Broken Communication (6 page)

Bill beamed, his smile lop-sided but full of pride. “We stole one a few hours ago. Lola was a beauty. Come on, Gus, let’s go live life on the edge again. We’re rebels.”

“Oh yeah,” joked Weston as he led the men away, leaving Harmony standing alone with Casey.

“Jerk Off is dead, right?” she asked, guessing he probably was.

“That the guy who had the gun?”

She didn’t face him. “Yes.”
 

“Oh yeah. He’s good and dead. If I could bring him back to life, I’d kill him again for good measure,” he said, his voice hardening.
 

“I’d watch that.”
 

He fell silent for what felt like forever. “Harmony, look at me.”
 

She didn’t budge.

“You’re a magik? Fae? Witch, what?”
 

Nervous, she tugged at her lower lip. “I think Fae, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe a mix. I’m sorry I never told any of you.”
 

“I’m not human,” he said.

Slowly, she faced him, unable to hide her emotions. “Casey, I figured that out within a few minutes of first meeting you. Then when I uncovered files about the creation of the Immortal Ops, and what organizations like the Corporation were doing, I found out what you are—what was done to you.”
 

He closed his eyes a moment, a look of defeat on his face. “You know I’m broken?”

She touched his cheek. How could he ever believe something so dumb? “You’re a grouch. You’re a pain in my ass. You’re rude. And you’re bossy, but you’re not broken, Casey. Far from it.”

Chapter Five

Casey couldn’t pull his gaze away from Harmony as she kept her hand on his face. His cock was hard, and he hated himself for daring to want her sexually during such a time. He needed to get her far from the building, fed, cleaned, and cared for. He did not need to stand before her with a cock hard enough to hammer nails. Which was precisely what he was doing.

Placing his hand over hers, Casey went to remove it, but Harmony surprised him, pushing at him, her arms suddenly moving around his neck. Her breasts pressed against his chest. It didn’t matter the amount of clothing between them, he could feel her nipples. She had fantastic breasts. Ones he’d imagined free and in his face as he’d jacked off many times over the past four years. Having them close to him now was too much. He’d not had sex in over four years, and he wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t come in his jeans if she didn’t stop pushing against him.

A low growl started deep in the back of his throat as his wolf unfurled, wanting a sample of her. It wanted him to sink his cock and his teeth into her—forever marking her as his own.

No!

He stepped back from her and noted the pain on her face. He couldn’t go there. He couldn’t comfort her the way he knew she needed. Not with his wolf so close to the surface. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Harmony. Even if he managed to restrain the wolf, she deserved better than him taking advantage of her in her time of need.

Turning, she walked in the direction Weston and the others had gone, leaving him standing with his feelings and his fucking wolf still pushing for freedom. He wanted to shift and run it off, hunt and kill an elephant or something. Anything to take the edge off. Casey knew it wouldn’t work. Nothing but claiming Harmony would satisfy the beast side of him now. He’d ignored his nature for too long, and the shifter side of him would lie in wait no longer.

He couldn’t help but glance around the area where she’d been held. His skin bristled with anger as he thought about how she’d been locked away. He knew what that felt like. He wanted to go into the other hallway and rip apart what remained of Jerk Off’s body. He’d killed him too quickly, been too merciful. He should have kept him alive and tortured him, teaching the man a lesson for daring to think he could harm Casey’s woman.

When he’d arrived on the scene, gained entrance to the facility, and then overheard the man’s plan to shoot “the bitch” to see if she could heal, he’d shut off, going directly into a killing haze. Blood lust was how some shifters referred to it. Casey had spent a great deal of time locked in such a state when he’d first been made.

He’d seen nothing but red and he’d charged the man who had wanted to shoot Harmony. When Casey next came to his senses, he was being hit with what felt like a bolt of lightning but had only been magik. His wolf had tried to make a move to go and claim Harmony, and whether or not she knew it, she’d stopped the act dead in its tracks. His wolf’s ego was still a little bruised from it all.

He wasn’t surprised she had Fae in her. He’d known deep down she was his mate for years and that meant she had to be more than human. He just wasn’t expecting her to be
that
much more.

Rubbing his chest, he walked out of the side entrance and found Harmony at the end of a long corridor, her head bent, her shoulders moving up and down as she sobbed softly.

Guilt assailed him. He knew he was the cause of her sorrow.

He wasn’t good at comforting anyone. He didn’t even understand how one would handle a situation such as this. Deciding to go with his gut, he moved up quickly behind her and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her back into his arms, letting her cry as he held her, his chin on the top of her head, her body tucked against his.

She was safe now.

And he’d never allow her to be harmed again.

He rocked their bodies, and she twisted in his arms, her sobs coming faster. She bunched his shirt and then went ramrod stiff in his arms.

Sniffling, she looked up at him, her eyes rimmed with red. “I stink.”
 

“I’m sorry, what?”
 

“I smell. I don’t ever remember a time in my life when I could smell myself,” she said, crying harder. “And my hair has to be a mess. I haven’t been able to brush it in a week. Has it been a week? I counted the days and nights correctly, right?”

Casey tried to speak, but she kept going, kept spooling out of control.

“And I’ve been in these clothes the whole time. They need to be burned. And my shoes. I love my shoes, but they need to be burned too. Set the hell on fire. Like a blaze seen from space kind of thing. I should have put out Jerk Off’s eye with them. I was going to, but I held back. That’s it. I’m doing it now.”
 

She attempted to break free from him, but Casey held her tight. He didn’t want to laugh, but her hysterics bordered on amusing. Only Harmony would care about her hair after what she’d been through. “Princess,” he whispered, drawing her attention for only a second before she continued. Finally, Casey dipped his head to hers and pressed his mouth to her, silencing her with a kiss.

His wolf roared in delight. It wanted him to skip right to the fucking her part. Thankfully, he kept the wolf at bay. Harmony needed this. So did Casey.

Her lips parted, and against his better judgment he surrendered to his desire and slinked his tongue over her bottom lip. One taste was hardly enough. He found himself tugging on her hair, forcing her head back as he increased the heat level of their kiss, his tongue mating with hers.

His cock dug painfully at his zipper and he strained to resist pushing her against the wall and fucking her brains out. It wouldn’t be lovemaking. No. He’d just killed. His wolf was on a natural high and it had a shot at its mate—there would be nothing sexy about it. If he took her now it would be raw. It would be without the romance a woman like Harmony deserved.

Restraint like he’d not had to exercise in decades came over him, and he tore his mouth from hers. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
 

He expected her to agree and to leave him standing there. She shoved him hard against the wall, and the next Casey knew Harmony had herself pressed to him, her lips on his mouth once more. The once-mighty alpha male knew he was anything but in control of the situation. In that single second, he and his wolf came to an understanding—this was their woman and their woman was about to get what she wanted.

Her hands seemed to roam everywhere at once. Casey hissed as she shoved her hand down the front of his jeans. “Harmony,” he said, catching her wrist.
 

Staring up at him with nothing but need showing on her face, her lips parted. “I need this.”
 

I need you.

He didn’t say it. He couldn’t. When she was thinking clearly again, she’d realize she was too good for him. That he was a science project gone horribly wrong and she’d leave him. He knew it. Harmony was out of his league. He was a fugitive, and she was used to a certain way of life. Yes, he could provide her with it, but not without risk.

“Harmony,” he said as he tried to get her hand out of his pants.

He failed. His stubborn woman had one thing on her mind, and she apparently didn’t care where they were, who might see or that they’d only just kissed for the first time. He’d had grand visions of romancing her. Of courting her as she deserved.

With great effort, he gained control of himself and his mate. “No. Not now. Not here. I’m taking you home. I won’t do this here. You’ll regret it later.” She opened her mouth, and he knew it was to protest. He pressed a finger to his full lips. “Give me this, Princess. Let me show you what you mean to me.”

She nodded and then sighed. “For the best. I still smell me.”
 

He snorted. “I think you smell delicious.”
 

She eyed him. “Tell me you had a full breakfast. I don’t think I can take two shifters wanting to eat me in one day.”
 

“Weston made sexual advances on you?” he asked, ready to track his old friend and kill him.

She laughed. “No. But he did mention skipping breakfast and I think he was kidding about eating me. At least I hope he was joking.”

Casey led her out of the factory and to where he’d left his cars. He opened the door for her but found he didn’t want to let go of her hand. “I need to take you home.”
 

She hesitated. “Not my house.”
 

“I thought you’d be dying to get back to the lap of luxury,” he said, no malice to his voice.
 

She lowered her gaze. “Casey, my father is one of the many wealthy backers who are funding the genetic testing by the Corporation. Before you get mad at me, please know that I was trying to get all the files I could into the right hands. To people who could help.”

Her father was aligned with the enemy? He wanted to hate the man but found he couldn’t. After all, the man was the reason Harmony existed. Without him, he’d not have a mate.

“Then I’ll take you to my house,” he said, kissing her temple as if it was an old habit, rather than a new one he hoped stuck.

Chapter Six

Harmony blinked several times, sure her eyes were deceiving her. Nope. They were still parked in front of what looked to be a home worth millions, not somewhere Norman Bates would call home. Maybe Jerk Off had slipped something into her food. That had to be it because there was no way the mansion she was staring at was Casey’s. Maybe she’d misheard him when he said he was taking her to his house. The guy lived in a creepy, rundown, old hotel.

She cast a speculative glance at him. “Tell me we’re not breaking into this place.”

He feigned shock and indignation. “I would never.”

“You totally would,” she countered with a sassy grin.
 

“Okay, I would, but I have a key.”
 

She arched a brow. She wasn’t exactly up for being detained by the human authorities after her bang-up week. “Gained by legit ways or by way of eating the previous owners? Because I have to tell you, I cannot do jail time. Orange is not my color. So, did you eat the owners?”
 

He licked his lips, and she wanted to be kissing them again. Their kiss had been brief but enough to let her know sex with Casey would be mind-blowing. She’d always believed as much.

He snapped his jaws. “Possibly. I do enjoy munching on the well-to-do.”
 

“Casey, for realz.” She searched his face for an answer as to what was happening. “Why are we here? I thought you said you were taking me back to your house so I could get cleaned up and rest.”
 

He shut off the car and suddenly seemed nervous. That was certainly a trait she wasn’t used to seeing from the normally outspoken and all too often grumpy man. “The hotel is one of the places I pick to lay my head. Gus and Bill like it there and Laney used to call it home. I wanted to stay close to them in case there was an issue.”
 

She watched him, waiting for him to cut to the chase. Why the hell were they parked in front of a mansion? She’d begun to develop something of a mistrust for those considered her own kind—the elite. During her discovery stages, she’d continued to find more than one of her father’s supposed family friends and those considered in his inner circle on the lists of backers of the testing done on humans and shifters. She wasn’t sure who she could trust outside of Casey, Laney, and those they put their faith in.
 

“I have a number of places,” Casey said, gripping the wheel as if he might yank it off in another second. “Some are kind of dilapidated, but I don’t mind that. I’m not very fancy.”
 

“You don’t say,” she said with a grin so he would know she was only teasing. She’d come to appreciate his lack of concern over material things.

He blushed, and Harmony didn’t have to fake surprise. She was. Casey wasn’t a blusher.

“Then I have a few that are not so dilapidated,” he said sheepishly.
 

Harmony soaked in what he was telling her. She gasped. Her favorite lone wolf was secretly loaded? “Holy crapola! You’re serious. This is your place?”
 

“Do you like it?” he asked, hope in his voice.

She touched his hand gently. “Casey, it looks like a beautiful home, but you should know that while the hotel sort of creeps me out, I don’t mind it that much. Oddly, I think I kind of actually like it.”
 

“Somehow, I doubt that greatly,” he replied evenly.