A Conquest Like No Other (14 page)

Carefully pulling from her body,
he moved himself off the bed and headed for the bathroom. The man staring back
at him from the mirror was a stranger to him. This man wore a smile on his face
and love in his eyes. It was all for Nikki.

After cleaning and rearranging
his sleeping mate, he tossed the wet facecloth aside and crawled in beside her.
Pulling her into his body, he released a contented sigh. Who would have thought
the man so intent on conquering everything within his path could have handed
himself and his happiness over to this petite woman?

“I love you, Nikki. Don’t you
ever leave me,” he whispered in his snoring mate’s ear before allowing sleep to
take him.

Chapter
Eighteen

Nikki walked into work on her
first day back feeling refreshed. Her beaming smile and the spring in her step
spoke well of her feelings. And it was all thanks to Viper. He had helped her
find the woman she once was. The one who didn’t fear her own shadow. The one
who had dreams for her future. Those dreams all now revolved around Viper. The
man filled her heart with happiness and hope.

“Nurse Greene?” asked a man in
his late forties from beside her.

“Yes.”

“I’m Stuart. I work here at the
hospital.” Once he said that, Nikki began to recognize him as one of the guards
who’d previously walked her to her car after her night shift.

Looking around the hospital lobby
for trouble, she said wearily, “Hi, Stuart. Should I be worried that you have
approached me?”

“No, not at all. I’m here to ease
your mind,” he replied, pressing the button on the lift. “The boss had a call
from a Detective Morris. He explained what was happening with your ex. It turns
out Mr. Watson has been spotted on the security cameras around the hospital
several times over the last few days. So the boss thought it best that you have
one of us close now you’re back at work. I’ll be walking you to and from the
children’s ward tonight, and I’ll be patrolling the rest of the floor until you
knock off.”

“I’m sorry if I’m putting you
out,” she said, feeling sad and guilty that these kind of measures needed to be
taken to protect her.

“Don’t be. It’s my job. I’m just
sorry that you have to go through such a thing. I don’t know what I would do if
it was one of my girls facing the same danger.”

“How many have you got?” she
asked, trying to focus on something other than Paul Watson.

“Three, and one boy. My eldest is
around your age,” Stuart replied just as the lift announced they had arrived at
the floor the children’s ward was on.

Walking in silence the rest of
the way, Nikki wondered for the first time in a while what it would have been
like to have a father who cared about her as much as Stuart obviously did for
his children. The man who’d sired her had been an insignificant part of most of
her life. She’d never met him and rarely thought about him. Her mother had done
an amazing job of filling both parenting roles, but in times like these she
couldn’t help but miss that paternal relationship that many took for granted.
Since working in the children’s ward, she had begun to appreciate what a father
truly was. To be loved by a man unconditionally was a beautiful thing to
witness.

As she swiped her security card
to enter the ward and waved goodbye to Stuart, her thoughts turned to Viper.
She’d already established that he would make a great father. She had been on
the receiving end of his gentleness. A gentleness that few got to see. He would
be a fierce protector of them, just as he was with her, and he would no doubt
love and cherish them. For the first time in three years, having children was
no longer a pipe dream. It was a heartfelt desire. One that was a very real
possibility.

As her night progressed, her
heart had progressively felt lighter and her mind had ejected all thoughts of
Paul. The only man she wanted to have that much influence in her life was
Viper. No other man had proven his worth as Viper. And she knew no other man
would.

Looking at the clock on the wall
above the nurse’s station, she calculated how long before being back in her
mate’s arms. Two more hours and she would be heading home to her man.

“Ah, Nikki, I’m glad I caught
you. Sharon from the ER is on the phone for you.” And with that simple
statement from her fellow nurse, Nikki’s plans were altered.

Lifting the offered phone to her
ear, she greeted her old head nurse. “Hi, Sharon. How are you?”

“I need your help, Nikki.”

“What’s up?”

“A fire broke out at the prison.
Several of the prisoners are in transit, on the way to us to be treated,”
Sharon explained. “I’m low on ER nurses, and I need you down here ASAP.”

Her commitment to the hospital
and her patients dissolved at her friend and previous supervisor’s words. Every
beautiful thought of Viper disappeared to be replaced by much darker ones.
Stuart’s comment came to mind. Paul had been seen in the hospital. Was he here
at the moment? She needed to contact Viper. She was about to drop her wall to
let him know what was going on, when Sharon pulled her back to the issue at
hand.

As if reading Nikki’s hesitation
correctly, Sharon added, “Honey, this place is already swarming with police in
preparation for the first few ambulances, whose ETA is now. Paul can’t get you
down here. If anything, you’re safer in the ER than anywhere else in the
hospital.”

“Okay,” Nikki replied, not
wanting to let her friend down. “Let me just hand over.”

“Thanks, honey,” came Sharon’s
short reply. Nikki could hear a commotion in the background. “Look, when you
get down here just pitch in wherever you’re needed. It’s going to be crazy.”

As soon as she handed her
patients’ files over to another nurse, she headed out of the ward. Looking for
Stuart, she frowned when he was nowhere to be seen. Due to the urgency of the
situation downstairs, Nikki decided not to wait. She was sure that if Paul had
entered the hospital, she would have known about it.

Hospital protocol was to move as
many patients out of the ER that was medically possible in situations like
this. That meant the lifts would be congested. Her only option was the stairs.
Luckily, they weren’t far from the children’s ward entrance. Rushing toward the
stairwell door, Nikki sighed in relief once she reached it. Six flights of
stairs to go and she would be safe once again.

The first two flights she took
alone. The next one had a couple coming up them and exiting through the door.
She was halfway there. As she turned to go down the next flight she heard
footsteps behind her. Turning to see who it was, she stumbled, missing the next
step. Her grip on the handrail prevented her from falling. Her eyes tried to
focus on the person behind her. When they did, her grip loosened and she tried
to run. Instead, she found herself falling down the concrete steps, her head
connecting with them as she fell.

Finally, she stopped falling. Her
body lay on the landing, screaming in agony. As blackness loomed, she managed
to focus enough to see Paul standing over her. His mouth was moving but the
buzzing in her ears wouldn’t allow her to hear his words. She tried to contact
Viper, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate long enough to force the wall down.
The harder she tried, the faster the blackness approached until it engulfed
her.

****

Viper looked at the pot, then
back at his cards. The money mattered very little. It was more the idea of
beating his current opponent. Judge was a true card shark in every sense of the
word, and for centuries Viper, Devil and Chaos have been attempting to gain the
upper hand against the mountain lion in poker. This would be his last
opportunity for this game. Nikki would be home soon, and he wanted to be
upstairs in the quarters when she arrived.

Viper stared at his cards. He was
still unsure. Would his full house beat what his brother had? It was a gamble,
but that had been the story of their lives. Without risk they probably wouldn’t
be where they all were today. The question was, was this risk worth it? Viper’s
mobile began to ring.

“Dammit!” he said as he answered
the phone. It was just before five o’clock in the morning, and he’d already
established it was front reception. “What!”

“Um, Mr. Collins, I’m sorry to
disturb you,” came the timid reply from a woman. “There was a woman down here
asking for Miss Greene. When I told her that she wasn’t available, she asked
for you, but not by name.
Nikki’s
boyfriend
was the term I believe she used. Before I could call you, Miss
Winters came by and spoke to the woman. Miss Winters then walked with her
toward the lift. I’m assuming they’re on their way up to you.”

“Thank you, I will sort it out,”
he replied before hanging up.

Devil, who had heard the whole
conversation, was colorfully swearing at his mate’s involvement. “What the fuck
is she doing out of our quarters? She’s meant to be fucking sleeping!”

“
Ahh
the joys of having a mate,” Judge teased, laughing at Devil’s reaction.

“Your fucking turn will come,
cat!” Devil responded, now pacing.

“Yes, and she will be the one who
stays out of trouble and obeys every word I speak.”

“Keep deluding yourself,” Devil
responded before walking out of the office.

Viper followed his brother toward
the lift. As he did so, he tried to contact Nikki through their link. He hit a
wall of silence. That wasn’t too surprising, but Devil’s reaction when the lift
doors opened was.

Viper had expected him to take
his mate somewhere quiet to discuss her bringing strangers up to their office.
Outside of his brothers and Jewel, she and Nikki were the only others permitted
up there without being escorted. Instead he grabbed a hold of the other woman
and growled in her face.

“Have you come to steal some more
from us? Well too bad, we don’t allow cheats in our casino.”

Her violet gaze fell to where
Devil held her. She was attempting to pull away from him as she challenged,
“You need to prove to me and everyone else that I cheated first. Since I won
also on the roulette wheel, the only way I could control the outcomes was if I
had an inside man. And I bet you
revetted
every
single employee and came up empty-handed.”

So this was the woman Judge had
been hunting. She had managed to walk away from the casino each time with
several thousand dollars and none of them could work out how she managed to win
so consistently. But that wasn’t the reason for her being here. She had come to
see Nikki, and once that avenue had failed, him. Before Viper could question
her about it, Judge came roaring through the door. His stare focused on Devil’s
hand on the woman’s arm.

“Get your hands off my mate,
Devil!”

Still Viper had no idea who this
woman was, but her next muttered comment was all the clue he needed. “Well, I
didn’t see that one coming.”

“Charli?” he asked.

Her gaze landed on him, worry
suddenly filling her eyes. “Please tell me she’s here, safe.”

Looking at the clock, he replied,
“She’s at work. Why? What have you seen?”

“What the fuck’s going on, Viper?
How do you know my mate?”

Turning to his agitated friend,
he replied in his own pissed off tone. “This is Nikki’s friend from the
hospital. The one who warned her about Watson being at her house. Now stop
interrupting while I find out what the hell she knows.”

Looking back at Charli
expectantly, Viper waited. Thankfully, not for long. “Can you contact her?”

He attempted to contact her
through their mind link but came up blank. Damn it, why did he have to teach
her to block him? It would seem that he was going to have to rely on modern
technology. “I can call the hospital.”

“She’s…unconsciousness.” Charli
gasped, right before her eyes glazed over. She then spoke in a distant,
monotone voice. “He has her. His plans are unclear, muffled by his anger.”

Looking over to where Gabby was
on the phone, Viper watched his mate’s best friend’s distress increase. Once
she had hung up, he asked, “What did they say?”

“Nikki got a call down to the ER.
There was an emergency out at the prison. Sharon, my boss, didn’t realize that
she hadn’t made it until I asked. No one has seen her,” Gabby said, turning
into Devil’s arms. “That was a couple of hours ago. He’s got her, hasn’t he?
He’s going to kill her this time.”

Viper’s rage rose at the thought
of anyone touching his mate, let alone harming her. He had seen the file from
her attack. Watson had brutalized her two days after she had ended their relationship.
He’d now had three years to think and plan his revenge. Viper knew he needed to
find her soon, otherwise it would be too late. If it wasn’t already.

“What are you feeling, Viper?”
Chaos asked.

“Pissed off!” He sent Chaos a
quizzical look. How did he expect him to feel with his mate missing?

“No, I meant from Nikki?”

Chaos’ prompt had Viper forcing
his anger to one side. He concentrated on his mate, trying to read what she was
feeling. Even with her mental wall up, he should be able to get a handle on her
emotions. He got nothing.

“Charli’s right, she’s
unconscious,” he replied, turning back to the psychic. “What else do you know?”

“I think I can find her, but I’m
going to have to show you. It’s a feeling, nothing more.”

“Like hell you’re putting
yourself in danger, mate,” Judge stated. “Watson is dangerous. I won’t have you
anywhere near him.”

Charli’s aura deepened in color.
The murky red shade had previously spoken of her worry. Her facial features and
the darkening aura now spoke of something else.