FavoriteObsession, page 12
He squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head. When he opened them, a lion’s reflection still gazed back at him and the world around him still held an eerie quality no pair of night vision goggles could touch.
After a moment, the mirror fogged. Black mist spread over the surface. A woman’s hand extended from the shimmering wall, exactly as it had in the last dream he’d had. He locked his muscles instead of moving closer.
What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never had reoccurring dreams before.
A sense of desperation settled in his heart along with frustration. Neither emotion belonged to him. Anxiety tightened his chest. He took several steps back. The woman curled her hand, piercing her own palm with her talons.
Golden blood dripped.
The sight triggered a memory of apple pie and—
Zoe’s curses yanked him out of his dream. He jumped to his feet and glanced around. Thankfully, the bar looked normal, darkened with all the right colors. He breathed a sigh.
Another spout of profanity preceded a woman’s piercing scream. He ran down the hall leading to the employee entrance. The shouts grew louder and he realized who the other voice belonged to.
Abby.
Goddammit. The woman didn’t know when to take no for an answer.
He flung the back door open and cursed. Zoe had a handful of red hair wrapped around her palm. With a tug on the fisted strands, she slammed her foot against the base of Abby’s spine. She shrieked.
He glanced between Zoe’s sleep shirt and Abby’s skintight black outfit and demanded, “What’s going on?”
“Go back inside.” Zoe waved at the prone woman at her feet. “I’m handling this. I was simply explaining to Abby what happened to stalkers.”
Josh noticed the black ski mask lying on the ground near them. He leveled a hard look on his one-time lover. “You were fucking spying on me?”
“No, she was trying to break in.” Zoe gave Abby’s hair another tug. “Guess she didn’t know you’d moved.”
“I did. I was looking for…” Abby pressed her lips together.
“For what?”
“Nothing.”
Drugs, probably. Zeb wasn’t the only member of the Ernest family who had a problem with addiction. Hell, half the damn town did. That happened in rural areas when people got bored and looked for a little fun.
He knelt next to the woman. “Leave. Don’t come back. Understand?”
She nodded.
He really wanted to get a damn restraining order against her but he couldn’t risk angering Zeb. So far, he hadn’t acted as if he questioned Josh’s version of the fight or his miraculous recovery. Josh wanted it to stay that way. Waving around police orders would negate the shaky peace between them.
“Let her go, Zo.”
She did with a small kick to Abby’s ass as she scrambled up. Abby flashed angry eyes at his sister. “You’re going to regret messing with me, Zoe Jane.”
He grasped Abby’s wrist as she hurried past him. Her gaze dropped from his mouth to his groin. He gave her hand a little squeeze. “Up here, sweetheart.”
She shifted her attention to his face. The bloodshot, unfocused eyes staring back at him angered him more. He didn’t scent alcohol on her breath so that meant she’d taken something illegal recently. Dammit. Probably the same damn thing Zeb had been on. No wonder she was snooping around. Probably hoping she could get a free fix.
“You even think about touching my sister and I’ll make sure each one of your asshole brothers gets a nice pair of crutches to go with their broken legs.”
Abby grinned, not the reaction he’d expected. She skimmed her free hand over his lower belly. He jumped back and she laughed.
“You are a challenge.” She stepped into his personal space. He held his ground. “And I enjoy challenges.”
He lifted her and set her an arm’s length away. “Then I hope you enjoy losing too. I’m not a prize you’ll ever win.”
She slowly perused his body, the grin on her face widening into a full, wicked smile that chilled his blood. God, what the hell had he been thinking when he’d decided to fuck this woman? He hadn’t. That was the problem.
For so long, he couldn’t imagine getting seriously involved with anyone. He’d always felt as if he were waiting for someone. In the meantime, his one-night stands had served their purpose—to get off. Hell, he should’ve stuck with his hand, less hassle that way.
“Oh, you’re definitely a prize, the ultimate one.” She winked at him. “See you later, Josh.”
He watched her walk away and couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d screw him over. And not in a good way either.
Chapter Twelve
Josh leaned against the wall, hands clasped in front of him while he surveyed the people milling around the bar. Despite it being a weeknight, a good-sized crowd filled the room. Metallica’s Enter Sandman played in the background.
Since when did that particular song make it to the oldies list? He shook his head. If it was up to him, Metallica would play every night, but he left the entertainment choices up to the DJ. Well, he had until his old one decided to drop everything and follow his girlfriend to California. He needed to hire a replacement. Lucky for him, he was related to someone who’d be perfect for the job, if he could convince her to take it.
“You gonna help me out, kid?”
Zoe sighed and rolled her eyes. The attempt to appear exasperated didn’t fool him. He saw the sparkle in her baby blues. She liked the idea.
“I suppose. Somebody’s got to avert another torture session. When Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me came on and your buddy started singing, I thought I was going to puke.” Her nose scrunched. “And I wasn’t the only one disturbed. Your customers looked ready to bolt.”
He glanced at the canine shifter in question. At the moment, Xander’s twin had one hand down some girl’s shorts and the other fisted in her hair. The female wore that drowsy look women got when they were ready to give their lover anything they wanted.
Josh gave the wolf five minutes before he disappeared with his conquest for the night. As if the couple heard his prediction, they broke apart and headed for the door. Josh shook his head.
“His antics are free entertainment. Besides, Donny used to play Def Leppard all the time.”
“Well, Donny still wears a mullet and black jeans two sizes too small.”
He chuckled. “Okay, little sister, you’ve made your point and I agree. You’d make a better DJ than Donny ever was. I’d like you to start tomorrow, on one condition.” He waited for her to motion for him to go on before he dropped the deal-breaker. “You don’t take off unannounced the next time the mood to roam strikes you.”
Her shoulders slumped and a pout formed. “Aww, come on. That’s not fair. You know I can’t promise that.”
He was asking a hell of a lot from her. He got that, but he couldn’t allow her to leave town. Kade would flip out and Josh didn’t want to deal with his whining.
He went through the list of arguments he’d come up with when he’d planned this talk. None sounded as good as they had earlier today. Still, he picked the one least likely to cause a rift. “You’re not getting any younger, Zo. It’s time to take on some responsibility, set down roots and go back to school.”
Zoe hopped off the stool and stood in front of him. One hand on her cocked hip, she glared at him. “Just because you’ve turned into Mr. Family Man doesn’t mean I want to go that route again. I like being single, free to come and go as I please.”
“I’m single too.”
She snorted and took the position next to him. “You keep thinking that, buddy. You’ve got the cat woman.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend but I’m working on it. Kade’s given me his permission to court Mira. It’s the green light I needed. She’s not getting away from me.”
Zoe shifted, peeking at him through heavily mascaraed lashes. “Court? They do realize everyone else in the world calls it dating now, don’t they?”
He tweaked her nose exactly as he’d done since they were kids. Damn, he loved having Zoe home. He’d missed her.
“And you realize they’ve all lived through the Victorian Era, right?”
She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Yeah, right. Immortals. That’s got to get boring.”
His curiosity spiked. Josh bent his head to get a better view of his sister’s face. She abandoned her perusal of the crowd and met his gaze. “If things had been different and you fell in love with a shifter first, wouldn’t you want to live forever?”
Zoe shook her head, the swatch of pink she’d left free swishing with the movement. The rest of her hair was pulled into two off-center pigtails, courtesy of Megan. His niece always fixed her hair, and anyone else’s she styled, unevenly.
When he’d first become Megan’s guardian, he hadn’t known how to take care of a little girl. He could never figure out how to get those darn ponytails right. Megan would laugh hysterically after looking at his handiwork. He eventually gave up trying to make them perfect. She was happy, so it was good enough for him.
“Hell, no. I’d burn out after a century and turn into some old spinster who sits by a fire with a lap blanket and electric foot massager while I knit misshapen baby blankets.”
Human females shared in their shifter mate’s immortality. They didn’t age. He’d explained that to her along with the reason why he and Mira had been dancing around their attraction for months, but he knew the real reason Zoe refused to ever love again. Instead of starting an old argument, he nodded. “Good, then I don’t have to warn you to stay away from them. They’re all about the conquest, sis.”
A big grin spread over her face. “Really?” She licked her lips. “I bet they’re hung like horses too.”
He cringed. “Jesus, Zoe.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “Now I’ve got images in my head I don’t want.”
She waggled her brow. “I’ll take a couple for test runs and let you know if the pictures I have in my head are accurate.”
“Keep dreaming. Kade won’t let anyone touch you. He’d break their fingers.”
Hands on her hips, she glared at him. “I’d like to see him try to stop me.”
So would he. It would be amusing but wouldn’t end well for Zoe or Kade. “You do that, and he’ll get all territorial on you. You’ll end up mated to him.”
“Not likely.” She slipped her hands off her hips and curled them tight at her sides. “Anyway, stop changing the subject.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were. We were talking about Mira.”
Hearing her name quickened his pulse. He widened his stance and rolled his neck. He’d complain that it was getting hot in here, but he suspected he was the only one burning up.
“So what happened to the guitarist you were dating?” He asked to change the subject away from Mira. Thinking about her left him edgy.
Damn, he wished he wasn’t working so he could go see her tonight. Her smile brightened his world and made him feel…right. God knew he needed that. He hadn’t been able to sleep since yesterday. He’d prowled the house restlessly. Every time he’d closed his eyes, he’d dreamt about that hand reaching for him from out of a wall of black mist. Suffice it to say, it’d freaked him out enough to make sure he didn’t sleep.
“He asked me to move in. I snuck out through the bedroom window and hightailed it out of there.”
Classic Zoe. He wasn’t surprised. However, it was that type of behavior he had to squelch, or else he’d have a pissed-off predator breathing down his neck. “You never answered me. Do you promise to stick around? I’m going to need help with the girls and they love you.”
Zoe reached up, separated one pigtail and tightened it by yanking on the strands before repeating the process on the other side. “They are adorable, but I have to admit I feel silly carrying on a conversation with a cat.”
“Cub,” he corrected her.
She gave him a small smile. “Molly is a cute cub. It’s hard for me to grasp the fact that she’s in there with her cat. It must be hard. I have trouble sharing my head with my own conscience, let alone another entity. It gives a whole new meaning to split personality.”
“Well, are you staying or not?”
Zoe sighed. “I’ll try. Best I can offer.”
And that was the most he’d hoped for.
“Great. I have your paperwork already filled out. You just have to sign it.”
Her blue eyes widened. “You’re going to pay me?”
He looped an arm around her shoulder, gave her a quick hug and walked with her to the bar. “That is what most people expect when they take a job.”
“But you’re already letting me stay at your old place rent free and you feed me.”
“You’re family, Zoe. I’d do anything for you.”
Zoe blinked rapidly and buried her face in his chest. She squeezed him tight. “Me too.”
He rubbed her back and wondered what this display meant. “Everything okay?”
He never got an answer. Feminine laughter carried over the crowd’s murmurs. He’d know that husky sound anywhere. He stepped away from Zoe, anxious to go to Mira, and froze. His lip lifted in a silent snarl at the sight of the couple who took a table in the shadows.
“Well, this will be fun.” Sarcasm dripped from Zoe’s words.
His chest rumbled on a deep guttural growl. It startled him, yet not enough to curb his temper. He took a step forward. Zoe tugged on his arm. He ignored her feeble attempt to stop him and dragged her a couple of feet.
She planted herself in front of him, hands splayed on his chest. “Whoa there, big brother. Rein it in.”
“I’m going to rip that fucker’s balls off then turn Mira over my knee.”
“First part, no. Second part, have at it.”
He advanced on them, rage rising until his body vibrated with the need to take out his rival. Zoe’s boots squeaked as he pushed her with him.
“Stop, dammit. Do you want to ruin everything?”
He glanced down at her panicked face. The concern etched there cut through his fury. He forced himself to take a few deep breaths. “What do you mean?”
She fisted his shirt in one hand and waved behind her. “If you go over there acting all territorial, she might freak. I know I would.”
“I cannot stand by and watch Aron put his hands on her.” He took slow breaths to ease the growing rage. “I want to hurt him.”
She studied him for a long moment. Finally, she gave a small shake of her head. “You have it bad, bro.”
“Tell me about it.” He cursed. “I’ve never felt like this, Zo’. Jealous, possessive. I just know we’re supposed to be together.” He turned pleading eyes on her. “I need her. You understand?”
“Yeah, I do.” She sighed. “Let me help you.”
He’d do anything to get Mira away from her one-time promised mate. “What do you have in mind?”
* * * * *
Mira swallowed down bile. She was going to be sick…again.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Aron asked.
She plastered the practiced grin she’d used for years on her face. “I’m fine. It’s all the different smells in here. I’m still not used to being around people and their perfumes.”
“It can be disconcerting.” He focused his brown-contact-covered eyes on her. “But you’ve seemed a little off ever since I picked you up.”
He’d completely caught her off guard. Why didn’t men—shifters and humans alike—do what they were told? They only ever half-listened, filling in the parts they ignored with their wants.
“You just surprised me. I didn’t expect you to walk into my house.” While I was buck naked. “I told you I’d meet you here.”
He grinned. “Now that wouldn’t be very respectful. If we’re courting, we’re going to do it properly. That includes picking you up.” He leaned across the table and trailed his fingertips over her knuckles. Her belly heaved. “Will I get a good-night kiss when I take you home?”
No. “Maybe. I’m not the same woman I was, Aron. Nor are we promised mates. I don’t owe you anything.”
Aron studied her intently, lids lowered so he looked at her through his lashes. “No, you’re not. You’re stronger, lovelier, bolder. You’re unlike any female I’ve ever known.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” She asked because she hadn’t expected Aron to like such things. When she’d been younger, he’d told her not to bother training with her brothers, that it wasn’t proper for a female—shifter or human—to act aggressively. Women were to be protected and cherished, not be able to rip a male apart in seconds.
Aron turned her hand over. Sheer will kept it limp.
“It is.” He inclined his head. “I’m not the same male I was either, nor can I wait for the day you look at me the same way you ogle over the human.”
“Josh,” she snapped.
Aron rubbed circles into her palm with his thumb. “Josh wants you, but I have you tonight.” He slipped out of his side of the booth still holding on to her hand and urged her to stand. Reluctantly, she did. He tugged her body against his. Head bent close, his warm breath tickled her ear. “And when I’m done with you, Mira, you’ll want me, not Josh.”
Her life would be so much easier if she did. Josh would be safe with her out of the picture.
He led her to the dance floor. This was what she’d asked for when she’d called him. Now she hated the idea. Being close to him literally heaved her gut. It also didn’t help that her cats eyed him as a threat. Even reminding them Aron had been the one chosen for her didn’t help.
They’d made their choice and no amount of rationalization mattered. In the end, they were animals. Prophecies and visions meant nothing to them. They’d set their sights on the male they wanted her to be with. In their primal minds, it was a done deal and she was just being stubborn.
