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Authors: Nancy Haviland

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Grievous (Wanted Men Book 5) (10 page)

BOOK: Grievous (Wanted Men Book 5)
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She turned yet another corner and spotted an arched opening much larger than an average doorway about thirty feet ahead. She started jogging for it, confident it would lead to the massive foyer. That was when something whizzed by her head. Already at the end of her rope, there was nothing she could do to swallow the blood-curdling scream that belted up her throat when flapping registered. It came again, but it wasn’t until her hair was slapped at that she gave up running and stopped to throw her fit.

It was only seconds later that she heard footsteps. She was yanked into a hard chest and wrapped up good and tight. “Shh. It is okay. I have you, pet.”

She realized who the deep murmur belonged to at the same time as his scent registered. That familiar scent that burrowed into her and made her want something she knew damn well she was never going to get.

She pushed away from the too-little-too-late and swatted around her head a couple more times for good measure. “Don’t touch me,” she snarled as she looked around, wishing the ceiling was better lit. Sorin stood a few feet away. “Is it gone?”

“If you are asking after the bat,” Lucian said. “Yes, it flew into—”

“You couldn’t have come back for me?” she demanded, cutting him off. Oh, she was so ready to lose her shit, she was choking up. “You destroy me, leave me to recover on my own, then don’t even bother to come back when you know damn well this place is impossible for someone who’s never been here to navigate—” She stomped her foot when he opened his mouth. “I’m not finished! Couldn’t you have sent someone else? Sent a note? Fixed my fucking phone and sent me a
text
? That was
so
inconsiderate of you, Lucian!”
Do I mean so little that I’m not even an afterthought?
“I’ve been roaming these halls forever, terrified a ghost was going to possess me before your creepy cooks could catch up and assault me!”

She took a breath when her lungs began to burn, and it wasn’t until she paused that she realized she’d been shouting at him. Afraid he might punish her in some way, especially because she was reprimanding him in front of Sorin, she pulled in another harsh breath and forced out an apology.

“Forgive me for screaming like an out-of-control harpy.” She didn’t sound sorry at all. “But you abandoned me, and that’s shitty.” She stepped back when it looked as if he was going to lift his arm. “It was inconsiderate and shitty. I just thought you should know that.”

“If you had not been so impatient, you might have been in our room when the person I
did
send up knocked.” He wasn’t looking at her but at her body.

“I’m. Up. Here,” she said in a quiet tone so poisonous it should have peeled the skin off his face.

His darkening eyes continued to travel up at his leisure, lingering on her swiftly rising and falling chest before reaching hers. Rather than be repulsed, her belly gave a soft roll and waved hello.

“I know where you are at all times,
draga
. If you want the truth, I thought you might be exploring. Or searching for a way out. I left you to it so you could see there isn’t one.” He pointed up at probably the twentieth little gargoyle head she’d seen mounted just below the…ceiling…

Tears burned her nose. “Those are cameras?” Without looking directly through the crack in the door, she noted the bathroom just behind him and was grateful for the handy exit. Hopefully, that door she was about to slam off its hinges had a lock on it. “Do you know how to read people at all, Lucian? Couldn’t you tell by my expression and body language that I was scared? Or were you too busy admiring your recently acquired T and A to give a shit? You’re not a nice person.” She threw a glare at Sorin, weirdly insulted on Lucian’s behalf when his meathead made a sound of agreement. That didn’t make sense when she was the one slinging the insult, but, whatever.

She brought her attention back to Lucian and was struck by how attractive he looked with a few days’ growth darkening his strong jaw. Explained the bristle burn she had on her inner thighs.

The random thought had her breath catching, and she shivered as she remembered the way his tongue had felt sliding up the center of her body.

“You’re fucking with my head,” she accused quietly, feeling as weak as any addict when faced with their drug of choice. She pointed a finger at him. “I don’t act like this. I don’t even talk like this anymore, but I’m stuck in defense mode and it’s making me revert. I could hate you for that.”

“For bringing out who you really are?”

She swallowed a gasp when he nailed it. She
hated
that scared, needy girl she’d been growing up, and that’s how she felt when standing before this cold-hearted tyrant. “I haven’t acted like such a silly girl since I was nine-years-old.” That was when she’d realized she had a choice to make; toughen the fuck up or continue to be wrecked every time life didn’t go the way she expected it to. “I’m not even afraid of bats, for Christ’s sake. One of my homes had one that slept above me because they’d shoved me in their attic.” She swallowed the growing lump in her throat and straightened her spine as she scrambled to find one of her masks. Gone went the profanity and in came a calmer tone. “You’re messing with my head,” she repeated before brushing past him.

“Yasmeen. Do not—”

“Leave me alone, Lucian. You’re good at that.” She shoved the door open the rest of the way and flicked on the bathroom light.

“That is where the—”

She took great satisfaction in turning and slamming the door in his beautiful face.

And was freaking out and clawing at it to open it in the next second when Mr. Bat swooped down and started banging off the walls. She got the wood out of her way and flew across the hall into her demented Romanian’s waiting arms. She plastered herself to his front after slapping at his solid chest a few times.

“Tell your b-brethren to leave me the f-fuck alone, you bastard.”

As his arms wrapped around her, his fingers gripping the back of her head to tuck her face into his neck, the secure hold gave her the strongest urge to cry like a big baby.

Remembering his warning from earlier, she didn’t shed a tear.

SEVEN

 

Lucian swept his distressed pet off her feet, half expecting her to protest. She was silent, and it was with a feeling similar to enjoyment that he walked with her down the hall.

“Would you mind bringing a tray up, Sorin? I do not think Yasmeen is in the mood for a formal meal.”

“I see that.”

When they reached the foyer, Sorin went straight, heading to the kitchen, and Lucian climbed the stairs.

“You do not weigh very much considering your height,” he commented.

No response came back to him.

“You will feel better after you have eaten and have had a good night’s sleep. It has been an eventful day for you.”

“I was unconscious the whole time you were bringing me here.” Her reluctantly offered words came out muffled, her breath heating his throat. “How can I be tired?”

“You were sedated, not sleeping for rest. I will feed you then tuck you in before I leave. I have no doubt you will sleep like a baby.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Explain to me what you meant about my cooks.” They’d reached the second level, and he merely strolled down the corridor, inhaling her scent deep into his lungs every few breaths.

“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

His lip quirked. What did that matter? “I asked you a question. Answer it,
draga
.”

“They eye-raped me,” she said after an extended pause. “It was invasive and uncomfortable.”

He froze mid-step as the sturdy guillotine stashed away in one of the rooms in the lower levels flashed in his mind’s eye. He breathed for a few seconds and concentrated on the feel of her body in his arms.

“This is an expression I have never heard before, yes?” The question was laced with traces of hope. He should have continued to watch the monitor while he and Sorin had talked. But he’d looked away when Yasmeen had been on the stairs behind the kitchen because Sorin had been catching him up, telling him Sergei and his partner had attempted to kill Alekzander Tarasov’s infant daughter the same night Sergei had taken Markus’s life. Apparently, Alek had taken that as one would expect and put the partner in the ground, but he’d yet to locate Sergei.

Yasmeen lifted her head and looked at him. Her eyes were droopy. Sad. She was still bewitching. “Eye-rape? How can you never have heard a woman say she was eye-raped? Yes, it’s an expression. It means your rude cooks looked me up and down with something more than curiosity in their eyes. I look people up and down all the time, men
and
women. But I do it discretely, and I certainly would never make it obvious if I was imagining what’s under their clothes. And to lick your lips as though you’re tasting someone is not sexy, it’s disgusting.” She shuddered and tightened her arms around his neck as she laid her head down on his shoulder. “You can put me down anytime, you know.”

The display of trust and her continued acquiesce had him bringing his treasured possession in a little closer as he walked on. He was sure she didn’t really want to be put down, so he didn’t even consider it. Not once did he acknowledge he might be trying to make up for not giving her what she’d been seeking earlier; some affection.

When he reached their room, he got back on track by laying her on the bed. After slipping her boots and socks off, he took out his phone and dialed Sorin. He stared at her perfect feet and switched to Romanian when the call was answered.

“After you deal with our tray, I want you to bring Costel and Radu out to the south forest. Take their clothes, give them no supplies, and leave them to find their way out. Be sure to tell them, if they make it, I will be waiting to hear about anything they found worthy of eye-raping during their adventure.”

He hung up and tossed the phone onto his pillow before bending to kiss his pet’s upturned forehead. She was sitting before him with her long legs crisscrossed, her neck straining as she looked up at him. Her eyes were wide and searching.

“You will be okay on your own while I shower?”

She nodded. “Yup. It’s all good. Not afraid anymore. You go ahead.”

He began unbuttoning his shirt as he turned away. By the time he closed himself into the bathroom, he was smiling. Silly girl didn’t have a clue how transparent she was.

 

♦ ♦ ♦

 

The second the bathroom door closed, Yasmeen was diving across the bed. She overshot and almost tumbled to her death, but gained her balance while snatching up Lucian’s cell phone. She wanted to raise it over her head and celebrate but didn’t because she wasn’t sure how much time she had.

She dialed her overseas call as quickly as her shaking hands would let her.

“Hello?”

“Oh, shit,” she whispered, instantly choked when she heard her best friend’s voice. “Hey,” she said in a louder whisper. “I don’t have much time, so please keep the hysterics to a minimum.”

She grimaced and had to take the phone away from her ear when Miranda started screaming. She brought it back when she heard her name being shouted.

“Yas! Eric! It’s her! Yasmeen! Answer me, goddamn you!”

“I’m here. Stop shrieking, you dumbass.”

“Oh, my God.” Miranda was crying. “I love you. I realized I never told you that enough and I thought I might never get the chance to do so again, so I love you. You’re my sister and my best friend and aside from Eric you’re the best thing in my life. Now, where
the fuck
are you? Why haven’t you called before now?”

Hearing those incredible words, Yasmeen broke like a cheap china doll.

“Yas? Oh, fuck. Are you okay? Where are you, honey? We’ll come right now. Tell me where you are. Don’t cry.”

“You can’t. Sorry, that was just so nice to hear.” She swiped at her cheeks and sniffled as the sound of the shower started. She relaxed slightly. “You don’t know how badly I needed that. I miss you like hell.”

“Me, too. Where are you?”

“Transylvania.”

“Ha ha. Where are you? Get your keys, baby,” she said, presumably to Eric. The two had been together almost five years, and they were exactly what Yasmeen had always thought a couple in love would look like.

“I’m not kidding. Tell Eric to put the keys away—and tell him I said hi and I miss him, too.”

“She says hi, and she misses you. What do you mean you’re not kidding? Coles notes, Yas. I’m not in the mood to listen to much more. You don’t know how sick I’ve been. Where the hell is Loki? We’ve gone by your place ten times and—”

“Lucian said he sent you a message.”

Miranda snorted. “Uh-huh. Eric wouldn’t let me call the police. Said they’d laugh me off the phone if I claimed Lucian Fane kidnapped my friend. He took you, didn’t he.”

“Yes.”

The was a pregnant pause. “Holy fuck,” she breathed as if she hadn’t really expected Yasmeen to confirm. “Oh, Yas. Are you okay? Is he hurting you?”

“No, he definitely isn’t hurting me.”

“Go. Go. It’s okay. She’s okay. Let go of this phone, Eric, or I’ll cut you. Go. I’ll fill you in when I get off.” Grumbling curses sounded.

BOOK: Grievous (Wanted Men Book 5)
11.07Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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