Mellizo Wolves (21 page)

“Kyle can take the calls. I’m going with you.”

 
* * * *

As they headed down the stairway, they met Rick. Damon gave
Rick a quick once-over. Perhaps having a young-looking guy along would get them
past the bouncer easier. Rick was tall and twenty, but with his young face, he
could pass for eighteen or nineteen. His black plaid, long-sleeved Wrangler
sports shirt and black jeans and boots added to the image. And the diamond
earring in his ear completed the wild-seed appearance. “Come with us to the
Ruse Room.”

“Don’t tell me the girls went to that shady, drug-infested
teen hangout,” Rick said, looking worried.

“Unfortunately, they did. I might need you if there’s
trouble.”

When they arrived at the club, Damon forced himself to
breathe in and out slowly. “I have to find my girls,” he said to the bouncer.
He flipped open his wallet with the photos of the girls. “It’s a matter of life
and death.”

The muscled bouncer in his fifties said, “Lots of luck
buddy. Your girls are with a couple of bad dudes who love to get their dirty
hands on the innocent ones.”

“Where?”

“Pool room, in the back.”

Rick brushed past the bouncer and took off running. Damon
and Angela followed.

“Hey, you can’t go back there,” the bouncer said. But,
apparently, the noise of a gang of bikers roaring up to the curb in front of
the club stopped him from coming after them. Damon figured it was Deeto and his
gang, ready to provide backup if needed. He’d just talked to them on his cell.

Damon felt Angela’s grip tighten on his arm as they weaved
their way through the crowded teen hangout with blaring music and writhing
dancers. Damn it. His girls hadn’t been using good judgment lately. He
shuddered. The risky behavior was probably because of the feral wolves residing
within them.

Sweating and frantic, he tried not to look at his watch and
reveal his rising panic. What if his girls weren’t even here and the bouncer
was just pulling his chain? It was absurd that he preferred to find his girls
with a couple of bad dudes in the backroom than have them be off somewhere with
Lazar, a Nobel Prize winning scientist.

* * *
*

Rick slipped into the pool room, lowered his sunglasses,
and scanned the place. He sighed in relief when he saw the twins. Victoria
looked mind-blowing, if one liked the hot, wild type. She wore a black
hip-length jacket over a clinging white shirt and black skinny cargo pants that
revealed every slender curve. She tossed that long, full, wind-blown onyx hair
provocatively and handled the pool cue like a pro. Her ankle boots reminded him
of a line in a song. Damn it. And she was just the girl who could walk all over
him with her boots.

Valerie stood across the room by an old-time juke box,
reading the selections, her long blonde hair shading her face. Her jeans and
top were clingy too and certainly too provocative for a room full of tattooed
thugs who looked like the only school they’d ever attended was the school of
hard knocks. They were no doubt the owners of the Harleys Rick saw parked
outside when he came in. He suspected they were sizing her up to be their next
blonde bimbo.

Since she was in no immediate danger, Rick sauntered over
to Victoria. “Looks like you’ve played before.”

Victoria stroked her lips with the tip of the pool cue.
“Yeah, baby, wanna play?”

He tried to convince himself her tough, lustful attitude
came from having a feral wolf living inside of her. Whatever lit her fuse, a
persistent impatience at her blatantly sexual gestures in front of these hungry
toughs warned him his feelings went beyond desire. His growing concern for her
was so strong that no matter how much she irritated him, the caring failed to
fade. And those feelings could cost him.

He’d seen the pool room in the mansion and wondered if
she’d take the bait if he offered a provocative suggestion to her. It would be
easier all around if he could get the girls out of this den of simmering
testosterone without a hassle.

“Not afraid to play a pro, are you?” she taunted in a tone
that reminded him of heat rising off the desert floor in mid-summer.

He lowered his voice. “Honey, I prefer it. But how about we
use the rec room in your home? Then we could play for something really
interesting. Besides, I prefer to show up a hot, lusty babe like you in
private.”

Her eyes blazed, whether with interest or anger, he wasn’t
sure. But before she could reply and give him a clue, her dad shouted from the
doorway. “Victoria!” His neck and jawline were blood red.

It was comical how Victoria’s demeanor changed. She put
down the pool cue and shrugged. “Look, I gotta go, guys. My party-pooper dad
just arrived.”

The muscle-bound jerk with a quarterback build said, “So
you’re Daddy’s girl? I thought you were a woman out for a good time.”

“Not tonight. I know my dad’s look and it’ll be best if I
get him out of here before he explodes and gets us all banned from this place.”

Across the distance, the jerk with muscles gave daddy-Damon
a once-over. “I’m not afraid of that old man.”

Rick rolled his shirt sleeve up, exposing a scorpion tattoo
he’d gotten when he briefly belonged to a desert gang while working undercover
for his brother. “But her dad’s not alone,” he said. “Ever hear of Deeto and
his gang? They’re outside waiting for the fun to breakout.”

Valerie had already hightailed it over to Angela who was
right behind Damon. Rick couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Valerie was
nodding.

Rick grasped Victoria’s arm. She wrenched away, and for
several annoying seconds, she scorched him with her gaze. “Hands off, employee
of the hour.”

Rick felt like shaking the sexy spoiled brat. “Come
quietly, Victoria. You don’t want to make trouble for your dad.”

Beneath lush lashes, she sent Rick a sidelong glance. “But
maybe I’d like to make a problem for you.” Then she strode toward her father
with an irritatingly beautiful animal grace.

Rick started to follow when he felt a cue stick slam across
his back. He whirled and went into a judo crouch. “Get the girls out of here
now,” he shouted at Damon. “I can handle myself.” Damon must have pushed Angela
and the girls out the door. Because a second later, he was in the fight with
him, using karate moves and kicks. No one who’d ever seen Damon in action would
call him an old man. He had a killer instinct tempered with skilled reserve.
Just the kind of man he wanted on his side.

When they were the only ones left conscious and standing,
they headed out the door, sore and a little bruised, but glad the girls were
all right. Out in the car, Rick found himself sandwiched in the back seat
between the twins.

His wide shoulders forced him to put his arms up over the
back seat behind them. Victoria’s silky hair rested on his arm, taunting him.

He would’ve been amused by Damon’s lecture to the girls if
he hadn’t realized how dangerous the situation had been and, after what they’d
learned about Lazar, how lucky the twins had been to escape him.

“To make things crystal clear,” Damon said, “you didn’t
have permission to go to that drug-infested hangout.”

“I didn’t see any drugs,” Victoria said with the innocence
of an angel. “Besides, we don’t do drugs. You know that. So why are you so mad?
We were acting responsibly. We rode with an adult you know and respect, and we
set an early curfew. He promised to return at ten-thirty and take us back up
the hill. He’s a real cool guy.”

“No, he isn’t,” Damon shouted. “I learned some things today
that changed my opinion of Lazar. I want you to stay away from him. Far, far
away.”

Rick wanted to second that, but he remained silent.

* * *
*

After Damon made certain his girls understood how things
could’ve turned deadly, he led Angela to the master bedroom so they could
resume their discussion about Lazar in private. “I think you’re right about
him,” he admitted. “We used a luminol scan and found blood in Lazar’s bedroom.”

She grabbed the telephone receiver and started to dial. He
took it from her and hung up. “We can’t report this. We can’t prove Lazar was
ever in that apartment. His name wasn’t on the lease. The lease was in the name
of your former harassing boss, Dudley Knox.”

Her eyes widened. “Good grief. Dudley certainly got around
before someone killed him.”

“I suspect Lazar. The only thing I have to go on is he
listed that apartment as his home address and the blood.”

Now that he suspected Reeves may have morphed into Lazar’s
body, he was glad he hadn’t set it up for Hugh to give blood while in his werewolf
state. Even though Hugh had specified that no one must know it came from him
and that Damon had to do the extraction himself, Lazar would have caught on
that it came from a family member.

“Well,” Angela said, “if Lazar was in the apartment, the
police can find his DNA.”

Damon groaned at the mess he’d made of things, all in the
name of protecting his family. “You forget, I found Kat dead on our property
and buried her. And now my DNA is in the apartment with the blood.”

Angela’s eyes blazed. “Don’t say
t
he
blood…admit it.
You know it’s her blood.”

He drew Angela into his arms and kissed her forehead. “We
have no proof of that. If we bring in the police, we risk bringing trouble down
on our whole family. Just let me handle it.”

She shrugged away from him, leaving his arms feeling so
empty. “That’s how we got into this mess.” Her whispery shout filled the room.
“Your perpetual drive to handle things.”

Damon’s stomach knotted tighter. “Don’t you think I know
that?”

Every step he’d taken to protect his girls was backfiring
on him. He’d wanted to protect them from the excruciating pain and their
predator wolf taking over their senses. Equally, he wanted to protect them from
feeling the hunger and raging desire of a feral wolf before they’d found love,
hopefully no sooner than their late twenties. Better yet, their thirties.

The dark element stirred in the back of his mind that had
plagued him for years. It was during January’s full wolf moon when a blue moon
occurred and drove his father over the edge of sanity into the empty realm of
suicide. Suicide, the eventual solution of most of his family, was not an
option for his girls.

“I won’t give up on finding a cure for the girls, but I
know now that I can no longer count on Lazar. Since he put false information on
the employment form and deceived me, I know I can only expect trouble from
him.”

Angela shook her head. “Just imagine what might have
happened to our girls because you trusted Lazar. And worse yet, you made the
girls feel it was safe to trust him. I can’t leave this in your hands any
longer. I’m taking the girls and going to my mom’s until I can think of a safer
place.”

“Don’t start that again. You are safer here. You have me,
Rick, Hugh, and Deeto and his gang to provide you and the girls
around-the-clock protection.”

“Then how did the twins escape all of your heavily-muscled
protection today?”

He didn’t blame her for lack of trust in the protection he
provided so far. “I didn’t have enough against Lazar then. But because he
worried you, I took the steps and gathered information. Now I can act on what I
learned.”

“But—”

“You and the girls will always be first in my life. That’s
why I have to do whatever it takes to keep you all safe. You might not always
approve of my methods, but no couple ever agrees on everything, especially a
couple who has lived through such wild, turbulent times and who has yet to face
the demanding challenges that seem to be unfolding, You must realize that my
need for you and your cooperation has only grown stronger.”

Angela’s eyes blazed. “You mustn’t let him back on our property!
I want restraining orders, the whole shebang.”

“You got it.” Damon paced the room, wondering if he dare
tell her the worst part. For her safety and the safety of the girls, he had no
choice. “Remember the frightening blobs reaching out from the mud in the
crystal and Madam Nola’s story about the dead rising to eternal life?” He
rushed on, wanting to get it said before Angela had too much time to think
about it. “There’s something else…something terrifying. I think Reeves has
morphed into Lazar.”

Angela’s face paled. “As impossible as that seems, I find
myself believing you. Although Reeves was dead and his ashes scattered behind
the mansion, I had an eerie sense of his presence from the moment we returned
from our honeymoon.”

“Reeves died a werewolf and if he morphed into Lazar, Lazar
acquired the werewolf tendencies.”

“That could explain the wolf attack on Madam Nola and Kat.”
Angela’s face paled, and she dropped down on the window seat, looking defeated.
“If that’s all true, how do we get rid of that fiend and destroy his gift of
eternal life?”