Motor City Witch (14 page)

Desmond shook his head “We can take shifts. You guys cover the prisoners.”

Off to one side of the hall, Aidan saw Cynric and Clive hugging their wives who’d come out into the hallway, and Colin, who stood in the adjoining bedroom door. Good thing this was a damn big house.

George exchanged a look with Jase and turned to Aidan. “Jase and I can take first watch. Neither of us took any damage at the steel mill.”

Des swallowed hard and held out his hand to Greg. “You and I can take the second shift, Novak?” It was a peace offering, considering Des’s long-standing grudge against wolves, and Aidan wondered what the hell had triggered that change.

Greg accepted the gesture with the hand not wrapped around Fianna and nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” He turned to Aidan. “So where are the showers and beds?”

Unable to gesture with his arms full of Elise, Aidan tipped his head at the hallway. “Pick a room. Dial zero on the house phone if you need anything. Wake me up when it’s my turn to stand watch.” He strode into his room and sat Elise on the bed beside Dina, who poked her head out from under the covers.

“Daddy!” She launched into his arms and hugged him.

“Hey, sweetheart. Everything’s okay. We had a spot of trouble out in the hallway, that’s all, but it’s over now.”

Dina nodded. “Mommy’s all bloody.”

“Yeah, now it’s Mommy’s turn for a bath.” Elise made a trembling attempt at a laugh. “Can you go back to sleep, baby?”

The child looked anxiously from one parent to another. “You’ll both be here when I wake up, right?”

“You got it, princess.” Aidan kissed the top of Dina’s head. “We’ll be right there in that bathroom. When we’re all cleaned up, we’ll come back in here and we can all sleep together. How’s that?”

“Okay.” She curled back up on the pillows and closed her eyes.

“Time to get clean, Mommy.” Aidan picked Elise up again, even as she moved to stand on her own.

Too tired to struggle and enjoying being held too much to try, she wrapped her arms around his neck for the short trip to the bathroom. Aidan bypassed the enormous tub in favor of the even more decadent marble-lined shower. Elise rolled her eyes—he could fit an entire hockey team in this thing with room left over. There were jets in the ceiling, up and down all four walls and a built-in bench on one wall, long enough to sleep on.

As Aidan approached the enclosure, he spoke a brief word and the water started up. Little flicks of his fingers caused first Elise’s, then his clothing to vanish with every step closer to the shower. By the time he reached the glass door, it was steamed up from the hot spray and he murmured one last command to make the door swing open as he stepped inside, Elise still held securely in his arms as he kicked it shut.

In the center of the marble-tiled space, he shifted his grip, allowing her to slide down along his body to stand on her own feet—well, toes at least. He still supported most of her weight, both from his arms wrapped around her back and the fact that she leaned heavily against his chest. The hot spray prickled against her skin and she sighed at the luxury of it, even as she buried her face in the dent between his pecs and inhaled his spicy, musky scent.

Everything that had happened in the last two days came crashing back and she leaned into him, wrapped her arms around his waist and hung on until the shivering stopped.

“Gods, Elise,” he muttered thickly into her hair. “Do you have any idea how much you scared me? They said there’d been gunfire and I saw you on the floor, all covered in blood…”

“N-n-not my own.” She shuddered as Fianna’s blood rinsed away and swirled down the drain. Her palm rubbed his stiff back. He was so tense his spine felt like a drawn bow, ready to snap.

“I know. Not yours. Thank the gods.” He dropped kisses all over her head and squeezed her so tightly she could barely breathe.

She wasn’t about to complain. It felt wonderful. Even as tired and stressed as she was, her body was softening and relaxing in response to his closeness. She drew in a couple more ragged breaths and got her voice under control. “I felt the same, you know. When that asshole pulled me through that portal and I felt your blood all over my hand. I was sure you were dead…” Her voice cracked and she sniffled against his warm, strong chest.

“Ah,
leannan.
It was close, I’ll admit. But our little girl is one hell of a healer. And now I’m fine and so are you and here we are together.” He nudged her with his hips, pressing the firm evidence of his own arousal against her stomach.

“Dina?” She’d healed Aidan? “Thank the gods.” Suddenly, she remembered what she needed to tell him—the things she’d learned from Fianna. Even as she subconsciously rubbed her breasts against his ribcage, her own arousal surging, she tried to keep her mind clear for this conversation they needed to have. “Aidan, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Later,” he decreed huskily as he nipped her ear. “Right now, I need you. I need this. We’re both alive and whole and together. Dina is safe in the next room and can’t hear us over the shower. That’s all that matters for now. The rest can wait.” His hands skimmed down her back to cup the cheeks of her butt.

“But…” Her traitorous body was clearly on his side. Without realizing she was doing it, she’d widened her stance and her own hands were sliding up his chest to loop around his neck. He was right. After the day they’d had, the urge to reaffirm and celebrate life was a powerful one. She lifted her face for his kiss, glad that the floor of the shower was a rougher tile than the smooth marble walls, providing traction so she didn’t slip.

Yes!
The touch of his lips on hers sent a jolt of awareness zinging through her, to the tips of her fingers and toes.
Aidan!
It seemed that something deep inside her stirred to life, recognizing its mate. Goddess, how she loved this man.

Their tongues tangled. His darted, retreated and claimed her again and again. One of his hands slid down the crevice of her backside and between her legs to stroke and play, while he brought the other around and up between them to cup her breast. She moaned into his kiss. Not content to let him do all the work, she tangled one hand in his short dark hair and used the other to cup the side of his head, rubbing the pointed tip of his ear between thumb and forefinger. His already rigid erection stirred and lengthened at the touch and this time it was he who moaned.

“Need you,” he murmured, pulling his mouth from hers. Rather than bend over further to run his lips down her neck, he simply wrapped his arms around her waist again and lifted her up to him. “Now.”

She didn’t need any more preliminaries either. Elise wrapped her legs around his waist and tipped her head to give him access as he nibbled his way down her throat. When he shifted her a bit, bringing the head of his cock into alignment with her core, she sighed happily and dug her fingernails into his shoulders.

“Mine,” he grunted as he impaled her in one slow but determined thrust of his hips.

“Yours,” she agreed, too lost in the moment to know what she was saying, or to care. She pulsed her hips against his, trying to take him deeper but their tenuous position didn’t give her any leeway. “Wall.”

“You okay with that?” Obviously he remembered that she’d been reluctant at first when he’d loomed over her—was it only earlier that same day? It didn’t matter. This was Aidan and after that one moment of panic, she’d known to the deepest reaches of her soul that he’d never, ever hurt her—at least physically. Right now she wanted him to take her, deep and hard.

“Wall,” she repeated. “Yes. Now.”

He moved toward the wall, speaking to her in a language that resembled Gaelic and Welsh but was older than either. She couldn’t understand the words, but her heart thrilled at the guttural intensity with which he uttered them. When he pressed her back into the cool marble tile, she shivered with pleasure and used the support to tilt her hips, drawing him deeper inside.

“Yes,” she moaned again. He recaptured her lips, so she couldn’t speak as he began to slide slowly out of her channel before thrusting back in with just enough controlled force to make her tremble.

His chest pressed her into the wall, his hands supporting her hips, so he couldn’t caress her with those long, clever fingers, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was the steady rhythm of his body pounding into hers, the frantic mating of their lips and tongues. She gripped him hard with hands and nails, and sucked on his tongue when he thrust it into her mouth. Aidan retaliated by swiveling his hips as he thrust, hitting spots inside her she hadn’t even known she had. He did it twice more, shoving himself deep enough that she could have sworn he touched her spine. On the third, she shattered, climaxing with a cry that came straight from her soul. Her womb clenched, her inner muscles clamped down on Aidan’s cock and held him deep as she shuddered around him.

Even as he swallowed her shriek, he groaned into their kiss and pushed deeper still as his body shook with release. She felt the hot splash deep in her channel and the tremors that raked him as he poured himself into her.

“Mine,” he whispered again, followed by more words in the elven language of his birth.

“Mine.” She buried her face in the crook of his neck as the aftershocks rippled through her belly. The dampness on her face might have been all from the shower or some of it might have been tears. She loved him so much—and this moment was far too perfect to last.

Still holding her, he backed over to the adjacent wall and sat down on the bench. His penis was still semi-erect inside her, so she straddled his lap and rested her head on his shoulder, enjoying the moment as he ran his hands through the wet length of her hair and cradled her close.

Long moments later, she felt herself start to nod off and jerked her head up. The water had begun to turn cool. Considering the dozen or so people who’d needed showers, she was amazed the hot water had lasted this long.

“Time to get clean,
leannan,
” He gave her a cheerful pat on the butt and lifted her off him before he stood as well.

She reached for a bottle of shampoo—the same one she’d used that morning—or was it yesterday? Anyway, she took the travel-sized bottle and dumped some into her hand and started lathering her hair.

“I was looking forward to doing that for you, but I don’t think we have time.” His slightly crooked grin made her smile back at him. Sometimes, when he forgot to be the arrogant tycoon or the mighty pirate, he was such a…guy. They both finished washing in record time as the water turned from cool to cold.

“Since we’re all sharing the bed, you’ll need this.” He blinked in the nightgown she’d worn the night before, or one a lot like it. He handed it to her as soon as she finished toweling off, blinking in a pair of silk pajamas for himself.

All sharing? She hadn’t thought about that, but she was too sated and tired to argue.

“Let me do this. It’s quicker.” He ran his hands through her hair, muttering a quick spell to dry the thick, straight strands.

“Cheater.” She poked him in the chest. “But thanks.” Fatigue was crashing in fast.

“Your magic is a part of you—denying it does no one any good. But we’ll talk about that another time. Now, it’s time for bed.” He led her out of the bathroom, turning lights off behind them as they went. At the edge of his king-sized bed, he lifted the covers and motioned her in before him. “You get the middle.”

Dina was sleeping peacefully, curled up with Peggy on the far edge of the bed. Elise crawled in to the middle and tucked one arm around her daughter, who snuggled back into her with a contented sigh.

Aidan spooned up against Elise’s back and wrapped one long arm around them both. “Both my girls, safe and warm,” he whispered into Elise’s ear. “It’s a good night, love. Sleep tight.”

Cocooned between the two people she loved more than anything else in the world, how could she do anything else?

Monday morning came far too early in Aidan’s opinion.

He cracked one eye open to look at the bedside clock while he reached for the phone that was buzzing. Make that Monday afternoon. He hadn’t gotten to sleep until nearly dawn. Now it was ten past twelve.

“Boss, you want me to cancel your conference call with the regional directors for one o’clock, or do you want to go ahead with it?” Mairead’s cheerful voice greeted him. Why was she so perky? It wasn’t as if she’d gotten any more sleep than the rest of them. “Also, Wallis wants to know if you want to be part of interrogating the prisoners. He’s getting sort of anxious about that.”

Right.

Aidan looked at the rumpled bed beside him, to discover that Elise was still asleep, but Dina wasn’t there. Panic rose in his throat for a moment, until he heard the toilet flush in the adjacent bathroom.

“Cancel all business meetings until further notice. The regional directors can earn their pay for a change without me. Claim it’s a family emergency, tell them I’m sick, whatever you want. Let Wallis know I’ll be down in half an hour. And how do you feel about babysitting for a bit?”

“Done and done.” Mairead chuckled. “Boss, if you want me to watch that adorable child, I’d be delighted. Quite honestly, I’d be willing to take it on full time as soon as you find yourself a new secretary.” She’d only filled in as his assistant out of need. Though she was good at it, Aidan knew it wasn’t her first choice of occupations.

“Good to know—I’ll mention that to her mother after the confusion has died down.”

Dina came back into the bedroom and grinned at Aidan who held his finger to his lips and pointed to Elise.

Dina nodded, walked over and without any further sound climbed onto the bed next to Aidan and hugged him. He squeezed back, ignoring the dull ache in his chest. No, he wasn’t giving her up. No way, no how.

“We’ll be down for breakfast in a few minutes,” he murmured to Mairead. “Make those calls, please.” He turned to Dina and whispered, “Do you know how to blink yourself some clothes from your house?”

Dina bit her lip, and her smooth brow furrowed for a second before she smiled and nodded. A few minutes later, a pair of jeans embroidered with pink butterflies appeared in her hands, followed by a green long-sleeved T-shirt.

“Good girl,” he praised. “Underthings?” Hell, he wasn’t even sure what a girl that age would wear under her clothing.

She concentrated again and came up with a pair of cotton panties. Aidan supposed that was all she’d need.

“Okay. I’m going into the bathroom, so you can get dressed in here,” he told her. “Quietly, so you don’t wake Mommy, all right?”

Dina nodded.

Aidan ruffled her hair, kissed her cheek and headed toward the bathroom, a happy smile on his face. When he came out a few minutes later, shaved and dressed in clean jeans and a hunter green silk shirt, he saw her sitting cross-legged on the floor, wrestling with a hairbrush.

“Come on, let’s do this out there.” He jerked his thumb at the hallway. At the last moment, Aidan remembered Elise threatening to gut him with a spoon if he left her to sleep again, so he leaned over and woke her with a kiss.

“Dina and I are going down for breakfast. You want to come with us or catch some more sleep?”

“Sleep.” She grinned up at him. “Thanks for checking.”

Dina gave her mother a kiss and followed Aidan out into the hallway where she handed him the brush and a pair of plastic barrettes shaped like pink butterflies.

“Wasn’t I supposed to take a shift?” Aidan asked Cynric and Clive who were standing guard, one on each end of the corridor.

Cynric shrugged. “Would’ve woken you eventually, but figured you and your ladies could use some sleep.”

“Thanks.” Aidan led Dina down to the stair landing, which opened into a small sitting area. Plopping on a chair, he pulled her to stand between his knees. Painstakingly he used the brush—and maybe a touch of magic—to smooth all the tangles from her shiny dark hair. It was as thick and straight as her mother’s and almost as dark, but there was the occasional glint of copper that might, just might have come from him.

“What you did with your clothes?” he said. “You know you can’t do that in front of other people, right?”

“I know. People who can’t do magic might get angry if they knew other people can.” She recited the words as though they’d been drilled into her from day one—which they probably had. “Mommy doesn’t like me to do magic at all. She’s scared of it.”

Scared? Interesting.
He eased a tangle out with his magic. “You’re very smart, aren’t you?”

“Mommy says so,” she replied, yelping only once when he pulled her hair with the brush. When Aidan apologized, she shrugged. “It’s okay. Mommy does that too.”

Once every snarl was gone, he turned her to look at him, used the barrettes to clip the sides back from her face and held her at arms length to check.

“Well, it’s kind of lopsided, but I think it’ll stay long enough for us to get to the kitchen. What do you say, sweeting? Waffles or French toast?”

She grinned back at him. “Waffles with strawberries?”

“Sounds good to me.” Taking her hand, he led her down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Mairead, Bronwyn and Tara, the cook, all fussed over her endlessly—and of course provided Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Aidan ate a more balanced brunch of an omelet with ham and a fruit salad, but he paid no attention to the food as he was too busy laughing and talking to Dina.

***

Maybe twenty minutes after Aidan and Dina left, Elise stirred from the warm, comfy bed. She found her clothing from the day before, fresh and clean on a chair in the bathroom. After she quickly washed and dressed, she called the gallery and had a chat with her manager, making sure he could handle things for another day or even two if necessary. Finally, she placed another call, letting Sylvia, Dina’s babysitter, know that Dina wouldn’t be in. After that was taken care of, she pulled on her boots and made the trip downstairs.

The sight that met her eyes at the kitchen door stopped her in her tracks. Aidan and Dina weren’t eating in the formal dining room, they were at the worktable in the kitchen. Several of his staff was in there as well and a couple of the other overnight guests had gathered—she didn’t miss the fact that Morgan and another armed guard stood watch in two corners of the room. A few of the assembled group were still eating, but Aidan and Dina had obviously finished. Their chairs were pulled up right next to each others’ and both glossy dark heads were bent over a coloring book. Aidan worked on the left hand page, while Dina colored on the right.

“I still say the unicorn can be any color you want him to be,” Aidan said. “It’s only a drawing. Who says they have to be white or black like real horses? Have you ever seen a unicorn? How do you know they don’t come in blue?”

Several of the others around the wide oak table laughed.

“I saw one once.” Colin looked fully recovered in his chain-covered pants and rock band T-shirt. “It was black, but that doesn’t mean all of them are.”

“This one is white.” Dina gripped the white crayon tightly. “Daddy, your dragon is supposed to be green, not purple.”

Aidan obediently switched crayons.

I can never separate them now.
Elise knew that as well as she knew her own name. And sometime today, she had to tell Aidan that there was a good chance Dina really was his biological daughter. Her heart broke at the years the two of them would never get back—all because of her. Still, the camaraderie between them made her smile, despite her misgivings.

He looked up and saw her, and his face brightened. “Good morning—well, afternoon. You look rested.”

“I am, thanks.” She moved into the room and all the males stood. Colin instantly shifted over, leaving the seat on Dina’s other side empty. Elise smiled to thank him. “Tara, I’d kill for a cup of tea if you can manage. Hope I didn’t miss brunch. I had to call in to my gallery and let them know I was going to be out today.”

“Actually, your timing is perfect.” Aidan handed over the box of crayons. “You can take over the dragon. Wallis is waiting for me in the basement. I’ll be up in a while to let you all know how things went.”

He stood, kissed the top of Dina’s head, gave Elise a more grown-up kiss on the mouth and whistled a cheery tune as he left the room.

Des cleared his throat from across the table and raised one eyebrow, making Elise flush and shake her head. “I think I’ll go see what’s going on in the basement.” He smiled around the table. “The League is going to need to know about this too. Excuse me, please.” As he passed Elise’s chair, he leaned down to whisper, “I’ll talk to you later.”

Yeah, she’d look forward to that—like a root canal.

***

Aidan met up with Wallis in the security office, unsurprised to find Greg with him, swilling coffee.

Desmond, who’d caught up with Aidan in the hallway, scowled at the werewolf as he came in. “Should have known you’d be in here.”

Greg raised one bushy eyebrow. “One of these days, Sutton, we’re going to have it out. But not today. Whatever the hell is going on here effects my people as well as yours, so we’ll put the pissing match on hold. That work for you?”

“As long as you think you can keep from lifting your leg to mark your territory, yeah.” Des leaned against the doorframe, ignoring Greg’s glower. “So, have we learned anything from the goblins yet?”

“Most of them are barely smart enough to know their own names, let alone spell them.” Wallis shook his head in disgust. “The orc is even dumber. Just knows he’s supposed to not let anyone into the building or out of the cells and honestly, I think that much was a geas spell. We’re going to question the wolves next. Figured the boss would want to be there for that. Odds are, they were in charge.”

“Have you traced any ownership on the Zug Island property?” Aidan looked over Wallis’s shoulder at the computer screen. “Any way we can link Oswald to that?”

“No, the whole area belongs to a steel company. About half of it is still in operation, making parts for what’s left of the auto industry.” Wallis typed away on his keyboard. “If Oswald had an arrangement to use the place, it was strictly off the books. More likely, he simply took over the building and masked their presence with enough magic to make the guards look the other way.”

Aidan grunted. “Anything on the phone numbers?” He’d handed Wallis the sticky note the night before, on the way back from the island.

“They’re all disposable cell phones. No help there. The phones on the wolves were too. Only calls dialed were the ones on that sheet and I didn’t get answers from any of those numbers when I tried.” Wallis shut down his computer screen. “Shall we go talk to the wolves?”

“Care to let me take point?” Greg tipped his head at Aidan.

Aidan shrugged. “Works for me.”

“Good. Give me a pair of gloves and something silver.”

Desmond scowled. “No torture. They’re scum, but we can’t sink to their level.”

“I know.” Greg winked at him. “But
they
don’t know that.”

Wallis handed the wolf a pair of leather work gloves, while Aidan ported in a silver signet ring. “Will this work?” He handed the ring to Greg, who slid it on over the glove.

The werewolf’s smile was wicked. “Perfect.” Along with the others, he followed Aidan toward the stairway.

At the bottom of the basement stairs, Aidan worked another secret door. This one led to an underground area that wasn’t beneath the actual house and didn’t show on any blueprints or city assessment forms.

The holding area wasn’t large—three cells, each ten by twelve feet, were equipped similarly to the one where Aidan and Dina had been kept. The differences were significant, though. There were at least thin mattresses on the bunks, the prisoners had access to water for drinking or washing and Aidan had never shoved innocent children in there. The cells filled three corners of the space, with a guard post and the exit in the fourth. Another door stood open, revealing a concrete room about six by six, with a single light bulb in the ceiling and runes carved into the walls. It was meant to contain serious magical threats, but sometime in the night, Wallis must have turned it into an interrogation room. The stainless steel table and two metal chairs were new, making it look a lot like something off a TV cop show.

The orc and five of the goblins shared one cell, the other six goblins were in another. In the center, the two werewolves paced in wolf form, though divested of their silver shackles.

“One at a time?” Aidan asked, letting Greg take charge.

Greg showed a hint of fang as he grinned. “Yep. Got a Taser in this place, Wallis?”

Wallis opened a drawer in the guard’s console and pulled one out.

“Good.” Greg bared his fangs at the wolves in the cell. “Little known fact—though wizard-boy here has probably heard about it.” They all ignored Desmond’s low snarl. “Electricity shocks shifters into changing—and knocks them for a loop. Stun ’em both and haul one in there with your silver handcuffs.”

Without a word of protest, Wallis walked up to the bars.

“No!” One of the wolves changed into a naked—and filthy—human and gripped the bars of the cell door. “Please don’t—we’ll come out on our own.”

Greg showed some more fang and growled low in his chest. “Just you. Walk out that door and into the other room. Try anything and my friend here will shoot you with his toy. Then I’ll have you for lunch.” He glared at the other wolf, still on four legs and cowering in the corner. “You. Stay. Good dog.” He snorted and stepped back so Aidan could unlock the cell.

Wallis kept the Taser trained on the werewolf as he walked out of the cell, fingers laced on top of his head. Aidan relocked the cell behind him, as Greg prodded him into the questioning room and pushed him none too gently into one of the chairs.

Des closed the door to the small chamber behind them and leaned against it, blocking any attempt the wolf might make to escape. Wallis and Aidan stepped back to either side of the door, watching Greg establish his dominance over the other wolf.