Kathi S Barton - [Aaron's Kiss 04] (12 page)

“No, you said you wanted to follow, remember? You said you’d follow and that’s all I agreed to. Now move so I can leave.”

“Open the door,” Tucker growled.

He’d had about enough of her games. He was angry and frustrated. He should have taken her on the table in the kitchen, then they would never had heard the phone ring and he would be still making love to her right now instead of in a garage arguing about a stupid door lock.

~CHAPTER NINE~

She didn’t have time for this crap. So instead of opening the lock, she threw the van into reverse and backed out of the garage, barely missing the toes of the giant who was still screaming at her. She needed to concentrate on what was happening right this moment and he was way too much of a distraction. The man was going to drive her crazy.

Sam pulled in to a parking space about two blocks from the address Maria Schaller, a nurse at the hospital and an underground worker with her, had given her. Sam was set to rescue the family tomorrow night, but it turned into an emergency room situation tonight.

Maria said that the woman, a LaDonna Hermendez had been brought in to the hospital by ambulance about an hour ago badly beaten and bleeding. When she woke up, she started screaming that he, presumably the husband, Juan, would kill the children if left with him. Sam’s job was to go and do a pluck and pull as soon as possible. Lives were at stake and more so than usual.

The house was eerily quiet when she walked along the outside walkway to see if anything was going on. There were no lights on in most of the house, but a glow from a front room. Sam had asked Maria not to call the police for one hour, hoping that she was not too late. Sam made her second pass and things were still quiet so she moved up to the back door to get a feel for the house.

Closing her eyes, she reached mentally into the small house and found all the children were alive and the man was in a drunken stupor in the same room with them.

It felt like a living room, there was warmth and a hum that usually meant a television was on. She opened her eyes and nearly screamed.

Tucker clamped his hand over her mouth just as she opened it. Had he not, she was sure the entire neighborhood would have heard her. He leaned in to her ear and whispered, “You said to follow you. You should have told me the address and I would have met you here.”

She could only glare at him because she didn’t trust her voice not to be forty or so octaves louder. Instead, she did something she hadn’t done with another person in years. She spoke to him mentally.

“Can you hear me, asshole?” The look on his face might have been worth it if she wasn’t so pissed at him.

“Yes, but I am no asshole.” He kissed her nose, totally throwing her off. “Why do you persist in calling me names? I have yet to call you anything but Sam. Well, there was just before I was able to ram my cock deep into your wet pussy, I did call you baby.

But that was an endearment, not like what you call me.”

“Shut up. I don’t want to talk about what did or didn’t—”

“It definitely didn’t happen. I would remember an occasion such as that.” He touched her cheek now. He did that a lot—touch her. “But we will finish. I want to feel your heat around me, feel you ride me while I take you. Would you like that, Sam, to ride my cock until we are both spent?”

“Don’t do that. I...we aren’t going to do that again. You need to get that into that thick head of—”

He took her mouth again, his tongue invading hers and sliding along it like a caress. She wanted him, and felt herself lean toward him and press against him. When he chuckled, she stepped back. She was going to stake him when this was over, she just knew it.

“You must relax. I can feel your terror as though it is my own. I had hoped to distract you for a moment, but I fear all I did was make me need you more.”

“I hate you right now.” She put out as much anger as she could to make sure he understood she really was. “I don’t have time for this. Stay here. I have to go in and get those kids from the drunken sot on the couch.”

“I’m not staying here. How do you know he is a drunken sot on the couch? He could simply be a man who is napping with a bottle in his hands.” He kept touching her as he talked and it was making her body do weird things. She wasn’t sure if she liked it, but she certainly wasn’t telling him if she did. He was entirely too sure of himself already.

“Relax, love. You can do it.” She knew what he was doing; he was trying to tease her into slowing her heart rate down. She would be dangerous going in strung out like she was. She took a deep breath. It was a mistake. She could smell him. Now her heart rate was up for an entirely different reason. And she hated that he knew that too.

“I can feel him. The children are in there with him.” She pulled the gun out and gripped it in both hands. “My job is to save them, yours is to stay out of my way. Got it?” Sam started to move away.

“Wait. I can disable the man from here and we can get the children out. But we do this together, understand?” Tucker whispered through her mind. “There is no reason for anyone to be harmed tonight.”

It wouldn’t have been so bad, his idea, if he hadn’t acted so superior about it.

“I should just shoot you and be done with it. At least in the leg. If I didn’t have to carry you to safety if I did, I would, too. And the only reason I’m not is because I don’t have time for that. And no, you are not going in there to ‘disable’ anyone. I am a professional and I’m good at it. So stay here.”

“We are going to have to set some ground rules, you and me. I don’t like you giving me orders any more than you like to hear them. You will desist this now. It is in my make-up to protect you and that is very difficult to do if you do things that are a danger to you.”

She nearly burst out laughing at his arrogance. If she didn’t have so many people depending on her right now, she would have shot him. Instead, she decided to give him a piece of her mind.

“Look, fang-boy, you can take your fucking protective DNA and shove then up that tight ass of yours. I will not be your little puppy. I’ll bite your fucking ass.”

“Now that sounds promising. Do you promise to bite me hard?” She just stared at him with her mouth wide open and her mind completely blank.

Turning on her heel, Sam moved into the house, gently unlocking the door with her mind as she did so.

Sam hadn’t lied to Lizzy when she said she was an empath, but she had many other names and abilities as well, telepath, telekinesis, clairsentience and psychometric. She had a very talented mind, too bad she hated it so much.

“We are so going to talk about this,” he said to her. She could feel that he was close behind her.

She knew she was revealing a lot of herself, and she knew that she would regret it later. But right now, she needed to do this. They had wasted enough time already.

People were waiting for the children to take them to safety.

When they reached the room where they all were, Sam looked at the children. They were huddled in a corner of the little room. The television was blaring out a Spanish sitcom or something. Sam smiled at them and nodded.

“Su madre me envió, yo le necesito para venir conmigo ahora, por favor.” She let them know that their mother had sent her, hoping that would calm them down. The smallest of about four was beginning to cry softly. The oldest, the one with a large cast covering her arm, put her good hand over his mouth, much in the same way Tucker had done outside. “Prisa, nosotros debemos darnos prisa. Hurry.” When Juan, the man in the chair, shifted his considerable weight on the couch where he was snoring, the gun in his hand shifted as well. He didn’t lose his grip on the Smith & Wesson, but actually pointed it toward his kids. Everyone froze. Tucker walked around Sam without a word and moved to the man. Once Tucker touched Juan’s forehead and commanded him to sleep, they all got going again. When Sam had the children out the door and out of harm’s way, she watched as Tucker took Juan’s gun from him and slipped it into his back pocket.

By the time Tucker came outside, Sam was halfway to the van, carrying one child on her hip and another was hanging around her neck on her back. He flashed himself to her and took the one from her back and picked up another that was lagging behind.

Once they were loaded, she gave them each a box filled with a sandwich, bottled water, and some cookies. She was glad now that that part was ready and she’d put them in the fridge in the garage earlier that day. For the baby, she produced a smaller box filled with small, round container of cereal that he could eat and not choke, and a Sippy cup filled with milk. When she seemed satisfied with the arrangement, she got into the driver’s seat. But before she could close the door, Tucker was there.

“I’m going with you. You will need to let me in, Sam, please. I sincerely want to help you with this.” At her nod, he reached inside the van and opened the automatic locks for the other door. Quickly moving to the other side, he slipped into the van and closed the door. With a quick look back at the children, she took off.

They were silent for about ten minutes when she suddenly needed to pull over. She wasn’t surprised by this. She had to do it every time she did one of these removals.

“Stay with them, I have to…stay here.” She jerked open the door and ran into the street, narrowly missing an oncoming car. She heard him curse then tell someone to keep everyone in the van until he returned. Sam hoped the kids understood, but kept moving.

He was at her side when she reached the alleyway. She was sick, retching and gagging behind a building just off the street. He walked slowly up behind her and touched her back as she knelt down in the dirt and grime.
No way, did he have to witness
this too?
she moaned to herself.

“Don’t touch me. Go back to the car,” she said between tossing up her dinner. “I want to be alone.”

“No, they’re fine. Are you all right?”

Stupid question, she was sick. “Yes, I’m just dandy. Go away.” He touched her back when she answered him.

“I’m staying here with you, and you are in no position to argue with me.” She didn’t answer him. What was the point? Her belly was sicking up the stress of the assignment, just like it always did. She was always worried she would get someone hurt, or worse, killed, and it weighed heavily on her until it was over. After a couple more minutes of nothing else coming up, she stood and leaned against the building.

Then turned and made her way back toward the van. Before she was halfway there, he grabbed her arm and jerked her around to him.

“Why do you do this if it makes you ill? Does your life mean so very little to you?” Anger colored his voice and she could just see his fangs.

“My life means absolutely nothing to me. Nothing! If he had shot me, I would have…” Pulling her arm free of his grip, she went to the van and got in.

She didn’t wait for him. She wasn’t sure what she would have said to him at any rate. He’d been right to come with her. He’d been right about the man too. But it was the look in his eye when she’d told him her life meant nothing. He’d looked…shocked.

~CHAPTER TEN~

Tucker stood there long after she left, having gotten in and taken off without waiting to see if he’d continue on with her. The words, the connotation that she would willingly forfeit her life, kept running through his mind. He needed to talk with someone, but he didn’t know anyone, didn’t have anyone he could call friend. He reached out to the only person he knew and asked to speak to him.

~~~

“She went into a stranger’s house and kidnapped the children from an armed drunk tonight. How do I protect her if she does that during the day, sire?” Tucker was seated in the study again; this time, Sara was with Aaron. Aaron had thought that Sara could shed some light on the girl’s behavior as she herself had been a warrior and savior at one time. Sara hoped so.

“I believe she is doing it during the day, Tucker. I’ve had her investigated. The information I have of her is in and out of hospitals and long nights in jail. She has led a much checkered life if one were to only look at the information given here.” Aaron handed the file to Tucker and leaned against his desk. “I’ve tried everything I know to get information about her, and believe me, if my computer whiz can’t find it, it’s not findable.”

“Who is she?” Sara asked them. “What is she? Because I can’t believe either of you believe she’s strictly human. I mean, the girl drives me nuts most of the time, but she is wonderful with kids, and Mac is in love with her.” She glanced at Tucker and saw the man stiffen. Vampires were a very jealous lot, and she found it amusing that he would be upset about a five-year-old little boy.

“We need to find out. She’s Tucker’s mate, and as a part of my Kiss, then it is imperative that we make sure she isn’t something that could harm us. I don’t really think that she is, but she is hiding something.”

“Sire, I still haven’t…she isn’t my true mate. I don’t know if she ever will be. You know the reasons and as I have said, they are too great to burden her with at the present. Marta it getting closer, and the moment I take Sam, she will know.”

“You let me worry about Marta. I seem to say that to you a lot, don’t I? But I mean well. The moment she enters my territory, I’ll know. I’m a much older and wiser master than her and have loyalties that she could only dream of. I have decided that you are already a member of this Kiss, Tucker; my family protects what is theirs. You have nothing to worry about, I will see to it.” Aaron put his hand on Tucker’s shoulder. And we will keep Miss Hunter safe, no matter how hard she tries to say otherwise. But I will tell you this, and I’m making this a demand, Tucker, you must mate with her, mark her.

I cannot protect her as well until then. Do you understand? I hate making demands.” He glared at Sara when she snorted at that. “I want it done in one week or face the consequences.”

“Yes, master.”

Tuck left soon afterwards, having given Aaron as much information as he could on Sam’s schedule, where she had gone tonight, names, anything and everything they could think of.