“What are you talking about?” He looked over at his daughter and wondered what she’d found out. “Sold her to him indeed. He had a thing for young men, not women.”
“Oh, that’s right. You sold Allen to him. And he’d been fucking the poor young boy for years. It was why he came over on Friday nights. To get his rocks off on an eleven-year-old. But Jack found out, didn’t she? Found the man sodomizing her brother, and she did go a little mad. And she did kill him. But not before you tried to kill her.”
“This is insanity.” He stood up, only to be told to sit down. The man in his head was telling him that if he moved again, if he so much as tried to leave, he would hunt him down. “You’re lying. I don’t know what you think you know, but it’s all lies.”
“And he’s not dead, is he?” Mark felt his heart pound hard in his chest as his daughter spoke. “Dave has been living it up on the insurance you claimed for him when he went missing for more than seven years. Shame, really, that he’s going to be caught. And I’m pretty sure that whatever they give him will not be enough to make up for all the years you made Allen suffer. Because he did, you worthless piece of shit.”
Mark looked at the doorway. It was too much for him…his daughter knew entirely too much for her own good. “I’m going to call the police as soon as I leave this establishment. You’ll hear from my—”
“I don’t think so.” The man that sat down put his hand on the table and that was all, just his hand. Mark felt his bladder start to panic, the feeling of being too full and too afraid at the same time. He would not wet himself, but he was very close. “You’ve been a very bad boy, haven’t you Mark? Or should I call you Anthony? Nice ring to it. Anyway, I’ve been digging around in that head of yours, and I have to tell you, you’re one fucked up individual, aren’t you?”
“Do I know you?” He looked at his daughter and wondered what else she might have told these two when she looked at him, then back at the man.
“You know my father?” The stranger nodded and she looked at Mark. “Does he know what sort of individual you are? What a sick motherfucking bastard you are?”
“I don’t know him.” The man nodded at him and smiled at his daughter. “I would like to leave now.” They all ignored him and Mark started to stand. But the man pointed to the chair and he found himself seated again against his will.
“No, he doesn’t know me, or I him. Not really. I was just in the right place at the right time. I saw him in the airport and he…well, he touched me. Sometimes that’s all it takes, just a touch, and I can find out a great deal about a person. But in addition to touching him, I had myself a little taste of his blood too.” Mark put his hand over the small mark on his neck. He’d noticed it just after he’d gotten off the plane. “Yeah, that’s the spot. You should have better care who you let drink from you. All sorts of secrets come to light.”
“You bit me?” The man nodded and leaned back. “You can’t do that. You can’t just bite someone and get away with it.”
“You can’t expect to treat your children the way you have and get away with it either, but you do, don’t you?” The man smiled at him and Mark felt his bladder simply let go. He felt his urine run down his leg and into his shoes before he could think. Fangs. The man had large, long and sharp fangs. “I see you’ve figured out that I can bite whom I please.”
“What do you want?” When the man smiled again, Mark had to tighten his ass. He was going to mess himself next and if he did, Mark knew that the world would know it. “I don’t want you near me.”
“Now, isn’t that just too fucking bad?” The man looked over at his daughter and the woman. “I’m Steward Thomas. I’m a friend of Dan Rogers.”
Mark stood up. He no longer cared that anyone saw him. He wanted nothing to do with his daughter, and his son could go straight to hell, where he was more than likely headed anyway. As soon as he was cleared of the table, the man spoke again.
“You can run, but you’ll never be free of me. I’ve a taste of you now and you will forever be hearing from me.” Mark nearly ran from the room, the man’s laughter still echoing in his head.
Going into his room and closing the door, Mark leaned against it as he tried to think. They were going to expose him, he thought, and his daughter would be right out there telling them what had really happened that day. And many days after too. He’d used the fact that she thought she’d killed Dave and had abused her for many hours, enjoying it the entire time because Dave had been close enough to hear, had even recorded her screams a few times. Mark didn’t know what he’d done with the recordings, but was sure that he’d used them sexually.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and tried three times to dial Dave’s number. It wasn’t until he heard his friend’s raspy voice that he felt the hysteria bubbling up. He had to put his hand over his mouth twice when his terror got the better of him.
“She knows. Daughter knows what happened. They might be coming for you.” There was a garbled response, then nothing. “Dave, did you hear me? Daughter knows, and it’s only a matter of time before she tells someone who might come after you.”
“Mr. Wagner?” The voice, eerily low, asked him twice more if he was Wagner. “It will do you no good to deny it. Dave here has confirmed who you are. We’re sending someone for you. Or they may already be there. I’m not sure when our boss called them.”
The door behind him nearly rattled off the hinges when someone knocked. His whimper must have gone over the line because the person at the other end laughed. Backing away from the door, he watched as the door knob turned and the door slowly opened. Mark dropped to his knees just as the three men in suits came in. The fight with his sphincter ended in a loss, and he felt his bowels let go just as his bladder had.
“Mr. Anthony Wagner? We have a warrant for your arrest.” Mark didn’t ask him for what, he knew his list was long. But the man started spouting off things as he pulled his arms behind him and put on the strip of plastic. “Murder, attempted murder, insurance fraud, tax evasion, kidnapping….”
Mark tuned him out. The man in front of him smiled, and Mark had a feeling he was never going to see the inside of a court room. His fangs were just as lethal looking as Steward’s had been.
“You’re going to pay for your bad choices in life.” Mark nodded at him. “Do you have any idea how much fun we’re going to have with you before we’re finished? Loads and loads. More than you ever had when you were torturing your children. And I have it on good authority that you’re going to whimper and cry like a little child. Just the way you are now.”
“I was a good father.” The man threw back his head and laughed. “Why can’t you just let me go? I have money. I will give it all to you if you simply let me go.”
“You haven’t a pot to piss in and we all know it. And about now, your little girl is finding out that everything your wife left her is now in ruin.” He stepped back when Mark was lifted from the floor. “You really should have thought this whole thing through. Did you think that she’d just let you take her back there to wait on you hand and foot? Or are you stupid enough to think that no one would miss her or her brother when you killed them? That was the plan, wasn’t it, Wagner? You were going to use them for as long as you could, then kill them. You are going to pay for a lot of damage you caused.”
“She’s my daughter and she should take care of me.” The man laughed, and Mark was led away. “What’s going to happen to me now? Where are they taking me? To jail?”
“Nope.” He was being moved down the hall when the man finally answered. “You’re going to be our play thing now. Steward told us that we could do with you what we wanted for as long as you lived. And we’re going to make sure you live to be a very old man.”
As the elevator doors closed, it occurred to Mark what he meant. He started screaming the moment the closed space began to descend. He was still screaming for them to let him go, begging for it when he was led out of the building and into the awaiting car. Mark knew then that he was going to die. But he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be soon enough. Not nearly soon enough for him.
Chapter 11
“And just how do you figure into this thing with my sire? You aren’t his friend, so what the hell are you?” Jack watched the man as he sat there after her father left. He and Slone made small talk, but she was so stunned with seeing her father fall apart that she didn’t pay much attention. “You’re someone that knows him. And a little of what happened that night, so who are you?”
“I’m Steward Thomas.” She nodded and he smiled again, and this time she saw them. “I’m a very old and bored vampire. And a friend of your mate. Luke and I have…conversed over the years about his speculation of having a mate.”
“And what does that have to do with this?” He only smiled more. “You’re an ass, aren’t you? I mean, I thank you for what you did just now, but you’re an ass.”
“I’ve been called worse.” She was sure he had and said as much to him. “You should know that he won’t bother you again. I’ve done things to insure that.”
“I had no intentions of letting him bother me now. And you didn’t answer me. What does this have to do with you?” He glanced at Slone, who simply got up and moved away from the table. She took her purse and her light jacket but said nothing as she moved away. “Did you do that?”
As soon as he nodded, she punched him in the face. Blood erupted from his nose and lip and she was shocked at herself. When he glared at her, she sat very still wondering what the hell had gotten into her. Then he did the strangest thing. He laughed. And laughed hard.
“Luke said that you were a fire cracker. Not his exact words, mind you, but close enough. He also said that you’d be pissed at me. I think I’m going to like you, Jacklyn Emerson.” Jack nodded, not sure what to say to him. “I did this not just for you, but for your brother. Did he ever tell you that he met me?”
“No. He never mentioned you. But then I’ve not had a lot to do with him for a while.” Steward nodded and leaned back in the chair. “Are you going to tell me or make me have to hit you again?”
“You won’t hit me. You are appalled that you did it the first time. You are not, my dear, a violent person. But yes, I’ll tell you.” He waited while the waiter asked her if she was ready to order, and when she told him what she wanted, he walked away. “He and I stumbled across one another in a jail cell. The day you left him.”
Jack felt her heart twist and hurt again for what she’d done to her brother. Even after all these years she wanted to go back and do what he wanted. But Steward continued before she could dive deeper into her
what if’s
and
I should have’s
.
“You did the right thing. And even that night, he knew it.” She shook her head. “I can tell you that he did. I sort of…let’s just say I gave him a great deal to think about. And when I touched his mind, I knew that, like you suspected, that he’d been hurt a great deal more than you knew for sure. He had been hurt by that man.”
“He never told me. I only…the night that I walked in on my father and Mr. Patrick talking about it is when I knew for sure. I think it’s what got my brother into drugs in the first place.” Steward nodded, then shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“The rapes were the reason he turned to drugs, but it’s not why he was into them so heavily. That too was of your father’s making. He bought them for him, supplied them for him, and even when Allen was too stoned to take them himself, he fed them to him. I think he was being subsidized to care for an addicted child. And he didn’t want to lose all that extra income, I guess. Your father should have been dead long ago.” Jack felt the tears roll down her face. She’d left him to that. “Don’t think of it that way. Had you not left him, I would never have found him. And getting him into the proper places was what I did for him. Your brother is a good man. And I was very glad to help him.”
“I owe you for that.” He shook his head, and she nodded. “I do. Had it not been for you, he’d be dead. He’d be…there was so much going on when I left. The pain of it all. I just couldn’t take it any longer.”
“No, neither of you could. And you leaving saved you both. I was just the one who could help him. And today, I was able to help you.” She asked him why. “I don’t have to have a reason, do I?”
“If you expect me to be okay with this, you will.” The waiter brought her the sandwich she’d ordered, and she found that her appetite had fled. Pushing it back, she looked at Steward and waited. He’d tell her or not, but she hoped that he would.
“All right. One night about thirty-five years ago, I met a lovely young woman. She was pretty in the way that you’re beautiful. Long dark hair, the grayest eyes I’d ever seen, and a heart as pure as the snow we found ourselves in. She was your mother.” Jack wanted to tell him that it couldn’t have been her mother, as she’d been only a teenager that long ago. But she knew that her mom would have been in her early twenties and she would have already been married to her father. “You’re doing the math, aren’t you?”
“She talked about you. Not you but someone.” He nodded and smiled. “She said that even a stranger would be kinder to her than her own husband. And that sometimes regret can make you do the dumbest things. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. We had a one night stand. A single night of paradise that has lived in my heart for all this time. And then, all the way back then, I knew that I’d find her again someday, and I did. Through her children. I loved your mother with all my heart.” Jack thought of Luke and her love for him and wondered if it was the same. “She was my mate but she was with another. I would have taken her that night, but in my arrogance, I thought she’d be there forever. Then things were set in motion that tore us apart. It wasn’t until I met your brother in that cell that I realized she was gone.”
“She never stopped loving you.” Steward nodded. “You should have taken her. You might have saved her life.”
Jack wasn’t blaming him for her mother’s death but wanted her to have been happy, even for a time. But Steward shook his head and looked around the room before he said anything more.
“She said that our love, our need was for people in fairy tales. That the kind of thing we had, a night of passion and promises, was for people who did not exist but who would live out their lives in our minds. I didn’t work hard to convince her otherwise. I knew what she was to me, but as a vampire who had lived for so long, I just never thought of her as dying. Or someone who would get sick. I assumed she’d always be there for me. I was wrong.” He turned back to her. “I’m not your parent, nor would I ever assume to order you around as one would, but you and your brother have a second chance at this. A chance to get your lives together in a way she would have been proud of.”
“I’m working on it.” He nodded and stood up. “Are you going to be around? A part of this life we now have? I’d very much like for you to be. If only you can show up on occasion to visit.”
“I’d very much like that.” As he moved by her, he asked her for a single kiss. “I won’t take what you do not offer freely, but with a kiss I can take enough of you into me to help should you need it.”
She stood up and offered him her wrist. He looked at it, then at her. She knew what she was doing, and that Luke might not be happy about it, but she wanted the man in her life that had made her mother have a shy smile once in a while. He leaned over and bit gently. Then when he lifted his head, he smiled at her.
“Your mate will want to mark you the moment he sees you.” She laughed as she tossed money on the table. “Ah, I see. You’re counting on this.”
“No, but now that you mention it, I think I am.” As they left the restaurant she looked at the courthouse just down the block. “In fact, I think I’ll go and see if he’s ready to get a start on that now.”
“Good luck to you, my dear. You are more like your mother than I had first thought. As is Allen. The two of you will be a good team.” Then he bowed before her and disappeared. Jack moved down the street thinking about her mate and what she was going to do to him even as she started thinking of ways to get Allen out of the office for a while. She was so going to enjoy this.
~~~
Luke started to tell Allen that he wanted him to go home for the day. He’d been in and out of his office so many times that he was limping badly and he looked like he was in a great deal of pain. But when he saw Jack standing there, he leaned back in his chair until it protested.
“You finished with your father?” She nodded and moved into the room, closing the door behind her. “I take it things went well. He’s going back to his lonely home all by himself.”
“I have no idea where he’s going, but I doubt it will be home. I had a very interesting lunch with Steward Thomas. He said you know him.” Luke nodded and nearly whimpered when he heard the lock engage on the door. “Did you know that he knew my family? Long before he met my father?”
“No.” She took off her jacket and tossed it in the general direction of the couch. Then she kicked off her shoes as she made her way across his office. “Allen should go home, don’t you think?”
“I already sent him there. He’s in a great deal of pain.” The buttons on her blouse were opened slowly, but she didn’t open her blouse as she went, leaving it closed so that all he got were glimpses of what was beneath. “I’ve been a bad wolf. And I’ve been told that you’re going to need to mark me again. And soon.”
She put out her wrist and he could smell the vampire on her. He wanted to demand her to tell him where he was, but Luke had a feeling this was going to be much more fun. He growled low when she moved her wrist over his mouth, and then he licked her. Her moan had him adjusting his cock.
“Do you know what it means to mark you? I’m going to have to be very thorough about it. I might have to mark you in more than one place.” Her laughter, sexy and warm, seemed to float over him. “Come here, Jack. I want to taste you.”
“I’d like to suck your cock first. Take you into my mouth and feel the way you fuck me down the back of my throat.” She moved around his desk and pulled his chair out. “Put your hands on your chair, Luke. I want to play.”
He did as she commanded and then watched her drop to her knees. He felt his cock fill as she reached for his belt. Before she had his pants opened, he knew that as soon as she touched him he was going to come. He only hoped that he’d be able to fuck her like he wanted when she was finished.
“You are going to have to let me have my fun too.” She told him she was counting in it. “Christ.”
His dick was free but not for long. As soon as he was freed from one confined place, she put him into another, but her hot, wet mouth was much better than his briefs. He nearly cupped the back of her head to guide her to how he wanted her to take him, but her low growl had him stop. She told him to not touch her or she’d leave him just like he was. He was pretty sure that she’d do it too. Simply get up and leave him hard and aching.
Luke had had oral sex before. And right now, with Jack between his legs sucking him like she was, he knew that that’s all it had been before, oral sex. This was a mind-blowing motherfucking blow job, and his entire body was feeling her. He rocked his hips up as she swallowed him down, moaned when she rolled his balls, full and hot, into her hand. Luke started to beg, plead with her to let him take her. But she only continued what she was doing, torturing him until he thought he’d go completely insane.
No. I need this.
He growled, and her laughter echoed in his mind
. Are you going to come down my throat, love? Let me taste you as you fill my mouth, give me all that you have. Come for me, Luke. Come now.
Luke gripped the arms of his chair and exploded in her mouth. He watched her bob her head over him, take him as deep as she could as he felt his balls fill again. Pulling her away from him, his cum still dripping from the tip, he stood her up. Then he pushed her back over his desk and tore her pants from her. Her scent nearly pulled his wolf. He wanted her too, wanted to taste the hot cream that was all theirs.
He slammed into her heat, coming again, and his balls seemed to fill again almost as soon as he emptied them. As she tightened around him, milked him with her sheath, he ripped her small silky bra and took her breast as deeply into his mouth as he could. Biting down on her, tasting her blood, he roared around her as he emptied himself into her again. Her teeth sinking into his shoulder, tearing into his flesh made his vision blur. When she screamed around her bite, Luke felt his world tilt on its axis as he dropped onto her. She’d killed him was his last thought.
He knew that he’d passed out. For how long was anyone’s guess, but when he lifted his head and looked down at Jack, she smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed her on her mouth before she could speak.
“I love you.” She nodded and told him she loved him as well. “I’ve never, not in all my life, come that hard. You are a temptress and an amazing woman. And I know that I have never lost consciousness before. You have humbled me in the sex department.”
“I’m just that good.” He stood up and lifted her with him. As he sat down, he held her to him. Her body straddled his and her naked breasts were right where he could nibble. “You do know that I have nothing to wear home, right? I mean, not one stitch of clothing.”
“Works for me.” She smacked him on the head. “You could just shift and run home. I might join you in that. It’s been a very strange day. A good run might make things a little easier to handle for us both.”
“I’m still not very comfortable with being a wolf.” He knew that. But every time she shifted, she got a little more relaxed about it. “What if you just gave me one of your shirts and I wear it like a dress until we get to your car?”