Grayslake: Creed's Claim (2 page)

And he was about to tattoo her for the first time.

She took a nervous little breath and smiled. “Yeah, just there then please. Thank you, Creed.”

The sound of his name on her lips was enough to fuel a whole host of new fantasies, but he kept them in check and started to work. Within a minute or so, he was almost able to forget that the soft, creamy skin under his hands was Kaitlyn’s. She didn’t murmur or flinch at the kiss of the needle. She merely lay back, one hand pillowing her head as he worked.

He didn’t need to look at the pattern for reference. This particular image was from his personal collection and he knew every line and shadow, every nuance and shade, even how it would lie over the skin where she’d told him she wanted it. Drawn for her, he’d inked this design in his dreams so many times that he could do it with his eyes closed.

But he didn’t. Body tight, he drew on his reticent bear to ensure his hands didn’t shake and worked the ink.

“So, you just back for a visit?” he asked, his voice low as the two other girls chattered away in the front of the shop. “Last I heard you’d gotten a fancy job in the city…and were getting married?”

He tried not to be obvious about checking out her ring finger as he spoke, but then realized she had her head pillowed on her left hand. Bloody idiot, he should’ve checked before.

She flinched as he moved the needle, but the subtle scent of distress told him it wasn’t physical pain but rather emotional that had caused it. “Just a visit for the moment. The job is great, but the guy fell through.”

She gave a nervous laugh as Creed looked up, and he read the pain in her eyes. Anger surged to the fore, his bear snarling deep within. The asshole had hurt her, obviously, and that would never stand.

“Who was he? I’ll go break his legs for you if you like.”

She blinked, then barked out a laugh, reaching out to pat him on the arm when he lifted the iron from her skin. “No, no need for that. He really isn’t worth it, I promise. I’m well rid of him.”

“Hmmm,” he grumbled, concentrating on one of the more difficult areas of the design. “If you’re sure. The offer’s open.”

She lay back, a smile on her face when he risked a glance up.

“Thank you, I’ll bear that in mind.”

L
izard Lick never changed
. Kait smiled and took a long swallow from the bottle in her hand. It went down smooth and silky, and she let a happy sigh escape her lungs as she looked around the interior of the imaginatively named Lizard Moon. A sign over the door touted it as the best pool bar in Lizard Lick. Since it was the
only
pool bar in town, that claim was accurate by default.

Sure, it wasn’t as swanky and upmarket as the wine bars her ex had taken her to in the city. The décor was less interior design and more whatever paint was on special at the time and would cover the tobacco stains. There were no fancy chandeliers or specially commissioned artwork on the walls. The carpet underfoot wasn’t designer anything, but a muted, faded pattern that was slightly sticky underfoot. Just the same as it always had been.

And she wouldn’t change it for the world.

Here, she didn’t have to dress up and pretend to be something she wasn’t. Didn’t have to be the perfect career girlfriend of the boardroom hotshot her fiancé had fancied himself to be. Their relationship had never been about them, it had all been about him. Team Aiden, he’d called them, controlling everything about her to better suit the image he wanted to project.

Some of his requests had seemed pretty harmless, even beneficial. Like the membership to the exclusive gym he’d insisted on paying for her. She’d needed to lose a few pounds after Christmas, so the chance to work out in an excellent gym without having to wait for the machines was heaven. Then had come the personal trainer, to ensure she got the “best out of her workouts.” From there it had been an easy slide into agreeing to lighten her hair, getting long blonde extensions, and having every detail of her wardrobe approved by the “team leader.”

But the final straw had come when he’d booked her in for a combined boob job and liposuction procedure for an early birthday present. She’d thought it was a joke at first but apparently her looking like a porn star was helpful for his promotional prospects. He’d genuinely been confused as to why she wasn’t happy. Then he was annoyed and called her an ungrateful bitch for the time and effort he’d expended to bring her “up to scratch.” It was then she’d realized he’d never seen them as equal; he’d always seen her as the girl from the hick town and beneath him.

She’d handed her ring back with a suggestion as to what he could do with it and walked out. All the way back home to Lizard Lick. An afternoon with her besties and her hair was back to it’s natural chestnut brown and she sported a brand-new tattoo on her hip, courtesy of Creed.

Creed…
holy fuck
, the guy had aged well. She’d had a thing for him for years. Tall, dark and handsome, with the most amazing blue eyes, she’d watched him flirt with women in this very bar and secretly wanted more than anything to be one of them. But he’d never looked at her that way, not once.

She sighed and took another healthy swallow of her beer. Her ex-fiancé was a prick and the guy she wanted saw her as nothing more than a little sister. Sucked to be her.

The click of pool balls and a crow of triumph from Kacie drew Kait’s attention back to the game. She’d lost her game to Lilly so the other two women played now, but they were being watched from the other side of the bar by a group of local men. Young, they were barely old enough to drink, but that didn’t stop them eyeing the women with appreciation. Dressed for a night out on the town, all three girls sported jeans and strappy tops with heels. Dressed-down glamour perfect for Lizard Lick.

“Hey, babe,” one of them called out. “Want me to show you how to hold your stick?”

“Sweetheart,” Lilly called over her shoulder as she set the shot up, “you wouldn’t know what to do with me. I’d eat you for breakfast.”

“Awww, don’t be like that, darling. How ‘bout we play next and when you lose I get a kiss?”

She moved quickly, a flick of her wrist making the cue in her hand strike the white with a solid click. It ricocheted into the one she’d aimed at, transferring the momentum, and the red ball cannoned into the pocket on the other side of the table right in front of the would-be Romeo. He whistled and looked impressed.

“We were state champions three times in a row,” Kacie said bluntly. “No way you’d be walking away from a match with her with anything other than your pride in a sling.”

The group moved away, their smiles good natured, and Kacie studied the table to decide on her shot.

“Whatcha do that for?” Lilly demanded, watching their admirers depart. “The one in the blue shirt was quite cute.”

“Pffft.” Kacie potted three balls in a row. “If you’re into cradle-snatching, maybe.”

“They were legal. And some men do like their women a little more…experienced. It’s not their fault they’re not Dean Sterling, now is it?”

Kait’s ears pricked up. “Dean Sterling? Hotshot jock Dean Sterling…couple of years above us in school? I thought he’d joined up.”

Lilly nodded. “That’s the one and he did. Came back a couple of years ago when his dad died to take over the family business. Kacie’s got a thing for him. Like a
biiig
thing.”

“Screw you, Braun.”

“I’m flattered.” Lilly laughed. “But I’m sure you’d much rather screw Dean.”

Kacie flipped her the bird and concentrated on clearing the table. Knowing that the game was lost, Lilly grabbed her drink from the counter and drained it. Bright green eyes studied Kait.

“And don’t think I missed you mooning over Creed in the tattoo shop, missy.” She put her empty down and handed her cue over to Kacie to rack with the others behind the table. Obviously they were done playing pool tonight. “When you going to get your head out your ass and make a move on the guy?”

Heat rose to her cheeks before Kait could stop it. Great, she was barely in town for a day before her friends were on her case about her love life.

“I just broke off my engagement!” she argued. “I’m not looking for a relationship.”

“So just screw him.” Kacie rejoined them.

“He’s supposed to be shit-hot in the sack. Think, all those lovely muscles to get your hands on… And that ass!” She made a vaguely obscene squeezing motion with her hand about ass height in midair, and Kait couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter.

“Sounds like someone else has been checking him out as well. Perhaps you should make a move on him?”

It was only when both women grinned that she realized she’d been had. And admitted that, indeed, she had been checking Creed out. And his ass.

“Bitches.”

“Gotcha,” Lilly grinned. “Right, ladies, drink up and let’s get clubbing. I have been dying for a proper night’s dancing for
months!”

I
t didn’t take
them long to finish up and leave the Lizard Moon. There was just one nightclub in the area, on the outskirts of town. Most of the week it was a strip joint, but once a month, they cleared the dancers out and opened the place up as a nightclub. Complete with stages and dance poles. Which, if a gal could work a pole like Kacie and Lilly, was awesome. Kait though, had never mastered the art and was very much a pole clinger rather than a dancer. In the city…well, she could just imagine the look on Aiden’s face if she’d even tried it so tonight, dammit, she
would
learn to dance if it killed her.

Joking and giggling, the three women made their way down the town’s main street, heading for the shortcut between the library and the small grocer’s. An alley led to a dirt track that would take them out past the industrial estate to the club. Since it was a nice night, they’d decided to walk.

Well, in Kacie’s case, Kait corrected herself, stagger on the impossibly high heels she wore. She watched her friend with amusement as the other woman navigated a pothole in the path with the same level of wariness normally reserved for bears or mean-ass rattlers. Shaking her head, she carried on walking, her heels rapping on the asphalt as they turned into the small alleyway that led to their destination.

Lilly stiffened beside her, a hand on Kait’s arm to stop her while calling out to Kacie a few steps ahead. “Wait, something’s not right.”

Apprehension swept through Kait as she looked around. The dark alley seemed somehow darker as three forms materialized out of the shadows ahead of them. Men, big men, and from the look of them, not locals.

“Come on,” she muttered softly. “Let’s grab a cab.”

Turning as she spoke, she pulled up quickly as two more men stepped around the corner into the alley, blocking them in. Shit. No going back that way. The looks on their faces were hard, and the set of their bodies reeked of danger and violence. Despite herself, Kait stepped closer to her friends. This was not going to end well.

“Hey there, pretty ladies.” One of the guys in front of them swaggered forward into the dim glow cast by one of the overhead lights. There were only a few on the path, the rest shrouded in shadows. Kait thought fast. If they could slip past, perhaps they could hide in the darkness.

But Lilly’s hand tightened on her arm.

“Don’t run. It’ll make things worse,” she whispered, but her gaze was on the leader in front of them.

“You must be new around here.” Lilly’s voice didn’t betray any fear, and Kait gave her a mental high five. She’d never have been able to sound so self-assured, not while she was basically crapping herself at how they were going to get out of this. “So I suggest you run along before you get yourself into any trouble.”

Trouble?
Trouble?
Kait shot the other woman a side look. What the hell did she think she was doing threatening these guys with trouble? At the very least they should be screaming and running away.

“Lilly,” she hissed. “Can you not piss them off and perhaps we might get out of this in one piece?”

She reached for her purse, where she usually carried a personal alarm and a can of something. Even hairspray in the eye was better than nothing and might give them a fighting chance. But the space by her hip was empty, her usual purse at home and replaced by an evening clutch.

“Yeah,
Lilly,”
the asshole who seemed to be in charge drawled. “Perhaps you should listen to your little friend and not piss us off. We’re dangerous when we’re pissed off and unclaimed women answering back tend to piss us off.”

Just like that Kait’s temper went from simmer to boiling over, but Kacie beat her to it. “Oi, jerkwad. Lay off the
unclaimed
women part. What do you think this is…the Middle fucking Ages?”

Kait felt more than heard Lilly’s intake of breath, and in the next heartbeat, all hell broke loose. The three men in front of them surged forward, snarling like animals with their arms spread and what looked like knives in their hands. Knives. No, they weren’t knives. Knives glinted in the light. They were straight and clean…not twisted inward, and dull colored like bone. And knives had handles, they didn’t erupt from the end of fingers…like claws.

She screamed. “They’ve got claws!”

How the fuck did they have claws? Turning, she tried to run, to escape the darkness of the alley and the trap that had been set for them…only to realize that the other two weren’t following.

“Come on!”
she yelled, only to watch as Lilly raced at the nearest guy, who was about to grab Kacie, and body slammed him with a shoulder in the gut. He went down with a snarl, but cruel hands closed over Kait’s upper arms. She screamed again as she was hauled up against a hard body. She didn’t let up on the screams as she fought with all her might.

Jerking her head back, she felt the back of her skull impact with her captor’s nose. It gave with a satisfying crunch but she didn’t stop there. Bringing her knee up, she drove her stiletto heel down into his foot, trying all the time not to think about the fact that
they had freaking claws.
There was a grunt of pain, and his grip eased enough for her to tear herself loose and run forward.

Only to watch with horrified eyes as one of the others swung around, claws raking through the air in a terrible arch to slice across Kacie’s stomach.

Time slowed as Kacie staggered back, her hands over her abdomen. She looked down in the same direction as everyone else as red seeped out from under her hands to stain the pretty green top dark.

Their assailants backed away, horror on their faces.

“Fucking hell, Jack!” one muttered, looking at the leader, whose claws were stained red. “The boss said we were only supposed to grab them, not fucking hurt them!”

“Shit. There’s more on the way,” the one by the entrance to the alley shouted. “We need to get out of here. Get out of here now!”

In a stampede of booted footsteps and cursing, the alley cleared of men, leaving the three women looking at each other in horror.

Then Kacie paled and staggered. Instantly, the two others were there, supporting her as they lowered her to the ground.

“Shitshitshit,” Lilly muttered, yanking off her own top to wad it against Kacie’s stomach. “This is bad, so bad. Kait, grab my cell and call Dean Sterling. He’s in the quick dial contacts.”

“Dean? Why are we calling Dean? We need to call her an ambulance,” Kait’s voice was shrill as she grabbed Lilly’s purse and reached for the cell within. “Seriously, she needs—”

“
JUST CALL DEAN!”
Lilly’s bellow was unexpected, loud and way too deep to have come from her throat. Her eyes flashed dark for a second, obliterating the green, and Kait gasped. The speed, the strength…

“Seriously…shhh, Kacie, it’s going to be okay, I promise,” Lilly reassured the injured girl and then looked at Kait. “A hospital can’t do anything for her now. Call Dean.”

“Okay.” Hands shaking, Kait hit dial and waited for an answer. In the back of her mind a voice screamed hysterically but she ignored it, calmly sitting in the dirt with one of her best friends bleeding out through a gut wound and the other telling her some ex-high school jock would make it all better.

But it was all okay because this was a dream. A nightmare for sure, but since men didn’t really have claws, it had to be a dream.

It had to be…didn’t it?

If it was, it was
the
most surreal dream Kait had ever had.