Love Knows No Bounds (14 page)

Acknowledgments

Accepting that I have a special-needs child was a long process for me, one that I am still working on, and every day presents a new challenge. Thankfully, every day brings new blessings as well, and life with my youngest boy becomes more interesting as time ticks on. Sammy, I love you, thank you for choosing me to be your mommy.

I have to thank Liz Pelletier for choosing my story to be part of this anthology. When I heard about it, I became fixated on participating. I simply
needed
to be a part of it. Thank you for believing in me, believing in my story, and believing in such a worthwhile cause.

Libby Murphy, you are—as always—an amazement. You work like a dog, you hardly sleep, and somewhere in the middle of editing this anthology, you sold your house. I am completely convinced that you’re a robot, like the editor version of Rosie on The Jetsons, which is most excellent, IMHO. P.S. I’m also sorry that I made you so hungry while you were editing this book.

A super special shout out goes to the following, for helping Bittersweet become the fun, heartwarming book it wound up being: My CP and friend, Meggan Connors; the most amazing and dedicated occupational therapist ever, Abby Shewchuck; my hubby and remaining three kiddos, whose love and support not only makes me batty, but also make me a better person than I would be otherwise; and the rest of my crazy extended family. No author can succeed without an amazing support system, and I have that, and more. (The “more” being most fabulous hair.)

As always, stayed tuned, dear readers. There are always more stories to come…

~Brooke Moss

About the Author

Brooke Moss lives in beautiful eastern Washington state with her nerdy hubby and four wicked children. When she isn’t spinning tales, Brooke reads voraciously, changes the color of her hair, and watches entirely too much reality television. She believes every couple has a love story to tell, and loves touching her readers’ hearts, while making them giggle at the same time. Now, if she could just dig out from under that pile of dirty laundry... Check Brooke out on the web at www.brookemoss.com.

Remember Me

Nina Croft

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Nicola Cleasby. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Edited by Libby Murphy

Cover design by Heather Howland

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition April 2012

For everyone who has loved and lost—I hope you get a second chance.

Prologue

110 BC…

Cade offered the golden goblet to Eleni. “Drink.”

Hands wrapped around his, she raised the cup to her lips. Cade held his breath—his hopes and dreams within his grasp. But at the last moment, she glanced up at him, and uncertainty flickered in her dark eyes. “If I drink, will we be together for always?”

“For eternity.”

Her sweet mouth curved into a smile as she leaned toward him and sipped the liquid. Cade watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed, the tension drained from him, and his silver wings spread in triumph.

There was no going back now. Right or wrong, the deed was done.

He had betrayed his own people in stealing the Elixir, but he had no regrets. He would gladly forsake Heaven if that was the price he had to pay to be with Eleni. He’d found his own heaven here on Earth, and he knew his brothers felt the same.

He dropped the goblet to the ground, cupped her beloved face in his hand, and lowered his head to kiss her. The sharp, bittersweet tang of the elixir lingered on her lips, and a shudder of unease ran through him. He shook off the feeling. There had been no other way. “Come, we need to leave. The others will be waiting.”

A small frown formed between her brows. She nodded at the goblet, where it lay in the sand at their feet. “Will you be in trouble for this?”

He forced a smile. “Not if they don’t find us.”

He had arranged to meet his brothers at a small clearing close to Eleni’s village. Clasping her hand in his, he pulled her against his side, and fought the urge to take to the air—but they couldn’t draw attention to themselves. The theft would be discovered soon enough; they had to be away from this place before that occurred.

The sun blazed high above them. An unnatural silence hung in the air. Cade couldn’t dismiss the nagging sense of disquiet, and he increased his pace.

They were almost there—he could see his brothers and their wives gathered, waiting—when a clap of thunder sounded overhead. The sky opened, and a host of angels appeared, blocking out the sun. The beating of a thousand wings filled the air. In seconds, they were surrounded.

Cade cursed. How could they have discovered the theft so soon?

“Cade!” Eleni’s high-pitched scream tore into him.

Hands were reaching for her. Cade tried to wrap her in his arms, but they wrenched her from his grasp. He fought, then. Furiously. But there were too many, and too strong, and he could only scream his rage as they dragged her from him.

All around, his brothers were fighting. Cade drew the sword from the scabbard at his back, whirling and countering the blows that came from all directions, desperate to reach Eleni. But for each one he cut down another took his place. Finally, his strength failed, and the sword dropped from his fingers. He hung exhausted in the grip of two of his captors, his breath coming hard and fast, as despair swamped him.

He lifted his head. Gabriel stood before him, golden wings spread. “You broke the rules, Caden. This time you’ve gone too far. You stole the Elixir of Life.”

The words were softly spoken, but beneath that, Cade could hear the outrage.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“You should have remembered that humans are fickle, jealous creatures.”

Cade’s mind frantically searched for a way out. “My wife? Where is she?”

“The human?” Gabriel shrugged. “Her own kind will deal with her as they see fit.”

The fighting had died to nothing, but Cade couldn’t see Eleni, and panic clawed at his guts.

“Cade!”

Through the confusion, she cried out his name, her voice hoarse with terror and panic. The host parted, and he caught sight of her. They had tied her to a stake—people from her own village, people she had cared for—and piled brush wood around her. She was struggling wildly against the restraints, but to no avail, and fear stopped his heart. It couldn’t end like this. He tore at the hands that held him, screaming her name.

For a brief moment, their eyes met and some of the panic faded from her face. “I love you.” She mouthed the words.

“For eternity,” he whispered.

Then the flames licked at her bare legs, and she screamed in agony.

He lost sight of her as they closed in around him. The acrid scent of smoke, burning pitch, and roasting flesh clogged his nostrils, and he fell to his knees and gagged as Eleni’s shrill screams filled his mind.

Finally, she fell silent.

Cade’s heart shattered. He threw back his head and howled.

Long minutes, he knelt there, unsure whether he could even move. His mind reeled in disbelief. She couldn’t be gone, but there was a huge gaping hole inside him, where she had been for so long.

He pushed down the pain and allowed ice-cold fury to envelop his heart. Struggling to his feet, he saw that they had gathered his six brothers together. Their faces reflected his own despair.

“For violating the laws of Heaven, you are banished.” Gabriel waved his hand and a portal opened, a break in reality.

Cade sensed the shadows reaching up to him, and he embraced them.

He stood immobile, barely feeling the pain as they ripped his wings from his back, and then he was plummeting through darkness. He fell for an age, until he finally crashed to the ground.

His mind was numb as he stumbled to his knees. He’d wanted Eleni to live forever, be at his side for eternity. Instead, he had brought about her death, and he would be alone until the end of time. A scream welled up inside him. He knelt in hell, but it was nothing compared to the darkness in his soul.

An icy wind blew across his skin, and he looked up from his torment. In the half-light, a woman stood before him. “I’m Lilith, Queen of the Damned. Welcome to the Abyss.”

Chapter One

Present day

“Tell me why I’m here again?” Cade had to shout over the whir of the helicopter blades.

“Here” was about twenty miles south of Kabul, the environment an inhospitable mix of low rocky outcrops and scrubby bushes beneath a washed out blue sky and a pale yellow sun.

“Press conference,” Finn replied. “You’re talking; I’m your bodyguard.”

Cade examined him—Finn certainly looked the part in his camouflage gear and more weaponry than could ever be needed. But then Finn did love his toys. “I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“Maybe not.” Finn grinned. “Okay, definitely not, but it wouldn’t look right for the big boss not to have a bodyguard around here. You might not have noticed, but we’re in the middle of a war zone.”

The helicopter was slowing now. Below them, Cade could make out the vague outline of manmade structures, the same pale ochre as the landscape, so they merged with the rocky terrain. They circled the compound once, hovering above the small crowd of people in the wide open central area, before coming to land on an open rooftop off to the side.

A faint hum of excitement vibrated deep in his gut—maybe he’d been missing this. As CEO of Stormlord Securities, he spent way too long in the office. What he needed was something to take his mind off the fact that time was running out for all of them.

Cade slipped on his dark glasses and jumped down. The sun prickled his skin, but he ignored the sensation; sunlight no longer had the power to harm him—he’d grown beyond that. Thick red dust permeated the air, and he grimaced as he ducked under the still-turning blades and ran for the edge of the roof, Finn at his back.

Despite the sun, the day was bitterly cold, but Cade hardly noticed as he smoothed his suit and breathed in the icy air. The cool breeze hinted at snow and something else—a lingering scent almost forgotten, but still familiar. He came to an abrupt standstill.

The hum of excitement grew to a buzz that spread through his being, filling him with a wild sense of anticipation. His whole mind focused on the elusive scent that teased his nostrils, sweet, spicy with a hint of lemons. A wave of longing swept over him, so strong he almost stumbled. Bracing himself against the low stone wall in front of him, he tried to clear the fog from his brain, as excitement warred with terror.

Eleni.

Could she really be here?

He fought for control, but a fierce exhilaration was building inside him.

“What is it?” Finn asked, but the words scarcely registered.

After all the years of searching, was he finally going to find his Eleni again?

Would she know him?

He fought down the need to leap over the edge of the building, to find her, confront her. But he couldn’t do that. She had to come to him of her own free will, or this time he would lose her forever.

“Cade?” Finn’s low voice came from behind him, and a hand pressed down on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Cade shook it off and headed down the open staircase that ran alongside the building.

The scent was stronger here, but mixed with the stench of too many people crowded together. Cade searched the sea of faces. A few wore western clothes, but the majority dressed in dark robes with traditional scarves wrapped around their heads.

Panic clawed at his insides. He couldn’t find her.

A man stepped up toward him, blocking his view, and he gritted his teeth in frustration. “Mr. Wolfe, can you tell me what you think about the current situation in Afghanistan?”

“Mr. Wolfe…”

Cade stood, letting the questions flow around him, while the adrenalin surged through his system.

“Mr. Wolfe, would you like to comment on the allegations that Stormlord Securities uses illegal means to gain government contracts?”

A woman’s voice. Clipped and assured. The words hardly registered. For a brief moment, his brain ceased to function. He looked down. A long way down. The woman in front of him was small, but then his Eleni had been tiny—it had always made him feel protective. She’d laugh at him and tell him she didn’t need protecting.

A scarf wrapped around her head, leaving only a narrow band of her face showing between the folds. Dark brown eyes, flecked with gold, stared up into his. They were all he could see. But they were enough. Eyes he’d dreamed about for over two thousand years. He couldn’t believe it; after all the years of searching, she finally stood before him.

“Eleni?”

Her dark brows drew together in a frown. “The allegations of corruption, Mr. Wolfe—could you comment?”

The scarf muffled her voice, and he wanted to reach out and drag the dusty cloth from her, reveal her to him.

“Cade, we have incoming.” Finn’s voice shouted in his ear, the urgency of the tone finally getting through to him. He tore his gaze away from the woman.

“What?”

“Goddamn it, Cade. This place is going to explode.”

He forced himself to look upward and shock punched him hard in the gut. Like a comet, a trail of fire streaked across the sky. A rocket heading straight for the compound.

Straight for Eleni.

…

The guy was definitely acting weird.

Phoebe had studied him as he came down the steps. Unlike his companion who was dressed in full combat gear, Caden Wolfe wore an elegant silver-gray business suit, white shirt—no doubt silk—and a dark red tie which matched his immaculately cut dark red hair.

Prior to the press conference, she’d found out everything she could about him, but even so, nothing had prepared her for Caden Wolfe in the flesh. He was stunning. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t also corrupt.

Patrick, her boss—and one of the best editors in the business—had always told her that the most important quality for a successful investigative journalist was gut instinct. And her gut was screaming that there was something very off with regards to Stormlord Securities.

But she also needed to be fair. Phoebe was the first to admit that she loathed and despised the big multinational corporations. Hated the way they believed themselves above the law, and the way they used and discarded the “little” people as though they didn’t matter.

People like her father.

Because of that, she always went the extra length to make sure her facts were right, always did her research meticulously. She’d looked at Stormlord Securities from every angle, examined the statistics, and the numbers didn’t add up. No company managed to get that many government contracts without making payouts somewhere along the line.

And Phoebe Little, ace reporter, was going to find out where. Expose his sleazy company, and his shady dealings. This story was going to right some wrongs
and
put her name into the top ranks of investigative journalism.

But she wished he’d stop staring at her—it was making her feel distinctly odd, hot and fluttery. He wore dark glasses, but still she sensed his eyes fixed on her as though he were starving. She tightened the scarf around herself and glanced down. She was covered from head to foot—what was there to gawk at?

His bodyguard spoke to him, and at last he broke eye-contact with her. As he stared upward, horror flashed across his lean handsome face. Phoebe followed his gaze to the sky, and her mind locked in terror. A rocket was heading straight for them. No way could it miss.

A moment later, something slammed into her, and the world went black.