Sarah McCarty (15 page)
Allie pressed the button on the coffeemaker. “Joseph doesn’t need a doctor. He needs a scientist.”
“I don’t understand.”
Allie’s hands clenched into fists on the counter. “I’m trying to be strong, Jane, to do the right thing, because the last thing I need right now is bad Karma, but please understand it’s not easy. And it won’t take much for me to side with my husband, so don’t interrupt until you hear me out.”
“Side with your husband?”
Allie leaned back against the counter. “You’re not real good at just hearing someone out, are you?”
Jane shrugged. “Not without details.”
“The Johnsons are very loyal to those they love. They’re not above bending the law to get what they want for those they love.”
“Like kidnapping me?”
Allie nodded, the tension in her expression indicating that she was fighting tears. “I love my son very much, and I want him to live more than anything, but kidnapping you, threatening you . . .” She shook her head. “I can’t go along with that and look him in the eye and tell him he needs to be honorable if he gets the chance to grow to manhood. Might doesn’t make right.”
“I appreciate that.” And she did. She could also hear the “but” Allie wasn’t saying, because the woman was obviously wrestling with her conscience. She brought it out into the open. “But you’re not a saint.”
“No.” This time, when Allie looked at her, there were tears in her eyes. “I want you to meet my son, and if after that you can walk away, I’ll make it happen.”
She wasn’t good at walking away. “And if I need help?”
“I’ll give it to you.”
“Even if it means going against Slade?”
It took Allie a long time to find the mugs in the cupboard above her head. “You’ve got my word.”
She pushed the cobalt mugs toward Jane as she pulled a plastic tray toward her. “Could you fill those please?”
“Four?” She filled the cups “You’re seriously feeding the werewolves.”
“You don’t have to make it sound like we’re slopping hogs.”
“I’ve never slopped hogs, have you?”
Allie rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to be as literal as Slade, are you?”
“Probably.” She wasn’t the most socially apt. Allie took two of the cups and put them on the tray along with four delicious-looking cinnamon buns. “Are you really giving them that because you think they’ll keep quiet?”
“One, I’m not the one giving it to them.” She shoved the tray into Jane’s hands. “And two, I’m giving it to them because it makes them happy, and since they’re willing to give their lives to protect me and mine it seems like the least I can do.”
When she put it like that... “Oh.”
Allie put her hands on Jane’s shoulders and turned her toward the door. It was a very familiar gesture from a stranger. Especially to Jane. Her internal flinch must have communicated her discomfort to the other woman. Allie’s hands dropped away. “Sorry. Caleb’s always warning me, not everyone likes to be touched.”
What was she supposed to say to that?
“You don’t have to say anything. It was a statement of fact.”
Jane turned back. “I didn’t say that out loud.”
Allie sighed. “But you were projecting, which is as good as.”
Jane struggled to keep her shock suppressed and her mind blank. They could all read minds. Assuming Allie was a vampire.
“Yes. I’m a vampire. Caleb converted me.”
This was too freaky. “I’m going to give this to the guards.”
She couldn’t believe she was running away from a vampire woman to give coffee and pastries to werewolf guards because they suddenly seemed the lesser of two evils. “I have got to be losing my mind,” she muttered as she got to the door. Solid wood, it was the last barrier between her and her most recent fear. Taking a breath, she balanced the tray and yanked it open, leaving her facing two very handsome men. Obviously twins, with cropped brown hair, brown eyes, big muscles, and sporting wickedly sinful grins.
“I brought your coffee.”
The one on the left took the tray from her hands. His fingers brushed hers. “Thank you.”
Her response was knee-jerk. When she would have stepped back, the other caught her hand. He was a good bit taller than her. Probably taller than Slade. And definitely more classically handsome. “We won’t hurt you.”
They just weren’t as appealing. She took a step back. “That’s good to know.”
The one on the left took a sip of his coffee. “We’d feel a lot better if you believed it.”
“Why does it matter?”
“We would like to be considered.”
“For what?”
“For mating,” Allie said, coming up beside her. “Weres are obsessed with it.”
The one the right caught her eye and said, “Only when there is an attractive woman around.”
Now she knew they were pulling her leg. She looked exactly like what she was: a researcher more concerned with the next discovery than her appearance. She didn’t even have lipstick on, for heaven’s sake!
“Jane, may I introduce you to Travis and Torque McClaren. Two of Derek’s best warriors.”
“Which is which?”
The man on the left took her hand and brought it toward his mouth. She tugged but he didn’t let go. “I’m Torque.”
“What you’re going to be is dead if you don’t let her go right now.”
Slade’s threat came from directly over her shoulder. How had he sneaked up on her? Before she could turn her head, his hard arm came around her waist and drew her back against his equally hard chest.
“She doesn’t bear your mark.”
Slade stepped back into the darkness of the foyer, taking her with him. “She’s under my protection.”
“She’s fair game.”
“She’s mine.”
The last snapped her head back. “Like hell.”
The brothers filled the door. “She disputes your claim.”
Digging her nails into Slade’s forearm, Jane got him to put her down, only to be shoved behind him as Travis said, “The law doesn’t see it your way.”
Slade cocked his head to the side, challenge radiating off every inch of him. “Do I look overly concerned with the law?”
“Well, if you’re going to ignore it . . .”
The weres squared off, teeth bared in a parody of a smile, revealing their sharp canines.
Fear and exasperation warred for dominance inside Jane. Exasperation won, because this was just too ridiculous to be happening. Apparently men were men, whether they were vampire, wolf, or human. She glanced over at Allie. “Is that offer of coffee still open?”
“You bet.”
“Let’s go.”
“Stay where you are, Jane.”
Slade seriously expected her to obey an order barked over his shoulder? “Go to hell.”
“You tell him, Jane.”
Slade snapped, “Stay out of this, Allie.”
“You should know better than to give Allie orders, Slade. It just makes her contrary.”
Caleb walked out of the kitchen, dressed in a black shirt and a pair of jeans, a cup of coffee in his hand.
Jane glanced at the door. He answered her silent question. “I came in the back way.”
Allie took the cup from Caleb’s hand as he came up beside her, dwarfing her. “I thought you were sleeping,” she said.
“I thought you were going to leave this to me.”
“Your way won’t work.”
“You don’t know that.”
Allie glanced at the contents of the cup and her expression softened. She took a sip. “Yes, I do.”
Slade grunted and frowned. “Some mate you are. Coffee’s not good for her.”
Tucking her into his side, Caleb placed a kiss on the top of Allie’s head. “Leave her be, Slade.”
If Jane hadn’t seen the expression on Caleb’s face, she never would have believed it—vampires could love. Deeply, because clear as day, Caleb loved Allie.
“You won’t say that if she gets sick.”
Caleb shrugged as Allie leaned against him. “You’ll take care of it.”
Apparently, Slade was not only sexy, he was a miracle worker.
“Keeping her healthy would be easier if she didn’t get sick in the first place.”
Allie placed her hand on Caleb’s chest, total trust in the gesture. Jane, to her surprise, felt a pang of jealousy. The ease of interaction between the couple was something she’d never seen, but always dreamed of.
“I’ll only have a little.”
“Why don’t you take care of Allie, Slade, and we’ll entertain Jane?” Torque offered in a deep drawl that resonated sex appeal. A sexuality to which Jane, being female, was not immune.
Slade whipped about with a snarl that immediately reminded Jane of why she was standing here in too-big clothes, trying to escape.
“The hell you will.”
She took a step back, but that wasn’t any good, because behind her was Caleb.
Caleb took the cup from Allie and took a sip while she watched, grimacing as he did. “Don’t know how you can drink it with all that cream and sugar.” He indicated Jane’s retreat with a tilt of the cup. “Do you still think she can’t be forced?”
Allie nodded and took her coffee back. “If she was the type who could be forced, Sanctuary would already have the information they wanted.”
Allie’s perception was as scary as Caleb’s condescending attitude was annoying.
“Are you reading my mind again?”
“Nope. Just commenting on the obviousness of your nature.”
Great. Now she was obvious to the people who had kidnapped her. Slade turned. She ducked under his hand and angled past Caleb. “I need coffee.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the edge of the grin Slade flashed the weres. “I’ll join you.”
That was all she needed, the distraction of
him
while trying to gather her thoughts. “Don’t bother.”
him
while trying to gather her thoughts. “Don’t bother.”
The door clicked shut behind her.
“It’s no trouble. We need to talk anyway.”
8
“F
OR
somebody who wanted to talk to me, you’re not saying much,” Jane muttered three hours later as Slade led the way across the lawn between the houses.
OR
somebody who wanted to talk to me, you’re not saying much,” Jane muttered three hours later as Slade led the way across the lawn between the houses.
“That’s because you’ve dodged every attempt.”
“Are you implying that I’ve been avoiding you?” Amazing how self-righteous she could sound.
“Well you certainly haven’t been running in my direction.”
“And why should I? You kidnapped me.”
“I rescued you first.”
“But now you won’t let me go home.”
“You’ve got a point there, but I also have a good reason.”
A reason they were on the way to see. Jane kept telling herself the child wasn’t her problem, but with every step across the hard ground she knew she was only kidding herself. She had a feeling Slade knew it, too. The man seemed to understand her on a level that wasn’t comfortable to a woman used to being anonymous. On the other hand, in any other situation, she might have worked up to finding it comfort able. At least with a friend, as she had begun to think of Vamp Man. Which just sent her back into the hopeless spiral of what she really wanted versus what she should want, compared to what she should do.
She clenched her hands into fists in the pockets of her borrowed coat. How the hell had her carefully crafted simple life gotten so complicated? With every step, the too-big sweatpants pulled at her legs in little tugging pleas to go back. She didn’t want to do this. Didn’t want to face her demons. Especially when they were manifested in the face of an infant.
She stopped.
Slade turned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think I’m ready for this.”
“It’s just a baby.”
“You know it’s not
just
anything, otherwise everyone wouldn’t be insisting I meet him.”
just
anything, otherwise everyone wouldn’t be insisting I meet him.”
“Fair enough.”
Rocking back on her heels she asked, “How bad is he?”
Slade glanced at her, all pretense gone. She could tell from the expression on his face that the answer he was going to give her was the one she didn’t want to hear. She only had time to dig her nails into her palm before he said, “I won’t lie to you. He’s not good. He has the thin, gaunt look of poor nutrition—”
“But he eats?”
“Goes at the bottle like a wolf at a spring kill.”
Yet he didn’t gain weight. Excitement nipped at her reluctance, demanding she find out more. Which would be a mistake, because the more she talked about anything related to her research, the more personal the subjects became. The deeper the failures struck.
The front door of the main house opened. Light spilled into the yard in a yellow flare of invitation. Allie stood there, wearing her hope in her eyes. Jane turned on her heel.
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