The Heir (12 page)

Finally it was Shane who broke up their
silent battle when he stretched his hand out towards him and
smiled. "What's up man, I'm Shane. Jessica seems to have forgotten
her manners."

Nick looked at Shane's hand then up at him
and nodded. He didn't want to shake his hand, he wanted to kill
him. The only part of him that he wanted to touch was his neck.

"I'm Nick and I'm going to tell you what I
told Jessica earlier, one week. One week.” H She has one week to
break if off with you."

His words made both, Shane and Jessica
stiffen. Shane took a step towards Nick and she went to stand
between the two. Crushed in the middle of the two, she felt like a
lily in a redwood forest.

"Who are you, to think that we're going to do
what you want us to?" Shane snarled at Nick over Jessica.

"You have one week,” Nick repeated, ignoring
Shanes’ outburst. ”And after this week, if I ever see you lay a
hand on her, I will break your fingers followed by every bone in
your body until you beg for death."

"I'm not scared of you!"

"Good, I don't want you to be scared; I want
you rational, ready for me when I come after you." He told him then
he turned his attention to Jessica, "You and I will end up
together, one way or another,” he told her. “It’s your choice if
you want his death on your conscience."

"Try to kill me or come near Jessica again
and I will make sure you rot in jail"

Nick gave a booming laugh at the threat. "I
won’t be trying." He assured him and didn't bother to respond to
the threat of Jail time. Those flimsy bars couldn't hold any of his
kind unless they wanted to be held. "One week" He repeated and
turned to go as if he had no care in the world when inside he was
seconds away from shifting and spilling the guys’ guts with his
claws.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." Shane
growled in a low voice as they stood there and watched Nick walk
away.

When Nick was out of sight, Shane grabbed her
arm and pulled her along towards the waiting car. He opened the
passenger side door and ushered her in, slamming the door behind
her. She glared at him as he made his way around to the other side
and after snapping her seat belt on, she rested her head on the
headrest and closed her eyes.

The ride home was made in silence and it gave
Jessica time to contemplate Nick’s threat.

“You have a thing for him!” Shane accused
when they finally arrived home.

Jessica shook her head and reached for the
door handle, trying to deny the truth from him-and in a way from
herself too. Without waiting for him she got out of the car and
headed for the door. Shane caught up to her as she was opening
door; he reached past her and slammed it shut before she could go
in.

On a sigh, Jessica crossed her arms and
glared at him. "It's none of your business if I like him or
not."

"It’s not my business?! People think you're
my girlfriend!" He yelled at her.

"But you're not" She pointed out, reasonably.
"You're just the bodyguard, remember?"

Shane cursed and slammed an open palm against
the closed door a few inches away from her head; making Jessica
jump. She'd never seen him act like that before. It made her weary
and she moved one hand to the door knob. Preparing herself to jump
inside if necessary, Shane noticed and took a deep breath before
speaking. "Bodyguard or boyfriend I still need to know these
things."

"I haven't seen him in months, there was
nothing to tell."

"Well now that he is back you're going to
tell him to back off right?" Jessica hesitated and Shane bit out
through clenched teeth, "Everyone thinks we are going out."

"But we aren't." Jessica pointed out once
again.

"Because that's how you wanted it!"

Suddenly Shane reached for her and hauled her
up against him. Jessica fisted her hands and pushed against his
shoulders with all her might. He tightened his hold on her,
wrapping one hand around her waist and burying the other in her
hair and he leaned down to kiss her. At the last second Jessica
turned her head sideways and he grabbed her chin and turned her to
look at him.

"We could have a good thing if you gave us a
chance."

"The only relationship I want with you is you
as my bodyguard but that's it. I'm sorry.”

Shane tightened his hold on her even more.
"You don't have a sorry bone in your body."

"No, she doesn't," Riley agreed from the
doorway, "but if you don't let her go, I'll make sure you leave
here with more than a couple of yours sorry that you ever laid a
hand on her.”

Shane let Jessica slide down to her feet, he
turned to look Riley up and down and threw his head back and
laughed. "You think you can take me?"

Riley shrugged, "I doubt it, but I will give
it my best try and if I don't succeed," he nodded towards Jessica,
"I'll make sure she doesn't get in trouble for beating the shit out
of her bodyguard."

Shane pushed a shocked Jessica aside and
stood toe to toe with Riley. "Unlike the previous bodyguards, I
actually know what I'm doing." Shane leaned in closer to Riley,
almost touching his nose and Jessica was impressed when Riley
didn't back away, didn't even bat an eyelash. "I'm going to let you
both in on a little secret; your dear sister couldn't take me down
with my hands tied behind my back."

"This is not very professional of you." Riley
commented.

"You think I don't know that?" Shane snarled.
"For months, I've been telling myself not to fall for her. Little
by little I've done just that and no matter what I did, I could
never get her to look at me. I thought she was worried about my job
only to find out that she's been waiting for someone to come
back!"

Riley raised an eyebrow and shot Jessica a
quick glance. “I guess that means-”

“That this conversation is over.” Jessica cut
in, “Nick is my business and only mine.”

Shane took a threatening step towards Jessica
and Riley stepped in front of her. Jessica was astonished; never in
a million years would she have imagined Riley standing up for her.
They didn’t have the best of relations.

"Stay away from my sister.” He told Shane. “I
know it's not my decision but I think you should consider yourself
fired, there's no way dad will be alright with this when he hears
about it."

Shane snarled and, faster than anyone could
react, punched him in the solar plexus. Riley bent over trying to
gasp for air and Shane knocked him out with a quick jab in the back
of the head. He landed unceremoniously on the ground and Shane
stepped over his prone body.

Immediately, Jessica braced her feet apart
and raised her fists. With little room to move around in, she
struck out at him with a serious of jabs and upper cuts but he
proved to have spoken the truth when he'd said he was an
accomplished fighter. He deflected every punch as easy as if
swatting a fly.

But Jessica was relentless; she struck out
again and again. As if tired of playing games, he blocked her last
punch with his forearm, pushed her hand to the side then grabbed
her wrist and pulled her closer. He pinned her wrist behind her and
slammed her against the wall. Jessica brought her free hand up to
try to push him away but it was also caught and slammed above her
head.

"Consider this my resignation." Shane
murmured and closed the distance between their lips.

Jessica clamped her lips shut and shook her
head back and forth, trying to avoid his kiss. Shane released one
of her hands to get a firm grip of her chin. She grimaced from the
pain, drawing a wicked smile from him and he tightened his hold,
making her wince even more.

Jessica wriggled her body, trying to push him
off of her, until she came in contact with what she hoped was his
gun. Her sudden stillness made Shane chuckle and he confided to her
in a low voice, "I carry my other gun behind my back."

Shane moved his hips, grinding against her,
and Jessica shuddered with disgust. She used all of her strength to
push him off her but it was no use. Unbelievably, he was stronger
than her, a lot stronger. Shane crushed his lips against hers and
Jessica bit him with all her might. He reeled back and she spit the
blood she drew from his lip in his face.

Shane wiped his face, his eyes took on a
murderous look and he raised his hand to strike her. Jessica braced
herself for the hit and closed her eyes but the strike never
came.

Chapter 8

She heard a short scuffle and opened her eyes
slowly only to see that the hand Shane had tried to raise against
her was now being held behind his back with a knife pressed against
his throat.

"Release her" Her rescuer ordered in a low,
calm and controlled voice.

He looked familiar but Jessica couldn't quite
place him, she eyed him suspiciously before she was reminded of her
current predicament by sudden pain on her arm that made wince. She
tried to pull away and Shane tightened his hold on her arm, making
her wince again. Any tighter and Jessica was sure her arm would
snap.

The guy holding Shane noticed and he repeated
his order.

Shane ignored him and began to struggle but
his captor tightened his hold and pressed the knife deeper into
Shane’s throat. Shane winced and Jessica saw a drop of blood slide
down his neck.

"Let her go, nice and easy, make a sudden
move and you'll be leaving in two body bags" The guy warned in a
soft murmur.

Shane did as he was told and Jessica took a
step to the side, away from them both. She went to her brothers’
side where was being checked over by another stranger.

After he'd checked the back of Riley’s head,
he turned to the one holding Shane and said, "This one will be
fine." then turned back to Riley and began to turn him over onto
his back.

"What are you doing!? He might have a
concussion! You can't move him!" She pushed the guy away from her
brother; surprised and off balance, the guy fell back and landed on
his rear end.

The stranger holding Shane snickered and the
one on the ground glared at him as he stood up wiping his behind.
"He doesn't have a concussion." He assured her, "We need to get him
inside though."

"You aren't touching him until you tell me
who you are." Jessica braced herself; they would have to go through
her before they touched her brother. The two guys shared a look and
the guy holding Shane introduced himself first.

"I'm Axel."

"And I'm Christian."

"And we have about ten minutes-"

"Less," Christian interjected and Axel glared
at him.

"-to get you-and your brother-inside and into
an upstairs room with the least amount of windows because Nick is
on his way and he is not happy."

Jessica's eyes flew open when Nick was
mentioned.

Christian scoffed. "He is not happy!? He is
past unhappy, crashed through mad, flipped the bird at angry, and
is currently flying through livid. His plane lands at” Christian
pointed at Shane "he is dead in five minutes! And if we are out
here when he gets here..."

Jessica raised an eyebrow at the outburst and
turned towards Axel who was obviously the one in charge.

"Please, can you go inside with Christian and
your brother? My word, that we mean you no harm. I wish I could
answer your questions but I can't right now."

Jessica shook her head but stopped when Axel
and Christian suddenly lifted their faces, as if scenting the
air.

"Oh shit."

"Christian, grab her and go!" Axel ordered.
"Leave the brother he'll be fine."

Jessica didn't know what was going on, but
one thing was sure. If the guy that was holding on to Shane so
effortlessly was scared, then she should be too.

"No! I'll go, just don't leave Riley."

Axel nodded absently; he was facing the
street looking up and down the road, still holding Shane at knife
point. Christian crouched down to pick up the still unconscious
Riley. He put him over his shoulder in the firefighter carrying
position and nodded towards the door; motioning for Jessica to lead
the way inside.

She obeyed and only turned back once to see
Shane struggling to get free. He knew that whatever was coming
wasn't going to be good for him. Out of the corner of her eye she
saw two more figures running up the driveway and she would have
stopped and gapped at their speed but Christian blocked her
view.

"Which way?!" He demanded.

Jessica pointed towards the stairs and he
gave her a nudge in that direction. Later when she thought about
this more calmly it would all seem like it had taken a lot longer
than it did but in reality no more than a couple of minutes had
passed since Axel stopped Shane from hitting her.

"Is anyone else here?"

"Danielle, my…my sister."

"What about your parents?"

"They will be back tomorrow."

"We need a room with small or no windows. No
windows’ is best."

They were running up the stairs and Jessica
noticed that he didn't sound-or looked- winded even though he was
carrying an unconscious body that probably weighed as much as
him.

"No windows." He reminded her when they
reached the top. "Which way?"

"My bathroom has no windows." She suggested,
he nodded and she led the way.

Jessica hoped he didn't laugh at all the
pink, she still didn't know how to tell her parents that she really
hated the color.

When they reached her room she pointed
towards the bathroom while she ran to the bed and grabbed a couple
of pillows. Christian laid Riley down on the floor and took one of
Jessica's pillows.

"Good thinking." He told her as he put a
pillow under Riley's head.

"Where is your sister?" Christian asked her
as he rushed out of the bathroom with Jessica close at his
heels.

"She is in her room."