Dalakis Passion 4 - Eternal Brothers (34 page)

recognized him from his stakeouts. This was Prince's new right-hand man, Saunders. "I
was expecting your employer, not his flunky."
Sam ignored the insult and the other man, concentrating on the man in charge.
"Adrian Prince."
The man inclined his head as he moved from behind the desk. He was tall and
whipcord lean, his face was thin, his hair blond. Cassidy could see the family
resemblance to his brother,
Jethro
.
Prince leaned against the edge of his desk, casually crossing his ankles. He cocked
his head to one side. "Now why did Lucian
Dalakis
send you? Could be I was mistaken
about how valuable Blythe was to him." He shook his head in mock sorrow. "I usually
don't make such mistakes."
"Where is she?" Cassidy kept all emotion from his voice, knowing that the other
man would pounce on any show of weakness.
Prince rubbed his jaw with his fingers.
"Maybe not such a mistake after all."
He
inclined his head just as a door opened. A man who Cassidy recognized pushed Blythe
into the room. Another armed thug followed them.
The two men from Blythe's
apartment.
Cassidy wasted a precious second wishing that Stefan had just killed the
bastards then.
Unable to stop himself, his eyes flicked toward her. Blythe's face was pasty white,
but he could already see the fresh bruises on her face. His jaw tightened and he could
feel the vein in his temple throbbing. They'd pay for this.
"You shouldn't have come, Cassidy." Her voice was low and broke on a sob as she
said his name.
Cassidy, not Sam.
She was trying to distance herself from him.
"Of course he had to come," Prince continued cheerfully. "I'm sure Mr. Cassidy and
his employer will be all too happy to know more about the woman they've been
harboring in their midst." He picked up a tattered journal from his desk. Cassidy tensed
when he recognized it as Blythe's.
"I'll admit that I knew some of it, but even I was surprised by the inventiveness of
my brother." He chuckled as he leafed through several pages. "Did you know that
Blythe was my brother's whore for a year?"
Cassidy took that revelation like a punch to the gut. Blythe paled even more, but
said nothing. He'd suspected that she'd had a relationship with
Jethro
Prince, but he'd
hoped that he'd been wrong. "So?" He forced the words out from between clenched
teeth.
Obviously, Adrian Prince wasn't anywhere near finished. "My brother had a
problem, shall we say, getting aroused. Seems the only way he could have any fun was
with oral sex." Prince motioned to the two goons and they shoved Blythe forward. She
straightened but kept her gaze on the floor. "Blythe has a quite a talented mouth from
what my brother told me. I wish I'd known about her sooner, but alas, he kept her a
secret from me until he needed my help. Then he offered her as an enticement. Alas,
she'd disappeared before I arrived and then I had other things on my mind. I imagine
she makes quite a pretty picture naked on her hands and knees with that sweet mouth
open." He squeezed her cheeks between his fingers and jerked her head up. "Maybe
you'd like a demonstration."
"Enough." Cassidy took a step forward. "What do you want, Prince?"
Prince feathered his fingers through Blythe's blonde hair before grabbing it and
yanking her head back. She winced but didn't cry out. "I want your employer and his
wife. It took me quite a while to figure out what happened here three years ago. No one
in the club remembered anything. But there were a few outside the club who remember
seeing your brother come into the club, but not leaving. It didn't take long to figure out
that your brother had something to do with it, especially since
Jethro
made the
unfortunate mistake of kidnapping young Chase
Deveraux
." Hooking his fingers in the
front of Blythe's blouse, he ripped it open, exposing her plain white bra and bare
stomach. "The entire situation was a fuck-up from start to finish."
Cassidy wanted to shoot the bastard, but he was too close to Blythe. Not to mention
the fact that there were three more of Prince's men to contend with. "My employer isn't
coming."
Prince shook his head.
"Too bad."
He shoved Blythe's bra aside and palmed her
breast. Blythe's breathing deepened and he could see the fear spark in her blue eyes just
before they went blank. Prince waved at Cassidy with his free hand. "You can go. We
are finished. Just be sure and tell your employer that I'm not done with him. Not by a
long shot."
"I'm not going anywhere without Blythe." A feeling unlike any he'd ever felt in his
life surged through him. No matter what she'd done in her past, she'd had a damn
good reason for doing it. He'd gotten to know her well this past week and she was
intelligent, loyal, funny and...
his
. Something deep in his gut recognized her as his and,
if he didn't trust anything else, he trusted his instincts.
"What do you say, Blythe?" Prince slid his hand down her stomach, leaving one
full, creamy breast exposed. The two goons were practically drooling on themselves,
but Saunders seemed strangely unmoved.
Cassidy watched her closely as she licked her lips. "You should go." Her words
were calm and clear.
He couldn't believe his ears. His heart ceased to beat and his limbs felt as if they
were filled with lead. "You can't mean that."
"You heard the lady." Prince waved toward the door. "Go while I'm feeling
generous. The boys and I are going to have some fun."
Cassidy tensed, his mind trying to figure out where Lucian was. With his powers,
he might be in the room and no one would know it. There had to be a way to get Blythe
away from them without her getting hurt.
"Please, Sam," she pleaded. "Just go."
Sam
. She'd called him Sam. The woman was protecting him. He wanted to roar and
rip the room apart. It was his job to protect her and it was time that she accepted that.
He shook his head at her. "Sorry, Blythe, but I'm not leaving without you." He
could see the surprise in her face and then the dawning of hope in her eyes. It was
dashed when Prince spoke again.
"You had your chance. I can see that we'll just have to kill you and send your body
back to your employer. That should send them a message that they'll understand." He
beckoned to Saunders, who'd stood silently to one side.
"You want to speak with me." Lucian materialized as if out of nowhere.
Prince jerked as if startled, but quickly recovered. "Lucian
Dalakis
, I presume. Now
if only your dear wife was here, it would be perfect."
"I'm here." Delight stepped through the open doorway. Sam loved both her and
Lucian more at that moment than he ever had. They were risking themselves for him.
And for Blythe.
Prince stared at Delight. "You're the reason my brother died."
"No," Cassidy corrected. "Your brother died because he was an insane criminal. It
was only a matter of time until someone murdered the
sonofabitch
."
Prince hauled a nine-millimeter semiautomatic from his pocket and aimed it at
Delight.
"Perhaps.
But she was the cause." He wrapped his arm around Blythe,
dragging her forward. "Women are always so much trouble."
"Stop." That one word froze everyone in their tracks. Lucian stepped forward. "I
will offer you the same deal that I did your brother. Leave us alone and I'll let you live."
Prince laughed. "I'm the one with the gun on your wife,
Dalakis
."
Blythe chose that exact moment to lift her feet. The unexpected movement threw
Prince off guard and he dropped her, stumbling forward in the process. Cassidy drew
his weapon and fired at the two goons in the corner, knowing Lucian would deal with
Prince. Both men fell as Cassidy continued to fire. Blythe crawled toward the desk,
keeping her hand over her head.
Prince fired even as he staggered to one side, but Delight was no longer there. His
body jerked. Blood appeared on his chest as he fell to his knees. All eyes flew to
Saunders, who stood with his feet spread and his gun still on the fallen Prince. "Matt
Austin, ATF on special joint assignment with the FBI." Gone was the man who lowered
his head in a deferential manner. In his place was a self-assured man who meant
business. His brown eyes gleamed with a combination of anger and satisfaction as he
checked to make sure that Prince was indeed dead.
Cassidy slowly lowered his weapon. "Sam Cassidy, former New Orleans police
detective."
"I know who you are. I know who all of you are." He stepped slowly toward
Blythe.
"Are you all right, Ms. Nixon?"
"Fine.
I'm..." She swallowed hard.
"Fine."
She tugged down her bra and pulled the
ends of her blouse together.
Saunders glanced at the door as he walked toward the bodies of the two men that
Cassidy had shot and nudged them with his shoe. "They're both dead," Cassidy
offered. He hadn't been taking any chances and had shot to kill.
"So I see." Saunders sighed. "This creates some problems."
Lucian stepped forward. "No.
It doesn't."
"Lucian."
Cassidy put a dose of warning in his voice. This involved two federal
government agencies. This could be a mess of epic proportions.
"Unfortunately, it does." He stared down at Prince, sighing again. "Two years of
my life I've spent chasing Adrian Prince. My department and the Bureau have sunk a
lot of money and man-hours into this operation and now all I've got is a dead guy. I
needed to know so much more."
"I thought you were Prince's man."
Saunders shrugged. "He doesn't share anything with anyone. Now we'll never
know the extent of their operations, who they were dealing with, who all their contacts
were."
"Yes you can." Blythe stood slowly, using the desk to pull herself upward.
Disregarding everyone else in the room, Cassidy strode to her. Ignoring her struggles,
he hauled her into his arms.
"Don't ever scare me like this again," he muttered into her hair as he wrapped his
arms around her and held her tight. He wasn't letting go of her again.
Ever.
"I'm sorry." Her reply was muffled against his chest.
"That's okay." He smoothed his hand over her hair. "All that matters is that you're
safe."
She pulled away from him, staring up into his eyes. "But," she glanced away.
"What about..." She motioned to the room and dropped her hand back down by her
side. "You know everything."
Cassidy gently cupped her precious face in his hands, willing her to understand.
"All that matters is that you're safe," he repeated. "Nothing else matters.
Nothing."
She swallowed hard and buried her face against him. He breathed a sigh of relief
when he felt her slender arms slip around him, hugging him back.
"I don't mean to interrupt, but what the hell did you mean we can find out
everything about the Princes' operations?" Saunders was glaring at them and Cassidy
could sense the other man's growing impatience and unease. Saunders kept glancing
toward the now-closed office door.
"No one will bother us." Lucian held Delight close to him, his focus on the agent.
"How can you be sure?" Saunders asked.
"Trust him." Cassidy reluctantly pulled Blythe back so that he could see her face.
"What did you mean, sweetheart?"
Blythe reached around and picked up the tattered journal. "I was in this club for a
year.
Jethro
Prince got to the point where he treated me like the furniture." Cassidy
tightened his arms around her. "I listened and I took notes."
Saunders took the journal when she offered it to him. He flipped it open and read a
few pages, whistling almost soundlessly. "This is pretty explosive stuff." He ran his
fingers through his short brown hair and swore under his breath as he continued to
read.
"And that's not all." Blythe stepped away from him and it was all Cassidy could do
to let her go. She walked over to the fireplace, knelt down and reached inside the
blackened hearth. "
Jethro
was paranoid about everything and everyone. He kept
journals about all his dealings. That's where I got the idea of keeping my own." She
pulled out one of the stones and laid it aside. Then she reached her hand into the dark
opening and withdrew a small fireproof container. She spun the combination lock and
began turning the dial on the top of the box. "He never even noticed me watching him
open it."
Cassidy's blood ran cold as he realized the risks she'd taken. Prince would have
killed her without hesitation if he'd known what she'd done.
She flipped the lid open and lifted out a journal. "These are some of his business
dealings."
Saunders was almost beside himself with glee. "This is fantastic. We'll be able to
start shutting down the drug operation from the source and who knows how many
other operations."
"There's more." Blythe got the man's attention quickly.
"Where?"
"First, we deal."
Saunders's eye's narrowed dangerously. "What do you mean, deal?"
Cassidy positioned himself protectively next to Blythe. "The
Dalakis
family has
nothing to do with this," she began.
Lucian sucked in a breath and stepped forward. "You are protecting my family, yet
again, Blythe. While I thank you, I cannot allow you to put yourself in harm's way
again."
"It's not your choice." She turned away from a slightly stunned Lucian. Cassidy
fought the urge to chuckle. Blythe was unlike any woman he'd ever met. He sobered
quickly. She'd have had to be in order to survive a year with Prince.
"No, it's my choice." Saunders got their attention quickly.
Lucian's eyes narrowed and Cassidy jumped into the fray before the agent said
something that would set off Lucian's temper. "Then make it."
Saunders rubbed his hand over his chin as he holstered his weapon and withdrew
his cell phone. "All I have is Adrian Prince's say that you were involved in his brother's
murder." He nodded toward Lucian. "The man is now dead, so who's to say if he's
right or wrong. The police investigated?" He glanced at Cassidy, who nodded. "That's
good enough for me. But tonight is a bit harder to explain. I've got three bodies out of