devil himself was on its tail. Adam sprinted after Victoria. He met her halfway across the field, dove for her middle, and tackled her to the ground. She went down into the snow with a grunt, twisting in his grasp.

    “Let me up! God damnit, Adam, I said let me up! I’m going to kill you, fucker!” She screamed out at the wolf as it ran hell for leather across the park. By the time it was out of sight Victoria had stopped scrambling. She turned and glared at him.

    “Just when I was starting to like you,” she growled. He got up and held out his hand to her, which she didn’t take. She brushed off her jacket and started off the way they came.

    “You were starting to like me?” He joked, trying to get a rise out of her.

    “Piss off.”

    “So who was the wolf?” He asked.

    “I don’t know.” She stopped and turned to look at him, hands on her hips. “That’s why I would like a friendly word with him,” she said sweetly. Then dropped the innocent act and continued on her way.

    “What do you mean?”

    “He’s been following me all week. I haven’t seen him in human form yet. I thought he was dead, tell you the truth. I chased him into the Atlantic Friday night. He
should
be dead.” She turned to him. “Which car is yours?” They had reached the lot where he had parked.

    “The Prius,” he said, pointing ahead. She smirked. “It’s a rental.” He would have brought the Aston-Martin if he didn’t think it would be completely stripped by the time he got done with this investigation.

    “Last Friday was when you first saw him?” He asked unlocking the doors to let them in the car.

    “Yeah, right after the…” She looked up before she sat down on the seat.

    “After the meeting at the warehouse?” She bit her lip, adorably, and decided how to answer. “It’s alright. I already know you were there. In fact, the wolf is probably the scout that caught you. What I want to know is what you were doing there? What sort of meeting was it?”

    “Was the scout one of Orleans?” She asked softly, staring out of the windshield.

    “Yes, why?” He was confused.

    “Master or Beta’s?” She asked quietly.

    “Beta’s I would guess. I’m not sure. Why? I don’t understand why it matters.”

    “I have to get out of here. Take me to the airport. Oh, shit, I don’t have my passport.” She pulled a cell phone out of the jacket pocket.

    “I’m not taking you to the bloody airport. What is the matter with you?” She ignored him as she dialed a number and listened to it ring.

    “Pick up, damn you. No, Colin, it’s Vic. I have Matt's phone. Where the hell have you been? No, never mind. We’re aborting this. He’s close. I…” She stopped and looked up at Adam. Then she switched to a language he didn’t understand. He glared at her while he drove. She was arguing, that much was clear. Colin argued back in the same language. She yelled something that sounded suspiciously like a curse then flipped the phone shut.

    “Idiot!” She kicked the floorboard.

    “Boyfriend?” He teased,  more curious then he let on. Pauly had mentioned Colin, that he posed as her brother but he didn’t believe it to be true.

    “Not anymore.” She was glaring out the windshield.

    “That’s too bad. I’m sorry.” He wasn’t.

    “Not just now. We broke up fifty years ago. He ….why am I telling you this? Take me to the airport. I need to get the hell out of Boston.” She wrapped the too large coat around her tighter. He realized then how truly tiny she was. He guessed while she was glaring at him and fighting him she seemed larger than life.

    “I can’t take you to the airport. Even if I could, you don’t have your passport, remember?” Thank god.

    “Then I hope you can hide me because I was just tossed out of the Werewolf Protection Program.”

    “The Werewolf Protection Program? That doesn’t even exist.”

    “Yeah, tell me about it.”

    “What?” He was confused again. “Very slowly, in simple phrases, explain to me what the hell is going on.”

    “You really want to protect me? The less you know the better. Trust me. If you can guarantee my safety, then great. If not, let me out here.” So she was just using him. His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

    “Is that the only reason you agreed to come with me? You just needed a place to lay low for a while?”

    “Oh, please. Like you’re not using me to further your case? I’m letting you protect me, aren’t I? That’s more than I can say I’ve let a man do for me in a long time.” She huffed. “Where are we going anyway?”

    “The Mandarin. You can stay with me as long as you need to,” he said, appeased that she admitted she needed him.

    “The Mandarin Oriental? Nice. That’s better than an abandoned warehouse.” She smiled. “I can’t afford a room there, you know?” She glanced up at him.

    “You’ll stay in my room.” When she opened her mouth to argue he interrupted. “I won’t attack you. I promise. Unless you want me to.” He couldn’t help adding with a grin.

    “You’re incorrigible.”

     “You love it.” He tugged on one of her curls and watched it spring back up. She playfully swatted his hand away.

    “I only put up with your crap because you’re cute.” She looked away but not before he caught her smile.

    “You should see my brother. He’s the good looking one.” He laughed at his little joke. They finally pulled in the parking garage and got out. When they got into the elevator she turned to him.

    “Are your people here too?” She asked.

    “Yes, is that a problem? They have their own rooms.”

   “I just don’t want them learning things. Not yet.” She jammed her hands in the jacket pocket.

    “I can’t tell them things I don’t know, can I?” He asked. She nodded.

    “What will you tell them?”

    “I’ll them to get out of my room. I forgot they’re probably still in there interrogating Pauly.”

    “That’s bad. If Pauly sees me and tells someone, I’m dead meat.” Her eyes implored him.

    “Okay, you hide in here until I give you the all clear. I’ll make the Weres take him out through the stairwell.” The doors opened.

    “Wait. Who are the Weres? Who did they send I mean?” She grabbed his arm. He felt it hotly through his jacket sleeve.

    “Uh, Chris Totopolos, Derick Hamilton, and Brandon Nakata. Why?” An ear to ear grin split her face for a second.

    “Did Chris shoot Pauly with the truth serum?” She asked knowingly.

   “Yeah." He smiled with her. "When I get back you’re going to have to tell me the story of how he got tranqed and sent to Yosemite.” They had a laugh for a second then he shushed her and motioned her back into the elevator. As he approached his room he could hear the guys talking.

    “You look like agents from The Matrix in those suits though. Don’t you want to be in something more comfortable if you have to Were out or whatever?” Claude was asking.

    “No, check it.” The sound of tearing. “They’re Velcro,” Brandon was saying.

    “Oh, like stripper clothes,” Dominic said.

    “Yeah, except less homoerotic and more terrifying,” Chris put in. That’s when Adam entered.

    “Oh, hey Boss. How went the search?” Claude asked. Brandon was putting his pants back together. He focused his attention back to Claude.

    “Not much to see. She keeps all her personal belongings in a lockbox under the bed. There wasn’t much besides some old photos and concert tickets.” He didn’t feel the least bit guilty about going through her things. Just curious about why he looked at her photos for so long. Maybe because the rest of her apartment was bare of anything giving away her personality, he was just curious about her. Or maybe she was simply a beautiful woman, and he enjoyed looking at her. A little bit of both, he suspected. The guys were staring at him, waiting for him to go on.

    “I think we’re done for the night. Did Pauly give up any more information after I left?”

    “Some more ramblings I’ll have to decipher tomorrow. I’ll get back to you on it,” Dom said.

    “Alright. Thank you gentlemen for the in depth look at Were interrogation. It's not every day you get to see a drugged up Werewolf." Adam shook Chris's hand.

    “Yeah, no shit.” Claude laughed. “Hey, what do you want us to do with Pauly?” He nodded to the sleeping Were still tied to the chair.

    “We’ll take him back to our room and transport him in the morning. Or rather afternoon. It’s close to dawn now isn’t it?” Chris said. Actually dawn wasn’t for another three and a half hours but no need to be specific. He just nodded, trying to hurry them along.

    “Let me know if anything new comes up by tomorrow night.” Dom told Chris as he lifted Pauly out of the chair.

    “Likewise.” He lifted Pauly onto his shoulders and the three Weres left. He watched in the doorway to confirm they left through the stairwell. He then turned to his remaining two companions.

    “Where’s Gloria?” When he realized who was missing.

    “She claimed she was hungry. I’m sure she’s back by now and in her own room.” Claude answered.

     "That reminds me. Do me a favor and check her phone records. I want to know if she's reporting back to her Father." Adam still didn't trust her.

    "Can do. And if she is?" Claude asked.

    "Then we'll deal with it accordingly," he said. Claude nodded and left the room. Dom turned before leaving.