Unbound (44 page)

“Where the hell was my father when this was going on?” Cayden asked.

“He left with your mom running after him. When they came back, she was being called for the first dance with the couple. Look, I’m sorry Cayden, but that guy had me hot under the collar and he wouldn’t have been pulling that shit if you were around. I’m afraid between Darren and me it was more than she could handle, especially after watching you and me go at each other regularly. She has a lot of guilt about coming between us,” Chase explained.

“I see. Thanks for the call. I think I may need to pay a visit to Darren,” Cayden said darkly before hanging up the phone.

Cayden stormed through the
Enclave
in search of the elder Wrath guard. He was seeing red and ready to fight. Darren had gone too far and Cayden intended to teach him a lesson in how to respect boundaries. He found Gage in the hall and quickly filled him in on the information he’d gotten from Chase.

“I’m going to kick his old ass!” Cayden shouted.

“Well there’s a problem with that son. He’s gone and so is Dani. Darren came to me this morning with the news that Dani was gone and she hadn’t let anyone know she was leaving. Apparently, he put a tracking device on her car for just such occasions. I don’t know where she’s heading but Darren left two hours ago to follow her and she hasn’t stopped driving yet. She has at least an hour lead on him. He called me to check in just before you showed up. Don't bother to ask. You cannot follow them. You have duties to attend to here. Darren is dealing with his charge and I won’t allow jealousy to disrupt life at this
Enclave
. Do you understand me, son?” Gage ordered sternly.

Cayden looked at his father with confused anger. “I want to know where she is and what’s going on.”

“I guess she’ll call you when she is ready for you to know. Otherwise you need to let Darren do his job.” Gage walked away.

TWENTY-ONE~

Cayden stomped away from his father, trying to hold his tongue. It’s difficult to separate your father from your chief some days.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Gage turned around to stop Cayden, “You’ve been assigned to shadow a visiting representative from down south. You need to meet her at the hotel where she’s staying. They’ll have the address and room number at the dispatch office.”

“A hotel? Why not stay on the
Enclave
?” Cayden asked.

“I was told she isn’t comfortable staying in such close proximity to all of us lusty men.” Gage rolled his eyes.

“Great. I
bet this’ll be a peach of a day,
” Cayden sighed.

“You should expect it to be a late nigh
t. She’s leaving in the morning
so she has a lot to accomplish today. Try to be a gentleman. Your mother socializes with ladies from all over the country. I would hate for her to be embarrassed.” An uncharacteristic grin cracked Gage’s face. “You know she had the best time parading your girlfriend around last night. She was delighted to have everyone dote over her son’s selfless warrior girlfriend, with unmatched talent and beauty to boot,” Gage said warily, almost sarcastically.

“Oh God
,
Dad, she didn’t. I should have gone. Dani hates all that attention
. Between Mom, Chase and Darren
it’s no wonder she ran.” Cayden couldn’t believe his mother would be so insensitive after all the crap Dani had been through. He’d never get her to move back to his place if that’s what she’d deal with every day.

“Well, since you’ve been voted least likely to succeed by her social circle, it’s nice for her to have something to brag about,” Gage bitterly defended his mate.

Cayden just ran his hands through his hair and headed to the dispatch office. His instructions for the day were very vague. All he was given was an address for the hotel and a room number. He wasn’t looking forward to playing chauffer all day and the fact that he hadn’t heard from Dani y
et had his nerves frayed. She’
d been so warm and affectionate last night. He was sure something big was about to happen and now sh
e was gone without a word. She
told him she needed a couple of days alone, but she didn’t say she was leaving to get them. Anything could happen to her out there. God knows who could be watching her now. Cayden decided to give Chase a call. He was sure Chase had been holding back that morning. Cayden would try to rattle his cage a little.

“Is she good? What’s going on? Did you tell her to call me?” Chase answered.

“I was calling to ask exactly what you did that made her run, Chase. She’s gone with no guard and she didn’t tell anyone where she was going,” Cayden barked at him in hopes of shaking out some more information. He couldn’t believe Dani would fold up like this just because of Darren. It was very quiet for a moment.

“Chase?”

“She’s really gone.” Chase took a deep breath, feeling sick for pushing her to this. “Where are you searching?” Chase asked.

“Did she say anything about leaving? Do you have any idea where she would go? I figure since you’re so proud of having had a front row seat to her mind that you might have an idea.” Cayden didn’t see the need to inform Chase of the tracking device. Darren wouldn’t be sharing her whereabouts with Cayden. So he wanted to get any insight he could.

“She has no family and no other home. You know that. I know her best friend from high school is attending college down south but I don’t know what school. She was really upset last night and she mentioned transferring colleges. She wants to leave all this stress behind after she’s sure no one else will be hurt because of her. She wasn’t enjoying all the people fawning over her. Darren was pawing at her and I was goading him into a fight because of it. She wasn’t happy about having to be polite and entertain all the guys that had paid for a piece of her time. She had no idea about that tradition going into the bonding. I imagine on top of the fear of being snatched up again, she has had about enough of her new vampire society.” Chase reasoned. He wasn’t about to tell Cayden she was leaving because he couldn’t back away from her.  “Are you sure she wasn’t taken?”

“She couldn’t have been taken from the
Enclave
. I don’t know what could have happened after she left the grounds. I gotta go,” Cayden spat.

“Wait! Where are you searching? What’s Gage doing now?” Chase shouted.

“We are doing nothing. Dad says we can’t protect someone who doesn’t want our protection. She left on her own so she is on her own. I hope you had fun torturing her last night. It may be the last time you ever see her.” Cayden snapped his phone shut.

* * *

Chase stared at his phone and contemplated the fact that he may never get the chance to make t
hings right with Danielle. He’
d screwed up royally from the beginning, but he couldn’t stop trying to make her see him for more than just the future he was damned to live out or the mis
takes he’
d made. If she could see how she made him feel and the dreams he harbored of a life with her forever, then she would love him. But who wanted to love a guy who couldn’t give you the future that lived in his heart?

* * *

Still fuming, Cayden headed to the hotel to collect his charge for the day. He would be holding doors and driving some snob around all day instead of looking for his girl. It pissed him off that everyone from his parents to her damned Wrath guard took turns kicking the legs out from under her and Cayden was the one to pay for it. Why hadn’t she called? Was there more to the situation with Chase than he was aware of? Did she care so little for his feelings that she would up and disappear without a word? Had he unknowingly done something to hurt her? Did Chase and Darren fill her head full of his past adventures with other women until she was disgusted by him? The questions and worries swam widely around his head and Cayden had no idea how he was going to get through this day with his sanity intact.

He reached the hotel room and was surprised to find the door ajar. He knocked and waited but there was no answer. He knocked again and called into the room.

“Hello. Ma’am, are you ready?” Still no answer. Something felt wrong about this to Cayden. He pulled his weapon and slowly entered the room. It was quiet. The light was on behind the locked bathroom door. He knocked on the door.

“Are you alright in there, Ma’am?” He did not want to have to kick the door in to find some old lady dead on the toilet. Suddenly the light went out and the door flew open. Cayden jumped back and raised his weapon in the sudden total darkness. All he could see was the silhouette of small person standing back away from the now open bathroom door.

“Is that a gun in your hand or are you j
ust happy to see me, warrior?” A
very sultry and familiar voice crept out of the darkness and Dani stepped into the doorway. Cayden’s heart almost stopped with the shock and joy of seeing her beautiful mouth turned up in a half smile. He holstered the weapon and pulled her into his arms. For a minute he couldn’t speak, he could only breathe her in and be thankful for her presence and safety.

“You scared the shit out of me. I thought you left me, Angel.” he huffed with relief.

“I am the Angel of Wrath, remember? My wrath is mighty today. I’m sorry but it was necessary subterfuge. I wanted you all to myself and I had to remove a few obstacles to satisfy my needs. I hope you can forgive me.” She snuggled into his chest. Cayden was just so glad to have her in his arms. The anxiety of the morning melted away. She pulled him to a chair and pushed him down before climbing into his lap and resting her head in the crook of his neck.

“Tell me what happened. I know you had a bad night, but this is a little extreme.” He was confused. Who was Darren chasing if she was here, he wondered?

“I couldn’t sleep last night so I went for a walk. I was passing the indoor basketball court when I heard my name, so I stopped to listen. I guess Darren was also having trouble sleeping. He was still in his suit and pacing back and forth, talking on his phone. I don’t know who he was talking to, but he asked if the tracking device on my car was enabled yet. I was already good and pissed off so that was the straw that broke the angel’s back. Did you know they were tracking me?” She looked at him with narrowed eyes and an edge of annoyance in her voice.

“I had no idea until this morning when Dad told me you were gone. Dad didn’t know until Darren told him tracking you down wouldn’t be a problem. Does he know you’re here?” Cayden asked.

“No. I pulled some strings with his secretary and the duty clerk to fabricate a false visitor and get you assigned.” She snuggled even closer and practically purred, nuzzling his chest. “I went out and found the tracking thingy in my car. It took me a while but I found it. I thought it would be on the outside of the car but it was tucked up under the passenger seat.”

Shivering under her tender touch Cayden rasped, “Where is Darren?”

“I have no idea. I tossed the tracker into the open window of a tractor-trailer that was delivering food to the mess hall
. The plates on the truck were from Alabama.”
She shrugged and smiled. Cayden could do nothing but laugh. Angel of Wrath, indeed. He could just imaging Darren finding the truck and he wondered how long it would take him to figure out she’d duped him. He thought he was so damn smart and she had him chasing his own flea-bitten tail.

“He was a little more than an hour behind the signal a few hours ago,” he chuckled.

Dani had a full day planned for them. He took her shopping and sat back in the chair while she modeled for him. He wanted to come out of his skin with lust when they went to a girly lingerie boutique and she modeled every piece the lady brought her to try on. She had no shame at all and he took it as a good sign. The fact that she was that comfortable with him gave Cayden hope.

They had lunch at a café near the park. Both picked an entrée and placed the plates in the middle so they could share. She was playing with her food and talking animatedly about how good she was getting with a gun. Her dark hair fell in waves over her shoulders and she absently tucked a strand of white hair behind her ear. Cayden was admiring every little nuance of her posture and speech, and the way she used her slender hands to speak. His heart swelled when, without a thought she reached a hand across the table and laid it on his like that was where it belonged, while she smiled and talked about his Dad teaching her to box. Cayden was a bit
jealous of all the time she
spent with Darren and his Dad on training exercises. He was always so busy with his daily rotations.

It struck Cayden that he’d never really spent time wit
h a girl like this before. He’
d taken girls out and did a lot of partying with girls. Usually he had two objectives, blood and sex, and it depended on if his date was human or vamp if they were both fulfilled that night. He was obviously not going to take blood from another vamp. That would be like death by marriage but if he found a nice human girl
,
that was different. He could take care of all his needs and strip the girl’s memory, so why bother with dating. No one had ever been able to catch and hold his attention before Dani. Now she sat across the table and he had no hope of pulling his attention away from her. He was enthralled with every move she made and he hung on her every word. Shit. He was in really big trouble. This new territory was the most frightening thing he’d ever experienced. This girl was capable of crushing him and he didn’t like it all. For the first time he wasn’t in control. He couldn’t just walk away from her and not care. He couldn’t imagine a future without her anymore. Oh God, this was really bad.