Bite Me (14 page)

It was a struggle to keep my expression blank when I really wanted to sneer at her. She continued to look at me as though she were trying to see inside my head.

“Nothing. I can’t hear your thoughts or even sense your emotions.”

She couldn’t feel my emotions? Maybe Conner was the only vampire who could. If that was the case, then that would certainly help me when dealing with other vampires. I wasn’t sure if she expected a response, so I remained silent.

“You may speak,” she said.

God, I wanted to roll my eyes at her superior tone. “What would you like me to say?” I asked.

She tilted her head to the side. Shit, maybe that response had been too flippant.

“You have a point,” she responded. “You don’t have to say anything, only listen to what I am about to tell you.”

Her eyes brightened from hazel to a piercing amber color. “You will stay away from Conner Savage. You find him distasteful and repugnant.”

I wanted to laugh but kept a straight face. “I will stay away from Conner Savage.” I repeated her words because I wasn’t sure exactly how a person under vampire mind control would actually behave.

She nodded and rose from the sofa. “Good. I’m glad that’s settled.” Vanessa stared at me for a few more moments. “I wonder if it would be worth it to drain you dry just so he understands that he shouldn’t have refused my very generous contract.”

My blood ran cold, but I remained still. Conner’s words not to run from a vampire echoed through my head.

“No, I think your rejection of him will be much more satisfying.”

I watched her walk out my door, thinking that it was a great thing she couldn’t read my thoughts. How fucking stupid could she be? If she thought she could brainwash me into hating Conner, what was to stop him from just undoing her handiwork? No wonder she needed to partner up with him. It was obvious she couldn’t think for herself.

My next thoughts were that I had to find some freaking vampire repellent to keep the damn things from breaking into my house, and that I needed to call Conner now. I jumped up from the sofa and went to lock the door and grab my cell.

My hands were shaking slightly as I scrolled to Conner’s name and placed the call.

“Hello, Donna. As lovely as it is for you to call, I can’t really speak right now.” I could hear noises in the background and guessed he was already at his meeting.

“I know, Conner. I wouldn’t be calling except Vanessa was just here, in my apartment, waiting for me when I got home.”

He was silent for a long moment. I heard him speaking to someone, I assume to excuse himself from the table with his dining companion.

“Tell me exactly what happened. Don’t leave anything out, even if it seems inconsequential.”

I described the short scene to him, including her comment about draining me dry and that I played along with her mind-control attempt.

When I finished, Conner was quiet for so long that I thought he had hung up.

“Conner, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here. I’m choosing my next words to you carefully because I want, no, I need you to do exactly what I ask you to do. You are an independent woman, which I admire, but I want you to understand exactly how much danger you are in.”

I swallowed hard. Apparently I should take Vanessa’s threat to drain me dry very seriously. “Okay, what do you need me to do?”

“You need to pack some things. Enough for at least two weeks and then drive to your work. I will meet you there.”

“My work?” I asked.

“Please do as I tell you, Donna. I will explain later.”

That rubbed me the wrong way but I didn’t argue. I knew in my gut that he was right. I was in danger.

“Okay. How long before you can meet me?” I asked.

“Half an hour. Pack quickly.”

I disconnected the call and hurried to my bedroom. Within twenty minutes I managed to pack two suitcases and small duffel full of clothes, shoes, and toiletries. It was amazing what I could do with the right incentive, like a threat to my life. I loaded up my car and drove to the lounge.

Conner was waiting next to his SUV when I pulled into the parking lot behind the bar. He loaded my bags into the back of his vehicle.

“We need to hurry,” he said. “Vanessa sent someone to keep an eye on you. My friend distracted them long enough for you to get here without being followed, but we need to move.”

I started to get into the passenger seat, but he stopped me. “Get in the backseat and lie down. I don’t want them to know you are with me.”

Now I was beginning to really freak out. Without a word, I climbed into the back and stretched out across the seat. Conner shut the door behind me, and within seconds we were moving. The drive from the bar to his house should have only taken twenty to thirty minutes tops, but it felt like we drove around for over an hour.

Finally, we pulled into Conner’s garage. I climbed out of the SUV on shaky legs. As Conner unloaded my bags, I grabbed my purse and one of my suitcases.

“Why exactly are we driving around like a couple of characters out of a spy movie?” I asked after we entered his house.

“I assume Vanessa wanted confirmation that you would leave me. She had one of her men waiting at your apartment when you left.”

“But I didn’t see anyone following me,” I responded.

Conner was leading me through his house to the library at the center of the structure. He glanced over his shoulder at me, a skeptical expression on his face.

“I wouldn’t expect you to, Donna. Her man is good and I doubt you were really looking for someone tailing you.”

I shrugged. “Okay, so I wouldn’t know how to check for a tail. Why are you acting like we’re under an imminent terrorist threat?”

I watched as he walked to his desk and opened a drawer. He reached inside and I heard a loud click. A portion of the shelving opened inward, revealing a well-lit hallway.

“What the hell?” I asked.

Conner gestured for me to follow him, which I did with my mouth hanging open. He actually had a secret fucking passage in his house.

We entered the hallway, the shelf shutting behind us. As we walked down the hall, he finally answered my question.

“I hear disdain and dismissal in your voice and feel it coming from you when you talk about Vanessa. It would be very dangerous to underestimate her. She believes that her desires are the only ones that matter. If she thinks that you are preventing her from getting what she wants, even by mere existence, she will kill you.”

“I realize that she is as cold as a snake, but we’re not talking about a rocket scientist here. She obviously isn’t very smart. And who the fuck kills someone over a man?”

He grunted but shot me an angry look over his shoulder. “She may not be as smart as you, but she is devious and devoid of any conscience. Her IQ doesn’t have to be high in order for her to snap your neck. It won’t take her long to realize that her little visit didn’t work. I refuse to leave you alone to make her think it was effective. Now that others know of your existence, both friends and enemies, it isn’t safe for me to leave you unprotected.” He paused. “And there are many vampires who would kill a human if they had something that they wanted.”

The hallway ended abruptly in two flights of steps that led to a huge steel door. Conner typed in a security code and pricked his finger on a small needle before the door opened.

I looked at him incredulously. “You have a
blood
lock?”

“As I said, blood is important to vampires. Only those who carry my blood can enter this door.”

I stayed on his heels as he went through the door. “What is this place?” I asked, distracted from our discussion of how Vanessa Santino would like to rip my head from my body. And do so over a man, no less.

“This is my safe room,” he replied just before he turned on the lights.

I gawked at the huge room before me. Though it didn’t run the entire length and width of the house, the room was still enormous and contained living and dining areas and a kitchen, all of which were open to one another. There were other doors at the other end of the area, probably for a bathroom or bedroom.

“Safe room?” I repeated.

He walked to one of the doors on the other end of the room and opened it, carrying my bags inside. I followed him and saw it actually was a bedroom.

I threw my duffel bag and purse on the bed and decided to return to the important point, Vanessa Bitchface.

“Let’s rewind a second. How do you plan to keep me protected?”

I desperately wanted to believe that he was exaggerating the severity of her reaction when she realized that her brainwashing wasn’t effective, but I had to be realistic. Just for being around Conner, she wanted to kill me. If she thought that I was thumbing my nose at her by openly continuing my relationship with him, she probably would kill me in a slow, painful manner and make sure my body was never found.

“You will stay here with me and won’t go anywhere off the grounds without me or another vampire I trust,” he replied.

“Wait a minute. What about work? I have bills to pay. What if this takes more than a few days to resolve? I won’t be able to make my rent!” I ran a hand through my hair. “And how does staying underground protect me?”

He nodded. “If I keep you here, Vanessa won’t be able to get to you, even if she breaches the security measures to enter the house. As for your rent, I’ll take care of it. You don’t need to worry.”

I shook my head. “No, Conner. I need to work and pay my own bills. It’s important to me that I can support myself.”

Suddenly he was right in my face, his eyes two pools of blue fire, and I couldn’t help flinching. “What’s more important, Donna, your pride or your fucking life? You don’t seem to grasp that Vanessa doesn’t see you the way I do. I treat you as an equal because to me you are. To her you’re nothing more an obstacle in her path. She will flatten you without a second thought.”

He had a very good point. My life was more valuable to me than my pride.

“Okay, Conner. You’re right. We can work something out.”

Conner raised an eyebrow, still looking extremely pissed. “Damn right we will. Also realize that I will do whatever is necessary to keep you safe, even holding you prisoner here.”

All the contrition I was feeling vanished. “Excuse me?” I asked, all attitude with a hand on my hip.

He grabbed my arms and jerked me up on my toes. He wasn’t hurting me, but he definitely had my full attention. And succeeded in making me forget about the attitude I was about to serve up.

“You are more valuable to me than my own desires. If I have to keep you here against your will and watch you walk away when it’s over, I will. Whatever it takes, Donna, I will do it. My heart belongs to you and anything that would harm you will harm me.”

I stared open-mouthed at Conner. I had never seen him so upset. And I could swear he just admitted that he was in love with me.

He shook me slightly. “Do you understand me?” he barked, his accent so thick that I almost didn’t comprehend his words.

Frightened and angry, I nodded.

Conner released me. “Good. Stay here and unpack. I will be back later after I no longer feel like throttling you.”

Before I could react, he stormed out of the room, and I heard the huge steel door in the great room clang shut behind him a scant second later. I ran out of the bedroom to the door and tried to pull it open. It wouldn’t budge. I kicked the door and yelped when the impact vibrated all the way from my toes to my hipbone.

The bastard had locked me in.

Three hours later, my clothes were unpacked and I was pacing the length of the great room with the television tuned to some true crime show about women who killed their husbands or boyfriends. The way I was feeling now, I could relate.

Immediately after Conner left, I ranted to myself for a while as I took all my clothes out of my suitcases. A half hour into that endeavor, I began to feel guilty for giving him such a hard time. He was only trying to protect me, and I acted like a spoiled brat.

That lasted for about an hour and a half. As time passed and Conner still did not return, my anger came back. I understood that he needed a little time to cool off, but three hours locked in his fucking basement was beginning to damage my calm.

Finally, two hours later it was two in the morning, and my ire had cooled considerably. In fact, I was beginning to worry Conner would leave me locked up in the basement for a day or two before he came back. I made him very angry, and now that I had time to think about it, I felt badly. He all but admitted he loved me. I basically threw his feelings back in his face, telling him I didn’t need him to take care of me. I might not want to be a kept woman, but I understood the desire to do things to help someone you loved, to take care of them.

It was almost three when I gave up waiting for him to return and got ready for bed. While I was not longer seething with anger, irritation still bubbled up in me, overriding my regret. Before I climbed in bed, a small, petty part of me demanded I lock the bedroom door. I ignored the little voice of reason in my head that said it was a bad idea to try and lock Conner out of his own bedroom. I decided he deserved what he got for leaving me locked in the fucking basement for five hours. Exhaustion weighed me down as I snuggled into the luxurious bedding. Within minutes I was asleep.