Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) (32 page)

‘It’s not fucking right, is it?’ he continued. ‘I mean, the third species, what the fuck
are
they even? You hear stuff about them, don’t you? You know, like what they like to do, how they get off and stuff. It just isn’t natural. Those lycans especially. I bet they get up to all sorts of weird shit in that compound. And from what I hear they’re
more
than willing. I’m going to get me one of those lycan bitches one day, I’m telling you. Not when they’re all dogged up under a full moon or anything – that would just be fucked up. I’m not sick in the head.

‘No, one day we’re going to run things
our
way,’ he said, lowering his voice. ‘Blackthorn will be
our
fucking prison – a prison that
we
rule, that
we
run. This is
our
locale,
our
district. Those third species show up thinking they can be in charge, using our resources, taking what’s rightfully ours. Well, not for much longer. And I say we need to start as we mean to go on. You’ve got to let them know who’s in charge, Reece. People don’t respond to negotiation; they respond to fear. We have to keep that leash around their necks tight or we lose commodities for someone else to take. Those two women – my little perks - they’re compensation. And we
deserve
to collect compensation for the shit our own fucking authorities shovel our way.’

Eden smiled again – a painted smile that sickened him deep to his gut. ‘You should be in fucking politics, you know that?’

Dice laughed. Shrugged again. ‘I was. Top of my game for eight months,’ he declared before knocking back a mouthful of drink. ‘Until my bitch of a PA hacked my computer and squealed on me.’ He shrugged. ‘But making sure she’ll never walk in a straight line again has been worth doing the time.’ He glanced across at the door. ‘Talking of it being worth doing the time…’

Tatum leaned against the doorway, glancing firstly in Dice’s direction before resting her full attention on Eden. But she wasn’t alone. A petite brunette followed behind her, barely out of her teens. She didn’t have Tatum’s confidence or her composure as she glanced from one to the other. But as her gaze rested on Eden, a smile crept across her lips that betrayed she wasn’t quite as innocent as she first appeared.

Dice instantly puffed out his chest, licked his lower lip as he assessed the brunette slowly. He flashed Eden a swift grin. ‘I told you there were bonuses. It looks like playtime has arrived.’

‘Fuck off, Jessie, yeah?’ Tatum said, glancing across at her. ‘It’s not
that
kind of playtime.’

Jessie glanced back at Eden as if forgetting the situation, a situation he needed to remind her of, remind himself of, quickly.

‘Wait in your room,’ Eden said to her. ‘I’ll check on you shortly, so don’t even think about leaving it.’

Her gaze lingered on his. The glimmer of rejection he saw stabbed deep, but if he turned Tatum down again, or if he did so too quickly, tense questions were going to be raised.

‘You promised me round two,’ Tatum said, stepping between his thighs, rubbing her hand between his legs, her lips inches from his. ‘It’s time to pay up, hero. I’ve been telling Nadine here all about what you did out there.’

He could feel Jessie’s eyes burning into his. He could only hope she’d understand. That she wouldn’t close down on him again. That she’d see through the mask to what he had already shown her. He braced his arms back on the table in what could be perceived as an offering to Tatum but, for him, was his only way to stop himself pushing her away.

He glanced to the floor in frustration. He’d hoped to get rid of Dice relatively quickly so that he and Jessie could have picked up where they’d left off. She may have been playing the pure sexual intent card as well as him, but he
had
seen the way she’d been looking at him back in her bedroom. And now he had no doubt she’d seen the way he looked at her too. Neither was ready to admit it, but their understanding had been sealed the minute he’d interlaced his fingers with hers in the hallway and she hadn’t pulled away.

‘This time you’re not telling me no,’ Tatum declared.

And those eyes meant it. Those eyes that bored into his in an entirely different way to the female he really wanted. The one who was stood witnessing it all.

He wasn’t doing it to her again. She wasn’t naïve – he already knew there was little she hadn’t seen or heard, but she didn’t know enough about
him
yet to understand this. To understand just how easily he could detach himself when he needed to. She deserved to be spared from seeing that. He needed her to be spared from seeing that.

‘Your room, Rapunzel,’ he said, looking back at her, hoping she would pick up on the affection in his choice of name – his reminder of his reason for being there.

Tatum laughed. ‘Rapunzel? Is that your pet name for her? Aww,’ she said. ‘That’s sweet. And what’s your name for me?’ she asked, her hand cupping between his legs as she moved closer.

‘Call me a coward but, considering you’ve got my balls in your hand, I think I’ll refrain from answering for now.’

Thankfully, Tatum laughed.

He glanced back at Jessie who now placed her coffee aside. She sent Eden one more glance, this one laden with even more discomfort, before heading out of the door.

His heart plummeted, the residual effects of her departure telling him those depths were becoming treacherous. He wasn’t just feeling something – he had the uncomfortable stirring sensation that he was on the untrodden path of falling for her.

‘You
have
got her in line,’ Dice declared as she disappeared from sight.

He looked back at Tatum already opening his jeans. Even considering it in that room, where Jessie’s presence, despite her absence, still lingered, left a nasty aftertaste.

He grabbed Tatum’s wrist firmer than he knew he should have, snagging her attention. ‘Not here,’ he said. ‘Let’s move into the lounge.’

J
essie pulled
herself from sitting on the stairs to stand at the landing window, her arms folded as she looked out into the darkness, the rivulets of rain chasing each other down the thin glass.

She could hear Pummel snoring from inside his room. She knew the canter of his breathing only too well – had often listened in on him over the years before deciding whether to wander the row or remain tucked away.

He’d be sleeping deeply and heavily as part of his recovery, just as Eden had – Eden, of course, with a little added sedative to be sure. Eden whom she had first discovered by staring out of that very window. Eden who was now potentially her way out.

She heard their laughter echoing up from the lounge below. When she heard Tatum’s laughter amidst it, her heart wrenched. The unfamiliar knot in her stomach was back – the same one that had appeared when Tatum had come onto Eden around the pool table and he had responded. The sick feeling it created, as if she had lost something irretrievable, only made the landing feel even more isolated.

She tightened her arms around her chest.

She
had
to learn to trust.

It had come so easily with Toby. It had been stamped on and spat on by Pummel, and reinforced time and time again by everything she had witnessed in the decades she had been there. But she would find herself again – beneath the protective layers and barriers she had built, she
would
learn to trust again, even if only for a short time.

His calling her Rapunzel had been more revealing than anything – reminding her of their deal. Reminding her of what he’d said. Reminding her of the glimpse of the real him that he’d not dared let anyone else in that house see.

If he was brave enough to extend that trust, then she could be too.

So, for now, with everyone distracted, she needed to check on the lycan young – to take them the food and water she had planned before the attempted kidnap.

The evening’s entertainment echoed up from the rooms beyond the arch as she descended the stairs. Turning right past the newel post, she glanced through the lounge door. Catching a glimpse of Dice, the empty kitchen ahead, she nearly kept going, but she was drawn back by the fixation of Dice’s stare.

Whatever he was watching on the opposite sofa, his grin filled her with a sense of unease.

She willed herself to keep going but instead she froze to the spot for a moment, her heart pounding uncomfortably. She took a couple of steps forward to angle herself to see what had captivated Dice so intently.

Nadine was straddling Eden, her mop of hair making her face invisible to Jessie. But from the angle of her head, from the way Eden looked back at her, she knew they were locked in eye contact.

He held a cigarette between his index and middle fingers – something she had never seen him do. Smoke lingered in the air as he kept the thumbnail of his cigarette-holding hand locked between his teeth, his elbow resting on a pile of cushions as he watched Nadine slide down between his spread thighs to kneel in front of him. His other hand was caressing Tatum’s inner thigh as she nestled next to him, her fingers playing with the nape of his neck as she whispered something in his ear.

Whatever it was, it made him smile.

But it wasn’t a smile Jessie knew, neither was the look in his eyes. The way he looked at the girl as she slid between his spread thighs, unfastened the buckle on his jeans, was unrecognisable.

And all the while he sat in Pummel’s seat, never having looked more at home than in Pummel’s seat.

She tried not to be overwhelmed by the worst-case scenario. She tried to block herself from thinking it – that he had been whispering promises to Tatum like he had to her; that Tatum, in fact, maybe knew all about his plans.

She could see it – how cleverly his scheming was coming into action. And no more so than now he knew her weakness. He knew how to own her – how to gain power over her like Pummel had. Seeing him on that sofa, in Pummel’s place, Dice nodding approvingly, almost admiringly, right opposite him, Tatum all over him, the girl willingly at his knees, she saw the potential of what he could become. From the minute he’d walked into that place he’d acted like he owned it. Now it felt like he’d taken the first leap to making it a reality. And she had been helping him on his way.

He turned his head towards Tatum. As she leaned in, as her lips met his in a slow, sensual, purposeful kiss, Eden reciprocated.

Jessie’s heart stopped beating, the ache in her chest intense enough to stop her breathing. Her intrusion on the scene was worse than any punishment Pummel bestowed on her. From the way her heart drained of blood, her body weakened, her stomach twisted, and a knot formed at the back of her throat, this was the worst punishment she had ever suffered.

It was bullshit. Everything Eden had promised her was cruel, lying, manipulative bullshit, confirmed when his gaze snapped to hers. There was no flash of guilt in his eyes, just annoyance. Annoyance, no doubt, at his mask being exposed – not the one he showed them, but the one he showed
her
.

She took a step back, her glare, despite knowing she should have concealed it for the sake of her pride if not from the others, was nonetheless clearly resounding across the room at him from the way he frowned back at her.

Heat flooding her cheeks, her body shaking, she spun on her heels. She marched past the foot of the stairs, wanting anything but to return to her room where she knew he’d come and find her.

She strode through the arch, shoving her way past a couple of people on her way through the next. She took a left towards the under-stairs door. She unlocked it with a trembling hand, slamming it and locking it behind her.

She fell back against it to catch her breath, the back of her hand held to her mouth as she fought back the tears as her hope, raised only an hour or so before, now plummeted into oblivion again. With it plummeted hope for the lycan young, for any attempt to stop what now felt like the inevitable.

With the mustiness of the dark stairwell only exacerbating her need for air, she turned to descend, her hand slamming against the wall to her left, her other clutching the handrail to her right as the wooden steps swayed beneath her.

He was the same as all the others – manipulative, cruel, selfish, power-hungry. Only this time she had dared to let herself fall for a handsome face and a mouth full of charm and eyes as deceitful as his heart.

She couldn’t go through it again. She couldn’t be imprisoned all over again. She couldn’t be imprisoned by Eden. At least with Pummel there were no feelings. At least she could disconnect from everything around her. But to be used like that by Eden – Eden who knew all her secrets too…

She couldn’t put herself through the heartbreak every day; couldn’t watch him with others like she’d just watched him with Tatum and Nadine, for however long that was going to be.

She’d only descended the first couple of steps when she heard the handle turn behind her, heard the key in the lock.

Jessie’s grip tightened on the handrail as her gaze shot to the top of the dark stairwell and locked on Eden’s.

Clutching the handrail to retain her balance, she backed up against it, the bar cutting into the small of her back.

‘What the hell are you playing at, Jess?’

Her hand fisted around the handrail. ‘What am
I
playing at?’

‘You’re lucky the others didn’t see that reaction. At least I don’t think they did. I told you to stay in your room.’

Every defence mechanism, every barrier, snapped into position. ‘Like a good girl? Doing what I’m told and staying out of the way? Making sure I don’t see you for what you are.’

His startled eyes flared then narrowed. ‘And what’s that, Jessie?’

‘You
know
what. And now so do I,’ she said, turning her back on him.

‘What should I have done?’ he asked, catching her arm.

But she yanked herself free, descended a few more steps. ‘I suggest you keep the fuck away from me.’

‘Me giving that girl the brush off, let alone Tatum, would have made no sense to either of them – nor to Dice. It would have raised questions that we cannot afford to have raised. You know that.’