Ryland (19 page)

“I’m starving.”

He grinned at her. He was too, he
realized. She moved up next to him and rubbed along his flank. She purred
deeply as she did it.

“I would like to take you right now, but
I think that we should go in and have some dinner, then I’ll let you ravish me
afterward.”
He laughed when she told him she’d have to think about it.
“I love you.
Let’s go in before I forget my better intentions and take you anyway.”

They had a huge dinner and then made
love on the floor in front of the fireplace. It was slow and easy and both of
them were exhausted after. He carried her up to their bed and crawled in beside
her. Ryland held her to him as he drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow night he was going
to take her in the yard and ravish her again, this time as his cat.

Chapter 15

Eli showed up at twenty after two. He
had is driver’s license as well as his passport with him just in case and he’d
checked his clothes three times to make sure he didn’t have any weapons on him.
He even took off the small ankle holster he had. Not that he could have used
it.

He glared at his hand. He’d had to have it
wrapped up before he’d left the house, and he’d had to have his sheets changed
because of all the blood on them. He’d scratched at his skin so badly through
the night that he’d have to have stitches if he kept it up. He could feel it
burning now, the need to scratch it again.

He’d woken up this morning with his hair
brush in his hand, rubbing it against his already raw hand like it was a lamp
and he was going to get a wish granted. And it fucking hurt. He was glad now
that he’d taken something for the pain or he might not have been able to make
this appointment. He was going to give his cook a bonus when he got home for
having pain killers on him. He smiled again at the security officer.

“You’re a mite early for this
appointment, aren’t you?” It was now twenty till three. “I mean, most people
don’t show up until the exact moment they have to and are late because I have
to check them out before they can go up.”

It was on the tip of Eli’s tongue to
tell the man that he was a professional and not some idiot from the streets,
but only nodded. When he and Golden did business together he was going to make
it one of the stipulations that he fire this ass. The elevator ride was made in
silence. Lieutenant Flores might have been saying something, but he was
speaking so low that Eli had neither heard him nor really cared. When the doors
opened, he nearly stepped back. There were more men here than there had been
security when he’d come in.

“Mr. Cunningham, I’m Ryland Golden.
These are my brothers Alistair, Neal, Brock, and Keith. Jules will meet us
later. They’re all partners in this firm with me. And this is my mother, Sandra
Golden, retired.”

He shook hands with each of them and
eyed the matriarch of the family and tried to associate the woman who stood
before him to the gun-toting grandmother Crawford had described.

“And this is my wife, Bronwyn Golden.”

His hand suddenly started to burn. It
got so bad that he dropped to his knees and held his wrist, knowing that it was
going to be in flames at any moment. Glancing up at Bronwyn, he saw that she
was laughing at him and he nearly lunged at her, but suddenly he was lying on
his back with a boot on his chest.

“There are a great many things that I’ll
tolerate, but you touching my sister-in-law isn’t one of them.” The man Golden
had called Brock leaned down to his face as he continued. “I would really enjoy
ripping your fucking throat out for what you’ve done to her, but she said we
have to play nice. At least until you piss her off again. Which I’m betting
won’t be long in coming.”

He was helped up so quickly that he
nearly fell over when his feet touched the floor again. He tried to speak
through his anger, but he was too pissed to think. She was his wife. He had
married the cunt, and now he would have all the say in what she would do.

Eli looked at Golden and smiled. “So,
you’re her husband. That’s very nice. I’m sure she’s told you a great many
things about me, but has she told you what she is? What I’ve made her to be?”

“They know everything, you twiddle
dick.”

He took a step back and came up hard
against another person. He was really between a rock and a bitch now.

“Ah, Jules. Come on then, let’s get this
meeting over with.” Ryland led the way and Eli had no choice but to follow. He
was flanked on all sides and he watched as Bronwyn held hands with her husband.
This was something he hadn’t expected. Not even close.

They all sat around an oval conference
table with Ryland at the head and him in the middle. Bronwyn sat across from
him and he noticed that Brock stood behind him. He felt like a speck on a
microscope. He looked up when Ryland said his name.

“You had a deal to talk to me about? Something
about doubling my worth?” The arrogant ass leaned back in his chair and Eli
found himself wanting to snarl at him. “I’m worth just over five hundred
billion; I’m not sure what I’d do with more than that. I have all I need right
here in this room. Minus you, of course.”

“Of course.” He looked at Bronwyn. “She’s
worth a great deal more than that, are you aware of that? She can do things
that would make you twice or three times that amount. All you have to do is
make her cooperate with me and I’ll share the wealth with you.”

He laughed, startling him out of his
mental picture of what he’d do first to the woman. Eli looked at Ryland to see
that he wasn’t the only one laughing; they all were. And he was pretty sure he
was the butt of their humor.

“You know her, right?”

Eli nodded at the man called Alistair.

“Then you must know that no one,
including her husband, makes her do anything. She’s a…my dear sister is an
entity unto herself.”

“But you should make her.” He looked
around the room to see that he was making no impact on these people at all.
“She’s worth millions just for the things I’ve given her. As her maker, she
should just do as I tell her, but she’s a stubborn bitch who thinks that—”

He was suddenly across the room, looking
up at the ceiling. When a shadow made him look to his right, he cringed away
from the biggest fucking tiger he’d ever seen. Then he heard Bronwyn speak.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you. Run, I mean.
Or maybe you should. That could be an adventure for you.” She laughed. “Tigers
like to play with their food, did you know that? And this one is very hungry.”

“Is he going to kill me?”

She reached over and stroked the big
cat’s neck before looking back at him. He thought that, at that moment, he was
more afraid of her than the cat.

“No. I won’t let him kill you. Yet. I’m
afraid you might make him ill.” She leaned down and spoke to him. “But that
doesn’t mean any of the others might not kill you.”

Eli looked at the others there. Five
more cats milled around the room, each of them snarling and swiping in his
direction. Then it occurred to him. He looked back at Bronwyn. “The cats from
the warehouse. You belong to them.” She shook her head, then smiled. “You can’t
make me believe that they belong to you. You’re nothing but a creation from my
lab. A mistake made that thankfully hadn’t been destroyed when you blew up the
other lab. You owe me for even being alive.”

The big cat put his paw on Eli’s chest
and pressed him back. The bite of his claws tore into his shirt and he could
feel the blood starting to run down his side. He looked over at Bronwyn, ready
to beg her for his life.

“Ryland wants me to tell you something. He
seems to be under the impression that you’ll listen to him when we both know
that you’re either too stupid or too arrogant to listen to good advice.” She
put her hand on the paw and pressed harder. “Are you listening to me,
Cunningham?”

“Yes,” he nearly screamed, the pain was
so intense. “Tell me, damn it, so he’ll let me the fuck go.”

“He said that you’re to leave me alone.
And not to call or contact any of his family again.” She grinned. “Alistair
wants to know if you need him to have someone write this down for you? Anyway,
you’re to never call or…you get the picture. Stay the fuck away from his
family. And just as an added bonus to your hurt little hand…”

The blade came out so quickly all he saw
was a blur. When she stood up, blood poured from his cheek where she’d cut him.
Putting his hand to his face to feel what she’d done, he could feel the bone
and muscle exposed. His blood poured over his fingers and onto the carpet
beneath him. He rolled to his knees; he was going to crawl from this place if
he had to. These people were nuts.

“Let me help you.”

Eli cringed from the guard that was standing
just inside the door.

“You really shouldn’t piss these people
off. They tend to shoot first then ask questions later.”

Standing in the elevator, he saw himself
in the mirrored doors. He looked like he’d been in a horrific accident. Not
only was he covered in blood, but his shirt was ripped to shreds and his hair
was standing on end. He glanced at the guard behind him. “They’ll pay for
this.” The man nodded and told him to try and send them the bill. “I don’t mean
my medical wellbeing, you idiot. I mean they’ll pay for humiliating me and
cutting me.”

“Nah. I wouldn’t count on that either if
I was you. One thing I’ve learned over the years of working for the Goldens is
that they don’t cheat, nor do they retaliate. Could be they’ll make an
exception in your case, but maybe not.” When Eli turned to look at the man, he
smiled, and Eli nearly fell out of the elevator when it opened. The man was
gone and in his place was a large wolf.

Eli ran to the doors only to be stopped
by another guard. When he asked for the badge, Eli nearly threw it at him when
the large wolf moved toward him. This place was a fucking mad house. He had the
door open to his limo before the driver could get out all the way and he
screamed at him to drive, just drive.

He was nearly to the hospital when he
realized that he had something in his coat pocket. Taking it out with trembling
hands, he laughed at the five hundred dollar bill and the note attached. “For
medical expenses.” He was still laughing when he was taken back to a room. Yes,
he was going to kill them all. Especially that fucking cunt Bronwyn and her
husband.

~~~

“That was fun.”

Bronwyn looked at Sandra, who was
helping her wipe up the blood from the carpet. Ryland and the others had gone
to dress and, when she sat on the floor to start cleaning, Bronwyn joined her. It
had been fun, but also dangerous.

“Did he really make you?” She looked up
at Jules as he and Ryland walked in the room. “He said that he created you and
that you owe him. Is that true?”

She nodded and continued with what she
was doing. “In a way, I suppose. I was born in a regular hospital to a single
mother. I guess I had some abilities, mind crap and a higher than average IQ. But
I was semi-normal. Then I was tossed around for a while until I was with a streak
of cats that were razed by Crawford.”

“He found you there because of
Crawford.” She nodded at Ryland. “Why didn’t anyone try to help you after your
mom was killed? Didn’t they care that you were being abused by him?”

“Probably not. I was sort of out of
sight, out of mind by then. And much too old for anyone to want to adopt. And
as I had no living relatives I was sort of shit out of luck. Then Cunningham
found me, not really sure how, but then he took me in and made sure that I
was…cared for, I suppose you could say.” She looked at him. “Why did you tell
him I was your wife?”

“Because you are in the eyes of my kind.
And as soon as we can arrange it I would very much like for you to be in the
courts as well.” He took her hand. “Did that upset you?”

“No. I was surprised is all. I wasn’t
really cared for so much as I was a guinea pig for whatever he wanted done.”

He let her change the subject for now.

“He experimented on you?” Jules looked
at Ryland when she nodded. “He can’t be allowed to walk around after that. You
are going to do something, aren’t you?”

“I will.”

His mom stood up and took the rags from
her as she left the room, taking Jules with her.

Bronwyn looked at the mess then at
Ryland as he stood there in the doorway. “Say something.” He continued into the
room and closed the door behind him. She thought he was going to sit down, but
he held out his hand to her and she let him lift her up. She was cuddling into
his chest when she started talking. “He had them inject me with all sorts of
formulas. Most of them were things I’m sure he had no idea what they’d do. But
the things that enhanced me seemed to have double the effect. Then he started
injecting me with serums. Things like wolf venom and other shifters. At first,
he didn’t think anything had worked. And I suppose it hadn’t. Not until later.”

“Not until puberty set in.”

She nodded.

“It’s the way of all weres. We’re
trained up until then to know what we’re supposed to have happen, but it won’t
actually take effect in us until then.”