Authors: Sarah McCarty
“For now, because I haven’t found a way to make
anything else work, I’m letting the dead thing ride.”
“But you plan on making it work?”
Allie stared across the compound at Caleb.
“Absolutely.”
Raisa gathered, from the set of Allie’s jaw as she
stared at her husband, that Caleb was comfortable with the dead scenario. “Then
I’m pretty sure you will.”
Allie cut her a wry glance. “Thanks for the vote of
confidence.”
“Oh, I mean it. If anyone can do it, you can.”
Allie’s eyebrows went up. “Was that an insult or a
compliment?”
“Definitely a compliment. Anyone who can handle Caleb
can handle anything.”
The smile came back to Allie’s energy. “You make it
sound like such a chore when in reality it’s fun.”
It was Raisa’s turn to look surprised. “Fun?”
“Yup.” She rubbed her belly. “My husband is one of the
few men who can engage me in a battle of wits and enjoy it.”
Raisa couldn’t wrap her mind around that. “So I gather
he’s not part of the family that thinks you’re crazy?”
“Caleb? No.” Allie’s smile softened the same way her
gaze did as it searched out her husband who was now reading the riot act to
someone about the care he’d demonstrated toward a gun. “He’s a pussycat who
gets me.”
Raisa didn’t think the were who was currently at the
wrong end of Caleb’s temper saw him as a pussycat. “Uh-huh.”
Allie leaned against the roof support. Her expression
was knowing. “Sort of like Jared when it comes to you.”
Raisa grimaced. “It’s probably not a good time to go
there.” The other woman stared pointedly at the bruises on Raisa’s neck. “Why?
Because he and Jace are currently at odds?”
“Because about all I’ve brought the man is disaster,
and sooner or later it’s going to occur to him that I’m not exactly an asset.”
“It won’t.”
Raisa was just as sure it would. The tension between
Jared and Jace was palpable even at this distance. “He loves his brothers.”
“Yes, but he needs you.”
“Only the part of him that’s vampire.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Why am I the only one who
doesn’t compartmentalize feelings? There is no vampire Jared and human Jared.
They’re one and the same person, and that person cares for and needs you.”
“You don’t understand—”
“Oh puh-leeze,” Allie interrupted, brushing her bangs
out of her eyes. “I understand a lot. I understand that if your last name is
Johnson and you’re male, you thrive on conflict and stress. I understand if
your last name is Johnson and you’re male, your heart is untouchable until you
meet one woman, and then you fall like a rock at first sight. I understand if
your last name is Johnson and you’re in love, there is nothing you hold more
dear than your woman, even if you’re an autocratic idiot about showing it.”
“Caleb doesn’t strike me as an idiot.”
Caleb turned at that precise moment. He stilled as he
noted Allie’s presence on the porch beside Raisa. Allie smiled and waved. Caleb
frowned and snapped out an order over his shoulder before striding toward them.
“Then pay attention,” Allie ordered.
As soon as Jared noticed Caleb’s direction, he changed
his course. Raisa sighed. “Caleb’s protecting you doesn’t pit him against his
brothers.”
“It did.”
Raisa really wanted to hear that story. “What did you
do about it?”
Allie looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Let
them work it out. I had other things on my plate to cope with.”
Let them work it out. Allie had said that as if it was
the logical thing to do, but logic had nothing to do with this situation. Caleb
closed the distance between them rapidly. Jared closed it from the other side
of the yard with the same speed. Both men wore hats that threw their
expressions into shadow, but nothing could disguise the aggression in the set
of their shoulders or the determination in their stride.
“Caleb doesn’t look happy.”
Allie was remarkably unconcerned with the big vamp’s
anger. “He’s just out of sorts because he has to stay home and miss the fun.”
“He’s staying home?”
She patted her belly. “I can only take his blood, and
I need to feed too often for him to be gone for more than few hours.”
“He doesn’t mind?”
“Of course he minds, but he’d mind a heck of a lot
more if his wife and child suffered. And if there’s one thing the Johnsons
grudgingly understand, it’s the need for compromise.”
“Compromise in what?” Caleb asked, his gaze running
over his wife before flicking to Raisa.
“Relationships.” Allie tipped her face up for a kiss.
Caleb gave it, his eyes still watchfully on Raisa.
Just for the heck of it, Raisa gasped and clutched her
chest. He whirled and hunched over, shielding Allie.
Raisa could hear Allie’s sigh. Her fingers were white
against Caleb’s dark brown coat as she patted his back, before stepping around
him. “You worry too much.”
Caleb gave her an irritated glance. “You don’t worry
enough.”
The porch step creaked. The warning had to be
intentional. “For Christ’s sake, Caleb,” Jared growled with exasperation.
“Raisa would never risk Allie.”
His arm came around her shoulders. Familiar, heavy,
and warm. The warmth sank deeper than her skin as she realized he wasn’t lying.
He truly believed she wouldn’t let Allie be hurt. She leaned into his side,
feeling his start and then his satisfaction as their energy blended. It was
good to know.
“Not intentionally,” Caleb agreed.
“Do you really believe, as skilled as she is with
energy, that Raisa wouldn’t know if a death signal was being sent?”
“She’d only have a split second.”
“She’s a vampire!” Allie cut in, propping her hands on
her husband’s chest, the protrusion of her belly forcing her to arch back.
Caleb took her weight easily. “How much more warning would she need?”
“Good point,” Caleb dropped a kiss on her cheek before
straightening and glaring at Raisa. “But that was still a shitty thing to do.”
She shrugged. “Just fulfilling your expectations.”
“Serves you right,” Jared cut in, “for reacting rather
than thinking. The implant is in her head, not her chest.”
Allie glanced over at her. “I thought it was funny.”
Caleb’s “You would” outgunned Raisa’s “Thank you.”
“Which, naturally, makes it all right,” Allie
continued as if Caleb’s displeasure wasn’t wrapping all about her.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Allie looked pointedly around. “Do you really want to
argue with me here? With everyone watching?”
Caleb pretended to consider it. “Yes.”
“You’ll lose, you know.”
His big hand cupped her small face. There was so much
love in the gesture. “I’ll risk it.”
“Well, I for one would prefer you didn’t,” Jared
interrupted.
“Spoilsport,” Allie shot back
Jared just grinned. “I know how long you two can draw
these discussions out, and we do need to be going.”
To rescue Miri. Rai looked out over the yard at the
hard-eyed men preparing for battle. The moment of humor died, and the cold
reality of the impossibility of what they were going to attempt sank into her
bones.
“They know it’s not going to be easy, don’t they?”
Raisa asked.
Jared sobered instantly and nodded. “That’s why
they’re wearing the big guns.”
The sarcasm landed on her insecurity. “I know they
think they know, but the Sanctuary has a lot riding on Miri. They won’t let her
go without a fight.”
“Neither will we.”
“It’s just that she’s not like the other women they’ve
captured.” Raisa rubbed her hands up and down her arms, chilled from the inside
out, not looking at Jared, not looking at Caleb or Allie, just focusing on the
men in the yard. Jace in particular. Miri’s hope. “They think because they
could collect hormone and DNA samples all through her pregnancy that she’s
their best chance to create the first Sanctuary superbaby, and they won’t back
off even if the odds turn against them.”
“Raisa.” The familiar call slid along her nerves.
It wasn’t a surprise when Jared’s finger slid under
her chin and tipped her face up. His expression was dead serious as her eyes
met his. “Trust me.”
It just popped out. “The way you trust me?”
His right eyebrow lifted, and his finger curled
tighter under her chin. “I trusted you enough to bring you to my home. How much
more do you need?”
She hadn’t ever thought of it that way. To Jared, his
family was everything, yet he’d brought her here, to the place where the
Renegades hid out, where his brother’s pregnant wife waited to give birth, to
where Slade hatched all their inventions. She only had one thing to ask, “Why?”
His finger stroked down her cheek. The shake of his
head was infinitesimal. Was he shaking his head at her or himself? “Because my
gut says to and because you’re my family now.”
I understand if your last name is Johnson and you’re
in love, there is nothing you hold more dear than your woman.
Was Jared in love with her? Raisa stilled the wild
leap of her heart, held the possibility to her, tucking it away like a treasure
to be explored in safer times, and asked, “Does that mean I have to thrive on
stress?”
Jared blinked. Allie laughed. “There are ways around
that.”
“Thank goodness.” She met Caleb’s forest green eyes.
Maybe because she felt bad about her earlier joke or maybe because she just
needed to do something nice, she told him, “I’d never let the Sanctuary hurt
any of you through me.”
“Your word?”
She nodded.
Caleb released Allie, steadying her a second while she
regained her balance, and then held out his hand. For a second Raisa couldn’t
move. Caleb waited. Jared stood beside her. Supporting her, she realized, in
whichever way she chose to treat the gesture. How was she supposed to resist a
man who gave her unconditional acceptance?
You aren’t.
Well, pardon me if I don’t know what to do with
something I haven’t had before.
You could just accept it.
That would be risky. She’d trusted people in her past,
and they’d ended up betraying her by disposing of her when the need arose. It
had taught her to think of relationships as short-term collaborations. That was
what she was comfortable with. Now, Jared wanted her to go back to the way of
thinking that had left her so devastated so many times.
“Would it help if I pointed out the only ones I bite
these days are weres and Allie?” Caleb asked, his mouth quirking with
amusement, that stupid hand of his still held out, a powerful enticement to
indulge in her old self-defeating ways. Good grief! She’d just gotten done
convincing herself this century that she didn’t need to trust anyone besides
herself to get by.
“Maybe.”
Caleb glanced at Jared. They were obviously
communicating telepathically. Caleb withdrew his hand, and he studied her in a
way that was remarkably like Slade’s when he was in the middle of an
experiment. “It’s the truth.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?”
“At some point you’ve got to believe in something,”
another male voice cut in from the foot of the stairs.
Jace. Residual anger sent chills down Raisa’s arms.
Jared’s brother. The man she’d thought had abandoned Miri. The man moving
heaven and earth in a crazy plan to get her back.
“The way you believed in me?”
Part of her still held a grudge that he’d tried to
choke her. He didn’t flinch from her glare. “Miri believed in you. That’s good
enough for me.”
“I could be lying.”
“You’re not.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“You wouldn’t betray Jared.”
“You have absolutely no proof of that!”
He tipped his hat back, revealing the cold, hard
purpose in his eyes and the wry humor edging his mouth. “I’ve got my gut. What
more do I need?”
“Proof positive.”
“There’s no such thing in this life.”
“That being the case, we’ve decided to put our eggs in
your basket,” Caleb interjected.
And that faith might be worth something if the
Sanctuary believed the message she was going to send. If they didn’t decide to
blow her head off her shoulders for the fun of it. If they hadn’t already
killed Miri. If Slade’s device worked. If, if, if.
She bit her lip. Jared’s hand came around her waist,
firm and strong. His chest pressed into her back, solid and thick with powerful
muscle. And all around them both in an invisible cloak, his energy threaded
with hers, so intertwined there was no telling where hers ended and his began.
She blinked. When had that happened? When had she committed to him so
completely that anything she said to the contrary now was just word games?