Tempting Gray - Untouchables 02 (14 page)

Arabella had no idea what Jericho ‘The Butcher’
Donato looked like. There were no pictures of him or his father, Vincent. The
only Donato who’d been the most public was the youngest, and, well, look where
that got him. She’d seen pictures of the youngest Donato and had studied his
face as had Grayson. It figured that they would look similar. The eldest son
and the father were like sound business partners. They played together against
the world, and they were intelligent—and they could kill. That was a deadly
combination.

Beside her, Grayson tensed, his gaze also
locking on the person. “Do you know who that is?” he asked.

“No, do you?”

“No.”

The man or woman pulled out a cigarette and
started smoking. There was a group of four others with them. The person snapped
something at the group then turned around and left. Grayson turned to her
immediately.

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know!”

“But they were important? You picked up some…vibe
or whatever you call it from him?”

“Him, you think it’s a man?”

He cocked a brow. “You don’t?”

Her jaw dropped. “That was the least masculine
looking man ever.”

He shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“I want you to admit it. He could very well be
a she. Whoever it was is too androgynous to tell,” she said smartly.

“Perhaps.”

Humph. It looked like that was all she was
getting from him in that. She wanted to stick her tongue out at him.

Across the room a fight broke out. A man
crashed into another, slamming them through a poker table rending it in two,
then culminating against the wall. The man’s head hit the wall so hard it
rocked several times, his eyes blinking rapidly before he slid to the ground.
The man who’d done the damage spat on the floor before turning around with a
huge grin to his friends standing in shock at the broken table. The whole
casino had turned to watch.

“Clarence, buy this man a drink when he comes
to. And tell him that if he tries to cheat me again, I’ll make sure he doesn’t
wake up.”

Clarence, who looked as close to a manager in
his suit and tie and eager eyes as anyone in this place, rushed forward. “Yes, absolutely,
Kane.”

Grayson’s lip curled in disgust. “Kane.”

“And who is this Kane person?”

“I’m surprised you don’t know. He’s your kind.
He’ll kill for a steep price.”

She bounced on her feet. “Like an actual
mercenary?” she whispered.

He hushed her and pulled her further away from
the gambling casino members. Except, unlike the human-run casinos she’d been
in, there wasn’t an electronic game machine to be seen. Everything was old
school. He tucked them into a corner between the bar and the wall. He placed
one arm on the wall beside her head much like a lover might do before he leaned
down to kiss his woman.

Only he wasn’t her lover. She just played the
part.
Yeah, for a paycheck so fat you could live off it for the rest of your
life
.

Now that he had her backed against the wall and
very well pinned, Arabella was helpless not to stare up at him. Probably
looking very much like a deer caught in headlights. “What are you doing?” she
whispered.

With his other hand he touched her waist, a
light gentle touch that scorched her anyway. “Giving us more privacy. There are
many listening ears around here.”

“Okay. So what’s next?”

“I need to go take a look around by myself. I’m
going to slip past the guard and see what’s being hidden.”

Her back slammed straight. “You can’t do that!”
she nearly shrieked.

He crammed his body even closer to her. They
were so close they were nearly hugging—not that she minded in the least. Her
breath skipped a beat before continuing at an ever increasing speed at his
nearness, as it always did. That melting feeling came back to her knees making
her want to collapse in his arms.

Wow.
You are such a girly ninny.

I am not.

Better question was:
since when?

She had to face it though—Grayson made her
weak-kneed like nobody’s business.

“Will you keep your voice down,” he ordered
between clenched teeth.

“Yes, sorry, but you had me a little freaked
there when you said you want to leave me here alone while you go around doing
dangerous things.”

He made a sound as close to a chuckle as she’d
ever heard from him. As if he’d started to laugh but gave up half way through. “I
need to. Stay here and drink your water. Just look natural.”

“I’m not an actress. I have a hard time lying
because my face gives everything away.” She could tell by his facial response
that she wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “Besides, I
thought we were supposed to stick together. And,” she added before he could say
anything, “what happens when you go into the secret room but don’t come back
out? Where does that leave me?”

He nodded once. Did he know, she wondered, that
his fingers idly stroked her hip and each time those fingers moved, her body
grew warm with something she really shouldn’t be feeling at a time like this?

“I’ll come back.”

“You can’t possibly know that. And we
both
know that, so don’t even try to fool me.”

He sighed, his patience waning. “Ar—Raquel, I’m
going to do this. Just stay at the bar, sip your water, and look beautiful.
That’s it.”

Boom
. Her heartbeat banged so hard it was like
cymbals crashing around her head. She actually physically jerked. “What?” she
whispered, the sound barely audible.

He leaned forward to catch the question, his
smooth jaw darkening with shadow. How handsome and strong he was; qualities she
wasn’t and admired. They weren’t the most complex of qualities but that’s what
made her feelings for Grayson so complicated, because they didn’t just stop at
admiring his face and body. It went far deeper than that. To places she surely
had no place visiting with a man who was forced to burn his mate recently.

And here comes the guilt. Yup, hurts like a
bitch.

“Fishing for compliments?” He didn’t look happy
about it, though not angry either. Almost like he was curious but trying to
hide it.

It took her several moments to find the courage
to speak. It was hard when the full impact of his gaze was on her. She was the
focus of his attention and that was a staggering amount of pressure. “I was
surprised. That surprised me, I guess.” A dark red blush burned her cheeks like
a good sunburn. He saw it. There was nothing she could do about that. “Fine,
go. You know what you’re doing. I’ll be here acting calm and…” she couldn’t say
it. So she smiled instead.

Then he looked at her mouth and her stomach
muscles clenched at the carnality in his gaze. “And beautiful.” With two words
her body quivered for him.

And then he did something that surprised her
even more—and kissed her. Hard, crushing. A kiss that kicked the heat up to
ninety and possessed. As quick as he kissed her, he pulled away. “If I’m not
back from that room in fifteen minutes, leave. Go back to the estate and tell
my brothers what happened.”

She jolted, the protest already on her lips. He
halted her though with a hard look, the heat from the kiss gone. Smoothly, he
pocketed his keys into her purse. “Don’t start counting until I make it in
there. I’m going to advance on it from the other side.”

“How do you plan to make it past the guard?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

She didn’t like this. “I don’t like this, you
know.”

Something close to a smile flirted at his lips.
“I know. You’ll do what I say?” He wasn’t smiling now. This question was
important to him. She could hear the gravity in his voice, see the concern
etched around his eyes and mouth in little wrinkles.

Would she do as he said? “Of course.” And not
just because he was paying her and there was probably nothing she could help
him with anyway, but because it would alleviate the stress of worrying over
her. She did it for him.

He grabbed her chin between two gentle fingers
as he gazed at her mouth once more, as if remembering their kiss. She swallowed
hard, the gulp drawling his attention to the pulse beating at her neck. Then
his eyes peered into hers. “Beautiful,” he said one last time, and strolled
away.

Grayson left to do go sleuthing and Arabella
did what he had asked and sat at the bar with her water. It felt so
wrong
.

She wanted to help, she really did, but she
didn’t know anything about the kind of work he did. She watched him cross the
room and enter the men’s bathroom. At first she stiffened but after a few
minutes he came out rubbing his hands like he’d just washed them. He was acting
natural and doing a damn fine job of it too. The bathroom break was a ploy for
him to leave her at a cursory glance.

How the hell did he plan to make it past the
guard? Moving into the back room she missed him as he slipped from view. Damn.
The room he was wanting to examine was at her back and if she turned around she’d
be facing the ever-growing casino crowd. That would surely only call attention
to herself. Even with the makeup and hair dye she felt like she was one blink
away from being ousted.

Voices grew louder as the night deepened and
more people joined. The music was turned up a notch, even the light above the
poker tables appeared brighter. She spun around.
Fuck it
. What choice
did she have? She was going to watch what happened next no matter what and if
that meant turning the hell around to do it then so be it. No one gasped or
screamed while pointing a finger at her. Only one person looked her way. And
her stomach dropped. Oh shit.

That man Kane stared at her as if her turning
around had summoned his attention. She saw interest there and knew even before
he moved, that he would be coming over to her. Kane was a big Were, built stocky
around the shoulders and a bit over six feet tall. He was wider than Grayson by
at foot. He was headed her way.

With no other choices, she stayed put. She
couldn’t flee because she had to watch the clock. He had fifteen minutes and
then she was supposed to leave.
I don’t even want to think about it
. To
leave him would be to abandon him to certain death, and probably not a quick
one. By the time she told his family, they could have him moved to another
secret location.

You could find him.
It was true. She could
always find him now. One thing she’d learned from the day she experienced her
first kiss with Grayson Blackmoore was that she could track those she touched
intimately. And that included first kisses. Or so she had learned. For years
after that first kiss, she always could sense how close or far away Grayson
was. But after so long that feeling began to fade so she’d had no idea who
waited for her in that tent that day with Zeke. She still didn’t know who was
more surprised: her or him.

With Kane advancing on her, she watched Grayson
walk casually toward the guard.
What the hell was he doing?
Her muscles
clenched to keep from jumping out of her seat and yelling at him. Grayson said
something and the guard leaned down as if he hadn’t heard him. The music had
gotten louder. But then it happened, so fast, in the blink of an eye. She
nearly missed it. She was certain the whole room had missed it because no one
was paying any attention to the man at the back door or the man in the tuxedo
who approached him. It looked completely normal,
was
completely normal.

But in that blink, the man grabbed Grayson by
the jacket, opened the door and threw him into the room. The guard followed
immediately after, shutting the door behind him. Panic surged with slow
building momentum. Kane was closer, steps away. Grayson was gone. The guard had
grabbed him. What did Grayson say to him, why was he grabbed, was he coming
back?

“Just who are you?” the big Were asked. He’d
stopped directly before her, far closer than she would have liked. Dominants
were like that, always pushing into others business with no regrets.

She looked at the black and gold clock on the
wall above the bar. He had fifteen minutes starting now.

Don’t get chicken. Do this for him, Ara.

Fine, fine.

Putting on a smile, Arabella extended her hand.
“Raquel, and you are?” He took her hand, not shaking but simply holding it, his
thumb sweeping far too familiarly across her hand. She yanked it back. He
smiled.

That was never a good sign in her life.

“Kane.”

“No last name?”

“You didn’t give me yours,” he pointed out. She
flushed. True and she shouldn’t be steering the question into anything
personal, she realized.

“True enough. I’m just Raquel.” She smiled like
she had a secret.
Oh boy did she.
He was in the back room with the guard
right now and she had no clue what was going on.

Thirteen minutes.

“Well, just Raquel, you’re a damn fine sight
tonight. Are you here with someone?” He watched her, waiting for her answer.
She had a feeling that if she said yes, he’d wait here with even more questions
until her date returned. And what if he didn’t? On the other hand if she just
said no, maybe she could kill this come-on with an
I’m not single
line.

“No,” she blurted out. His smile grew and he
took the seat next to her. Double damn.

His eyes roamed over her hair ravenously. “You
have beautiful hair. The kind I can hold while you’re being fucked.”

Whoa, boy. Things just took a turn. Eyes wide,
she forced them to look non-affected by his way-out-there statement. Who said
something like that a total stranger unless you were trying to shock them?

“And you have a big mouth, the kind great for
punching,” she said.

His brow furrowed and she could see him trying
to decide whether to take offense.
Please take offense and leave me be.

Ten minutes.

How was it, time could choose to crawl one
minute and race the next?

Curse him, he smiled and laughed, his eyes
turning all warm and gentle.
Ew.
It wasn’t like he was a complete
eyesore but if Grayson didn’t like him that was more than reason enough for
her. Besides, he made her skin crawl. Every instinct she had was screaming at
her to run far away from this predator.

“Good, no competition makes this easier.”

She snorted. “It does?”

He grinned revealing a crooked smile. It made
him look slightly dashing in a rogue-pirate kind of way. And totally up to no
good.

“Yes, it does. Let me buy you a drink.”

“I really don’t think so. Anyway, as you can
see, I already have one.”

He guffawed, drawing several stares and making
her clamp her teeth. The last thing she wanted was undo attention because of
this oaf. “That’s not a real drink, babe. Let me get you one. Weber,” he called
to the bartender, “get this babe something sweet and fruity. You know how they
like them.”

“Yes, sir.”

There were so many things wrong with what he
just said she didn’t know where to start, but as far as she saw it if this idle
conversation kept him occupied enough then she could survive until Grayson came
back.
If
he came back. Sweaty palms and armpits made it difficult to sit
still. She wanted to pace, or run and scream. Instead, she had to play the
part.

Eight minutes.

Where was he? What could be taking so long? The
casino couldn’t be that big beyond that room, she figured. So there couldn’t be
that much to investigate anyway. But the guard had grabbed him. He was caught.
That’s all it was. She was trying to deny it by thinking he might have somehow
foiled the guard and is now just sleuthing around the secret room. However, she
was smart and she knew the likelihood of that probably was small at best.

Seven minutes.

Feverish, she scratched her arms, rolled her
neck but nothing she did made her any more comfortable. A drink arrived, some
pink-colored thing in a glass.

“Try it,” Kane insisted. He leaned his arm
across the bar, which she had been leaning back against, effectively wrapping
his arm around her waist. She leaned forward disconnecting the touch.

She took a sip to placate him. “Ah, very good,”
she said, distractedly. Her eyes were glued to that door. No one had come in or
gone out. Her heart pounded a furious tempo. What if he was hurt? She rubbed at
the pang in her chest though it did little relieve the pain.

“So what are you doing here?”

Her eyes shot to his, big and round, and, as
she knew, entirely too expression. She tried to shut it down, to school her
features as Grayson had perfected over the years, but she had a feeling she
wasn’t fooling Kane. That he could see right through her. Maybe it was because
he wasn’t a good guy that he didn’t care that she was obviously uncomfortable
and lying. This could all be a game to him.

“Just came here for a drink.” It was the first
thing that came to mind. As soon as she said it she realized how stupid it
sounded.

He brushed his arm against her back again as he
touched her. She was already leaning as far forward in her seat as she could.
Any more so, and she’d only look ridiculous and draw attention to herself. “You
normally go to underground casinos for a glass of water?”

She glared but it had no effect on him. “No.”

He tossed his head back as he pretended to
contemplate the matter. “Hmm, let’s see. You come all the way out here on the
edge of nowhere and you’re drinking water by yourself. No gambling, no man, no
woman. That says only one thing to me, babe.” He watched her intently. If he
could hear her heartbeat racing right now it’d surely give her away.

Somehow she managed a smile. “What would that
be since you seem to know me so well?”

Four minutes. Only four left. Beads of sweat
dripped down her back from her neck in wet rivulets that tickled.

He leaned forward, his dark head coming close
to her own. His eyes were intense. “It’s all about sex.”

“Sex?”

“Sex,” he repeated, his grin almost smug. “You’re
looking for a man tonight. That’s why you came here. Seems like we were meant
to be, babe. ’Cause I’m definitely up to the task.”

Two minutes.

She threw back the drink, the bittersweet
contents burning a path to her empty stomach. It settled much as she’d expected
like pouring acid on acid. She grimaced as her stomach churned at the poisonous
intrusion. They called alcohol liquid courage. Tonight she’d finally find out
if that was true.

“Buy me another drink.”

Kane blinked in surprise then did so. His grin
was all smug now. He thought he had her in the bag.

Really
, she wanted to say?
You think you can say
some macho crap and I’d just fall into the sack with you?

The drink came quickly. She gulped it down in
two swallows, her free hand gripping her purse strap like she was on an intense
roller coaster ride.

“Damn, babe. You don’t gotta get shit-faced
now. I like ’em young, pretty, and willing, you know what I mean. Not puking
their guts on the backseat.”

Double
ew
.

She checked the clock. Time was up.

Unable to make herself get up and leave him
here, she stayed, adding another three minutes to the clock. When that three
minutes came and went and Kane had taken to wrapping his arm around her
shoulder, she finally stood.

“I have to go pee.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Okay, babe.
I’ll be here. Don’t take too long now or I’ll have to come after you.” Wasn’t
that a scary thought?

With a nod, she snatched her purse and made her
way briskly toward the bathrooms much the same as Grayson had done.
Where
are you?
She kept searching around the room and keeping her eye on that
door. But it had yet to open again.

It was six minutes past what time she told him
she’d leave. The need to withhold her promise, and more importantly, call his family
and tell them what happened overcame her and she turned quickly toward the
stairs. Even in full view of Kane. Shit. He saw her turning the opposite
direction and his gaze narrowed and he stood.
Shit!

She moved faster, her high heels sinking into
the carpet with each step, slowing her down. Then, she heard it. The back door
had opened. There was the distinct sound of it slamming as if the knob stuck
and it had to be pushed hard to open or close. Arabella kept moving, sure that
the guard would be standing there looking for her. But it wasn’t the guard she
saw.

Her jaw dropped. Her knees nearly gave out with
relief. He was there. Grayson stormed toward her. Instantly, she knew.

Something was very wrong.

Grayson look disheveled and he moved quickly
toward her. His hair had been ruffled. Part of his white tuxedo shirt had come
loose from his pants. One may look at him and people would think he’d just had
a quick lay in the backroom but she knew better. Only feet away, she realized what
it was.

The scent of fresh spilled blood wafted from
him. Her eyes flew to his hands, and there on his palms and wrists was blood.
She paled, knots twisting in her stomach with worry. Kane was closing in on
her. He spotted Grayson and before suspicion could turn to recognition, she
reached forward to grab Grayson’s hand and they both headed up the stairs. Even
as Grayson half-dragged her up the stairs, she was distinctly aware of the
wetness now touching her palm.