Darkness Bound (16 page)

Inside that cottage someone wanted to scream. He couldn’t risk trying to communicate with Leigh in case she did hear him, overreacted, and gave away that he was nearby.

With the doorway near, Niles stared, deepening his dark-sight, seeking the distinctive thickening that would pulse, showing life.

And there it was, a man with his back toward him, dragging something—dragging Leigh. Niles had no doubt of it and he set his teeth, regulated his breathing, made himself wait the seconds it took to be sure he wouldn’t cause more damage to the one he cared for by striking too soon.

A man suddenly lifted a body as if it weighed nothing, slung it over his shoulder, and bolted outside.

Leigh
.

Niles was on the man, peeling her away, dropping her to the snow and tearing after his moving target. “Don’t leave this spot,” he told her.

The other man moved with incredible speed but not so fast Niles couldn’t catch him easily enough.

Slamming his hands down on the other’s shoulders, he threw him facedown and fell on top of him. “Who are you?” he demanded. “Now. Tell me your name or you’re a dead man.”

Not a word.

“Why Leigh? Did someone send you?”

Beneath Niles, the man curled his knees into his body and tucked his head down. With one hand, Niles picked him up by the back of his coat and shook him like vermin. Somehow the other guy remained curled up.

This one was familiar. The realization blasted through Niles’s mind but his senses weren’t picking up the signs that usually helped him identify a known foe.

“Boss?”
Sean’s mind speak was clear.
“Trouble? I’m coming. Do we need others?”

“Just you but don’t interfere unless I ask you.”

The next move was expected but so expertly executed, it worked—just.

Rotating his body, head over tucked knees, the enemy smashed his feet under Niles’s jaw and knocked him off balance for the second it took to keep on rotating.

Like a solid wheel spinning on a programmed course, away went the man, across the snow toward the forest.

Niles landed on him the instant before he saw the shadowy forms of wolves waiting between the great trunks. He counted five before he felt the sinuous unfurling beneath
his hands, heard the cracking open of a man’s bones, the flaring of his form into a massive animal with thick fur.

Niles was one of the few who were even stronger as humans than as hounds; nevertheless he knew he must change to protect that secret.

The animal howled and turned to fly at him. From behind Niles soared Sean, or rather Blue, heading for the other one’s belly.

And in the precious seconds lost by Sean’s well-meaning move, intended to give Niles the time he needed to complete his change, the stranger bounded into the ranks of Brande’s wolves, ranged beyond the edge of the forest now. They wheeled in one phalanx and retreated, zigzagging, howling.

Niles swore, but so did Sean. “Bad move on my part, boss. Sorry.”

Pulsing in every nerve, Niles sank away from his hound form until he could pull his jeans on again. He pushed his hands through his hair. “If you wanted us to keep on living, you probably just made a great move,” he said. “There were enough of them to tear us apart.”

“It’s too bad I feel worse about them leaving than if they had attacked us. They could have taken us—why didn’t they?”

N
ILES CAME
from the side of the cottage and Blue was with him now. Leigh dashed to meet them.

“Where were you? You scared me to death.” She snapped her mouth shut. She sounded like a mother who just grabbed her child to safety beside a busy road. “I’m going to call the police now,” she added, more subdued.

“I understand,” he said, surprising her by hooking an elbow around her neck and pulling her close to his wet, naked chest, resting his cheek on top of her head. “You scared me when I saw that text. But we’re both okay. Let’s get you inside.”

His feet were bare but he didn’t seem to notice, or to care that he was soaked. They walked into the cottage together.

Leigh turned to him. “That man—”

“Is a mystery,” Niles finished for her. “But I’m going to find out all the stuff he obviously doesn’t want me or anyone else to know.”

“What do you mean?” She wound her arms around his waist. She really had been terrified he would be… killed.

“First things first. What are you going to tell the police?”

Leigh looked up into his face. “What happened. That someone broke in and was trying to take me away. And you saved me.”

“Do you think he intended to assault you?”

She didn’t want to think about it at all. “He could have done that without trying to take me somewhere. I don’t know what he was going to do—murder me, probably.”

“Don’t,” Niles said, stroking her hair. “And I don’t think that’s what he wanted to do. Look, I want you to sit down and listen to me. If you still think calling the police is the best thing to do, I’ll be right here to back you up.”

He steered her to the couch and gave her back the brandy glass. She peered at him through the gloom and noticed he didn’t attempt to touch the brandy he had left on a table earlier.

She reached to turn on another lamp. “Suddenly I want lots of light around me,” she said, trying a smile.

Niles watched her but she had no idea what he was thinking.

“I feel like that brandy now,” Niles said. He got up, drew the curtains—closing out the snow that fell increasingly heavily—and went to the door. “Just going to make sure Blue’s comfortable.”

“Let him come in.”

“He’ll be staying right where he is for the night—and probably every night from now on. If he’d been there earlier our friend would have lost parts of his body.”

He let himself out and almost immediately returned.
“Blue likes his spot. And he’s a working dog so he expects to have an important job, like looking after you for me when I can’t.”

She was important to him? Or was that a willful bending of what he had said? Leigh looked away. “You need to get dry. I’ll fetch a towel.”

He didn’t say anything when she returned, or make any attempt to take the towel from her.

Leigh blotted his face.

Niles stood still, his hands on his hips.

She went behind him to rub his back then returned to dry his chest. And finally she had to look at his eyes.

Not a flicker. Just intense concentration on her until she managed a smile and he tipped up the corners of his own mouth.

Droplets glittered in his dark hair. “Can I rub the drips out of your hair?” Her voice cracked.

“Anytime you want to,” he said, dropping to his knees in front of her.

His hands, settling at her waist, made Leigh jump but she set to work briskly drying those almost black waves—curls at the moment.

He muttered something.

“What did you say?” She stopped for a moment, looking into his upturned face.

“Only that no one ever did this for me before. I wouldn’t want anyone else to do it for me but I’ll run around in snow and rain every day if I can come back for more from you. I feel comfortable with you.”

He spoke so simply, nothing fancy or thought through with care, but every word touched her heart. Leigh caught her bottom lip in her teeth and blinked rapidly. She tapped
him on his very nice nose and rubbed his hair with all the energy she could muster. She rubbed until he laughed and stopped her.

“Thank you,” he said. “Now let’s take off your shoes or whatever those silly little boot things are.”

So quickly she just about fell onto the couch, he sat her down, pushed her to lean against one arm, and pulled off her ankle boots. “I like those boots,” she told him.

Intimacy spun like a net between them, getting more complicated, more high-stakes, and totally irresistible. What Leigh was starting to feel about this man was a little scary. She was in serious “like” with him.

“Is it okay if I sit beside you?” he asked.

“Of course.”

He sat close enough to settle her cold feet on his lap. She wore damp socks and he peeled those off. Unlike her brisk efforts, Niles treated her gently, drying between her toes and the bottoms of her feet until she giggled and jerked. He finished but kept his big, warm hands on her skin. When he leaned his head against the back of the couch, arching his strong throat, opening his muscular torso to the play of shadows from a lamp, Leigh had trouble swallowing. They were quiet for a while.

“I have enemies,” Niles said eventually. “I’m pretty sure who they are but I don’t have the evidence I need against them. It’s too bad that guy got away tonight.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. I’ve led a life you know nothing about.” He paused, making sure she was looking right at him. “I don’t want you to know the details of everything that’s happened to me except that I’ve never used violence gratuitously. I hate violence.

“Someone has a score to settle with me and you look like a great way to do that. They can tell you’re becoming important to me and they figure that by taking you, they can draw me after them and do whatever they’ve decided will even the score.”

She heard his reasoning. It sounded possible. “You’re scared,” he said. “You’ve got to be. What I’m going to tell you is going to sound bizarre but it makes a point.”

He looked sideways at her.

“Three women have been snatched in this area over the past couple of months. That’s why we’re all so anxious for you not to drive around in the dark—alone.”

Leigh took deep breaths through her mouth. “Three women have been murdered here recently?”

“No. I didn’t say that. Two of them are back, only they don’t remember what happened to them. They’re fine, though.”

“What about the third one?”

“She isn’t back yet. She was the most recent one.”

Horrified, Leigh shot to her feet. “And you think they were all taken to punish you somehow? And if they got me I’d show up again, so everything would be okay?”

“I don’t think what happened to them had anything to do with me. I do believe they were taken by the same people who have a grudge against me. They’re troublemakers. They mix things up for the sake of frightening people. I don’t think they intend to kill innocent people. They don’t want the attention. But if they can cause enough distraction, take enough eyes off the ball, they intend to pick me off.

“They want the cops kept busy with unexplained disappearances.”

He set his glass aside and stood up beside her. “So now I sound as if I’m asking you not to tell the police about tonight just to save my hide.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“That is what I’m asking, Leigh.” He went to the window and lifted a drape again. The snow was very thick. “I want you to trust me to look after you. And I’m asking right after some joker broke in here and started dragging you out. I don’t want you to call the police because this isn’t their territory.”

“Territory?” she echoed. He seemed to be spilling everything out but she didn’t understand some of what he said.

“It’s not a job for the police. They’re great people here and they’re smart, but I’ve told you what I was involved in overseas and it was different. It is different.”

Leigh paced away and back again and went to look out of the window with him. “I trust you.” Perhaps a so-called sane person would already be in her car and heading out of here, but Leigh had a conviction about Niles. He would look after her and she would be okay.

“Is it possible they want me to go away?” she asked tentatively.

He turned so quickly, she jumped.

At first she thought he had a lot more to say, but he shook his head and rested a finger on her lips. “Could be,” was his only comment.

“Then they’ll be disappointed.” She poked his chest. “But I’m going to buy a gun.”

Once more he seemed ready to snap back some comment. He shook his head, smiling slightly. “I’ll help you do it, then,” he said.

“How long will it take?” She wanted it now.

“By morning you’ll have what you need.”

Leigh thought about that. “Don’t I have to apply for a permit and wait and stuff?”

“You’ll have your gun by morning,” Niles said in a tone that meant the discussion was over.

H
E OUGHT TO LEAVE
, Niles thought. There was a lot to do setting up round-the-clock surveillance on Leigh—and why not be honest, every minute he spent with her made it tougher to go at all.

“I’m okay now,” she said. “Go home to bed. You need your sleep.”

“True,” he said. “You’ll be all right here tonight. You’ll be safe. Just keep the cell phone near you so you know you can call. I can be here fast.” She didn’t know
how
fast.