Back From Hell (9 page)

Stephanie poked out her lower lip and said, “Send him.” She jerked her chin toward Ronan who stood silently by the front door.

Jenai narrowed her eyes. “Eat the damn burger. Sooner you eat it, the sooner you’ll heal. And the quicker you heal, the quicker we can get the hell out of here.”

Stephanie snarled but tore into the bag, and burger or not, within seconds she was wolfing it down greedily.

Jenai turned away, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she moved to the table that held her own food. Another tasteless burger, but the hot pile of fries and caffeine-laden cola would make up for that.

She dug into the fries and heard a soft chuckle. Glancing up, she saw Ronan moving toward her and she flushed. “Hungry,” she muttered.

His eyes moved toward the pile of fries, watched as she licked the salt from her fingers and he leaned closer, whispering against her ear, “I think I’m jealous.”

* * * * *

Ronan waited until Stephanie was lying back down, still exhausted and hurting, but she was out of danger, it seemed.

He paused by the chair where Jenai was sprawled, one arm hooked over the back, the other lying in her lap. Her long legs were kicked out in front of her, resting on the edge of the table, crossed at the ankle. Her eyes were blank as she met his stare, blank and unreadable.

Slowly, his mouth curled up in a smile and he watched as a blush stained her pale cheeks pink. “I have to make some phone calls—some information we need.”

Jenai nodded slightly and then jerked her gaze away. With a grin, he slid out of the room and started to walk. He walked around, seemingly without direction, for a good thirty minutes while he checked for some sign that somebody had followed him.

Satisfied that his whereabouts was still unknown, he found a payphone, fed quarters into it and punched in a number.

The low raspy voice that came over the line was irritated. “Didn’t I tell you not to call?”

Affably, Ronan said, “Shut up, Carn. What do you know?”

“You were right. That man is gunning for you, big time.”

“Proof?”

The old witch cackled. “Oh, spades of it. You just have to get here and talk to me. In one piece.”

“And the ladies?”

Carn sighed, and he could almost see her running a gnarled old hand through her hair. “Nothing. They meant nothing to him. Just a distraction, far enough away from others that none who would question him could see what happened. They weren’t expecting those ladies not to turn on you, and they weren’t expecting you to escape from the fire. They’re looking, but not in the right place.”

At her low, amused laugh, Ronan arched a brow. “Why on earth do I have the feeling that you had something to do with that?”

She chuckled. “Go on. Get back to your woman.”

Mildly, Ronan said, “There are
two
women.”

“Ahhhh…but only one is
yours
. Hold her tight to you, Ronan. I see darkness before her.”

* * * * *

“So we were just a distraction? While your boss plotted to kill you?” Steph asked. She was still a little pale around her mouth and eyes.

Jenai sat scowling into her coffee. “Well, it’s too bizarre to be anything other than true.” She sipped the hot coffee, feeling caffeine zip through her system, stirring her heart into a slightly faster pace.

Steph sighed, her pretty face tightening in pain as she shifted on the bed. “I’ve never taken a silver bullet before. It
hurts
.”

Ronan smiled in sympathy. “I’ve had that pleasure, I’ll admit. Hurts like bloody hell, but the worst is over,” he murmured, reaching out and flicking the silver hoop in her right ear. “Odd, though, you’re the only shifter I’ve ever seen to wear silver.”

Her mouth twisted in a grimace as she touched her fingers to the ear. “I’d thought this was a cool idea at the time. I don’t ever want to look at silver again.”

He chuckled. “It was quite possibly an excellent idea. Your body might have learned to tolerate silver in low levels. Could be those little earrings made you less sensitive to silver-wrought weapons.”

Across the room, Jenai chuckled. “Listen to that, Steph. The little stunt you pulled trying to prove what a bad ass you are just might have actually done you some good.”

Steph snorted. “I only aspire to be like my big sister,” she drawled. The smile faded from her face as she turned her silvery eyes to Ronan. “I don’t get why they wanted us dead though. We don’t even know who in the fuck they are.”

Ronan shrugged. “Unless you’re one of us, you wouldn’t know. And that’s just it—you never mattered to him one way or another. You were just a distraction—a deadly one. There was a good chance they expected you to kill me the minute they attacked, thinking I’d led them to you. Two very deadly weapons, and all they had to do was see what happened.”

* * * * *

It took two days for Stephanie to heal enough for them to risk leaving. If it had just been a bullet wound, she would have healed it in a matter of hours, but silver-wrought weapons were worse.

She felt edgy. It seemed the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, but Stephanie figured it was coming from her.

Shifting on the bed, she reveled in being able to move without that biting pain tearing through her.
If I find the bastards who did this, I’m going to make them eat those silver bullets
, she mused, absently stroking on the silver hoop pierced through one ear.

Recalling what Ronan had said, she wondered if maybe she should get another piercing or two. But she winced as she recalled how badly the first set of silver earrings had burned and she decided she’d pass.

Jenai was in the shower. To Stephanie’s surprise, they were going after the men who’d attacked them. A few years ago, it wouldn’t have surprised her. But ever since Mama and Dad had died, Jenai’s only focus had been finding their killer.

Stephanie wanted him dead, but she hadn’t let it take over her life. Was that selfish? Should she have become obsessed about it as Jenai had?

A grimace twisted her face. It wasn’t possible for her to be
that
obsessed.

Odd, that something had made her driven older sister lose focus.

Sighing, she shifted on the bed and tried to block out the sounds of the people in the room with her.

Hard, though, with Ronan’s scent permeating the air. Damn, but she was glad he wasn’t the bad guy. Lately, every time she looked at him, he made her itch.

* * * * *

Jenai stood under the cool spray, letting it beat down on her head and rinse the shampoo from her hair. She wanted to enjoy this leisurely shower—only God knew when she’d have a chance again.

Come noon, they’d be hitting the road, and Jenai had no idea when they’d slow down again.

For the hundredth time, she had to question her sanity. This was
so
not a good idea. In close quarters with him, for an unknown amount of time. She couldn’t deny this need for him any longer, but with danger dancing all around them, how could she give in to it?

It blinded her. Deafened her. And she suspected he wasn’t in much better shape.

But staying close to him and not giving in to the urge to touch him was hell. Damn it, she was going insane. Hot, hungry little licks of fire kept teasing her belly every time she had looked at Ronan, and it didn’t help that her body kept remembering just how well he could fan those flames, just how well he could slake that hunger.

If it was sex, though, it might be easier. Just sex she could handle.

Ronan, though, he was more.

He had been from the first night she’d dream of him. He saw inside her, knew her…and wanted her anyway. The darkness in her soul didn’t send him screaming into the night, like it would so many others.

Jenai fought to keep herself closed off from people for a reason. Steph was the only one allowed to mean anything to her, the only one who Jenai tolerated to get close enough to know her. Steph knew the rage that lived inside of Jenai, knew the anger she hid behind the ice.

Nobody else was allowed to know that.

Ronan had seen it, though.

Too insightful by far, and too hot, too sexy…too much, all the way around. Her body ached and yearned for him, her heart cried for him. Even the little voice in her that screamed at her to fight it was getting quieter.

And she had to stop thinking of him so much. Even the most innocent of thoughts made her ache. Hunger was a living thing inside her, tightening her muscles, a very real ache as the fangs she fought to keep hidden pulsed inside the sockets of her gums. She wanted… Scrunching her eyes closed, she fought to shove the unfinished thought aside.

But it was hard. For the first time, the need to feed and the urge to feel a man covering her had mingled together until all she could see and think and feel was Ronan. She wanted to feed from him again, and she wanted to touch him, wanted to push him back and mount him, slide her body down on his cock and ride him until they both screamed with the pleasure of it.

And then she wanted to curl up and sleep, still wrapped in his arms.

Jenai had been ignoring the needs of her body for years. She didn’t have time, or really the inclination for any sort of relationship in her life, even if it was for just a quick roll in the sheets. Which had only happened twice in the past five years. The last time had been just over three years ago, right before her parents died. The time that had followed—she’d shoved the needs down, pushed them aside, or dealt with it using the warm water of a pulsating shower head.

But this time, there was no way she could push it aside, no way she could satisfy the hunger herself.

* * * * *

Steph kept her eyes on Ronan as he moved around the room, pacing restlessly, his gaze rarely leaving the door. The warm, male scent of him was getting to her, and she wanted him to look at her for a few minutes…instead of the damn door.

Stop worrying for maybe fifteen minutes.

It had been a couple of months since she’d gotten laid, and she was feeling edgy. That, combined with the tension in the room, was enough to drive her nuts.

She knew what the tension was from. Jenai and Steph had dodged trouble before, but usually it was from less focused individuals.

That anxiety, combined with her own body clamoring at her, had her heated to fever pitch.

And seeing him wasn’t helping.

He was mouthwatering—hot—his shoulders strained against the seams of his shirt, and his butt was a hard, round curve that she could almost feel under her fingers.

As she waited, the heat, the hunger inside her grew and grew. The scent of Ronan’s body swam in her head, driving her nuts. Edgy, tense, horny… She shifted on the bed, the hot, empty feeling in her belly spreading. Her nipples were perpetually tight, aching under the thin cotton of the button-down shirt Jenai had helped her don earlier, and the fine fabric abraded them until she thought she’d scream from the sensation.

Damn it, she had to get laid.

As Ronan walked past her, she studied the tight curve of his ass in the faded blue jeans and decided on the spot what she was going to do. Carefully, she swung her legs off the bed, rose slowly and moved up behind him, dragging the scent of his body, hot and male, into her lungs. The hunger settled in her belly, a familiar heat that she enjoyed almost as much as she did satisfying it.

As he turned, she smiled at him, a slow curve of her lips. The blood rushing through her head blinded and deafened her to everything but the sight and scent and sound of him, his blood, those eyes, the rhythmic cadence of his heart. She never even heard the shower stop as she stepped up to him, aligning her body with his as she rose on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

“Steph.”

His hands curled loosely around her arms, keeping her from wrapping her arms around his neck, but that was okay. She could still move against him, and damn did he feel good—the hard, muscled wall of his chest like warmed steel. Against her breasts, she felt the steady beat of his heart as she licked at the seam of his lips, the edgy hunger inside her driving her insane.

She felt a twinge in her side as she tried to move closer against him, but she ignored it. It was a little harder to ignore the fact that he wasn’t kissing her back.

“Stephanie, stop.”

“Hmmm…why?” she whispered.

A harsh, sudden pain tore through her, like a splash of cold water, and she jerked away, gasping as she folded her hands over her belly. Her sudden movement pulled the healing skin in her side and tears leaped to her eyes. But the worst pain wasn’t her pain… An echo. Turning, she lifted her eyes and stared at Jenai’s face where she stood in the doorway. Tears made her silvery eyes glisten and Steph sank her teeth into her lip as she felt the massive sense of betrayal that rolled from her sister.

“Jenai…?” she asked, her voice trembling.

Jenai only blinked, lowering her lashes over her stormy eyes as she stalked out of the bathroom, shrugging out of the robe and snatching her clothes up, jerking them on her body without drying off. She kept her back turned to them, and from the corner of her eye Steph saw how Ronan was staring at Jenai with slitted, hungry eyes.

“Jenai, I’m sorry… I didn’t…”

Jenai straightened, her face hard and cold. “Don’t, Steph. Just don’t. What does it matter anyway?”

Steph licked her lips, suddenly aware of the bitterness that resided in her sister. Damn it. Jenai hadn’t shown any interest in
anybody
for months…years. Now that Steph was focusing, though, she could feel that intense interest Jenai had in Ronan, and
fuck
, it wasn’t one-sided either.

But Steph didn’t even have a chance to say another word, because before she could figure out what to say, Jenai was gone, snagging her bag and jacket and stalking out the door.

If she hadn’t been so stunned, she would have gone after her. Damn it, Jenai always had men flocking to her like flies, and all she did was ignore them. Jenai was so caught up in her search for Leon Varnell that she rarely even noticed them.