Unexpected Mates (Sons of Heaven) (19 page)

The other tracker didn’t question it. “Go.”

“I require three men. Now. The first will locate and follow Lucy Ferguson. She is driving a black Mustang convertible with personalized plate S-X-Y-G-R-L.”

“Has she accosted the young match? Uh...Ms. Davidson?”

“Not today, but she has been harassing Ms. Davidson in stealth.”

“You want to know where she goes and what she does.”

“I want to be sure she is nowhere near Ms. Davidson or her family.”

“Done.”

“The second man will watch Ms. Davidson’s mother.”

“For what reason?”

“Ferguson was lurking about Mrs. Davidson’s home.” Since he wasn’t certain what Lucy’s aim was in being there, it was better to be safe. “Though Mrs. Davidson believes Lucy means only to cause Amy harm, her concern is reason enough to protect her, and her mate is not in the home to protect her.”

“I agree. And the final man?”

“I want the van I’m driving replaced. Now. Full diagnostics run on the vehicle.”

There was a moment of tense silence.

“She was lurking around my van. Considering what I know of the female, I would not put sabotage past her.”

“Done. The vehicle will be replaced within half an hour. Should I report this to Sakkra?”

He hesitated a moment. “Yes. Please do. I do not trust this woman, and the more I hear about her, the more I believe preemptive measures are best.”

“Done. And...Rietin?”

“Yes?”

“Be safe.” He disconnected.

Rietin took one last look the direction Lucy had gone and started back for the house. A tone from his cell phone brought him up short on the edge of the curb, and he punched up the message. It was a text message on hold in his queue for Amy. And it was from an unknown cell number.

He opened it, his blood boiling at the contents.

Nice new boyfriend. I’ll be fucking him next. Enjoy while you can.

Luce

So that was the way she wanted to play it? Rietin bit back the urge to answer her challenge. Instead, he saved the message as he had the earlier attack on Amy.

He went back into the house, trying to school his expression, though he raged silently. Whether it would harm Amy or not, Lucy Ferguson had
no
chance of bedding him. Rietin had never been lonely enough or horny enough to bed a viper like her.

Amy looked up from the coffee machine, her smile fading. “Problem?”

He closed the cell phone and pushed it back into his pocket. “Just erasing spam.”
When did I start lying to my charges?

“I
was
joking about that,” she responded, but she laughed.

It was good to hear her laugh.

Chapter Fourteen

Amy trudged up the stairs toward her apartment, exhausted. It would be all she could do to get a meal down before falling into bed. It was strange, but they never seemed to eat much when Sakkra invited her to the consulate for a business dinner.

Tonight was the third meeting she’d had with Sakkra about the proposed changes in as many weeks. He’d even hinted at the idea of giving her a job as their Earth-born representative...complete with world-wide travel to every country with a Sakk consulate and additional day trips to countries with proposed agreements.

Amy wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She was sure the money would be more than adequate, but working in close quarters with Sakkra was guaranteed to drive her crazy. She hadn’t come to terms with being Sakk-descended herself, let alone the idea of mating for life with a Sakk-born man, so the idea of entering into any relationship—business or pleasure—with a Sakk prince she was undeniably attracted to was too much for her mind to handle right now.

She rounded the last corner and headed for the door with a sigh. The key fought sliding into the lock, and Amy cursed aloud. It had been too much to ask that Rietin’s men had permanently fixed the problem. She made a mental note to talk to the manager about it in the morning.

In the meantime, she had to get in.

She focused on the keyhole and gasped in surprise. It wasn’t that the lock was fouled. There was something inside the opening. Realization that it was some sort of hardened glue made her heart race.

Rietin.
Amy turned back toward the stairs, pressing and holding the number five, the autodial she’d set to his cell phone.

She stopped short, her breathing going strangled at the sight of Lucy holding her father’s sawed-off double-barrel shotgun. Though she’d often mused over what irony it was that someone as irrational as Lucy was trained in using and had access to firearms, the irony was no longer, in the least bit, amusing.
I never thought she’d use one on anyone else, let alone me.

There was no question Lucy intended to use it now.

Amy dropped the phone, hoping the autodial had gone through. If Rietin saw her calling, he’d come up to investigate, open line or not.

Please let him investigate.

“Home from your
date
?” Lucy asked.

“What?” What in the world was Lucy talking about.

“Or don’t you feather-heads call it dating?”

“It wasn’t a—”

“Let me get this straight. You have a whole world full of men who would lay at your feet for a kiss, let alone a fuck or a wedding ring, and you want to steal
our
men. Pathetic, Amy. Really pathetic.”

“He’s a
friend
. I have no interest in Josh.”
No offense, Rietin.

Not to mention, after that stunt you pulled with Jason, you have
no
room to talk.
Of course, saying that could win her a prize of buckshot before Rietin could arrive to save her.

“That’s not what
he
says.”

“What?” What had Rietin said? And in what context? For that matter, when had he talked to Lucy?

“You took him to the consulate.”

“You’re following me?”

“Were you having him tested as a match? Did he want to test?”

Her anger threatened to uncork. “No and no,” she offered calmly. Her mind worked fast. What other reason could she have for going there with Josh? “He has an interest in Sakk culture. The consulate seemed like the perfect place for him to learn more.”

Her smile was slightly manic. “In other words, he wasn’t Sakk-descended.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she lied. “I’m not privy to Josh’s medical—”

“It’s just one disappointment after another, isn’t it?”

Amy bit back the urge to reply to Lucy’s wild delusions. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rietin creeping up behind Lucy. She forced herself to look at her former friend. Amy had to keep Lucy’s attention on herself.

The shotgun came up, and Lucy grumbled a curse. “The least you can do is answer me.” Her finger tightened against the trigger, a not-so-subtle warning.

Lucy has never liked being denied or ignored. And she’s never excelled at subtlety.

Words stuck in Amy’s throat. It wasn’t just Lucy’s outburst. Nor was it the shotgun pointed at her chest. It was Rietin’s lunge for Lucy leaving her breathless.

“Answer me!”

He knocked the weapon up and aside, and Amy dropped toward the floor. If it was pointed up, down was the direction she needed to be moving.

“I’ll kill you!”

Overlapping with Lucy’s shout was the roar of the shotgun. Trails of scorching pain ripped through her. Amy’s head hit wood. Hard. Everything went black.

****

Rietin wrestled with Lucy Ferguson, setting off the other shot into the ceiling in the process. It wasn’t as easy as he would have imagined.
Insanity makes one strong.

Strong but not skilled.
Whatever training she had, it didn’t match
yans
of military training.
Not to mention, she would have to reload to use the weapon again.

With one hand wrapped around her weapon, he used the other to lay blows. Admittedly, he laid the first two with less force than he should have used, but the idea of striking a female, human or not, was against everything he believed.

The woman is trying to kill me. She is trying to kill a
match.

That was all he needed to spur him into motion. Rietin laid a blow against her skull with the power to kill. She crumpled, and he let her fall. Self-preservation demanded he know if his adversary was alive or dead before showing her his back, so he checked for a pulse.

Alive.
Rietin cursed himself for his disappointment. The last thing the Sakk needed was the death of a human at Sakk hands.

But the time to worry about that was later. Rietin wrenched the weapon from Lucy Ferguson’s hands. Then he turned toward Amy.

Her stillness caused his heart to stutter in fear. Rietin was at her side in a heartbeat, cursing at the blood trailing off her face and soaking through her shirt.

He scooped her up and bolted down the stairs to his van, using the remote to open the side door when he was still a floor away. With Amy laid on the floor of the vehicle, Rietin dragged out the medical kit. Battle bandages were necessary.

Thankfully, they were also fast. Meant to be used in the heat of battle, the bandages would apply pressure and slow bleeding chemically after application. Rietin had them in place in moments. Then he wrapped Amy in blankets and wedged folded ones around her. He tossed the weapon in the back, trying to keep it from sliding against Amy on the way.

He slammed the door as he heard the first sirens approaching. There was no time to deal with human authorities. Amy needed the Sakk healers.

She needs the safety of the Sakk consulate and its shields.

Once they were out in traffic, he contacted the consulate. In addition to having the healers ready for Amy’s arrival, the warriors at communications would liaise with the human police. The last thing he wanted was Lucy Ferguson escaping punishment for her crimes.

****

“Sakkra!”

He dropped the spoon next to his plate, grumbling sacrilegious oaths. Was it too much to ask that he be granted a meal in peace? When he’d agreed to take this post, Sakkra hadn’t realized the problems he would have to personally attend to would be non-stop.

I have to answer them. There will be no peace until I settle the latest disaster.
“Yes?” He didn’t bother to mask his irritation.

“Rietin has contacted us, Sakkra. It is most urgent.”

His heart stuttered, and he knocked his chair over in his scramble to his feet. “What is the situation?”

“The young match has been injured. Rietin is bringing her here for medical attention.”

“
Zhick,
” he cursed. “Comms, follow me.”

He rushed into the corridor and shouted an order to clear a path in Sakk. Warriors pressed to the walls, and the order passed in a thundering wave in every direction.

Sakkra ran for the tunnel entryway, warriors falling in behind him. “Direct Rietin to the bunker entrance. Have the medical team meet us there.”

“Yes, Sakkra,” the same warrior who’d been briefing him replied from the nearest overhead speaker.

In the background, other warriors coordinated Rietin and the medical team, repeating Sakkra’s orders.

“How soon will Rietin arrive?”

“He has reached the inner marker.”

“
Zhick!
” Sakkra nearly doubled his speed, going from a jog to a sprint, and still he reached the bunker door only heartbeats before Rietin’s van squealed to a halt in the underground bunker.

In the distance, the metal blast shields closed them into the secure level of the consulate. Though it was protocol and not a sign that they were under physical attack, Sakkra shuddered.

Rietin wasted no time. He launched from the vehicle without shutting down the thundering engine, dragged the sliding door open, and lifted a blanket-wrapped bundle that was surely Amy out of the back. He turned with her in his arms, and Sakkra’s gaze locked onto the crimson on the tracker’s hands and clothing.

“
Zhick!
” Sakkra pushed a hand through his hair. “How severe is it?”

The tracker didn’t meet his eyes. He hurried by Sakkra. “She will live, but there is no question this will leave scars.” Rietin shouldered past gathered warriors on his way to the tunnel, stopped, and barked out an order for a hole, just as Sakkra had earlier.

His stomach a wriggling mass, Sakkra followed him. By the time his tongue unglued, Amy was on a transport cart. The battle bandages on her face were dotted in blood, attesting to deep wounds beneath. He let loose a series of curses.

The warriors lining the walls were less restrained. Grumbled promises of death for those responsible had Sakkra thanking Sakkan that the blast shields were closed. In this state, it would be far too easy for his men to become an unruly mob.

Had he been thinking clearly, Sakkra would have called a lock-in for his men the moment he learned what the emergency was. Now that every male within the consulate likely knew, it would cause more harm than good to lock them away from the injured female.

The cart started moving. One healer held Amy’s head still to avoid jarring her wounds. A second ordered tests on the keypad and read off results. A third pushed the cart and shouted a list of supplies and procedures to the comms., which would relay them directly to the master healer preparing for her care.

Murmuring in the ranks announced the warriors passing updates on her condition along the line, forward and back. There were more than a few protests when they learned she’d been shot with a native weapon.

Warriors peered around the healers at her. Some bowed their heads in silent promises of protection. Others raised their heads and hands in prayer and hummed Sakkan’s healing song for her. At med call, the warriors were closed outside while Rietin and Sakkra accompanied Amy in.

The healers pulled a drape around her. Sakkra started to protest, then calmed himself with the fact that they likely had to remove her clothing to treat her wounds. It was unavoidable that the healers would see her unclothed. It would be unacceptable for Sakkra and Rietin to see her in such a state.