Red Light Specialists (18 page)

“Waylon?” she whispered, still shocked to see him.

Rupert stared down at her, his eyes wide. “You know Waylon?” Trinity nodded and Rupert closed his eyes, appearing to be in pain. He sighed. “How exactly do you know him? Please tell me that he’s not your mate.”

Trinity’s body tightened. She spoke to Rupert but glared at Waylon, “Uhh, no. He’s not my mate. He’s the guy who assumed I was a prostitute and paid me after my
performance
was over then walked away without so much as a goodbye. But that wasn’t before he accused me of trying to kill him.”

A feral look came over Waylon as he leered down at them. “Guess I wasn’t far off the mark. Tell me, Trinity, what elaborate scheme did you use to seduce Rupert? The men attacking you in the alley were a nice touch. You didn’t reuse the same lame-ass skit again, did you? Please don’t tell me that you’ve burned your way through all that money I paid you.”

Rupert rolled off her fast and pulled her to her feet. “Trinity? Your name is Trinity? Shit, you’re not
the
Trinity are you? You’re not
his
Trinity, right?”

Disgusted, Trinity put her hand on her hip and glared at both of them. “No. I’m not his anything. Goodbye, gentlemen. I wish you both the best in whatever the hell it is the two of you do!” She turned to leave.

“See, there’s where you’re wrong, Trinity.” The anger in Waylon’s voice made her pause. “Not only are you
my
Trinity, you’re
my
wife.”

Trinity laughed hard but didn’t turn around. She couldn’t face him. Facing him would force her to admit that she loved him and that she’d hurt him. It wasn’t something she could do.

“I can’t be your wife, Waylon. For one, we never got married and for two, killer prostitutes don’t have husbands.” Trinity didn’t wait to hear his response. Instead, she stormed down the long hallway and didn’t stop until she found the staff level lift. It would be tiny and lack any great features, but it’d get her where she needed to go—away from Waylon.

Waylon watched Trinity walking away from him but he made no move to stop her. The hurt, the betrayal he felt when he found her lying beneath his best friend was too much for him to deal with. The second he saw her smiling up at Rupert, he knew that he’d not only mated himself to her, he’d fallen in love with her too.

“I didn’t know you were mated to her,” Rupert said, his voice low. He shook his head slightly and rubbed between his eyes. It was something he did often after falling too deep into someone else’s mind.

Had he been in Trinity’s thoughts? The idea of that made another pang of jealousy rip through Waylon.

“Spill it, Rupert. What the hell is going on?”

“I swear I didn’t know she was your Trinity. I didn’t “get” that from her before we…before I accidentally…well, we…”

“Spit it out!”

“I didn’t know she was your wife before I touched her.”

Waylon gave him a droll look and clutched his jacket tighter. “Yeah, you’ve already said that.”

“You do not understand what I’m trying to tell you, Waylon. I couldn’t help myself. I saw her from across the casino and thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. When she told me that she just wanted to spend the night fucking away her troubles, I couldn’t say no. I…I…wanted to do exactly that for her. I wanted to take away the hurt in her eyes, the sorrow I felt in her heart.”

Red hot rage tore through Waylon. Instantly, the beast within him tried to surface. He managed to control it but failed to control the human side. Quickly, he seized hold of Rupert’s throat and slammed him against the hallway wall, pushing him almost all the way through it. Rupert made no attempt to protect himself and that was the only thing that kept Waylon sane enough not to kill his best friend.

“She asked you to fuck her?” Waylon demanded. The idea of Trinity begging another man to touch her sickened him.

Rupert tried to answer but the grip on his throat was too tight. Waylon eased the pressure a bit. “Yes, but I could feel that she cared for another…that she might possibly even be in love with that person. And I swear that I had no clue it was you when we entered the lift. When I kissed her, my power broke loose and encircled us wildly before it flowed directly through us. I tried to break away, so did she, but nothing worked. I had to touch her. I couldn’t help myself.”

Hearing Rupert’s explanation did little in the way of calming his nerves. Waylon still wanted to kill him, but he didn’t. He stayed still and took several deep breaths. Something Rupert had mentioned struck him and he narrowed his gaze on his longtime friend. “You said that she cared for someone else…that she might even love that person. Did you see who the person was?”

“No. I only saw an image of her in a room throwing bags of money chips against the wall and crying. When she thought of this, I heard her pleading with no one in particular for the man to return even long enough to just fix her broken heart with his healing kisses.”

Waylon’s heart soared. Rupert had to be talking about him. He’d been unable to stop himself from kissing Trinity’s wrist once he’d seen the abrasion he’d caused on her perfect skin. The heat from his healing magic had flared through him once more and mended her.

“My wife loves me,” he whispered, sounding foolish even to himself. He let go of Rupert and headed down the hall.

“Where are you going?”

Waylon turned and smiled at his friend. “To find my wife. And I fully plan on kicking the shit out of you later for touching her.”

Instantly, Rupert’s magic slammed into him and held him to his spot. “I’m sorry, Waylon, but I can’t let you do that.”

“Come on. What the hell are you doing? Trinity is getting further away each second I delay. I need to find her, Rupert. I need to make this right with my mate. I accused her of…of things I should have never thought, let alone said aloud. I need to make this right. You know as well as I do how rare it is for our people to find a mate.”

Rupert sighed. “I do know how hard it is for our people to find a mate. But I saw something else when I read her, I saw someone close to her dying. You’re her mate and that leaves you the prime target.”

Waylon chuckled. “Have you not heard a single word I’ve said? The woman I love is getting away. I don’t give a shit if I’m hurt or not. Hell, someone took enough shots at me the other night to rip me to shreds, yet here I am.”

“She’s going to die too, Waylon. I sensed imminent danger all around her.”

“No…gods no, Rupert. Let me up! I can’t let anything happen to her.” Waylon felt Rupert’s hesitation and then the conflict in him. It hit him then. “Oh my gods! You bound her to you too!”

Rupert nodded and Waylon lashed out against his power. The energy holding him ripped at him, forcing him to his knees. This was a fighting tactic he’d seen Rupert use hundreds of years ago, during the Cleansing Wars. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought would be directed at him.

“How could you bind her to you, Rupert? How? She’s my wife. My mate.”

“Not the extent you did, but we formed a bond. As much as I want to keep her safe, I want you alive more. Why the hell didn’t you mark her? I would have smelled you on her if you’d have just bitten her. I wouldn’t have seen all of those horrible events of her past and I wouldn’t have sensed that death was near.”

Waylon cursed himself. Rupert was right. If he’d have just taken that next step and sunk his teeth into her flesh, she’d have worn his scent for the rest of eternity. But he’d refused.

Rupert laughed. “Oh, I get it. Because you ‘assumed’ she was a prostitute and that made her beneath you. You’d never willingly tie yourself to a whore. Is that it? Too bad she isn’t one or you’d have some merit to your claim. Even if she was, Waylon, it shouldn’t matter. If you truly love someone, you look past everything and only see her.”

Waylon looked away, ashamed of himself. “What the hell was I supposed to think? You sent her to me and all you
ever
send me is hookers. How was I to know Trinity was different? That she was special? She shows up, kicks the crap out of five men, saves me from taking a sniper phaser blast to the head and starts spitting out the words assassination and
figiutatio
. How the hell does she even know we exist?”

“Like I said, you thought she was beneath you. You’ve always been a prick who is used to having things your way and it… Wait a minute. Did you just say that I sent her to you?”

Waylon rolled his eyes and pushed hard against Rupert’s magic. It didn’t break. “Yes. Trinity was right where you said she’d be, by my vehicle. And she matched your description to a tee.”

Rupert shook his head and looked panicked. “No. Trinity is
not
the girl I sent for you. The girl I sent you
is
a prostitute who approached me shortly after we landed a couple of weeks ago. She’s nothing I’d find sexy. A little too rough around the edges for my taste. I suppose other men would find her alluring, even captivating, but not me.”

“Trinity isn’t the girl you sent for me?”

“Apparently, my magic is making you deaf as well as dumb.” Rupert moved closer to him. “No! Trinity isn’t the girl I sent to you!”

“Then how’d she know about the
figiutatio
?”

“My guess is that Simon told her.”

The very mention of Trinity’s “Simon” made his blood boil. He glared at Rupert. “Yeah, her little Simon is a real winner.”

Rupert bent down next to him and shook his head. “Waylon, you’ve always been a hot head. You immediately assume the worst about the man because you finally got a hard-on over a woman. Her Simon is our Simon, you idiot!” Rupert leaned in closer. “You know, Simon Thornton, head of the fourth legion of
figiutatio
during the uprising. Son of one of the greatest rulers we’d ever known.”

Waylon seized hold of Rupert and pinned him to the ground, instantly breaking his magic. “Great, I’m an idiot with a hot temper and you are a jackass who was always shit when it came to fighting maneuvers. Guess it’s a good thing you were a sorcerer and a physic, not a warrior, or we would have never survived.”

He rolled off Rupert and pulled his defenses up. Rupert could attack now and Waylon would be ready for him.

“I am going to find my wife,” he growled. “If anything has happened to her I’ll hold you accountable, friend or not!”

“She’s not your wife anymore. My bond with her will prevent you from marking her. I won’t release her, Waylon! I’ll not be party to your death.” Rupert stood next to him and he waited for another round of fighting to ensue. None did.

“She won’t be anyone’s wife if we don’t find her soon. There’s something dark in her, something that I get the sense is going to come to a head very soon. Are you sure about the death thing? Even your powers get muddled up.”

Rupert sighed and Waylon glanced back at him. When he met his friend’s pale blue gaze, he could tell Rupert knew exactly what the darkness Trinity harbored was. He’d find Trinity and save her himself, keeping Rupert out of the line of fire. It had been many, many years since they’d fought in battle and they weren’t as young as they used to be.

Trinity stared at herself in the mirror. Her hair was soaked from her shower and the towel she held around her body covered more than any of the dresses she’d worn over the last few days, but she still felt naked. Waylon’s words had stripped her down, exposed old wounds she’d thought had long since healed.

Being subjected to her uncle’s wrath and hatred had left part of her heart dark, so dark that nothing would ever penetrate it. How a man who’d fathered a half-human child himself could hate them so much was unknown to her. The child and her mother fled shortly after she was born. The only reason Trinity knew about it was because she’d overheard some of his men discussing it. Robbie, Roberta, damn, now Trinity couldn’t remember the child’s name.

Someone knocked on her hotel room door. “Go away. I don’t want to be disturbed!”

“Excuse me, ma’am, but you have a message from a Mr. Waylon…”

“Hold on,” Trinity shouted, not letting the woman finish her sentence. She shouldn’t care what Waylon had to say. Hell, he probably sent her a message to tell her how much of a whore she was.

Trinity flung the door open and instantly flew backward. Pain moved through her insides and she hit the floor with a thud. It felt as though someone had struck her in the chest with a moving transport vehicle. Every muscle in her body burned as she tried to stand. Instantly, her body lit with an inner fire, keeping her pinned to her spot a moment.

“Fool! I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist that one,” the woman said as she moved over her.

Trinity recognized the woman. She was the raven-haired beauty from the casino, the one who’d been watching her. Her eyes widened when she saw the P341 firephaser she was holding. Had the woman shot her with that? If the woman had, then Trinity was living on borrowed time. A hit from one of those was fatal, regardless of the amount of juice behind it.

The woman looked puzzled for a moment as her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. “There’s something…familiar about you.”

Trinity’s body began to cramp and she knew that she had to move to keep her blood pumping. The P341s were at their worst when the victim lay still. She rolled to her side and cried out as the woman above her kicked her side.

“Nice try, agent.”

“Agent?” Trinity asked as her chest burned.

“Yeah, I was hired to bring you back to Vedieone and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. The king wasn’t very specific on what sort of shape you needed to be in.” The woman laughed. “I get to dispose of your lover-boy too. Turns out the king’s head sorcerer read your future when he “blessed you” and saw you marrying Waylon. It made it easy for me to locate you—the minute the sorcerer said he saw you outside a casino, I knew to come here.”

Trinity tried to stand again and failed. “But…why…?”

“Agent girl, they’ll take anyone into that program, won’t they? Good gods, the King of Vedieone offered one of his many sons to you and you rejected him. That, my dear, is the ultimate insult. The second the head sorcerer reported that you would end up here, marry Waylon and carry his child, the king’s fury bordered on out of control. That’s when he called me in. I get to kill your husband and drag your ass back to marry the son of your choice. Though, if you are with child, I’m guessing they’ll take care of that. Wouldn’t want to spoil the royal bloodline or anything.”

“Get away from her!” Waylon shouted.

“No!” Trinity didn’t want his help. The woman had already said she’d been ordered to execute him. Scared for Waylon’s life, Trinity mustered all her strength and swept the woman’s legs out from under her. Her weapon discharged and hit Trinity in the leg. Instantly, the effects of the poisonous phaser riddled through her system. Waylon cried out and the next thing she knew, he had her wrapped in his arms.

“I don’t think so,” Rupert yelled from across the room.

There was a bright flash of white-blue light and the assassin screamed out. Waylon looked down into her eyes and hugged her close to him. “I’m so sorry, honey. I was afraid of what I felt for you. I didn’t know love when it damn near slit my throat with its pumps. Please forgive me.”

Trinity forced a smile and stroked Waylon’s cheek lightly. Seeing his face, she couldn’t help but say, “I love you, Waylon.”

Waylon’s face scrunched up as if in pain. “I love you too, baby.”

Rupert appeared next to her and grabbed hold of the sides of her head. Waylon nodded. A second before the darkness swallowed her, she thought she heard Simon’s voice.

“Allow me to assist.”

Waylon turned and found Simon Thornton standing in the entrance way with a tall blond man. He glanced at Rupert for his opinion but Rupert was heavy into the healing process with Trinity.

Simon’s gaze darted to the floor to the assassin. “Ah, I take it you are Callida, universal gun for hire.”

“How do you know who I am?” Callida’s round eyes glanced over them all like they were crazy.

“Easy, Prince Makken from Vedieone arrived on Restigatio and informed me of his father’s plan.” Simon touched the man’s shoulder next to him. “He was strongly opposed to his father’s idea and immediately sought to warn Trinity. She of course was already here. It is bad enough that her own uncle turned against her but to have another blood relative do the same is unimaginable. Trinity has only been guilty of loving others too much and fighting to protect herself. That in no way makes her deserve this.”

“Trinity?” the woman asked in disbelief. “Oh gods, she looked so familiar to me. No. It can’t be her. That’s impossible. The odds are…she can’t be. No, not my Trinity.”

Waylon glared down at her. “She’s not your anything and mark my words, after Rupert heals her, I’m going to kill you.”

Callida’s eyes filled with tears as she stared past him to Trinity. “I didn’t know. I haven’t seen her in almost twenty years.”

“Let this be a lesson, Callida,” Simon murmured softly, “to learn more about your targets than their job title. Had you bothered to learn her name, you may have thought twice about poisoning your own sister. A sister who killed your uncle to avoid being given to his armies for their sexual satisfaction, a woman who spent years in a hard prison facility, fighting to stay alive in all the madness until I found her. A sister who was sent on this assignment to meet her husband, her mate, and to be reunited with her long-lost family. And a woman that I care deeply about. I will even venture far enough to say that I love her. She is my friend and I do not take kindly to her being harmed in any way.”

The room was quiet as Rupert continued to work on Trinity.