Tricked: A Dark Protectors Novella (13 page)

She could do nothing but accept it all. It was submission on a level she hadn’t understood, and yet, she craved more. “Harder,” she murmured. “More, Jared.” Whatever he had, whoever he was, she wanted it all. Wanted to claim him in a way she barely understood.

He gave it to her.

Holding nothing back, he hammered into her, shooting her body into places she had never even imagined. She broke with a sharp cry, riding out the waves, whimpering at the end.

He didn’t stop.

If anything, his speed and strength increased. Minutes later, maybe hours, she exploded again, his name the only sound on her lips. The third time, he was the only thing in her universe.

He held her close, shuddering with her this time.

She gasped, pleasure and pain pouring through her. Finally, he released her shoulder, licking until it stopped bleeding and the agonizing burning numbed. Her eyelids fluttered open to see it getting dark outside.

He withdrew and flipped her around to her back, allowing her to finally lie down before covering her, pressing back inside. She sighed in relief before her mind caught up. How in the world was he still hard?

She shook her head against the pillow. Her body didn’t even feel like hers any longer. Over-sensitized to the point of still being needy, she wasn’t sure of anything except him. Only him. Now that was power. “I, ah, can’t,” she mumbled, taking in his implacable face. “Not again.”

He smiled. “Wanna bet?”

Chapter 12

Jared listened to the sleet slash against the window as the world moved outside without them, his arm around a soundly sleeping Veronica. They’d been in bed nearly twenty-four hours, but he had gotten up a couple of times to grab food.

He fingered the sharp bite marks and surrounding bruise on her neck. Even the healing properties from his saliva hadn’t banished the bruise after he’d claimed her. After the first several hours, he’d lost count of how many times she screamed his name while pleasure took her under. He fucking loved that sound. Who knew he’d find his perfect wild match in an arranged mating?

Did fate really have a plan?

Truth be told, he didn’t give a damn. Veronica was his, fate or not.

A rap echoed on his door. He frowned. Reality was bound to intrude at some point. Gently moving Veronica to the side, he covered her with the blankets and moved from the bed to yank his jeans up.

He padded barefoot to open the door. “What?” he growled.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Theo spat, fury rolling off him.

Jared moved into the hallway and shut the door, following his brother down to the kitchen. “What’s going on?” A quick glance at the clock confirmed it was nearly noon. Time flied when one was fucking within an inch of one’s life. He grinned.

Theo whirled on him.

Jared lost the smile and went on full alert. Were they in danger? “Spit it out, Theo.”

Chalton moved in from the living room, munching on a sandwich. “Holy shit, brother. Does your dick still work?”

Jared frowned at him. “Jealous?”

“No. You probably need talcum powder or something,” Chalton said cheerfully. “Glad you worked it out with your mate.”

Jared grinned. “Me, too.”

Chalton glanced at Theo. “Whoa. What crawled up your butt?”

Theo sucked in air, his nostrils flaring. “The hack into our system. I found the hacker.”

Jared’s eyebrows rose. “That’s good.”

“Is it? Is it, Jared?” Theo snapped, putting his hands on his hips.

Jared cocked his head to the side. What the hell was wrong with Theo? “Yes?” he asked.

“No. I mean, no. Damn it. Don’t you see?” Theo threw up his hands. “She shows up, out of the blue, and right now? Right when everything is going to shit around us?”

“Uh.” Jared rubbed his whiskers, trying to decipher the sentence. “Who, Theo?”

“Ginny.” Theo’s eyes spit black fire. “Right now, she just shows up?”

“Ginny?” Jared glanced at Chalton and back. “I figured maybe she heard about the mating and showed up.”

“No,” Theo said lowly. “She hacked us. She took the Benjamin file with her. Printed the whole thing out, bleached the hard drive, and took it.”

Jared reared back. “Ginny? No way.”

“Yes, way,” Theo bellowed. “You have always had a blind spot for that manipulative bitch. Jesus. She was here for a reason, and she took the Benjamin file.”

“That’s crazy,” Chalton breathed.

The Benjamin file was a complete list of all their holdings, real and personal property—as well as family dynamics and secrets they didn’t want out. “Why?” Jared asked. “What did she want?”

“I don’t know. The more important question is who she’s working for,” Theo said grimly. He glanced at the phone in his hand. “I have a lead on her, and I’m tracking her down.”

Jared paused. “Should I do that?”

“No.” Theo said, his eyes gleaming. “You deal with your woman. I’ll handle this one.” He grabbed his jacket and stomped out of the room.

Jared’s mouth dropped open. “Theo and Ginny?”

Chalton shook his head. “He’s going to kill her. Know any good lawyers?”

Jared scrubbed both hands down his face. “We have to figure this out.” Voices from the other room caught his attention. “Who’s here?”

“Veronica’s crime-fighting unit that was supposed to meet yesterday morning.” Chalton grinned. “Before your marathon that included all of us hearing your name screamed a lot more than I ever wanted.”

Jared rolled his eyes, his brain returning instantly to the threat at hand. “I’ll awaken Veronica. We need to kill the person who poisoned her before going after Ginny.”

“One disaster at a time,” Chalton agreed easily. “Everyone is just eating right now, but I think the doctor has news she’s ready to share.”

“All right.” Jared pivoted and headed back upstairs. He opened the bedroom door to see Veronica still sleeping peacefully, her face turned toward him. She was sweet and fragile in sleep, and he had to fight the urge to crawl back into bed with her and sleep the stormy day away. “Veronica.” He reached her and gently shook her shoulder.

Her eyelids fluttered open. “What?” she muttered.

He grinned. The woman was a grump. “Your friends are here. Downstairs.”

“Don’t care.” She stretched like a lazy cat and shut her eyes. “Tired.”

He had made the second mating a marathon, now hadn’t he? “Okay. You stay here and sleep, and I’ll talk to them.”

Her eyelids flashed open. Realization dawned, and she sat up, holding the blankets to her chest. “No.” She shook her head, and that glorious hair splayed down her bare back. “I forgot about the case for a moment.”

Masculine pride puffed out his chest.

She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself.” Pushing across the bed, she put distance between them. Then she groaned as she stood.

“Sore?” he asked mildly.

She glared over her bruised shoulder. “Nope. Not at all.”

“We’ll see what we can do about that later, then.”

* * * *

Ronni finished dressing in a thick sweater and her faded jeans after a very hot shower, her entire body aching with an annoying set of tingles. Every time her legs moved, her sex clenched, and she fought a moan.

There wasn’t an inch of her that hadn’t been caressed, licked, or explored by Jared. The man, the
male
, had found nerves she hadn’t known existed.

Everywhere.

Her breasts felt heavy and full in the bra, and she wanted nothing better than to shrug out of the thing.

Instead, she slapped a smile on her face and gingerly made her way downstairs to the main living room. Mabel and Lance sat on the sofa, Olivia shared the love seat with Chalton, while Jared leaned against the doorframe, distrust darkening his features. Papers and manila files were scattered across the sofa table.

Mabel looked up, her blue eyes lightening with her smile. “Hi, there. Feeling better?”

Ronni caught herself. Heat filled her face. “Ah, well—”

“From the poisoning,” Olivia hastened to say. “I was just telling Mabel that it looks like your body fought the poison, and you’re going to be all right.”

Oh. Of course Mabel didn’t have a clue about the sex marathon. Ronni’s cheeks hurt, but she forced her smile wider. “Yes. I’m feeling much better.”

Lance narrowed his gaze in his detective look. “Are you sure? You’re moving funny.”

Jared coughed into his hand.

Ronni shot him a look. “I’m fine. Slipped on the ice earlier.”

“Come sit down.” Mabel patted the place next to her. “You’re not going to believe this. I found the original autopsy report on Walt, and there were contusions, showing he fought somebody right before death.”

Lance hissed out a breath and plunked his badge on the sofa. “Not going to need this.”

“Yes, you are,” Mabel countered, shoving her dark hair away from her pretty face. “We’re doing this the right way. You put that back.”

Lance stared at her for a moment and then slowly retrieved his badge.

“Good. There was also a puncture wound under the detective’s neck,” Mabel said, pointing to a series of pictures scattered on the papers. “He was definitely murdered.”

“Dr. Counts is in on it. Or he was bribed,” Lance said, fury in his voice.

Olivia nodded. “That makes sense, right? I mean, as a coroner with a medical degree, he’d know plenty about exotic poisons. Well, probably.”

Ronni gulped. “Yeah, and he hangs out at the cop bar as well as in our office sometimes. If he really wanted to poison me, it wouldn’t have been too difficult.”

“What does he have to do with missing drugs from lockup?” Lance asked grimly.

Who knew?

Chalton reached for a stack of papers. “We’re going through all the financials now, trying to find any sort of link to anybody. Nothing yet.”

Ronni grabbed a yellow pad of paper. “All right. I’ll go through this stack.”

Jared straightened. “The weather has finally let up, so I’m going to scout the property for threats.” He gestured for Ronni to follow him.

She frowned and did so, reaching the kitchen.

He brushed hair away from her face, his eyes warm. “You are moving stiffly. Are you all right?”

Warmth filtered through her chest. “I like all sides of you,” she murmured, leaning up to place a kiss on his hard chin.

One of his dark eyebrows rose. “I have sides?”

“Yeah. Hard and tough. Sweet and gentle. Passionate and wild.” She couldn’t remember her life before him, and really, she’d just met him. That had to mean something big.

He grinned. “You’ve got a real sweet side, too. Stay inside, and holler if you guys find anything.”

She’d forgotten bossy and arrogant. Oh, well. For now, she had a job to do. Turning back, she bit down a yelp as he smacked her on the ass. Oh, he’d pay for that later. She chuckled. Yeah. Fun and crazy. He was those things, too.

* * * *

Jared finished cleaning his gun, his gaze on the gathering storm outside. While the weather had finally broken and provided sun on sparkling snow for a few hours, the next round of snow and wind was rapidly arriving with the night.

An itch set up between his shoulder blades.

Veronica and her pals were still working away in the living room, while Chalton was hacking files left and right with his computer—mainly investigating the two other people in the living room. Detective Lance Peters and Dr. Mabel Louis didn’t get a pass, just because Veronica and Olivia liked them. Jared had scouted the area outside and now was left with nothing to do.

Oh, he could go through the papers with the rest of them, but somebody had to take watch, and he was the most experienced.

He shrugged off unease. Having a mate in danger no doubt added tension to a guy’s psyche, and as soon as he took care of the threat, he’d feel much better. As would she. While she kept up a brave front, he could tell it cost her. The fact that somebody had actually wanted her dead.

It was a sobering thought.

He polished the barrel of his gun, wondering if he should get one of the green laser guns out of the safe in the basement. Those would deal with immortals as well as humans.

The lights went out.

He stiffened and stood, listening. Wind blew through the world outside, scattering sleet and ice.

A couple of flashlights ignited from the living room, and the sound of a lighter echoed. Candlelight followed the flashlights.

“Think it’s the storm?” Chalton asked, reaching the doorway.

Tension clawed through Jared. “No. Everybody get down.” He’d barely bellowed the order when red laser beams pierced through the windows. “Veronica,” he yelled, jumping for the living room.

He landed on his knees and skidded inside. Volleys of bullets pinged through the windows, shattering glass in every direction. Olivia screamed, and Chalton tackled her to the floor. Bullets hit the sofas and chairs, spewing cotton filling everywhere.

Jared reached Veronica just as Mabel pulled Lance away from the window. The cop yanked his gun from his waistband and crab walked toward the far window.

“Shit,” Chalton snapped. “Holy fuck. Benny is going to kill us. This was my last chance, Jared. After the apartment in the city—”

Jared’s chest heated. “One threat at a time,” he snarled. Yeah, Benny would kill them for allowing his house to be trashed—especially after the whole penthouse debacle. Probably with a great deal of pain and some fire. Ben loved fire. For now, they had to take care of the attackers outside. “How many do you think?” He crouched on the floor, Veronica at his side.

“At least three,” Detective Lance said, inching closer to the wall. “They must’ve followed us here. I haven’t asked. Do you guys know what you’re doing?”

Considering they had four centuries of battle and fighting on the detective, probably fucking yes. “We do,” Jared said calmly. His temper rioted, and his need for vengeance tasted like blood. The cowards shooting from the tree line were aiming at his woman. “We, however, don’t arrest the enemy.” They killed.

The detective looked at him, his gaze sober. “No problem.”

They were on the same page then.