Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) (13 page)

“Ahhh, my ears!”  She
turned at the sound of Ian screeching up the path a ways.  “My sister!  Is
nothing sacred?!”

“Oh, good lord,” she
muttered, rolling her eyes while Shawn grinned and wrapped his arms around her
waist pulling her closer to his body.  Shifters were not exactly shy where
nudity was concerned, so neither of them made an effort to separate.  Her
brother could fuck a duck as far as she was concerned.  Then he came into view
down the path and slapped both hands over his eyes.  “Gaaah!  My eyes!”  He
faked a whole body shudder.  “Do I need to see my sister canoodling? 
Do I?
”

“What do you want, Ian?”

Ian finally uncovered his
eyes, so she wiggled her eyebrows at Shawn and then grabbed his ass.

“Aaagh!”  Ian slapped his
hands back to his face.  “Have you no
shame
?”

Cleo and Shawn both
laughed.  If she could get him to slap his own face all day by messing with her
mate, it would be a win-win as far as she was concerned.

“I came to warn you,” he
muttered without uncovering his eyes.

Cleo turned her head
enough to see her brother.  He had some clothes hung over his shoulder that she
recognized.  “Ian, did you bring us clothes?” 

“I did.  Rescued your
weapons, too; they’re in your old room.  And came to tell you Miley woke up
fine, and Dad is being revoltingly randy all over the house.”  When he handed
her one of her guns from behind his back, she squealed like a girl.

Was he actually being
helpful?

“You must be feeling
really
guilty about outing us to dad,” she muttered, taking the clothes
from over his shoulder and the Glock while he was still blinded by his own
hands.

“It hurts me the way you
judge me so harshly,” he said shaking his head sadly.  “It hurts me
deeply
.”

“Uh-huh.”  She pulled on
the overly big sweats and t-shirt that dragged to her knees.  She was tall, so
they had to be his own clothes.  She turned to look at Shawn and he was almost
in the same situation.  He was taller than her by a bit, built like a weapon,
all twisted steel and sexy with it, but Ian was growing into their father’s
height and build, and his clothes hung on Shawn.  She laughed when he raised
his eyebrow at her, pulling the t-shirt on in that way guys had of stretching
the clothes over their neck and pulling down with one yank.  “Very sexy,” she
finally said, making Ian snort and pop open his fingers so that one eye was peeking
at them, before dropping his hands completely.  Shawn just gave her a half
smile before he looked at Ian and all expression and softness dropped from his
face.  It was almost scary the way he could do that.

Apparently Ian agreed,
because he cleared his throat and looked sheepishly away.  “Not that I don’t
feel a little bad about that outing you issue,” he muttered, shrugging
uncomfortably under Shawn’s predatory stare.

“Wow, you are such a
pussy,” Cleo said shaking her head at the way he carefully looked anywhere but in
Shawn’s direction.

Ian immediately glared
her way, but when Shawn stepped up behind her, he closed the mouth he had just
opened.  Then he bit out a growl, “You’re dead to me.”  He said it distinctly,
wiping his hand between them dramatically before he turned and left, running
away from her mate’s raptor stare. 
Like a little girl.

“Thanks for the clothes
and my gun!” she yelled after him.  His lion chuffed his displeasure. 
Drama
queen.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

As fun as it was to
torture Ian, she did appreciate the clothes and the warning.  So, without even
poking their head in the house where her father was being ‘randy,’ they headed
for Shawn’s Tahoe and to the place where her troubles had begun.  When they
pulled up to the lake house once again, she was still thinking about the last
time she was there.

She still shuddered at
the thought of how that night went.  He caught it; like always, he saw
everything.

“Would it erase the
memory of me trying to push you away if I told you it ripped me apart to do it?”

She turned in her seat to
study him.  “Why did you do it?  Knowing I was your mate, why did you push me
off?  My father could not have been all of it; you were quick enough to claim
me when Ian found us in the closet, but until you saw me flirting with that
smoking hot enforcer, you were still walking the distance line.”

He studied her, his eyes
flashing briefly at the description of Stryker.  But he gave it the thought it
deserved, as was his way.  “I gave you up years ago with the idea that you
would find a good man your own age to make you happy.  I could live with
knowing I would never have my mate when I could tell myself you would be happy
with someone else.”

Cleo had to restrain
herself from slapping him again, and she was glad she did when he kept talking.

“What a fucking idiot.” 
She blinked at his description of himself, but he wasn’t done.  “It took me
less than a minute watching you flirt with that fucking enforcer before I lost
my noble intentions.  I told myself that it was because he was the worst
possible choice, and you were better off with me, so I could take what I
wanted.”  He pushed his hand into her hair and held her steady with his eyes
more than his hands, but both felt good on her skin.  “It was all bullshit.  I
would have killed anyone who tried to claim you.  No matter who he was.  You were
always mine, and I would never have been able to give you up, whatever my noble
intentions.  The second I got caught sneaking around in the pantry like an
oversexed teenager, I knew that.”

“I wouldn’t say teenager
. . . per say.  It was hot as hell, and if I had known that all I had to do to get
you to step up was a flirtation, I would have brought a man home ages ago.”

He narrowed his eyes.  “I
don’t actually find that funny.”

She leaned forward and
kissed him hard on the lips.  Then pulled back and looked him right in the
eye.  “Who’s laughing?”

Cleo got out of the Tahoe
before he could grab her, but he was moving fast out his door and around the
hood before she could get any further.  “You going to carry me over the
threshold?” she asked playfully when he lifted her right off the ground in a
classic romantic lift.

He smiled and started to
speak, and then his whole body locked up and his eyes went straight to raptor
gold.  Then she smelled it – humans with a whiff of lion. 
Motherfucker.

He dropped her to her
feet and pushed her between him and the Tahoe.  She reached for her gun and
cursed the fact that she left the rest of her weapons at the house, rather than
collecting them when she had the chance.

And Shawn only had the
pistol he grabbed from his truck when they boarded.  He could shift and hit the
air, but from the smells surrounding them, they were dealing with a small group
of armed humans, probably set up for a distance attack this time since they
weren’t moving forward yet.  She knew he would not leave her exposed by
shifting, even if they had no chance, caught out in the open as they were.  She
clicked the safety off and chambered a round.

Then she heard the shot
and Shawn jerked back into her and started to crumble.  At the smell of his blood,
she forgot every bit of her training and grabbed desperately at her mate.  They
still hit the ground with Shawn sprawled, a dead weight across her legs.  She
saw where the overpowering smell of blood was coming from.  Seeing the large
hole in his chest she threw her hands over the gaping wound and tried to stanch
the blood.  His eyes were open and on her, but all she could see was the blood
spurting through her fingers so close to his heart.  Even a shifter could not
survive this, and they both knew it.

“Go,” he said with an
effort.  “Run.”

She shook her head
frantically and kept up the pressure, knowing as she did that it was not going
to save him.  But when she felt the sting of multiple darts at her neck and
shoulder, she threw back her head and roared her rage.  Then everything just
faded away, and the last thing she saw was the impotent fury in her dying mate’s
face.

***

The phone rang again and
Lucas turned away from his worn out mate; grumbling his annoyance, he yanked it
up and stabbed the answer button almost crushing it.  “What?!”

There was a crash and it
sounded like something hit the ground along with the phone.  Then he heard one
word in a broken pain-filled whisper, “Cleo . . .”

His whole body locked up
and Miley sat up beside him in a rush, saw his face, and started pulling on her
clothes even before he spoke.  “Shawn?!”

They smelled humans and
gun oil as soon as they opened the car door, but he could also smell blood, so
Lucas yelled at Miley to stay in the car, since she refused to be left behind
at home.  He didn’t argue too much.  When they handled the threat, it did not
occur to him that there would be a second team in play.  His daughter and Shawn
may have paid the price for his assumptions.  He would be damned if Miley was
out of his sight for more than the minute it took him to check out the house. 
Even if he knew no one would have hung around and let Shawn make that call if
there was still danger here.  He was through making assumptions.

“Ian, stay with her,” he
called as the second car screeched to a halt behind his SUV.  He didn’t wait
for an answer.

He busted through the
already hanging open door following the blood trail, all the while thinking no
one could survive that much blood loss and saw Shawn soaked in blood and lying
at the end of the trail beside the phone.  Knowing he had to be dead, he shut
off his emotions and checked for the pulse.  When he found a sputtering
heartbeat, he almost fell over the shock was so great.  He ripped open the
t-shirt so soaked in blood the color was indistinguishable and found the bloody
bullet wound. 

“How the fuck are you
still alive?” he asked grimly and heard a sound before he smelled Miley.  She
came down on her knees, and for a moment, he almost stopped her.  He had seen
what she looked like when she healed.  What would healing someone so close to
death do? But lucky for him, it was not a call he had to make.  Miley was
already sending healing into Shawn, and all he could do was watch over the both
of them while two people he loved fought death.

Logan came through the
door with an unusually serious Ian.  Right behind them was Eli.  Lucas motioned
his head with an angry jerk and they spread out, guns pulled, none of them had
much hope of finding Cleo.  She would have to be dead or unconscious before
they got her away from her mate when he was like this.  Since the only blood he
could smell was Shawn’s, Cleo could not have had a chance to fight back.  They
had finally succeeded in taking her, but she was alive somewhere.  At least
that was what his instincts were telling him, and he was going to cling to that
unless someone showed him otherwise.

He turned his attention
back to Miley and Shawn, watching Shawn’s wound close slowly while the color
slowly leached from Miley’s normally golden complexion.  He prayed like he
never had in his life that she could save his daughter’s mate, that his
daughter was safe, and that Miley would not kill herself to bring Shawn back. 
More than once he started to tear her away, but held back.  The others
eventually came back as they all stood armed vigil over a man they considered a
brother and the woman who had long since captured all their hearts, not just
his.

Finally, she looked as
close to death as Shawn had been when she started and he pulled her away.  She
gasped and thrashed against him trying to get back to Shawn.  “He’ll die!” she
argued, but he refused to let her return to him.

“Maybe, maybe not, but
you sure as fuck won’t go with him,” he growled, holding her tight in his arms,
“and Shawn would be the first one to stop you.”  Finally, she collapsed, her
head hitting his heart, and rested there while she cried as if her heart was
breaking.  She clung to him, and he was not ashamed to admit that he clung back
just as hard.

Then his eyes went to the
men surrounding him and he saw the same rage in theirs that he knew was shining
out of his own.  They were done playing by any rules but their own.  Gerent and
anyone with him were going to die.  No more fucking around with this.

But for now, he held his
mate while she cried, trusting that his daughter would stay alive until he
could find her, and praying that Shawn would survive against the odds, and he
could give Cleo’s mate back to her.  Looking at the man still on the ground in
a pool of his own blood, he looked better than when they arrived, but there was
no guarantee he would make it, even with the healing Miley had fought to give
him.  Only time would tell.

“Call in everyone,” Lucas
said grimly, his eyes still on Shawn.  “Call Demon, Ben, and Mac.  I want
Clytie, Cassandra, and Roxanne locked down and safe.  Everyone is protected and
together while we handle this.”  He finally turned the tightly controlled rage
in his eyes to Logan, Eli, and Ian.

Logan looked from Miley
to Shawn and nodded his head with a jerk.  “They wanted a war?  We take it to
them.”

“Fuckin’ A,” Ian spat out,
his eyes also on Miley’s pale pain-filled face.

“We still have to find
them,” Eli reminded them grimly.

Ian snorted. “They shot Cleo’s
mate and took her.  All we have to do is wait for her to wake up and follow the
screams of her attackers.  This motherfucker has no idea what he just brought
down on himself.”

Lucas turned to berate
his son for finding something to joke about in this situation, but one look at
his face and he knew Ian believed every word he spoke.  It forced him to look
at Shawn and wonder what Cleo had seen before she was taken.  If she saw Shawn
go down, Ian was right, she would bring down the walls with her rage.  Holding
his mate, he thought about his daughter and knew exactly what she was capable
of.  Gerent was going to have a wake-up call he would not be walking away
from.  Ever.

***

When they brought the
girl in, she smelled like death and looked like a blood covered angel.  Xena
backed up into the shadows and cursed low, thinking she was going to be blowing
her cover way sooner than she expected.  No way was she leaving a helpless girl
in Gerent’s clutches, no matter what her directive was.  She was about ready to
throw down and pull her concealed weapon.  Then she heard the name, and as soon
as she was over thinking what a dumb shit Gerent was, she scooted back to her
maid duties and left the not so helpless Cleo Gibbs to wait for her father. 

Gerent would be lucky he
walked away with his legs when Lucas Gibbs caught up with him.  And he would
catch up to him, she would see to that personally.  And the best part was that she
didn’t even have to break her cover.  She might have to step things up though; she
was hardly going to be able to get information from a dead man.  As far as Xena
was concerned, he was a dead man walking the second he went after Cleo Gibbs. 
Nobody fucked with Lionsgate; everyone knew that, even stupid people knew that
and the Gibbs girl
was
Lionsgate. When Gibbs and his men were through
with Gerent she would not be surprised if they razed the walls to the ground
and buried the lot of them in the rubble.

A little while later she
was called in to visit the girl.  She did so nervously, delivering the
nightgown while hoping the Gibbs girl was not about to kill the messenger. 
Instead, after a minute of checking her out and making Xena think she could see
right through her disguise, she took the nightgown with a look of disgust and
nodded her out of the room.  Xena went, knowing from the look of Cleo Gibbs
that Gerent was going to get way more than he expected.

Time to move up to plan
B.  She moved to a deserted hallway.  Pulling her short maid skirt up to her
hips, she flipped herself into the air conditioner duct through the grate she
had already worked off the wall.  Small at five feet nothing and slim, she fit
into the duct like she was made for it.  She no longer had time for subtlety. 
She needed to get the names out of the office before she contacted Lionsgate
and carnage rained down.  And she needed to do both before Gerent tried to get
what he wanted from Cleo Gibbs.  Because, apparently, he was just that stupid.

Within the hour, Xena had
the safe broken open; when she no longer needed to be careful she could break
and enter with the best of them.  Then she went for the phone and the
computer.  Finding a phone number was a little tricky because time was of the
essence.  Eventually, she had the number and was dialing it, her eyes on the
door, expecting it to burst open at any moment.

Then she heard the roar
and threw the phone back in its cradle while she took the door at a run.  Lucky
for her, as a shifter, the solid steel door was a minor issue.  She ran for the
commotion wondering if she was going to make it in time to save the innocent
girl.