Once Broken (Dove Creek Chronicles) (14 page)

I felt his weight shift first to one side and then the other as he toed off his boots. My fingers found the buttons of
his shirt, slipping them out of their holes one at a time. He shrugged out of the shirt, and our kiss was interrupted again as I drew back to look at him. The soft blue-green lights in the pool illuminated his smooth, summer brown skin.

He knelt down and flicked open the buckles of my shoes, taking them off just as easily as he had helped me get them on. The glint in his eye as he looked up at me made my insides feel like the Fourth of July.

As he stood, I discarded my shoes completely and felt the rough cement of the pool deck under my feet. I gripped the waistband of Casey’s jeans and tugged, pulling him to me so that I could feel his bare skin against mine. He dipped his head and I rose up on my toes so that our lips could meet again. Any thought of being seen was far from my mind . . . Any thought that wasn’t about the man in front of me wasn’t a thought at all.

I worked on the zipper of his jeans as his hands found the clasp of my bra. He slid the lacey white straps off my shoulders and moved his hands across my skin. His rough palms cupped my breasts as I tossed the bra aside. My nipples hardened at his touch and I made a quiet moan into our kiss.

We both parted again only long enough to pull off our jeans. In the calm of the wee hours, we looked at each other and laughed as quietly as we could manage.

“Skinny dipping . . .” Casey said. “Aren’t you full of surprises, darlin’.”

The gentle lapping of the pool water was inviting, so I did exactly what I’d come there to do – I dove in.

I cut through the water and it was cool and satiny smooth against my bare skin. As I surfaced, I pushed my sodden hair away from my face and invited Casey to join me.

“C’mon in. It’s perfect.”

The water splashed and rippled when he dove in. I took a quick look around to make sure that we weren’t disturbing anyone and saw that the coast was still clear. We slid through the water together until we reached a depth where we could stand comfortably.

Droplets cooled on our skin and in our hair as they were exposed to the gentle wind. In spite of the heat that still clung to the night, a shiver stole through me. I tucked myself in close to Casey and our bodies entwined under the water.

We found our way to the side of the pool and he leaned against it as he pulled me to him. I felt almost weightless in the water and wrapped my smooth, bare legs around him. The hardness of his erection bumped against my bare, delicate folds. In that moment, I became so recklessly greedy that I didn’t want to wait until we were inside my apartment. Casey must have felt the same way because he braced his hands under my bottom and lifted me up and away from him.

“Inside. Now,” he said, voice ragged.

He left the water to retrieve his jeans and tug them on, and handed me his shirt as I stepped onto the pool deck next to him. The button down didn’t leave much to the imagination as my dripping skin soaked it, but it would do so that
I didn’t make an exhibition of myself on the way up to my door. We gathered up the rest of our discarded clothing and hurried barefoot up the stairs.

I dumped the armload of my jeans and shoes on the floor as soon as we got inside, and pushed Casey against the door. His hair dripped and little trails of water ran down his chest and stomach. With a fingertip, I traced one of the droplets over a rock hard pectoral muscle and up to his shoulder before I gripped his neck and pulled him into a bruising kiss. I had to have him right then and there.

Only three buttons of his shirt were buttoned, so it took him only seconds to unfasten them and get his hands inside to slick across my still-damp skin. As he did, I reached down to the front of his jeans to flick open the button and unzip them. My hand found his manhood, still swollen with desire. I tore my lips from his and looked down as I gripped him and moved my hand up and down a few times. The noises he made emboldened me, and I pushed his jeans down a little further before sinking to my knees before him.

I
delighted in the look in his eyes as he watched me. Flicking my tongue across his delicate flesh, I tested the effect it would have. His head fell back against the door with a little thump and his hands tangled in my hair. I swirled my tongue over the tip before taking all of him in my mouth. I sensed the struggle in him as he stayed perfectly still, so I didn’t torment him. Giving him pleasure was just as gratifying as getting it. His breathing changed, and he stopped me with whispered words.

“Can’t hold on much longer.”

Casey reached down and clasped my hands in his so that he could help me back to my feet. He took me by the hips and moved me forward until I faced the door and he was behind me. I heard the wrapper of a condom tear open and a few seconds later, he put a hand on my back to encourage me to bend over slightly. Bracing my hands against the door, I was far beyond ready when I felt him slide into me with one long thrust.

He snapped his hips and set a ruthless pace. I clamped my teeth together as I fought back the urge to cry out at each thrust. His hands left my hips and slid inside the shirt that hung open on me. One moved to hold me in place while the other delved between my open legs to cover my sex. Every part of me quivered and my knees threatened to give out as I tightened around him. There was no stifling the scream that ripped from my throat, no clenching of teeth that could have prevented it. He came over the edge with me, just as loudly and with as much abandon.

There isn’t a night that I can remember sleeping as soundly as I did that night. And when the light of day roused me, Casey was still there. Still keeping his promise.

chapter ten

Hugo had been right – as usual. A night off for all of us together had been just what we needed. The world hadn’t ended. Vampires hadn’t overrun Dove Creek. But we were all rested and rejuvenated.

Gabe and I had been on duty together for the last three nights, and we had been kicking serious bloodsucker ass. Tonight would be our last night before a couple of nights off. Casey and I had been missing out on our time together, and we had plans for a morning rendezvous. I was happy to know that he was back at headquarters, ready to help Gabe and me if we needed it, but otherwise just waiting for me.

I made a pass through the pawn shop parking lot, spying Dylan and Diana through the brightly lit windows. Their shift was just getting started and there was a customer or two inside browsing. I hesitated for a few moments, watching the shop and its surroundings. There was nothing out of the ordinary, so I went on my way.

I put my family in the back of my mind so that I wouldn’t be distracted as the night went on. The vampires had been keeping Gabe and me busy, but I hadn’t seen anything of the one I wanted to end above all others. Alex had given us warning and his information was a heads up that helped us prepare.

I drove down an FM road that ran from Dove Creek over to Summer Valley. There wasn’t much traffic, so I was free to look around at the houses that dotted the landscape just outside the city limits. I was watching for anything that might show me that someone was in trouble, that an isolated individual was being targeted like the previous murder victims.

So engrossed in my task was I, it took me a couple miles to notice the headlights in my rearview mirror. I checked my speed . . . Far below the limit. Slow enough that most drivers would have passed me at the first opportunity.

Without getting too bent out of shape, I slowed my speed a little more and moved over to the shoulder. If it was an elderly or nervous driver, I’d just given them an open invitation to go around me.

They didn’t take it.

I eased back into the middle of the lane and got up to the speed limit. The two-lane highway I was on intersected with another FM road that led to Westview. At the four way stop, I pointed toward the city. My follower stayed right on my tail.

One advantage of growing up in Dove Creek is knowing the back roads. I knew there were several gravel roads that criss-crossed between farmers and ranchers, and I planned to exploit that knowledge. If this person was a tail, I’d either confirm it or lose them once we left the blacktop. That was my plan, anyway.

As a precaution, I picked up my phone and called Gabe. I told him what was happening and where I was.

“Stay on the line until you know what they’re up to,” he said.

“Okay.” I agreed, just before I cut a hard left turn.

My tires spun in the gravel but gained purchase and propelled my jeep forward with a spray of pebbles and dust. The vehicle behind me had to swing out wide to catch me, but I didn’t shake them.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s me they’re after.”

“Keep them moving. Head back toward town and I’ll try to get to you,” Gabe said.

My heart started to pound. Vampires weren’t known for car chases. The people behind the murders, the Triple Six, this seemed like their sort of thing. And here I was, all alone out in the middle of freaking nowhere.

“Gabe, don’t hang up,” I said in a rush.

“I won’t, Rem. I’m here,” he reassured.

I focused on my driving, but pulled my loaded .45 out of the center console as I flew down the road. At this point, I didn’t give a damn who heard if it came down to protecting myself.

Hanging another sharp left turn, I was grateful for 4-wheel drive as my tires chewed up gravel and kept me on the road. Unfortunately, my follower was keeping
pace. I was concentrating so hard, I forgot about Gabe on the line.

“Remi, talk to me,” he said. “Where are you?”

“Creek Ranch Road,” I answered. “I think.”

“Okay. Tell me every time you change roads. I can find you easier this way than with GPS out there.”

I mashed on the gas pedal and went as fast as my jeep could handle. In the light of the high beams, I searched for the next road I could take. My view was suddenly brighter, but the gleam in the mirrors nearly blinded me. I winced.

“G
abe, I think they’re about to . . . Holy—!”

The vehicle behind me clipped my back bumper and ran me off the road. My jeep plowed through a fence before coming to an abrupt halt at a mesquite tree. Somewhere in the fracas, the airbag ballooned out and punched me full in the face. I didn’t black out, but I had the feeling that I’d lost time. It all happened so fast.

I could hear Gabriel’s voice through the speaker, but I couldn’t find my phone.

“Remi! Remi, answer me!”

“I’m here,” I said. “I’m here. I’m okay . . . I think.”

“I’m coming, Rem. Just hold on.”

I took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain in my lower belly – the seatbelt. Something cold and hard bumped against my right hand. With ginger movements, I patted until I could tell that it was the handgun. I switched it to my left hand and used my right to unclasp the seatbelt.

I planned to get out and meet my attackers head on instead of waiting like a lamb for slaughter, but I was too late for that.

A figured bathed in shadow appeared outside my open window and raised a nasty looking knife. I thought it looked like a prop from the set of a slasher film, but that was all the thinking I did.

“Should’ve backed off when you had the chance,” said a male voice, full of hate and murder.

I didn’t wait around to find out what he intended to do with that knife. I aimed my .45 and fired twice. Unlike the hapless victims in the scary movies, my aim was true. The knife and the character wielding it fell to the ground.

“Remi?!” Gabe yelled through the phone.

“Bitch!” I heard a woman’s voice shriek.

I flung open the driver’s door and sprang from the jeep. “I’m about sick and damn tired of people calling me that,” I said, mostly for my own benefit.

She was coming for me, hands raised for God only knew what purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to learn her evil talent.

Two more shots rang out as I squeezed the trigger. She
barely made a sound as the bullets hit their mark. The look of shock faded from her features as she crumpled.

I took a long look around, searching the darkness for anyone else who might be out for my blood. When I was satisfied that the coast was clear, I got back into my mangled vehicle to answer Gabriel.

“Gabe? Gabe, I’m okay.”

“What the hell happened? Who did you shoot? I’m calling an ambulance.”

“No, I don’t need one,” I insisted. I was banged up, but not hospital-trip banged up. “I don’t know who they were. We’ll see when you get here.”

“Will they need an ambulance?”

“Too late for that,” I answered flatly.

As I stood still, I put a hand on the side of my jeep to steady myself. The adrenaline from the crash was staring to ebb and I began to feel every injury. I tasted blood on my lips and used my fingertips to carefully find the source . . . My nose. I touched the bridge of it with my thumb and forefinger . . . Not broken. Damned airbag.

My left shoulder and lower abdomen hurt where the seatbelt had caught me. Both of my hands were sore and I couldn’t imagine why. Clenching them, maybe? I had only been in two car accidents in my life and those only fender-benders. I now understood what people were talking about when they said their whole body ached after a wreck.

“You getting close?” I asked Gabe.

“Should be. Just got on Creek Ranch where it comes off Four Twenty-Nine.”

“I don’t know how much ground we covered,” I told him. “But you shouldn’t have more than a couple miles.”

I made myself breathe in and out slowly to try to steady my nerves. It felt like Gabe would never get there as I stood alone in the darkness. I took the time to get better acquainted with my surroundings. The lights from Dove Creek and Westview beyond it glowed to the northwest, but I saw nothing between them and myself.

It was then that I saw a pair of lights moving quickly in my direction. My knees felt weak with relief. I could hear the purr of the Chevelle’s engine.

“I see you coming,” I said. “I see your headlights coming toward me.”

He skidded to a halt right there in the middle of the road and left his door wide open as he came to help me. I met him at the back of the jeep.

“Thanks, Gabe, I–”

“Jesus, Rem. You’re bleeding everywhere,” he interrupted.

“Yeah, my nose. It won’t stop.”

He pulled off his t-shirt and dabbed at my head carefully. I could feel the confused look cross my face. I hadn’t realized my head was cut, too.

“And your head,” he said. “Are you feeling dizzy?”

“No. I’m fine. Really,” I insisted.

“You’re hurt and you just shot two people. I don’t think ‘fine’ is what you are.”

“I’ll live.”

We stood in silence for a few moments as Gabe stemmed the flow of blood coming from my head and nose and otherwise fretted over me. It was a nice change from our usual bickering.

As the shock wore off further, tears gathered in my eyes. Vampires, I was used to killing.
People
, I was having trouble with.

Gabriel took his thumbs and ran them under each of my eyes. “Hey. It’s okay. You did what you had to,” he said.

“That doesn’t make it any easier,” I replied. “We usually
save
people, not shoot them.”

He opened his arms to me and I accepted his embrace. My cheek rested against his bare shoulder and I allowed myself to weep openly until the tears were manageable.

I was certain that I was beyond a mess when I finally pulled away, but Gabe didn’t comment. He used his shirt to blot my face again, this time for tears as well as blood. Once he finished, he put a gentle hand on my arm.

“Come on. Let’s go check these two out and see what we can find out.”
He took a step forward, then hesitated. “Or do you want me to take care of it?”

I was
touched by his sensitivity. “No, I can do it. Thanks, though,” I said.

Each of them was wearing an amulet, just like
the one I had seen Cerise wearing. The man had even gone so far as to tattoo the symbol on his neck. I told Gabriel about the woman’s reaction when I shot the man as he came after me – more than that of a simple cohort.

Then something dawned on me, something that made my hands begin to shake. These bodies weren’t going to decay. They wouldn’t wither like a staked vampire
and fade away into nothing.

“Gabe,” I said, ashamed of the tremor in my voice.

He looked up from where he was checking out the man’s knife. “Yeah?”

“How am I gonna get out of this one? My jeep is toast and those bullets can be traced
back to my gun. Someone is gonna be missing these people.”

Gabriel nodded. “I was thinking about that. Maybe Alex can help . . . Drag the bodies out so that animals take care of the dirty work. If your jeep will start, we move it and put their truck where it is. Light it on fire, like it was a one vehicle accident.”

“Animals?” I repeated dumbly.

“Dammit, Remi.” He stood up from where he was crouched near the man. “They tried to kill you. We aren’t going to spend all night digging holes for them and even Sol can’t get you out of this one if you get caught.”

“It was self-defense,” I argued.

“Then how are you going to explain this situation?”

“Hell, I don’t know! I’ve never shot anyone!”

“These people were evil. They’ve tried to kill us before, they were gonna kill you tonight. I’ll be damned before you take the fall so that they can be buried good and
proper.” Gabriel’s speech roughened as he spoke, and I took notice. It wasn’t often that he got worked up.

I had nothing left to say. I knew Gabe was right, but I didn’t tell him so. He went to get an extra shirt from his car and called Alex as he went. The werewolves were drawn to the danger and evil that surrounded vampires – it’s how they knew when to come help us. In this case, we needed some modern assistance to get their help.

While he did that, I went to my jeep and tried the key. I refused to stand on the side of the road, teary-eyed and useless. The engine turned over and I muttered
Thank God
into the darkness. When he got off the phone, Gabe helped guide me as I backed it out the same way it had come careening in.

By the time I clambered back out, three wolves came fast and sleek from a nearby field. The big
tawny and grey one looked me over and whined. He pressed his muzzle against my hand and I rubbed it softly. It was hard to stay mad at him when he was there to help me.

“I’m okay. Thanks for coming to help, Alex.”