Riordan (8 page)

your way, she’d be in bed with you between her legs. Or am I wrong?”

His dad saved him from having to answer, or kill Mac. He was having entirely too much fun

at his expense. Everyone seemed to be doing that lately. He moved out to his mom, and she was

standing next to Storm. Riordan moved closer to hear what the yelling was about.

“You’ll do this or so help me, I’m going to be very upset with you.” Storm asked her if it

would be more than she was now. “You bet your bottom dollar it will be. I will tear your bottom

up, and then you’ll have something worth going to the hospital about.”

“I don’t think that makes the least bit of sense.” Storm looked at him. “Is she always like

this? Bossy to the point of you wanting to strangle her?”

“I’m not going to answer that.” He winked at her. “You’re very beautiful when you’re

pissed off, aren’t you?”

He felt everyone turn to look at him, but for some reason, he didn’t really care what they

thought of him at that moment. This woman…his woman…had done something that no one else

had ever done. She’d stood up to a man with a gun and had saved his life. But he wasn’t stupid

enough to think that she’d not shoot him too should he piss her off more.

In the end, his mom bullied her into going. Storm stopped talking to him and his mom, but

she did talk to Blackson. Apparently, Danny had called him the moment she’d had them go to

the front of the shop. And it was a good thing, too. She wasn’t going to jail for what had

happened today.

Blackson grabbed him just before he was ready to go to his truck and follow the ambulance.

He’d known that the man wasn’t human. He was a wolf, and more than likely Storm knew what

he was as well. But when he took him in the pantry and closed the door, Riordan felt his cat stir

along his skin.

“She’s not going to come to you easily. You know that, right?” Riordan just nodded. “There

is something else you should know. It’s not…she’s…I’m not sure how to say this without you

leaping at my throat.”

“Just say it.” The man nodded but didn’t speak. Riordan had all sorts of things running

through his head. She was married. There were fifty kids in her life. The thoughts were going to

be much worse than what it really was, he knew that, but he was still nervous. “I may attack now

if you don’t spill it.”

“When Stormy entered the service after turning eighteen, I was brought her test scores. They

were off the charts. I mean, she’s got an IQ that most of them who work in the labs around the

country would kill for. I immediately went to meet her.” He grinned at him. “As you can well

imagine, that didn’t go over as well as I’d hoped. If you think she’s smart mouthed now, you

should have seen her before we trained her. Caustic doesn’t even begin to tell you the way she

spoke. But like I said, we trained her. It didn’t take much. Her intelligence alone was enough to

keep us hopping, and her ability to adapt to any situation was what made her into the kind of

soldier we needed and still need. She can speak nine languages fluently, and several more just in

passing. She hears it once, just one time, and she can speak it back flawlessly. She worked for

and still does work for a very covert group of men and women that come in and take charge

when negotiations have all but failed.”

“I’m not sure why you think I need to know this now. I would really like to go to make sure

she’s all right.” Blackson nodded but didn’t look like he was ready to release him just yet. “What

is it you’re trying your best not to tell me?”

“My plan had been to convert her. You’ll see by her medical records that she was to have

her leg taken off…both of them, actually. She has some ribs that will never heal, and she’ll be in

a great deal of pain for the rest of her life. By all accounts, Stormy should have died that day.

And if not the day of the accident, then while she hung there in that tree.” Riordan asked him

what he meant. “She’s not told you. Well, that’s no surprise. I’m not sure she’s even shared with

her aunts. But when the Humvee blew up, Stormy was tossed from the accident and into a tree.

She hung there for thirty-six hours, with a branch through her holding her in place. Its…she

could see from above what our surveillance couldn’t.”

Riordan tried to equate what he was telling him with the woman he knew. “You mean, she

stood on a branch.”

“No. It entered her here.” He turned and showed him his back, just below the ribs. “Then

came out here.” He then put his hand over his chest, just below his heart.

“That’s not possible.” Blackson told him he knew that, yet she’d survived it. “My mom said

that her legs were scarred up. That her muscles are…they’re spent, she thought.”

“I don’t know if I’d risk changing her, Riordan. She’s weak and her body will more than

likely not take it well. There is a possibility, and not a slim one, that she will not survive any

kind of trauma to her body. She’s held together by bubble gum and string. Not really, but she is

fragile.” Riordan nodded. “I’m not one to usually beat around the bush, and now that I can tell

you’re not going to kill me, be as gentle as your cat will allow you when you have sex with her,

too. She’s in constant pain, and it won’t take much to send her into unconsciousness.”

He left then, and Riordan drove to the hospital with his mom beside him. Dad was following

in his car to bring Mom home should he want to stay with Storm. When she touched his arm

after they parked, he looked at her. His thoughts on Blackson were making him crazy. There was

something about the man that he just didn’t like. He supposed it was because he was so close to

her, and Riordan wasn’t.

“I’m such a fool.” His mom said nothing but just watched him. “She’s been telling me no,

not because she didn’t want me but because she thinks I’m not going to want her. Right? That’s

why she’s been shoving me away and not letting me get close to her. I’ve...I’m such a fool.”

“Her aunts think if she were to tell someone what really happened she’d start to heal. Not

her body, but her mind. She has horrific nightmares sometimes. That’s why she’s living at the

shop and not in her house. When she wakes, she goes down to bake something.”

Riordan nodded, knowing that he did the same thing on some level when he couldn’t sleep.

“I’ll try, Mom. But I need to fix this with her first.” She nodded. “Any suggestions?”

“Yes. Grovel. Works for me when your dad has to do it. Not often, but he still does.” He

nodded. How did you grovel to a woman that carried a gun, would just as soon murder you than

let you touch her, and worked for an agency that had trained her to kill rather than to negotiate?

He was so fucked.

Storm watched the monitors that had been attached to her when she arrived. Not that she

minded them that much…she just hated having to sit still for them to work. When the door

opened again, it was on the tip of her tongue to blast Blackson again for doing this to her. Only it

wasn’t him but Bri Harrison.

“You were going to say something entirely unladylike, weren’t you?” Storm felt her face

heat up, and Bri laughed. “I love that I can catch you off guard. I bet it doesn’t happen very

often. May I ask who you thought was coming in?”

“Blackson. He said he had something for me to…something he needed for me to look at.”

Bri sat down and smiled at her. “If I asked you to leave, you wouldn’t do it, would you?”

“No. Not yet. I was told that you’re going to be upset in a few minutes and I want to be here

to see it. It’s not often that Riordan is in over his head. And with you, I think he is.” Storm

started to tell her that he’d not be in over his head if he just left her alone, but Bri continued. “I

was scared out of my mind when he called me. I knew that he’d been frightened but not why.

And when his phone call came through to me, I nearly didn’t want to answer it. I owe you a great

deal for saving his life.”

“He wouldn’t have had to be saved if he had just done what I told him.” Bri nodded and then

smiled at her. “I can see where he gets his supposed charm. You. He thinks that if he just smiles

a little, things will go the way he wants them to. Or demands them to. I’m not swayed by charm

or his good looks. I’m over that shit.”

“Yes, that’s him, but I don’t think you’re as over it, as you say, as you might think. And the

charming part is not something that most would call him. Mac is charming. You’ve met him.

And I think that Aedan is as well, but he’s a romantic more than just simply charming. You’ve

not met the others, have you?” Storm told her no and leaned back on the bed. The monitor was

hyping up, and that meant she’d be on it longer. Slowing her heart, she tried to concentrate on

the woman’s voice rather than what had happened today. “Tell me what happened.”

“He stopped taking his meds. Two weeks ago. I don’t know the entire story of why he was

on them, and even if I did, I’d not share with you. But he was depressed. He told me that he

hated the way they made him feel. I know what he meant. You feel sort of leggy and doped up.”

The door opened and closed, but she didn’t open her eyes. When her IV was touched, Storm

didn’t think anything about it. It was a hospital after all. “When he had Riordan in his arms, all I

could think about was you. I know that you think that’s really stupid, but you were forefront and

center. I didn’t want to have to explain to you why he’d been killed.”

“I can’t thank you enough for that.” Her voice sounded sort of sluggish, and Storm opened

her eyes to look at the person touching her. The nurse standing there had a needle and she was

pushing something into her IV site. Storm tried to ask her what it was, but Bri continued talking.

“The entire family is grateful for it, too. Stormy, are you all right?”

Something was wrong. Something…she looked at Bri and noticed that she was waving in

and out of focus. The nurse…it was all she could think about. Reaching behind her for her gun,

Storm realized it was gone, taken for evidence. Grabbing for the nurse, her fingers slipped off

her, and she looked at Bri as she pulled the needle from the IV. It was their only hope.

“Stop her.”

The door slammed open and she heard a growl. As she felt herself slipping off into la-la

land, Storm saw the big wolf, then the cat. Things were blurring in and out then, and she knew

that whatever was going on, she could not help.

~~~

Riordan held Storm’s hand as the men in the room cleaned up. They had thought to move

her to another room, but Blackson said that would be a bad idea. So the blood and the body were

being removed, as well as any evidence of what the nurse had been doing. Riordan looked at his

mom as she sat there as calm as ever.

“She knew something was wrong and warned me.” Riordan nodded and looked down at

Storm when his mom spoke. “Why on earth would they hurt her here? Not that I think they

should hurt her anywhere, but why?”

The IV that was running in her arm was not dripping like he’d seen them do, but running full

tap, as Ennis had told him. It was pumping her system clean of the poison that had been given to

her. Lucky for Storm, she’d pulled the needle out before more than a few drams of the stuff had

been put in her. He was just glad that he and Blackson were so near when he said that Storm was

in trouble. Riordan’s opinion about the man had been wrong, he thought now.

His dad came in the room again and sat next to his mom. He was upset, too, but he was nicer

about it.

The scrubs Riordan had been given felt foreign to him. After his suit clothes and shoes had

been torn up when he shifted, Ennis had been nice enough to find him something to wear. He

wasn’t used to being so informal. And being uncomfortable wasn’t helping his temper right now.

“If they hadn’t made her come here, she’d be safe at her house.” He tried his best to calm his

cat, but he wanted to find the woman that had hurt Storm and kill her again. “I would think

they’d listen to her when she says she’s just fine.”

The door opened again, and he had to fight hard with his other self not to shift and kill. And

seeing Blackson didn’t calm him either. Riordan felt his body crawling with the need to protect

her when she was hurt like this, and Blackson seemed to know it. He stayed as far from the bed

as he could without leaving the room.

“While I’m going to share what happened, I must tell you that sharing this information will

have you before a firing squad. Anything and everything about today is going to be classified.

But as her family, I’m going to bend the rules a little and let you know what happened.” Riordan

nodded, and so did his mom and dad. “First of all, the shooting at the bakery is going to be listed

as a robbery gone wrong. He came in to get money for drugs and he was shot and killed by an

unknown hero. Neither of you will be listed in any report filed, nor will anyone ever know that