Bite (Bloodlines Book 1) (14 page)

“I’m beginning to think that my boss was right about you,” Alex said.

Kieran didn’t respond. No matter what they’d learned about him, they didn’t have a clue about who Kieran really was.

The elevator came to a soft, silent halt before the doors whooshed open. Alex held his hand out. “After you.”

Kieran stepped onto a thick and soft gray carpet, his feet sinking in. He smiled. It appeared he wasn’t the only one who liked extravagant comforts. He stepped inside a modern-looking waiting room. There were black leather couches, stainless steel fixtures and windows everywhere. The openness of the entry was what he would have designed himself. A young woman with her blonde hair tied up in a knot smiled at him.

“Hello, Katy,” Alex greeted.

“Good morning, gentlemen. The boss is ready for you.”

“Thanks.” Alex slapped Kieran on the back. “Let’s not keep him waiting.”

This time Kieran allowed Alex to go first. Behind the young woman two doors were closed. She rose then pulled one open. Kieran nodded to her as he passed. She was human, at least, and that made him feel a little more comfortable. “Thank you,” he murmured to her.

She beamed back.

Once he stepped inside the office, he smiled then turned in a circle. Kieran was still buzzing a little from the blood he’d taken, and walking into the comfortable room was heaven.

A tall, muscular, good-looking man rose from his desk and started toward him. Kieran froze in shock before he had a memory flash from years before.

He’d been alone for so long that Kieran didn’t even mind when the guards taunted him because at least he got to look at another person. He heard the outer door open and stiffened. It was time for his one meal a day so that meant the guards were coming to get him for another test.

It was so hard to keep his body from shaking. Kieran didn’t want to show them fear but he was terrified all the time.

Never knowing what they were going to do to him left Kieran in a constant state of anxiety. On the good days, they’d merely take blood and allow him to return to his cage. Then there were the bad days when they’d experiment on him. Sometimes they’d cut him or use crazy instruments, but the worst was when they’d try drugs on him.

Kieran was only eighteen and he’d never tried anything more than a beer. No hard alcohol or street drugs. Now he’d possibly been injected with every imaginable concoction. Some made him violently ill, aroused or crazy. Kieran just wanted to close his eyes and fade away to never wake up again.

Too bad something inside him refused to just give up. God, he was so damn tired.

The guard’s footsteps echoed around the concrete walls as they walked closer. There was also a dragging noise that he couldn’t place. Fuck, what could they be planning for him now?

When two guards came into view, Kieran didn’t understand. They had someone else with them. The stranger was being held up by the two shifter guards and appeared to be unconscious.

The ugly, dark-haired piece of shit wolf shifter who liked to tease Kieran with food snarled at him as he passed Kieran’s cage. In his mind Kieran had come to calling the guards not by name but by their shifter animal—wolf, lion, bear, panther and falcon. To his right was another cell just like Kieran’s—four feet tall and six feet deep, made out of stainless steel bars going all the way around. The guards pulled open the door before they dropped the new guy onto the floor. The stranger’s head smacked the floor hard, and the sound made Kieran’s stomach lurch.

After they’d chained and locked the now occupied cage, they returned to stand in front of Kieran’s cell.

“Think they’re finally done with this pussy?” Wolf said to his partner.

“I don’t see why they’d keep him,” Bear replied.

Kieran didn’t show a response to their words. They’d beaten all smartass comments out of him after the first few months.

Fuck!
Kieran didn’t even know how long he’d been imprisoned. Years and years had to have passed. At first Kieran had tried to keep track of the days but when he’d gotten into the hundreds, he’d grown so depressed he’d stopped.

“He’s broken,” Wolf said with a sneer. “I hope they let me take him out.”

As they walked away, Kieran kept his gaze on the new prisoner. When he couldn’t hear them anymore, Kieran dragged himself from the back wall of bars to where his cage butted up against the stranger’s.

The first thing he noticed was that this new guy didn’t smell like a shifter. It was such a relief that he collapsed against the bars.

“Hey!” he whispered, his voice was horse and his throat hurt. He never spoke to his captors but the shifters loved to hear him scream. “Hey, you okay?”

The guy moaned, turning his head toward Kieran. Dull blue eyes opened, and Kieran knew they were both in so much trouble. This man was a Walker like Kieran.

“It’s okay, just breathe,” the man from his past said.

Kieran blinked into awareness and realized he was on the floor with the same man he’d once shared years of hell with. Kieran had been locked up for over ten years and this guy had been with him close to three.

Three weeks before Kieran had been rescued, they’d taken this man away and he’d never seen him again. He’d been sure that his only friend during that time was dead.

“Jack?” Kieran whispered in confusion and shock.

“Hey, K,” Jack said. He was on the ground with Kieran holding Kieran’s head in his hands. “You okay now?”

“What are you doing here?” Kieran asked. He couldn’t get his mind around what was happening.

“I’m here to talk to you,” Jack told him. “Come on.” Jack helped him to his feet before he lead Kieran to a couch.

Kieran looked around and noticed they were alone.

“I asked Alex to give us a minute,” Jack told him.

“How long was I gone?” Kieran asked. Jack would know what he was talking about. Back in their cage days, they’d watched over each other after one of them was taken into the experimenting room.

“Only a couple minutes, but I knew you wouldn’t want anyone else to see you like that,” Jack told him.

“Thanks,” Kieran said sincerely. He felt like the teenager he’d been when he’d first met Jack. After Jack had joined him, Kieran had regained some of his fight. He’d looked up to Jack for so long.

“Can I get you some water?” Jack asked.

Kieran nodded. He needed a few minutes to regain his composure. To remember that he was free and in control of his own fate.

While Jack strolled across the room to a mini-fridge behind his desk, Kieran took in the sight of his old friend. Jack had filled out into a pretty big guy. Kieran didn’t know if he just remembered him so skinny or if Jack had done something to get so much stronger.

“Here you go.” Jack handed Kieran a cold bottle of water.

“Thanks.”

Jack sat next to him. “I didn’t think you’d react that way. I was actually worried that you wouldn’t remember me.”

“What?” Kieran scoffed. “You saved me, why wouldn’t I remember you?”

“When I was found in the bank of a river, naked and almost dead, I didn’t have any memories. It wasn’t until after several years of therapy that I knew for sure that I wasn’t just having nightmares. I’d been held captive and tortured,” Jack explained.

“I thought you were dead,” Kieran confessed.

Jack gripped his shoulder. “Once I knew I wasn’t just crazy, I went back to where a fisherman had found me and searched for months for where they’d kept us. I never found it.”

“It wasn’t long after you were gone that I was rescued,” Kieran told him.

“By the Organization,” Jack said.

“Yes,” Kieran admitted.

“When I couldn’t locate you, I went to every federal and local agency I could get into,” Jack told him. “Then one night a man came to my house and told me that you were alive and doing well. I wanted to talk to you but he was worried it would hurt what you did now.”

“Who was it?” Kieran asked even though he had a pretty good idea already.

“Your boss,” Jack confirmed. “He said that you’d put it all behind you.”

“I have,” Kieran said. At least he’d thought so, but now, sitting beside his old friend, Kieran was colder than he’d been in years. It felt like back when he’d had no blood and had been starving.

“I almost stayed away when Alex told me that you were staying here. But then I figured that fate brought you to me.” Jack smiled at him. “It’s good to see you.”

The hug was unexpected but Kieran returned it.

“Now,” Jack said as he released Kieran. “We have a lot to catch up on.”

Kieran nodded. “Like how you came to own a hotel like this and run a community of Walkers.”

Jack laughed. “I guess I never told you that my family had money.”

Well, it hadn’t come up. They’d talked a lot during those long days and nights but since neither of them had expected to make it out, money hadn’t been spoken about. “No, you left that out.”

“I came here on vacation with my brother and loved the lights and how busy the city was. When I’m in town, I never feel alone,” Jack said.

Kieran felt the same way but reacted differently to it. He actually preferred to be alone.

“I own several hotels over the world but this is my main base,” Jack said.

“Wait.” Kieran remembered something. “Alex called you Jackson.”

“Yes.” he nodded. “Jackson is my full name. After I recovered I never wanted to be the man I was during my time in captivity.”

“I’ll try to remember,” Kieran said.

“Is it still okay for me to call you K?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah.” Kieran shrugged. He didn’t really care but since his closest friends called him that, Jackson deserved to as well.

“And you’re still working for the Organization?” Jackson questioned. He leaned back, getting comfortable, which helped Kieran relax. Kieran wasn’t used to so many emotional ups and downs. He was exhausted.

“I do,” Kieran confirmed.

“You enjoy what you do?” Jackson asked. Something in his tone made Kieran think that Jackson wasn’t just making small talk.

“I’m good at it. I like my partners,” Kieran told him.

“Since I found out where you were, I’ve kept tabs on the Organization and can honestly say that you all do good work,” Jackson said.

It made Kieran feel good to hear that. Jackson was someone he respected, much like he did Caspar. “Thanks.”

“But I want you to know that you’ll always have a place with me,” Jackson said. “You could work in any of my businesses and be around others just like us.”

“One of my partners is a Walker,” Kieran confessed. “She’s the only one I’m really connected to.”

“You’re also surrounded by shifters,” Jackson pointed out. “I’d let you pick your own team to lead. I always need security, and with your experience you’d do great.”

Kieran thought about Remy and Dakota. True, he hated most shifters but every now and then he found one that he was lucky to have met. Who was he kidding? He was grateful they even put up with him. He knew how much of a pain in the ass he could be.

Now that the Organization was talking to him about transferring—or ordering him to really—Kieran could still be with Dakota and wouldn’t have to lose his partners. He’d have the same opportunity with Jackson.

“Of course you’d make more money as private security than with what the Organization can pay,” Jackson told him.

Money wasn’t an issue for him. Kieran didn’t spend what he made now. “That’s a generous offer.”

“But?” Jackson drawled out.

“I have a few things to think about. This is all happening really fast, and like I said I’m good at what I do,” Kieran responded.

“It’s an open-ended offer,” Jackson said. “You can take me up on it anytime.”

Kieran was relieved that he didn’t have to answer right away. He hadn’t even processed seeing Jackson again yet.

“You’re overwhelmed,” Jackson said. “And I can understand that. But even if you don’t work for me, I’d like to stay in touch.”

“Of course,” Kieran agreed quickly. Caspar might think that he’d been protecting Kieran but his boss had some questions to answer. Well, more than what Kieran had already planned on asking him.

“You’re still staying in the hotel?” Jackson questioned.

“Yes.” Kieran wouldn’t be checking out now. It would make it harder to put distance between him and Dakota but he’d figure something out. With the way he’d reacted to seeing Jackson again, he was embarrassed. It had just been a shock. He was glad Dakota hadn’t been there to see him pass out. This was why he had to push her away. His life was just too damn complicated.

“You’re still looking a little pale,” Jackson said as he rose. “Why don’t you go up to your suite and we can get together a little later. I’d still like to know everything you’ve done since you left that horrible place.”

“That’s a good idea,” Kieran agreed as he pushed up from the couch.

“It’s really good to see you.” Jackson reached out and pulled him into another hug.

Kieran slapped his friend’s back. “You too.” He stepped back and grinned. “You don’t look very much like you used to.”

Jackson laughed. “I worked damn hard at that.”

Kieran turned toward the door. “I’m going to take your advice and go up to my room.”

“Wait! Let me get you my numbers.” Jackson rushed back to his desk and lifted a business card. He scrawled on it before he walked back over to Kieran and handed it to him. “I wrote my personal number on the back. Call me and we’ll have dinner tonight.”

Kieran slipped the card in his pocket. “Will do.” It was hard to turn his back on Jackson, a small part of Kieran wondering if this was all a dream and if he’d see his old friend again.

He reached out for the door knob and paused. Kieran glanced over his shoulder to just get one more look.

“It’s really me,” Jackson said with a smile.

Kieran nodded and he turned the handle.

“Hey, K,” Jackson called.

“Yeah?” He glanced back.

“They never found the people responsible for what was done to us,” Jackson said. “Do you ever think about that?”

“No,” he replied honestly. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.”