Niko: Love me Harder (18 page)

Her mind mocked her, calling her a liar. It said she was quickly retreating to the land of the living dead. The land where people saw, but refused to believe. How did someone with a long range camera or even someone with a powerful scope take a picture of her in the coffee shop she frequented in the bathroom as she was washing her hands? The coffee shop that had no windows in its bathroom.

A created could, because he had the ability to blend in. Whatever he was wearing or holding would’ve blended with him. The brothers were armed when they blended and what they held blended as well.

He’d stood behind her as she washed her hands and she’d never known. She’d never heard the click of the camera taking her picture or seen the flash of the bulb. She never felt his breath on the back of her neck, but he’d been there. She was sure of it. Had he touched her or given her a barely there caress that she’d wiped off like an annoying insect?

No, she wouldn’t lie to herself or even dwell on it. There were more important things here than that pic of her at the sink. The walls were covered in blood and the pictures, many of them mostly of her and Rena, had been brutalized. The created wanted her to see them and to be afraid.

Still she couldn’t focus on that, because Vance lay in a chair with part of his intestines hanging out. Tina lay on the floor beside him looking abused.

Chapter Thirty

Nicolas was on his knees, working on Vance. Sergey and Hale were untying Vance from the chair. They managed to lay him on the ground without causing Nicolas to lose a beat as he worked on him.

Niko and Dante were bending over Tina’s body. “Aran, I think she has been violated.”

“The created?”

“I don’t think so. Nicolas will have to let us know, but I think Vance did it.”

“Why would Vance rape her? That makes no sense.”

“I don’t know what happened here, but I’m sure the created was behind it.”

Dee nodded, knowing all too well how twisted the mind of this created was. “What next?” Her voice was emotionless. He wouldn’t stop and she knew it. They were in his sight and he would only do more and more until he’d driven them apart or someone got accused of a crime.

Fighting felt useless.

“We go on.” Aran’s voice came out soft, but with a whip of authority to it.

The softness of his voice disturbed her funk, making her turn to look at him. He grew in size before her eyes. He was no longer the male she’d been used to talking to. He was no longer the male that was mated to her best friend.

He was a commander, the ultimate alpha male. He was the male that the other alpha males listened to. Her eyes grew big as he topped over eight feet before he stopped growing. The thin veneer of civility was gone. His face had changed shape like his body.

She glanced over at Rena to find her grinning at him like a woman in love. She wanted to make a sound of disgust, but caught it as she thought of herself and Niko.

“We will go on.” He said again, bringing her attention back to him. “This created has chosen the wrong family to try and terrorize. I believe this is done for personal satisfaction that one of us has done something to him or his family unintentionally and he has decided that we should pay for it. The insult he imagines we laid at his doorstep will cost him his life. There will be no remorse or second chances. He’ll die.”

Aran looked at each of his brothers, before pausing to look at Dee and then finally at Rena.

“To my family new, old and adopted.” He glanced at Dante. “We don’t stop. We continue to live, to thrive, to love and be loved. There will always be someone willing to try and take what we have fought hard to gain. We won’t go quietly. We won’t go at all. We will prevail. Make no mistake, some wars are short, and some are long. All that matters is that we win.”

Rena walked over to him and hugged him. She looked like a doll next to him. Dee laughed. She suddenly understood the nickname and it was appropriate.

“Kitten?”

In the midst of the blood and destruction, Niko slid his arms around her. She turned and kissed him. She took those words to heart. ‘We will go on.’

“What about them?” Dee asked.

“Nicolas thinks he can save them.” She hugged him tighter. She was at home with him.

Nicolas had told them an ambulance had an ETA of ten minutes and they needed to clear out. It didn’t take long for them into get back to the jeeps, leaving Nicolas, Dante and Ash behind.

***

The brothers had all taken a different path and gone home. At least, that’s what she assumed had happened. They were now strolling into Niko’s house, having changed what they were wearing.

The last to come in were Dante, Nicolas and Ash.

“How is Vance?” The guy was her supervisor. She wanted him to be well. Besides she had questions she wanted to ask him.

“He’ll live. He’s fortunate that I arrived when I did. I rode to the hospital with him. He crashed three times. I made sure he would live.”

“What will he remember?” Aran asked.

“Nothing. His memory loss will be permanent.” Nicolas smiled, but it wasn’t warm.

“What did he know?”

Dante answered Aran this time. “Not much. The created played with his mind. We’ll have to wait to find out if he remembers anything that happened before the cabin.”

Aran nodded and asked about Tina.

“I took her to the safe house with all of the other women. Nicolas has already taken a look at her. She was definitely violated by Vance. She may need to speak to someone. I’ll arrange it.” Dante replied.

Aran nodded and pulled Rena onto his lap. Holding her close, he let his eyes close.

The brothers stayed long enough to take comfort in family, the coming together after a near tragedy. Hale picked up a ball from the pool table and threw it at Nicolas, who caught it and threw it back at him. The others laughed and placed bets on who would get the first hit.

Dee and Rena screamed about someone losing an eye. It was rough play, but so much better than guns aimed at them and small explosions going off around them.

In the end, no one scored. They put everything back and silently departed, leaving Dee sitting on Niko’s lap in the middle of the game room.

“Is it all over?”

“No, kitten. There’s more to come.”

“What about us, Niko?”

“Kitten, we’ve only just begun.”

Back matter

I hope you enjoyed Niko and Dee’s story. I truly enjoyed writing it and getting to know them.

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Sergey – Book three excerpt
Chapter One

He sat in a bar nursing a drink that would exit his body before ever making it to his head. All it would leave behind was the desire to become more aggressive. He could control it - barely.

He had taken this assignment as a way to keep Aran and Niko home with their mates. The worry in his new sister’s eyes when they realized it was out of state had touched him. They shouldn’t have to worry about their mates after all that had transpired recently.

He had taken this assignment in hopes of getting one step closer to the male who had placed a target on all of their heads. All he had accomplished so far was to be left alone in a rundown bar, waiting for his contact.

The General, with whom he and his brothers did occasional work had called, asking them to take a special case. One that involved children.

Normally Aran his eldest brother would’ve turned him down, but his mated brothers looked like they would jump at the chance to save the children. If this is what happens when a male mates, then it was good that he had been spared.

The General wasn’t the altruistic type. He wasn’t concerned about smuggled children in general. He was concerned with one particular missing child. She had been swept up by the child abduction ring while playing in an area that her father, the Prince of a country he had never heard of, wouldn’t have condoned. Unfortunately, the Prince was away and the young child slipped her guards in search of friends her age to play with. Sergey was sure those guards would never work again in that country, if they survived the prince arriving home.

According to the General, a show of good will in returning the Princess would go far in making sure the Prince was beholden to the U.S. Government and the General in particular.

Sergey scanned the bar again, looking for the informant who was late. It was the smell that hit him first. It was subtle, reminding him of the floral scent on the planet from whence he had originated.

The soft smell tickled his nose, making him seek out the source. He spotted her immediately. She wasn’t beautiful by human standards, but she called to him.

She was petite, standing around five three, with short brown hair cut close to her head with a well-proportioned body. She stood straight with the at ease posture of a soldier.

He watched intently as the woman slid onto the bar stool next to his and ordered a drink. She looked at him and gave him a small smile. Her blue green eyes took him in, starting at the top of his head and sweeping down to his feet.

“Hi.” Her voice did something to him, making him shift uncomfortably.

“Hello,” he replied.

Her drink was placed in front of her. He inhaled deeply to analyze it. It wasn’t liquor, but one of the various soft drinks that humans insisted on drinking. She hadn’t come to the bar looking to lose herself in the bottom of a glass.

Was she his contact?

“What brings you here?” She asked, her voice part warm and sultry and part military precision.

“I was hoping to meet someone here,” he replied, sticking as close to the truth as possible. “What brings you out?”

“I was looking for a male.”

Her words beckoned him to get closer. His heightened aggressive state demanded that he get closer, and find out exactly what she needed. It was the sight of her laying broken and still before him that stopped his beast cold. He feared the only female strong enough to take him would be a mate. A mate he wasn’t destined to have.

He pulled away. He had a job to do. Then he would return home to the cold comfort of his family.

“You’ve come to the right place. There are many males around. I’m sure you’ll find one to your liking.”

She glanced around the bar, dismissing all she saw, until her eyes landed on him.

“I’m looking for a specific male. One that may know about missing children.” Her voice had lowered on the last part.

“Why would that male be interested in you, knowing that you aren’t his contact?”

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead she swept the room again, letting her intriguing eyes pin everyone for a few silent seconds, before looking back at him.

“Because I know what you are and who you are and I don’t care. All I want is to make sure the children are taken to a safe place.”

She was military. He was sure of it. He looked at her hands. They were reddened from being stationed in a hot, dry climate. He looked at her face. The creamy paleness of it was broken by a few blotches of sun damage that the normal eye wouldn’t have seen.

Her short brown hair had spent too many days under the beating sun. She was military, but no longer serving. Her stance was a shade too relaxed and even her caution spoke of someone who hadn’t been actively hunted in a while.

Her body was gaunt, he was sure she had missed some badly needed meals. It was obvious to him that she had struggled like so many others after having left the military, yet she was concerned about the children more than herself. She had intrigued him.

“What am I?”

She looked down, not meeting his eyes. Until that moment, she had been bold and confident. What could’ve happened to change that?

“You aren’t human.”

“Do you tell that to every male you meet? A casual pick up line?”

“But you’re good. You blend in well. You rarely drink alcohol because it makes you aggressive without the benefit of getting drunk. You and your kind don’t need any help in the aggressive department.”

“Many males become aggressive without the benefit of having alcohol to blame it on.”

She nodded her head in agreement.

“No human male I know harbors a beast inside, one that he’s not only able to call on, but able to become.”

“You’ve read too many fairy tales.”

“I’ve spent too much time in the hot desert, seeing things that are impossible and being the good little soldier. I’ve bit my lip at injustices I couldn’t fix, even the ones that happened to me. I can fix this. I can make sure these little ones who did nothing wrong but play carefree, are taken care of. All I need is your help.”

“How did you know where to find me?”

“Your former informant talks and he drinks too much. A pretty face was all it took to sway him.”

He nodded. He had seen more than one informant unable to hold onto his information.

“Where’s the informant now?”

“Sleeping it off in a motel.”

“What information did he pass along to you?”

She slid off of the bar stool, landing next to him. She lowered her head and spoke softly, giggling as if she was trying to impress him.

“He said that for the right price, he would tell you that a boat was coming in tonight. That in the cargo hold you would find the package you were looking for.”

“Did he have any more useful information? A time, a berth, the name of the vessel?”

She nodded her head.

“Are you interested in the fee he would’ve been paid for this information?”

“Keep the money. I’m in it for the safety of the children. All of the children.”

“Then I need the rest of the information.”

“How can one male keep all of those children safe?”

“According to you, I’m more than human. That should make it easy to keep them safe.”

She moved her head in a disapproving shake. “There will be too many people there with guns and orders to shoot to kill for any one person to keep the children safe.”