Stealing Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 5) (23 page)

He’d answered once around two in the afternoon and insisted everything was going well and Clara had giggling-ly backed him up. Which was worrisome. Not that she didn’t want Clara to be happy, but she didn’t want her to be
that
happy.

Kids were only that happy when they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing. Knowing Lucian, the possibilities were endless.

She climbed in her car and stared blankly at the steering wheel.
Should she go home?
She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Charlie because he’d also been ignoring her calls all day.

It was probably better they talked in person, but did she really want to leave Clara with Lucian any longer than necessary?

Ugh! This shouldn’t be so difficult!
She wanted to scream that Clara was her daughter and he should stay the hell away from both of them. He might be her father by blood, but he’d brought nothing but trouble into her life. Trouble and one day of bliss, but she tried to push that day out of her head every time it stubbornly popped up.

Clara is fine. She’s just off having a blast with her dad and the only one freaking out is you
.

Even if she did rush home to check up on Clara, it wasn’t as if she could make a difference. Worst-case scenario, Lucian took Clara. He would be long gone by now. If any nasties decided to attack, he could probably do a better job of keeping her safe anyway.

Okay. Charlie it was.
Ella quickly navigated the three miles between the library and Charlie’s gym. She knew he was there because she’d called the front desk somewhere between the fifth and twentieth call he’d ignored.

When Courtney, the personal trainer who answered, said he was in fact working and asked whether Ella wanted to talk to him, she’d declined. Anything she had to say couldn’t be said over his work line with his employees looking on.

Walking into the gym in her skirt felt a bit too strange. She normally changed at the library, preferring the privacy of the employee restroom to the locker rooms, and was always in her sweats at the gym. Out of habit, she brought a loaded gym bag but didn’t bother bringing it in.

She wanted to get home to Clara as soon as this was over.

Courtney looked up from the computer as Ella walked in. She looked Ella up and down. “Oh my God! You dressed up for someone in particular or just felt like torturing Charlie a bit extra today?”

Ella bit her lip. Courtney probably didn’t mean anything by it, but she still hated the idea that Charlie and she were a couple. Especially now that Lucian was back. It wouldn’t do either man good to deal with those rumors.

But denying it would only make it worse. “Is Charlie around?”

“Yeah. He’s in his office. Want me to walk you?”

Ella shook her head. “I’m good. Thanks.”

Charlie looked at the doorway as she walked in and gently closed the door behind her. “You know you’re in trouble when the door is closed.”

She didn’t laugh. “You haven’t been answering my calls.”

“Astute observation there. I probably haven’t been answering because I’m pissed.”

Her lips tightened. “You had no idea what you were dealing with.”

“It would’ve been nice if you mentioned the vampires a bit earlier!”

She put a finger over her mouth. The last thing he needed was his customers hearing him talking about vampires. “Like you would’ve believed me.”

“And those things you shipped me off with? You used to date one?”

Ella’s back went straight. “Um, date is a strong word.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t play around. Clara’s his, isn’t she?” Her silence was answer enough. “Usually it takes more than light conversation for that to happen. Or are these bastards even stranger than I thought?”

A blush crept up her cheeks. “Nope. She was conceived the old-fashioned way. But it was only one time and there were extenuating circumstances.”

Charlie frowned. “One time?”

Well, multiple times. One night.
Not that she was going to correct herself in front of Charlie. “The point is that it’s over.”

“It didn’t look over last night when you were trying to swallow his tongue.”

“Well, it is. That was an anomaly and it isn’t going to happen again.”

“You trying to convince me or yourself?”

Definitely time for a change in subject.
“Why are we talking about me? What happened after you left last night?”

“I went on a magic freakin’ carpet ride to New York. Took about two seconds, round trip.”

“There was a carpet ride?”

“There was no carpet! It was a metaphor!”

Her brows knotted together. “I don’t think that’s a metaphor.” It looked as though Charlie was about to blow smoke out of his ears, so she quickly continued, “So they told you about vampires and myotis and all that crap? Are you doing okay with it all?”

“I don’t know how I’m doing with it. I haven’t really had a lot of time to process. They said I’m still probably in danger and are going to send one of their guys who won’t go all Mr. Hyde after dark to watch my back. It’s bullshit.”

“It can’t hurt to have a bodyguard.”

“I don’t need a goddamned bodyguard. You killed one of these guys on your own.”

“That was a mix of luck and preparation. I don’t know what I would’ve done if there was more than one. Besides, their mind control doesn’t work on me.”

His head snapped to attention at that and she winced at the detail she’d let slip. “What do you mean, ‘their mind control doesn’t work on you’?”

“Um...shit.” Ella grabbed the extra chair and took a seat. “Well, long story short, my DNA was kind of, um, altered when my mom was pregnant with me.”

Both his brows went up. “Who would do that? Why?”

Everything in her wanted to lie, but she knew he would find out sooner or later. Besides, he was a friend and she’d gotten him in this mess. He deserved the truth.

“Funny, completely not creepy story. Lucian’s people have a hard time having kids and hired a doctor to figure out a way to let human women carry their children, and I was kind of the result of that.”

“Your father let them do that to you?” She could understand Charlie’s confusion. He’d met Dad. They’d shared beers together at the local bar and bonded over football.

“He’s the one who did it. I’m not his biological daughter. My real mother didn’t want me and was paid for her
services
. When I was born, Dad couldn’t bear to turn me over to Lucian’s predecessor—from what I understand, he wasn’t very pleasant—and ran away with me.”

“In all honesty, Lucian isn’t all that ‘pleasant.’ Obviously Lucian found you somehow.”

“Yes. I am not going into detail about that. Let’s just say we fought a lot, agreed for one day, and haven’t seen each other for years until last night. He didn’t know about Clara, and I was worried what he would do when he found out. That’s why I ran.”

“So, you are afraid he is going to take Clara, yet you still think he’s basically an okay guy?”

“If he was going to take her, he would’ve last night. There was nothing stopping him.”

“I was there,” insisted Charlie.

“There was nothing stopping him.”

His wince told her exactly how much her words stung, but she didn’t take them back. Charlie couldn’t walk around thinking he could take on a myotis or vampire. Cockiness bred mistakes, and he had to be on his guard.

“How did the vampires know you were involved with me?” she asked.

“I was on the news,” he muttered. “When I came out and the cops found the guy dead, they assumed I’d killed him.”

“I told you not to talk to anyone,” she bit out.

“I didn’t! I was just in the background and they said my name. Not that anyone remembers it now. I guess the vampires got to work erasing everyone’s mind. I saw Sheriff Daniels last night and he acted like he never helped Shelly clean blood off the floor. Crazy shit.”

Ella sighed. It
was
crazy shit, and she’d put him right in the middle of it.

The door opened behind her, and from Charlie’s sudden scowl, she knew exactly who it was.

“Why do I get the feeling you were talking about me?” asked Lucian.

“Because you’re a narcissist,” shot back Charlie.

Clara ran past Lucian’s legs and jumped into Ella’s arms. “Mommy, Lucian is the best babysitter ever! Can he watch me every day?”

Charlie cursed under his breath and Ella studied her daughter. Her cheeks were flushed, and she had the outdoorsy smell kids get when they’ve spent all day running around a park. Which would be normal, except for the continuous rain all day.

“Where have you been?”

“Lucian took me horseback riding!” she shouted, probably loud enough for the entire gym to hear her.

“You rode horses in the rain?” mumbled Charlie.

Clara rolled her eyes. “No, silly. We went to Montana.”

Charlie nodded. “Of course. Montana. Why wasn’t that the first thing that came to mind?”

“Did you at least wear a helmet?”

Clara exchanged a look with Lucian and Ella didn’t even want to ask.

“Lucian didn’t let me fall.”

Which meant no helmet. Great.
Ella wanted to be angry. He’d taken Clara out of the state and put her in a potentially very dangerous situation without even asking her. But any anger seemed to melt away when she looked down at Clara’s wide smile.

She turned her gaze to Lucian. “You know we’re going to talk about this later.”

He plastered on an innocent expression. “It’s her fault. She said she wanted to go riding.”

Clara didn’t look the slightest bit guilty.

Ella bent her forehead to Clara’s, a soft touch they were in the habit of. “So what are you two doing here?”

“We were wondering if you wanted to grab dinner. Clara said you were normally here after work. So we’re here too.”

Charlie stood, finally getting tired of Lucian standing over him. “No training today?”

Lucian perked up at that. “If you were going to train, we can go out later.”

Ella gazed over at him, looking for any sign of jealousy, but he seemed sincere. “You really don’t care if I train?”

He shrugged a big shoulder. “It’s important to keep yourself in fighting shape. Obviously you two are doing something right since you took down that...
monster
without breaking a sweat.”

Everyone in the room looked to Clara, but she didn’t seem disturbed by the conversation.

“There was definitely sweating. Gross amounts of it.”

“As long as there wasn’t bleeding, something was going right.”

Ella looked to Charlie. “Did you feel like kicking my butt?”

An evil grin filled his face. “Funny you should ask.”

––––––––

T
en minutes later, Ella had traded her skirt for workout pants, and Clara was tucked away in the on-site childcare offered for members. The room was set up for group classes, but there were none scheduled for the next hour. Three of the walls were filled with inspirational posters; the other wall was composed of mirrors.

Charlie fiddled with his MP3 player hooked up to the speaker system. “You in the mood for anything?”

Ella fiddled with the bottom of her T-shirt. “Some kind of rock. I need to work out some anger.”

“Linkin Park?”

“Works for me. You have a problem with it?” she asked Lucian.

He shrugged. “I’m just here to watch. You two do whatever it is you normally do.”

“Normally no one would be watching us train,” she mumbled.

Lucian grinned but didn’t say anything. He leaned against the mirrored wall, still wearing his black leather jacket and jeans. His dark boots were still covered in what she was telling herself was dirt from his little romp at the stables with Clara. Charlie didn’t seem to notice the mess, and Ella wasn’t about to cause any additional drama by pointing it out.

Charlie put on a fast-paced song and swung his arms to loosen up, rolling his shoulders. Ella tried to relax, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Lucian’s eyes boring into her back.

She turned to glare at him. “Stop it.”

He held out his hands. “Stop what?”

“Judging me.”

“I’m not judging you.”

Ella set a hand on her hip. “There is definitely a judgy vibe coming from over there.”

“No judging. I just want to get an idea of your skill level.”

She sighed but decided to let it go. A good workout and a sweat was exactly what she needed, not bickering with Lucian.

Charlie stood in front of her, bare feet braced and arms in defense position. “You ready?”

“Let’s do this.” She took the first swing.

Charlie ducked away and kicked out at her ankle. She tried to jump, but he still tapped the bottom of her foot. As she came down, she had to catch her balance and Charlie was already coming at her with a right hook.

She threw up an arm just in time to block it and grunted at the impact. Charlie always tried not to hurt her, but sometimes a hit would land.

Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days.

The pain gave her motivation. If this was what someone who cared for her could do, she could only imagine what a rogue vampire would do to her.