Seduction's Shift (21 page)

That had his father jerking back as if Nick had struck him. “Loren was my best friend.”

Nick nodded. He knew how his father felt about Loren Reynolds because he felt the same way about Rome. And he wasn’t questioning their friendship.

“Dad, I’m here to help if I can. Tell me what’s going on.”

Henrique stood quickly, his voice barely restraining his anger. “It is not your concern.”

“If it involves you it is my concern.” Nick jumped to his feet, trying to meet his father eye-to-eye.

“I am doing what is right for our people. That is all you need to know. Now go to bed.”

He’d been dismissed, but that wasn’t working for Nick. He wasn’t leaving without answers. “Dad—”

“Enough!” Henrique yelled. “It is enough with these questions, Dominick. You will respect me at all times. I will not tell you this again.”

And he hadn’t. Henrique had walked away from Nick that night, leaving him to stare after him with no more knowledge than he’d had before his father had come home. And the rage that had begun to simmer in Nick when they’d left the Gungi was left thoroughly inflamed.

In his condo, alone, because Ary hadn’t been here when he returned, Nick walked into the living room where he had a desk and his computer. He fired up the Mac and waited until the Internet was visible on the screen. As he’d walked down Memory Lane, pinpointing the second he realized his father was a liar, that symbol had appeared, proving itself an intricate part of what was going on in the here and now.

So he typed in symbols and shields and waited. Clicking on various sites, he searched for anything similar to the symbol he’d seen, any link to what he feared was going to be a huge problem for the stateside shifters.

His gaze remained focused on the computer screen even as his mind wandered to Ary and where she might be. He’d been more than concerned to find her not here waiting for him. Had even gone so far as to call Rome’s house looking for Kalina. Only to have Rome laugh at him and once again reiterate that there were different rules to the mating game. That wasn’t what Nick wanted to hear so he’d hung up feeling a little better that Ary was in fact with Kalina, but concerned that she hadn’t left him a note.

He drummed his fingers on the desk reading websites that contained the keywords
shield, symbols, Brazil.
One in particular caught his eye. He clicked and saw an almost exact replica of the symbol staring back at him.

It was a picture of the Portuguese flag. Portugal’s coat of arms consisted of a white shield on the flag’s red-and-green background. Inside the shield were five smaller shields that represented the five Moorish kings who were defeated by the first king of Portugal.

Nick read the description then studied the flag once more. The five shields inside the one bigger shield looked just like the black tattoo-like symbol he’d seen on the crates in the Gungi, on the wall of that apartment building, and on X’s cell phone. Only the symbol he’d seen didn’t have five smaller shields. It had four.

That was significant, Nick thought. It had to be. But before he could think on it any longer the buzzer near his front door went off. He walked to the wall unit and pressed the
TALK
button. “Hello?”

“Hi. I’m back.”

She sounded winded, happy. Nick’s pulse jumped at the sound of her voice, and he pressed the buzzer to let her into the building.

He was holding the door open a few minutes later when Ary stepped off the elevator and walked toward his unit. Nick watched her move. Her muscled legs were bare beneath khaki shorts. Flat sandals with straps that wound up her calf adorned her feet, while the white tank top she wore hugged her awesome breasts. Her hair was straight, hanging over her shoulders and glittering with different tones of brown he’d never noticed before. She looked amazing. Simple and still breathtaking.

“Spa day,” she said as she approached him at the door. She held up half a dozen small bags and smiled up at him. “I have so many things in here, I don’t even know what to do with them.”

He caught her scent as she moved past him into the condo. Sweet and sensual, like flowers and honey. Closing the door, he watched her move into the living room, the material of her shorts fitting her ass like a glove. At his sides his own fingers clenched with the desire to grip those delectable globes just as those shorts were.

“I’ve had a full-body massage, which was heavenly,” she said with a gushing sigh.

Nick leaned against the wall, folding his arms over his chest as he watched her. She was leaning over the sofa where she’d dumped all her bags. Digging inside, she pulled out jars and tubes of stuff, tossing them to the side as if they weren’t what she was looking for. She talked as she moved, her voice sounding hurried and so happy he thought she’d bubble over with excitement.

That was what kept him quiet. The light lilt to her voice, the sound of her actually happy with something she’d done or something someone had done for her. He’d never heard her sound that way in the Gungi.

“I don’t know what this does, but this one, yes!” she yelled and turn to face him, holding a black tube in her hand. “This one does something to your skin, it causes this stimulation, a sensitive-type hum that, I don’t know. It just drove me crazy.”

Nick pushed away from the wall and walked to her. He took the tube from her hands and felt his own smile spread wildly. It was exactly what she’d said, a lotion that caused stimulation, sexual stimulation.

“You used this at the spa?” he asked, wondering now about her full-body massage and whether it was a male or female who’d given it to her.

“Yes! And it felt fantastic!” With both her hands free she tucked her hair back behind her ears on each side and licked her lips.

Nick almost groaned.

“Alexi, that was the masseur, he said it would make me and you feel good. So I asked if I could try it first. He put it on me and I felt like … like I feel when I’m with you.”

He didn’t know what to say first. Didn’t know what part of that sentence he wanted to address. “You had a full-body massage by a man?” That was probably the most important issue.

She nodded. “I was apparently very tense,” she said with a shrug.

“Tense, huh.” Nick’s teeth clenched. “And where did he put this lotion for you to sample?”

“He rubbed it along the backs of my thighs at first—”

Nick instantly saw red. “He did what?”

Ary frowned. “He was giving me a massage as we talked about the product. I was already on my stomach so he rubbed the lotion on the backs of my thighs. When I told him I liked how it felt, he capped the tube and sold it to me.”

“And what else did he do? What else did you let Alexi do to you, Ary?”

She took a step back from him. “You’re an idiot!” she yelled. “No matter how many times I try to ignore that fact, you keep forcing it into my face.”

Moving across the room, Ary began scooping up her items and tossing them into her bags.

“I asked you a simple question,” he said.

“You’re accusing me of doing something wrong. Well, I didn’t. I was enjoying myself for once.”

“You didn’t even tell me where you were going. I came home and you weren’t here. The least you could have done was left a note.”

“Oh, really?” she asked, spinning around to face him. “Is that the least I could have done? Well, tell me this, Mr. Delgado, did you leave me a note this morning telling me where you were going? When Rome called here looking for you and I foolishly told him you were at work but obviously you weren’t, a note would have been beneficial. Or is that just a rule I need to follow?”

“I go to work every weekday morning” was his tart reply.

“And what else? You come and go as you please and don’t say a word to me about anything. But I’m supposed to sit here and wait for you or document my every step?”

“I’m supposed to be protecting you.”

“But you’re not supposed to be fucking me!” she yelled back. “Either you’re my protector or you’re my lover. Choose which one and act accordingly!”

“Stop yelling and calm down,” he told her, moving over to grab her wrists, shaking them until she dropped the bags she’d slipped there to carry away. “You’re twisting my words.”

“No. I’m telling you how I see things.”

“I just want to know where you are at all times. Is that so bad?”

“I’m not a child and I’m not some pet you need to keep on a leash. I’m a woman.”

“You’re my woman, Ary! My mate! Therefore, the thought of some other man rubbing your thighs is not acceptable.”

She pulled away from him, stumbling back onto the chair then quickly pulling herself back up. “Don’t tell me what’s acceptable. I’ll do what I want, when I want, and neither you nor anyone else is going to stop me.”

“I’m your mate!”

“You’re an ass! Just like my controlling father and the rigid household I grew up in. You want to bark orders and dictate my every move and thought. Well, dammit, I’m sick and tired of living like that. I won’t live like that again!”

When she stalked past him this time, her shoulder bumped his chest. Nick was the one to stumble back.

“Fuck you, Nick Delgado!” she yelled as she hit the steps, not with a run, but a gentle stomp that said she was spitting mad.

Nick stood for a moment, watching those same legs he’d just admired minutes ago disappear up the spiral staircase. When the door upstairs slammed, he cursed. Picking up the tube of lotion from the floor, he slung it hard across the room until it bounced off the patio glass and twirled back to the middle of the floor.

Sitting down heavily on the sofa, he put his face in his hands and sighed. Maybe Rome was right about the rules to the mating game being drastically different.

Chapter 20

“Did you give it to her?” Sabar asked Norbert.

“Yes. Yes, I did,” Norbert stuttered.

Sabar wondered how this man was so great at his work. The research he conducted at George Washington would have required him to make presentations before investors to receive funding. With all the stuttering and sweating he did whenever he was asked a question, the investors should have been instantly turned off.

They were at the safe house, the brownstone where Sabar lived. He’d wanted to keep a close eye on the development of the new drug and its first test dummy. Norbert would be returned to the warehouse in Virginia, where his lab and sleeping quarters were located, along with the Rogues assigned to keep watch over him there. Darel would stay at the brownstone with Sabar and the test dummy.

“She’s a looker,” Gabriel said, licking his lips. His beady eyes opened wide to trace up and down the length of the half-naked female who lay on the bed.

“She’s young,” Darel added.

“She’s a test dummy,” Sabar told them both and pushed past them so that he was now standing right beside where her body lay on the bed.

The room was dark except for the small lamp on the table next to the bed. The walls had been painted a lighter shade than the thick hunter-green carpet that lined the floors. No other furniture had been put into this room, so Sabar had designated it the test room.

“You stay here and watch her,” Sabar told Darel. “I want a report in the morning on her every reaction.”

Norbert had already begun shaking his head. He stood at the end of the bed, wringing his ashen hands so that they made a chafing sound with each motion. “Maybe I should stay with her just in case something goes wrong.”

“You’re going back to the lab to mix more of the drug. If something happens, Darel will take care of it,” Sabar said in no uncertain terms.

Norbert put his head down while Darel nodded his agreement. “I won’t leave her.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna stay, too,” Gabriel said, rubbing the female’s thigh, then down to her knee and calves with trembling fingers. “I’ll make sure she’s just fine.”

Sabar slapped his hand away. “You’ll keep watch and that’s it. Get him out of here first!” He ordered Gabriel toward Norbert.

“We shouldn’t rush the drug. I’ve never worked with it before. And the cocaine we used was pure. She could d-die,” Norbert told Sabar nervously.

Sabar had covered the space between himself and Norbert in about two seconds, pulling the man’s face up to his by yanking his collar and lifting him off the floor. “You listen to me, ass brain, I call the shots around here. So when I say produce the drug, that’s what the fuck I mean! Now get back to your job before I cut off your horny little dick and feed it to you for supper.”

Norbert paled, rightfully so, at Sabar’s threat and his strength. The chemist fell to the floor after Sabar released him, only to be yanked up again and dragged out of the room by Gabriel.

When they were alone, Sabar clapped his hands together and looked at Darel. “This is it. This new drug is going to bring us a big steady payoff.”

“What about the deal with Slakeman? His office has been calling all week. You want me to handle that?” Darel asked.

“No.” Sabar shook his head. “I’ll handle him for now. If he doesn’t cooperate, then you can do your thing. Right now, she’s your number one priority. We can’t move up in the ranks without some serious pull around here. A new drug will give us that.”

Darel nodded. “Cortez won’t be happy.”

“Cortez is the past. By the time that bastard figures it out he’ll be dead.” Sabar touched the female’s face with blunt-tipped fingers, lifting one eyelid, then the other.

“And what about the Factions? They’re hunting us now.”

He wiped his hands on his pants and continued to stare down at the female. “Good, let them hunt. When I’m ready for those fuckers, they’ll get exactly what’s coming to them.”

Darel nodded again. Something he’d been doing a lot lately. “Gabriel knows where the Faction Leader lives. You want him to sit there?”

“I want him to stay with that fool-ass chemist for now. We’ll deal with the Faction Leaders and those female cats they’re hiding later.” He definitely had not forgotten about them. He had a personal score to settle with Kalina. And the other one, the
curandero,
well, she would die for being so stupid and to prove his point about the jungle cats.