Wanton With a Vampire (27 page)

“No problem,” Isaiah said, typing away. “The
owner is listed as West Coast Imports, but it looks like a dummy
corporation. If you need, I can trace it further. I’m sending you
the addresses of the other two warehouses owned by this corporation
in that area. I should have the alarm systems deactivated for all
three in the next five minutes.”

“That fast?” Drew asked, kind of
impressed.

Isaiah snorted. “These idiots have the most
simplistic alarm system. Any moron could break in there.”

Drew doubted it was that easy. There was no
denying his cousin was a genius with computers. “Let me know when
they’re down.”

“Sure thing,” Isaiah said.

“And thanks for not hanging up on me,” he
said, feeling pretty lame saying it.

Isaiah snorted again. “You may be a complete
bastard, but you’re still my cousin.” He hung up without waiting
for Drew’s reply, which was a relief because Drew couldn’t handle
any more warm fuzzy crap today.

Sitting in the backseat of Justin’s Range
Rover, Alek was quite literally about to lose it. He’d been on his
way to Trish’s house when Aiden had called to tell him about the
call from Drew. His first instinct had been to go out looking for
her, but he had no idea where Trish could be and needed Aiden to
find her. So, he’d abandoned his car on the side of the road and
climbed into the backseat of the Range Rover with Aiden. Justin was
driving, and Nathaniel was in the passenger seat. Alek suspected
the only reason Caitlin wasn’t there was that someone needed to
stay with Tempest and the triplets.

Alek would never forgive himself if Trish was
hurt. She shouldn’t have been alone. This was his fault. Why had he
been such an idiot? Why had he let Trish leave him, instead of
doing everything in his power to prove he was the type of man she
could build a future with? That was a mistake he had no intention
of repeating.

“She’s going to be fine,” Aiden said, pulling
Alek from his dark thoughts.

Alek nodded, afraid to speak.

“Drew said it’s about his mom, and Phoebe
thought they were a couple. She would have used Trish to get Drew
to do what she wanted,” Nathaniel added. “Even if she was planning
to hurt Trish, Phoebe wouldn’t have been willing to let anyone else
hurt her.”

They were right. Alek just needed to trust
that Trish was safe.

Justin was quiet, likely because he wasn’t
good at offering comfort to anyone.

Aiden’s phone rang, and he answered it
without checking to see who was calling. “Hello.” There was a pause
as he listened to the caller. “Don’t do anything. We’ll be there in
less than ten minutes.” Another pause. “Listen, you little psycho,
we don’t trust you.”

“Give me the phone,” Alek demanded, holding
out his hand.

Aiden looked surprised, but handed Alek the
phone anyway.

“Drew?” Alek said.

“Yeah.” There was no missing the annoyance in
Drew’s voice.

“It’s possible there’s an alarm, and you
don’t want to set it off without back up,” Alek said as calmly as
he could manage.

“Isaiah disabled the alarm,” Drew said.

Alek was impressed that Drew had thought of
that. “Do what you have to do to get her out. We’ll be there to
back you up soon.”

“Got it,” Drew said and ended the call.

There was stunned silence from the other
passengers. Finally, Nathaniel spoke. “You trust Drew?”

“Not completely,” Alek admitted. “I’m just
desperate at this point.”

Trish hated the stench of cigarette smoke, so
waking up on a couch that smelled like it had been owned by chain
smokers for decades made her want to puke. Her fuzzy brain was
having a hard time making sense of what was going on around her.
There were at least five men in the room. No one was paying any
attention to her, which was surprising. It’s not like she was tied
up. Then again, what was she going to do? They’d notice if she
jumped up and ran for the door.

“Looks like the pretty lady is awake,” called
out one of the men. “Maybe we should have a little fun.”

“You’ll keep your hands to yourself, Nick, or
I’ll cut them off,” said another man. “That goes for all of
you.”

The man who’d warned everyone to stay away
walked toward her. There was something familiar about him, but
Trish couldn’t place his face. He was older, probably in his
fifties, with thin hair that looked white in the lighting,
although, she suspected it might just be a pale shade of blond. As
he leaned over her, his breath fanned out across her face. The
pungent odor of cigarette smoke and garlic added to Trish’s
nausea.

“Have you forgotten me?” he asked with a
cruel twist of his lips.

“Yes,” she said.

“Come on, Trish. How could you forget your
Uncle Pat?”

That’s when her brain started working, and
her heart pounded so hard her chest hurt. “W- why are you here? Why
am I here?” she asked, impressed that she managed to get the words
out.

“Call it a favor for a very scary lady,” he
said with a shrug. “Of course, I probably would have come after you
anyway. You’re causing me a lot of problems, little girl. Had I not
met that lady who can control people’s minds, I might think you
were just crazy— might even be able to get that pain in the ass
Ramirez to stop looking into things. You aren’t crazy, though, are
you, Trish?”

Detective Ray Patella had always gone by Pat
with the other officers. To her, he’d been Uncle Pat. He’d been her
dad’s partner for years, but not when her dad had died. She was
pretty sure she hadn’t seen her dad’s ex-partner for a few months
before her dad’s death. He’d been at the funeral, and Trish still
remembered the detached way he’d watched the whole thing.

“What problems?” she asked, afraid she
already knew the answer.

“Bringing up all that ugliness with your
father was a big mistake,” he replied in a much less calm
voice.

Before Trish could speak, Drew interrupted
them. “I’d better not find my property damaged,” Drew said with a
genial smile. “My mother said you’d be careful with her.”

Pat turned to face Drew, reaching a hand
toward his jacket like he was going to pull a gun.

“I wouldn’t do that, you arrogant fuck,” Drew
said before letting out a chuckle. “On second thought, do it. I’ll
just make you eat that gun. You know what my mother was capable of,
so I’m sure you don’t want to mess with me.”

“Your mother?” Ray asked.

“Don’t fuck with me, asshole,” Drew snapped.
“My mother made a deal with you to bring my property here, to get
me to do what she wanted. I killed her for that, so you can’t
possibly think I’ll let you live if you mess with what’s mine.”

Pat made a motion with his head and smiled,
but that smile faded when nothing happened.

Trish let out the breath she hadn’t realized
she was holding when Alek, Justin, Nathaniel, and Aiden stepped out
of the shadows. Drew didn’t bother looking over his shoulder.

“Alek,” Trish breathed out. Honestly, she’d
never been so relieved to see anyone. Drew had been a relief, but
part of her was terrified he’d get too caught up in the role he was
playing to remember he was there to save her.

“This just ain’t your fucking day, is it?”
Drew asked with a smirk.

“Don’t kill him,” Nathaniel said.

Drew looked offended. “I wasn’t going to kill
him until you got Trish out of here.”

“Detective Ramirez is on his way,” Alek said.
“While I’d love nothing more than to kill this bastard, Trish’s
mother deserves closure, and handing him over to the police is the
only way to make sure she gets it.”

Pat laughed. “You think you can prove
anything? I had these warehouses cleaned out. All the police will
find is an honest ex-cop running an export business he inherited
from his father. You’ll never get me arrested. Even if you do, no
jury will convict a man based on the word of some crazy woman with
a head injury.”

“I’m not at all worried about that,” Alek
said in a frightening voice that made Trish glad he was on her
side.

“I’m here,” Detective Ramirez said as he
walked into the room alone. Like before, he wore paint splattered
jeans and a t-shirt.

“What the fuck is this about, Carlos?” Pat
demanded. “You let a bunch of civilians come in here and do your
job?”

“Tell him about the death of Trish’s father.
Make sure you use full names,” Alek said, and Trish felt the push
in his voice. He was forcing the man to tell the truth.

Pat’s face went blank as he spoke in a calm
voice. “Detective Michael Williams hadn’t been my partner for
several months. We had a falling out after he found out about some
of my side businesses— mostly just the bribes I’d taken. It was
nothing for him to get so worked up about, but he still threatened
to turn me in. I was shocked that my own partner would turn his
back on me, so I transferred to another department, and we stopped
talking. That seemed like the best way to avoid having him find out
about the bigger stuff I was involved in. When I learned he was
still investigating me, I got a few people to kill him. Others
hired the men so nothing could be tied to me. I came up with the
suicide angle, but that’s the extent of my involvement."

“Why’d you leave the department?” Carlos
asked.

“Fuck you!” Pat spat out, and before anyone
could react, he pulled a gun and a shot rang out.

“Put the gun down!” Nathaniel shouted,
pushing compulsion into his voice.

Pat obeyed, but it was too late. The bullet
had already hit Carlos Ramirez. Jumping up, Trish started to rush
toward Carlos, but Pat lunged at her. She wasn’t sure when Drew had
moved, but he was suddenly there. Lifting Pat from the ground by
his throat, Drew looked beyond scary. It was as if a switch
flipped, and Drew went from being a slightly crazy pain in the
backside to a stone cold killer. There was no light in his icy blue
eyes, and Ray Patella struggled wildly as he stared death in the
face.

“I told you not to touch her,” Drew said
calmly. “Now, I don’t give a flying fuck about you shooting the
cop. He’s nothing to me. Trish, on the other hand, is nice to me,
and hurting her is not okay.”

“Please don’t kill me,” Pat pleaded in a
hoarse voice.

“Do you think her father begged for his
life?” Drew asked. “Nah, he was probably a real man. You don’t
deserve the title of man. I should just cut your junk off and send
you to prison as the bitch you are,” Drew said with a sinister
smile. “Better yet, I should make you cut your own junk off. Or, I
could enjoy crushing your throat. You have no idea how much I want
to make you hurt.”

“Please don’t kill him,” Trish said with a
hand on Drew’s arm. At her touch, there was a brief flash of
humanity in Drew’s eyes.

“Listen to Trish,” Alek said from his other
side.

In the background, Trish heard Aiden talking
to the 911 operator. She also heard Justin giving Nathaniel orders
as he worked to save Carlos’ life. All of that seemed far away as
she and Alek tried to bring Drew back from the edge.

“I warned him about touching Trish,” Drew
said without looking away from Pat. “Don’t tell me you want to let
this human scum live.”

Alek hesitated, and Trish could tell he
wanted Pat dead. As much as she hated to admit it, there was a big
part of her that felt the same. The man had been responsible for
her father’s death. He felt no remorse and had likely been
responsible for the deaths of countless other people throughout the
years. Still, she couldn’t let Drew do this.

“Just let him go, Drew,” Trish pleaded.
“He’ll go to prison for the rest of his life. Don’t you think that
will be worse?”

Pat’s skin slowly changed from the deep shade
of purple to a more natural shade of red as Drew’s hold loosened
and he was able to take in great gasps of air. Drew let him drop to
the floor and stepped back.

Trish spoke in a voice that was just loud
enough for Pat to hear, but not loud enough for Carlos’ ears. “I
recommend you confess to what you’ve done. If you get out on bail
or fight the charges, I won’t be there to stop Drew, and he wants
you dead.”

As if he hadn’t been in scary killer mode
just moments earlier, Drew had his usual smirk in place. “I’m
really
hoping you get out so I can do it. My mother taught
me a lot about how to make the most of death. We can spend days
together while I cut off little pieces. Wouldn’t that be fun?” Then
Drew chuckled. “Okay, it won’t be much fun for you, but I’ll have a
fan-fucking-tastic time.”

Pat said nothing as he massaged his throat.
The sound of sirens meant their time to chat was up. Trish had no
idea how they were going to explain any of this. Come to think of
it, she had no idea where Pat’s men were.

Alek pulled her against his side, and Trish
was so relieved to have him to lean against that she didn’t even
think to question it. No, she’d take what she could get from Alek
at the moment because she needed him.

Trish was exhausted and anxious to get back
to Hunter. Alek had assured her he was with Noah and Hannah, so he
was safe, but she suspected he was worried.

It was no exaggeration to say it took hours
to get everything settled with the police. Had Carlos not been
conscious, it might have taken even longer. Sure, the guys could
have used their handy-dandy mind control trick, but that took time,
and some people were immune to it.

She didn’t know when they’d come up with the
crazy story about her hiring Isaiah’s company to look into her
father’s death. The whole thing was pretty convoluted, but the
police didn’t care too much how she and the Draksel men had gotten
involved since Ray Patella was confessing to quite a few shocking
crimes. Apparently, spending the rest of his life in prison was
preferable to Drew coming after him.