Enslaved in Shadows (10 page)

There was a long slash across her shoulder down to her stomach. From t
he night she’d tried to escape.
It had been before she even
knew about captive vampires.
She’d quietly slipped from bed and walked into her daughter’s room.
A stashed duffel
bag
and some cash were under the back seat of
one of his
Escalade
’s
.
She’d dressed Faith before putting her to sleep into a warm jumper, so the night air wouldn’t affect her much. Not much did as her daughter’s temperature ran higher than any humans. But she was a mom and a responsible one. There was only a hand full of steps to freedom when she’d thought she was safe. She’d reached for the clasp on the front door, pulled as softly as possible. Faith was sleep and warm in her arms as the door swung wide. She saw the car, was stepping off the step when an arm wrapped around her stomach and jerked her back into solid chest.
The
air in her lungs froze
in fear.
It had taken all of her strength to keep hold of Faith as she was violently swept against his body. One of Marcus’s men stepped from the kitchen taking Faith from her. Helpless to stop him, she watched in horror as Vince slung her child over his shoulder.
Faith slept through the entire ordeal, and she hadn’t known why until Marcus whispered into her ear.

“Little Faith won’t come to Jesminda
. I had Vince dope her full of
my latest concoction. Don’t worry, she won’t be hurt. I’m sure her shifter genes are burning thr
ough the medicine as we speak.”

Marcus licked the side of her neck making her ent
ire body shiver
in disgust
. She stood as still as her heart and nerves would allow whil
e he spoke in low tones to her.

“Were you really just going to leave? Take our daughter and just disappear without a trace? Tsk Tsk my lovely. I love you, I will always find you.”
Marcus even sounded sincere, but she knew the truth.
Her body naturally reacted to the words
I love you.
Instead of joy and happiness, she felt immense pain and betrayal. Those three words had the power to undo her in a bad way.

Marcus bit her painfully
on the ear
. That was the last thing she felt before her took the knife
he held at his side and slashed the
duffel from her shoulder. He’d
purposely
slashed the blade deep into her skin.
He continued pulling the blade
, careful not to nick an artery
until she had a gash that ended at her hip and stomach.
He’d done it
as a warning and then had the bastard Vince patch her up as he’d wiped her blood on her own soaked pant leg.
She’d pas
s
ed out from the pain after the tenth or so stitch.
Vince hadn’t used anything to numb her.
She could feel each pinch of the needle and the feel of threa
d through her skin as he sewed her back together.

Stephan stared at her when she finally straightened
and came back from her memory. Jes stood
from her chair. She knew her expression wasn’t a pleasant one and she didn’t give a damn. Whoever this Agent Stone was could go to hell. Why wasn’t Oliver on the case? It was his daughter.
Theresa was one of the ones that had gone missing. It would have made more sense. He would be
the one best suited for the job and h
e had as much to lose as she did.

“Stephan, why isn’t Oliver the one watching over me?” She asked with an air of authority. She was not going to let them call all the shots.
Her safety and Faith’s were on the line.

“Oliver is still cons
idered new to his H
ouse. There
are protocols he must follow that even I can’t counter act. Agent Stone is a werewolf and is able to be with you at all times no matter what. He
is not held by
such things.”

Jesminda didn’t believe for a second Agent Stone would take his assignment serious. She needed to be sure she and Faith would be safe. Agent Stone should have been at this debriefing. Not off doing whatever the hell it was he was doing. She snorted loud enough to get the attention of the other men in the room.
She didn’t care.
She wanted them all to know she was unhappy.
No one said a word as she looked around the room trying to decide how she was going to play her next move.
She needed any hand she could get.

Jesminda took a step back from the table and begin ticking off reasons why Agent Stone
was not going to be of any use
.
If she had to go on Oliver’s protocol to accomplish what she needed, then so be it. She would do it for her; she would do it for Faith.
Even the guy who could read minds would be better. Every man in this room was better than Agent Stone as far as she was concerned. They at least showed up.

“Don’t say it honey. Forget it.” This came from the twin with the bald head.
Ronin was it?

“Yeah. Ronin.
”

She cleared her mind.
She was not going to be baited into saying some
thing in her head she normally
would not
say
aloud
.

“That definitely works for me.” Ronin nodded over in Dravaggio’s direction and stood. “I got some things I need to handle.” H
e looked over at Jesminda
and nodded his head. At least he had manners.

“Stephan, I would prefer any other of your men take on this assignment than Agent Stone.”

Chapter 6

The fucking smell w
ouldn’t leave his nostrils. He had
purposely not gone to that meeting. He wanted to be there to get the information necessary to do the job, but getting as far away from the scent as possible was priority.
She’s not even here.
Whoever it was would have immediately seen the state he was in and that would be
inappropriate
. He couldn’t bring himself to go to the debriefing with a hard on. Or have the twins all in his shit. All because of a fucking smell that drove his insides insane. He’d dreamed of it and the woman attached to the sensual aroma for
five years. Talk about obsessed.
H
e bordered stalker when it came to her.
He couldn’t tell Melissa what he dreamt about, even if he did take his sexual frustrations out on her.
She didn’t smell like his mystery woman.
Shitty way to think.
And he knew it was wrong
,
but still fucked Melissa raw last night hoping to sate his lust.
Maybe it was the reason he smelled her now.
It made
things worse for him be
cause as he’d closed his eyes and
pictured
her
face
,
smelled
her
scent
.
Imagined it was
her
body he was driving into. The need so strong the bed frame threatened to break.

Melissa didn’t deserve to be treated like that, no woman did.
He cared deeply for her and it was a
significant
enough step that they had moved in together.
Everything was coming into place in their relationship. It had all the ingredients one would, except for love.
And fucking fire.
The fire should have been
a pivotal
enough factor to deter him elsewhere, but he’d stayed. Not even the smallest cinder for Melissa, just warm feelings.
It has to be enough.
Resolve
had settled in months ago. He would do right by Melissa.
His father wanted to know he could lead their pa
c
k. His mother complained about grandchildren consta
ntly. He was tired and restless;
Melissa would be the perfect addition to the pack. He knew she loved him. He’d only lied to her once. A lie of omission
h
e’d kept his dark fantasy about his one night with a mortal woman to himself. Hadn’t told her on the nights when he woke, his dick hard as steel and he’d sexed her for hours, it wasn’t her he was trying to pound into
the bed, but his phantom lover.

Her island smell drove him to extremes, made him want things he could never have. It’s what had his skin crawling. He rounded the corner just as he heard a voice.
Her voice.
He shook his head for a moment to clear the haze. She couldn’t possibly be here, in this building. Ever.
You’re losing it Stone.

“Stephan, I would prefer any other of your men on this assignment than Agent Stone.” His heart stopped. The air in his passageways froze in place.
If his heart hadn’t been secured tightly behind its rib cage, it wo
uld have exploded from
that
sound
.
On the other side of the door was his tropical flower. He couldn’t see her, couldn’t touch her, but fuck if her scent didn’t linger around him in a loving caress.
A caress that stroked his coc
k to a painful hardness and a voice that slid against his skin in a fiery blaze.
Draven
walked and
stood
in front of the conference room;
its double doors
wide open. He was dumbfounded, she was even more beautiful
than
he remembered. She soaked his senses and drowned him in her presence. There were words he wanted to speak. Things needed to be said, yet, nothing came out. His throat was closed. His inner beast whined to taste her, touch her.
He wanted to b
ite her and lick the pain away.

She was wearing white Capri jeans with sandals, and a pink button up shirt. He hadn’t seen her skin
entir
ely covered with so little showing.
It turned him on.
He absently rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes to savor the moment.

Her hair was down. Large ringlets caressed her cheek and beautiful neck. The playful strands of red were missing, only thick
,
rich mahogany covered her perfect face. Her eyes
were
more exotic,
and
haunted. Bad shit was mixed in with a mother’s love. His flower suffered a lot since their time together.
He wanted to make her laugh, not see her face marred with worry and fear. Honey eyes torn, stared back at him in recognition. Her mouth opened on a gasp. Draven stood as still as possible, he didn’t want to upset her more.
Clearly,
she
was unsettled by his presence.
The last time they’d seen one another, a woman was wrapped around his body like a tight rope. A vampire named Chloe. He was on a job and she was his contact. Memories
of that night flooded his brain
.
Damn, he should have gone after her.
Things might have turned out differently.
How?

His in
ner wolf clawed at his insides, wanting out
. She was standing in front of his men, eyes wide in shock. The uncertainty and the fear assaulted his nose. He knew
that
to a human they could be overwhelming. Yet, she stood toe to toe with his captain, upset and scared. All he wanted to do was hold her. Damn, he shouldn’t even go there, it was a complication. Not a benefit.

He took a step forward into the room, she took a step back.
She doesn’t want anything to do with you moron.
He was not about to ruin this with her twice. He took another step.
Melissa. Girlfriend. Fellow Werewolf.
Fuck! That got his attention.
He was backing her into a wall and hadn’t realized it. He needed to stand down.

The
Captain cleared his throat. “Jesminda this is Agent Draven Stone. He is going to be the one to take care of you and your daughter.”

Jesminda took a step toward him. She seemed to gain her footing rather quickly as she spoke her next words.
“I will not,” she point
ing a finger directly at him, “b
e working with Agent Stone. Stick me with Gabe or the other guy.” She looked in the direction of his best friend Royce and pointed.
“Give me the dude that can read minds. Anyone but him.
”
The fire in her eyes w
ould have turned him to ash if
it were possible.

Anyone but him? Not one fucker in this building was taking this case. He was outraged. Did she
honestly
think he’d let someone take care of her and her offspring? Not fucking happening!
To have the audacity to voice such a thing. Incredulity burned him.
As if!
She caught you with Chloe.
Numb nuts
.
Draven gathered his breath, ready to tell her exactly how things were going to be. Him and her, and no one else.
Wait what?
If anything he knew her, they had history.
One night stands don’t count as having history?
It was more than any of the other team members had. He wanted to apologize.
She wasn’t going to be assigned to the other men on his team.
She was scared, he could tell. Her breathing was heightened and her back ramrod straight. She would bolt if anyone so much as sneezed the wrong way.
Just how damaged was she?