Sins of the Undead Patriot (40 page)

As she curled up and watched, her eyes held a new focus. Devin licked all around the base, and took the head to the back of his throat. Back and forth, he pumped Rowley’s dick to the back of his throat.

To steady himself, Rowley rested his hands on the dresser, allowing the waves of pleasure to pulsate through him. His nuts tightened. As he climaxed, he groaned with glee. Lee-lee and Devin were his and always would be. He owned them both.

Chapter 51

Leera tossed the bloody Q-tips into the trash. This was her fault. She and Devin knew it. And that was why Devin couldn’t make eye contact with her. That, and he’d just blown Rowley on his knees after taking a beating for her.

Not that she blamed Devin for his inability to meet her gaze. Rowley meant for them both to suffer, by one bearing the pain and humiliation for her actions. She placed her hands on the counter and sighed. Yet, something about watching Devin pleasure Rowley had turned her on. Perhaps it was because Devin took the abuse for her.

Footsteps approached, and Devin pressed his warm body to her. “I don’t regret helping you leave. And would do it again.”

“You say that to anger him.” She relaxed into him.

Devin cocooned her body with his. “My words are true and he knows it.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and held on. “I don’t care that you aren’t capable of feeling for me. You aren’t unlike Rowley. You prey on my emotion to get your way. I’m not blind to that. But I know how I feel when I’m with you. Real or imagined, and I like it. Pain cannot take that away.”

With a sharp turn, she pushed her lips against his damaged ones.

He deepened the kiss, driving his tongue into her mouth, as his hands cupped her breasts. Fire sparked inside her. Rowley’s punishment was to weaken him as a man in front of her, but that wasn’t how she perceived tonight’s outcome. In many ways, he was more a man than Rowley could ever be. Definitely more of a human being than either of them was.

“I missed you.” His lips lingered over hers.

What could she say to that? For days, she’d thought she was in heaven and love, only to find out Vaihan had hidden the truth from her. If the gun had been loaded, she would have killed him. That had to come from a dark place, deep emotions. Anger, hatred or pain. When she’d had the gun in her hand, she hadn’t been scared. What did that mean? Did she not value life?

She wrapped her arms around Devin, and pushed herself onto her tiptoes. “I wish I could return half of what you’ve given me. Rowley is right about me. I’m like him.”

Devin pulled back and checked his vibrating BlackBerry. “I need to take this.”

Rowley had rushed out like a bat out of hell and now Devin needed to take a call. She nodded. While lifting the phone to his ear, he vanished into the hall. His footsteps continued to the room where she wasn’t permitted.

“The blueprints are in the room. Let me check.” By his tone, she could tell he was speaking to Rowley.

In all the weeks with Rowley, she’d not been privy to any information that would point to the feds being right about him. He was an asshole, but so far, not a terrorist.

Paper was being unfolded on the other side of the door. She paused, then entered the washroom to listen in.

“Three exit points. The better options would be on the southeast side.”

Silence.

“Ten yards or so.”

Silence.

“The security room is under the adjacent parking garage with separate underground entrances, steel doors at ground level and two provide access into the parking lot.”

Silence.

“Don’t like it. She shouldn’t be dragged into this. It’s too risky.”

What on earth could Rowley be planning to suck her into?

The door flew open, and Devin stared at her. “Come.” He grabbed a jacket, wrapped it around her and brought her through the sliding glass doors out back.

The city lot was big. It might even have room for a pool and swings.

“I don’t understand your relationship with Rowley and I may never, but things are going to get ugly. You might think of staying with your brother awhile.”

“What kind of ugly?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you that, Leera.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine how you felt, learning that Vaihan took your husband from you. But this... You and Rowley. It isn’t healthy.”

Maybe she was pushing her luck with Rowley, hoping it would run out and he’d end it for her. “I’ve got no one else.”

“Sometimes, no one is better than someone who hurts you.”

What was Devin trying to do? Get rid of her or rescue her?

“Is this because you aren’t welcome in our bed anymore?”

He lowered his head. “No,
cron sceimhiuil
. I’ve refused his invitation to join you, because if I saw him touch you after what he did that night, I’d probably kill him.”

His words sunk into her. Why didn’t she have the same sense of self? In many ways, being with Rowley was like her childhood. One crisis after the other. No time to think. And even when she could, the last thing she wanted to do was consider how horrible everything was. So deep was she in his web, that up could be down and down could be up. And yet it was better than dealing with the stuff in her head and heart.

* * * *

The front door slammed shut. Leera rubbed her eyes. Days of Rowley coming in and out, waking her to relieve his need and vanishing again were wearing her thin. Devin was no better, in and out with a grim expression on his face. After asking each of them what they were up to and being shut down, she tired of trying to figure out what was going on. Besides, that wasn’t what she was there for. She was there to sleep with him.

“I woke you?” Rowley stood in the doorway, a large box in hand.

Sleep held no peace for her, only longing for an individual who had concealed the truth from her. She shook her head.

“Liar.” He smiled, set down the box, and sat at the edge of the bed. “Do you remember when we first started seeing each other I said I wasn’t sure how much of what I do I’d keep from you, and how much you should know?”

“Yes.” She sat up.

With a kiss to her lips, he smoothed back her hair. “I told you life with me wouldn’t be easy.”

Understatement. She nodded. Though the fact that she didn’t go anywhere probably made her life easier these days. Police harassment wasn’t pleasant, not from the CPD or Barton.

“Since you’ve been back, you are more settled in. I think it is time we speak of what I do.” He held her gaze with his dark blue eyes.

At this point, did she want to know? “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want, or trust me to know.” Maybe she was better off not knowing.

“I know.” He trailed his thumb along her jaw. “It’s time for truth between us, or there will always be a wall.” He gathered up her hand and tugged. “Soon you and I will need to go far away for a long while.”

That didn’t sound good. Leera tossed the covers off and allowed Rowley to lead the way. Once down the hall, he opened the door to “the room.”

A table stood central to the room with blueprints on it. Boards held schematics pinned to them. Bomb designs. Photos of the Headquarter of International Network for Undead Rights. The building was designed by one of the first Ancient architects, Alvat... The surname escaped her. The leveled, uneven roofs and honeycomb shape gave her pause. Stacks of pictures of the entrance on the floor forced her to watch her step. “What is this place?”

“Unofficial headquarters for the Army of the Living.”

“Are you saying... It’s true what they wrote about you in the papers!” Her knees gave way. Until this very moment, all the deaths had been facts and figures. Now she knew Rowley was a cold-blooded killer.

“Breathe, Lee-lee, breathe.” He gathered her up.

“I’m sorry.” She nodded. “I don’t understand.” Vaguely, she had some ideas of the misdeeds, but the scope, she didn’t understand.

“I don’t control all our members, of course. Some have acted irresponsibly toward human life, but in a war there is always collateral damage. People who will unknowingly give their lives for the betterment of us all.” He huffed. “I have to believe this. It’s them or us, Lee-lee. I know
it
clouded your mind with double-talk, affection and the toxin, but on a conscious level, you know that we are food to them.”

“Yes.” His words weren’t lies, just facts skewed to illustrate his points to his advantage. The undead needed humans to live, but cloned meat provided them everything they needed. Those suspected of breaking the law and who were unlucky enough to be caught were imprisoned immediately, without a trial. They didn’t have rights and weren’t treated equally.

“Myself and a few others have been working very hard to get everything into place to change the minds of officials about the Bill of Undead Rights. For a great many years, we have been able to do this on a political front, but alas, public opinion has changed. And those who support them have deeper pockets than we do. Once they have the rights, we living will be sitting targets. They can hide behind the law, while they pick us off one by one.”

What would they eat if they ate all the humans? Didn’t he get that they needed humans to clone?

“Eventually, they would overturn the ruling for no new zombies to be created. You know what the newborns are like.”

She had no clue, aside from what Vaihan had told her about that time in his life, but nodded. Quinn, Sam and Flint didn’t seem so dangerous.

“I need you to do something for me, that I don’t think you could ever imagine me asking you.”

She especially didn’t like the sound of that.

“But this will prove to me just how far we have come. I’m going to take you to the Valentine’s Ball, where the president will sign off on the Bill of Undead Rights. I want you to lure Vaihan, under the guise that you want to talk to him at a public venue. We will detain him, where the controls for the bombs are. After you and I are safely out of the building, we will detonate the entire building with a secondary remote control.”

No way had he said what she just thought he had. “What of all the people inside? The president?”

“A means to an end. The vice president will swoop in and create order out of chaos. Think of LBJ. You and I, along with Devin, will vanish to Cuba for a while.”

A tropical destination really wasn’t her thing. “I need to sit down.” Even for her, this was a lot to take in. He guided her into a seat next to the table. “How is this even possible? Won’t the forensic teams know he didn’t create the bombs?”

“That is why we lifted prints from your house to place on the parts that often survive, and we used the technique of the bombs Vaihan created for the military. Great craftsmanship, I must say. Only you could lure him there on that day. I need you at my side, Lee-lee. You and I, as a team.”

He wanted her to help him kill people and stop a race from achieving the ability to be treated with dignity. Dear God. He was insane.

“If you can’t do it for me, think of Jean. It’s your chance to make Vaihan pay for what he did to him, to you. The alternative is to put you in distress, and I know he’d come running to save you. Despite everything, it thinks the two of you have something. It’s pathetic, really.”

For now, Rowley needed to believe she would help. At least until she could tell Barton what was going on, and then he could help her get out of this mess.

“Of course.” She rested her head on his chest. “Whatever you need from me to make it pay for what it did to Jean.”

“I’m so happy you feel this way. I got you the perfect dress for the occasion, Lee-lee.”

Chapter 52

Rowley reached for the files as Mr. DeGruis slid them across the table.

The Fed’s hand remained on the document. What did the file contain that concerned the man, when Rowley knew the government long ago gave up the pursuit of justice for his mother. For him.

“I see you were able to come up with the documents. Ingenuity is the mother of necessity, Mr. DeGruis.” Rowley smiled. The Fed needed him to pull his plan off. Otherwise, his stunt of asking for his mother’s case file would have caved the deal.

“Accepting the documents is a promise to me that you are ready to move forward. Understood?” He spoke through a clenched jaw.

“Of course. I never doubted your ability to deliver in time, so I continued to set our plan in motion.” What did the man take him for, a small-time hood? He’d spent years plotting and planning to be one step ahead. If the feds could prove he’d committed the crimes, they would have no need to send in undercover agents to try to catch him in the act.

“Good. Your men are bringing in six boxes from the van. There is a catalog of all the documents in this folder to help guide you through the files.” Barton handed him the dossier. “This will help guide you through the documents.” The gold cap on his tooth glimmered. “Any last-minute hiccups I should be concerned about?”

“Everything is moving smoothly.” Rowley didn’t trust the Fed as far as he could throw him. Given his lack of experience throwing men, the distance was minimal. “Has passage been arranged for myself and a traveling companion?”