Darken (Siege #1) (19 page)

The pain meds the doctor gave her kicked in and she was fast asleep, her head resting precariously on the seatbelt. She looked so tiny wearing his old Seahawks hoodie, her face framed with random curls that had escaped her ponytail. He reached over to smooth some of the loose strands back and noticed a few droplets of dried blood on her cheek.

His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he thought of how close she came to getting seriously injured or killed. Goddamn Sinclair. The man had already taken so much from their family, Gavin refused to let him keep getting away with it.

Beside him, Cora stirred. She gave a yawn as she sat up and rubbed her eyes with her palms. “Are we home yet?”

“Almost. How are you feeling?” When she didn’t answer, he glanced over to find her staring straight ahead, unblinking. “Cora?”

He nudged her thigh and then gave it a shake. Still no response. Telling himself not to panic, he slowed the Jeep and veered to the side of the road. He was in the process of unbuckling his seat belt so he could move and get a better look at her when she blinked and looked at him.

“Sorry, I must have fallen asleep.” She glanced out the window. “Why are we stopped?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just … I had a vision.”

“Want to talk about it?”

She shrugged, and as he pulled back onto the road, she described what she’d seen. Most of it was Sinclair focusing solely on him. Other than knowing the location and approximate time of day, there was nothing to distinguish it from any other day.

They arrived at her apartment and he walked her up, following her in to make sure it was safe. She laughed at what she considered over-protectiveness, but he wasn’t willing to put anything past Sinclair. After he checked that the place was clear, she went to her room and collapsed on the bed.

“You want me to stay?” he asked.

“No, that’s okay. I’m going to crash and that wouldn’t be much fun for you.”

He leaned over her, resting his hands on either side of her head.

“Sex isn’t the only reason I’d stick around,” he said and was rewarded with a sweet smile.

“Take the journal. It’s on the coffee table.”

“Okay.” He gave her a gentle kiss, lingering for a moment at the taste of honey that still clung to her lips. He lingered a moment, then slowly pulled back. “Sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Chapter Nineteen

GAVIN PULLED THE DOOR to Cora’s apartment closed behind him. That’s when it hit him. He should stay with her. Leaving her alone didn’t sit quite right. Even if she slept the entire time, he should have stayed so she didn’t wake alone in the morning. But it was too late. The door was locked, and despite his ability to hack any computer system known to man, picking locks was another matter.

Downstairs, a quick scan of the street assured him the area was clear of Sinclair. Yet the stillness of the night and the lack of people anywhere nearby made him hesitant to walk away. He stared up at the window to her living room and shook his head.
She’ll be fine
, he told himself. Sinclair wasn’t after her. The safest place for her right then was far away from Gavin.

Ten minutes of aimless driving later, he pulled up to the back of Porter’s. The pub had been closed for nearly an hour, but he knew Noah would be there. The guy lived and breathed that place. Gavin used his key to enter the side door, and sure enough, found his brother holed up in the office running sales reports.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Noah asked when Gavin appeared in the doorway to the office.

“Came for a beer.” Gavin shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the door frame. “You’re losing your edge. I thought you’d take me out before I got a foot in the door.”

“You breathe so heavy I heard you before you even made it to the door.” Noah shut his laptop and rose from his seat. He brushed past Gavin, who turned to follow the older man out to the main room.

“You really need to get a life,” Gavin said as he sat on a stool. He watched Noah pull a couple beers from the fridge behind the bar and caught the bottle Noah sent sliding across the surface of the counter.

“I have a life,” Noah replied. “That’s what a career, house, and a girlfriend are—a life.”

“Great, thanks for the reminder of everything I don’t have.” Gavin twisted off the bottle cap.

“You’ve got a job and Cora.”

Gavin snorted. “I work in a bar.”

“So do I.”

“You own the place. I bartend. I’m pretty sure that’s not the career Mom and Dad would choose for me.” Hell, bartending didn’t even qualify as a career by
his
standards.

Noah gave a one-shoulder shrug and nodded his head. “And Cora?”

“She’s …”
How the fuck to describe what was going on with them?
“Not my girlfriend.”

Noah folded his arms and rested them on the top of the bar as he stared at Gavin. “You go on dates with her? Call her? Fuck her?”

“Jesus, can you give it a rest?” His nerves prickled at that phrase.
Fuck her
. Yeah, they’d fucked to the point that everyone and everything else ceased to exist, but it wasn’t just
fucking
.

“You know what you’re doing?” Noah asked.

That question and the accompanying doubtful look was exactly why Gavin had planned to go home after leaving Cora nestled in her bed. He knew this is what Noah would do, yet he went there anyway.

“No,” Gavin answered honestly.

Cora was messing with his mind, and the shit going down with Sinclair only made things more complicated. Maybe if Sinclair weren’t in the midst of fucking up their lives, Gavin would have a moment to think clearly and figure out what was between Cora and him.

“She loves you,” Noah said.

Gavin nodded and took a swig of his beer, avoiding his brother’s eyes. Cora’s feelings for him weren’t a secret, but he didn’t relish the idea of talking about them with his brothers.

Not that Noah was a big talker. Of the six brothers, he was the quietest, partly because of his personality, but it was also due to habit.

When they were freed from the labs, Noah’s hearing had been so acute, the sound of his own breathing threatened to drive him crazy. He’d been sedated for weeks before he could handle normal volumes. His heightened senses were the reason he’d been spared having to attend high school. It wasn’t until a few years ago that he stopped reacting to loud noises and bright lights. Gavin wasn’t sure if the effects of that particular serum faded or if Noah simply gained control over his ability. Regardless, it left Noah being labeled the strong and silent one of the bunch.

“Something feels off about this,” Noah remarked. “Sinclair’s making this all too easy.”

“Maybe he’s not as smart as we give them credit for.” Even as he spoke, he dismissed the thought. Noah was right; it was too easy.

“Bullshit.”

Noah rubbed one hand over his short beard. The motion drew Gavin’s eyes to the scar that started under the hair and snaked up to Noah’s left eye, a reminder of what a mistake it was to underestimate Sinclair. It was a lesson he learned when he was seven.

None of them ever went to the testing room willingly, though they never fought back. Until Gavin decided he wasn’t going to make it easy for Sinclair. Normally, they were alone in the lab during testing, but that day, Sinclair brought both Gavin and Noah in. Looking back on it, Gavin figured that’s probably what made him feel so brave.

When Sinclair went to strap him in, Gavin exploded. Fists swinging, he connected with the doctor’s face. Then Aiden was there, wrapping his arms around Gavin, trying to restrain him. That’s when Noah flew into the mix. He jumped on Aiden’s back, scrambling to get some kind of hold on the man.

At the ages of seven and nine, the boys' had little control of the monsters Sinclair created, and Aiden and the doctor had even less. Even the team of security guards who ran in at Sinclair’s calls struggled to contain Noah and Gavin. It wasn’t until Aiden took a scalpel to Noah’s face that Gavin stopped fighting and learned fighting back only hurt those you cared about.

He suspected Sinclair was depending on him to remember that lesson.

“Sinclair took a shot at me tonight. Before it happened, I could feel him watching us, but I couldn’t spot him.” He picked at the label encircling his bottle, ripping it into small pieces.

“You’re safe, though.”

“Only because of Cora.”

“How so?”

“She had a vision of it. She didn’t realize until it was happening, but it was enough to give us a bit of warning.”

“But he still got off a shot?”

Gavin shifted on the stool as the gut-clenching fear he felt in those few moments after the shot resurfaced.

“He hit her instead of me.”

Noah stiffened, then relaxed. “I’m going to assume since you didn’t lead with that info she’s okay.”

“It grazed her. I took her to an emergency clinic. She got a few stitches then I took her home.”

He didn’t tell Noah it was a minor wound. It didn’t matter how minor or how close it had been. She’d been shot. The stain of blood on her shirt, the warmth of it pooling against his hand as he tried to stop the bleeding; those things were what mattered. She could have died.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out the spiral notebook Cora used to record her notes. He opened the book, combing through the pages. Her delicate scrawl filled each page with details that would help bring Sinclair down.

“He’s been watching me for months, possibly years.” He closed the book and slid it across to Noah, but his brother didn’t take it.

“Logan told me about the plan to use Cora’s visions. To use Cora,” Noah said. The long pause he left before speaking again told Gavin exactly what Noah thought of the idea. “You sure that’s still the best plan?”

Cora had been in Sinclair’s line of fire. If Gavin followed through with his plan, she’d constantly be in danger. Yet, what was the alternative? Sinclair escaped punishment under the law before. He had the connections and resources to do it again. Could he simply let Sinclair walk away?

He didn’t even need to think about it.
No
. Sinclair destroyed Gavin’s life. He killed Lela, robbing her of a life with Gavin. Even if Sinclair willingly walked away from Gavin, the Walker family, and Cora, he didn’t deserve to. Sinclair needed to be brought to justice. He needed to suffer like Lela had as she drowned in the river, agony ripping through her as her lungs filled with water, like Gavin had as his life collapsed around him until he was nothing more than a hollow shell.

“It’s the only plan,” Gavin said with a raspy voice.

He brought the beer bottle to his lips and met Noah’s eyes, seeing the disappointment and concern his brother didn’t speak of. He met the gaze defiantly. This wasn’t a decision he made lightly. He understood the risk to Cora and himself, but he had a chance to avenge Lela and end the man who haunted him. He couldn’t pass it up.

“I’ll keep her safe.”

“You sure you can?” Noah asked.

God, he hated his brother sometimes. Of his five brothers, Noah was the one always willing to call bullshit on him. Half the time, he didn’t even have to say anything to get Gavin to admit the truth. Honestly, Gavin didn’t know if he could keep Cora safe, but he didn’t want to think about that. Admitting it out loud would make his doubts real, and if they were real, then he’d have to confront them.

Was he actually willing to sacrifice Cora in the name of revenge?

It scared him to think he might have to.

Chapter Twenty

PURGATORY WASN’T REALLY A concept Cora was familiar with, but what little she did know explained what she was experiencing. How else could she describe being caught between heaven and hell? And that’s where she was.

Each night, she came home with Gavin to her apartment. They talked, laughed, made love. They did everything that a couple would do. Then morning would come and that little piece of heaven vanished as she saw the empty look in his eyes as he said the words:
Você não é nada para mim
.

After weeks of it, she shouldn’t hurt so much every time he said it. If anything, it hurt more because while she fell deeper in love with him, he continued to view her as a means to an end.

She wanted to be angry. She wanted to scream and rail at him. She didn’t. Sinclair had done so much damage she couldn’t blame Gavin for wanting to stop him.

“That good, huh?” Keeley said as she dug her elbow into the Cora’s side.

“What?” Cora blinked, pulling herself out of her thoughts.

“Oh, please. Ever since you and Gavin started this whole dating-but-not-dating-but-looks-like-dating thing, you’ve been floating around all starry-eyed.” Keeley twirled a strand of her hair and fluttered her eyelashes as she gave an over-the-top dreamy smile.

Cora laughed at her friend’s silliness. “I have not.”

“Okay, maybe not every minute, but you’ve been doing it enough that I can tell when the two of you have been getting it on, and I have to say I’m a bit leery of going into the locker room after walking in on the two of you last week.”

A gasp exploded from Cora, and her eyes darted over to see if any of the kitchen staff overheard, but the two men were too intent on their work.

“We were not doing anything in there,” she denied in a hushed tone.

“Only because I interrupted.” Keeley giggled and flicked the cloth she held at Cora.

Cora snatched up a plastic water jug and, slamming the lid of the ice machine open, scooped up some ice. The lid dropped back down, punctuating Cora’s lack of denial.

“So? You ever going to give me details?” Keeley asked.

“Unlike some people—” Cora raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at Keeley, “—I keep my private life private.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m not asking for sex deets. I was talking about all the other crap.”

“Mmhmm.” Cora rolled her eyes doubtfully.

She passed Keeley the ice-filled container and grabbed another two from the shelf, filling them up as well. Ice water wasn’t exactly in big demand at the pub, but that day Merrick had reserved a table for a group of TanTech clients during lunch.

“Seriously, though,” Keeley said. “What’s going on between you guys? One week he can barely look at you without going into full-on rage, and now he’s sleeping at your place every night.”

“It’s complicated.”

“What isn’t?”

“This is different.” Cora wanted to talk to Keeley about all of the barriers that were in her relationship with Gavin, but they all cycled back to Sinclair and she couldn’t break Gavin’s confidence.

“Why? Because of his dead fiancée? Because he has commitment issues? Or because of Sinclair?”

Cora’s head snapped around to stare up at Keeley.

“How do you know about Sinclair?”

“Sky tells me pretty much everything.”

Sudden tension stiffened Cora’s back. The thought of other people talking about her visions and what caused them left her fuming. “Such as?”

“That Sinclair is the doctor who tortured her brothers, he’s stalking Gavin, and he seems to also be targeting you. Oh, and she might have mentioned that the reason you and Gavin are dating is to try and lure Sinclair out into the open.”

Cora sighed in relief. Sky hadn’t told Keeley everything. Though, she suspected her brothers wouldn’t be too happy knowing she was blabbing all their secrets.

Avoiding answering Keeley’s question, Cora carried the water jugs out to the reserved table. Escaping a curious Keeley, though, was like getting rid of a tic—nearly impossible.

“So? Is it all for show like Sky says?” Keeley followed on her heels, carrying a basket with cutlery and condiments.

“No. Maybe … I’m not sure how to explain it. I mean, yes, part of it has to do with Sinclair, but not all of it.” She pulled a stack of napkins from her waist apron and placed them onto the table. “Can we not talk about this anymore?”

Keeley threw up her hands in defeat. “All right, I won’t bug you anymore. I want you to promise me two things.”

“What?”

“First, I want you to think about whether this thing you two have going on is real, because as hot as Gavin is he can be a major asshole, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Cora nodded, unable to speak around the lump forming in her throat.

“Second, you’ve got to get me some pictures of his ass.” She laughed at Cora’s gasp. “Come on, this might be my one chance to see the backside of a Walker.”

“You are so horrible.”

“That’s what makes me so good,” Keeley tossed back as she went to unlock the front entrance. It was only a few minutes past opening, but two of their regulars were already waiting.

The afternoon flew by. The extra business they’d had after Dixon’s closed was still going strong. There were only a handful of eateries in town, so one closing usually meant an influx at the others, though with their over twenty-one policy, Porter’s Pub didn’t benefit as much.

The constant stream of customers kept Cora occupied, enough that she could almost put Keeley’s requests out of her mind. Occasionally, though, one of them slipped in. The request for nude photos of Gavin was easy to dismiss. No way was she going share that image. For whatever length of time she had him, he was hers and hers alone.

It was the other request that lingered, nagging at her as she took orders, delivered drinks, and tried to maintain conversations with customers.

Was this thing between her and Gavin real?
It was sad how quickly she came to the conclusion that no, it wasn’t real. Things between them had moved so fast, yet they’d reached an impasse. As much as Cora wanted a future with Gavin and the chance to build something with him, he was just as determined to keep himself separate.

Once they brought down Sinclair, where would they be? Cora suspected they’d be right back to where they were two months before; tip-toeing around each other.

That wasn’t what she wanted, and despite Darren calling her a martyr, she wasn’t willing to spend her life waiting for Gavin to decide if he wanted her fully and completely.

After her shift, she stopped by the back office and found Noah parked behind the desk, sorting receipts.

“Hey, need something?” he asked.

“No, I was just wondering if you had a minute to talk.”

“That sounds serious. Come on in.” He put down the receipts he held and pushed them slightly to the side as she closed the door behind her and sat across from him.

“What’s up?”

“I’m moving back to Denver.”

The words erupted from her before she’d even had an opportunity to think them through. Yet, once said, it was as if a weight had been lifted. Noah didn’t say anything, just stared at her until her nerves took over.

“I don’t know when I’m leaving. I don’t even have a job or a place to stay yet, and I’ll be here until we stop Sinclair, but … that’s my plan. To move to Denver. Soon.”

Her legs jiggled, and she pressed her hands to her knees to stop them. Noah continued watching her, his dark, heavy brows pulled low over his eyes.

“I just wanted to give you a heads up so you could start looking to hire a replacement.”

“Okay,” he said finally, and her shoulders sagged in relief. “Thanks for telling me.”

She stood and turned to open the door, pausing with her hand on the door knob. She glanced back at Noah.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone. At least not until I know when I’m going.”

Noah nodded, and not for the first time, she wished she could read his expressions.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said and turned back to his receipts.

She hesitated before turning and leaving for home. Despite her inability to figure out what Noah thought of her not telling Gavin about her decision, she trusted he wouldn’t say anything.

Back in her apartment, she tugged off her work shoes and tossed them in the small closet near the door. Gavin was picking her up in just over three hours, and she wanted to get a few things done before he got there.

She showered, then, twisting her hair up in a towel to dry, went back to the living room. On her laptop, she pulled up her resume to update her job history. The line about the museum drew her eye, and she grabbed the phone to call her old boss.

He sounded vaguely surprised to hear from her, so she asked about the recent exhibit they’d hosted and then worked her way into asking about job openings. When he mentioned a position opening up after Christmas, she practically begged him for it. That gave her just over three months to deal with Sinclair and pack up what little life she had in Thompson Creek.

After she hung up, she realized she was running out of time before Gavin arrived. She rushed about, getting dressed, and fixing her hair. When he knocked on the door, she was busy applying a coating of mascara.

With one hand holding the mascara wand, she used the other to open the door.

“You look great,” he said and leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek. The tepid greeting only served to remind Cora at how not real things were between them.

“Come on in,” she said and walked back to her room. Applying the mascara took longer than it should have, yet she couldn’t stop trembling as the reality of what she was hiding from him hit her.

She came out a few minutes later and found him flipping through the notebook, reading over the latest details she’d added. She didn’t need the book to know what the night held. Gavin was wearing a black vintage rock band t-shirt and jeans.

“Chinese food again?” she said.

“How’d you guess?”

She took the book from him and flipped back a few pages.

“Smashing Pumpkins shirt, my new blue tunic dress, Peking Gardens,” she recited then handed him the book to see for himself. “He’ll be in a car a block down the road. No gun this time. He’s just watching.”

Gavin read over the page before tossing it onto the coffee table. “I’ll call Caleb and have him back up.”

Yet another reminder that their dating was for a purpose other than love or even lust.

“Sounds good,” she said with a tight smile.

Throughout dinner, she pushed back thoughts of the dead-end their relationship was trying to enjoy the time with him. He talked about a computer program he was helping Caleb design. He didn’t call it a job, though it sounded like one. She told him about a new book she was reading that she thought he might like, and when they left the restaurant, she pretended he was looking at the stars, not scanning the street for Sinclair.

Safely in the Jeep, though, pretending got hard. Gavin pulled out his cell and called Caleb. She listened to Gavin’s side of the conversation, and it was enough to know Caleb spotted Sinclair, but there’d been no opportunity to get to him.

If he had … then … She didn’t know. Gavin had ruled out taking Sinclair to the police, the mole created too big of a risk of Sinclair walking away.

“What’s the plan?” she asked as Gavin drove.

“Same thing. Nothing’s changed. We wait until we can grab him. Making a move when he’s got a chance to escape doesn’t make sense.”

“No, I mean, after. After you catch him, what’s the plan? Do we call the police? Can they even do anything?”

“No police.”

“So, what happens?”

His expression hardened. “We stop him.”

Gavin didn’t say it, and if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to hear him say it. Sinclair had faced imprisonment before and walked away. He’d evaded the feds for years. There was only one way to stop him.

Silence settled between them for the rest of the ride and followed them up to her place, neither of them willing to give voice to what exactly stopping him meant.

Enclosed in her tiny apartment, Gavin gathered her in his arms, and she lost herself in the feel of his hard muscles. She reached up and tangled her fingers in his shaggy hair then down to his nape where it was shaved close.

“Stay a while?” she asked as she gazed up at him.

He answered by lifting her up so she could wrap her legs around him and then carried her to the bedroom.

For a while, she forgot about Sinclair and about Denver and everything other than the passion consuming her as she gave herself over to Gavin and the pleasure he offered.

And when he spoke those heartbreaking words, she smiled and rolled from the bed as if the life she was leading was normal and amazing. When she came back from the bathroom, he was dressing, so she pulled on a tank top and pair of yoga pants.

“Do you want a beer?” she asked as she walked from the bedroom, Gavin following behind.