Promises (Blood Brothers #1) (5 page)

"Hush, bella!. No one will harm you, remember? I promised." Then he dropped a kiss on the soft shell of her ear.

She heard someone yell for them to stop but Chayle forgot to breathe. The touch of his lips to her earlobe sent chills down her body and made it impossible for her to concentrate on more than the huge man moving at breakneck speed as if he carried a bundle of feathers. In the middle of their flight down the stairs with someone obviously chasing them, all she could do was cling to Kayne's broad shoulders. A shadow in her mind remembered a promise from somewhere of safety, and it settled over her like a blanket. Her hands clung to Kayne's thick neck as he descended the stairs two at a time with her clinging to him like a monkey. She heard muffled shouts behind them and a scream from someone but then quiet.

Davey was flying down the stairs in front of them at almost a run with her meager things flung over his back all the while talking to someone she couldn't see. She tried to ask where they were going but a quelling look from Kayne had her shutting up when they came to a landing where Davey quietly opened the door and slipped out.

"Why are you acting like this?" she hissed, slapping his shoulder again before Chayle realizing it. "You can't just kidnap me again, you moron. I won't let you!"

"And just what are you going to do about it?" The mountain of a man didn't even bother to hide his amused grin as he cradled her high against his chest. He knew she couldn't fight him, but Chayle was determined not to be a victim again.

"Stop it!" She punched his shoulder, thoroughly aware that it hurt her knuckles more than it did the tight muscles bunched under his T-shirt. "You aren't some Neanderthal, for goodness sake. At least tell me where we're going."

Kayne was amazed that not only had this small female dared to hit him several times, but was under the impression that she could sway him from his intentions of removing her from the current situation. He almost smiled at the look on her face. His face never betrayed the multitude of emotions flooding him, all so new it caused his heartbeat to pound in his ears. Chayle Olsen was a female who, he realized between one heartbeat and the next, mattered. The fact that she was brave enough to argue with a stranger, even if he claimed to have been the one to rescue her, made her all the more fascinating. She wasn't screaming or hysterical like most other females would be at the situation they might find themselves in, but continued to hit him with her tiny fists.

"Are you going to get her to the SUV without further assistance or do I need to help?"
Rafe's amused question almost pushed his patience to the limits. He looked down at the fuming woman in his arms and clenched his teeth.

"Just get the damn thing to the door and stop being an ass."
If she continued to wiggle that pert little butt of hers and squirm in his arms, everyone including Rafe would see the evidence of how this female affected him.

"So, you finally accept it, my brother."
Kayne took a deep breath, realizing that the unique mind-link his twin shared with him could not prevent both of them from knowing what the other felt at a primal level.
"It's about time you realize you can't remain totally alone."

"Look who's talking!"
Shutting down the link was impossible so he didn't even try. From the moment he had seen Chayle hanging from that ceiling, felt her mental anguish reaching out to him across the forest even while unconscious, their fates were forever linked. Somehow destiny had sent his team to that remote location to get her and now he didn't know if he would be able to let her go.

"Stop ignoring me, moron!" The object of his thoughts took that exact moment in time to decide to try to jackknife her shapely legs in his grasp, her hipbone scraping against his painful erection. "Either talk to me or put me down this instant."

Chayle hadn't been this mad since some dumbass had rear ended her new car and almost totaled it, and of course he hadn't had any insurance. Now she was being carted around like a sack of potatoes by a giant who refused to tell her where they were going and kept giving her killer looks every time she asked him logical questions. A girl could just scream. She watched Davey slip silently out the stairwell door and Kayne shifted her in his arms. Then the door quietly opened again and they were quickly rushing out, climbing into a black SUV parked just outside the door. Chayle wasn't given time to look around or see where they were, much less allow anyone to see her being shuttled into the vehicle. As soon as the doors closed behind them, the huge truck was speeding out of the underground garage and into traffic.

"Are you finally going to tell me where we're going, or do I get to wait and be surprised?" she lambasted him yet again. She huffed as he settled her in his lap instead of on the leather seat next to him, and Chayle was reminded of the impressive length of male hardness she had felt earlier under his leather pants. She wiggled her butt to get comfortable, or so she tried to tell herself, and heard his quick indrawn breath as her firm rear rubbed against him.

"If you don't keep still you may find yourself with more than you can handle, woman!" Kayne whispered near the soft shell of her ear. He kept his words soft for her ears only, but he knew his brother's excellent hearing would still pick up the threat. A warm lick of her earlobe was unavoidable as her cheeks flush with his warning and his lips curved just a bit.

"You don't scare me." Chayle refused to look at him, choosing to watch the buildings flash by at an alarming rate as she wondered where they were taking her and why. The brothers had told her the threat was gone, they had promised. Didn't they say the ones who had taken her were dead? Or was there something else?

"If you got the kidnappers why are we leaving the hospital like this?" she finally managed to ask, her breathing escalating with her raging thoughts.

"I told you it wouldn't work"
Rafe growled silent to his thickheaded brother.

Over his shoulder and more pointed to Chayle, Rafe said, "It's a precaution, Chayle. You don't have to worry about the creeps who took you, promise!" He risked a quick look behind him again, catching the panicked look in her dark eyes.

"However, we do know the group had connections with others, an extensive network that wasn't at the cabin. We can't take a chance with your safety and you haven't healed enough to trust others to protect you."

His matter-of-fact explanation sounded so plausible, so believable that for a few heartbeats it didn't even cross her mind to argue with him. Until she moved in the giant's arms that held her, until she felt the raging hard-on that pressed against the bruises that still covered the tender cheeks of her ass and rock hard thighs that pressed like a furnace against hers. Her stomach flip-flopped and her mind raced as she felt the panic race over her again, reaching like a demon with icy fingers around her chest to squeeze the air from her lungs.

Her vision blurred, her breathing caught as she fought to drag air into her tortured lungs. She didn't see the buildings as they blurred past the SUV in the night or the bright lights that could possibly tell her where she was. The smell of sweat and blood, curses and pain filled her vision. A deep cold descended upon her, tremors shaking her body from the inside out to the point that her teeth began to chatter. All she could hear was her own heartbeat, her mantra inside her head telling herself to survive just a little longer, they can't touch the core that was her soul.

Clinching her eyes shut, her body felt those fingers brutally pinching rosy nipples again, felt tender bare skin slapped and cut that had only felt a lover's touch a few times in the past. A whimper escaped through lips pressed tightly together to hold back a scream. Chayle hadn't realize she had clinched her eyes shut or wrapped her arms around herself until Kayne began shaking her.

"Stop it!" he growled directly into her face. "Open your eyes and look at me, damn it!"

Chayle's lids flew open the instant she heard his growl, blazing blue eyes drilling into her, pulling her into their unusual blue depths. Trembling fingers reached up to touch a chiseled cheek covered in a day's growth of stubble to ensure he was real before huge silent tears leaked from the corners of her dark eyes.

"I can't close my eyes, Kayne," she whispered. "Every time I do I smell them, feel them." And then the shudders started, bone deep, starting all the way from her soul and taking her breath away.

"Ah baby," he breathed.

It was all he could say as he wrapped her in his strength and met Rafe's gaze in the rear view mirror. "No one will find you. I promised, didn't I?"

"But you can't take the memories away. I have to live with those," Chayle whispered softly as she lay her head against his shoulder. He felt her quiet sobs as she cried and it broke his heart, the one Kayne was convinced he no longer felt. "How will I ever sleep with the nightmares now?"

He couldn't take her sobs, they were killing him. She never felt the small prick as he injected her with a sedative that quickly took effect. One minute she was quietly clutching his shirt in a death grip and sobbing, the next she lay limp and silent in his arms.

"Fuck!" his curse was loud and hard, filling the SUV with vicious anger as he stared down at the woman in his arms.

"My thoughts exactly!" was the only comment Rafe contributed as his brother continued to hold her.

Chapter 6

Some distance away, the Master was livid!

"What do you mean they escaped?" The one who called himself 'The Master' stood before the large bank of windows looking out over a meticulously groomed lawn that stretched for acres. The estate afforded him the facilities necessary to camouflage his various ventures under the guise of a working gentleman's ranch. At the moment he could see several quarter horses being trained in a paddock, but his eyes didn't see the beauty of their gait.

"We lost them at the hospital," the young man stuttered, eyes on the floor. "Our informant gave us a heads up that something was happening so men were sent in to acquire the test subject but they were already on the move. By the time we were able to locate them, she was gone." The Master was quiet, never allowing his control to bubble above the surface that threatened to turn the light into blackness. Failure was not an option. Those who failed him paid the consequences.

"Who was on this assignment?" he asked, never revealing his intentions.

"Davis, sir."

"Have him recalled and placed in the training facility by 1600 tonight. I will personally see to his discipline!" The barely controlled violence almost bubbled up, but he continued to controlled it. Until he turned to look at the young man waiting for further orders.

Eyes as black as sin stared at the young man, chilling his soul. Davis would never walk out of the training facility this night. The young man would bet his soul on it.

The Master had worked long and hard to develop the vast network of contacts that ensured his projects were the best stock, the highest quality and the most demanded genetics available. His research team were the best in their fields, paid a fortune for their silence and loyalty. Since the release of the McIntyre twins from the government projects, they had been nothing but a thorn in his ass and he was tired of it.

The team was meant to be the best, start a genetic pool that would be beyond the touch of anyone other than his Teams, and it had all come crumbling down because of some soft-hearted bureaucrats. Their inability to see what the future could be was beyond stupid; they were more afraid of the public said than what could be accomplished to protect their own asses.

He stomped over to the side bar and punched several buttons, opening a hidden compartment that held a laptop and big screen TV. Several keystrokes later and the proposed lists of all of his Treasures were on display.

Two of them out of so many were all that had shown the successful traits necessary to meet the genetic requirements for the project. And now, those damn twins had both of them. He was more determined to get them back now that he thought of it. It was only fitting that those young women be part of his project! They would be the mothers of the next evolution in mankind.

Chapter 7

The room was quiet and dark as he sat slumped in the overstuffed chair in the corner, feet propped up on the end of the bed, watching her sleep. Chayle had not moved once since he had placed her in his large King-size bed, gently tucking the soft sheets and quilt around her slender body to keep her warm. He and Rafe kept the house cool because it suited them due to their unique metabolisms and it had never occurred to him how it could affect someone else. Now he had Chayle to worry about, and she was still healing, barely out of the hospital a day.

The humidity of east Texas could be stifling at times to those not use to it and Chayle had live the last few years in Colorado. He loved the green hill country around his home but he wondered how she would compare it to the mountains. Kayne could not wait to show her the compound but it would have to be delayed. The many horse and cattle properties surrounding the huge compound had been his and Rafe’s home long before entering the service. It had been under the name of their adopted parents and hidden by the best in the business so no one could find out where they were.

A soft moan and quick eye movements reminded Kayne why he stood silent guard, unable and unwilling to risk her waking up in a strange place yet again, alone. Too many changes in too short of time, still she retained such spunk and temper that it drew him like a dark flame. She had even dared to slap at him, causing a rare grin to lift full lips in the darkness of the room as he remembered her temper. No one had ever slapped him. Just the thought of it had him growing hard and restless all over again. No other female had ever stood up to him like that and Kayne could only be further amazed as to why he allowed her to continue to do so. It could endanger Chayle's safety if she thought she could sway him, much less that he might actually allow her to think it could work.