already decided to buy the damn thing when her family sold it. Though he'd never had a house before or many personal possessions, these walls and this roof and the shit sheltered inside-he would own it all. A shrine to her.
Z made a quick trip through the house, cataloging the things that had been removed. It wasn't much. A painting and a silver dish from the living room and a mirror from the front hall. He was curious why those particular objects had been chosen and wanted them back where they belonged.
As he came into the kitchen again, he pictured the room after she'd been abducted, all the blood, the glass shards, the busted chairs and china. His eyes went down to a black streak of rubber on the pine floor. He could guess how it had been made. Bella struggling against the lesser, being dragged, the sole of her shoe squeaking as it left a trail.
Anger crawled around his chest on all fours until he was panting from the ugly, familiar feeling. Except...
Christ, the whole thing didn't make sense: him searching for her and obsessing over her shit and walking around her house. They hadn't been friends. Hell, they hadn't even been acquaintances. And he hadn't been nice to her on the two occasions he'd met her.
Man, he regretted that. During those few moments he'd had with her, he wished he hadn't been so... Well, not throwing up after he'd found out she was aroused by him would have been a good fricking start. Except there'd been no way to suck back the response. No female other than that sick bitch mistress of his had ever been wet for him, so he sure as hell didn't associate slick female flesh with anything good.
As he remembered Bella being up against his body, he still wondered why she'd wanted to lay with him. His face was a goddamned mess. His body wasn't much better, at least not on the back. And his reputation made Jack the Ripper look like a Boy Scout. Damn it, he was angry at everyone and everything all the time. She'd been beautiful and soft and kind, a regal, aristocratic female from a privileged background.
Oh, but their contradictions had been the point, hadn't they? He'd been the change-of-pace male for her. The walk on the wild side. The savage creature who would shock her out of her nice little life for an hour or two.
And even though it had hurt to be reduced to precisely what he was, he'd still thought she was... lovely.
From behind him, he heard a grandfather clock start to chime. Five o'clock.
The front door to the house opened with a creak.
In a soundless rush, Z unsheathed a black dagger from his chest and flattened himself against the wall. He angled his head so he had a view down the hall to the foyer.
Butch held up his hands as he walked inside. "Just me, Z."
Zsadist lowered the blade, then put it back in its holster.
The former homicide detective was an anomaly in their world, the only human who'd ever been let into the Brotherhood's inner circle. Butch was V's roommate, Rhage's lifting partner in the gym, Phury's clothes-whore buddy. And for reasons of his own, he was obsessed with Bella's abduction, so he had some shit in common Page 20
J R Ward: Lover Awakened
with Z, too.
"What up, cop?"
"You heading back to the compound?" The guy's question might have been framed as an inquiry, but it was more like a suggestion.
"Not right now."
"Close to daylight."
Whatever. "Phury send you for me?"
"My choice. When you didn't come back from what you paid for, I figured you might end up here."
Z crossed his arms over his chest. "You worried I killed that female I took into the alley?"
"Nope. Saw her working the club before I left."
"So why am I looking at you right now?"
As the male glanced down like he was putting words together in his head, his weight moved back and forth in those expensive loafers he liked. Then he unbuttoned his fancy black cashmere coat.
Ah... so Butch was a messenger. "Spit it out, cop."
The human rubbed his thumb over his eyebrow. "You know Tohr's been talking to Bella's family, right? And that her brother's a real hothead? Well, he knows someone's coming in here. He can tell because of the security system. Every time it's shut off or turned on, he gets a signal. He wants the visits to stop, Z."