Authors: Anna Alexander
Amaryllis rose. “Ari, I’ll leave you to finish your breakfast
while I take a moment to freshen up. Bale, please join me in the study. I have
an errand for you to make for me.”
Bale nodded once and stood, bowing at both her and Lucian
before exiting the kitchen without a single word.
Exclamation point on the snubbing.
“Try not to let Bale bother you,” Lucian said once they were
alone. “He had a difficult time before he joined us here and he’s still
adjusting. As you can tell, he’s not exactly a—what is the phrase?—people
person. I too have to remember that myself on occasion.”
“He’s mentioned something about that.” She pushed her
breakfast around on her plate and fought the compulsion to indulge her
curiosity. She didn’t want to know any more about him. She didn’t. Really. But…
“I thought you all had traveled to America together.”
“No. Circumstances sent us from our homes at different
times. Fortunately we were able to find each other once again.”
“You said you had a brother. Does he live in this building
too?”
“No, he and his wife live in the mountains in a little town
called Cedar. They just had their first child, so we don’t have the opportunity
to see each other as often as we’d like.”
“It sounds as if you’re close.”
“We are. Until we annoy each other. Do you have any
siblings?”
“Nope. Well, I don’t know, actually. My dad ran out when I
was born, so there is the possibility of half-siblings somewhere in the world.”
“It sounds as if your childhood was rough.”
She shrugged. “Others have had it worse. Since I didn’t know
any different at the time, I didn’t have the idea that I was doing with less.
It was what it was.”
Lucian nodded and offered her half of his croissant, which
she accepted with a small smile. “I believe it is the innocence of youth that
allows us to survive the trauma of growing up. My sister-in-law is the town
sheriff, so you do not need to fret about falling into the hands of nefarious
people. She’s very good at keeping everyone on the right side of the law.” He
winked.
“I didn’t think y’all were nefarious.”
“You should have. We are strangers to you.”
As if she hadn’t had this conversation in her mind a million
times in the last twenty-four hours. “Are you trying to get me to change my
mind?”
He chuckled. “Ari, there are two things I want you to
understand. One, I love my wife to the point that it’s probably an unhealthy
obsession and I will do everything in my power to see to her happiness and
safety. No one harms her in any capacity. No one,” he repeated in a low,
vibrating warning that set the hair on her arms up in surrender.
“I—” She swallowed down the lump of fear in her throat. “I
would never try to hurt Amaryllis, or you.”
“I know.” He blinked the intensity out of his eyes and Ari
noticed that he shared the same unusual lavender shade with his wife. “I sense
it is not in your nature to hurt another, and if I suspected you had ulterior
motives, you would have never made it beyond the front door. But my mate
attracts a lot of admirers. Some of them may think to use you to get to her. Do
you understand?”
She nodded and wondered again if Amaryllis wasn’t a
political refugee or fleeing celebrity.
“My wife has developed a fondness for you and will do all
that she can to see to your needs. It’s what she does. I am not saying you have
to bow to all of her wishes, but please remember that what she does is out of
love.” He held up the first two fingers on his left hand for emphasis. “The
second item for you to understand is that people she cares about become people
I care about. If at any time you have a need, please come see me. Your
well-being is of utmost importance. Transversely, if you do anything to place
yourself in danger, you will find out firsthand exactly what it is like to have
an overprotective big brother.”
She laughed. “Thanks for the offer, but I can take care of
myself.”
“It is not an offer. It is a vow. To us, friends and family
are one and the same. You may have been on your own before, Ari, but you have
been accepted into this flock. Solitude will take on another meaning and
believe me, it will be an adjustment. For a long while it was just me and my
brother. To have others to rely on, who rely on you, was not an easy concept
for me to accept. Bale is in the midst of that struggle right now, however,
once you fall into the cloud of that belief,” his smile softened and the
lavender of his eyes turned liquid, “it is good.”
Lucian’s kind words brought tears to her eyes. A family. Not
of flesh but of one forged by circumstance was never a dream she dared to have.
Since she was old enough to feed herself, it had been her against the world,
and life taught her that the only thing blood ties counted for were genetic
diseases and a whacked-out sense of familial obligation.
These people were opening up not only their home, but their
hearts as well. It might not have been their intention, but she was going to do
everything in her puny power to do right by them. If they followed through on
half of what they promised, she would not let them down.
“Thank you, Lucian, for everything. Did Amaryllis tell you
about why I came to the city?”
“Nothing specific, only that you had a broken heart and
needed a new start. While we do not keep secrets between the two of us, we will
honor discretion if we are told something in confidence. When you feel it is
right to tell me your story, I will be willing to listen.”
“God.” She dabbed her napkin against the corner of her eye.
“You guys are like, frickin’ make-believe. You can’t be real.”
He chuckled and brought his glass to his lips. “Do not think
we are perfect. Far from it, in fact. Wait until you know us a week. Your
opinion may change.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. To me, you’re like…like…superheroes.”
Lucian sputtered, spraying mimosa over the tabletop. As she
jumped from her seat to help dab up the mess, Lucian began laughing with a
booming bass that was infectious and soon had her joining in, though she had no
idea what had inspired the laughter.
“Ah, Ari,” he said when he caught his breath. His mouth
worked as he stopped and started several sentences before he shook his head.
“Ari, welcome to our world.”
* * * * *
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours Bale was
ordered to the study like a wayward child, only this time it was Mom who was
about to come in with the smackdown.
Amaryllis rounded on him when she reached the center of the
study. Her black hair settled around her shoulders in a straight, silken sheet.
It still unnerved him to see her once-silver tresses in the same shade as those
of her bonded mate. With her dark hair, she looked so much like his Natalia
that at times it hurt to look at her. She was a reminder of what he once had
and had been too afraid to accept.
His muscles tensed, waiting for her to lay into him. Of
course she would have sensed his displeasure at the recent turn of events, and
since she had an opinion on everything, he knew she would be determined to
change his.
She rested one hand on her hip and watched him with those
eerie, all-seeing eyes. Not once did she blink as she stared him down. But he
wasn’t going to break so easily. He held himself motionless. No need to add
fuel to the fire by launching the first volley.
But Amaryllis would have none of that. She arched her brow
and gestured with her free hand for him to speak first. “Spill it.”
“What do you mean?” He could play obtuse with the best of
them.
“I offer Ari a job and you flare up in annoyance. More
precisely, joy followed by fear, panic and then annoyance. Why?”
He drew in a breath to stall for time. What would be the
most diplomatic way to speak his mind? “I do not think it is wise to… allow a
human stranger to be in such close proximity to our kind.”
“You brought her here.”
Damn, she had him there. “She had a need.”
“She still does.” Amaryllis walked forward until she was a
hairsbreadth away. Despite the fact she barely reached his shoulder, her
presence made up for the difference in height. “Be truthful, Bale. You do not
want Ari here because she makes you feel something other than guilt and
self-loathing.”
He sucked in a breath and pressed his lips together. No way
in hell was he going to admit that, even though she was correct.
The hungers Ari stirred within him had been manageable when
he had thought their time together was limited. With her living in the same
building, within viewing distance, within touching distance, she’d be a
constant temptation.
The night before had hammered home a terrible truth. Ari
made him want. He wanted to wrap her hair in his hands and hold her still for
his kisses. He wanted to pin her under his body and plow into her slick heat.
He wanted to take her in every way a man can penetrate a woman until they
passed out from exhaustion then resume as soon as they awoke.
Amaryllis had taught him that pleasures of the flesh were
not evil. As long as all parties were consenting, they made their own rules as
to what was off-limits.
And therein lay the issue. Ari might have acted blasé about
the activities that went on at The Cavern, but how would she react when asked
to recreate some of what she had witnessed? Ari was so bright, so shiny, he
doubted that underneath her wholesome appearance lurked a woman who could match
his appetites, despite the flashes of lust his powers sensed. He had been
afraid to share his darkness with his wife and had kept it secret. When she
died, the loss of what he might have had with her had he been braver drove him
to madness and a life of killing to make up for his failures to his family and
as a husband.
If he had been worried about hurting Natalia, one of his own
species, he was terrified of the damage he could do to Ari if he let go and fed
his needs. Hell, he had caused her discomfort with a simple hug when he had
held her too tight.
And what of his mission? Overriding all those concerns was
the risk of losing his focus once he took a sip of her nectar. His sole purpose
was to protect those who could not do so for themselves. Lounging betwixt Ari’s
thighs was a selfishness he did not dare entertain. His wife’s memory deserved
more.
“Bale.” Amaryllis laid her palm against his cheek. “If I
were still your queen, I would command you to open up your heart and believe in
the power of love again.”
He bit back a smile. Only a royal would believe they had the
power to order another how to feel. “But you will do so anyway.”
“No. I am going to pray for you, Balellanos. I am going to
make a plea to every god of every faith in existence that you will find your
heart again, because you are worthy.”
His vision blurred as a band wrapped around his chest and up
over his throat to squeeze the breath from him. He wanted to shout at her to
not waste her energy, to deny her words, but he didn’t have the strength.
When everyone had wanted him dead, Amaryllis was the only
person who believed he had merit. She fought for him when no one, not even
himself, thought him worthy to live. Her faith in him was both a gift and a
curse, and why he swore fealty to her although she no longer wore the crown.
“Will that be all, your highness?” he asked in a voice as
smooth as coarse sandpaper.
Her slight smile made his stomach clench as she uttered the
words that struck fear into the hearts of every
Llanos
warrior.
“For now.”
Captain Marco DeWinter stomped down the aisle between the
cubicles that made up the organized crime and vice divisions of the city’s
police department. The dramatic slamming of a door would have made his exit so
much more satisfying, but since the only person with an enclosed office on this
level was his POS commander, the pounding of his steel-toed boots on the
paper-thin carpet had to do.
God, he wished he had a cigarette. Not that he smoked.
Actually never touched the cancer sticks, but the idea of feeling his lungs
catch on fire then letting it all out on a long, slow exhale sounded like an
excellent distraction. Well, a good fuck would do that too, but he couldn’t
develop an ill-timed hard-on by fantasizing about cigarettes.
“What’s the word, humming bird?” his lieutenant Cassidy
Coulter asked as he held open the door to the elevator.
“Just a minute.” Marco bit his tongue during the short ride
down to the parking level and the hundred and thirty steps across the pavement
to the police-issued Jeep Cherokee where he slid onto the passenger seat.
“Drive,” he ordered as soon as Cassidy stuck the key into the ignition.
The moment the vehicle left the garage and turned onto the
paved road, Marco let loose with a bellow, “Motherfucker,” which then led into
a litany of curses that questioned the legitimacy of every one of Commander
Asante’s relations going back several generations before launching into a
detailed description of what exactly Asante could do with his directive and
ending with a hurled insult at the Lord and Savior because, hell, why not
include the Big Guy too?
“Went well I see,” Cassidy said and pulled into the nearest
parking lot.
Marco wiped his hand over his mouth and focused on
controlling the pounding of his heart and the ability to speak without
shouting. “The Smithwick case has been dropped.”
“Fuck,” Cassidy spat and slapped the steering wheel with the
flat of his hand, then again for good measure. “Why the fuck for? We’re so
close to nailing that bastard.”
“Until evidence presents itself that can directly implicate
the suspect, we are forbidden to pursue the matter further, quote Commander
Asswipe.”
“Right, like evidence is just going to fall into our laps.
He’s on the take, he’s gotta be, we just haven’t linked him to Smithwick yet.
There is no good reason to stop now.”
Marco wanted to agree, but his gut said there were other
reasons why his team was pulled away from apprehending one of the biggest crime
lords in the state. Asante was too lazy to be on the payroll of a crime boss.
He’d have to actually work to make sure he held up his end of the bargain.
“I didn’t say I’m stopping.” Marco reached into his jacket
pocket for the pack of gum he kept on hand and pulled out a stick. “What I do
on my free time is nobody’s business but my own.”
“No.” Cassidy shook his head. “No, no, no. You go rogue, you
get busted, you get fired. Then I’m stuck with one of Asswipe’s cronies as a
captain and life sucks. Is it bullshit the case was dropped? Yes, but do not do
something stupid, you hear me?”
Marco chomped on his gum.
“Captain. Do you hear me?”
“Yup.” Didn’t mean he was listening.
Cassidy sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Where to now?”
“We’ve been assigned to a new case. Head to Nguyen and Son’s
Jeweler.”
“Theft? We’ve been assigned a case of B&E where the
perps have already been captured? Double bullshit.”
“Nope. We’ve been assigned to a case of vigilante justice.
The Hood made an appearance.”
“Triple bullshit.”
“Just drive, Coulter.”
Marco snapped his gum and focused on reining in his anger on
being pulled from a case he invested three years of his life on. If he spent
another second thinking about the manpower, the extra-long nights and the
resources that had gone into working out the intricate thread of Smithwick’s
network, that was now all for naught, he’d go apeshit.
Taking down an organization as large as Smithwick’s was not
an easy task, and the commander should have understood that. No matter how much
evidence he had presented to the commander as to why to keep the case open, the
dickwad had done nothing but shake his head and repeat that department
resources were too low to continue to track down a ghost.
The most galling thing of all was that he almost had him
too. A fact which made Marco want to punch the wall with his head.
Almost a year had passed since the night he had had the drop
on Smithwick. A year since the capture of the piece of shit had been so close,
Marco had heard the snap of handcuffs clicking around the man’s wrists.
The crime lord had gotten sloppy and kidnapped the
girlfriend of one of his enemies. A good guy who had asked Marco for help in
her rescue. For a second he had the little bald-headed criminal in his sights,
then all hell had broken loose and the bastard got away.
The memory of Smithwick running to the fire exit as gunfire
erupted all around them woke Marco up many a night. In his dreams he played out
over three hundred different scenarios where he succeeded and Smithwick had
been captured, only to wake up on the break room’s couch and head back to his
cubicle to renew the search.
All that time, and now his team had been pulled off the case
and assigned to track a different ghost. A goddamn vigilante.
Cassidy pulled to a stop behind a police cruiser in front of
Nguyen and Son’s Jewelry. At this time of morning the only other people out
were the street sweepers and delivery trucks making their daily runs.
The front door chimed as they entered and both men paused
inside the entry to scan their surroundings. Not a thing looked out of place
that he noticed at first glance. The glass door was in one piece and all the
display cases were intact. A medic was in the corner administering first aid to
a gentleman with blood splattered on his collar and one hell of a bruise
coloring his face. The young woman seated beside them rocked in her chair, her
arms wound around her body like a straitjacket.
Two officers from theft were gathering the last of their
supplies and nodded at Marco with sly grins on their faces. They knew what he
was there for and probably couldn’t wait to give him a hard time.
“Where’s Sanchez?” he asked.
“In the back. Surveillance room is on the left.” The grin
spread wider. “Do you want me to pick you up a shield? That’s some sword your
boy carries. You may need a full suit of armor when you go after him.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“What about some chainmail, or a horse? A noble steed for a
noble stud?”
“Funny.” He turned his back on the officer and headed for
the woman. “Hello, are you Ms. Nguyen?”
She nodded.
“I’m Captain Marco DeWinter, this is Lieutenant Coulter. I
know you’ve had a really long night and we don’t want to take up too much of
your time, but we have a few more questions for you.”
“No, no, no.” The older man jumped from his seat and waved
his arms. “You talk to me.”
“And you are Mr. Nguyen, correct?”
“Yes. I her father. Anything you say, say to me.”
Marco restrained his eye roll and reiterated the information
he had already been given by Asante. “Correct me if I’m wrong, sir. I was told
that after your nephew and his friend surprised you last night by entering the
shop with a stolen key, you were knocked unconscious by one of the suspects. Is
that right?”
“Yes, yes.” His answer was accompanied by lots of nodding.
“And is it also correct that you did not regain consciousness
until after the paramedics arrived?”
“Yes.”
“Great. I’m going to talk to your daughter now since she is
the only eyewitness present at the moment. Now, Ms. Nguyen, can you please tell
me what happened after your father was knocked out?”
The girl looked toward her frowning father and remained
silent. Apparently Daddy had her on a tight leash.
“I can go look at the surveillance footage, but I’d like to
hear your version first.”
Her eyes widened before she looked down at the floor. Her
cheeks pinked as she stuttered out the words. “Tinh’s friend, Danny, he pushed
me at the safe and yelled at me to open it.”
“And did you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve only opened it once before. I
couldn’t remember how.”
“Then what happened?”
“Danny said he’d hurt me if I didn’t open it quick. And then
Tinh said he heard a noise and went into the hall. When he came back, he said
it was nothing.”
“And was it nothing?”
She peeked up at him and shook her head.
“What was it?”
“I do not know, but soon a man was in the doorway.”
“What did he look like?”
“Big.”
“And?” he prompted when she fell silent.
“Really big.”
“I need a little more than that. Skin color, body size? What
was he wearing?”
“Black. He had on a hooded sweatshirt, black coat, black
pants. Everything was black.”
“Gotcha. Did you see his face? What color was his skin?”
“Not very well. Only this part.” She drew a circle around
her mouth and chin. “And his skin was white. Very pale.”
“Did he carry a weapon?”
“Yes, a sword.”
“And what did it look like?”
“It was very big.”
Coulter snorted with laughter and continued to scribble
notes on a small pad of paper.
“Got it.” Marco sighed. This girl was going to make a
spectacular witness. “Did he say anything? Was his voice deep, high? Did he
have an accent?”
“His voice sounded like his throat hurt. Deep and scratchy.
Very nice. Very manly.” A sparkle winked in her eye before she realized what
she said and looked back at the floor. “He said for them to go and leave me
alone. Danny told Tinh to kill him and they yelled at each other. Then the man
moved…” Her brow furrowed.
“What happened next? How did he move?”
“Fast. So fast. He broke Tinh’s arm and slammed Danny into
the wall. Boom. Quick like. Then he told me to sound the alarm and get rope.”
“And did you?”
“Yes. Well, I got jeweler’s twine. We didn’t have rope.”
“And then he tied them up?”
She sneaked a glance at her father and leaned forward to
whisper, “I did.”
Marco raised a brow. Whatever happened after she retrieved
the twine, she obviously didn’t want her father to know about. This could be
interesting. “What else did he do?”
“Nothing. He left right after.”
“Thank you, Ms. Nguyen. I’ll call your father if I have any
other questions. Fine by you, Mr. Nguyen?” He raised his voice so the
eavesdropping man could hear.
“Yes. Fine. Fine.”
“Right. Let’s go check out this video,” he said to Coulter
and headed down the hall.
Marco remembered the first sighting of this mysterious
crusader during the prior winter when a gang had been set upon by a man
wielding a sword of all things. Three members had been slaughtered before
another maniac with his own sword showed up and the two had gone all
Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon
before a peanut gallery of shocked witnesses.
Eye-witness accounts of what happened that night were pretty fantastical. Too
bad the traffic cameras in that part of town had been shut down due to budget
cuts. Physical evidence would have been nice to support the stories that had
flown around the station.
Since that night all had been quiet but for the odd rumors
popping up every few months about a guy wearing a hooded sweatshirt and
carrying a sword being spotted around town and dispensing his own brand of
justice. His victims had been found bound, gagged or with limbs missing.
Sometimes all of the above. Whoever it was, he was good at hiding his trail,
never leaving a speck of DNA and keeping his face obscured. He was a ghost no
one could prove existed.
Until now.
Marco paused at the entrance to the scene of the crime and
issued a low whistle when he saw the three-foot-wide hole in the drywall.
“Damn. No wonder he’s in the hospital. I heard one had a broken arm and the
other a pulverized wrist and broken back. Now I can see why.”
“Impressive, huh?” Officer Sanchez asked from the dark
closet of a room across the hall. “Wait until you see the footage.”
In the small floor space that was available he had set up a
tiny portable table to hold the laptop he had plugged into the server that fed
the security system. Not willing to swim in the stench that seemed like half a
bottle of Polo, Marco watched from the doorjamb.
Sanchez motioned them to gather around the computer then
typed in the commands to begin the video. “I heard you and your team were the
lucky SOBs who get to apprehend this caped crusader.”
Marco snorted. “Nope. Our guy doesn’t wear a cape.”
“Ha ha.” Sanchez flipped him off. “I also heard the
Smithwick case had been closed.”
Good news traveled fast. “Hiatus. We are on a hiatus.”
“Sure. Sure.” He smirked. “Okay. Let me fast forward a
little here to the good stuff. This part here is where Tinh Nguyen and his boy
Danny enter the shop and find Mr. Nguyen and his daughter in the office.
Judging by the expressions, it looked as if the boys thought the place was
empty.”
Sanchez slowed the video down at the moment Danny Phong hit Mr.
Nguyen in the head with the butt of his gun. Mr. Nguyen went down hard,
crashing into the corner of the desk as he fell. The video didn’t carry any
sound, but Marco could imagine the screams coming from the daughter as her
mouth opened and her body shook.
Phong slapped her across the face twice and pushed her
toward the safe. The girl’s hand slipped off the dial several times as she
turned to say something to Phong over her shoulder. While this was going on,
Tinh maintained an eye on the hallway, the hand holding the gun swung wildly
with his agitated movements. The kid had no idea how to hold a weapon.