Marked (4 page)

I
snuggled in closer to him, tucking my head into the spot where his
shoulder and neck joined up. "Maybe you're right, but I didn't
start out this way. Before I met you I was a shallow little girl who
was little more than a collection of razor-edged shards. You are the
one who put me back together and gave me a chance to become a real
person again."

"I
think in this instance we're going to have to agree to disagree."

Alec's
words were little more than a whisper that teased stray strands of my
hair into motion. He was making me feel tingly all over again, but
this time it didn't have to do with the otherworldly energy that he
gave off by virtue of being a shape shifter. This was wholly the
result of him making me feel like someone who was special enough to
be worthy of him.

"There
aren't very many people who could have done what you just did, Adri."

"What
do you mean?"

"Dream
Stealer's power is dangerous, but it wouldn't be half as bad if
everyone was strong enough to tell someone when they thought he was
after them. You
are
strong. A weak person would have just stayed quiet and hoped that
they were just having a string of normal bad dreams."

"I
almost didn't say anything."

"But
you did. You're going to make a fine queen someday, Adri."

Normally
a comment like that would have been enough to give me the shakes, but
I was too blissed out to let it worry me very much. I'd raised the
possibility that I was being attacked. I'd done my part and now I
could happily stay where I was, cuddling with Alec, for as long as he
would hold still.

Unfortunately
a few seconds later my phone started ringing. I tried to ignore it,
but Alec wasn't the type to ignore calls.

"Adri,
are you going to get that?"

"No,
voicemail was invented for precisely these kinds of moments. Nothing
that anyone could be calling me about this early in the morning could
possibly be important enough to get in the way of spending more time
with you."

"Isn't
that your mom's ringtone?"

"Yeah."

"I
really think you should answer it. Your mom doesn't call very
often—she probably has something important to tell you."

I
shook my head, still steadfastly refusing to open my eyes. As long as
I couldn't see Alec's face he couldn't employ his most dangerous
weapon against me. His words were already persuasive enough—I
definitely didn't want to have to try and resist the earnest,
concerned look I knew was currently being directed at me.

"My
mom doesn't call about important stuff, Alec.
You
get important calls—you know the ones where someone's life
hangs in the balance. My mom just calls once a week or so to make
sure she's fulfilled her motherly duties."

"She's
trying to change, Adri, but if you don't give her a chance you can't
complain that the two of you still aren't as close as you'd like to
be."

"Fine.
You win, but don't think that there won't be consequences later on.
The last thing you want is for my mom to decide to relocate to
wherever we end up living once all this is over. It's going to be
very difficult for me to look very queenly if I've always got my mom
hounding me about the fact that I'm not going to college like a good,
sensible girl."

"No
consequence is too dear if it means a happy future mother-in-law. Be
sure to tell her it was me who convinced you to answer her call."

Alec
rolled off the bed and ducked out of my room with a twinkle in his
eye while I was still struggling to come up with a response. I threw
my pillow at the swiftly closing door and then reached over and
answered the phone.

"Hi,
Mom."

"Hi,
Adri. Did I wake you?"

"Normally
you would have. We just left Oregon yesterday so I'm still on Pacific
Time, but I had a bad dream that woke me up earlier than normal."

"Sorry,
sweetie. I didn't know. I just figured that you were still in Utah."

"It's
okay, you didn't know that we've been travelling lately. If I get
really off of Utah time I'll put my phone on silent before I go to
bed. How did your latest shoot go?"

Talking
about her work was always safe territory and it was a good bet that
she'd just finished an assignment sometime in the three days since
we'd last talked. Russ was having a good effect on my mom when it
came to convincing her to be less of a workaholic, but it was going
to probably take years before she toned things down to the level most
people would have called normal.

"It
was really good. That's the first time that I've been down to Belize.
You wouldn't believe how beautiful it was down there and the shoot
went acceptably. The models were all great to work with, my equipment
all arrived on schedule, and the weather cooperated completely."

"Wow,
Mom. I think your standards are getting even more stringent. If the
weather and models were all taking orders and you had your gear it
seems like that's the definition of perfection to me."

"Adriana
Paige, you may be a millionaire and living on your own, but that
doesn't mean I can't show up and spank you if you get too big for
your britches."

Part
of me wanted to take exception with her tone, but mostly I was too
busy envisioning Mom storming into the RV and being served tea by
Donovan while he calmly explained to her that it simply wasn't done
to administer any kind of physical discipline to the future queen of
the North American shape shifters.

Alec,
on the other hand, would probably hold her coat for her while she
tried to administer said punishment.

"Sorry,
Mom. You do have to admit that there isn't much more you could ask
for on a photography shoot, though…"

"I
suppose you're right. The work side of things was fine. I guess I was
just sad that Russ wasn't able to fly down with me. We were scheduled
to go down together, but then Patrick called at the last minute with
something urgent and everything changed. It put me really out of
sorts. Then you throw in the fact that my bodyguard was hassling some
of the support staff, and it felt like the whole world was collapsing
in on itself."

Bodyguard?
That was new—I'd thought I was the only Paige forced to deal
with having a minder less than twenty feet away at all times. I went
to ask Mom what she meant, but she'd already moved on, talking as
fast as always.

"Adri,
Russ hasn't been acting like himself lately. Do you think that he's
losing interest?"

I
almost dropped the bottle of water that I'd just finished uncapping.
"Seriously, Mom? This is Russ we're talking about. He's the last
person you need to worry about stringing you along."

"I
don't know, Adri. He's acting really different lately. He's been
travelling a lot more than normal, and he's stuck me with a
bodyguard. It was bound to happen really. Once the initial excitement
wore off, there was no way I was going to be able to keep someone so
eligible interested for the long haul."

I
recapped my water bottle as I reflected on just how alike we were. We
had so many differences that it was sometimes hard to remember that
my mom and I shared a lot of the same insecurities.

"Mom,
I don't think you're being fair to Russ. He's not the kind of guy to
leap without looking. If he proposed to you then you're exactly what
he's looking for. I know he could have almost any girl he set his
eyes on, but I know a little bit about dating those kinds of guys. If
something is bothering you then you need to sit down and talk to him
about it."

There
was a long pause as my mom digested my words. "You're right.
You're not telling me anything that I haven't already told myself,
but I just haven't been able to bring myself to broach the subject
with him. What if I don't like the answer he provides? I'm not sure
I'm ready for all of this to end."

"Who
says it has to end?"

"There's
something going on, Adri. Maybe you're right and he's not losing
interest in me, but that doesn't mean that things are okay. For all I
know, he's started trafficking drugs. Actually, that would explain a
lot."

A
chill worked its way up my spine. "What do you mean, Mom?"

"I
don't know. There's the bodyguard, despite the fact that Belize isn't
any more dangerous than any of the other places I've been to
recently, but there's also the fact that when I stopped by for lunch
last week Russ was seeing some guy out that isn't one of his usual
associates."

"Some
guy?"

"Yeah,
you know the type. Tattoos, piercings, looked like he could
bench-press a small car. It didn't look like they were on the best of
terms either."

I
closed my eyes for several seconds and then took a deep breath. "You
said that your bodyguard was causing problems at the shoot—tell
me more about that, Mom."

"I
don't know, I wasn't watching. I was changing lenses and looked up as
Jonas put some poor guy in an arm bar and then threw him off of the
location. I'm right, aren't I? Russ is working with the Mafia or
something, isn't he?"

"Is
Jonas there with you now, Mom?"

"No,
he picks me up whenever I need to leave and then checks the house
when he drops me off, but he doesn't stay here in the apartment with
me. Adri, how bad is this? Is Russ some kind of criminal?"

"I
think it's too soon to be jumping to those kinds of conclusions, Mom,
but I don't think it's too soon to begin taking some precautions."

"What
do you mean when you say precautions?"

"I
mean you need a bodyguard of your own, one who's on your payroll
rather than on Russ'. Ideally you ought to get two bodyguards until
you get to the bottom of whatever is going on right now."

"I
don't…wait, you seriously think that I need three bodyguards?
I wasn't even thrilled about the prospect of having one bodyguard and
now you're telling me that I need
three
?"

"No,
I'm telling you that you need a bodyguard you can trust who can worry
about external threats without having to worry about what Jonas is
going to do."

"Adri,
you're completely overreacting! What has gotten into you?"

She
was aiming for indignant, but she wasn't succeeding. She sounded
exactly like what she was, scared but trying very, very hard to hide
it.

"Mom,
this is my world now. If I had questions about photography I'd come
to you and I'd listen to your advice. Worrying about bodyguards and
assassins is my photography. You need to pay attention to what I'm
telling you."

I
had her on the back foot for the first time in a very long while and
I wasn't going to let up now, not when her life might very well
depend on it.

"Listen,
Mom. As soon as we're done you need to call the two most successful
models you've worked with and ask them for bodyguard suggestions.
Models, the really successful ones at least, probably deal with
stalkers on a regular basis. I'll go talk to Alec and see if he has
anyone he can put you in contact with, but his guys are going to
stand out like a sore thumb in the kind of circles you run in."

It
sounded like she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Mom,
get a pencil and some paper and write this down. You need to get two
bodyguards hired before the day is out and then you need to schedule
a conversation with Russ. Make sure that you pick the location. Make
it somewhere public, but run it past whoever you hire before you
finalize things with Russ."

"Adri,
you sound like a spy."

"Mom,
I don't hear you writing. This is important."

"Russ
is going to feel like I don't trust him. I don't think I can do this.
I'm not sure I can afford to hire one bodyguard, let alone two."

"Right
now you
already
don't trust him, Mom. Best-case scenario right now is that he's
keeping something back from you, something dangerous enough that he
thinks you need a bodyguard. The worst-case scenario is that he's put
Jonas there to make sure he can control you. If Russ is just worried
about you then he's not going to resent you taking your own
precautions. As for the money, you aren't paying that ridiculous
tuition now that I'm here, but if you need more money I can send you
anything within reason."

I
could hear the sound of a pencil on paper and some of the tension
inside of me started to loosen now that she was taking the situation
seriously.

"Okay,
Adri. I'll start making calls as soon as I hang up. What should I be
looking for as far as qualifications for a bodyguard?"

"I
don't know for sure, Mom. I've never been the one actually hiring our
people. Once you've got some names ask the candidates to evaluate the
other names on your list, that should help weed out the guys that are
totally unqualified, but it's still not perfect. I guess if you can
find someone who helped protect a head of state that would be a
bonus. Let me go ask Alec."

I
stood and started towards the door, but my mom brought me up short
with a single question.

"Adri,
how much danger are you in? When I was in Utah last time you made it
sound like Alec was just being paranoid with all of the security
arrangements. That wasn't the case, was it?"

"I
didn't say anything that was untrue, Mom, I just let you think what
you wanted to think."

"Adri,
I'm serious, how much danger are you in?"

"A
lot. Probably more than you, but the difference is it was my decision
to get involved with Alec and put myself in harm's way. I knew what I
was getting into. Russ is keeping you in the dark, which means you
can't even make an objective evaluation regarding how much danger
you're in."

"What
has he gotten you into, Adri? Is
Alec
some kind of drug dealer? I always thought it was suspicious that he
had access to so much money. Have you even met his mother? The rumor
back in Sanctuary is that she's been dead for years."