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“Wanna go walk around the lake?” I asked.
She looked up at me. “Yeah, that would be super cool.”
We strolled another ten feet to the gate door and I took out my keyring from my pocket and unlocked it. The camera mounted at the top immediately swung in our direction, and I gave it a thumbs-up to let Wizard and Trigger, who were in charge of the fence security, know that everything was copacetic.
I re-secured the padlock once we were on the other side, and then I picked up her hand once more. We walked along the shore in companionable silence, just gentle lapping of the water serenading us.
“So, what about your family?” she asked.
I resisted a wince. I didn’t want to tell her about my sadistic family, but it wasn’t like I’d ever told anyone else. The only one who knew was Trigger, but that was because he was my cousin and had fled Minnesota with me. It was the sick trauma bond we shared.
“My family aren’t good people. Except Trigger and my mom. The rest can rot,” I replied, trying and failing to keep the bitter out of my tone. “We left Minnesota a few years ago and never looked back.”
“Trigger is your family?” she asked.
“Cousin,” I grunted.
“You two look nothing alike,” she commented. “Your mom still in Minnesota?”
I nodded. “My mom did whatever my Uncle Jimmy wanted, since he was her only sibling. I grew up in the life,” I admitted. “My brother Shawn almost went to prison. Had to pay off a vamp to compel the cops he didn’t do it.”
“But he did… do it?”
I snorted. “Oh yeah, he did. That’s the only one he got caught for. But we can’t go to prison. We won’t last a full moon there, obviously.” I sighed. “My dad died when I was a teen. Lived a violent life. But… enough about me.” I didn’t want to talk about my sanctimonious family any longer. “I know I said I’d drive you back to Tampa, but you need to stay here, Nera. I won’t keep you against your will but I’m going to advise against you leaving.” What I really wanted to do was lock her in my house so she’d be safe until we caught these fuckers.
I didn’t want her to leave, but I had to keep my word. I would never be like my family—like my uncle and brother—I would always keep my word. But there was something about Nera that had activated a possessiveness inside me. I hadn’t ever been this attached to a woman so quickly before. I hadn’t met my mate yet, and I never knew if I would, but I’d only known Nera a couple of days, so that couldn’t be it. Could it?
We stopped walking when she halted, my hand jerking with the movement. I looked down at her and it was nothing but instinct that made my arms wrap around her waist.
“I want to stay and see this through, Psycho. God, it feels weird to call you that. You don’t seem like one.”
I manage a smile. “I used to be. I didn’t give myself that name, my uncle did. It’s been a part of me so long that I just kept it. However, you should know, that I earned it. Call me Shep if that’s easier. Sheppard.”
“That is easier,” she said with a laugh.
My fingers itched to reach up and brush her platinum hair behind her ear, but I refrained. My hands felt too good around her slim waist and soft, round hips. “You really want to stay?”
She stared up at me unblinking. “Yes. I do want to stay. I won’t be able to rest until I know those bastards are not kidnapping women. Assaulting them.” She looked down.
My hand quickly left her right hip to reach her chin, tipping it up to face me. I stared into her eyes intently. “They will pay for what they did. I will tear them apart limb by limb if I have to. Especially the one who lured you… hurt you.”
She offered me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She waggled her fingers and said, “No, that one’s mine.”
Chapter 8
Ride or Die
Nera
Riding on the back of a motorcycle had never particularly been a fantasy of mine, but there was something exhilarating about it now. With my arms wrapped around Psycho’s trim and muscular waist, we were flying down the I-10 to who knew where. He wasn’t taking me back to Tampa, we’d already determined that. He said he had a surprise for me.
It blew my mind that I’d known this man all of two days and I was already completely enamored by him. He was nothing like the man I’d met, who’d shown up at the Reapers’ clubhouse to rescue me. I’d been scared shitless of him.
After hopping off that bus in the New Orleans station, I remember shaking like a leaf as I bummed some change off of a passing stranger to make that phone call, amazed the station still had an old payphone. The way I must have looked—it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out I had no money. The man in the business suit had handed me all the change in his pocket. What was left after the phone call got me a bag of chips and a candy bar from the vending machine as I waited for Duke to pick me up.
He’d balked at first. Suspicious and questioning who I was. I had to provide a lot of personal details about Amanda. I just wished I’d had her cell phone memorized so I could have called her from the Biloxi station instead, but I’d been so panicked and had wanted to put as much space between that place and myself that I just bolted. Besides, I thought I remembered her saying something about an upcoming deployment that went along with her shiny new promotion.
When Duke and another scary-looking biker showed up, I almost didn’t get in their pickup truck. But I didn’t have a choice. The bastards would find me, I knew they would, if I didn’t leave that bus station, and those two looked like the lesser of two evils. I felt my powers returning and took comfort in the faith that I could defend myself against these humans if need be. I didn’t have a plan for when I arrived wherever Duke was taking me. I just needed some kind of shelter—and a fucking shower.
