Deadly Sins (36 page)

Lips tightly closed, she glared up at him.

She saw the blow coming, tried to throw herself to the side to deflect the blow, but the force of it still exploded through her and sent her crashing to the hard floor several feet away.

Still reeling from the blow, Skye lay still, trying to convince herself she was going to get through this. Eyes closed, afraid if she opened them she would pass out from the pain, she lay perfectly still, bent to protect her stomach and praying the blows went no lower.

“I said get up.” Hard hands gripped her hair again, jerking her to her knees as she struggled against him.

Each time she lifted her hands to try to lessen the grip on her hair, another blow landed against her head, until she was swaying dizzily, held on her knees by the cruel force tearing at her hair.

“Now, I said suck my dick!”

She would kill him first.

She just had to find the right opening. She had to wait until she knew she could get in the right blow. Because she would only have one chance—

*   *   *

Logan was losing his mind. He could feel it.

The small, dangerously sharp knife he kept tucked in the hem of his sleeve jabbed into his wrist again, wetting it with yet more blood as he fought to saw his way through the hard nylon securing his arms.

Skye hadn’t fully secured his ankles, but the ones at his wrists were taking too fucking long.

“Let her fucking go!” he screamed again, sawing at the nylon, the blade nicking his wrist again as another blow was delivered to her head after she was dragged to her knees.

Holding her hair with one hand, her attacker was releasing his pants with the other.

His expression was lust filled, his complete attention centered now on raping Skye rather than ensuring Logan couldn’t get free.

He was almost there. Almost.

The bastard pulled his cock free, holding it securely in his hands as he moved closer to Skye’s secured head.

As he neared her lips she suddenly moved, slamming her arms upward between his thighs and nearly putting his balls through his throat when he moved at the last minute.

Still, he howled in pain and stumbled to the floor, holding himself as he curled into a small ball for long seconds.

Just a little more,
Logan prayed desperately.
Please, God, keep him there just a little while longer.

Logan watched as Skye shook her head, still trying to process the feeling that her brain was completely rattled and trying to think through the pain.

She had to get Logan free. She had to find a way to stop this. God, if Logan had to see the gunman rape her, see him kill her … If her autopsy revealed what she suspected, that she was already pregnant, Logan would lose his mind.

She couldn’t allow that.

Breathing heavily, she swung her head around, searching for a weapon. She saw blood dripping to the floor by Logan’s chair. He was ready to tip over, he was struggling against the restraints so hard.

He was screaming.

She could see him screaming, but her senses had narrowed to one thing and one thing only.

A weapon.

Then reality took the strangest twist.

As she swung around and slammed into another of her attacker’s hard fists, she could have sworn she heard a dog howling.

Bella was much, much too little for that sound.

As stars exploded in Skye’s mind, the sound of glass breaking seemed to come from a distance; then she was crashing to the floor again, her head bouncing against the wood.

The sound of snarls, growls, a man’s terrified scream, and then—

She frowned, dazed, the world trying to recede.

She could swear she heard the sound of a gunshot.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It wasn’t Bella howling. And it wasn’t Bella who jumped through the window.

Struggling to sit up, Skye stared at Logan as he came out of the chair, lurching for her attacker as he faced down the wolf and fired again.

Before his finger tightened on the trigger, Logan jumped, throwing his off balance but not taking him down as the wolf jumped for him as well.

She couldn’t have seen what she thought she did.

The wolf gave a sudden, bone-jarring stop before stumbling. The attacker, at first surprised, didn’t pause in the small reprieve.

In a matter of seconds he had taken a running leap, jumping through the window the wolf had taken out as Logan grabbed the gun that had been dropped and began shooting.

Training was an amazing thing, though.

A lifetime of training was even more amazing.

She couldn’t pull herself to her feet; instead, she had to drag herself to Logan.

A wolf, and that bitch was huge, too, stood over Crowe’s unconscious form, her teeth bared, snarling at all of them.

Her gold eyes seemed to reflect a haze of red as spittle dripped from her glistening fangs.

She would lower her head, push at Crowe, lick his cheek, then snarl again as though the fact he wouldn’t wake up would be taken out of their asses.

“Logan.” She leaned her head against the coffee table as he rushed to her, his hands skimming her, quickly. “Did you see who he was?”

“No.” His breathing was harsh, his voice filled with fury. “Fuck him!”

The wolf was snarling like the hounds of hell were nipping at her furry ass.

“Son of a bitch, Crowe, wake up!” she muttered. “Shut that bitch down.”

She turned her gaze to Logan, desperate to make sure that he was safe. Blood marred his wrist, but the restraints were free and he was staring at her as though he couldn’t believe she was alive.

Hell, she couldn’t believe it herself.

Skye turned her head back to the wolf. She was lying close to Crowe now, staring at them as though daring them to come nearer.

She sighed heavily as Logan rose to his feet and moved into the kitchen. The wolf watched suspiciously.

Drawers banged, metal clanged. Seconds later, Logan was back with a pair of wire cutters and snipped the restraints from her wrists.

“We need to call someone,” she said wearily.

“I did. While we were standing there listening to his bullshit,” Logan snarled. “I was able to hit Resnova’s number, waited a minute, then disconnected and hit Archer’s.”

“Smart move.” She laid her head on his shoulder as he pulled her into his arms, his hands holding her close, smoothing up her back.

“You’re still not safe. You or Cami.” Tortured and wracked with pain, the sound of his voice tore at her heart.

“I know,” she said softly. “And the grandfathers will likely not help.”

“I couldn’t trust my own, and I know Rafer and Crowe won’t trust theirs. We have to figure out how to find him, Skye. I can’t lose you.”

A moan from the other side of the room drew her gaze.

Crowe moving.

The wolf bitch, still heavy with pups, was licking his cheek again, then lifting her head to growl back at them.

“That looks really weird, Logan,” Skye sighed as the huge black and gray animal whined at Crowe before nudging him again.

“He raised her,” Logan said softly. “Years ago. That’s why she takes over the house while he’s gone. We don’t let anyone know she’s anything but a wild wolf, that way our enemies don’t target her. He found her, barely alive, her eyes not even open, when he first moved into the cabin. He kept her alive; hell, he even house-trained her. She’s wilder than hell, but when she walks in that door, if Crowe’s here, and conscious, she’s tame as a puppy.”

“Wish Crowe was conscious,” Skye sighed as she laid her head back on Logan’s chest. “We gotta problem.”

“Yeah?” He kissed her forehead gently.

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“I think I’m concussed.”

His chuckle was rough. “Ya think, babe?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I bet it’s bad for the baby too.”

That shut him the fuck up.

“It’s not been long enough.” He sounded strangled.

“A woman always knows.” She burrowed deeper in his chest. “We always know.”

“You can’t be pregnant.” His voice still sounded strangled. It also sounded about half panicked.

“Bet me.”

The sound of sirens and an approaching helicopter could be heard. “And Ivan the Terrible is arriving. Bet he tries to boss me. Bet me.”

“I don’t bet against a sure thing.” Yep, that was a strangled-sounding voice.

“Will you take up for me?”

“Not this time, baby,” he sighed, holding her closer. “Not this time. I think we both need to go. Just to be sure.”

“Just to be sure.”

She could hear shouts. The wolf was snarling, snapping, about to go ape shit over Crowe until he tried to lift his hands and he whispered something. She bounded from the room, but she didn’t run outside. Skye watched as the wolf went as fast up the stairs as her heavy body could go, disappeared through the rounded hall, and a few minutes later—hell, the sound of a door closing.

Crowe was struggling to sit up, his hands and feet bound, his gaze a little uncomprehending as he stared back at the scene spread out in his living room.

“I have a feeling this is going to be a hell of a story,” he muttered.

Then nothing else could have been heard. Ivan’s men were rushing the house, automatic weapons drawn as they began to secure the lower rooms, their eyes hard as Ivan swept into the room along with Rafer.

Skye watched as Ivan propped his hands on his hips, the scar on his face seeming to pulse, whiter than she’d ever seen it.

“Had to have all the fun yourself, did you, little girl?” He finally knelt beside her and Logan and gently, very, very gently, brushed back a mass of curls that had fallen over her shoulder.

“You know what, Ivan?” she said querulously when Logan didn’t protest.

“What is that, my little Skye?”

“I need a big brother.”

To that, Logan groaned as though in pain.

Ivan tipped his head to the side. “I was bargaining for husband, remember?”

“I would have shot you,” she told him somberly.

To that, he nodded rather seriously. “I would have expected that.”

Was Logan laughing at her? His shoulder was shaking a little, making her head worse.

“Make the ‘brother’ offer and I’ll take it,” she suggested.

He glanced at Logan, but whatever look they shared, she wasn’t lifting her head to decipher it. Finally, Ivan turned his gaze back to her, the blue of his eyes incredibly gentle and really rather brotherly.

“I have need of a troublemaking, bossy, gun-toting, calculating, manipulating little sister,” he stated with the utmost seriousness. “Would you like the position, Ms. O’Brien?”

“I believe I would, Mr. Resnova,” she said, hearing her voice grow weaker. “Yes, I believe I would.”

“And I will make an excellent uncle,” he declared smugly.

“How do you know?” Her head felt as though it were reeling.

“It’s too soon.” There was that strangled sound again.

Ivan shook his head before looking at Logan, his gaze concerned now. “We need to get her out of here now, my friend. Her pulse is weak and thready, her eyes too dilated, and she’s slurring.”

She didn’t hear anything after that. Logan shifted and she cried out in agony as pain exploded in her head again. She heard them cursing, Ivan was barking out orders, and then everything went blessedly black.

And she missed the single tear that ran down Ivan Resnova’s face as he touched the blood that smeared her neck from her rapidly swelling nose and the gash down her cheek.

But Logan didn’t miss it.

Just as he didn’t miss the complete, truly brotherly love that filled Resnova’s gaze.

It wasn’t sex he’d wanted from Skye, Logan guessed as the other man beat him to threatening to kill the men strapping her down on the flat board to transport her to the hospital. It hadn’t been a wife Ivan had needed. He had simply wanted to protect the delicate, too-caring, too-soft-for-her-job little FBI agent who had stolen Logan’s heart.

No, not just his heart.

She had stolen his soul.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The young woman a hunter had found in Riker’s Ravine was Jenny Perew.

Two days after the attack on Crowe, Logan, and Skye, they were finally released from the hospital, but still carrying several of Resnova’s shadows, whether they liked it or not, when Logan arrived at the sheriff’s office to give him a statement concerning his involvement with her.

Skye stood beside him as he stared at the pictures, his gaze heavy, bleak, as he saw the damage to the young woman.

“One night,” Logan stated harshly as Archer watched him sympathetically. “And it was months ago. I’m guessing six months. Has anyone checked on Ellen Mason?”

Skye and Logan both knew someone now had her in hiding so deep only God could find her. Resnova could be frighteningly efficient. Ellen had always wanted to see Greece, and Ivan just happened to have several contacts there.

“We can’t find her,” Archer sighed heavily as he shook his head. “I sent two deputies to her apartment, but it had been cleaned out. Completely.”

“Then she’s on the run?” Logan looked up, as though surprised.

“So it would appear.” Archer nodded. “I’m sure we’ll find her, though,” he sighed. “I just wish someone had managed to convince Miss Perew how serious you were of the danger when you called.”

As had he.

Rising to his feet, Logan put his arm around Skye and led her from the sheriff’s department. “We’re heading home.” He spoke into the earbud he wore, so tiny it was impossible to detect beneath the long cut of his hair.

“House is secure,” Resnova’s man reported. “My partner will remain inside until you arrive, then he’ll head to the basement.”

Privacy wasn’t going to be easy to maintain.

Returning to the house, Logan stepped inside with Skye and stared around the rooms silently as she leaned her head against his chest.

It wasn’t over by any means, and they were no closer to finding the Slasher now than he and his cousins had been when they first returned.

At least, they had some help now.

“I have a few days I could spend out of town,” he told her as he led her to the upstairs bedroom he’d arranged to have set up. “We could disappear for a while ourselves.”