Promises (Blood Brothers #1) (4 page)

The smaller of the two men said his name was David or Davey, she wasn't sure which, because he mumbled every time he came into the room with anyone other than a nurse. She could tell he was shy but he wouldn't meet her eyes, wouldn't even look directly at her when she tried to thank him for being on duty. He was cute in a silent, cuddly way but there was a sadness about him that made Chayle want to hug him for some reason, which really was out of the norm for her. She sensed something was off just a bit with him but after a little while just chalked it up to her weird senses fluttering around.

In the past Chayle had found her unique sense of self-preservation served her well and in at least one case kept her out of harm’s way. Now, her sense of self had been severely tested and she wondered if she would ever feel safe again.

When the second giant appeared the afternoon of the second week Chayle was shocked at not only his size but his eyes. They were the strangest green she had ever seen, dark depths that spoke of pain and an inner strength of steel. Davey had said the other man's name was Mercury, but other than those few comments she knew nothing of her guards. Suddenly memories came flooding back at the thought of how easily she had been taken and why the men were even necessary, and Chayle cringed. No one was truly safe anymore.

Wasn't that what her father always told her before he was killed? She missed him now, missed his strength and stubbornness even if he had tried to protect her too often in his own way. What else could be expected from a Sergeant Major in the Marines? God, if he were alive now what would he do in this situation? Even with two years of intensive self-defensive courses and working out three days a week she couldn't have taken any of the men who kidnapped her. Her father had been right, it was impossible to know who she could trust anymore.

She still couldn't fathom why she was taken in the first place since at twenty-eight years old Chayle knew she didn't fit the profile for human trafficking. She was a military analyst for a defense contractor with nothing important to offer a group like this. Those who were usually targets were younger, beautiful, usually blonde or close to it, with blue or green eyes which were highly marketable for trafficking. Chayle's chocolate and gold eyes were nothing special and her chestnut curls were long and unruly most of the time but nothing to draw anyone's attention. Looking down at her bruised and battered body, she decided now was not the time to try to figure out the method to their madness. She desperately wanted and needed a shower.

It took more of her strength than she had bargained for to get into the shower without calling a nurse for help, but as the hot spray beat over her skin, Chayle sighed. She ignored the bruises showing along her ribs and thighs and just let the hot water soak into her bones, relaxing muscles and slowly allowing aches to ease. It had two weeks and they were now darker, angrier than they looked originally. She forced herself to move and draw deeper breaths into sore lungs and make those muscles work again. The doctors had said she was just as bruised internally but no permanent damage that they could find, and once she was feeling up to it she could start building her strength back up to what it was before the incident.

The incident… like it was some kind of accident, or occurrence. Anger rose deep from her chest and before she could stop it a sob escaped.

"No! Stop it! You cannot let them win!" she cursed softly aloud, turning off the water and stepping from the shower. Trying to think of something else, her mind instantly went to angry blue eyes and luscious male lips.

She hadn't seen those annoying twins for over a week now that she knew for sure they were brothers. However, the men's presence posted outside her room continued to remind her how lucky she was to be alive. The pesky little runt named Davy sat outside her door today, following her whenever she tried to walk the halls. Chayle was tired of it. She wanted out of here and she wanted it now! She would heal better on her own, outside of this hospital.

She pushed back the curtain only to scream when a towel was thrust into her hands. It took a second to wipe her face and glare at the offender, coming face to face with the one person whom she had just been fantasizing about only moments before.

Her very own dark angel! And didn't it just have to be her luck that it was the one who always seemed to be in a bad temper!

"What are you doing here?" she spat out, wrapping the towel around her, twisting it over her breasts.

Kayne just watched her, his Prussian blue eyes mesmerizing for long seconds as she tried to make herself breathe. The room seemed to close in around her, pressing in, making it hard to get air in her lungs whenever this man was in the small private room and it had nothing to do with his intimidating size.

She tried to edge past him from the small bathroom to the bedroom but he didn't budge, just leaned against the doorjamb as if he owned it, looking at her. Licking her lips, Chayle straightened to her full five feet eight inches and pushed past him, her nipples beading as they scraped his rough shirt. She needed to find some clothes and get out of here.

“Is there any way I can have some clothes instead of a hospital gown?” she growled, reaching to pull the thin blanket from the end of the bed. At least it gave her more protection from those penetrating eyes than the threadbare towel had.

He just stood there, looking at her for long moments before he took a deep breath and Chayle was amazed once more at the strength and presence the man had just standing in the room.

“Did you even hear me?” she asked again, quickly coming to the end of her patience.

Kayne stood looking at the vision in front of him and nearly came in his jeans! His zipper was already pressing a seam against his cock when he had walked in and heard the shower going, just thinking about all of that wet skin. Now her perky little nipples pebbled so nice and hard just under the towel after brushing up against him and his cock jerked, begging to come out to play.

"
Easy, brother! You can't scare her like that… she has been terrorized and brutalized enough. She won't accept your touch so easy until she heals."
Rafe's rationale echoed in his mind, but it wasn't a reminder Kayne needed. Nightmares still haunted him of the cabin they had found her in, her body hanging from those chains.

"
Do we tell her the reason we haven't been here, Rafe?
"
he growled back silently, his uncertainty never showing in the frown while he burned to kill all of those they had hunted for the last couple of weeks again, only making it much more painful.

The bruises on her legs peaked out from under the towel, darker and harsh against her skin as they began to heal. He watched as she tried to pull a soft T-shirt over her chestnut curls pulling the towel lower around her waist and his breathing hitched at the patches of skin revealed.

"
It will be the only way to gain her trust, me thinks,"
was the chuckling reply. Kayne continued to watch the female as she slowly moved over to the small closet and pulled a few clothes from it.

"What do you think you're doing?" he finally said.

"Leaving just as soon as I get some clothes!" Chayle hissed, trying to hold the towel in place as she pulled the blanket around her and headed to the small closet. The door opened with a bump of her hip, tugging a T-shirt she found on the top shelf over her small breasts. He knew she wouldn’t be able to handle a bra. No way would she be able to handle tight clothes against her chest right now with all of the bruising and minor cuts under her breasts.

"That's what you think!" Kayne reached for the shirt, only to have his hand batted away. He watched, thunderstruck, as the sprite tried to hold the towel, grab the shirt and hold the door all at the same time. "Hold still! You’re going to hurt yourself again," he growled, jerking the shirt from her.

"What do you care? You haven't been here to see what they have been doing to me!" she screamed, frustration winning over her efforts. She held onto the shirt like a determined bulldog in spite of the fact that his big hand held it slightly above her head. "Please," she finally whispered, "let me get dressed. And for your information… I didn't do this to myself," he heard her breathe as she tried to turn from him.

Chayle's shocked eyes met Kayne's when he reached for her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. "Did anyone else harm you while you were here?"

It took Chayle a moment to realize that he was clenching his jaw but the words were whispered, barely a breath in the now quiet room. Tension filled the space between them as if an electrical storm had moved into the small space, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. Shivering, she could only stare into his strange blue eyes and shake her head no.

She realized in that moment that anything she said against the staff would end badly. This man was vibrating with anger on her behalf and it did something to her stomach as the realization hit her like lightening.

"My brother and I have been absent because we were hunting down the rest of those who would harm you and the other women. There will be no one else coming for you, at least not from those that were with that group." Kayne released the shirt they both held, allowing her to finish pulling it to her chest.

"What do you mean… hunted down?" she whispered.

"They are no more!" he growled, reaching up to stroke a bruise that still marred her shoulder above the towel. "Now dress… I’m getting you out of here, if you're ready." Kayne moved back, giving her just enough room to breathe. He watched her pretty nipples pebble under the thin T-shirt she had pulled on and silently bit back a groan.

"What do you mean… leaving?" She gulped as he growled again, his head lowering. "I'm leaving here alone, thank you very much!" Chayle tried to push past him, but the brute just stood there.

"Do you mind?" she hissed, as she tried to push past him again.

"You are coming to a safe house. No arguments." Kayne didn't elaborate since he really didn't see the need. Damn, why hadn't his brother taken this on? He was the empathic one, better at soothing and getting his way than Kayne ever was at these things. Then he looked down at the bruises and barely healed swelling just below the hem of the shirt where it hung below her groin and knew why.

"Mine!"
No one would ever touch her again… not and live.

"
Easy brother! We've got everything in place to protect her."
Rafe whispered in his mind, "
Just get her out of there and to our house. We'll see how things go from there."

Intel had come through that Chayle’s location had been compromised and they still hadn’t figured out how it had happened. Evidently, they had a leak and until it was plugged Kayne wasn’t taking any chances with Chayle’s safety.

It took a moment to realize that the female was dressing and mumbling to herself, causing Kayne to grin. If she could accomplish only half the things she was wishing on his anatomy it would be a miracle of science, not to mention a freak of nature. Still, her amazing twists of the English language entertained him as he turned his back to give her a semblance of privacy. When he turned he found her sitting on the edge of the small bed looking at her tiny feet, bewildered tears trickling down her chafed face.

"What troubles you, woman?" Kayne whispered as he knelt in front of her, watching the strange play of emotions over her pale face. Her chocolate eyes were lit with tawny flicks trying to hide the pain she must still feel and the tears she valiantly attempted to hide from him, causing his chest to ache.

"They didn't even leave me any shoes." Her soft admission nearly broke his heart.

Kayne knew he no longer had a soul because his heart had been hardened long ago by the things the military scientists and their form of humanity justified in doing to one another. He and his band of brothers and sisters worked as Guardians now.

Their abilities made them valuable freaks that the government could no longer hide. Now he and his teams worked to keep mankind from extermination by forces it had no idea were even within their mists most of the time. Now, watching this small woman touched a core of something he didn't want to think about. When Chayle looked up at him with tears in those dark eyes, he felt a band tighten around his chest.

"Enough!" he growled, moving over to pick her up. "You won't need shoes anyway."

Chayle's unladylike squawk filled the room as she came up against his huge chest. Arms like vise grips wrapped around her so gently not even a bruise ached. Her arms automatically snaked around his thick neck when he growled at someone behind them.

"Come get the rest of her stuff and let's move it." The guard who called himself Davey slipped into the room with a duffel bag and began to quickly stuff her meager belongings into it while she watched in stunned silence, his bemused grin looking over a wide shoulder ever so often. When she felt her face heating, it was too much.

"Put me down!" Chayle hissed through clenched teeth, slugging Kayne's chest with her fist as if it would do any good at all.

"Be still or I'll paddle your ass." He shifted her weight as he turned to look at Davey, and then growled. "What are you looking at, runt?"

"Nothin' boss!" The younger man hid a smirk as he watched Kayne struggle with the curvy woman in his arms. "The SUV is waiting down stairs in the back, but I'm sure you already know that since Rafe is driving."

Indeed, his brother was waiting patiently but they needed to move it. Kayne's senses were working overtime and something was off. He tensed, his enhanced hearing picking up a number of footsteps that shouldn't have been coming their way so soon.

"We're out of time, Davey. We need to move, now!"

Grabbing the younger man by the scuff of the neck while still being able to hold onto his precious burden, Kayne all but threw him out of the door in front of him as he carried Chayle close to his chest. He heard her begin to make noises as if to scream but he lowered his lips to her ear lobe, brushing it with his lips. Her unique scent was the same as before but healthier and cleaner, and Kayne found his cock growing even harder than before if that were possible.