RAFE'S LAIR (28 page)

                                 CHAPTER 41

      Ava turned back to Rafe completely done with the little meet and greet they were having
. She had a lot of stuff she had to do now that things had calmed down. Number one being she had to get a hold of Marie to make sure she was okay and wasn't worried about her. Second most important thing she needed was some clothes.

    "Rafe I have to get
a hold of Marie and go home to..." She crossed her arms under her breasts and cocked out her hip. "What?"

Rafe had started shaking his head before she even finished saying go. "We're not totally sure your safe yet Ava. I want you with me at all time
’s right here until we know where Rachel is. And that she won't try anything again. Michael is out looking for her right now. When he brings her in, we'll be able to settle things. We can go ahead and have the guys start moving your stuff in here though so you can be more comfortable."

    "Whoa there, hold up." She said throwing up a hand. "Who said anything about me moving in here? I have a perfectly good condo that I happen to like."

    "Ava we're mates do you honestly expect me to let you live somewhere else? You belong with me. Do you honestly think we'll both be able to sleep without you being in my arms now? Be rational baby."

    "So. You just decide for me that I'm the one who has to move?" She pointed at him. "You move. I haven't even completely accepte
d this whole mate thing yet anyway."

Rafe bent down and got eye level with her. "You accepted this whole
mate thing
when you drank from me while I was fucking you and making you cum all over me beautiful. So too late to change your mind now. As far as you being the one who has to move. Remember the sun Ava? I know your condo has a shit ton of windows that aren't covered very well. I'd kinda like to keep my skin from catching on fire if that's okay with you."

Ava's cheeks turned bright red again when he mentioned what they had done earlier in front of all his friends. Now she not only was very irritated at him for being so arrogant and pig headed, but now she was pisse
d that he just blurted that out in public. They were going to have to set some ground rules if he wanted to keep his balls intact. She had no problem showing him just how feisty she really was. She smiled sweetly up at him.

    "Uh oh you
’re in trouble now Rafe. That's the most wicked smile I've ever seen on a woman. She makes Ed look like an angel with that. You better start trying to kiss her ass now before your sleeping down stairs bro cause I ain't sharing my place." Ethan taunted.

    "Shut the fuck up
Ethan." Rafe yelled at him without taking his eyes off his mate.

Ava got right back in Rafe's face and poked him in the chest.

    "Rafe in my book just because I drank your blood while I fucked you doesn't give you the right to control me. So first of all, what you and I do is not up for discussion in front of anyone period. Ever. Or with anyone else for that matter. You want to brag to your buddies about how you banged the little human, you can just forget about ever touching this human ever again. Got it." She didn't give him a chance to reply.

    "Second of all I have a very intelligent brain and am perfectly capable of using it and do so often. Have done so before you ever came into the picture and will continue to do so long after
you’re out of the picture. So I suggest that if you want to continue to
stay
in the picture than you discuss any decisions that involve and affect me
with
me.
Before
you try to make them
for
me. Do we understand each other? Mate?"

Rafe crowded Ava growling at her as she backed
away from him. He followed her step for step.

    "We obviously have to have many discussions about a great many things beautiful. One of them being that if you want to make a point I suggest you
not do so like you just did ever again. The only thing you accomplished was getting me really fucking hard. And the only thing I understand after all that is how much I'm going to enjoy paddling your little ass until it's bright red and then fucking that sassy mouth of yours while you cum all over yourself."

Ava had continued backing up while Rafe stalked her until she hit a wall, and he still didn't stop until he was pressing her into it with his body flush against hers so she could feel just how hard he
really was. And boy, he wasn't kidding. While she tried to keep herself from noticing just how good he felt pressing into her, he placed his fists on either side of her head effectively boxing her in. With him being this close to her, she had to tilt her head back to look at his face.

    "Now when it comes to your safety then I will absolutely make the decisions that I need to make whether you like it or not. I will not allow you to be hurt or killed just so you can keep your pride intact. I know full well
how intelligent you are and don't question that intelligence what so ever. But I have to ask why you are now so hell bent on going to a place that cannot be and is not as well guarded as here? If it's just to prove your independence, than I suggest you find another way because this is something I will not budge on. Be pissed at me all you want. At least you'll be alive and well while you’re doing it."

Rafe pushed off the wall and away from Ava slightly. He didn't take his eyes off her though. He dropped hi
s arms to his sides when all he really wanted was wrap them around her, pull her close, and tell her he was sorry. He hated the hurt and anger he saw in her eyes and he knew she saw his glowing from the emotion he was feeling as well. But there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it now. He would not back down on this no matter how upset he made her, he couldn't.

He wanted to give her everything she wanted and keep her happy always, but he just couldn't take any risks with her life. She had to understand
that it would completely destroy him if anything happened to her. That he was nothing without her now. He would find a way to make this up to her soon after he knew the threat was eliminated. He didn't want to control her no matter what she thought now. She was actually the one who controlled him, though if he tried to make her understand that now, he doubted she would listen.

Ava wrapped her arms around herself suddenly very cold without Rafe's heat surrounding her. He'd stepped back from her and dropped h
is arms to his sides. She could see him flexing his hands and his eyes were glowing, so she knew how mad she'd just made him. Her anger had turned to hurt more than anything else though. She wanted to go back and change how they both handled the fight they'd just had, but she of course couldn't. She didn't dare look at any of the others afraid of what she would see in their faces. Ava looked down at the ground and spoke to Rafe barely above a whisper.

    "I need to find out if Marie is okay and let her kno
w I am as well. She needs to know where I'll apparently be for a while and I need clothes. I'm sure you’re tired of me wearing your shirts just as much as I am."

No actually he wasn't, he loved seeing her in his clothes. If he couldn't be wrapped around he
r, than at least something of his was. Not that that would matter to her right now as upset as she apparently was. Shit! What the hell did he just do?

    "Ava...
” Rafe said trying to reach for her, but she pressed closer into the wall shrinking away from him. Damn that hurt more than he thought it could. He dropped his hands back down to his sides and looked into her big pain filled blue eyes.

    "I have a job so if you intend to keep me locked away in here; I have to make arrangements for my clients to f
ind someone to do their hair. So I at least need a phone to make some calls... Please." Ava finished. She turned and walked back in the room that she was apparently going to spend the rest of her time in with her head down and her arms wrapped around herself.

Rafe watched Ava walk away from him defeated. She didn't even slam the door in his face like she should have, she just closed it quietly while he stood there like the idiot he was. He'd just blown it royally and he had no idea how to fix it, other than
find Rachel and make sure Ava was safe. Then he would be able to force himself to let her come and go as she pleased. He would never like letting her leave his side, but at least he could do so without freaking out worrying about her safety. Oh, who was he kidding? He would always worry no matter what, but he would force himself to let her go.

    "FUCK!" He yelled.

Rafe put his fist through the wall he'd literally back Ava into as he yelled again. He rested his fists against it in the same spot he had when he'd boxed her in and let his head fall forward hitting it against the wall hard. Too bad he couldn't make it hurt worse than his heart did right now. Then it would at least distract him from the pain consuming him from what he'd just done to the woman he loved more than anything.

Dom was the first to speak. "Rafael, I must say I am very disappointed with you at the moment."

    "What would you have me do Dom? I can't risk Rachel getting to her again. You saw what she did to that warehouse. Next time I might not be so lucky, Rachel might just kill her the moment she sees her."

    "I agree completely, but locking her up and taking away her freedom to make that decision on her own was not the way to go about keeping her safe."

Rafe looked at the wolf then. "You’re telling me you would have handled that differently if it were your mate? And don't lie to me wolf, I'll know that you are."

    "No, you are right. My first reaction would be to do almost exactly what you have just done. But, now that you have seen
what it has done to her. What are you going to do to fix it?"

    "Dude if it's any consolation, Michael won't let Rachel get away from him to hurt Ava." Ethan spoke up then.

    "That's if he can find her on his own." Rafe replied.

    "Oh I have no doub
t that he will find her whether she wants to be found or not. In fact he said that if any of us come near her, he'd kill us first and not ask questions later."

Rafe pushed off the wall and looked at his fellow enforcer. "What the hell is that supposed to m
ean?"

    "It means he's taking a page out of your play book bro and protecting his mate at all costs." Ethan said rocking back on his heels with his hands in his pockets grinning like a fool kid that'd just told the best secret in the world.

    "He what!" Rafe boomed.

Ethan threw up his hands to ward him off. "Hey man don't kill the messenger. I'm just letting you know what he told me, that's all."

    "He told you my little sister is his mate? How the hell does he figure that?" Rafe asked baring down on the other vamp.

    "Dude, what'd I tell you? Don't kill the messenger." Ethan pointed at himself up and down. "See this? Messenger. Right here, not the guy who even looked at your crazy little sister. She's a little too psycho even for me. Umm-kay? No, he
didn't tell me, I figured it out when he slammed me into the wall when I mentioned you bringing her in. Kinda not hard to figure it out after dealing with your punk ass these past few weeks."

    "I swear to the Fates I'm gonna kill that sorry bastard if he's touched my sister." Rafe said heading for his phone to call said bastard.

Ed got in front of him. “Hold up there slick, let's think about this a little bit before you go doing something stupid okay?"

    "There's nothing to think about Ed. That asshole thinks he's going to touch my sister and I intend to inform him that's a very bad idea if he wants to keep breathing." Rafe said moving around him.

    "Rafe are you going to bring her to trial? She attempted to kill a League's mate and then frame you for it." Marcus asked.

Rafe stopped and turned to look at him. "Are you actually asking me that right now? That's my little sister. Hell no I'm not going to bring her to trial or let anyone else
for that matter. She hasn't killed anyone and she won't so there's nothing to worry about."

    "Then I don't think we should go looking for her just yet." Marcus replied.

    "Whatever Marcus. I'm calling Michael." Rafe said shaking his head and going for his phone again.

Marcus got in his face again. "Listen to me man. If what Ethan says is true and Rachel is Michael's mate then there's not a damn thing you can do to change that. The only thing you'll accomplish is to piss him off and make him stash her s
ome place you can't find her. Look just let him take care of her for now and deal with your own mate. I'm sure that when he finds her and he knows she's not in danger, then he'll get a hold of you."

    "Marcus is right my friend. You have enough to worry
about with Ava. Let Michael deal with your sister." Dom said.

Shaking his head Rafe said. "Fine for now, but only because Ava needs me to focus on her."

                                  CHAPTER 42

      Marie was about to go crazy. She had been trying t
o call Ava for the past few hours and she still hadn't answered her phone. She had even called Rafe several times, but he didn't answer either. She kinda got worried last night when Ava didn't call to let her know she was on her way home. She had called up to Ava's salon, but the receptionist had already left for the day and all she got was the answering machine. So that just pissed her off. Then she got really scared when it got to be after midnight and she still hadn't heard anything from Ava. Now here it was Sunday and she still hadn't heard a peep from her friend. Something was seriously wrong and she had to find Ava like now.

She pulled up at Lair and went straight to the parking garage that Rafe had shown them the other day. She didn't see Ava's car, b
ut she got out anyway. She tried the door he'd taken them through before, but it was locked. She started looking around and found there was an intercom so she started pushing buttons and yelling into it. If someone didn't answer her, then she was calling the cops dammit. She'd finally had enough.

Marcus and Rafe's phones started going off, and before they could get to them, Ethan's and Nate's started to as well. Someone was at the door in the garage apparently. Marcus went to Rafe's computer and pulled up t
he security cameras to see who it was.

    "It's Marie. She must be looking for Ava and she looks pissed." He said as he watched her start pounding on the door yelling at the top of her lungs. "Damn good thing we're not down there, she looks like she's yel
ling loud enough to blow out your ear drums. And I think she's trying to put a hole through the damn door, she's hitting it so hard." He looked up at Rafe. "I wonder if she's pretending it's your head for practice." He said smiling showing lots of fang.

 
  "Oh sweet my little wildcat is here to play too. “Ethan said getting up and rushing for the door. "I'll get her."

    "
Dammit we don't need this right now. I'll go talk to Ava and make sure she doesn't say anything about what happened." Rafe said heading for his room.

Rafe opened the door and went inside to find Ava to let her know her friend was here. The moment he went inside though, he knew she was gone. "Fuck!" He yelled and went running back out. He raced to the computer and saw exactly what he had h
opped he wouldn't see. Ava was heading out the door into the garage and she was pulling Marie to her car behind her.

    "Shit! No baby don't. Fuck, no no no, don't do this." He said as he ran for the door praying he could get to her in time.

She had found the door that led out to the secured halls they used to move around the club so they didn't have to actually go in the club. Rafe and his men were the only ones who knew about them and allowed to use them; they were strictly off limits to the other employees. None of the members knew anything about them and they never would. He had taken Ava through them a few of the nights he knew she didn't need to see the club and she must have figured out how to get back through them. She was a smart little shit; he had to give her that. He ran straight for the garage as fast as he could passing Ethan on the way.

    "Dude what the hell?" Ethan asked as Rafe flew by.

    "They're leaving, Ava found the door out of my room and she and Marie are leaving." Rafe called not stopping.

    "Shit!" Ethan exclaimed and took off after him.

Rafe slammed through the door to the garage knowing he was already too late. He ran after their car through the underground tunnels until he felt the sun hit his skin and burn his eyes. He hissed at the pain and backed up just enough to get out of the sun.

    "NO! Ava!" He yelled throwing up his hands grabbing his now aching head and hitting his knees. He heard the others come running up behind him, but there wasn't a damn thing any of them were going to be able to do either. The sun was fully up and none
of them could leave until it went down.

    "Rafe, man let's get you up, we need to get those burns taken care of." Marcus said reaching down to help him up.

    "I don't give a fuck about my damn burns Marcus. My mate just ran out of here and I have no way of getting to her until the sun goes down, and there's no telling where she'll be by then."

    "Rafe. Sloan and I will go to her. Maybe she'll talk to us and we can get her back here before the sun sets. You know she'll be safe until then, Rachel can't
venture out either." Dom told him.

    "Dom bring her home to me dammit. I don't care if you have to hog tie her to do it. You get her ass back here so I can spank it till
its bright red then tie her to the damn bed so she can't run away ever again." Quieter to himself he said. "I swear I'm going to make that woman cum so many times she won't be able to move if she wanted to, then when she tried, I'll wear her out again dammit."

Grinning Dom said. "I'll see what I can do." Then headed with Sloan to go trac
k down Rafe's mate.

    "You do that, and while you
’re at tell her she is in so much damn trouble right now." Rafe called after him. Dom didn't even turn around; he just raised his hand and waved back at him. Rafe kept mumbling to himself as Ed and Ethan helped him back upstairs to treat his now blistering burns.