New Species 01 Fury (21 page)

Ellie gave him a grateful smile, the tension easing from her body. It was nice to hear someone agree with her views after her ordeal. “Yes. The New Species have been through enough without those racist morons.”

“I’ll drive behind you for a few blocks to make sure you aren’t followed.”

“Thanks.”

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Fury

Ellie stepped to the driver’s door of her car but paused when a large, black SUV

pulled into the parking lot. She froze, staring. It looked very similar to the ones Homeland used, with all the windows tinted black. It stopped right behind Ellie’s car.

Ellie tensed while the cop beside her reached for his gun with one hand, his radio with the other.

The driver’s door opened and Ellie stared warily at the man who circled around the front of the SUV. He wore a business suit and dark glasses. He stopped, his head turned toward the cop, and then he seemed to be looking at Ellie by the way his face lowered in her direction. His hands were open at his sides and he spread his fingers, moving his hands away from his body to show the cop he wasn’t armed.

“Ms. Brower? I’m Dean Hoskins. Mr. Fury sent me. You called Mr. North’s office and he has been made aware that you were having some kind of situation.”
Fury?
Ellie relaxed. “It’s okay,” she assured the policeman.

Dean Hoskins let his hands drop as soon as the policeman released the butt of his gun. He reached up, removed his sunglasses, and it revealed he had green eyes in a nice face.

“Mr. Fury asked me to collect you and your things. I’ve been asked to give you a message. I’m not sure what it means but Mr. Fury assured me you would understand it.

He told me to say that after saving your life, you owe him this time. He requests you follow me back to Homeland to talk to him in person. He would have come himself but regrettably, because of the situation outside Homeland, it wouldn’t be advisable for him to leave.”

No shit
, Ellie thought. Fury wanted to talk to her. She wondered what he wanted to discuss. He may have regretted not really saying goodbye to her. He might even want to say he’d forgiven her for what she’d done to him. Of course he might just want to know what had happened. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that he just wanted to see her again. She’d never know unless she spoke to him. It would bother her, wondering, if she didn’t go.

She nodded at Hoskins. She had no doubt he was on the level. Only Fury would talk about who owed who. “All right.”

He placed his sunglasses back onto his face. Ellie turned to the policeman.

“Thank you so much for everything. I’ll go to the car rental place as soon as my meeting with Mr. Fury is over.”

Ellie climbed into her car and waited while Hoskins turned the large SUV around inside the parking lot. Ellie backed out of the space to follow the SUV back to Homeland. She hated the stares she received from other drivers and dreaded when the protesters got a load of what had been spray painted on her car.

The hateful words humiliated and embarrassed her. The guard who let her inside the gate gaped at her with raised eyebrows. Ellie softly cursed and resisted flipping him off. She had no choice but to drive her vandalized vehicle. She followed the black SUV

to the main office to park next to him in the visitor section.

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Ellie grabbed her purse as she exited the car. She wasn’t about to let her wallet out of her sight after already being tossed out of Homeland. She needed to have options if they kicked her out again without a car. Dean Hoskins studied her vehicle with a frown.

“Was this the trouble you ran into?”

“Partly. It seems some idiots think I’ve been brainwashed and three jerks were set on trying to supposedly save me. God only knows what they thought they were going to do if they’d gotten away with kidnapping me.” She shook her head. “Some of them are just insane.”

* * * * *

Fury paced while Justice watched him closely, studied everything about him, and it annoyed him. He stopped, shooting a glare at Justice. “What? She was in trouble. She mentioned police to your secretary and needed an escort out of there. Do you have a problem with my sending Dean to collect her? He works for us. What good are having humans help us if they don’t do anything?”

“I’m not disputing your reasoning. I believed she’d be safer in her world but I freely admit when I’m wrong if she’s experienced trouble so soon. I’m just wondering if you’re going to explode when she arrives. You look about ready to totally lose control again.”

Fury snarled, fought his rage, and met his friend’s worried gaze. “Every protective instinct inside me is battling. My first impulse was to jump into a Jeep and go out there to track her down. I am in control since I sent Dean.”

“Good to know.” Justice inched closer. “If it means so much, you can keep her here.

I’ll smooth things out somehow with the director and if that doesn’t work, I’ll outright order him to allow her to stay. Under the circumstances it may not arouse too much suspicion from him that I’d go over his head. He’s very paranoid about how much power we flex and he’s attempting to retain absolute command of Homeland. He is being an ass by treating us as if we are children but the bottom line is, he works for us.

I’m sure there is housing available at the visiting-human section. I’ll make some calls.” Fury’s eyes narrowed. “And have the director go behind our backs again? You put me in charge of security. I won’t allow her out of my sight.” Justice’s mouth dropped open. “Where will you assign her then?”

“I have two bedrooms. She’ll be safe inside my house. No one would be stupid enough to go after her there, and I can guard her.”

“You mean protect her.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“It’s a bad idea.” Justice shrugged. “But you are in charge. I have enough headaches trying to figure out the business side of Homeland, how to afford to pay for everything and where to find more funds for us to use after we start running it ourselves. While the president is generous, we’re bleeding out a lot of money with the construction costs for 108

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all the extra preventative measures we need in place after the attack. Don’t forget that you have a meeting in the morning with the architect. I want you to go over the plans carefully and it’s your call on whether what they have come up with will prevent another breach at our front gates.”

“I’ll be there.”

Justice moved forward, gripped Fury’s shoulder, and stared deeply into his eyes. “I know you will do your job. I’m more worried about your emotional state when it comes to this woman. It’s the only chink in your armor I’ve ever seen. Emotions can play hell on our kind.”

“I can separate my responsibilities to our people from my personal matters.”

“I know you can.” Justice released him. “Good luck with your human.” A grin split his lips. “I don’t envy you. Of course, they’ve got to be easier than attempting to handle our women.”

Fury snorted. “Not really. She’s very hard to understand since we come from two different worlds.” He hesitated. “I feel rage that she may have been harmed.”

“Try to keep it under wraps. They spook easily when we snarl and show teeth.” Justice chuckled, walking away.

Fury growled softly. He’d try to hear what happened to Ellie without letting his anger show. Dean had called to tell him she was following him to Homeland now but refused to tell him what had happened. Ellie hadn’t been harmed if she could drive and that was all that mattered. He strode from the office toward the parking lot where she’d arrive. He’d wanted to be there waiting but Justice had delayed him.

* * * * *

“They what?”

The deep voice behind Ellie startled her. She spun and dropped her purse. Fury had stalked right up behind her without her knowing it. He’d moved so stealthily he hadn’t made a sound to warn her of his approach. She clutched her chest as she faced him.

“Don’t sneak up on someone that way. I had no idea you were there. You almost gave me a heart attack.” Her arms dropped to her sides.

Fury moved closer. “Someone tried to kidnap you?” He bent down, lifted her purse from the pavement, and held it with his big hand while he straightened to his full height again. “How?”

Ellie’s racing heart started to calm. “I’m guessing one of the protestors followed me to my motel and they rented a room beside mine. They were waiting to ambush me when I returned to my room after grabbing some food. I screamed when one of the three men grabbed me. There were people around who started to yell and they ran away.”

The look on Fury’s matched his name.
The name sure does fit him
, Ellie decided. He became silent while he continued to stare down at her but then he softly growled. His 109

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canine teeth peeked out from his slightly parted full lips. She backed away, leery of his anger.
What did I do? It wasn’t my fault
. He looked as if he wanted to tear out her throat again.

“You aren’t safe out there,” he stated in a harsh tone. “From now on you stay here.

Don’t argue with me.”

Dean Hoskins cleared his throat and pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call guest housing to make sure they have a room for her.”

“Hang it up,” Fury demanded. “She is staying with me.” Ellie gawked at him, trying to make sense of his offer. “With you?” she gasped.

He took a step closer. “You seem to know how to find trouble, sweetness. Or maybe it just seems to know how to find you. I have a guest bedroom and you are staying with me. That way I can keep an eye on you.”

Uh-oh
. She watched as Fury tore his gaze from hers to turn his attention on her car.

He paced all the way around it, examined every inch of damage, only stopping when he stood in front of Ellie again. He snagged her hand, holding it firmly inside his hot-skinned but gentle grip.

“Let’s go. My house isn’t far so we’ll walk there. I’ll have someone remove your things from
that
and tell them to fix what they did to it.”

“But my suitcase―” Ellie tried to stall.

“Not now,” he snarled, tugging sharply on her hand, forcing her to move when she hadn’t meant to.

He pulled Ellie alongside him, giving her no choice but to accompany him. She noticed Dean Hoskins’ alarmed expression. She didn’t want to cause a scene or for Fury to get into any kind of trouble. She knew he was protecting her for some reason and she hated the idea of leaving Homeland more than living inside his house.

“Thanks for coming to get me,” she called out.

“Not a problem,” Hoskins mumbled.

Ellie glanced at Fury’s handsome but grim profile while she all but jogged along beside him as his long legs ate up ground. He still clutched her purse in a fisted hand.

She gave her purse a worried look and hoped nothing inside it got crushed in his white-knuckled hold. Ellie didn’t protest as Fury kept going until they arrived at his house.

He released her at the front door, reached into his back pocket, and used his key card to open it. His dark gaze fixed on her.

“Inside, now.”

Ellie hesitated. “Why are you so mad at me?”

“I’m not,” he growled. “Get inside.”

Ellie entered the dim interior, darting glances around to take in the room. The door slammed behind her loudly. She spun to face him. Fury leaned against the door, just dropped her purse onto the floor, and she flinched, hoping her cell phone she’d shoved in there survived the hard hit to the entry tile. Her attention returned to Fury only to 110

Fury

find him staring at her with his dark, intense gaze. His sharp teeth peeked out between his slightly parted lips again.

“For someone not mad at me,” she stated softly, “you’re doing a hell of an impression of it. Could you please, at least,” she pointed to her own mouth, “put away the fangs?”

He growled.

She backed away a few feet. “Fine. Don’t. It’s just that when you show fangs and have that angry look, you tend to give people the impression, well, me at least, that you’re pissed at them.” She took a breath. “And the growling…” She shrugged. “Kind of implies you’re mad.”

“I’m furious,” he snarled.

“What did I do?” She took another step back.

“Nothing. It’s not directed at you. You were fired for protecting me. You were tossed out there into your world and because of us, you have been targeted as though you were one of us.”

“Well,” she relaxed, secretly thrilled she hadn’t ticked him off. “I worked at Homeland and knew I wouldn’t make friends with dim-witted people when I took the job. If I agreed with those jackasses I wouldn’t have been here at all and they know I’m pro New Species. It’s just a fact of life that they are jerks. Everyone has hate groups.”

“No one hates you because of where you come from.” She smiled. “I’m originally from California before my family moved to Ohio. Half the country is sure every freak and weirdo in America lives or is born here in Southern Cali.”

Fury blinked. “How pro New Species are you?”

She wondered if he questioned whether she secretly didn’t like his people. “If you’re asking if I’m prejudiced, I’m not. When I heard the rumors about Mercile Industries and their kind of testing and the subjects they used, I was outraged. I instantly agreed to help bust them. It horrified me that I might somehow be a part of anything to do with a company that cruel.” She paused. “New Species are people to me, period, just like everyone else. You have the right to do anything humans do. Is that what you mean? I hate to even make the distinction.” He pushed away from the door and took a step toward Ellie. He paused. “Have you heard the latest outcry against us? They are afraid we’ll start wanting to date humans.

What do you think about that?”

“Did you not hear me when I stated that I think you’re just people? You have as much right to date or be with whoever you want to be with as I do.” He nodded. “Would you be with one of my males? Slade is quite taken with you.”
Slade?
Ellie blinked, remembering the guy who’d saved her ass at the gate. It came as a surprise that he might be attracted to her. “I don’t know him.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.