Unquenchable Desire (22 page)

Her eyes darkened with smoky
passion. Unable to stand the escalating torture a second longer, he captured
her lips and plundered her mouth, putting his whole heart into the blissful
scrutiny. He trailed a hand to her waist and tentatively caressed the curve of
her hip before sliding downward to her thigh. He tangled the fingers of his
other hand into the beautiful mass of silken, golden hair, fulfilling at least
that yearning before she rebelled—and he knew she
would
rebel.

He explored her mouth, stroking her
curves, hoping to block her ability to feed her resentment. His nerves
tightened close to the breaking point, knowing that any moment she’d break away.
The almost imperceptible rigidness beginning in her shoulders was a slow,
insidious journey toward that rejection. He stood it as long as he could, then
abruptly
ended
the kiss. “All right, dammit. Let’s
clear the air. What can I do to fix this madness?”

“Help me persuade Dad to set a trap
with me as the bait.”

“Do you remember what happened in
the barrio?”

“That was different. My only goal
was to save
Kindra
.”

“And your goal now is?”

“Identify the evil werewolf, draw
him out, and with you and Dad’s help,
kill
him.”

“And what if he goes after your
dad? Will you sacrifice yourself for him the way you did for me? When you
grabbed the syringe and injected the serum into your veins you weren’t
following the plan. How can I convince your dad after that episode that you won’t
do something impetuous again?”

****

Damon paced the master bedroom he
shared with his wife, thinking about his daughter’s words. He glanced at Angela
who watched him with a questioning expression. “Valerie said she’d rather be
dead than living in constant fear of Reeves. Already too many in our family
took the fool’s way out. How do I make her see she’s thinking wrong?”

“What does she want you to do?” It
seemed his wife always cut to the chase.

Damon frowned and shook his head.
 
“She wants us to let her be the bait.”

Angela gasped. She rubbed her head.
After a few tension filled moments, she rose and came to him, drawing him down
on the bed.
 
Her intoxicating flowery
scent wafted around him. He swelled with desire and then felt guilty. Now
wasn’t the time to give in to his trigger urges.

“Can it be done safely?” she asked
softly.

“Safely?
Hell
no! All we could do is take as much risk out of it as possible. But it’s out of
the question. I refuse to put her in that kind of danger.”

Angela lowered her gaze and picked
at a loose thread on the bed’s coverlet. “Do you think she meant what she
said?”

“Dammit, yes.”

“Then, we’d better consider her
suggestion and come up with the most risk free plan that’s humanly possible.”

Damon pulled Angela into the circle
of his arms again and kissed her forehead. “Honey, you’re overlooking a few
important facts. Number one, Valerie’s known to act impulsively to save others.
Look at the dangerous shenanigans she pulled with the serum.”

“Aren’t you willing to give her a
chance to prove she can learn from her mistakes?”

“Not with a life or death result
hanging in the balance. A mission like this would require strict adherence to
the plan. Without her wolf defenses she’d be totally vulnerable, like a downed,
crippled dove. Actually,
Victoria
would be better for the job. But I refuse to put either of my girls in
jeopardy.”

“Our girls,” she
corrected,
her tone soft but firm.

He glared at her. “Maybe you’ve
forgotten the monster we’re dealing with and all the people he’s killed, people
we cared deeply about.”

Tears rushed to Angela’s eyes. “I
could never forget. How could you even think that?”

He pressed his hand to his
forehead—she’d lost her best friend, Kat. “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. No
matter what choice I make there’s a big downside. Perhaps living in a world
with the walking dead has paralyzed my brain or dimmed my courage.”

Angela took a deep breath and blew
it out. “Damon, you can be extremely aggravating.” She roughly wiped the tears
from her eyes with her wrist. “Hugh is also one of the walking dead—a new and
improved model. He’s no longer a hunchback, in fact he’s exceeding handsome.”

Damon rolled his eyes. “And your
point is?”

She gave a sly smile. “Right, I got
carried away. My point is, he should know how this walking dead thing works and
be a help to us.”

“He and I have talked about it in the past and he only knows his own
journey from the bowels of the Earth. He was resurrected by an angel but
figures that Reeves must’ve been resurrected by the devil. Even if we’re lucky
enough to identify and kill Reeves,
Hugh doesn’t
know how to fix it so he stays dead. And neither do I.”

“We have a big problem, but I believe in you and think
if anyone can solve this, it’s you.”

“Valerie’s threat reopened old wounds and dredged up a
past I’d like to forget.”

“We’d all like to forget it. But perhaps once you let
go of how you think things should be, you’ll start feeling satisfied with where
you are right now.”

Damon shook his head. “Good advice under ordinary
circumstances, but—”

“Our girls are safe so far.” Angela interrupted him,
like she often did when she was frightened. “They’re smart, healthy, and not
warped by the past. And if it was the serum that cured Valerie, you may have
found a cure. The girls have a right to want to end the backlash from the
curses.”

“In our present situation, my love, I can’t be
satisfied where I am right now.

The night watchman lost his throat to a werewolf attack
in our foundation and the police are considering arresting me. In addition, my
foundation was almost blown to bits with my daughter inside, so forget the
fantasyland advice.”

Angela recoiled as though he’d slapped her.

Regret washed over him. “I’m sorry, Honey. Forgive me. This
has been a hellish day and I’m having trouble coping.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s okay. And know
this, Damon Lamont, I have faith in you and know you’ll work this out the best
you can.”

He kissed her, wanting to believe, at least for now,
there might be hope. As he deepened his kiss, he let the problems go and made
love to the woman who could always make him feel like a million bucks, even
when she didn’t agree with his methods or way of thinking.

Chapter Eighteen

Brian felt uneasy about trusting Valerie.
She was like the dynamite left in the foundation basement, trigger-ready to
explode. But then, there was the shiny side of the coin. He recalled the
scripture Momma Maggie used to read to him from Ecclesiastes 11.4
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will
never get anything done.
He couldn’t wait. This evilness had gone on far
too long
.
“I’ll look into this for
you…for all of us… and the community. But you must promise not to make a move
until I get things set up.”

“Brian, if you help me, I’ll be in
your debt forever. Forget my past impetuous act.”

“I’ll never forget it for several
reasons. But I’m still waiting for your promise.’

She rolled her eyes.
“All right.
I promise.”

“Don’t glower at me. If you want a
future open to possibilities, you’ll have to trust that I’ll use every weapon
available to identify and destroy the evil in our lives. Only
your
unwavering faith and God’s help will give me the
knowledge, courage, and strength to seek out our enemy and defeat him.

“Powerful words, Brian.
But this isn’t a job for one
man.”

He laughed, feeling no humor.
“Ah, ye
with so little faith.”
He straightened the filigree gold cross he’d
placed around her neck and fought a grin at her little gasp. “I don’t intend to
do it alone. Give me a week to show you what I can do with the right help. And
in the meantime, we’ll be glued to one another like Siamese twins.”

“What about Dad?”

“I’ll enlist his help to gather my posse. You’ll see. It’ll
all work out. You’re surrounded by strong men who care about you and will
strive to keep you safe.”

“I assume you mean you, Dad, Uncle Hugh, and Rick.”

He nodded. “And your dad mentioned a man named
Deeto
who has an axe to grind with our evil werewolf. I’ll
see if he wants to join the extermination party.”

She smiled impishly.
“Extermination
party.
I like the sound of that.” She held out her hand to shake on
their deal and then froze. “Look there’s Kyle! He’s been missing for over an
hour. Now there he is running across the field like demons are after him. Better
check out our mild-mannered houseman very carefully.”

Brian glanced at Kyle. “He’s on my list.” He grabbed
her limp hand and drew her close. “We’d better kiss. And make it look good. We
don’t want him to know we’re watching him.”

She shook her head. “Brian, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

He grinned. “For
a few minutes, pretend you were.” Refusing to let her escape, he tightened his
hold until it was steely, unbreakable. Did she feel the singe of flames in his
gaze that he’d purposely intensified…and the heat of his chest pressed against
her breasts? Could she guess about the hot stirrings in his groin and the new
fires igniting from her nearness? “Come on, I need a little more body contact. First
person on my list is your dad and I need a super-hot kiss to provide an energy
boost to tackle the big guy.”

She laughed and melted in his arm
s
, her silken hair brushing his cheek.
God, he loved this woman
. Then he
loosened his hold a fraction—to survive, he had to fight to remain a tad
detached from loving so deeply. Such human emotions were dangerous, especially
now with so much at stake.

****

Brian squared his shoulders and
without hesitation gave Damon’s office
door
a hard
rap. He wanted to chalk up the dampness under his arms as normal for a hot August
day, but even he didn’t buy the lie. What if Damon kicked him out? He could
live in the hills again. Why was he
planning defeat?

“Come in, Brian.” Damon’s tone
sounded congenial, perhaps deceptively so.

Brian took a deep breath and opened
the door with forcefulness. He stood squarely in front of Damon’s desk and
looked down on him. “Sir, could we talk about Valerie’s suggestion without
letting our emotions get in the way?”

Damon stood and gestured to the
guest chair.
“No way.
It’s a damned emotional subject
and she’s my baby.”

Brian sat down in the still low
guest chair—better termed the hot seat. He didn’t know what to do with his long
legs.

Damon punched the intercom and told
Kyle to bring them coffee. He remained standing, staring down at Brian. The
seconds felt like minutes. Finally, Damon said, “Do I intimidate you, Brian?”

“Only because you’re the father of
the woman I love.” Nerves jumped under his flesh. “Look, Sir, like I said—I
love Valerie and wouldn’t suggest anything that might put her in jeopardy.”

Damon shook his head and laughed
bitterly. “Yet, you want to discuss her crazy idea. You were there when she
grabbed the needle and jabbed it into her arm. If you’re able to protect her,
why didn’t you grab the needle away from her?”

Brian swallowed past the
constriction in his throat. “Why didn’t you, Sir?” He rushed on. “For the same
reason I didn’t. Her act came out of the blue. No one could’ve known she’d do
such a hair-brained thing.”

A red flush crawled up Damon’s neck.
Brian wondered if his bold comment had killed his chances to win Damon over.

There was a light tap on the door,
and Kyle brought in two mugs of coffee and saucer-sized plates, each with two
peanut-butter cookies drizzled with chocolate. He hesitated at the door.

Damon glanced at him. “Thank you,
Kyle. That fresh from the oven aroma destroys my diet every time.”

Kyle beamed, his watery blue eyes
glinting like a shard of glass. Then he disappeared as though he’d never been
there.

Damon handed Brian a mug and a
cookie plate while glaring at him.

After his earlier bold comment, Brian
felt lucky Damon didn’t throw the coffee at him. He tried to balance the mug
and cookies on his lap. He finally gave up and put the drink and plate on the
edge of Damon’s desk.

Damon narrowed his eyes as he
gulped down a swig of coffee. Suddenly, he stood and paced. “Let’s hear your plan
and I’ll point out the holes in it.”

“I appreciate your confidence, Sir,” he said sarcastically. “But all
right. I’ll give it a try. Actually, some of what Valerie suggested made
sense.”

Damon snickered. “Oh yeah, which part?”

“Having a strong metal cage ready for the capture made
sense. And when he’s dead, a mixer full of fresh cement might be handy. Also,
it’s possible that dropping him in the deepest part of the ocean in a concrete
casket might end his ability to return.”

“All pipe dreams. Tell me who he is and how we lure him
into the cage.”

“We choose likely suspects and set up each one up with
a separate night to catch Valerie alone. We jointly attack the one who makes a
threatening move toward her.”

“And while we’re setting a trap using Valerie, we leave
Victoria and Angela vulnerable.”