Kathi S Barton - [Aaron's Kiss 04] (14 page)

“Hummm, we are…I guess to the mansion. Miss Sara said that you would hurt me if I let you know about the plan. I guess you’re not going to, huh?” The man actually looked relieved. She hated to burst his bubble, but she meant what she said about fury.

“No, I’m not in the habit of shooting the messenger.” No, she wanted to shoot the man or men who had sent him. “But as we’ve already established, you aren’t really a cop. What do you say we just lay it all out on the table? Who are you really?”

“I’m a werewolf that works for the Brotherhood as a cook. How did you know? I practiced everything they told me. I don’t think I missed anything.”

“You did well, but…you did mess up what you had for me, but that’s no biggie.

What you didn’t do was check for a weapon.” She put the Glock to his temple and calmly explained what the revised plan was. “This is a loaded Glock forty, Mr. List, and there is one in the chamber, and hot. As in ready to kill if I pull the trigger. What you’re going to do is contact your alpha through your mind link and tell him that I have you hostage. I can understand you and will be able to hear you, so go ahead.” He nodded and left his hands on the steering wheel. Smart guy her Mr. Justin. It really was a shame his boss wasn’t.

“Alpha? I…it’s Justin, my lord.”

“How’s it going, Justin? Have you picked up Miss Hunter yet?” Sam could hear the amusement in his voice. “And I hope that you were extremely careful.”

“I messed up once or twice, sir. And about that, she is…Well, sir, I have a gun pointed to my head, well, she has her gun pointed to my head, quite closely as a matter of fact, my lord.” Justin smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “She is listening to us, said she can understand. Sir, no one mentioned checking her for a gun, so I didn’t.” Justin swallowed loudly. “That would have been something to know, my lord.

Bradley didn’t answer right away. He was too busy cursing the young woman who had out foxed him again. She could understand that and through her link with Justin, she could hear every thought that ran though his head. Someone should teach the alpha about blocking, she thought.

“Miss Hunter, are you planning to hurt our young Justin?” He was snapping and, for now, she decided to ignore that.

“If you bothered to get to know me at all fuck face, you’d have your answer. What the fuck is this all about now? Don’t you have better things to do than harass me?”

“Yes, but I did this for a friend, for your master. Aaron wants to talk to you and since you won’t cooperate, he moved on to desperate measures. Had you have talked with him and Tucker, this could have all been avoided.” Sam didn’t think now was a good time to piss her off more but then doubted he was any happier. “Ah, so the bloodsucker and his sidekick have decided, have they?

Well, we’ll see about that. Justin is fine, but I think I will keep him for the day. If anyone furry or dead comes near me or my shop, Justin will cease to exist. Do I make myself perfectly clear?” She wouldn’t hurt him, but the alpha didn’t need to know that.

“Yes, but let me make something clear to you, Miss Hunter. If you harm one hair on his head, you will suffer like you never imagined.” His voice was sharp, even in her mind. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Bring it on, asshole; I have nothing to live for so if you think to threaten me, go for it. You will regret fucking with me.” She cut the connection between them as if she had slammed down a phone. She was sure that Bradley felt it as if she’d punched his ear drum.

~~~

Duncan answered the phone in the kitchen when it rang and then passed it to Sara.

It took her a good ten minutes of just simply listening to Bradley rant and rave before she could speak and then it was only in half sentences.

“She fucking had a gun to his head. What kind of woman puts a gun to a man’s head and makes him call me?” He had asked this same question twice now. “Is she that stupid?”

“You did back her against a wall, Bradley? And as much as it pains me to agree with her, you brought this all on yourself. None of you—” He cut her off.

“You can’t possibly think that this is my fault! Damn it, Sara, I was doing what your mate told me to do.” She could almost see him pacing. “I sent a man to bring her in so that she would have to let us take care of her.”

“And what makes you think that you wouldn’t have done the same thing she’s doing right now? No, let me change that, you would have ripped the throat—” This time his growl cut her off. She was getting pissed herself now.

“I would have been calm about it! She said that if any of us—furry or dead—shows up, she’d kill Justin. I don’t like it when someone threatens one of—” Sara had enough. “Now you listen here you overgrown pup. You are the one who sent Justin to get her. You’re the one who sent out three men to follow her. You’re the one who thought that he was so invincible that one little human couldn’t harm the great alpha. She has beaten you at every turn. And the more you push, the harder she pushes back. I told you this wouldn’t work. I told you to let her figure this out on her own, but no, not one of you listened to me. Now I’m going to have to go there and see if I can rescue poor Justin. If you so much as lift your leg to piss on a dead log on this property until you hear from me, I will neuter you.” The phone slammed so hard she cracked it.

Sara felt the tears threaten. Duncan simply nodded, opened the door under the telephone stand, and pulled out a brand new phone still in the box. She watched him replace the broken one and thought about what the men in her life had done.

She had told them this wouldn’t work, that playing this childish game on someone whose mind was as strong as Sam’s was going to backfire. And it had. Big time.

Sara was concerned, however, about Sam thinking she had nothing to live for. She had heard this twice now about Sam. Sara thought it might explain why she’d taken such chances with helping the children the other night, and with the story that Pete had gleaned from Betty yesterday. It seemed that Sam may be trying to get herself killed.

Sara was sure there would be more to the story about the man in the bakery the first time she had met Sam. She intended to find out.

Sara was also concerned about Sam’s plans for Aaron and Tucker. She wasn’t worried about either being killed, Aaron was now an immortal thanks to her blood running though his veins, and Tucker was Sam’s mate. She wouldn’t be able to harm him either. But just in case, she put a little magic around both men just to be sure. She asked Duncan to pick the children up from pre-school and drove into town. First stop, the bakery.

“Hi, I’d like to speak to Sam, is she in the kitchen?” Sara didn’t wait for an answer; she just plowed right through to the back when she got to the bakery.

“Come on in, Mrs. MacManus, won’t you join us?” Sam and a large man were sitting at her big work table making flowers.

Well, she was making flowers, Sara realized, hundreds of them by the looks of it.

Justin was squirting blobs onto the wax paper squares and then eating his mistakes.

Neither seemed to be terribly concerned about the others jobs.

“You don’t look any worse for wear, Justin,” Sara said to the man.

Actually, she was relieved that he was all right. For as much as she told Bradley that Sam wouldn’t harm Justin, she had been a little worried.

“No, missus. Miss Sam and I have been getting acquainted, and she’s showed me how to bake up a mean apple pie.” Justin stood and stretched. “Miss Sam, would it be all right if I took a little stretch? The missus looks ready to explode to talk to you.” And Sara was, too; she was a woman on a mission.

“Sure, Justin, thanks for your help. I don’t suppose you wouldn’t mind going down to the deli and picking up the lunch I ordered for us all? Tell Betty to give you some cash from the drawer. And take your time; Mrs. MacManus thinks she has a lot to explain to me.”

He left; the two women in the kitchen could hear him talking and flirting with Betty and Sally. When the little bell over the door chimed him leaving, Sam looked up from her flower and grinned. “You thought I’d kill him. That’s good. No point in making a threat if no one believes you’ll carry through with it. I’m kind of busy right now, Mrs.

MacManus, so I’d appreciate it if you stated your business and got out of mine.” There were hundreds of tiny little pink roses in front of Sam, all of them the same size and perfectly matched. They were lined up in perfect lines on a large display tray.

Sara didn’t want to be impressed, but damn it, she was. Sara continued watching Sam, forgetting for a moment why she was here.

“Well?” The hostility was thick in Sam’s voice. “I’ve had about enough of you people, all of you coming in here anytime of the day or night and thinking that I am some sort of part of you. I’m not. I just want to be left alone. By all of you.”

“I’d like to call a truce between you and me. I have some things to say and I’d like to not fight with you until I’m finished. There are things you need to know, things that are very important to Tucker and his life.”

“Go ahead, but as you are aware, the stipulation to Justin staying alive was none of you to bother me today. I have four wedding cakes for this weekend and taking time out to kill him now is going to put a dent in my plans.” Sam didn’t even look up from the rose she was currently forming, but reached her left hand down to her side and unclipped her weapon from her belt. She laid it on the table next to her and picked up her tube of pink icing again.

“You’d like me to think you’re some sort of murder, wouldn’t you? I don’t believe you have it in you to shoot anyone, Sam. I think you’re a very hurt woman who needs someone to care for you.” Sara felt the first touch of fear when the gun hit the table, but then she realized that for whatever reason, Sara trusted Sam.

“Frankly, I don’t give a shit what you think of me.” Sara could see her fighting the tension. “I’d like for you to take Justin with you when you leave. You people obliviously don’t respect boundaries. And you’re right, I was never going to kill him, but you know if that fucking dog were here right now, I might be hard pressed not to neuter him with a rusty knife.”

“Funny, that’s almost exactly what I told him not an hour ago. All right, I’ll take Justin with me, but I still don’t believe you’d hurt anyone without cause. Have a good day, Miss Hunter; I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again.” Sara left and took a very reluctant Justin with her. He couldn’t say enough good things about the way Miss Sam had treated him, how she had given him a whole bunch of her mother’s recipes. And despite being afraid when she’d put the gun to his head, Justin really enjoyed Sam’s wit and charm.

Sara burst out laughing at that, wondering what the others thought of Sam’s

“charm.”

~~~

Tucker showed up just after sunset. He was there to talk to her and nothing more.

He had made arrangements with Aaron to leave the following night. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore.

When he got to the bakery, the woman behind the counter, Sally, said that Sam had just gone upstairs to change, she thought she had a date with that nice young man that delivered the staple goods.

“He’s been asking her out for an age, poor young man. Sam finally said yes to him today. He nearly fell all over himself he was so excited.” Tucker took to the stairs to her apartment as soon as he heard that Sam had a date. He smiled slightly when he heard Sally say, “He probably forgot his wallet” to the bewildered customer who had come in just after Tucker had.

“Where do you think you’re going? You are not going out tonight.” He didn’t have any rights to her. He had told Aaron that he was moving away to keep her safe, and here he was yelling at her when she was doing just what he wanted.

What was wrong with him, he wondered?

“Come in and sit down for a while, so glad you could visit.” Her voice was hard, belying her soft words. “Don’t you ever friggin’ knock, or come through a door?” Tucker watched her button her shirt, her fingers moving along the seam and pushing buttons through the hole before moving on to the next one. He found it to be incredibly sexy. He felt his cock harden again. Damn it, he wanted her.

“I asked you a question. Where do you think you’re going?”

“Actually, numb nuts, you didn’t just ask, you demanded. But I don’t know why that should surprise me, that’s all you ever do. Now I want you to get out. Mickey is coming by and we are going to do the nasty all night long.” When she turned away from him, he snapped.

He was across the room in two heartbeats. One second he was fuming in the doorway to her bedroom, the next he had her pinned between him and the wall. He looked down at her, his eyes turning with his need and anger. She had pushed him too far with her sarcasm, and he had already been near the edge.

“Don’t…”

“Too late.” He lowered his head and brushed his mouth across hers, gently, softly at first. When her small pink tongue darted out and licked his taste from them, he leaned down and ate at her soft mouth voraciously, gorging on her taste, the heat of her. He pulled her body against his, and then pressed them both into the wall. He cock was hard, aching to be inside of her. His fangs, needy before, now elongated, bursting from his gums, the need to sink them into her overwhelming.

“Sam, I want you. Please, baby, I want to make love to you now. Call your date and tell him…tell him he’s not to come here. Not ever again”

“I already have,” she told him softly. “Please just go home. I want you to go now.”

“I won’t. I can’t.”

He felt her tense, then pull back. He could feel her fear, her uncertainty, and he pulled back as well. When she lowered her head and turned away, Tucker lifted her chin and forced her to look at him.

“Tell me, love. Please. I know you hurt. I’m sorry if I—”

“I can’t...I have to...please, there’s something I have to tell you. You need to know what I am. What I’ve done.”

He pulled away. He wouldn’t force her, couldn’t, not the way he had been treated for nearly all of his life. His breathing was harsh, his heart pounding. He backed up one step, but held her, not able to let her go just yet.