Enslaved in Shadows (13 page)

Royce decided to be a gentleman at that point and got up without saying a word.
Melissa shrugged as if her reaction wasn’t a big deal. Royce was headed in the direction of Jesminda.
It’s the direction he was going as soon as this conversation was over. Draven stood and towered over her. Now she got the gist of it. Head bow
ed
and mouth closed she waited. She always tried to bait him. He was almost there, anger rising spilling out of his pores.

“As I said, things need to
. Change. Now.” Controlled breaths. Royce was a friend
,
not a poacher
.
He wouldn’t break.
His friend had gone to check on her well
-
being nothing more.
He was giving Draven time to break things off with Melissa in privacy. That was all.

“How
?
” Melissa asked meekly.

“This thing between us is over, and when I get back we will go further into detail about just how over it is.”

He ignored her questions. He walked
steadily
in the direction of his future.
It didn’t matter she’d given birth to someone else's child. The child and the mother now belonged to him.

* * * *

The fucking nerve of
the broad had Jes hyperventilating. She was not confrontational by nature, but people were not going to step on her any longer male or female. She didn’t want the wolf, and he obviously had some serious issues if hooked up with someone like Melissa. Why the fuck did he have to be here
?
Why couldn’t he just not have shown up?
Why was she letting a woman who obviously suffered from lack of trust in her man rile her up?
Melissa had deep seeded
issues.
It had nothing to do with her current situation. Then
again,
she could be
quite
wrong. Maybe she was the one jealous?
No,
you are not jealous.
Well maybe a little.
It had a lot to do with the fact that she’d come face to face with her daughter’s father.
Feelings were bound to spring to the surface.

Jesminda didn’t even think she’d be able to handle the road trip. She couldn’t fly with these guys,
shifters;
especially wolves couldn’t stand to have tons of smells clogged together like that
.
Their noses were so sensitive sifting through the smells was next to impossible. She didn’t know about Royce. He could easily pass as a human. Maybe she could convince Dravaggio to change his mind.

“Hey,” Royce tapped her on the shoulder. “You good?”

“I’m good.”

“Well if
it makes you feel better, they’re
over.” Royce said with a satisfi
ed smile. “About damn time too. B
itch was seriously fucking up his mojo.”

She grew warm all over. Why was she happy he was no longer with Melissa? She shrugged. He could spend more time with his daughter now. That’s why she was happy.
Sure and denial is not a river.
Royce laughed.

“Could you stop that? Or turn it off?”

“What.”

“You know what, the whole mind reading thing. Freaks me out.”

Royce shrugged.

“I could, but then I’d be bored.”

She was about to comment when she felt him, before she saw him. Her body was already setting it’s frequency to Draven time.
Ugh!

Her body wanted him, and her mind rejected him on all levels. She just couldn’t get over the fact that because of him, she had Faith
, a
beautifully gifted green-eyed beauty who was part werewolf.
He lied to you, don’t get all mushy.

“Hey,” he whispered softly. “I’m really sorry about that back there. Melissa had no right to talk to you that way.”

“Shouldn’t she be the one to say sorry?” Jes turned and looked over at him. He was beautiful, dangerous, and his face said he was sorry, not just for his girlfriends actions, but of things in the past.
Things neither of them could control nor take back.

“She should,” D
raven cleared his throat. “And
I know she won’t but I am apologizing for her and for me.”
The smile he gave her was genuine. It was
the first one she’d ever seen.

“Apology accepted. We need to discuss when we’re going to leave.” Draven took two cautious steps forward. He grabbed the side of her
arms;
it was gentle and not tough.

“I mean…” He took a steadying breath, looked past her shoulder at Royce and then back at her. She could see the concern in his eyes. His worry and his fears
.
What did he have to be afraid of? He was choosing his words wisely as his eyes scanned her face. He couldn’t be looking at her with want? Could he? It was too much, Jesminda looked down. Staring at him was doing things to her she didn’t have time to analyze. She ended up staring at his throat and watched his
Adam’s
apple work up and down
.
When he cleared his throat again
,
she decided she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“I want to apologize about before when we first met.” She cut him off with a glare and then pulled herself from his grip.
She started to head ba
ck towards the cafeteria, t
owards the elevator. Elevators weren’t complicated. She’d made it half way down the hall when he caught up with her and grabbed her shoulder spinning her around. Jesminda immediately tensed for the slap. It never came.

She was all kinds of
fucked up because of a man. A man who bullied her
.
She was taking small steps to getting her life back. She needed to take bigger ones. Draven would find out the hard way if needed. The old her wouldn’t stand for this crap and neither would the new one. Not now, not ever.

“What!”

“I just wanted to say that I was sorry that’s all. You have to understand, back then I was on assignment.” He shook his head. “I wanted to spend more time with you
.
I was an idiot for leaving. I was young.”

“Your apology is not needed. This isn’t about five years ago. This is about the safety of me and my daughter.” She held up her hands to stop him from speaking, shaking her head. “Don’t, that was then, this is now.” Jes closed her eyes for strength. She needed it in large doses. “
We never started a relationship t
o say
it’s
over, right
?
No names, after this you will never see me again.”

Royce was standing over by the elevators when she finally reached him. When the doors dinged
open,
she quietly walked in with Royce standing next to her. Draven caught up and stepped inside. It was an uncomfortable silence as the three of them rode up the few floors to get back to the lobby. Her stomach hurt, and her ears felt like they were on fire. This was all the signs her body gave off that led t
o crying. She’d stood up to him. S
he should feel good about herself not horrible. The knot that formed in her belly somehow made its way up to her throat. Suffocated
her
air supply
.
She needed out of the elevator with him in it, and into some fresh air.

The doors open
ed,
and Jesminda stepped out
,
to only to be greeted by Royce’s twin Ronin. It was unnerving they looked so much alike. The difference was their eyes.
Royce’s were amber orange and Ronin’s were metallic silver.
Ronin’s hair shaved bald
and Royce’s dark brown hair with auburn highlights fell everywhere. Royce oozed seductio
n with his looks. Ronin wore a “F
uck with me and I’ll fuck with you
” vibe all over his person
.

“Well
if i
t isn’t the sugar coated gum drop.
The boys treating you well?” His stance was passive and his words had no inflection. It was as if he was on
autopilot
. Jesminda was
utterly
out of her element with all the men in the Shadow
Unit
. Ronin took the cake. He made her feel as if she was under a microscope and he was dissecting her piece by piece.

“Leave her alone Ronin, she’s scared enough by you and your
charm isn’t working if you hadn’
t notice
d
.”
Royce pushed him out of the way and held the door open so she and Draven could step through. It was still dark outside and the moon cast a bright light on the black pavement.

“I’m pulling the car around.” Draven said taking the steps two at a time.

Royce pulled something out of his shirt pocket and lit it.

“That’s bad for your health.” Jesminda stated. He was smoking a dark brown cigarette
that
had a
n unusually
spicy smell to it and the smoke was red.

“Nah, it’s really not a deal breaker for me. Besides it makes me look more appealing to the women.” He took another drag of his cigarette and inhaled deep blowing it out through his nostrils while wagging his eyebrows. Jesminda laughed.

“Sure keep telling yourself that.” She snorted.

A black SUV pulled up to the curb, Royce put out his cigarette and started down the steps headed toward the car’s passenger door when all hell broke loose.

Chapter 8

There was no sound before the front window shattered. Not the slightest whine or slicing of air. There wasn’t even time for Draven to duck as the window shattered. Shards of glass sprayed the inside of the SUV
,
cutting him in his face and forearms. Who the fuck was shooting at them? Another shot whistled through the interior
,
pass
ed
the passenger side window and Draven’s gut bottomed out.

It wasn’t him or Royce that was hit. The metallic tang of blood was fresh in the air. Human b
lood
.
It was Jesminda. Draven
kicked the passenger door off its hinges in order to get to her.
His heart driving in mad force to get blood to all of his extremities as everything slowed in its motion.
His vision tu
nneled, all he saw was Jesminda, l
ying on the steps blood decorating her sh
irt, pooling beneath her back.
He noticed Royce bent over her shielding her from any more fire. There’d been only two shots. One hit the window to distract him
and the second meant for her.
The warm
,
fresh smell of her blood made his stomach churn.
It bathed the alabaster stairs as it trickled down one step
,
to pool on another.
His animal side wanted to track the fucker who’d shot at her, but he knew she needed him here. He’d on
ly just got her back in
his life. F
or however short a time it was, h
e didn’t want her to leave the earth let alone his sight.
He wasn’t going to
over think
it. Plain and simple she belonged to him.

“Is she okay? How bad is she hurt?”

Royce looked over his shoulder and shook his head.

“She’s got blunt chest trauma. Severe lung bruise, man the fluid has already started to collect in the air sacs.”

“Fuck!”

Draven kneeled on the step next to her body.
Royce slowly stood and took stock of their surroundings assessing if there was any more danger. The man could hear anything. Why couldn’t he hear the fucking bullets?

“Good fucking question. I should have but fuck. I didn’t.” Royce pulled at the back of his neck and sighed. “Fuck, man. I’m sorry.”

Her blood was everywhere. Seeped from her wound, it was opposite her heart but a lung had been puncture
d. She couldn’t even talk from a
ll the blood pouring from the sides of her mouth. Shit! Fuck! She wasn’t going to make it. There were so many things he wanted to say. Wanted to tell her. How the fuck was he going to pull that one off? Time was slowly ticking down and all he wanted to do was fucking rewind, all the way back to five years ago when he’d first met her. First tasted her skin
.
He’d give anything to go back. She wasn’t just leaving him,
she was leaving her daughter.
Who would take care of her daughter?

Royce rolled up his sleeve and pushed Draven aside. “What the fuck are you doing man? You can’t save her no one can!” Draven sat down next to her body and cradled her in his lap. She deserved better than this. Why hadn’t they been able to sense the danger? Where was everyone else? No one had come running out of the building.