Sapphire (Rare Gems Series) (4 page)

It was stupid move, she knew that. With
as much pain as she was in and how much her head hurt right now, she should
just simply go down and let someone take her home. But not now, not after the
way he’d treated her. The man was going down, and she was going to laugh her
ass off when he fell. If, and that was looking like a big if, she didn’t fall
first.

Tossing her purse to the other building,
she took off her heels and tossed them over as well. When she felt she could do
it, she went to the other side of the building and breathed deeply several times
before she took off running. When the building was there for her to jump to,
she had second thoughts, and that was all it took for her to stumble slightly.
She caught her leg on the last step and nearly fell to her death when she
touched the other side with her hands.

It took her three tries to heave her body
up onto the other roof. And when she did, she lay there for several minutes
just trying to slow her pounding heart. When she sat up, she reached for her
first shoe and decided that she was entirely too unsteady for walking on them,
and limped her way to the other one and her purse. When she was at street level
she hailed a cab, glad now that she’d parked on the next street over. She lay
in the back, resting when the cab started moving.

She wasn’t going back there. He was too
demanding for them to ever get along, and he lived in another decade…even if it
was just as her working for him as an employee. She’d never make it as his mate,
and she certainly didn’t want to.

By the time she drove home, she was
hurting so badly that she was sure she’d never be able to get out of the car,
much less up to her room. She saw the two cars in the drive but didn’t care to socialize
just then, and went around to the back of the house and in the kitchen.

Her grandmother was pouring tea when she
opened the door. Before she could say anything her grandmother put her finger
to her lips and shook her head. Then in a loud voice she called to the other
room.

“I just checked my phone, Mr. Henson,
and I’ve no messages from her as yet. You say she left your office and you
didn’t see her leave? How strange.” Grandmother pointed to the back stairs, then
picked up the tray and headed out. “Do you think she’s still in the building
then?”

“No. I don’t know what happened to her,
but she’s not in the building. I had security go over every inch of it.”
Sapphire moved to the back stairs and slowly made her way up. She wished she could
have stayed and listened to whatever else Blair had to say about his search for
her, but the door had closed and she wasn’t in the mood to listen at doorways. She
met Diamond coming down the stairs, and she helped her the rest of the way up
to her room.

“Blair is downstairs.” Sapphire nodded
at her sister. “I figured you knew. I think Grandmother is having fun at his
expense. I let her know that you’d called me so she would know what do to. How
did you know he’d come here?”

Sapphire had called Diamond when she’d
gotten to her car to ask her to tell grandmother she was running late. She also
told them to expect Blair, and he’d be spitting mad.

“Because he doesn’t like to lose.” She
took off her blouse and left her bra and panties on. She was hurting too much
to take them off, and after Diamond made sure she wasn’t going to die by
morning from her old and recent wounds, she closed her eyes. She’d have to
avoid him for the next few days if she wanted to be able to heal after all
this.

“Sapphire, what would it hurt to have
him as your mate? I mean, wouldn’t he protect you from Jeffery when he comes
here? We both know that he’s going to. He doesn’t like to lose, either.”

She knew her sister was right, but she didn’t
have the energy to talk to her tonight. She certainly didn’t have the strength
to explain to her that he didn’t want her as much as she didn’t want him. And
the pain around her heart had nothing to do with him or his rejection of her.

Chapter 4

Blair sat at his desk for over an hour,
trying not to think of Sapphire. He’d never been more frustrated with a woman
in his life. Actually, he’d never been more frustrated with anyone in his life
as he was with her. She’d run from him, and he was still trying to figure out
how the hell she’d done it and why he gave a shit. His phone ringing made him glare
at it.

“There’s a Miss Erickson here to see
you.” His heart took a strange leap before Justine clarified. “Diamond Erickson.”

He wanted to tell her to tell the woman
to fuck off, but needed…no, that wasn’t right. He was curious to know where
Sapphire was. When he told Justine to send her in, he stood up and came around
to the front of his desk to greet her.

“Good morning, Diamond. And to what do I
owe this pleasure—?”

“Don’t fuck with me and I won’t you.” He
started to snap at her, but he simply nodded and sat down. “I’m here about my
sister. She’s hurt, did you know that?”

“I hurt her yesterday when I moved her
away from….” Diamond was shaking her head. “Then I don’t understand. How else
was she hurt? If you’re talking about the wound on her back, I didn’t cause
that one.”

“Jeffery Benetton did that and a great
deal more to her. And yesterday trying to get away from you, she hurt herself
even more. She had a broken rib and a gash on her left hip that I had to put
fifteen stitches in after she went to sleep.” Diamond sat down across from him
as she continued. “Did you know that she gave up everything to keep us safe
from men like you?”

“I’m nothing like Benetton, and I resent
you coupling my name with his.” She only stared at him, and he shifted on his
seat. “Why are you here?”

“I came to see what kind of man you are.
I’m not impressed.” She stood up, and he thought she was going to leave, but
she only started pacing. “Jeffery put us up for auction. He had us pulled from our
beds and chained together like animals. We couldn’t shift or the chains around our
necks would have killed us. Then he cut our clothes from us and paraded us
around the pack meeting place to show our wears, as he called them. Sapphire
was the only one not with us. She…she’d been taken away so he could do it.”

“But she came back.” Diamond nodded. “What
happened to her that had her sent away?”

“She’d been shot. Three times and taken
away from us. We thought he’d killed her, but he’d only pissed her off.” She
turned to him then. “You’ve never seen her pissed. Her wolf is nothing like
you’ve ever seen before, and when they’re both there….” She shivered.

“Is this the night that they fought?” She
nodded again. “Why didn’t anyone help you? It’s against pack law for him to
treat single females like that. Especially ones in a pack where there are few
women and little in the way of new pack coming to them.”

“Do you really think he gave a shit what
the laws are? He was pissed off at Sapphire because she wouldn’t have him in
her bed, and he was going to make us all pay.” She took an envelope from her
shirt and handed it to him. “The decree he had us all sign before any of this
happened. He had us all tied up in neat little bows, and we couldn’t do a
damned thing about it.”

He read over the first page before
looking up at her. “It says here that he can break in any female he wishes
before she goes to her mate. No matter what the age.”

“He said it was his right as alpha. If
you look at the signatures, you’ll see that none of us signed out names. That
was Sapphire’s idea. She said that no matter what, we were to never sign
anything coming from him. That included.” He laughed when he read the names
they’d scrawled across the document. He’d bet anything that Sadie Earholder was
Sapphire.

“When we were being shown off Grandmother
was tied to a tree. They’d stripped her down as well and blindfolded her.
Anyone walking by her could and did grab at her. I think that was what sent
Sapphire over the edge.” She started pacing again as she continued and Blair
had a feeling she was no longer in the room with him but back in the field.

“She killed three men before anyone knew
she was there. I watched her take out one of them but said nothing to the
others. I didn’t want them to give her away. When the fourth man suddenly
disappeared, I knew that it was only a matter of time before she went after Jeffery.
He was just taking off his pants to rape…to rape me when she attacked him.” She
looked out the window as the rain streamed down the glass. “She never gave him
the chance to shift before she tore at him. Blood splattered over us as she
tried to kill him. Two of his men attacked her then, and another tried to use
me as a shield. It wasn’t until his head landed at my feet that I realized that
she’d killed him. His body dropped from mine just as I heard her scream. I took
the keys from the dead man and unlocked the others and took them to safety. Grandmother
was bleeding pretty badly by then, but it was mostly from the sticks they’d
used and not the other wolves.”

“His wounds that he inflicted on her won’t
heal. That’s why she still hurts so much.” Diamond nodded at him. “I forgot
about that until just now. Until she takes a mate, or another alpha seals the
wounds, she’ll never heal. It’s a sign that the male of her pack has hurt her.”

“He’ll come for her. I’m surprised that
he’s not been here already. He, like you, won’t simply give up.” He wanted to
tell her he wasn’t like the other alpha again, but in this he knew she was
correct. “When he gets here, she’ll die. And it will be partly your fault.”

He wanted to deny it, wanted to tell her
she was wrong, but he knew she wasn’t. He looked up at her as she stood staring
out the window and thought she’d come here more than just to tell him what a
fucking bastard he was, but for something else.

“What do you want me to do? Back off?
I’m trying to do that, but you should know that I’m having a hard time doing
that. I don’t want her. She’ll never fit into the mold I have in my mind for a
mate, and I like my life the way it is. And she and I would never suit as a
couple.” He didn’t tell her that all he wanted from her was a quick lay and
he’d be satisfied. He wasn’t even sure that would work anymore. No matter how
many times he jerked off, he still wanted to find her and take her hard against
the closest hard surface he could find.

Diamond nodded and moved to the door
without answering him. He started to go after her to…he wasn’t sure what, but
he knew she’d washed her hands of him. When she was at the door, she stopped
and turned to look at him once more.

“He’ll kill her when he comes. I’m not
telling you this to make you do anything you don’t want. I’m telling you so
that when it happens, and it will, you’ll know that we’ll leave here and never
darken your door again. We’ll…we’ll move on as you will now. And I promise you,
as much as I’d like to believe otherwise, no one will ever blame you.”

She was gone for a full five minutes
before he could move. Diamond had found him lacking. He had no idea why that
hurt so much, but it did. He moved to Justine’s desk and barely saw her until
she was standing in front of him.

“What’s happened?” Blair stared at her
until she hit him in the face. “Snap out of it and tell me what’s happened to
Sapphire? Is she hurt? And if so, how badly?”

He looked around his offices and at the
furniture he’d paid entirely too much for simply because it had been the first
thing he’d been shown by the decorator. At the art on the wall that he rarely
looked at because he thought it was the ugliest shit he’d ever seen. Then he
looked at Justine.

“I’m a failure.” She started to speak,
but he stopped her. “I am. I might be wealthy and have everything I’ve ever
wanted, but as a human being or a wolf for that matter, I fucking suck.” When
she didn’t disagree with him he felt worse. “I’m so sorry.”

“What did she tell you that made you
like this?” Justine sat on the edge of her desk, and he sat in the chair across
from her. “Something must have happened in there. She comes out crying like
you’ve taken her best friend from her, and you have an epiphany about what sort
of person you are, or not for that matter.”

“She basically told me that her sister
had been abused enough that I should back the fuck away from her and let
Benetton kill her when he comes for her. And she thinks this because she found
me lacking as a person.” He didn’t wait for her to comment but went on. “And
she’s right. I am lacking as a person. I’m not involved in anyone’s life. Not
even my own. I have no patience for my dad when he comes here to talk to me,
and I work entirely too much. And for what? More money? I have more now that I
can spend in my lifetime even if I never work again. Prestige? Fuck that shit.
I never wanted that anyway. Respect? I don’t even respect myself, why would I
expect anyone else to do the same to me?”

“Are you going to do anything with this
newfound knowledge?” He looked at her, suddenly at a loss for an answer. “You
have a mate now. Do you want her or not? Do you care if she dies or not? Do you
want to give her up or fight for her?”

“She’ll not be happy about any of this.”
Justine snorted. “She’s going to be highly pissed at me and shove me away at
every opportunity she gets.”

“No doubt she will, but you still didn’t
answer my questions. What are you going to do now?” She stood up when he did. “There’s
a nice flower shop on the way…no, that’ll never do with her. She’s not the
flowers and candy sort. She’s more of a—”

“Loaded gun type?” He laughed when she
nodded. “I’m not going to give her a gun even if I’m sure it’s not loaded. This
is going to have to be slow and easy.”

He was out the door and in his car going
to her house before he realized it. Blair decided that he was going to give
Justine a raise. That was if he lived long enough to give it to her. He was
sort of going into the lion’s den here, and he had no way of knowing if he was
going to survive it or not.

~~~

Jeffery moved much slower nowadays. The
wounds Sapphire had inflicted on him were not healing as well or as quickly as
he’d hoped. But it was his cock that caused him the most pain. He couldn’t even
piss out of it without enough pain to bring him to his knees.

The first time he’d taken a piss he’d ended
up kneeling in his own urine, sobbing like a baby. He’d tried to crawl out of
the mire, but he’d hurt so badly that he’d had to have someone come and get
him. He’d had the man killed when he’d laughed at him. No one had laughed
since.

He knocked on the front door of her
house and waited for someone, anyone to let him in. The old broad opened the
door. Before he could reach for the screen to enter, she had a gun pointed at
him.

“That’s far enough. What do you want?” He
glared at her, trying to intimidate her, but she only laughed. “We don’t belong
to you any longer, Benetton, so can that crap now.”

“I’m here to collect Sapphire. She’s to
stand trial for the injuries she caused her alpha.” He’d had to call in a great
many favors to get this thing going, and he was glad now that he’d had to give
up so much for her arrest. “I’m here as a courtesy and to take her back with
me.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. What about
the injuries you caused her? Or the ones you caused to us? Are you going to be
punished for any of that?” He thought that he’d paid dearly for their injuries,
but said nothing as he reached for the screen again. “You touch that door again
and I will blow what little of your dick is left off you.”

His hand snapped back so fast that he
hurt himself when his hand hit his ribs. He’d been surprised when he’d not
healed right away, but his doctor, his own personal one, had told him it was
because Sapphire was an alpha bitch. He knew that she was an alpha and hadn’t
realized the law about injury to another one of his kind and the problems it
caused. He had wanted her simply to rip her throat out before she figured out
she was a good deal stronger than he’d ever be.

Jeffery was just reaching for the door
again to teach the bitch a lesson when one of the others, he thought it was
Opal, stepped up behind her grandmother. He knew he could make her do what he
wanted if for no other reason than he’d scared her badly before.

“Open this fucking door and let me in.”
She took a step back, then another. “You fucking heard me, cunt. Open this goddamned
door now.” When Sapphire was suddenly in front of him, he started for the door
again. Then someone wrapped their arm around his throat, and he could only
manage a strangled cry when the man spoke.

“You talk to her like that again and I
will personally see to it that you never speak again.” He felt the arm tighten
as the man sniffed him. “I have your scent now, and if I find you in my
territory again, I will do just what I said.”

He was tossed against the wall beside
the door as the man held him there with a large hand to his back. Jeffery would
have struggled, but it was all he could do not to whimper and beg the man to
let him go.

“You hurt?” Jeffery started to tell him
he fucking was, but realized he wasn’t talking to him. “Did he touch any of
you?”

“No. He wasn’t going to either. But I
gotta admit I’m damned glad to see you.” He glared at Annabelle as she went on
about how happy she was that he’d shown up.