Beneath a Blood Moon (43 page)

“Fifteen after four, Sanders. Up, up. If you’re not up in five, I’m sending Charles in.”

After Wendy left, Sanders sighed and kissed me, stirring my wolf’s interest in him. I wrapped my arms around him. “Think five minutes is enough time?” I asked, licking his throat.

“Not nearly, you saucy little bitch. You will wait until tonight when I can dedicate proper time and care to you. With luck, we won’t have to be at the party for very long so we can get back to the hotel early. You know, I’ve always wanted to do wonderfully terrible things to a woman in the back of a limousine. Let’s check that off our list tonight.” Untangling himself from my embrace, he got up, wrapping up in a bathrobe before tossing mine onto the bed. “Think you’re up for walking yet?”

“Beast,” I murmured, grabbing my robe. While I was still a little sore and achey, it wasn’t as bad as it had been that morning. “I’ll manage, I’m sure. I’m more worried you won’t have the energy to keep up with me.”

“Maybe I enjoy carrying you,” he said, smiling at me.

“If it makes you happy, I suppose I don’t mind,” I replied, giggling. Instead of sweeping me off my feet, he tossed me over his shoulder. “I didn’t mean like that!”

“Harder for you to escape me this way,” he informed me, carrying me out of the room while I drummed my hands against his back. “That feels pretty good. Don’t stop.”

Desmond, Wendy, Dustin, and Holly were in the dining room with a staggering number of covered platters. Sanders lowered me onto one of the chairs, kissing me before taking the seat beside me.

“I see Stud Muffin has been busy,” Dustin stated, snickering. “I hope she’ll be able to walk by the time you go to the party tonight. It’ll be awkward if you have to carry her everywhere.”

“Maybe,” my mate replied. “I’m fine with carrying her everywhere. If I’m holding her, no one will steal her from me.”

I yawned. “It’s Desmond’s fault. He drove us out of bed early.”

“Ten is not early, Sara.”

Sniffing daintily, I reached for one of the platters. “It is when you didn’t get to sleep until eight.”

Desmond arched a brow at me. “And what prevented you from going to sleep until eight?”

Turning my attention to Wendy, I matched my new Alpha’s expression. “Did you find out if he kept the receipts for your daughters?”

Dustin roared his laughter. “I like this bitch, Holly.”

“Well, I know what I’m doing tonight,” Desmond growled, staring at his mate’s throat. “I refuse to be outclassed by my Second.”

“I’m pretty certain it’s not a competition, sir,” Holly said, the corners of her mouth twitching. After several moments, she grinned.

“He’s just jealous,” Wendy said, shaking her head as she took one of the platters for herself. “Charles, darling, don’t compete with the newly mated. You can’t win against enthusiastic puppies.”

“How are you going to judge this competition?” Dustin asked. “I volunteer to serve as a judge.”

“No, you won’t,” Desmond growled. “Bad witch.”

“I apologize for him, sir.”

My mate took hold of my hand and nipped the tips of my fingers. “Do not underestimate me, Dustin.”

“I try to avoid making the same mistake twice.”

“If we are done embarrassing Mrs. Sanders, can we have lunch? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Holly said.

“I’m supposed to be embarrassed?” I asked my mate.

“I’m not.” Releasing my hand, Sanders gathered several of the dishes and placed them in front of me. “Eat.”

Desmond regarded the collection of plates with a frown. “I don’t think we ordered enough.”

“I’m not that hungry,” I reported, lifting the lid off the first dish to discover steak and lobster. “What I don’t understand is how I’m supposed to tell who I’m flushing out at this stupid party.”

“That’s for us to worry about. You just mingle and give us a chance to scope out anyone watching you. We’ll sniff them out,” Desmond replied.

“That’s really it? And once you find them, we leave?”

“That’s the plan. Once we have the targets confirmed, I’ll text Sanders, who will be in charge of extracting you from the party. An Inquisitor will have a limousine ready to bring you back to the hotel. He’ll be parked five minutes from the host’s home. He’ll come when Sanders calls him. If all goes well, Wendy and I should be finished with our part of the operation no later than two or three in the morning, putting us back at the hotel by five at the latest. Holly and Dustin will be with the other Inquisitors overseeing other elements of the op.”

I nodded. All I could hope was that everything went as planned. With luck, after one more night, I could put New York behind me once and for all.

I wore the dress I had purchased, delighting in the way my mate, Desmond, and Dustin all gawked at me when I finally emerged from the master bathroom. Styling my hair required both Holly and Wendy’s help, but we had managed to tame it into cascading curls pinned into place with pearl-encrusted clips.

Desmond took his phone out to take pictures, and after so many years of working the streets of Vegas, I posed for him without thinking about it.

Growling softly, my mate came to me, sliding his hands onto my hips. He pulled me to him and brushed his lips to mine. “When I think you can’t possibly become any more beautiful, you prove me wrong.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” I told him, appreciating the way his charcoal suit accented his lean, toned body. “I do not feel any desire to acquire an exchange or a refund.”

He kissed me again. “Good. I see a problem with our plan.”

“What’s that?” Desmond demanded.

“With her looking this gorgeous,
everyone
will be staring at her. That’s going to make our job very difficult—especially yours, Wendy.” Smiling, my mate took my hand. “Perhaps it’s a good thing His Eminence got us rings so everyone knows she’s mine.”

“I’ll watch over her like she’s one of my own daughters,” Desmond’s mate promised.

Sanders sucked in a breath, turning his attention to Desmond. “Maybe I should call Richard and ask for advice on how to survive you two…”

“Fortunately for you, I like you almost as much as I like him,” was Desmond’s amused reply. “You’re safe—for now.”

“That’s why I’m worried. I know exactly what you’re capable of, Desmond—and don’t you look all innocent over there, Wendy. You’re even worse, because you’re way too good at slipping under the radar.”

Wendy’s smile was radiant. “You’re such a charmer. We’re running out of time. Charles, where are the rings?”

Pulling a ring box from his pocket, Desmond tossed it to my mate. “They should fit. I stole your measurements while you were sleeping a while back.”

“Define a while back,” my mate grumbled, opening the box. With my curiosity eating me alive, I peeked inside. The wedding bands were plain, either in white gold or platinum; I couldn’t tell.

The glittering of gems drew my gaze to the engagement band. A large, yellow stone set in a ring of smaller red ones glinted in the room’s light. The central stone reflected a rainbow of colors when my mate tilted the box. Taking the box from my mate’s hands, Desmond pried loose the larger of the wedding bands. “In case it wasn’t obvious, this one is yours, Sanders. As for your measurements, I acquired your mate’s when I was on guard duty in Vegas. I got yours one of the times I bit you when she had been snatched. When the Shadow Pope gives me direct orders, I usually obey them, and he really wanted your sizes.”

“It’s really hard to be mad at you over this. I want to be, but…”

“But you got exactly what you wanted as a result.” With a smug grin, Desmond grabbed my mate’s left hand and shoved the ring into place. “If I let you two exchange rings properly, we’ll never leave the room on time. Unhand your woman so we can get these rings on. Our limousine should be here in the next few minutes, with yours arriving ten minutes after.”

Snatching the box out of Desmond’s hand, my mate slipped both of the rings on my finger. “I will do this properly when I take you home with me,” he swore.

A pleasant shiver went through me at the thought of having a home to go to. I didn’t need to see it to know I’d like it, as long as he was with me. “It doesn’t count unless you’re the one does all the work,” I informed him with a smile.

“You two may as well come down to the lobby with us. We’ll take the first limousine. Once we’re settled at the gala, I’ll text you to come in. She’s entirely your responsibility until we’re all at the party,” Desmond said, picking up Wendy’s blue purse, which matched her floor-length gown. Like mine, it was modest enough and would stand out in the modern fashion world, where excessively exposed breasts and legs were the norm.

I claimed my silver clutch and checked inside. A slender red wallet held my new cards and several hundred dollars in cash. The phone wasn’t the one I had purchased. Pulling it out, I frowned and turned it over in my hands. “A new phone?”

“It’s a special model,” Desmond informed me. “If you get into any trouble, smash it against something. Hit it really hard. The force of the impact will trigger an alarm and alert us there’s a problem. Sanders, Wendy, and I are all on the notification list for your phone, as are the Shadow Pope and a few others. Try not to drop it and accidentally trigger the alarm. If you do drop it and a red icon flashes on the screen, go to your contacts and call Ozzy. That’ll shut the alarm off. It’ll also send a second notification warning us of a false alarm.”

“Ozzy?”

“A random name I selected so it wasn’t obviously labeled. You’ll have to explain you dropped the phone. If, by some unforeseen circumstance, you are kidnapped again and are forced to call, tell them you have the worst luck with phones and you dropped it again. The key phrase here is that you have the worst luck with phones.”

My mate growled. “Are you implying someone in the Inquisition might be after Sara?”

“I’m implying I have no idea who is after Sara, so I’m not taking any chances. It won’t be the first time an Inquisitor has turned rogue. The chance to acquire an Alpha’s mate as a hostage would be too good to pass up, especially when you’re the Alpha in question.
If
there is a rogue in the Inquisition, they know how the phones work. That said, there are only six people who know how to trigger the kidnap sequence on her phone: the person in charge of the dispatch, the Shadow Pope, and us.”

“Great,” I muttered, stowing the phone in my clutch. “Does it actually work as a normal phone?”

“Yes. All of your contacts have been added. It has a full charge, so if you need it, you’ll have it. Don’t let it run out of battery. You’ll get used to muting the phone if you decide to go to the movies. If the phone’s off for more than twenty minutes, it will send a notification, and someone will be checking on you. Also, make sure you carry it with you all the time.”

“Just what I need, a babysitter phone.”

My mate chuckled. “I have to do it, too, Sara—except when it’s confiscated by Desmond.”

“You need it, Sara. You’re a trouble magnet just like my daughters,” Desmond replied. “Until we have a chance to really teach you how to protect yourself, I’m not taking any chances.”

“I guess that’s fair.” I sighed and slipped the fur shrug into place before putting on my new coat. “I just want this over with.”

Desmond’s smile was grim. “If all goes to plan, Mrs. Sanders, tonight will be the end of it.”

Plans, I had learned, rarely went off without a hitch. In my case, they had a tendency to blow up in my face.

Chapter Twenty-Two

An hour and a half after we left the hotel, our plans blew up in our face, right along with the limousine. The partition between the front and the back lowered, and our driver turned to face us.

His mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear what he said through the ringing in my ears. What he said didn’t matter; he held a gun in his hand, and before I could do more than gasp, he fired.

A dart protruded from my mate’s throat. Sanders’s eyes blazed gold, and he reached for the projectile. He yanked it out, only to have it slip from his fingers. The yellow in his eyes dulled, fading to a lackluster brown before he slumped beside me. My wolf’s rage flared, infecting me with her need to protect him.