Authors: Elisa Elliot
ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (110 page)
“Don’t you touch her again,” Donald warned, and his eyes promised death. “If you lay one finger on her, you won’t make it through the night.
“This is personal,” Lashan hissed with fangs bared. “Is he your side dish?” he asked me, his eyes still on Donald.
I couldn’t answer. Before I had a chance to, Donald roared again, and fear hung like a cloud in the room. It was Lashan’s.
They circled each other, sizing each other up. I didn’t know how Lashan thought he could win this one. Donald was in a class of his own.
Lashan charged forward, and attempted to bite Donald, but he deflected him easily, and sent the vampire spinning into the ground.
“You’re making a mistake,” he said calmly. Lashan looked at Donald like he was going to strike again, but instead he rushed towards me, and grabbed a handful of hair.
“If you don’t get out of here now, she’s going to get really hurt,” he said. I couldn’t believe my own husband was using me as a bargaining chip. A hostage.
“Lashan—“ I started but he squeezed tighter and my sentenced trailed off in a moan. I watched Donald. He stood casually, his hands in his pockets.
“Let her go,” he said. “If you do, I won’t kill you.”
Lashan barked a laugh, but just tightened his hold and yanked slightly on my hair for effect. The sound of my voice seemed to be what set Donald off. He started shifting. His skin became stubbly with hair, until it was a thick coat of brown fur. His teeth sharpened into a mouth with a bad attitude, and his muzzle lengthened. He almost tripled in size. Within seconds the giant bear stood where Donald had.
Lashan finally saw reason, and let me go. I tumbled back to the floor. He backed up until his back was against the wall, and then he shimmied his way around the room to the door that led to the kitchen.
“You can have her,” he spat. “She’s worthless, anyway.”
Donald didn’t answer. He waited until Lashan was gone, before he shifted back into a human. He crouched down next to me.
“Are you alright?” he asked, brushing the hair that had escaped out of my face. I wanted to say yes but instead tears ran over my cheeks and my hands trembled when I tried to wipe them away. My vampire mate, my partner for eternity, had just threatened my life.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“Your blood calls out to me. Not in a food-way. I don’t know how to explain it. It has from the start. When you were in trouble, I had to come.”
He wrapped one arm around my shoulders, and the other arm under the crook of my knees. I curled into a ball against his chest. He picked me up like I weighed nothing, and carried me into the night.
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Liam slammed the kitchen door, and didn’t care if the four glass panes shattered into millions of pieces. He didn’t even care if Audrey’s precious dainty crappy curtains were shredded in two in the process. He took two steps then turned with a frown, a disappointed puff of air sliding through his lips. The door and curtains were fine. Liam continued walking to his cruiser, the slight rustle and faint squeak of his uniform and duty belt didn’t even give him his usual swell of pride and enjoyment. Nothing gave him enjoyment anymore thanks to that woman!
That woman was Audrey Lamb. She watched secretly from her bedroom window, careful to not disturb the blinds, lest he think she was watching him go with anything close to regret. She regretted nothing. Except marrying him straight out of high school. She even overlooked his…abnormality, once it was something romantic. What hot blooded teenage girl wouldn’t find it irresistible that her sweetheart was a Werewolf? And hot was precisely how the two of them had been! Now, here they were ten years later and the marriage was already in such a shambles that she resided in the master bedroom and he currently lived in the room that was meant for a nursery. Now that, she regretted.
The cruiser backed into the road, and then Liam punched the gas and the car took off like a jet, white and blue blurring as he accelerated. She hoped he would get a ticket from one of the county brownies before he made it the short distance into the city.
She stood before the mirror that stretched nearly the full length of her mahogany dresser. Hazel eyes stared vacantly back at her. Her skin looked pasty and her hair hung straight and listless to her shoulders.
“I really have given up.” She whispered. Her reflection offered no opinion nor advice.
Liam entered the briefing room and nodded to several of the officers already present. After eight years on the force he was grateful to have dayshifts with only the occasional necessary night one. His eyes caught Lydia’s, but he broke contact almost immediately. Lydia: swarthy skinned, silky black ponytail, almond shaped brown eyed temptation. She had made her attraction obvious to Liam, and he had politely declined the solicitation, yet a twinge of…something…stirred in him every time he laid eyes on her. Her coy smile proved that she knew it too.
Thank God she’s not my partner! He thought for the hundredth time as he sat down at the back table beside his actual partner.
Hank grinned and offered him a piece of gum. Hank Walters was a good ole’ boy from somewhere in the Orange County area. He was nearing his mid- thirties and had never graduated from being a beat cop. When asked about it he would always pull his now meaty cheeks up towards his bright blue eyes, a toothy grin hovering with the hesitation. The response was always the same.
“A beat cops all I ever wanted to be.”
Liam took a piece of gum from the offered pack. Spearmint. As usual. Yes, Hank Walters was a creature of habit.
“How’s the diet going, buddy?”
“Aww hell, Liam, you know how it is. I lose three and gain five.”
“You know Sarge said he would put you on desk duty if you didn’t drop twenty.”
Hank rolled his eyes and patted his round belly hanging precariously over his utility belt. “What if I need to drop and roll? I’m less likely to hurt myself this way.”
The two men grinned at each other as their Sergeant stepped into the room. That particular roll call was blessedly short. It contained some of the usual stuff. Construction on so and so road, gang activity is still affecting the RVA, but the one thing that was new was the announcement of another VCU student that was missing.
Sergeant McIntyre’s reddish mustache twitched slightly. “This student is of Asian descent. Her name’s Mya Chiu. She’s a freshman, and like the other one, she’s local. Her parents live just south of Chesterfield. She’s been missing since Sunday night.” The Sergeant clicked a button on the computer beside his podium, and the face of an attractive young Asian woman projected on to the white screen behind him.
“Oh boy.” Hank whispered. “Forty-eight hours in.”
Liam kept his eyes focused on the podium and the gangly man still standing there speaking. Hank’s assessment didn’t warrant a comment. Forty eight hours in; she was as good as dead.
Roll ended and the Sergeant offered his usual, “Be vigilant”, advice.
Lydia turned her head far enough to shoot a seductive look over her shoulder at Liam before marching out the door.
“Woo wee, that little girl is burning for you, man.” Hank laughed.
Liam gave his a dirty look. He knew he was handsome. How could he not be, standing 5’11” with broad shoulders and just the right amount of butt to make women look twice. Those things aside, his six pack abs, green eyes and dark hair were novelties all by themselves. Ego was never a problem for Liam.
Hank listened to the radio waiting for Liam to come out of the deli. He hoped nothing would come across that they had to respond to. They had already had two traffic stops, one domestic (which turned out to be an argument over left over pizza), and an overzealous shop owner insistent that the group of kids trying on tennis shoes in the back were members of the Crypts.
Liam returned to the cruiser with a white paper bag that had two aluminum foil wrapped subs sticking out of the end, and a drink carrier with two sodas.
“Here’s your Veggie Delight.” Liam said with a grin as he slid one sub onto Hank’s lap.
Hank looked at the oblong sandwich dejectedly. “Honey mustard instead of mayo?”
“Mmm hmm.” Liam said as he bit into his steak and cheese. Hank watched with jealous eyes as grease dripped down his partner’s chin.
“I hate you.”
Liam’s shoulders shook with laughter. “No, you don’t.”
“Yes.”
The radio came alive and a female dispatched began speaking in the usual calm autonomous voice.
“We have a 10-54 corner of Dock and 18.”
Liam picked up the receiver, his finger holding the button down on the side.
“10-4. Unit 121 in area, will respond.” He started the cruiser and raised an eyebrow to Hank. “You may want to hold off on that.”
Another cruiser pulled up as Liam and Hank were getting out. Where Dock Street met with 18th Street was a questionable area of Richmond near Shochoe Bottom. It also was along a narrow strip of water that was part of the James River. A 10-54 meant a possible dead body.
The girl was halfway in the water, and who ever had left her there hadn’t tried very hard to hide her. Liam felt the slowly sinking stone of intuition hit the pit of his stomach. Long straight black hair fanned out from the back of the woman’s skull and floated in the water.
A nervous looking man in his late fifties waited nearby. His face had the ashen look that can only be worn if you have seen the horrific.
Liam moved towards him as he pressed the speak button on his shoulder mounted radio. “Officer Lamb, unit 121; confirmed 10-24.”
The man’s eyes tried to not stare at the body, but like a magnet, his eyes slid back to the thin form. It didn’t help that the poor woman was floating face down in the water in nothing but dirty under ware.
Liam pulled a small notebook from his front left pocket. “Name, sir?”
His beady brown eyes darted to Liam. The whites were slightly yellow. The man ran a hand over his balding head. “I have no idea! I was walking my dog, and I saw her!”
Liam stared at the man with an emotionless face. “Sir, I mean your name.”
“Oh…Todd Riley.”
“Where’s your dog?”
“I took him back to my car.” The man’s eyes darted back to the girl before pointing up the slight ridge above them. “He pees when he’s too excited. Jack Russell, you know.”
“What time did you find her?”
“No more than fifteen minutes ago. I called from my cell. I didn’t even take my dog to the car until I called.”
“Did you see anyone else?”
“Not down here.”
“Why were you down here?”
The man shrugged helplessly. “I always bring Scooter down here. It’s usually real peaceful.”
Liam nodded and flipped his notebook shut. The ambulance personnel were making their way to the water’s edge.
“Stay put, Mr. Riley.”
The man nodded with round eyes, as wide as the beady little things could go.
Liam groaned inwardly. An unmarked sedan parked on the edge of the rise right above the scene. The suits had arrived. He wouldn’t be able to have one good scent before they muddled everything. He tried quickly, taking air in through his nose and mouth with a long pull. He allowed his eyes to close as his heightened senses sorted through the powerful smells.
“I hate it when you do that weird stuff!” Hank whispered, moving his bulk beside Liam. “The suits are staring a little.”
Liam opened his eyes and frowned. “Let them.”
“Well? Anything?”
Liam shook his head. “I just smell death, and goof ball’s little ankle biter.”
“Lamb, Walters.” One of the detectives said in an autonomous greeting as he approached and squatted near the water’s edge to look at the body. “Turn her over, boys.”
Two paramedics, wearing tight blue rubber gloves, gently turned the woman over. Mya Chui’s face stared vacantly towards the sky.
Hank whistled. “Look at her mouth.”
Liam took a step forward. The woman’s lips had been sewn shut.
Audrey dug in her messenger bag, found her chap stick, and applied a thin layer to her lips. Her professor was late…again. She glanced around the lecture hall at the students that were younger than her by at least five years, some more. She just wanted to finish her dissertation, so she could be a professor, (One that wasn’t chronically late.) but this class had been recommended by her guidance counselor to speed the process along.
“Doctor Ryan holds a PHD in women’s studies, he could offer a new slant on the work you have already accomplished.”
Right. Audrey thought glumly. All he had talked about so far (Three weeks of the drivel!) was the repression of women up to 1960 through domestic duties and the stifling of their inexhaustible sexual urges.
Audrey enjoyed her domestic duties. She wished she had more, like a little one to look after. She checked her watch. She would give him five more minutes before leaving. She could always go to the diner and try to get a few extra hours. She frowned. Money. It always came back to money. It was the reason Liam had stormed out so angrily this morning.
Audrey had paid for her continuing education through grants. Other than the fact that she had to work part time instead of full, it hadn’t been a financial burden on Liam. Sure, things were tighter, but it was such a temporary thing. She had so much that she wanted to do! She wanted to teach, to write, to help. Liam just wanted toys like a new car, a boat, and a bigger house. What was the purpose of a bigger house if there weren’t going to be any more people living there? He had insisted there was time for kids, what was the rush? At twenty nine her biological clock told her there was plenty of a reason to rush.
She checked her watch again and stood angrily. A few heads turned her way, but for the most part she was ignored. Also something that was as usual. Audrey marched down the hall just as Dr. Ryan rounded the corner and scurried towards the lecture hall.
“Hello, Miss Lamb. Where are you going?” His fat face puckered into a frown.
Audrey never broke stride. She raised her voice to make sure it would reach his ears. “For the final time, it’s Mrs. Lamb and I’m going to the guidance department to drop your sorry class!”
Liam was glad he didn’t have to go with the detectives when they went to the Chui residence to tell the older couple that their only daughter was dead. He was present, however when they arrived at the city morgue to give the customary identification of the body.
A tightly knit until of three people came into the hallway. The three bodies walked together and were joined by each arm of an impossibly tiny woman. She had each arm wrapped around one arm of the men to her sides, and they held her hands with their free hands. The older man wore glasses and took his steps as if his feet hurt. The other man was younger than but not as young as Mya Chui. It had to be her older brother Dan.