Yield (10 page)

My heart was like a ripped off scab.  I couldn’t breathe.  She knew it all.

Her fists moved up to my chest and started pounding as hard as she could.  Over and over. 

“Emma.” Caydon came running out.

“Get away,” she screamed. 

I wouldn’t move unless she made me.  Something bounced on my shoe making us all look down.

“Where did you get that?”  Caydon asked.

“I ran into Randor.”

As my body responded, Caydon
’s did the same.  At least I knew he wasn’t taking up completely for the louse.  His look told me he’d take care of him.  Now I have confirmation that the traces were probably coming from him.  If there was another source, I’d find out.

“Emma.  I
’m sorry.  I’ll take care of it.”

“SORRY
, Caydon.  Oh, you are just
so
sorry.  I am
so
feeling sorry for you.  I suppose you can’t marry who you want either.  Sure.  Stuck Iike me in this who dealt the cards situation.  Sure.  Well,
well
?”

Caydon dropped whatever romantic notions he held in his face and showed her the tired eyes I
’d not seen before.  He was just as tired of the game as I was.

“Text me tomorrow
, Cahn.  Take her home for now.”

He was gone before either of us said anything.

“What is that?” I pointed to the object around her wrist.

She sniffled, “A birthday present.”

I was glad I was a big man, because it would take all of me to take down the tree beside me.  I didn’t want anyone putting decorations on her.

“From who?”

“Caydon.”

I looked it over again trying to get her to tell me more. 

“It was my mother’s.”  Ames relaxed his shoulders when I told him that. Jealous boyfriends could be a good thing sometimes.  I knew how much he thought of me when he wanted no one to give me things other than him.  Some may say that’s possessive, but I just saw it as sweet.

And Caydon
’s retreat was too easy. I replayed the last part of our screaming match watching for a detail that would make him fall in defeat so easily. 
Oh no!
  He was in love with someone else.

“Who is she?”  I wiped the tears away.

"Who?"

"The girl he loves."

“She tried to comfort you at your first visit to your realm.”

Lily.  I remember because I thought the name suited her.  She was so pretty.

“How can he do this then?”

“He has no choice.”

Just like me.  “No.  I won’t accept this.  There has to be a way.”

“Believe me.  I have searched.  Caydon has dug so far into every solvable solution. 
We can’t find the source or how to stop it.  You aren’t the only one who hates the idea.  Don’t get me wrong, I hate the guy. But cut him a little slack.  He wants this as much as you.”

“Don
’t sound so sympathetic.”

“I didn
’t until I saw the pain the guy was in having to appear wooing you in front of his girl.  I will never like the guy, but I knew what he was going through.”

“So what?  You
’re bosom buddies now.”

“Not hardly.  Kindred partners in crime trying to fight for the girls we love.”

He just said that word for the second time in my presence.  But not to me.  That was the best news I’d heard since I woke up today.

For a few minutes, I forgot the horrid truth and replayed Ames
’ last three words over and over in my brain.

Back at our realm, Ames forced me to relax and try to forget reality for a few hours.  I argued, but he was relentless.  He turned my own tactics on me with the batting of eyes and a pouty lip.  I knew he was just trying to make me laugh in his own way, but
was
so out of character for him.

He had Trigger go all the way to the city and buy a pizza for me.  Trigger complained about not being a delivery boy and I couldn
’t help but make him pay for all his transgressions of the past by asking if he would also get me a frappe.

Ames pulled the king card out of his pocket and made him do it.  He grunted and cursed all the way out the main hall doors.  I vowed to make amends by giving him good solid praise for a job well done. 

No, really I appreciated him and Wicker more than they could imagine.  They have been better friends to me than any back home.  Even Tonya.  She was always nice to me, but she always held back a little in fear like she was a bit afraid of me.

Trigger and Wicker just pushed me to be better at controlling my power, as well as harnessing it for good.  In practice every week, Wicker and Katelyn worked me to starvation, while Trigger made dirty jokes behind me.  Of course, it always ceased on the days Ames came to see me.  Trigger inadvertently...disappeared during those times.

So getting Trigger back with a trip for pizza and a frappe was small compared to the word war I really owe him.

By the end of the day, I felt better.  Ames walked me to my room and turned to leave after a small peck on the check.

“Stay,” I whispered hoping for him to hear and not to hear at the same time.

He stopped keeping his back turned.  “That
’s not a good idea.”

“Maybe, but I just want you to hold me.”

He slowly turned both feet to face me and looked at every single part of my body starting with my red painted toes to my eyes.  It was not just
friendly
.

“What are you wearing?”

“Anything you want?”

His eyes dilated making the green almost nonexistent. 

Husky and scratchy, his voice gave me another warning all it’s on.  “That’s definitely not a good idea.”

“Well, then I will sleep in really ugly pajamas, not brush my teeth, rat my hair out,  and spray on men
’s cologne to make it easier.”

“Let
’s not go to extremes, not that it would make this easier.  You could wear a potato sack and I’d still have trouble focusing around you.”

I knew one thing for sure, Ames Cahn really,
really
like me. 

Emma had absolutely no idea what she was doing to me.  It
’s a good thing I know for a fact she is not a telepath like her mother, or she would absolutely run like hell from the likes of me.

I wanted her so friggin
’ bad in those moments.  Her provocative voice she didn’t know she owned telling me to “pick out” what she should wear.  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!

And the images splayed across my brain...

Like I said, good thing she couldn’t read my mind.

Sleep never came for me.  I held her like she asked and remained a brick statue whenever she wiggled in her sleep moving in closer each time I tried to move away for her own safety.  I couldn
’t trust myself with her during sleep.

Once, I thought she was awake and doing it on purpose.  I moved her hair hiding her face expecting bright eyes peering up, but only received a sleep induced sigh of comfort each time my hand skimmed across her soft face.

Hooked.  I couldn’t be away from her.  After the morning came, I wished for time to freeze even if it meant I could only hold her like this for the rest of our lives.  It was better than losing her or seeing her in another man’s arms.  Or bed.

All night I ran through everything I knew time and again.

The journal will lead us to something I missed.  I just knew it.  I needed Emma to read it again.  Look for anything we missed. 

There had to be something.  I wouldn
’t let her die just because of my selfishness.  And that right there is what brought me to her room and her arms every time.  To know I might have caused all this and still hoped to keep her made me hate myself more.  I just wanted to make it all go away and know she was fine even if it meant me losing her.

When she woke, I asked if she would go with me to the caves to bring the paintings up I once showed her.  I wanted to hang mine in my room and offer hers to—to whatever or wherever she wanted to hang it.

On the way there, Emma started asking all manner of questions.  Somehow, we got on the subject of my parents.  Emma remembered I’d told her stuff about my mother.

“She was human, right?”

“Yes.  Why?” I couldn’t read where this was going.

“Where are her relatives?”

I know exactly where they are.  “In North Carolina.”

Her nose scrunched up.  “How did your mother meet your father?”

I laughed.  “I had to ask that once myself.  My mother’s letters said all kinds of things about her.  My mom was on a college trip to see Nashville with her friends once and they wanted to see the Home of Country Music and all that stuff.  My mother was a bit of a loner and ventured off from her friends to the street of shops in downtown Nashville.  There, she met my father on the street.”

“On the street?” Her eyes lifted.

“Walking by.  He sensed her.  She sensed him.  Love at first sight kind of thing.  Anyway, that’s all the letter really said.”  I stared too long at her while driving.  It was the same way for us.  At least for me.  I knew the moment I saw Emma she was different from any girl I’d ever met.

“You don
’t find it a tiny weeny bit odd that she sensed him too?” Emma asked.

Never thought about it.  “No.  He was the goblin king.  He was hot.  She couldn
’t help herself.”

Emma slapped my arm and I played the dutiful one like it was causing great pain.  She called my bluff and went back to her silent thinking.

His mother was human.  I needed to do some looking on the internet.  I asked Ames what his grandmother’s name and where in North Carolina saying I was only looking for genealogy.  He seemed nervous about it, but shrugged and continued driving while I squinted to read Google on my phone.

I was just about to hit the enter button on a search for her name when the car swerved right throwing me into the door and dropping my phone.  I vaguely heard Ames say to “hold on” as we flew into a parked position in the middle of the road. 

My screams were covered by screeching tires doing what I thought was another person screaming but were the anti-lock breaks going into action.  When a complete silence enveloped the vehicle, I peeled my eyes open to see a black tinted SUV facing us, bumper to bumper. 

Two dark eyes were staring at me not at all in the amount of shock I was.

Still in silent movie mode in my brain, I didn’t follow Ames as he jumped out of the seatbelt and car before a second had passed.  The black eyes I knew way too well were gone too.

Outside the cars, beside my door, Ames and Randor, my backstabbing neighbor, were arguing like rabid dogs.  I tried the door handle, but it wouldn
’t budge.  Just then, the door locked on its own accord and I was a prisoner in a tin can listening to the worst cussing fight between two alphas I’d ever heard. 

I got over my childish want to bust through the window and listened to their rage.  It's not like I didn't have the power.

“You will stay the hell away from her until I say you can.”

“You are already passed the limitations of the treaty.  I will have her in my realm.”

I lost a small amount of control in my energy levels and spiraled further when I made Ames’ window bust into a million pieces before my eyes.  Luckily, it went out, not in.  Both guys stopped, looked at the window, and returned to their rage.  That’s the first time Ames has ever not run to my rescue.  His eyes found mine as he yelled something like, “See what you did.”

Randor disputed back that it wasn
’t his fault.  Then, moving on, they returned back to their previous argument.

“The treaty
we don’t have you bas—

Ames looked at me.  Maybe it was to refrain from saying something he didn
’t want me to hear or maybe it was the bad language.  Was he sparing me hearing his cuss words?  Ha!

“You can hide her all you want.  You know I can find you.”  Randor looked at me as if requesting I go with him.  As if!

They kept arguing.  My eyes swerved back to the tinted windows playing chicken with our car.  Maybe I just imagined I saw blonde hair fly down into the seat, but I didn’t think so.

I tapped the window and said, “
Excuse me, Randor.”

Why was I tapping when I could scoot over to Ames side and scream out the now open window?  Maybe because I was slow in the head watching the weird play by play.

He didn’t hear so I pecked louder and screamed it.  He stopped the fist in the air that was about to collide with Ames face when he saw me pointing to the front of his car.  Getting out the passenger seat was a very scared female whom I knew well to be human.  She had scars across her forearms that would have healed otherwise.

Ames lowered the fist he froze in midair and looked at the same spectacle.  Bright blue eyes of an angel who didn
’t know who she was dealing with.

“I told you to stay in the car
, Shells.”

“I didn
’t want you to fight that man.”  Her fear was evident in her words.

A long undulated sigh later, Randor walked over to her.  So did Ames.

Ames beat him there, in fact. He held his hand out, took the girl’s hand in his, pulled it to his lips.  What the freaking crap?

“Well, well, well.  What do we have here?”Ames was barely audible through the glass.

I saw Ames smile at her and she smiled back.  She closed her hand and held it to her chest just as Randor tore Ames back by the shirt and threw him onto the hood of the car.  I kind of rooted for Randor for a brief second.

What the crap was Ames kissing her hand for?

They argued again with words I’ll leave unsaid.  The girl threw herself back in the car like she was told.

A few frantic seconds later they bumped alpha chests and moved backwards towards their preferred vehicle doors watching each other all the while.

“Later, Em.”  Randor saluted the air towards me and retreated.

Man, I hated that nickname.  He knew it too.  Randor was there every single day at my house when Rick brought me home from school.  That
’s when Randor started to call me by that instead of my name.

Now, I was more confused than a cat watching birds land in its own personal sandbox.  It was just odd the way all that went down.  Nothing really made much sense and I was angry he kissed that girl
’s hand.

Down the street five blocks, Ames squealed the tires into a currently empty parking lot making me yelp and check my seatbelt.  All I could see was the gas station clerk inside staring at us.  He
’d yet to explain anything much less
kissing
some other girl.

In the space, he turned off the engine and turned to me.  His face wasn
’t any less full of rage when he said, “I have a week before I have to return you.  That’s all I could get.”

Since I was unaware I was under a deadline, that didn
’t set well with me.

“You want to tell me what just happened?”  I kept my stare unreadable.

“I was to return you this morning.  When I didn’t, Caydon sent Randor to “
fetch
” you.  I bought some time.  A week is all he gave.”

With no proof.  Why was there a time constraint?

“For what price?” If there was anything I’d learned about the parts of Ames I didn’t want to know about, it’s how he solved things over time.  Since I’ve known him, nothing had been too extreme or deadly except for the few deaths here and there to save my sorry butt. (Hmm!)  But at times, he justified his motives for the safety of others or the good of the realm.  I’m indecisive about how he would have to pay for those debts one day.

“His human girl.”

“The one you kissed.”

He
’d folded his hands over and hid his face on the steering wheel, but that last statement made it through. 

“It wasn
’t like that.”

“Then how
was
it?  Because from my viewpoint locked in a car like a dang prisoner, it was exactly how I just said it.”

  “Emma, it was not what you think.”

He looked ashamed.  Damn feelings.

“I told you once that I have the ability to keep humans on a trace.”  He waited till I gave him some kind of recognition.  “I needed leverage over Randor to assure that we had more time.  The trace on her hand will make her easy for me to track if need be.”

“By kissing her?” my voice raised an octave.  “And why the heck do you want to track her?”  So I was the jealous type.  Not gonna deny it.

“The gold
, Emma.  I put a coin in her hand.  I keep them with me...just in case.  I added the illusion that nothing happened and she could ride away from the scene happy.”

I waved for him to explain more to prove how mad I still was. 

“If Randor goes back on his word, I’ll do what needs to be done to change his mind.”

“You will kill that girl!”  I couldn
’t breathe.  I looked side to side for an escape.  Out the door was the only option.  As I clicked the door handle open, the locked clicked shut at the exact same time.

“LET ME OUT
, AMES.”

“You have to hear me out.”

“I don’t.  You are a monster.”

“Just listen, please.”

Uh, huh.  That word wouldn’t work this time. 

Instead he shoved out words that would stop me in my tracks even if I was running at full speed.

“I can’t see you get hurt, dammit.  I can’t sit by and watch you go to another man when I know you don’t feel the same for him.  I wouldn’t hurt that girl.  I’d take her and hold her in my realm the same as they would have you.  Leverage, Emma.  Give me a little more credit.  Do you think so little of me that I am that evil to you?”

No.  My heart sped up.   “I
’m sorry,” I dropped my eyes. “I just panicked.”

The seat space grew smaller and smaller.  His hands were around me.

“I know you think well under pressure better than I do.  It was a good move.  I was stupid to doubt you.”

“I would have been a crazed beast if I
’d seen you kiss another man.  Don’t apologize.  I’m not happy I did it.  I’ve used the tactic for years and it just works.  I won’t do it again.”
              I couldn’t help but think that maybe he wouldn’t be mine to be jealous over in a week.  That he could do that again without remorse.

“Never worked on the guys,” he said into my neck with a laugh.

Horrified I asked, “You tried?”

He chuckled low.  “Not hardly.”  Not really feeling like a real laugh, I smiled to let the unease turn into something happier.  I forced his face to see that I was.

“I am going to stop for a snack.  Need something?”               

I told him I
’d grab a snack bar if he was going in anyway.

Inside the convenient store, I smelled coffee brewing.  I
’ve never had the urge to buy one at a gas station store, but it smelled
really
good.

“You are a daring one.”

I turned with a jerk.  A tall blonde guy, fairly good looking, smiled squarely down at me.

“Um.  First time.  Starbucks wasn
’t in the vicinity.”

“I know what you mean,” he stepped closer to pour his own house blend “
gourmet” coffee in a plastic cup.

I poured in my two French vanilla creamers while he chuckled on beside me.  He reached behind me and grabbed one of the little red straws to stir his own coffee.

“You ready, my sweet?”  Ames was suddenly beside me, wrapping his arm around my waist.  And he called me “my sweet”.  That wasn’t anything like he’d ever said before and it was said in a much deeper tone than usual.

“Um, almost.”