Zen (16 page)

“I told you to stay away from her!” Rage went to charge at Zen.

Zen quickly but gently pushed Shawna out of the way so she wouldn’t get hurt. By doing so he wasn’t prepared for the impact. It sent him and Rage flying down to the floor…hard. The air was knocked out of him.

“What is your problem?” Zen asked, trying to shove Rage off him.

“
You
are my problem. You touched her!” Rage elbowed him in the face.

Ouch!
“You have a mate—Rachel! Shawna is not yours!” Zen scrambled to his knees only to receive a direct upper cut.

Two other of the male fighters showed up. Maxim was holding Shawna back to keep her safe and Torch was…standing there enjoying the show.

“Do something! Stop them!” Shawna shouted at Maxim and Torch.

Maxim shook his head. “I will keep you safe only.”

She looked over at Torch with hopeful pleading eyes.

He snorted, “They need to fight this out. Rage has been an asshole lately. Zen needs to get his pretty face messed up once in a while. I heard it builds character.”

“You’re an ass!” Shawna yelled at Torch. He just winked at her.

Zen and Rage managed to get back to their feet but they were circling each other. “Come on, Rage, I don’t want to fight you. Why are you acting like this? Is she your ex-lover or something?”

“What? No!” Both Rage and Shawna looked at him like he was crazy.

“Then what business do you have, deciding who she can or can’t be with?” Zen asked.

“I’m her brother!” Rage yelled, surprising Zen by getting a right hook on him.

“Brother?” Zen was shocked. So were the other two males who were looking between Rage and Shawna. They did have similar looks, with dark hair and the tone of their skin.

As it sunk in what Rage had said, Zen felt a relief inside. He had been worried about Rage and Shawna’s past relationship thinking they were lovers. But that wasn’t the connection at all. He smiled as he looked at Shawna. “He’s your brother.” Then Rage kicked his middle knocking his breath out.

“What the hell is going on here?” Rachel demanded, coming up the hallway.

Rage immediately lowered his fists and stepped away from Zen. “I can explain. Zen was with Shawna…”

Rachel didn’t let him finish. She kicked him in the shin hard.

“Ow! What the hell, Rachel?” Rage rubbed his aching shin.

Rachel glared at Maxim and Torch. She pointed her finger at them, “You two take Zen back to his suite and call a healer to look him over. He has a fight in a few hours and he needs to be one hundred percent.”

Then she pointed her finger at Shawna and Rage. “You two, inside now!” Everyone jumped to do what Rachel ordered. She may have been the shortest one present but she was the scariest. Zen gave Shawna a last lingering look. She mouthed ‘later’ before she was pulled inside the suite.

“Do you want to tell me what the hell that was all about?” Rachel asked, glaring at Rage. He didn’t say anything.

“Rage attacked Zen,” Shawna said.

Rachel quirked an eyebrow at him. He shrugged. “The male had his hands and mouth on her. I was protecting her.”

“I didn’t ask for your protection!” Shawna yelled at him.

“You obviously need it if you are making out with the biggest playboy of the GCFA!” he returned.

Shawna blanched. It was like having a bucket of cold water dumped on her. She knew Zen had a bad reputation, but to have her brother throw it in her face had her questioning her relationship with the Felon.

“What is wrong with you, Rage? You know that Zen is a good person. He’s been a good friend.” Rachel was flabbergasted at how Rage was behaving.

“He’s not good enough for my sister,” he grumbled. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“I think whether he is good enough or not is up to your sister,” Rachel told him vehemently.

“That is exactly right,” Shawna agreed, nodding her head. She couldn’t believe how Rage was acting.

Rage first looked at Rachel’s angry face then at Shawna’s. “Zen is a player of all players. He goes through females like most females goes through shoes. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Some of Shawna’s anger faded. Rage was being protective of her. How could she stay mad at that? He was trying to be a big brother to her, which was something she had always longed for. She needed to tread carefully with this.

“I appreciate you wanting to look out for me. I really do. I know some of Zen’s history with women. I think it’s different with us. At least, I hope it is.” Shawna walked over to him.

“I want you to be safe and happy. I just don’t see that happening with Zen,” Rage stated stubbornly.

“Would you trust Zen to take care of Rachel if something happened to you? Would you be able to count on him?” Shawna asked. When he didn’t say anything she felt she had her answer anyway. “If you can count on him to be there for you and Rachel, why can’t you trust that he will be there for me?”

Rage ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “You care for him?”

She nodded her head. “I do, a great deal,” Shawna told him immediately.

“Does he care about you the same way?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know for sure, but I believe he does.”

“Then I will back off. But if he hurts you, I will beat him bloody and throw him off the ship while we are not docked.” Shawna cringed at the bloody image.

“Okay, I can live with that.”

“I can manage on my own,” Zen said stubbornly as he got off the elevator to his level. Torch and Maxim followed him out.

“We will make sure you do not go back right now,” Maxim told him.

“At least not until Rachel gives us the clear. Man, she is one scary human,” Torch said.

Zen smiled. He remembered when he first met Rachel at tryouts. She got her ass handed to her by Zara but the female kept getting back up. She was tough.

“Okay, you have walked me to my door. Unless one of you plans to kiss me goodnight, get the hell out of here.” Zen swiped his key in the door and opened it up. He stood frozen in place as he surveyed his suite.

“Holy shit, Zen. I knew you would be a slob but this is taking it a bit far,” Torch commented from behind.

“I didn’t do this,” Zen said as he slowly started to walk inside. A hand on his shoulder halted him. He turned back to look at Maxim.

“Do not touch anything. I will call security to come.” He let go of Zen and grabbed his cell phone.

Zen walked in, stepping over cushions and other debris that had been strewn over the main living space floor. Who would do something like this? There were shattered picture frames everywhere.

Torch came out of the bedroom shaking his head. “I thought the front room was bad. I was wrong.”

Zen went past him to his bedroom. The mattress was completely destroyed. The closet door was open. He peered inside and found his clothes shredded. He came out of the closet and felt vulnerable. Someone had come into his home and destroyed his things. He couldn’t think of a reason anyone would do something like this.

“Zen?”

He looked up and found Trig, second-in-command of GCFA ship security, standing just inside the bedroom.

“Are you okay? Were you hurt?” Trig asked.

“No, I wasn’t home when this happened,” Zen told him.

“Rachel is on her way. You didn’t touch anything, did you?”

“No.”

“Okay, good. We’ll have a team come up and look for prints,” Trig told him, texting someone on his cell phone.

Zen walked around his suite dazed and confused. Every utensil in the kitchen had been taken out of the drawer and dumped onto the floor. He wanted to start cleaning things up but he knew Trig didn’t want him to touch anything.

He looked over and found Torch and Maxim standing at the door, guarding it. It surprised him that they would stay there with him. He hadn’t really given them credit for it before but they were good males to do that.

Five minutes later, Rachel walked in and she was followed by more of the security crew and lab techs. She took a quick glance and then started giving out orders.

“I want everything fingerprinted. Get the doorway, all drawers in the kitchen, and light switches.”

Trig walked up and added, “Check the knives from the kitchen. I think one was used to destroy Zen’s mattress.”

“Yes, sir.” one of the lab techs called out.

Rachel touched Zen’s shoulder briefly in sympathy. “I’m sorry this happened, Zen. We’ll get to the bottom of it and find the culprit. Did you have a fight tonight?”

“Yeah. I came back to shower and change. This person destroyed all my clothes. Guess I will have to use the showers in the training facility locker room,” he sighed.

“That’s for the best. Stay with a friend tonight and we’ll get you a new suite set up for tomorrow. I would offer for you to come stay with me and Rage but under the circumstances…” She didn’t finish what she was saying. She didn’t have to. He and Rage would probably kill each other if they had to room together.

“You can stay with me if you want,” Torch offered, surprising himself and everyone else around him. “Or not. No big deal.” His face turned a light shade of red.

“Thanks, man. I’ll let you know.” Zen left for the training center’s showers. This day just got better and better. First he had a huge fight with a good friend, then finds his place completely destroyed by a crazy person. He hoped his luck was turning.

That night Zen’s match was first up. He half assed it and barely won. He didn’t care about any of that. He just wanted to be done so he could go off with Shawna. He had asked her to meet him at the healing facility instead of the after party.

“How are you?” Shawna asked, looking sexy in her tight blue jeans and tank top.

“The healers say I can leave.”

“Are we going to the after party?”

“No, I thought we would go back to your suite.”

“Why not go to yours?”

“I’m actually in the process of relocating. Everything is a mess right now.” It wasn’t a total lie. It was a mess and he was moving. He just didn’t want to worry her about the stalker.

“Okay then.”

Zen was really quiet all the way to her suite. She knew something was wrong but he refused to tell her anything. When they got to her suite, she went to get a bath going in the tub. It might be nice and relaxing, maybe it would loosen him up enough that he would talk about what was bothering him.

“Zen, could you come here?” she called him into the bathroom.

Zen walked into the bathroom and froze in place. His heartbeat accelerated as he took in the vision before him. Shawna stood completely naked by a steaming hot tub. Her long dark brown hair fell loose down by her waist. She literally took his breath away.

She motioned for him to move toward her. Shawna reached out with shaky hands and pulled Zen’s shirt up over his abs, his chest, and then his head. She threw the shirt to the corner. Her fingers plucked at his nipple making him shiver. She trailed her fingers down his smooth and hairless chest. She stopped here and there, stroking over small white scares that were barely visible.

“How come I never noticed these before?”

“Felon’s complexions can camouflage imperfections. Do they bother you?”

“No. Even with these, you are still the most beautiful man I have ever met.”

She reached the snaps on his jeans and undid them. She lowered them as she lowered herself down to her knees. She smiled as his cock sprung free. He was commando. She helped him with his boots and pulled his pants completely off. She ran her hands up and down his legs and thighs.

Zen thought he was going to lose it when she blew a warm breath over his heavy shaft. He felt her cup his sac, massaging the tightening balls. Her other hand gripped his cock massaging him back and forth. He moaned her name as her tongue licked a path from his balls to his tip.

“Shawna.”

“Mmm…you taste good.” She took him into her mouth, sucking him hard.