Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) (26 page)

Miley looked at Lucas
with big eyes, but he ignored it, as he ignored the rest of the drama for the
most part.  “Get in the car.  Keep us on the line. We will give you directions
to the nearest airport, and we will be there to pick you up ASAP.”

She breathed out a long
breath that sounded like relief.  “I’m on it.”

“And Cleo?”

“Yeah, Dad?”

“When you are in the
car, you can tell me how the hell Gregory Bidel got his hands on you in the
first place.”

There was a long
silence.  “Bidel?  As in Bone Crusher pack alpha Bidel?”

“Yes.”

“Huh.”  Then they heard
her mutter low.  “Must have been that wet dog smell.  But, Dad, I can’t tell
you anything about Bidel.  I was at Lionsgate terminal in Napa when someone hit
me from behind.  The only thing I remember is seeing one of the techs, L
something with the glasses and that nappy goatee.  That and the smell of
gasoline.  After that I woke up handcuffed in a cage.”

“I’m on it.”  Mac
jumped out of his seat, taking his phone out of his pocket as he went farther
to the back of the plane.

They all heard a door
open and close through the speaker, then a car door and the unmistakable sound
of the engine turning over.

“We’re looking into it,
Cleo.  Mac’s calling now.”

“Auburn, California,” Eli
said, finally looking up from his computer.  “Nearest airport is a private strip
about twenty minutes from your present location.  We can be there in about an
hour.”  When Eli spoke, Lucas grabbed Miley’s hand and pulled her against his
chest, pressing a kiss to her hair.  Ben headed for the cockpit to change their
flight plan.

“Did you get that?”

“Got it, Dad,” Cleo
said.

Eli hummed under his
breath and started giving her directions, while Lucas fell back into one of the
brown leather chairs, pulling Miley to lay across his lap.  He tucked his head
against her neck and shuttered a deep breath, his eyes closed, his arms
wrapping her tight.  “Fuck.”

Miley smiled her own
relief, her eyes drifting to the speaker while Cleo murmured road names and
waited for directions.  Shawn Ryan never moved or said a word, just stood at
the speakerphone, all six feet of whipcord strength in black fatigues, tight black
t-shirt, and combat boots.  His hands fisted so tight his forearms bulged with
contained power.  He stood there while Lucas and Miley left to dress and Ben
told Cleo bad jokes to keep her talking.  He stood there until it was time to
buckle in for the landing.  Never speaking to Cleo.  Just waiting.  And not one
person commented on it.

***

They picked Cleo up at
the airport and her father hugged her until she flailed her arms for breathing
space, then he shook her and did it again.   Cleo went through the rounds of pack
mates, getting hugs, teasing, and warnings to ‘always watch her six.’  Demon
actually had her by her arms dangling three feet in the air while he gave his
dire warnings.  Cleo just patted him on the top of his buzz cut.  Everybody
hugged her.  Everyone that is except Shawn.  The hawk-shifter stood apart, his
eyes on Cleo every second, but he never stepped forward. 

Miley saw Cleo look in
his direction and then away, her eyes quickly hiding her confusion.  Miley
looked between them.  Cleo was newly twenty-one, the beautiful and fearless
only daughter of Lucas Gibbs.  Shawn, a studly six foot warrior, was a hardened
thirty-seven, and a member of her father’s pack.  She did not see good things.

Miley exhaled in relief
and got her own hug from Cleo.  Right now, everyone was safe, she finally had
the man she loved, and the threat of Rickarts and Bidel was neutralized, as in
very, very dead.  She was not going to worry about the drama that was soon to
ensue.  Not until she absolutely had to.

After the plane was
refueled and Cleo had told her story, they spent a bit of time discussing the lion
issue, and Eli and Logan were both handed new missions.  Logan was going to do
what he did best, which was investigate, while Eli did what he did best, and
that was follow the cyber bread crumbs and find out who the hell the kid’s
uncle was, and what kind of a threat they were looking at. 

They called in one of
the security teams to find the house Cleo directed them to, but nobody expected
they would find anything.  William Stalk was another matter.  They had his
school ID and the registration for the car he was illegally driving.  Even if
he was freed before the team arrived, it would be a simple enough matter to
find him and his uncle with the information.  They already had one bit of
trivia.  The car was registered to Gerent International.  Eli was working on
finding out more.

There was also the
issue of the original abduction happening in the Lionsgate hangar, where they
had a missing tech and an erased security feed.  Shawn looked suitably bloodthirsty
when he volunteered to follow that one up.

Back at Lionsgate house
in Napa, Demon, Mac, and Ben were more than happy to collect their mates and
Roxanne from the vault, a Roxanne who was sitting on Demon’s shoulder, hanging
upside down so she could jabber on, looking down at his face.  Demon just
grunted when it seemed appropriate and held Clytie close to his side.  The sight
had Miley staring after them as the pack retired to their accommodations.  From
the way Ben and Mac were looking at Cassandra, Miley couldn’t help but think it
a good thing all the rooms were soundproofed. 

That left Ian to find
his bed, after giving Cleo grief on her
second
kidnapping, and Cleo to
face her father.  Miley tried to duck out and give them privacy, but Lucas held
her firmly to his side while they faced off.

Lucas never said one
word to Cleo in recrimination about her leaving as she did.  He did speak of
it, but only vaguely.  “From now on, you feel you have to do something, we
discuss it, and you take a partner.  Just like every other pack mate.”

Cleo looked at her dad
for a long time; then she sucked in a lungful of oxygen as if she’d been
working with a deficit for a while.  “I can do that.  But I want to do more
with the company, not just fill in as a pilot when you’re shorthanded.  I want
to be on the payroll and work regular jobs, just like the rest.”

“Fine.  But no going
off on your own.  And I call you on the phone, you answer.”

“Fine, but I’m getting
a place of my own, in the city, as soon as I can afford it on my own money.”

That seemed to stump
him, so Miley jabbed him in the ribs, giving him big eyes.  “Fine,” he snarled
eventually, “you can have an apartment at one of my Napa properties.”  When she
tried to protest, he cut her off.  “No arguments on this one.  You can pay rent
if you must but you are my daughter and a young lioness outside the prides. 
You get the security I trust or I hire a fucking team of commandos to follow
you around
every-fucking-where.
”

She huffed, but finally
conceded.  “I will agree to the apartment, if I pay rent, but I want your
assurance that it will be my place.  If I bring a man home, I don’t want
someone reporting to you from across the hall.”

Lucas looked at his
daughter for a long time, his brow furrowed in consternation.  Then he sucked at
his teeth, as if he tasted something bad.  When he finally spoke, his words
were clipped.  “You lost me at bring a man home.  Maybe we should start again,
and I’ll just lock you in your bedroom here.”

“Lucas!”

“Dad!”  They both spoke
at the same time, with equal amounts of exasperation.

“Alright!” he roared.  “No
spies across the hall.”

“Or anywhere in the
building, or adjacent buildings,” Miley added, earning a glare from her mate.  “Or,
let’s just say at all, shall we?”

He glared some more,
but eventually he agreed.  Miley was tempted to laugh at his sour face, but
restrained herself. 
The Drama.

“Then it’s a deal,”
Cleo said smiling huge.  She hugged her less than pleased father and Miley,
then practically skipped out of the room in glee.

Miley watched her go
and had to shake her head.  “Badass by day, skipping princess by night.  She is
a dichotomy, that girl of yours.”

“She skipped out of
here with a knife in her boot and a nine millimeter in her pants,” he informed
Miley, his eyes moving from the door to his mate.  “That’s just Cleo.”

She looked at him, and
then let her smile bloom.  “Ahh, you like that you raised a pretty, pretty
princess badass warrior,” Miley said nudging his shoulder with hers.  “That’s
so sweet.”

“I think we should work
from here tomorrow.”  Clearly, he was set on changing the talk to a more
comfortable subject.

“You can work wherever
you want.”  Miley coved her mouth while she yawned.  “I’m taking a few days,
and looking for a job on Monday.”

After a long silence,
he spoke, his voice tight. “Looking for a job?” 

“I bet Deckland would
still give me a job, since you recommended it.”

“I can absolutely
guarantee they will not.”  He snarled at the idea.

Miley narrowed her eyes
at him.  “Not to worry. I’ll find something.”

“Yes you will, working
with me as my assistant,” he snapped, low and firm.

She laughed in his
face.  “No thanks.  I prefer a little job security.”

He hissed out a
breath.  “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“No.”

“I want you working
with me.”

“Lucas,” she started
clearly exasperated, “working and living together would mean we would be
constantly thrown together with no reprieve.”

Lucas stared at her so
long she sat back in the chair, pressing back into his arm.

“What?” she asked,
rubbing a hand over her nose and cheeks.  “Do I have something on my face?”

“Not yet,” he growled.

It took her a second,
then dropped her hands from her face and burst out laughing.  “Are you . . .,” she
started to speak, then had to start over.  “Is that your idea of
flirting
with
me, Viking?”

“Too subtle?”

“Aren’t rich men
supposed to be debonair and romantic, or at least, you know . . . smooooth.”

“We can try that
tomorrow.  Today, I want to take you to the shower and watch you suck me off on
your knees.”  Miley froze at his first no-nonsense words.  “Then I want to take
you to bed and taste every inch of your body until you come just from my
touch.  Then again with my mouth.”  He leaned closer while she was still
blinking up at him stupidly, her breath coming faster and faster.  “And then
again
,
when I fuck you hard enough to bang the headboard through the wall.”

She finally had to take
a deep breath or find a brown bag to breathe into.  “Works for me.  Anything
else?” 

Lucas leaned down
closer until he could run his nose back and forth over hers, his eyes on her
over-wide ones.  “I fucking love you.”

“Okay,” she said,
stuttering out a breathless laugh, her eyes going soft.  “I stand corrected. 
That was definitely smooth.”  She shook her head on another laugh, her hand
went to his face and she leaned up that last inch and kissed him sweetly.  “I
love you, too.”

***

It was many hours later
they lay entwined, naked in their bed, their breaths slowing, their bodies
cooling.  He was rubbing figure eights into her skin and thinking.

“I’ll give you a
raise,” he said into the quiet.

He felt Miley smile
against his chest.  “You bet your outstanding ass you will.”

Lucas chuffed his
annoyance, then snuggled her close.  It was good to be home.

***

Cleo
and Shawn’s story, “Craving Her” will be released in 2015.

Check
out kellylucille.com for updates on the Keeping Her Series

and
other work by the author.