Blood Secrets - By Jeannie Holmes Page 0,64
I have to keep you safe.” He wrapped her in his arms once more. “I nearly went insane when Edward died. The thought of losing you …”
“I understand,” she murmured. “And I’m sorry I said all those things.”
“They needed to be said.”
Alex tightened her hold. “That’s no excuse though.”
He peeled away from her. “Perhaps not but let’s put it behind us for now and go have lunch. I’m starving.”
She couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
They reached his Corvette, and he assisted her with settling into the passenger seat before closing the door.
“Excuse me, sir,” a man’s muffled voice materialized outside. “My battery seems to be dead. You wouldn’t happen to have any jumper cables, would you?”
Alex frowned. Alarm bells sounded in her head. Something about the voice sounded familiar.
“Uh, yeah,” Varik responded warily. “I have a set in the trunk.”
She heard the two move away from her door, their voices growing fainter. A weak odor filtered into the car, wrinkling her nose. She inhaled, trying to place the scent.
Leather and old blood.
“Varik!” she called. She managed to open the door as the sounds of a struggle arose from the rear of the car. “It’s him! It’s the Dollmaker!”
Something heavy slammed into the car beside her, knocking Alex from her feet. The back of her head banged painfully against the window as she fell. She heard the sound of flesh striking flesh, a series of loud grunts, and then silence except for one person’s heavy breathing and her own heartbeat.
“Varik?” she said softly, inwardly cursing the blindness that still afflicted her. “What’s happening?”
She heard someone kneel in front of her. The smell of leather and old blood covered her.
“Hello, chickie,” the Dollmaker whispered. A rough hand grabbed her arm, and she felt a sharp pinprick in her wrist.
She fought to free herself as the drug he’d injected rushed through her body. Whatever he’d given her worked rapidly, as her movements slowed and her words slurred. “What have you done to Varik?”
“Put him out of his misery.” He hauled her to her feet. “And now you’re going to be mine. Forever.”
Tasha groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. She yawned and blinked against the sunlight filtering through the west-facing windows of her bedroom. Squinting against the light, she tried to reason why the sun was rising in the west.
“Shit,” she hissed and then moaned as her head thumped with pain and her stomach lurched. She rolled from the bed, grabbing for any nearby clothing. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”
“Something wrong, Mama?”
Tasha screamed, dropping the clothes she gathered, and patted her hip, reaching for a sidearm that wasn’t present. She backed up against the closet door, staring at the obviously amused—and naked—man in her bed. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
He chuckled and stretched, thick corded muscles rippling under dark skin. “If you don’t remember that, then I did not do my job right last night.”
“Last night?” Tasha scratched her head.
She remembered going to the Duck ’n’ Cover last night to meet someone who never showed. Dinky had supplied her with Bayou Bombs—the thought of which made Tasha’s stomach somersault—and there was a band. “Rueben.”
He grinned. “Ah, so you do remember. I don’t think my ego could take it if you didn’t.”
A draft blew across her bare legs. She looked down and cursed, grabbing a short satin robe from the closet doorknob and slipping it on to cover her nakedness. Another glance at the windows made her groan. “I am so fucking fired.”
“No, you’re not.”
Tasha frowned at Rueben as she tied her robe. “What do you mean by that and can you please cover yourself?”
Rueben pushed himself up, leaned against the headboard, and draped a corner of her comforter over his lap. “Someone called here looking for you this morning. I told them you were sick and couldn’t make it in today.”
“And they believed you?”
He laughed. “Yes. Would you have preferred I told them you were passed out in an alcohol-induced sexual stupor?”
“Absolutely not!” Tasha hugged herself and sat on the edge of the bed. “Did they want to know who you were?”
“I told them I was a friend and you’d asked me to come over to take care of you.”
Tasha hid her face in her hands, silently cursing her stupidity. How could she let herself get so drunk she brought home a strange man, had sex with him, and then failed to report to work the next day? Tears pressed against her closed eyes