Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (14 page)

“I was thinking more along the lines of a
job. What if I asked you to come and work for me? I can always use
a good man in my corner.”

Logan sat up, surprised.

“There’s also the matter of the buildings
you’re set to purchase tomorrow. I’d like to go into partnership
with you on them. I want to expand out so that more of my people
will have a place to go if they are out when the sun rises.”

“You mean like a safe house?”

Aaron nodded.

“There are actually nine buildings for sale.
I only wanted two of them and the third was a part of the package.
Your expansion, does it include those other buildings?”

“Yes. You remember Maddy? You met her when
Dunc was born.” Logan nodded. “She’s the attorney I use when I need
some buildings purchased. But this city councilman of yours, he
won’t talk to her because she’s a female, and he’s playing hardball
with the others I’ve sent in as well. He knows, you see.”

Knows? Before Logan could ask him what he
meant, it occurred to him. “What is he? If he’s a vampire, can’t
you just order him to do what you said?”

“If he was, but he’s not. He’s a bear. Bears
are sort of pissy to begin with, and he’s holding out because he
thinks I’ve done something to him that requires me to apologize to
him.”

Logan laughed.

“I find that the thought of doing that goes
against everything I am.”

“Of course it does. And the great Aaron
MacManus has standards. I think I know where Lizzy gets her
stubbornness.”

“Her mother.” Aaron said it so quickly that
Logan had a feeling he’d been telling people that for a long time.
“But I would like to go into partnership with you.”

“I’ll have a lawyer draw something up.”

Aaron called for Maddy, and a beautiful
woman walked in.

“Are all the women you know drop-dead
gorgeous or just the ones you have working for you?”

“All of them. And she’s already drawn up the
papers. It says that you and I split everything down the middle
from costs to profits. And when one or either of us wants out, we
sell for what we put in and nothing more.”

Logan glanced over the document, then looked
at Aaron. “This says that we’ll be partners on all the buildings. I
thought you said you only wanted the ones at the other end.”

“I want a partner. You’re my new son-in-law,
and you should be a part of it.” Aaron nodded to Maddy, who handed
him the rest. “That’s the deed to the house. I meant to give it to
you yesterday, but forgot.”

“Look, Aaron, this is great and all,
but…well, I don’t have the kind of money that it’ll take to buy
even half those buildings. I was struggling to get the three. And
the insurance isn’t coming through on this place or the house. We
have no furniture yet and…” Logan smiled. “I’m broke.”

“Not really.” He looked at Maddy. “You’re
mated to a very wealthy woman. And as of this morning, you are
wealthy as well.”

“I don’t want her money,” Logan said and
flushed when he realized how that had come out. “I mean, I’ll
provide for us. She doesn’t have to dip into her money so that we
can live day to day.”

“Logan, do you know how old I am?”

Logan nodded at Aaron.

“Nearly two thousand years is a long time to
save money, don’t you think?”

“Yes, but—”

“But nothing. You forget that when we go
into partnership together, I’m not talking for the next twenty
years or even thirty. I’m talking lifetime. Our kind of lifetime.
Centuries and centuries of lifetimes. You think in all that time
you won’t become as rich as me?”

“Christ, I’m immortal.”

Aaron nodded.

“And…what about my son? I can’t watch him…I
never thought of this.”

“Most don’t. You’ll be able to convert him
if he wants when the time is right. But we’re talking about us. Do
you want to plan for your future or not?”

Logan nodded.

“Then sign the damned papers. I’ve got to
get home before I explode.”

Logan picked up his pen and signed the
sheets where Maddy had put tabs. As soon as he had done the same
for both copies, Aaron disappeared and Maddy grinned at him.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

She nodded.

“Am I going to be pissed or am I going to be
thrilled? I’m thinking pissed.”

“Pissed. Hopefully not too pissed, but
enough. You’re not just a partner on the buildings that you sign
off on tomorrow, but all of them. Including the ones in the Market
District and the hospital and library that are being built for the
same area. You’re one fifth owner in all of those, but only half
with the ones you’re going to purchase with just Aaron.”

“He tricked me.”

She shook her head.

“Then what would you call it? We were
talking about the buildings downtown and now I’m in partnership in
a shit ton more.”

“Yes, you are. As of the moment you put your
name on those papers, you’re now worth just over six billion
dollars with cash, property, and investments. With the share of
Lizzy’s money, that makes you worth just over one hundred billion.”
She stood up and handed him a thick file. “Congratulations, Logan,
you’re a very wealthy man.”

She was gone for perhaps an hour when he
looked up. The file she’d given him was full of all the properties
he now owned with men he barely knew. But each of them had sent a
note with the file congratulating him on mating with Lizzy and
welcoming him to the group. The group that had been called B.A.C.K.
after Bradley Wolfe, Aaron MacManus, Colin Larimore, and Kyle Dixon
was now called B.L.A.C.K. His name had been added to the names as
well.

He called Lizzy and told her what had
happened. She had been surprised a little, but not entirely. Her
dad was a great man, she’d told him, and Logan told her he’d
figured that out too.

“You’re not so bad yourself, you know?” She
laughed and he felt it all the way through the phone. “You think
maybe we can go shopping for some things for the living room? I’m a
little tired of sitting on lawn furniture. It was sort of fun the
first night, but my ass is feeling it.”

“I would love to. And something besides a
mattress for Mathew’s room. I think the adventure of camping out is
over for him. Also, I was going to ask you about getting him a
computer for his room. I think he’d be responsible with it. My
grandda is helping him with his journal. Pete said she could hook
us up.”

He agreed with her and told her to have Pete
set it up for him. Smiling, he thought he could afford a whole
damned house of equipment like that if they wanted.

He told her he would meet her at the
furniture store on Tenth, and he locked up his office and moved
toward the door. He was pulling on his jacket when it hit him.

He was in love with her. Logan held onto the
wall as what he’d just realized just rolled over him. He was deeply
and completely in love with his mate. Smiling, he went to the
parking garage and toward his car.

A scent he’d only smelled once before
assaulted his nose, and he paused to turn. A flash of something
moving past him had him reach for Lizzy as something hit him hard.
But Aaron was all he could think of as he fell forward. Lizzy would
come to him, but she’d have Mathew.

“
Aaron, it’s a wolf. Dirty, hurt, and he
smells like Lula.”

Darkness surrounded him as Aaron entered his
mind and commanded him to look. Logan opened his eyes to see a
license plate before he blacked out.

~~~

Mel was waiting for her when she entered the
store. Mathew ran to her only to come up short as two men dressed
in very nice suits stepped out in front of him. Lizzy felt her
world come crashing down around her and if not for someone holding
her up from behind, she would have fallen.

“I’ve got you.” Her dad. “Come now, don’t
make a scene. People don’t need to know that we’ve hit a bump in
the road.”

She nodded, knowing that he was trying to
calm her, but she could feel his fear as well. She moved toward Mel
as Mathew had, but she wasn’t stopped. Mel was holding Mathew’s
hand and speaking to him softly.

“What’s happened?” Lizzie asked.

Mel nodded to her as one man put his arm
around her, the other around her dad. In seconds, they were in the
antechamber of her castle. Lizzy asked her again what happened. But
her dad spoke first.

“Someone took Logan. I have Pete looking for
the car now.” She looked at him to ask him where, but he held up
his hand. “Let me tell you, Lizzy. I’m terrified beyond words now,
just let me tell you.”

She nodded and smiled at Mathew. “Draco is
waiting for you. Do you remember where the pool is?” He nodded.
“Good. He said that he has a gift for you. And something he and
Tess are going to train you on. Are you going to learn to fight
with a sword too?”

He nodded. “Lizzy, don’t send me away. I
know that something happened to my dad. I’m not a little kid right
now, and as my dad says, there’s enough tension in this room to
make a murky soup. I know it’s bad, but I also know that my dad is
tough, tougher now because of what you gave him.”

“Gave him?” She went down on her knees to
look into his eyes. “Tristan. I see. He should have asked me or
your dad before telling that. Do you know what will happen to him
and to us if anyone finds out you have this information?”

“Tristan said that he’d be tied down and the
sun would kill him. But I won’t tell. Not ever.” He wrapped his
arms around her tightly and held her. “Mom, please don’t let anyone
hurt my dad.”

Lizzy didn’t know what was going on, but
whatever it was, this little guy just made it all the more
bearable. Hugging him to her, she told him she would do everything
in her power to make sure that if he was hurt, the person would pay
and pay dearly.

He nodded against her shoulder and held her
a few more moments before he pulled back. Nodding again, he moved
to the door, but stopped and turned to her before he left. “I know
you’ll help him. I love you, Mom.”

Lizzy sat down hard on the floor. Her dad
came to kneel down in front of her much as she’d done for Mathew.
He was smiling at her. She let him help her up.

“Feels wonderful, doesn’t it? To have
someone acknowledge you like that?”

She nodded, unable to speak yet.

“The first time you said ‘Dad,’ I told
everyone. Colin finally asked me to go away. He said I’d told him
sixty-six times, and if I said it the sixty-seventh, he was going
to murder me, master or not.”

“Where is he, Dad?”

They both looked at Mel when she cleared her
throat. She didn’t look any happier than Lizzy did. But she also
looked like a queen.

“I’ve two hundred of my best out looking for
him. She must have him in a lined cell because I can’t find him. I
take it you’ve tired?”

Lizzy nodded and said, “When I didn’t see
his car in the lot, it was as if I was hitting a wall. I figured he
was either in the elevator or he was blocking me. He does it
without thinking right now. I think we’ll have to work on that when
he…”

“We’ll get him back. I swear it.”

She nodded to her dad.

“Logan was able to show me the license plate
on the vehicle,” he said. “It might be stolen, but it will give us
a place to start. Your mom has gone to the building that Megan’s
shop is in. Logan also told me that he smelled wolf and Lula. Plus,
he said ‘dirty’ and ‘hurt.’ I haven’t been able to figure that one
out.”

“Bradley is looking too then?”

“Yes. I called him as soon as I talked to
Logan. He said that he’d get out there right away before too many
scents were mingled with that of the wolf.” Her dad held her hand
as he continued. “We’ll find him love. I promise you.”

“Tell him that by ‘dirty,’ Logan means
sweaty. He calls someone who needs a bath ‘dirty’ and ‘filthy’ when
they just stink. ‘Hurt?’ I’m assuming he smelled blood. He might
not know the difference.”

Pete was escorted in the room by two guards.
They stayed back from her, Lizzy noticed. Finally, they were
learning not to crowd her. She’d hurt a few of them when they had.
She had her computer bag and a huge smile. She hugged Lizzy before
she sat down.

“The plate doesn’t belong to a blue
anything. When your boy Logan looked at the plate, your dad said he
saw blue. The car it’s registered to is lemon yellow. The owner
works at the mall, so I had a couple of pack members go out and
have some fun. A shitty yellow two-door was sitting next to a nice
Porsche. Don’t that just suck?” Her dad said Pete’s name and she
stuck her tongue out at him. “Anyway, the idiots who stole the
plate put theirs on it. How stupid do you need to be to be a bad
guy? Apparently really stupid. The blue van they used to pick up
Logan is registered to an Ollie Wright. He isn’t from around here,
and I’ve put out an all call on where he is. If he’s here without
permission, which I’m betting he is, Bradley will tear him up.”

He would too. And then whoever was with him,
and the pack they were from would pay dearly as well. Bradley was a
great alpha and took care of his pack with a firm but fair hand. He
handled things like this, where his rules were broken and people
hurt, with a firmer hand, and there wasn’t a drop of fairness in
it. He’d kill the man and any that were with him. The pack they
were from would pay a fine big enough to hurt badly too.

The van was found just after midnight, and
Logan’s blood was in the back. Not a great deal, but enough to make
her know he’d been hurt. She watched as pack ran all over it,
searching for anything when David, her longtime friend and brother
to Bradley, came to where they were standing.

“I’ve found something.” He handed her a
small receipt. “It might not be anything, but I’m not taking any
chances. It’s dated for last night, and the time is before Logan
contacted Aaron.”