Authors: Nancy Gideon
But it wasn’t fright. It was something closer to an agony of distress. She finally blinked those shock-widened eyes, sending a trail of tears to score her pallid cheeks.
Before he could offer any further assurances, she slid off the bed to kneel with him, her arms circling his shoulders, her face pressing against the hurried pulse of his throat.
Jacques clutched her close, letting her warmth thaw his inner chill, letting her familiar scent steady his senses as he tried to separate fractured memory from this tender reality. Tried but couldn’t seem to pull the two entwined threads apart.
Susanna straightened, placing her palms to his face, leaning in to kiss him quickly, feverishly. He cupped the back of her head, holding her still so he could deepen that intimate tangle of breath and tongues into a slow burning fire of longing.
He lowered his lips to those scars torn into her pale skin, where she’d been savagely scored and claimed by
another lover. Her breath tickled warm against his ear, teasing him with the poignant gust of her sigh.
I will always love you.
That tender vow, long broken, whispered through his memory.
Or had it just been spoken?
Jacques pulled back, studying her features with a fierce concentration.
And then his cell phone rang.
Susanna regarded him, cheeks still bearing the tracks of her tears. Her dark eyes, steeped in that inner misery he didn’t understand.
He drew a shaky breath, not knowing what to say to her.
Finally, he gave up for the moment, and reluctantly left her on her knees to go into the living room for his phone.
“LaRoche.”
“Jackie, you know those strangers I was telling you about, the ones asking questions?”
It was Philo and his tone was deadly serious.
“Yeah?”
“They’re not just asking anymore. They’ve started killing.”
Fourteen
S
usanna caught a glimpse of Jacques’s tense features as he returned to the bedroom. She didn’t question him as he jerked up a pair of jeans, then padded bare-chested and barefoot back into the other room. Hurriedly, she began dressing.
Jacques sat on the sofa, lacing on his boots while he spoke tersely to Max on speakerphone.
“Four of his Patrol are dead. A half dozen more are missing.”
“Have him tell his men not to engage them, to gather up everyone they can and get them to the Towers. Give him your code. Get them to safety. I’m on my way to the club. Meet me there.”
“Maybe you and Charlotte should come here to the Towers, too.”
“I don’t hide from the likes of them,” Savoie sneered with an arrogant fury. “If they’re looking for a fight, they’re going to damn well get one.”
“Be there in five, see you in fifteen.”
As he snapped his cell closed to end the call, Jacques saw her standing in the hall. For an instant, her ethereal beauty struck the breath from him. Then he was all business, surging off the couch, striding
past her into the bedroom to snatch up a black Henley pullover.
“Lock up after me. You’ll be safe here. Don’t buzz anyone in. Call if you need me.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He whirled to face her, brows lowered like the storm clouds thickening over the river outside his windows. “No, you’re not,” he growled in a no-nonsense tone.
“I’m a doctor. I might be of help.”
“I hope like hell that won’t be necessary, but if it is, you can do whatever you can from here.”
“That won’t be good enough.”
“We’re not arguing about this.”
“No,” she told him firmly. “We’re not. If they’ve come for Max, I’ll stay out of the way. They have no reason to harm me. But if they’ve come for me, there’s no way I’m going to allow them to harm anyone else.”
To harm you
, was what her heart was beating out in a fearful tattoo.
He stared at her, eyes flat and black. “Not a chance.” He pulled on the shirt and started to push by her. She caught his arm and held tight. When he glared down at her through those wildly angry eyes, she stated one simple fact.
“It’s not your choice.”
He drew a harsh breath, holding it against all the protests she could see building in his gaze. So she placed her hand upon his mouth, stroking gently as she said again, with a quiet finality, “It’s not your choice.”
His stare was filled with a tragic frustration of fear and powerless rage. The fear for her, not for himself, and the rage directed at the circumstances he couldn’t control.
They rode down in the elevator together. Tension jumped in his jaw as he refused to look at her.
“You’ll stay behind me,” he ground out.
“Okay.”
“You’ll do exactly what I tell you.”
“I will.”
“If I say run, you’ll run like hell.”
“Will you be with me?”
“No.”
“Then I won’t be running.”
He turned on her, gripping her upper arms to give her a shake, his voice coldly furious. “This isn’t a game, Susanna. This isn’t some clinical test run in your sterile little lab. These are lives I’m talking about, the lives of those I care for. I can’t protect them and be worrying about you at the same time.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m safer with you than anywhere else I could be. You do what you need to do. I’ll be fine.”
He pulled her hard against him with a growl of “I wish I could believe that.”
She clutched at his shirt, her eyes squeezing shut. She wished she could believe it, too, but a terrible panic was banging inside her. A fearful certainty that whatever was waiting for them wasn’t something they’d easily walk away from. At least, not together.
“This is madness, Anna, you putting yourself in this kind of danger.”
She could hear the strain shake through his voice, but there was pride there, too. She clung to that as fear flushed through her, telling him, “I’m not giving up a single minute I could be spending with you.”
Especially if it was to be their last.
The club was full, its patrons milling about uneasily, spreading half-whispered rumors about what was happening. Nica met them at the office door, frowning at the sight of Susanna. Jacques pushed the doctor toward her.
“Guard her with your life, Nica. Keep her where I can see her.”
The dark assassin nodded. “I will, boss.”
Jacques continued on down the steps. Nica’s arm hitched about Susanna’s waist when she tried to follow.
“Let him go do his guy stuff. He doesn’t need you there.”
Susanna’s breath hitched painfully, her knees buckling. Nica’s support was firm and bracing.
“Don’t you let him see that you’re afraid,” Nica warned with a toughness that fueled her own inner strength. Susanna straightened, inhaling deeply until the dizziness released her. Then Nica gave her an approving pat and a warm, “Good girl.”
“How bad are things going to get?” she asked when she had control of her voice.
“Depends on how many there are and what they want. I’ll feel a lot better when—” She broke off that
sentiment with a gust of relief, her gaze fixed upon the tall Shifter striding toward them. “Hello, hero,” she purred and cast herself into Silas MacCreedy’s arms. Their kiss was like a violent force of nature. Nica finally rocked down from her toes, her arms still about his neck. “You bring my stuff?”
Silas passed her the backpack he carried. “I wouldn’t want to leave you naked.”
She grinned. “Yeah, you say that now.” She gave him a push. “Go be a tough guy, but if you make me sleep alone, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Thought you didn’t like my snoring?”
“Well, there’s enough other things you do that I like to make me overlook that. Watch your back, lover.”
“Always.” His fingertips stroked under her chin, then he nodded to Susanna and went to join Jacques at the bar, Nica’s gaze fixed on him like a targeting laser.
“How can something make you so weak and so strong at the same time?” she wondered out loud.
“I don’t know,” Susanna answered.
Noting the way the doctor’s stare adored the big bar owner, Nica chuckled. “’Bout time. Have you told him?”
Susanna looked to her in alarm. “Told him what?”
Nica smirked. “I didn’t need to see how you look at him. I’ve seen your daughter. No time like the present to make a confession.”
“Not yet. I can’t yet.” Then she made a meaningful connection between her friend and MacCreedy. “Some secrets are kept for a reason.”
Nica raised a brow and said nothing more.
Jacques’s booming voice filled the cavernous room. “Those of you with families, get them and meet Philo at the Towers. He’ll see you safely inside. The rest of you, stay with me. Drinks are on the house.”
Two-thirds of the customers slipped away, hurrying out into the night. The others crowded in close to the bar to accept a free beer and huddle packlike. Jacques gestured his two waitresses over, hugging them both in close before telling them to go and go quickly. Jen bolted, but Amber lingered, worried eyes lifting to his.
“Go on, Amber. We’ll be fine on our own. We can serve ourselves for once. You’ve got that little girl to take care of. Go on. And don’t come back in until I call you.”
She surprised him by grabbing on tight and not letting go. He cupped the back of her head, emotions twisting up, then finally shook her loose.
“You keep up this insubordination and I’ll be rethinking that raise.”
“Raise?” she sniffled. “For what?”
“Cost of living, darlin’.” He pressed a kiss to her brow. “Now go earn it.”
She darted off, pausing long enough to share a hug with Nica and to give Susanna a puzzled glance before disappearing out the back door. Nica dropped the heavy security bar across it and shouted, “Hey, boss. How ’bout some rock ’n’ roll?”
She ducked into the office and AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” came blasting out of the sound system. Her head bobbed in time to the tempo
as she grinned at Susanna. “Good beat for getting down to business.”
Susanna was too terrified to breathe until Nica nodded down to the gathering at the bar. “Is there anything sexier than hot men gearing up for some serious partying?”
She stared at her, aghast, until she noticed the brilliance of Nica’s dark sapphire eyes as they caressed over her mate. Then Susanna turned her attention to Jacques LaRoche as he took his pistol out from behind the bar, checked its clip, and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans with smooth, dangerous movements. Her pulse gave a sudden quiver.
“I can’t think of anything at the moment,” she whispered.
“When did you first know you were in love with him?” Nica asked to distract her from what was coming.
“I was working late in the lab, trying to finish up a project,” Susanna began quietly, her gaze never leaving the burly figure behind the bar. “I didn’t like having a watchdog hovering over me but there’d been some threats so I didn’t have any choice. I sent him to find me some fresh coffee, not because I needed some, but because I just wanted to be able to breathe, you know.” She glanced over to catch Nica’s empathetic nod. “I don’t know how they got in or where they came from. There were four of them, armed, masked, determined. They told me if I made a sound, they would kill me. I believed them.”
Susanna drew a slow breath, tasting the bitter adrenaline of that moment when her hands were bound and she was dragged into the dim stairwell, sure if they got her out of the building that she was going to die.
“He came swinging down through the stairwell from I don’t know how many floors above to put himself between me and them. I’d never seen a Shifter in his natural form before and I don’t know which frightened me more, him or the men he was protecting me from. I ran as he charged them. I could hear their gunfire but I didn’t look back, I just ran. One of them managed to get by him. I fell down the last few steps and remember watching from the floor as that gun pointed at my head, watching that finger tighten on the trigger, knowing my next breath was going to be my last. And then he was there to shield me, taking that bullet meant for me.”
You’re safe now. I have you.
“He was the most exciting thing I’d ever seen, all covered in blood and full of bullet holes. And I remember wondering how something so deadly could have hands so gentle.” Her voice faded into a sigh. “I’ve been in love with him ever since that moment.”
“Tell him, Suze. Life’s too damned short and lonely to keep those kinds of secrets.”
“When this is done. I’ll tell him then.” Once that was stated, Susanna was distracted from the current threat to wonder how Jacques would react to the news. To the knowledge of what she’d done.
A commotion from the main entrance pulled all attention toward the hall as Max staggered into sight, dragging Charlotte with him. Jacques and MacCreedy were instantly beside them, Silas taking over the burden of his NOPD partner and Jacques getting Max into the nearest chair.
“What happened?” Jacques demanded, crouching down beside his leader, searching for serious injuries beneath the liberal splashes of blood, not finding any of significance. Most of it came from the gore dripping off Savoie’s hands.
“Got a jump on us,” Max panted, his vocal pattern broken, his movement spasmodic. “Used some kind of Taser. Couldn’t turn all the way. Charlotte?” He tried to rise out of the chair to go to her but his legs gave out, Jacques’s grip the only thing holding him upright. “She went down. What did the bastards do to her?”
“I don’t see any wounds,” Silas announced as ran a visual search over the limp form collapsed in the opposite chair. “What the—?” He plucked a small dart from the back of her neck. “What the hell is this?”
“Tranquilizer,” Susanna told him, kneeling down on the other side of the now faintly stirring detective. “I’ve seen them used before. They’re very powerful.”
Charlotte’s eyes flickered open, unfocused at first, then fixing on Susanna in alarm. Her unsteady hand reached for the puncture wound but she was too weak to complete the move. “What—?”