Promise of Paradise (9 page)

He’d closed the door behind him, but that didn’t stop them from following the man inside.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, amidst removing his shirt. He wiped his armpits with the garment before tossing it on the sofa. “This isn’t a public trailer. This is my home.”

“How interesting that you should say that when you’ve been in Nadya’s trailer without her consent.” Gabe growled when the man would have denied it. “Don’t try to lie to us about it. We could smell your stench all over her trailer.” He grinned. “You see, while you can lie to a human about something like that, your reluctance to shower gives you away to someone like us.”

“What the hell are you two, anyway?” Perry moved to the refrigerator and grabbed himself a beer. He removed the cap and took a long swallow. “You belong in the fucking circus with the rest of the freaks.”

Luc growled. Gods how he wanted to tear this man into little pieces and leave him for bear meat.

“No, we don’t. You, sir, are the freak. You’re the aberration who thinks that women or anyone who is weaker than you is here to service you. If you continue to think like that, one day you’ll find someone willing to take you down a peg or two.”

“But it won’t be you and it won’t be today.” Perry turned his back on them and headed toward the rear of his trailer. “You two don’t have it in you to do anything other than threaten me.”

“Look, you prick.” Gabe growled, grabbed the man by the neck lifted him a foot into the air, and held him against the wall. “Don’t take our respect for life and twist it into something it’s not. You’re alive only because your entire group would know that you disappeared here. I have no qualms about ripping your sorry ass to shreds. I just can’t do it here. Keep antagonizing us, or attacking our woman and we’ll follow you through the next few towns and take great pleasure in dispatching you to hell.”

He dropped Perry and turned away. “My advice to you is, do your fucking job and get the hell out of town before I kill you.”

“She’d never stay with you if you did something like that.” Perry seemed so sure that he knew something they didn’t.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Luc said with a dark smile. “She’d never have to know about it.”

“We know about you, dream stalker. Our alpha and his men told us all about what you do. If you attempt your tricks here, we
will
stop you.”

Turning they walked from the trailer, out into the fresh air.

“Do you think he’ll listen?”

Luc snorted at Gabe’s question. “Do they ever?”

“You’re right.” Gabe sighed. “He’ll probably think we’re bluffing.” He shrugged. “I don’t have a problem killing the ass. I just don’t want Nadya fearing us for it.”

“We won’t have to kill him. I could smell his fear.”

Gabe moved up beside him. “You know as well as I do, that fear could make him more dangerous than ever.”

“Maybe. But it will keep him in line as long as he’s in town.” Luc shook his head as they headed back to the carnival area. He planned to keep an eye on their mate. He refused to give Perry a chance to get to her. “At least we can hope it will.”

Nadya stood and stretched. God, her back ached from sitting for so long. She hated working the booth. Thank goodness, this was the last time she would ever have to sit in that chair.

She told the men that she’d be staying at the booth for at least another two hours, but another woman arrived, claiming it was her shift. Hell, Nadya wasn’t about to argue with her. If she wanted to sit here in the uncomfortable chair and hawk tickets for the next few hours, she was welcome to the task.

She glanced through the darkness, wondering where the men went. All she knew was that they’d seemed to have some sort of emergency. They’d been here watching her most of the day. After about four hours, they’d gotten some sort of message and told her they had to go see their leader about something. What, she had no idea.

Giving a mental shrug, she exited the ticket booth and headed toward the lodge. It wasn’t a long walk and she planned to bathe and get into bed before the guys arrived. If she was lucky, maybe they would make love with her again.

Goose bumps rose on her arms and she gave a little shiver just thinking about what her men could do to her in the privacy of their room. She could only imagine what it would feel like to have both of them kissing and caressing her at the same time. They had more than hinted that they would want that at some point in their relationship and now that she’d been with them both separately, she was curious to find out what they would be like together.

She walked the dark street, a whistle on her lips and the feeling of anticipation in the pit of her stomach. After about a quarter of a mile, Nadya realized that it wasn’t anticipation she felt in the pit of her stomach anymore. It was fear.

The crickets had stopped chirping. As a matter of fact,
all
of the insects stopped making noise. It was weird and scary. She picked up her pace, needing to get to the lodge as fast as she could. She could chastise herself about her paranoia after she got back to the safety of her room. It was only about another half mile to the lodge. She could walk it without being a baby and breaking into a terrified run. It was nothing. She was sure of it.

Taking a deep breath, she deliberately slowed down. There was nothing to fear here. None of the men of Paradise would harm her and, like her, Perry thought she’d be working at the booth for another two hours.

“It’s just your imagination, dummy.” She shook her head and moved on. Just as she passed one building and headed for the next, a figure jumped out of the darkness and grabbed her.

Nadya had time for only one short scream before someone punched her and she lost consciousness.

“Where’s Nadya?” Gabe frowned as he stared into the ticket booth at a woman he’d never seen before. “Didn’t she say her shift didn’t end until midnight?” He slammed his fist against the nearest tree. “She’s unprotected.”

He closed his eyes and shifted just enough to enhance his sense of smell. “She headed toward the lodge.”

“Great.” Luc looked relieved. “We’ll follow her back and surprise her with a late dinner from the diner.”

After stopping by the diner and picking up three orders of roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls, they made their way to the lodge. Gabe couldn’t wait to get to their room and bury his face in their mate’s hair. He loved the way she smelled.

Gabe frowned when they entered the lodge. He should have been able to smell her. Glancing at Luc he said, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Yeah. Me, too,” Luc agreed. “I can’t smell her and I should be able to. I thought it was odd that I didn’t scent her outside, but I thought maybe it was just me.”

His gut clenched. “She should have been here by now.” He passed the bags off to Luc. “Take these up to the room. I’ll go look for her.”

“To hell with that!” Luc tossed the bags onto the table. “I’m going with you.”

They rushed outside, heading for the carnival on foot.

“She would have come this way.” Luc ran beside him as they searched for their mate.

“It’s that fucking Perry. I’d bet money on it.”

“So would I.” Luc ran to the edge of the woods. “We’ll move and smell her faster in our animal form.”

Gabe followed Luc into the woods. “You’re right.” As soon as he knew they couldn’t be seen from the street, Gabe shifted into his beast. He welcomed the feel of the animal side of him breaking free of his restraint.

Perry had better hope that they didn’t find Nadya with him. If Gabe had his way, he’d kill that bastard for taking their mate. His cat stretched, turning its nose up into the air in an effort to scent their mate.

Still nothing. Breaking out into a run, they both headed back to the carnival, not giving a damn if humans saw them or not. As far as he was concerned, this was a matter of life and death.

They were only a about a half mile from the carnival when they finally picked up her scent along with Perry’s and another scent with which they couldn’t match a face.

That asshole Perry and one of his fucking henchmen have our mate.
He told Luc through their mind link.

Then we must find her as soon as possible. She must be terrified.
Luc ran in circles around the area, his nose to the ground while Gabe kept his nose in the air.

I smell a vehicle. It’s a diesel. I’d bet money it’s one of their transport vehicles.

But which one?
Luc snarled into the night.
Where has that asshole taken our mate?

We’ll find her. Now that we have a scent to follow.
What humans didn’t know, was that like humans, vehicles had their own, individual scent. Now that they had the scent, they would find the vehicle. It was only a matter of time.

Taking off at a flat run, they followed the acrid smell of the vehicle’s exhaust through the town.
Stop at the alpha’s and leave word that our mate has been stolen. I’ll stay on the trail.

Luc stared at him for a minute then shook his head.
No.
You
stop and tell the alpha. I want to reach the man first. I don’t trust you not to rip him apart.

You can’t be serious! The man has taken our mate, and still you seek to protect him?
Gabe couldn’t believe his ears.

I don’t wish to protect the ass. I only seek to protect you and Paradise. Don’t you realize that if you kill that bastard while they’re here, it could possibly bring an investigation down on the town? It’s our duty to protect this town as well as our mate.

Gabe hated it when Luc was right and damn it all to hell the man
was
right.
Then get your ass moving and catch up to them before he has a chance to harm her.

Luc stared into his eyes for a minute.
Believe me when I say if that asshole has harmed our mate when I find them,
I
will kill him myself.

You do that.
Gabe curled his lip in a silent snarl.
Then we’ll carry him up the mountain and feed him to the bears.

Nadya awoke, her head pounding, the pungent scent of rot in her nose. “What happened?” She didn’t really expect an answer. She knew she was alone. It was dark and she couldn’t see. Holding her breath, she listened for the sound of someone else breathing. Nothing.

She bumped her head when she tried to stand. There was no room. The ceiling or roof was only about a foot above her head while she sat. Reaching up, she pushed on the top. It didn’t budge.

On her hands and knees, she crawled to the wall and pounded on it with her fists. She was in some sort of metal box. Frowning, she sat back. “Don’t panic, Nadya.” They wouldn’t lock you in here to die. You’re getting air from somewhere.” Intellectually, she knew that air was getting into the box somehow. Otherwise, it would get stuffy.

Her stomach churned as she thought about who must have locked her in. Perry had her. There was no doubt in her mind. Even if he wasn’t the one who brought her here and locked her in, he was the one behind it.

Crawling into the corner, she brought her knees to her chest and cried. She’d finally had a shot at happiness and Perry had to go and take it away from her. Why? What did he want with her? She didn’t really have a special ability. Not like the others.

Her sobs came harder and harder as she thought about all that could have been. She could have had a family with Gabe and Luc if they had been serious about keeping her. But she had to go and get stupid. They’d made it clear that they didn’t think her safe by keeping her at the lodge and staying with her throughout the day while she ran the ticket booth.

Yet she’d gone off on her own at the first opportunity. Granted, she’d wanted to get back to their room so she could surprise them, but what had that gotten her other than what felt like an eight by eight metal box?

That thought gave her pause. No. It was a six by eight metal box. She’d bet on it. Her skin crawled at the thought of where they’d hidden her. The awful smell was from the dead. Whenever someone died on the road, they stuck them in here. Normally, when they crammed bodies in the truck, the refrigeration unit was on. They would cart the body to the nearest town and dump it at the coroner’s office. One time, they’d had a body stored in the unit for three days. The truck had broken down and it took that long to find a town with a garage that had a tow truck big enough to haul it.

The smell when they pulled Karma Haldran’s body from the refrigerator had been horrendous. At her express wishes, set forth in her will, they had been taking her back to her hometown in the middle of nowhere when the truck broke down. Now, she was stuck in the box with the rotten scent of Karma around her.

She shivered as she thought about it. Her tears changing from frightened tears to those of remembrance as she recalled what had happened to the poor old psychic who had wanted nothing more than to go home.

“Sh…dear. Don’t cry for me.”

Jerking her head up, Nadya looked straight into the ethereal eyes of Karma, herself. The old woman sat before her, her body glowing with some unearthly light, a small smile on her precious, wrinkled face.

“Never cry for me. I’m happy. I’m just where I want to be.” She leaned forward as though imparting a secret. “You see, no one calls me a freak in this place.” Her smile faded. “Things are better for me here, even though I forgot to pass on my gift.” She smiled at Nadya’s frown.
“
What do you mean, you might ask. Well—” she paused and sat with her back against the far wall. “I was supposed to pass my gift on to a child, but I never had a child and it died with me. It
can’t
die with me. Someone must always have the gift. So—” Pausing again, she rubbed her hands together. “I have chosen to give it to you.”

“You—you can’t give it to me. You were psychic. You knew
everything.
”

“I hardly knew everything, child,” Karma said with a laugh. “However, I
did
know things that helped. Just as you will.” Reaching over, Karma touched the center of her forehead. “There you go. All done now.” She waved her hand and the awful smell went away, replaced with the lovely scent of Karma’s cologne. “When your men come for you, give the dark one a kiss for me.” She sighed. “I always did love my men tall, dark, and handsome. Bye, bye, dear.” Karma faded to nothing, leaving behind the lovely smell of her perfume in place of the rot that had once made her ill.