This took a little more time than she had anticipated. When she finally left his offices, she walked outside to find that the day had gone gray, and there was a mist in the air with the promise of rain. Stepping into the crowd, she weaved her way to the curb, her mind filled with the transactions she had just conducted with her efficient and gentle-mannered lawyer. She had changed attorneys on three different occasions as a precaution and never allowed them to know very much about her private life.
Everything was good to go. She had some cash in her bag, more in her loft, and now a great deal more waiting for her at her next destination. She had a passport with her new name at home—still Shawna (she couldn’t bear to part with the name her mother had given her),but she would be Shawna MacBay in the very near future.
Outside, the cool air swept her shiny blond locks around her face as she put up her hand and hailed a cab. She wondered why people complained about not being able to find a cab; she never had a problem. One pulled over immediately, and she jumped in and with a friendly smile gave the driver her address.
As she relaxed against the aged leather upholstery, she allowed herself to consider the encounter she had earlier with the hunky stranger. He had been devastatingly handsome. He had the kind of looks a girl could get lost in.
Dangerous
. He oozed sex appeal. Who the hell he was, she couldn’t guess. What he wanted with her was even more of a mystery. But if this stranger had managed to find her, others could as well.
She knew at once that he was not a vampire, and yet she had sensed an Otherworldly power in his aura. He certainly wasn’t quite human. What did he want? Why would he want to help her? What was in it for him?
And why had he given up so suddenly and easily?
A whole lot of whys.
When the cab stopped, she stuffed a large bill in his hand and smiled as he gave her a warm ‘thanks’. Stepping out of the cab, she looked up at her apartment building and scanned. It was a small, four-story gray brick building. There were only four tenants, and each had a floor. She had picked it for this reason—fewer people to deal with, easier to watch her back. Her loft was on the fourth floor.
She walked towards the entrance, and the doorman smiled a welcome, “Good afternoon, Shawna.”
“Hi, Jack. How’s it going?” She had told him almost at once to just call her by her first name. It felt better than Wellsly, which wasn’t really her surname.
“Really good—my thirtieth anniversary is today, and the missus has a big night planned. I already have the flowers and chocolate ready to go.” He grinned at her, obviously proud of himself.
She laughed and pointed a finger at him. “You are the man!”
A moment later, she sighed as she walked across the marble flooring and wished her life were as simple as that. Would she ever have a man of her own and get to celebrate an anniversary?
Her boot heels clicked as she made her way across the wide entrance hall to the elevator. Right now, her life was about running.
She had to leave. There was nothing she could do about it. Soon too. She would just have to suck it in and go, but oh, she wanted to stay.
She reached the elevator and pushed the button. When the doors opened, they opened onto a narrow hallway of Italian tile, a wall table, and a brightly upholstered ladies’ chair. She stepped forward to her door and punched in her numbers on the security pad to its right. She changed the numbers everyday. The two-inch metal door slid into its pocket, and she stepped inside her sparsely decorated loft.
She loved that it was huge and open. She adored her comfortably and brightly upholstered furniture and her throw rug of many colors. Her loft reflected her feelings, large and light and…and what else, she asked herself—
unfulfilled passion?
She moved over to her thoroughly modern kitchen of mahogany cabinets and stainless steel appliances and headed straight for the fridge. She was thirsty.
There wasn’t much more than a yogurt, a bottle of wine, a couple of bottles of Coke, and what looked like a quart of V8.
It wasn’t V8 though,
but it was what she reached for, and she drank until it was half gone. She put it back and closed the fridge door just as a noise in her outer elevator hallway caught her attention.
She possessed better than human hearing, and that exceptional sense brought her the sound of fingers on the metal code pad.
What? How? Who?
No one knew her code. She had just changed it that morning.
Shawna pulled her Glock out of the hall table’s drawer, undid the safety, and stealthily moved towards the steel door. She planted herself against the stucco wall, and with two hands on her gun she waited.
He
stepped into her loft but immediately turned to face her—and the gun she had pointed at his head. “
You!
” She sucked in air as the word tumbled from her lips.
He didn’t look concerned as he regarded her and noted that her finger was on the trigger of the Glock, though his chin moved up slightly.
“Aye, me.” His voice was quiet, and his Scottish accent took his words and made them tantalizingly effective.
For a moment Shawna was thrown off balance. Who was this big, beautiful, and obviously dangerous man? More importantly, what the hell did he want with her?
“Sit,” she commanded. “I want some answers.”
He put up his hands and backed away from her, found a nearby red leather winged chair, and sat as he was told. There was a strange smile playing around his lips, and Shawna frowned, irritated by his devil-may-care attitude.
“What the hell do you think you are doing breaking into my apartment, and how the hell did you know my code?”
“I needed to talk to you. You were busy earlier. I thought you might have the time now.” He shrugged, “As to your code…I have my ways.”
His alluring accent seeped through her consciousness, and her silver eyes blinked slowly as she looked him over.
What did he mean, he had his ways?
“I want answers.” She shook her gun at him for emphasis.
He laughed, and she frowned. He shrugged again. “Then go ahead and ask me, lass. We’ll see if I have the answers you are looking for.”
Oh that accent was killer-smooth, and coming out of his luscious lips…she thought a girl could easily—
Come on,
Shawna girl, get it together
.
This guy has broken into your apartment, and if he did, others might be able to as well. Time to move on…
“Why?” she managed to just barely utter, as her thoughts had collided and left her uncertain.
“Why what, lass?”
“Why do you want to talk to me?”
“Because we have a common enemy, but you—not I,
you
—are in immediate danger from that enemy.”
“How do you know?”
“I have my ways.”
“Stop saying that. What ways?” She eyed him suspiciously.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that if you don’t leave New York,
they will
find you, but even leaving New York—won’t be enough.”
“And what will?”
“You will have to kill Pentim Rawley, and you can’t do it alone.”
She put up her chin, and her silver eyes narrowed. He knew about Pentim Rawley. Was this a ruse? “
Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Chadwick MacFare.”
She saw his lips tighten. He knew what she was going to ask next, and she didn’t disappoint him. “
What are you?”
“That isn’t important. What is important…” he said as he got up and moved towards her—she kept her gun focused, but he didn’t seem to care. He put up his large hand and grabbed it away in one motion as he put it aside and pulled her in close. She was struck motionless as he sniffed her with a show of great appreciation and pressed her body sensually against his hard chest. He whispered in her ear, “…is that you find out who you really are, what you really can do. And, Shawna, it is time to leave New York.”
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She had allowed him to take the gun away. She had allowed him (although stiffly) to pull her into his arms and whisper in her ear. She not only had allowed him, her mutinous body had melted against him. She discovered that she was tilting her face up to his
. Oh damn—those deep green eyes
… She caught herself, silently demanding,
What the hell are you doing, Shawna?
She shoved him hard. He didn’t budge, but she had managed to put a small space between them. He was like a stock as he stood his ground and grinned at her.
His attitude infuriated her. “Get out. I don’t know you. I don’t trust you, and you have no idea who I really am. I am not your concern, and if you want Pentim Rawley dead, you won’t find me in your way. I want you out of here because I don’t want or need your help.
I work alone.”
He sighed and put a caressing finger to her cheek, but she pulled away roughly and her silver eyes glinted daggers at him. “OUT!”
His grin vanished. He had not anticipated this kind of resistance from her. His eyebrow arched, and he said softly, “Am I wrong about you then, lass? I thought ye didn’t want to fall in with your…
father
.”
She gasped, and then fury took over as she jumped away from him. No one knew that Pentim Rawley was her father. How could he know that? Was he in league with the hated vampire? Was this all a ploy to get her to go with him?
She took a fighting stance, her face grim. “How dare you. I don’t know how you know what you
think
you know, and I don’t care. I want you out of my place. I want you out of my life. I have been taking care of myself for a long time, and I know what I am doing.”
He stepped closer to her, and his voice was low as he bent his head to whisper, “Och, lass, ye haven’t a clue what ye be up against.”
She stepped away from his intoxicating scent. What was it? Pine and something musky she thought. “How do I know you aren’t one of his clan?”
“You know I’m not one of them.” His eyes raked over her.
“I don’t know anything. Why should you help me?”
He ran his hand through his tawny mass of hair, and his green eyes took on a steely expression. “Because I want Pentim dead, and I think you are my way to get what I want. He won’t stop until he finds you, lass. He won’t give up.
You
are running
helter-skelter
. You think you know what you are doing. You don’t have a clue what you are up against. He has the advantage, he has numbers, and some of those numbers have developed special talents over the years. When they find you, they will surround you. Some will come up quickly from behind, others right up into your face. They won’t give you a moment to think. Then what, lass? All your magic won’t help against their combined power. What then?”
She stared at him in disbelief for a moment. How did he know about her magic? Who the hell was he?
She had to think. She turned away from him and stared out the window. “They won’t find me. Pentim doesn’t even know my name.”
“
I found you
.”
She grimaced and folded her arms. “What really is in it for you to help me?”
“I told you I need you to draw him to me. When the time is right—after I’ve trained you—we will let him find you. We’ll let him come to us, and we will have the advantage.”
“Ah—now I get it. You want to set me up as bait. You have some beef with Pentim and think you can use me.
No.
You’re crazy. You are the one that will get me caught. I’ve been doing okay on my own, so just please…get out. Leave me alone.”
He reached out for her, and she struggled against his hold as he pulled her into his arms. “You’re wrong, but I’m no getting through to ye, lass, so I’ll be going. When you need me—
find me
.” He bent and pressed his lips gently to hers.
She fought him and wiggled, but for no good reason she found her lips parting beneath the pressure of his. Everything vanished as the air sizzled all around her. She felt a vibration fluctuate throughout her body as his tongue dipped and caressed hers. He molded her suddenly, she realized in mortification, pliable body to his. She heard a low, throttled sound escape his lips when she felt him withdraw. She had to steady herself as she watched him take a slight step away from her.
They looked at one another, both wary, both surprised, taken aback and at a loss for words. Neither wanted an entanglement, but both had felt something pulse with exuberant life between them.
Shawna was on edge. Never mind that she had not been kissed in a long time; his kiss had taken her breath away and awakened her desires. Her body had relaxed against him in spite of the fact that her brain was telling her to slap his handsome face. His kiss had aroused her in a way she had never known before, and then suddenly he was standing apart from her and she felt off balance and confused.
He reached out and steadied her, which was a good thing as she had felt her knees about to cave.
He whispered something incoherent to her, and all she heard was the enticing huskiness of his voice. What was he saying? He was still whispering, and she was desperately trying to focus on his words, and then all at once they got through to her brain and shocked the hell out of her.