Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (101 page)

“I’ll contact you tomorrow morning and we can meet at the bank. They’ve already agreed to pay off the taxes for you from your account. It’ll have to be as soon as the bank opens, say around seven-thirty. You aren’t my only appointment in the morning Mr. Simon, so if you have any questions, please have them ready then, all right?” 

The deal with ‘Butt and Buns’ she’d made on her first appointment of the morning, a now debunked gym and pastry shop was being settled at eight in the same bank. She had had no trouble getting him to take what she’d offered and had had more fun at this meeting. Or she would have it she hadn’t been so ill.

“I own two more buildings in that area,” Simon told her as she started to gather up her now signed forms. “Want to get them for the same deal?”

They worked for another hour, and by the time she left his office she had purchased his three buildings and four others from acquaintances of his, all at the same rate of exchange. She was smiling as she pulled up in front of the Con Building. The building was going on the market in a few months she’d heard and was disappointed it wasn’t in the area she needed it to be in.

Her appointment with Con didn’t go as well as the others had. Having not being able to strike a deal with Mr. Con that made either of them happy she left him with her business card – well her name on a index card and told him when he needed the money to give her a call. She didn’t expect him to call her but she would get the building.

“Mr. Duncan, could you have Mr. MacManus call me at
‘Puss n’ Boots’
when he gets up? Tell him that I’ve made deals on eight of the buildings and he’ll need to meet the parties at the two different banks in the morning.” She had called the house knowing that the large vamp wouldn’t be awake yet. Or so she had hoped.

“Miss Harm, I believe his Lordship has arisen. Would you like to speak with him now?” She didn’t particularly want to, but this way he wouldn’t be just showing up unwelcomed at the bar again she figured.

“Sure. I guess.” She waited for a minute, wishing she’d of just left a message.

“Ms. Harm, you wanted to speak with me?” She knew that he was still pissed by his tone when he came on the line. She was much too tired and way too sore to care about either.

She relayed all the information about the buildings and what time and where the appointments were.

“Those eight building are less than ten million. That’s considerable less than you first assumed,” he said in a tone that was entirely different than the snobby one he’d been using when he’d come to the phone.

“Yeah, well, I’m a cheap bitch,” Maddy told him still not sure if she liked him. “Can you make those times or not? A Ms Patterson is going to be the one we’re dealing with. She is also in charge of another five of those buildings and is willing to deal with you for them. She can be tricky, just a heads up.”

“Yes, I’ve met Ms Patterson. She’s a member of Bradley’s pack. I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble with her. But I am aware of her being tricky.”

Maddy was quite for several seconds, thinking. “You know, I’m beginning to think no one is who they seem. Between wolf packs, bloodsuckers and magical queens, my life has gone from a ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ sort of life to one like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ change. With the nightmares and threats to my life, I’m ready to call it quits.”

“What threats on your life? Is Kyle aware of them?” She could hear the tone in his voice and she just didn’t have the energy to deal with him too.

“Just some things going on that I’m dealing with. Nothing for you to be concerned with. I’m a lawyer, things like this happen. I gotta go, I want to try and take a nap before I go in tonight.” She hung up, not carrying if he was finished or not. She was exhausted, her body ached and she wanted to crawl back into that big bed with Kyle, not that she would admit that to anyone.

She didn’t get her nap, not only that, but she didn’t get anything to eat either. When she got back to her room, all of her things were gone. The door was now fixed and the whole room had been cleaned, cleaner than when she moved in. Maddy stood in the center of the room for five minutes just looking around. That’s how Marie and Frank found her.

“I got your stuff, Girlfriend. Me and Frank, we picked it all up from the street and put it in some trash bags we done had. It’s in our room. Most of the picture glass was broked. Stupid bastards coulda maybe been a little easier on it. They comed last night late, we’s so glad you weren’t here to see it. They just comed in and tossed it right outta the winder. Whatcha gonna do now?” The entire time she was talking she was patting Maddy’s arm.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” She shouldn’t have pissed him off, but done was done her Grammie used to say. “I have to go to work. I…did you know them? No, don’t tell me. You shouldn’t have involved yourselves. Turner could get to you next. Will you keep my stuff until tomorrow? I’ll…”
I’ll what
, she thought. Clime

Two hours later at the bar she was no closer to her
‘I’ll what’
than she had been before. It was easier to think now that she was alone. Doing things by habit, she started pulling out the fruit to cut up for drinks and set things up for tonight at the bar, her mind on autopilot.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
The voice came out of nowhere and the knife slipped into her arm. Blood poured from the cut immediately and she knew she was in trouble as it gushed from her wrist.

She turned around, thinking to confront Kyle for scaring her and to give him a piece of her mind, but she was alone in the bar. She could see that she’d locked the door even from where she was.

“Where are you, you stupid bastard? You made me cut myself. Come out!” She grabbed a bar towel and wrapped it around her arm, blood soaked through almost as fast as she wrapped. She was beginning to get dizzy. Dizzy and more than a little scared.

“
I’m not there yet. I’m speaking to you telepathically. You can do the same. I thought we agreed you weren’t working there anymore…why do I feel you’re in pain? What’s happened to you?”

“I told you I cut myself. I…I think I need help. I…I’m bleeding fast. Oh shit, I’m bleeding to death.” Maddy crumbled to the floor.

Chapter Seventeen

By the time Kyle pulled up in front of the bar, the police and ambulance was already there. David and Bradley were just outside the bar waiting for him. Neither man looked all that thrilled with him. Well, he wasn’t happy with himself either.

“Where is she? Is she all right?” He tried to rush the men but they held him back. 

“She’s lost a lot of blood, but otherwise is fine. She’d cut the artery in her wrist. The other girls didn’t show up until ten minutes after we’d gotten here. If you hadn’t of called us there’s no doubt she’d be dead. How did you know?” David asked him.

As all paranormal mates, they couldn’t cause harm with intention to their mates. These men would know that. They would know that he hadn’t caused her harm and that whatever he’d done to hurt her had been an accident.

“I startled her I think. I barked at her through our link, she didn’t know. Shit, this is my fault, I didn’t think.” He’d nearly gone mad with worry when the link was cut off. As soon as she’d lost consciousness, he’d lost all contact with her. All he knew was that she’d been hurt and that she was getting weaker.

They were wheeling her out of the bar when he looked up and he rushed to be with her. She was still unconscious, and he could feel her heart beat was slow but steady. He could smell her blood and his body reacted to it, not with hunger, but with a need to heal her. There was also the sharp smell of medicine and the medical team who had been touching her. It was everything he could do not to snarl at them to get away from her and let him have her.

Kyle started to go with her when they took her to the hospital, but the medic told him that as close as she had been to dying, they wanted to the extra room to work, just in case. He agreed and said he’d follow them. David and Bradley rode in the cruiser behind Kyle so he wouldn’t have any trouble if he was caught speeding. Kyle had just started the Hummer when Aaron and Sara materialized beside him.

“Is she all right? Duncan said you needed us here. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.” Sara even looked worried as she hugged him. “Duncan said that you left because Maddy had been hurt but he didn’t seem to know how what had happened. He was nearly frantic. I thought I was going to have to put him to sleep then read his mind to understand. We have to call him as soon as we know anything.”

“Of course we’ll call him. I don’t know anything other than she’s lost a lot of blood and that she’s cut her wrist. It’s my fault entirely, I didn’t…I yelled at her through our link and she must have startled or something. She told me she’d cut herself, that I’d scared her, but I didn’t listen. All I was concerned about was that she had disobeyed me, again. Damn it, I don’t deserve her.” He had given up the keys to Aaron when he’d asked for them. He didn’t think he could have driven anyway.

“I think we’ve all been a little hard on her. I know that I myself have been making demands on her as well. Bradley called me tonight. Did you know that we aren’t paying her? That all this work she’s been doing, she’s been doing on her own time? This morning when David went to arrest her she—”

“Arrest her!! For what? Christ that girl gets into more trouble than I’ve ever seen. She needs a fucking keeper.” Kyle cut himself off when he heard Sara clear her throat. He was doing it again, being bossy and making demands.

“Does she remind you of anyone Aaron,” Sara asked softly from the back seat. “I think you two need to back off of her. She’s done just fine on her own for some time now and has only had issues since the three of you walked into her life. She’ll be laid up for a few days now, and I for one think she could do with a little rest, from everything.”

Sara had been just as independent and just as stubborn as his Maddy when Aaron had pushed his way into her life. Not that she regretted it Kyle thought, but it had been a little overwhelming, and she knew about vampires and werewolves. Kyle couldn’t imagine what Maddy was going through at the moment.

They arrived at the hospital just as they were wheeling Maddy down to surgery. Kyle was asked to fill out paperwork for Maddy. He decided to claim her as his wife so that there would be no problems about him getting information he needed about her health. She was his damn it. Sara and Aaron went on up to the second floor surgery floor.

By the time he finished and was getting off the elevator, Maddy had been under for nearly an hour. He’d had to guess at most of the personal stuff, date of birth, mothers name and other things. He made a mental note to get this information from her as soon as possible. The nurse had not been amused until he told her they’d only been married a short while and that he was tremendously worried about his new bride. That had changed her tune right now. It was another hour before they had taken her down to recovery and the surgeon had come out to see them.

“Mr. Dixon, your wife is very lucky,” she’s said as she shook his hand. “If that officer hadn’t of came when he did, then we’d be having an entirely different conversation. She had a six inch laceration to her right wrist that severed her artery. She was bleeding fast I would imagine and had she of not stuck her arm into that bucket of ice she would have bled out even sooner. As is was, the cold slowed down the stem of blood. Smart woman, your wife.”

David had told the dispatcher, then Kyle so he’d know the story when asked. David had been driving by the bar on his way home and thought he saw someone walking around inside. That explained how they knew she was there and the broken door they had to break to get in. 

“When can I see her? Is she awake?” He had been so relieved that she was going to be fine that his next priority had to be seeing her.

“Oh, she’s awake all right. Weak, but that hasn’t stopped her from being pissed off at you. Says you’re not married and that…well, I’ll let her explain what her plans for your anatomy is. And just so you know, I can’t fix what she has planned for you.” With a promise that she would see them all in the morning, she went down the hall laughing.

“Maybe you two should go first, soften her up some.” Kyle wasn’t afraid of her, but he wasn’t stupid either. He knew that if she could, she would try and hurt him and in return hurt herself worse.

“Coward. I’ll go in, Aaron you keep eunuch boy here company.” Sara walked down the hall and laughed when she heard Aaron laugh and Kyle explain to him how unfunny he thought it was.

“She’s not going to be any more happy with you if you put it off you know.” Aaron, being a straight forward kind of man thought just getting things over with no matter how unpleasant was better than worry about it.

“Yeah, I know. What am I gonna do with her? She drives me crazy.” Before Aaron could comment on that statement the elevator doors opened and poured out the motliest group of people they’d ever seen.

“I swear if’n he hurt her, I’ll cut his balls off and feed them to him, that slimy worthless piece of bat shit.”

It seemed that Paul had closed the bar. The police were still milling around anyway and had called his bowling buddy Frank to tell him that Maddy had been hurt. It wasn’t long before the entire building where she lived, or had lived had found out. Then as word got out that she’d been taken to the hospital, patrons from the bar decided to show their support to the young woman and brave the hospital to go see one of their own. Marie had been the one making the threat not at Kyle, like he’d thought but the slumlord, Bob Turner. Kyle was still trying to figure out the dynamics of the group and what their relationship to Maddy was.

“He had her stuff tossed right outta the winder, the slimy prick. Frank and me, we gots it all for her. Busted up all her purty pictures they did. Girl ain’t got but two pairs of them pants she wears and some nice shirts. Under wares a hanging from the fire escape…Just plain ain’t right the way he done her, nope ain’t right.” Marie had a captive audience in Kyle and was giving him all he wanted, and a lot of what he didn’t.

“You say this happened tonight?” If that was true and he had no doubt that it did, it seemed Maddy had had a busy day.

“Yeah, right ‘afore she comed to work I’d say. Frank’ll know, Frank,” she shouted. “What time you thinkin Mad Hatter was by the building??” Kyle had already discovered that the poor Frank was asked a lot of questions but seldom if ever was given a chance to answer any of them. “Oh, yeah, it was right ‘afore. I remember her saying she’d had to go to work. Poor little bit.”

After making arrangements to have Duncan come by and get her things from Marie and Frank, Kyle slipped down to her room.

“I don’t think you should be trying to leave just yet Maddy, you’ve lost a lot of blood.” He could hear the anger and pleading tone in Sara’s voice and feel her helplessness too.

He stepped into the room to see Sara trying to get a very weak looking Maddy to lie back down. Sara was trying her best not to hurt her and Kyle could see the strain of pain on Maddy’s face.

“Madison, I want you to get your little butt back in that bed before I have David come in here and handcuff you to the bed.” He’d tried to make it light hearted and in a joking manner, but her pain and weakness hit him like a wall as soon as he came into the room.

“You,” she snarled at him. “I want you to get away from here. I never want to see you again. You scared me. I could have died, you stupid pig.” Her voice was getting weaker, the fight going out of her and she was waning. He stepped closer to her, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sit upright much longer. “I don’t want to…I’m so tired. You need to leave. I have to get to work.”

“Paul closed the bar. You’re friends are here to see you too. They want to come in and see you to assure themselves that you weren’t murdered by your ex-landlord.” She was messing around with her gown instead of listening to him. “Here, let me help you with that.”

She’d been struggling and had it all tangled up in the IV. His mouth watered at the sight of her exposed breast that she had inadvertently showed him trying to get herself untangled. Now was not the time he had to keep telling himself. Later, there would be plenty of time for that later. He had just gotten her snapped back together when she collapsed into him.

“I don’t feel so good. My head is all fuzzy and I feel like I’ve been drained dry. Did you do that?” She looked fuzzy too he thought, and cute. He wanted to lean down and kiss her until they were both fuzzy.

“No, I didn’t drain you, you cut yourself. Contrary to popular myth, a single vampire cannot drain a human in one sitting. There are two and a half gallons of blood, and the average stomach can only hold about half a gallon of liquid at one time. It would take three or four of us about two days to do that.” He’d babbled off facts to keep himself from picking her up and crushing her to him. Or better yet, him taking her home with him to heal her and care for himself. He did pick her up though and put her back into the bed.

“That was way too much information, thank you very much. I’m only going to rest here for a minute,” she told him tiredly and laid back down. “I have things to do today, and I don’t want to slack off, I worked too hard to…”

Her voice had gotten weaker as she spoke until she just drifted off to sleep. He reached up to her forehead and touched her gently and put her into a much deeper, restful sleep. She could cuss him all she wanted later. In fact he’d love it if she did but right now he was in charge.

~~~

“I’ve been waiting for you my lovely. Yesss. You’ve been hiding from me, your true love. I am angry with you. Yesss, angry indeed.”
The voice was back so was the room, only this time there was an odor, a smell of burnt something.

“Go away. I don’t know who you are, but I want you to go away.” Maddy had had enough of men making claims and demands on her.

“
I will come for you in two daysss, you will be ready then, your body to receive my seedsss. A child, we will have many, but this one will be my ssson. I will wait no longer. You were promised to me.”
He had said that before, she remembered that now.

“Your nuts, I wasn’t promised to anyone. And I won’t go with you in two days or two years. You’re just shit out of luck hiss boy, now scram.” Something to remember, she needed to remember something else.

The pain ripped through her like a thousand knives tearing at her skin and muscle. She felt her shoulder burn like a hot poker had been laid across it, so hot it seared into her skin and felt as if it would burn right through her. She screamed, and screamed, waking everyone in the bed one floor up and the other below her and all the patients on the same floor. The nurses came rushing into the room to see Kyle leaning over her with her hands above her head and his large body across her small petit one.

“Hurry, help me before she hurts herself,” she heard him shout. “Someone get that stupid thing off her before I yank it from the wall.”

Maddy had no idea what it was but she hoped it was the poker. Before she could ask, before she could gather enough strength to scream again she heard him say sleep and the darkness rushed up to claim her once again.

Maddy woke and looked around the room, trying to decide where she was and how she had gotten there. There were also strange people in the room with her. She tried to make out who they were when one of them spoke.

“We aren’t strange really as much as we are strangers. I’ve always hated that way of saying you don’t know someone when in fact you’re just saying they’re strange. I’m Elizabeth and this is my daughter Savannah. Melody, her daughter and my granddaughter will be along shortly. She had some last minute royal duties to perform and couldn’t get away.”