Authors: Lynde Lakes
Victoria rushed up and hugged her parents. “I don’t know if
it’ll make y’all feel better or worse, but Rick’s in the car with them. He’s
going to try to rescue Valerie.”
Damon felt hope soar—with the kid’s PI and undercover
background, he just might pull it off—then Damon’s hope crashed. Unfortunately,
Rick didn’t know exactly what he was dealing with. Damon tightened his jaw. He
might lose Valerie—
and Rick
, whom he already thought of as a son.
“You saw him fight at the club,” Victoria said. “He moves
like lightning, thinks on his feet, and is an Einstein with steel knuckles.”
Damon groaned. The love behind his daughter’s words was
blatantly evident and stirred more complications into the mix. But, right now,
he had more pressing concerns.
Lazar/Reeves. Dear Lord, what can I do against that combo
of evilness?
Angela whirled and left his arms. They’d never felt more
empty, more cold. “I’m calling the police, and don’t even think of stopping me.
I want road blocks and lots of cops with guns.”
Damon nodded. Someone had to do something or he’d lose his
daughter and surrogate son. But would a barricaded highway and a bank of armed
cops be enough to stop the living dead?
* * *
*
In the darkened backseat, Rick felt the car gaining speed
as the wheels pounded the pavement. Time to make his move! Once they reached
the highway, with its treacherous curves and deep gullies, the danger would
skyrocket. He sprung up and clamped a chokehold on Lazar’s neck. The car
swerved. The gun went off. Valerie screamed. Rick prayed she was okay but
remained focused. He had to take out Lazar.
With the element of surprise on his side, Rick used the
leverage of the swerving vehicle and Lazar’s tumbling weight to yank him into
the backseat. Lazar twisted and pointed the gun at Rick’s head. Sweating, Rick
forced the muzzle, inch by inch, away and disarmed him. Lazar bit his arm with
wolfish incisors. Breathing hard and increasing the pressure against Lazar’s jugular
vein, Rick jammed a knee into the center of the scientist’s spine.
Valerie, bless her, had slid behind the wheel and was
trying to gain control of the car. Had she ever driven before? If she was half
as quick-witted as Victoria, she could at least bring the car to a stop. But
could he handle Lazar?
Rick felt the thunderous impact as the car clipped an
unmovable force, probably the pool wall. The doors flew open and Valerie
disappeared into the darkness. Rick clung to two unbuckled backseat seatbelts
as the car rolled over several times. The rolling action swept him off of
Lazar, and Lazar was sucked out the door one instant before the vehicle tumbled
over the hillside. The rolling and sliding vehicle bumped against boulders.
Rick expected the gas tank to explode any second. Praying to the Indian gods…to
the white man’s God, he leapt free of the careening coffin.
* * *
*
When Lazar’s car hit the far pool wall, Victoria ran toward
the accident, praying her sister and Rick were all right. Darkness was her
enemy. Only taillights and the reflection of the high beams guided her. As the
car careened off the plateau and tumbled down the hillside, the lights
disappeared. Hugh, limping a little, and Dad and Mom ran beside her. “Call
nine-one-one,” Dad shouted. Her terrified heart wouldn’t permit her to stop.
They all reached the plateau edge at the same time. Tumbling metal rumbled and
thundered though the night. Lazar’s car hit a giant boulder, exploded, and a
circle of flames flared against the night sky and turned the lower hillside
into an inferno. Victoria’s throat tightened. Had anyone made it out?
“Victoria! Call nine-one-one now!”
The dread in Dad’s tone drove her into action. Her dam of
tears broke. With the onslaught of uncontrollable shakes, she could barely
dial. When she gave the specifics of the accident, her voice broke. She cleared
it quickly. The more she wiped the tears away, they harder they flowed. This
was her fault. She should’ve watched her sister. She knew what a softy she was.
Victoria fought another wave of guilt. If she hadn’t distracted Lazar, Rick
wouldn’t have slipped into the car and the accident would’ve never happened.
Victoria heard her sister moaning. Then her mom screamed. “Damon,
over here! Valerie’s alive.”
Victoria sucked in a breath of relief, finished giving the
specifics to the 911 operator, and then ran to her sister’s side. She ached to
hug her. But that might heighten and intensify any injuries she might have.
“Are you hurt badly? You’re bleeding!”
“Just surface scrapes and maybe a broken a rib.”
“The medics are on their way.” Victoria took a deep breath.
“Did Rick get out?”
“I don’t know.” Valerie’s tone sounded doubtful.
“Hang in there, sis. I’ll be right back.” Victoria started
down the hillside toward the flames. Someone had called the Fire Department and
firefighters were already on the lower hillside, trying to contain the blaze
before it reached the tract of half-acre Spanish-Style homes. She shuddered.
One of those belonged to her grandparents. With all the noise, she tried to
assure herself they would be alerted and get to safety.
“Rick! Rick,” she called. Equipment noise, the roar of the
blaze, and the shouts of the men fighting the fire drowned out her calls. She
coughed as smoke constricted her throat.
A shadow rose behind her. She whirled, hoping to find
herself in Rick’s arms. Her sensitive sense of smell caught a whiff of wolf.
The warning came too late. Lazar clamped his fingers around her neck. Although
still in human form, he had long incisors and an unpleasant feral smell.
“You claimed I had the wrong twin,” he growled wryly. “Now,
prove it and don’t disappoint me.” His fingers tightened on her throat, cutting
off her air.
She jabbed him in the eyes with her knuckles, brought her
knee up to his groin sharply, and whirled away. She crouched ready for the next
attack.
“I see you’ve had some training, bitch. And you sure as
hell don’t fight fair. Well, I don’t fight fair either, and I’m bigger, meaner,
and indestructible.”
His double body twist with a kick to the jaw connected and
left her head spinning. He withdrew a container of clear liquid from his
pocket. It was the size of a bottle of nail polish. “Get me out of here or I’ll
blow your family away.”
Believing he intended to slaughter her family no matter
what she did, she decided to take her best shot.
Victoria heard a
whoosh
sound, and without any
action on her part, Lazar fell forward like a ton of bricks. In spite of the
flame-flickering darkness, she recognized her savior. Her heart lightened.
“Rick. You’re alive!”
The bottle of suspicious liquid flew out of Lazar’s hand.
She stiffened, waiting for the explosion. After seconds of blessed silence, she
returned her focus to the men. The power and anger behind their blows
guaranteed this would be a fight to the death. Lazar hit Rick in the forehead
with a stone. Rick swayed then shook his head as though to clear it. “Get out
of here,” he ordered. “I don’t need distractions.” He charged Lazar, who
stumbled backwards and then jumped on top of him.
Tongues of flames sucked her air and disoriented her as they
inched closer.
Which way to safety?
She stood frozen to the spot.
Earlier, Dad had told her Rick didn’t know the depth of Lazar’s evil. The idea
of Rick’s lack of needed information fed her ability to move. She stepped
closer to the men, picked up a basketball-sized boulder, lifted it high over
her head, and, aiming carefully, brought the boulder down with all of her might
toward Lazar’s skull.
The men rolled and shifted positions. The boulder missed
Rick’s temple by a fraction of an inch.
“Damn it, Victoria! Whose side are you on?”
Victoria’s stomach knotted. Her heart thundered. She could
scarcely breathe. Rick was right. Although, she’d managed to clip Lazar’s ear,
she could have killed Rick.
When she turned to go, Lazar reached out and yanked her feet
out from under her.
She screamed and fell to her knees. Lazar grabbed a handful
of her hair close to the roots and yanked her between himself and Rick. She
watched Lazar’s hand close over an Arrowhead-shaped rock. She struggled. He
pressed the tip to the delicate skin at the hollow of her throat. Cool blood
trickled down from the concave of her throat into her cleavage.
“Let her go!” Rick said.
“Back off first.”
Although surrounded, Lazar’s confident tone convinced her
he believed he was holding all the cards.
Rick stared at the blood trickling down her neck for a
moment, his expression revealing nothing.
Fearing Rick might give the creep the upper hand to save
her, she called out. “Dad, Uncle Hugh, over here!”
The outburst earned her a violent knee gouge in the spine.
From the North, her Dad and Uncle Hugh were half-sliding, half-running down the
hillside toward their voices. She figured they could see their silhouettes
highlighted by the background of flames licking the horizon. Closing off his escape
from the South were those flames and the approaching firefighters as they
fought the crackling, hissing blaze.
Rick’s piercing eyes watched Lazar, as though he were
calculating his next move.
Lazar matched his intensity. This was her last chance to
get away. She didn’t allow the stone cutting into her neck to stop her. She
broke away and ran toward her dad.
When Lazar tried to grab her again, Rick tackled him. They
scuffed and Lazar fell backwards into the approaching river of flames. Lazar’s
horrifying screams would haunt her nightmares forever.
Rick ran to her, drew her to his chest, and kissed her. The
gentle touch of his lips was almost brotherly. Then his lips firmed, his moist
mouth opened wider. His tongue sought hers, frantic, desperate like a man who’d
almost lost his soul-mate. Although vaguely aware of the flames crawling toward
them, and her dad and uncle’s disapproving eyes, she opened to Rick like a
flower tasting its first dew. She ran her fingers through his midnight black
hair and caressed the lone diamond stud in his lobe.
Abruptly, Rick pulled back. “Let’s get topside to safety.
Now.”
Victoria slid her hand down his tanned chest, wondering if
he was talking only about the encroaching flames and smoke, or did his comment
include the smoldering heat that had sprung up between them? His strong Indian
jawline, the dancing flames glowing in his earth-brown eyes, and the wild
feeling that stirred in her when she slid her fingers down his bare, tanned
chest reminded her that Rick Tanner, part Indian, in biker boots, was a
dangerous, experienced twenty-year-old and she was—as her dad put it—only eighteen.
Rick shook his head as though to clear it.
If she wanted this wild young biker who had just saved her
life, she’d have to fight for him. And
even he
wouldn’t be on her side.
* * *
*
Damon’s mind swirled in chaos. The relief he’d experienced
when he’d witnessed Lazar fall backward into the flames had dissipated. He
didn’t believe for a moment that his morphed half-brother was gone forever.
Before he could reconcile that, the other source of his
mental turmoil rose tauntingly. In his mind’s eye, he could see the image of
Rick holding Victoria and kissing her with unbridled passion. Hiring Rick to
protect his girls hadn’t been fair to Rick or safe for Victoria. He’d seen the
sparks between them. But he’d sensed Rick’s strength of character and trusted
him. Damon shook his head at the risk he’d taken. He knew firsthand the hell a
man suffered when he fell in love with the forbidden. It seemed his willingness
to trust had always been his fatal flaw and almost resulted in the loss of his
family.
Damon rushed forward and grabbed Rick’s hand in a firm
grip. Then he hugged him. “You saved my daughters.” He had to shout over the
roaring fire, the sound of the firefighter’s equipment, and raised voices. “It
was a big risk to climb into the car—risky for both you and Valerie.” He used
his most upbeat tone. “I admire a man who thinks on his feet and is confident
enough to make quick decisions on his own. However, luck played highly into
your decision, and I don’t like either of my daughters’ fate left to luck.”
“Yes, sir. I realize the kiss was unprofessional. But
nothing inappropriate has gone on between me and either of your daughters.”
Damon allowed a wry smile to slide across his lips. Rick’s
comment made it clear he understood the other issues involved. That type of
quick thinking and awareness of all the issues made him even more valuable to
the firm. And if Victoria still wanted to date him in a few years when she was
older…well, Damon figured he could face that later.
“I’ll pack up my things and be gone by morning.”
“Excellent.”
Victoria rushed up. “You can’t fire Rick, Dad. He saved
Valerie’s life. And mine.”