Immortal Ever After (36 page)

Valerie chuckled at the suggestion. “Sure. That’s how the seven dwarfs became Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Dopey, Sleepy, and Doc, isn’t it?”

Leigh grinned, but then wrinkled her nose. “In that case, this little girl should be called Smelly . . . or Poopy. I think it’s diaper-change time.”

“Hmmm. Speaking of . . . I guess I’d better find the waste pick-up bags and go tend to
my
little girl,” Valerie said, pushing herself away from the door to move into the kitchen and fetch the bags.

“Have fun,” Leigh said, heading for the door.

“You too,” Valerie called out with a laugh as she grabbed the bags from the drawer and headed outside.

Roxy hurried eagerly to her side as Valerie stepped out onto the covered porch. Giving the German shepherd a pet, she promised, “I’ll feed you in a minute. Just let me collect all your little gifts from last night and this morning first.”

Roxy barked and pressed against her side, eliciting a smile and another pet from Valerie. She didn’t think the dog understood what she’d said. Well, except perhaps for feed. She was pretty sure Roxy understood that word. But her not understanding had never stopped Valerie talking to her before. She’d had whole conversations with the German shepherd, pouring out her troubles and cares to the dog. Roxy always watched her, bright-eyed, and tongue lolling, giving the occasional bark. She appeared just happy to have her attention. It was part of her charm.

“So,” Valerie said, starting across the yard in search of Roxy treasures. “What do you think of Anders? Should I agree to be his life mate or not?”

Roxy barked and raced a little ahead before stopping to peer back at her.

Eyebrows rising, Valerie followed and paused when she saw that the dog had stopped beside one of her treasures.

“Is that a yes I should, or no I shouldn’t?” she asked as she collected the doggy deposit, and Roxy barked and moved away, sniffing the ground as she went and then she paused again and looked back at her expectantly.

“Good of you to be so helpful,” Valerie said dryly as she reached her and bent to scoop up the deposit in front of the dog. She spent the next couple of minutes following Roxy around, cleaning up after her. She was pretty sure they were on the last one, when Roxy suddenly paused, head up, ears pricked, and then she charged forward and around the house.

“Squirrel,” Valerie muttered and shook her head. That was usually the only thing that made the dog react like that. Tying the top of the bag, she whistled for her, and then started around the house. She turned the corner just in time to see Roxy jogging around the front of the house in hot pursuit of whatever furry little critter had caught her attention.

“Dumb dog,” Valerie said with exasperation, hurrying after her. She was exhausted and eager to get back to bed, so of course that’s the day that Roxy decides she’s a hunting dog.

Roxy had nosed the garage door open and was slipping inside by the time Valerie came around the front of the house. Cursing, Valerie rushed to the door and pulled it open.

“Roxy?” she called, frowning into the dark garage. Tossing the bag of dog waste in the garbage pail just inside the door, Valerie felt around for a light switch on the walls on either side of the door. If one of the big, automatic garage doors for the cars had been open it would have offered more light, this door merely cast shadows everywhere.

“Dammit, Roxy where are you?” Valerie said testily giving up on a light switch. She couldn’t even hear the German shepherd moving around and the dark and silence was starting to spook her. If she knew where the panel was to open the big doors, she’d be opening them both at that moment.

Sighing into the silence, Valerie eased back a step, considering closing the garage door and then opening it and calling Roxy again. Perhaps the fear that she might be left here would lure the dog out, Valerie thought and was about to step outside when there was a tinny clang in the back corner of the garage. Roxy had knocked over a can of something. Valerie took a couple steps forward, calling her again.

Impatient to get back inside and go to bed, Valerie walked further into the garage, moving carefully between Lucian’s van on her right and the shelves lined with tools, pool cleaner, paint, and various other miscellaneous items on her left. She was halfway along the van when the garage door suddenly closed behind her.

Freezing, Valerie turned slowly toward the van in the darkness, ears straining.

“It was the wind,” she assured herself in a whisper.

“No it wasn’t.”

The voice came from her right and very close. It startled a gasp out of Valerie and sent her heart pounding. It also made her whirl and run blindly in the opposite direction. Valerie had only taken half a dozen steps when she was caught by the hair and jerked back against a very wide, very hard chest. She immediately caught a whiff of a musky scent she’d forgotten but immediately recalled.

“Igor,” she breathed, horror washing over her. He was alive.

“Igor?” he asked, sounding nonplussed.

“Where’s Roxy?” Valerie asked grimly.

“Dead,” he barked, and countered, “Where is Ambrose?”

Valerie didn’t answer, she couldn’t have if she’d wanted to. His announcement sent a shaft of pain shooting through her chest that had left her gasping for breath.

“Where is Ambrose?” he repeated, shaking her furiously by his hold on her hair to get her attention.

“I don’t know who Ambrose is!” Valerie cried out, grabbing at the hair on the sides of her head to try to ease the pain. His shaking her certainly regained her attention. He’d pulled her out of her haze of grief, but rage replaced it as Valerie thought of her poor Roxy, lying dead somewhere there in the dark garage. She reacted without stopping to think about it, raising her foot and shooting it back at his legs with force. Score! Valerie thought grimly as he bellowed in pain and stumbled back, dragging her with him.

Growling as he regained his footing, Igor turned and slammed her into the van, his weight crashing into her from behind to add to the assault. Valerie groaned as the wind was knocked out of her and shock waves of pain vibrated from her breasts down to her knees.

“Who do you think I mean?” he asked furiously by her ear.

“Your boss,” she gasped almost soundlessly. She simply didn’t have the breath in her to speak.

“Where is he?” Igor demanded, easing his weight from hers enough to allow her some air. As he did, Valerie heard a very faint bark. It sounded far away, or muffled as if coming from outside, but it was definitely a bark. Roxy wasn’t dead. She’d barely had the thought when Igor cursed and dragged her away from the van by her hair.

“Where is he?” he growled, pulling her several feet, presumably, toward the garage door.

Valerie hesitated, but when he stopped and caught her by the throat, she quickly answered, “At the Enforcer house.”

There was no reason not to tell him. It wasn’t like Igor could break him out. Although, if he tried, it would give them a chance to catch him. Savoring that thought, she asked, “What did you do with Billie, Laura, and Kathy?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” he assured her. “Where is the Enforcer house?”

“I don’t know the address,” Valerie said. When he started to lift her off the ground by her hair, she added quickly, “I don’t. They took me there, they didn’t tell me the address.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to show me,” he said grimly, releasing her throat and continuing the way he’d been dragging her before stopping.

“I’d really rather not,” Valerie said honestly and then frowned and asked, “Why aren’t you just reading my mind and controlling me?”

“Why bother?” he asked dryly.

“Because then you wouldn’t have to drag me around by my hair and hurt me,” she pointed out in an arid tone of her own.

“But I like hurting you. It eases the pain you caused me when you staked me.”

Valerie bit her lip. He sounded testy, even resentful. Imagine! Like he hadn’t deserved it and she was the bad guy or something. Mouth tightening, she said, “Or maybe you’re a new turn and haven’t learned to control or read us mere mortals yet.”

Her talk with Leigh at the Enforcer house was what had given her that idea. Leigh had mentioned that she was still learning both skills, but was getting pretty good at them and Valerie had wondered if Igor was a relatively new turn and hadn’t yet learned those skills. Otherwise, why hadn’t he just taken control of her in the bathroom when she’d squirted the shampoo at him? Or after, when he’d come out of the bathroom to get her?

She suspected she’d hit the nail on the head when Igor’s step faltered and he snapped, “Shut up.”

“Make me,” Valerie muttered, blinking rapidly when he suddenly pushed the door open and dragged her out into bright sunlight. Half-blinded by the sudden light, Valerie was taken by surprise and stumbled to her knees when she was suddenly free. She was so startled that she almost missed the grunt Igor let loose as he released her, but she definitely heard the sounds of the short fight that followed. Turning her head, she watched with amazement as Anders thrust a wooden sunflower stake from the garden into Igor’s chest. The man fell like a ton of bricks, crashing onto his back beside her on the concrete driveway.

“Well, that felt good,” Anders said grimly and when she glanced to him with surprise, he shrugged and admitted, “It’s nice to be able to actually save you for a change, rather than just showing up after you’ve already saved yourself.”

Valerie released a startled laugh that ended in a gasp when he caught her by the arms and raised her to her feet.

“Thank you,” she sighed, sliding her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. “You’re my hero.”

“Hmm,” Anders said dubiously, and then eased her back so he could kiss her nose. Smiling crookedly, he then commented, “You seem to have a tendency to find trouble.”

“It wasn’t me this time. I was just following Roxy. She— Roxy!” Valerie stiffened, her eyes wide and worried. “He said he killed her but I thought I heard her bark.”

“She’s fine,” Anders assured her quickly. “She’s in the house. She came up to the bedroom and woke me up. It’s how I knew you were in trouble. You weren’t with her. So I came looking for you.”

“Oh,” Valerie sagged against him, but shook her head. “I don’t know how she got in the house. I saw her go into the garage, but when I got there she wasn’t there and he grabbed me.”

“There’s a door between the garage and the laundry room. He must have opened it and lured her into the garage and then the house somehow, and then closed it behind her to wait for you to catch up,” Anders said.

“Oh,” Valerie sighed, and then followed Anders’s gaze when he suddenly stiffened and glanced toward the house. The front door was opening, she saw, and then Roxy rushed out. Lucian and Leigh followed more slowly as Roxy hurried toward them, tale wagging happily. Valerie slid free of Anders and crouched to greet the dog as she ran up.

“Good girl,” she said, massaging her cheeks and the sides of her neck. “Good girl for getting Anders. Yes,” she praised, and then straightened as the other couple reached them.

“Igor?” Lucian asked on a yawn, rubbing his hand across his very wide, bare chest. The man had obviously just rolled out of bed. He wore only a pair of green plaid pajama bottoms, and his hair was standing on end.

Anders nodded.

Lucian peered at the large man with the wooden sunflower sticking out of his chest, and commented, “Well this makes a change from the old pushing up daisies.”

Leigh tsked at the comment and slipped past Lucian to get a better look at the man. Shaking her head, she said, “Did you have to use the sunflower? I loved that tomato stake and it’s the only one I have. You should have used one of the frog stakes. I have three of them.”

“I’ll remember that for next time,” Anders said with amusement.

Lucian slid his arm around Leigh and hugged her briefly. “I’ll call the boys to come collect him. They can take out your sunflower before they take him away . . . I’ll have them clean off the blood for you too,” he added, when Leigh screwed up her face with disgust.

“Maybe we should take it out now,” Anders suggested. “If we leave it in too long he might not come back and we still need information. We haven’t even been able to get a name out of his boss.”

“Ambrose,” Valerie announced.

Anders glanced at her with surprise and shook his head. “Damn, woman, you were only in the garage with him for a matter of minutes. How did you get that out of him?”

“My natural charm?” she suggested with a grin.

“You didn’t happen to find out what they did with the women too, did you?” Lucian asked.

Valerie’s grin faded and she shook her head. “No. I’m afraid not.”

“I guess you’d better take it out now then,” Lucian suggested, not sounding pleased that they had to.

Anders didn’t look any happier about having to do it as he bent to grab the wooden sunflower and pull it from the man’s chest. When Leigh grimaced at the bloody tip, he said, “I’ll rinse it off with the garden hose. It will be good as new.”

“Good thinking,” Lucian said. “I’ll watch Igor while you do that.”

Anders raised his eyebrows. Apparently, he’d meant later, but he nodded and headed around the garage saying, “I’ll only be a minute.”

Shaking her head, Leigh turned to lean up and kiss Lucian’s cheek. “I’ll call Mortimer for you. I have to go check on the twins anyway.”

“Thank you, love,” Lucian said, watching her go. Once she disappeared into the house, he turned back and eyed Valerie. “So? When do you want to be turned?”

“I didn’t agree to turn,” Valerie squawked with amazement.

“You haven’t, but you will,” he said with a shrug.

“What makes you think that?” she asked warily.

“Because if you don’t, I’m going to have to wipe your memories and have you returned to your life and neither of us wants that,” he said simply.

“Anders said I could have time to decide,” Valerie protested, and then frowned and added, “And what do you mean, neither of us wants that? Why would you care?”

“You saved my wife and children, Valerie. And Leigh adores you. You’re family now.”