PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (8 page)

collection of toiletries placed in a cheap plastic basket, "you knew what I was going to walk in on, didn't you?" she said,

remembering the unnerving way that Caine had watched her from his spot at the back of the diner as she made her way towards

the back hallway.

"Yes," he said with absolutely no hesitation, surprising the hell out of her. She really hadn't expected him to answer her.

She looked up to find him still sitting in the same spot, but he had his head tilted back and his eyes closed, appearing as

though he were trying to rest, but she prayed he was figuring out a way to get them the hell out of here.

"Did you know he was screwing around on me?" she asked, part of her hoping the answer was no. She didn't like to think

that Caine stopped caring about her completely. Some part of her hoped that he still cared enough to try and protect her when

he could.

"Yes, I knew he'd been fucking anything that moved from the beginning," he said in a bored tone.

"Then why didn't you-"

He cut her off. "Because I didn't care, Danni. It had nothing to do with me. Besides I warned you years ago to stay the hell

away from him and you decided to ignore my advice."

"So I got what I deserved?" she snapped, immediately regretting letting him know that his indifference to her actually hurt.

"Pretty much." He shrugged not even bothering to look at her.

"Wow, you're an asshole," she said, laughing softly without humor.

"Never said I wasn't."

She turned her back on him, afraid she'd do something stupid like cry or scream and demand that he tell her what she did

to make him hate her so much. Instead she turned her attention to the shower. With jerky movements she turned the shower on,

making it as hot as it would go. She stripped off her shirt, hoping to ease the ache in her muscles and calm herself down before

she did or said something stupid that she couldn't take back.

Her eyes shot down to the bracelet around her ankle. Was it waterproof? she idly wondered. Not that it really mattered,

she decided with a shrug.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Caine suddenly demanded.

"What does it look like?" she said, not caring that he could see her. Right now she had bigger problems than worry about

her modesty, at least not while the cameras were still working.

She'd have to see if she could do something about that. It would cost her, but even five minutes with the cameras down

might just be enough for them to figure a way the hell out of here before it was too late.

Chapter 6

"Stop being such a big baby. It's not like you haven't seen me naked before," Danni pointed out.

"When you were a small child, Danni," Caine bit out, keeping his eyes averted. He focused on the small mattress, the thick

corded wire that trailed across the room after her, his chain, his feet, the ceiling, anything so he didn't have to look at Danni.

Any other woman and he would have openly stared at her until he grew bored, but this was Danni, the little girl who used

to manipulate him into braiding her hair. He knew she'd grown into a beautiful desirable woman, but he couldn't seem to

separate the little girl that she'd once been from the woman she became. Of course that's what landed his ass in this little

problem, he thought with an inward groan.

"Any ideas?" she suddenly asked, almost drawing his attention back to her.

The warm steam helped to fill the small room with her enticing scent, thickening it to the point where he could think of

nothing else. His hands clenched into tight fists as his cock stirred against the soft material of his underwear. He inwardly

screamed at his body to get the fuck back under control, but it wouldn't listen. His eyes burned as his fangs slid out, and it took

everything he had not to go to that shower and take what he wanted.

"Shut the shower off," he ground out as he fought for control.

"What?" Danni asked, sounding distracted.

"Shut. The. Shower. Off," he bit out tightly.

"Not done."

In less than a second he was in front of her, not caring that he was getting wet or that Danni was naked and glaring up at

him. He moved forward, giving her no other choice but to back up the short distance against the wall. He placed his hands

against the tile on either side of her head and leaned in.

"When I tell you to do something," he said, doing his best to ignore her mouth watering scent, "you do it. Do you

understand me?"

Instead of agreeing, sobbing or begging for his mercy like any other sane female would do, Danni got into his face. She

moved into him until her hard nipples brushed against his chest and he had to stop himself from hissing in pleasure.

It was her damn scent that was responsible for the way he was reacting to her. Without it, he'd be able to keep his head

around her. She was just another human, someone who shouldn't matter, but did and that was only because he still had a soft

spot for the little girl that she once was. That would have to change and soon.

If he'd been able to push her away years ago and not care whether she'd lived or died then this never would have

happened. It was his fault that she was here, why they were here. His sentimental feelings for this woman were used against

him. They were a weakness, one he would correct starting now.

"No," she said firmly, her little glare never wavering as she looked up at him.

"No you don't understand or-"

"No, as in you don't control me, Caine. So back the hell off. If you want me to listen to you then you'd better come up with

a plan real damn fast to get us out of here otherwise stay the hell out of my way," she said, not backing down one damn bit

when he growled.

"Now if you don't mind I'd like to finish my shower."

"Then finish it," he said through clenched teeth as he reached out and shut off the hot water. Then, with a simple flick of

his hand he broke the hot water knob off so that he wouldn't have to endure having her scent shoved down his throat again.

"You son of a bitch," she said, looking pissed enough to ring his neck, but he didn't care. Let her hate him. It would make

what he had to do so much easier.

"Enjoy your shower," he said, reaching out and turning the cold water on at full blast before he flashed away from her. He

ignored her little surprised scream and focused his attention on the cooler.

He wiped the water off his face with his hand as he sat down in front of the cooler. His hands actually shook as he

grabbed the first bag of blood. He was so fucking close to going back over to her and ripping her throat open.

Maybe he should do just that and put himself out of his misery, he thought, but just as quickly shoved the thought away

again. He didn't want to take the chance on being stuck in here for years without blood and he sure as hell didn't want to deal

with whatever annoying female they threw in here after her. For now, he'd tolerate her, but from here on out she was

completely on her own. He wouldn't allow her to be a weapon used against him.

"I hope you choke on it," she bit out as she stormed past him.

This was going to be so much fun, he thought dryly as he tore into the bag.

********

Four days, four days without food, anyone to talk to or anything to do besides pace the room and ignore the jerk who sat in

the corner. He acted like nothing was wrong. Then again, he wasn't the one starving and a few days to someone like him, who

would live forever was barely even a drop in the bucket, but she felt every single minute of it.

It was hard not to, with desperation crawling up her spine while fighting against constant nausea and hunger. She did not

want to die here, not like this. She'd fought too hard for too long to let it all end like this. When her time came she wanted to be

doing what she loved, fighting.

Spending her remaining days with a man who couldn't stand her was not the way she wanted to go. This was unacceptable

and she sure as hell wasn't going to take it lying down. Slowly, she sat up, trying not to wince as sharp pain shot through her

head, but she ignored it. It wasn't the worst pain she'd ever felt and it sure as hell wasn't going to keep her down.

She hadn't eaten in four days and she was weakening every hour. If she didn't do something now she wouldn't have any

energy to do anything later, if an opportunity arose. It was now or never, she decided, getting to her feet as she fought back a

surge of dizziness as nausea decided to make an appearance that sent her back down on her butt.

If this didn't work then maybe they could just knock her out. At least if she was out she could pretend she wasn't starving

or sick to her stomach and give her body a chance to rest. Taking a deep breath she tried to stand up again. When her head

didn't spin and threaten to knock her back on her ass she took that as a good sign and started walking towards the shower.

As she walked past Caine she did her best to ignore the bastard. Not once since he'd broken the shower had he spoken to

her, which wasn't really a shock since he'd been ignoring her for years. It didn't stop it from hurting. The part of her that hoped

he still cared for her, if even a little over the years, died a slow painful death over the past couple of days.

He didn't care about her. She'd love to say that he'd never cared about her and just allowed her to hang around him when

she was a little girl out of boredom, but she couldn't. There was no doubt in her mind that he cared about her when she was

younger, but somehow, somewhere along the line she'd done something to ruin that and she had absolutely no idea what the hell

that could be.

Right now she didn't care. Right now she wished she was alone, because she sure as hell didn't find his presence

comforting. Actually, it was even more painful having the one person who used to mean everything to her treat her like she was

nothing. He used to be her entire world, the one person she could go to for absolutely anything.

Her parents were kind people, but they'd taken their jobs very seriously. While most Sentinels craved having a family to

take their minds off work, to have a little peace in their lives her parents hadn't. She'd been a mistake. After a hundred and

twenty years her parents had an accident and she was the result.

In the beginning they tried to make her the center of their world, but they couldn't. They couldn't pretend their duty wasn't

the most important thing in their lives and even as a child she'd understood they helped people. That didn't mean that it didn't

hurt when her parents left at a moment's notice, gone for days, weeks and sometimes months at time. She tried not to let it

bother her, but sometimes it hurt knowing that she didn't rate very high in their lives.

Sometimes they just simply forgot about her and forgot to ask one of the other Sentinel couples living in the compound to

watch over her. That's what happened when Caine came into her life. The night before Caine came into her life, her parents

answered a distress call in Massachusetts and simply took off, forgetting to make arrangements for their three year old child.

She remembered waking up in the morning alone and hungry. After several failed attempts to reach food she'd left their

suite of rooms in search of someone tall enough to reach her favorite cereal. When she found Caine stalking the halls with

glowing red menacing eyes and fangs she knew he was the one to help her.

When he decided to stick around he somehow turned into her closest friend and ally. If she needed to talk to someone

she'd gone to him. Instead of crawling into her parent's bed, whether they were home or not, she grabbed her teddy bear, Mr.

Tubby and simply yelled for Caine. No matter what he was doing or where he was in the compound he came to her. He'd scoop

her up into his arms and take her downstairs to his subbasement suite where she'd sit on his lap, eat the cereal he kept for her

and watched Disney DVDs until they both passed out. As much as she loved her parents, which she did, Caine was the one she

could go to for anything and everything and he never turned her away. He kept his duties restricted to New York to makes sure

that she was safe.

Until the day she felt her world crumble beneath her feet. Instead of getting schooled at the compound she'd been allowed

to attend public school with other humans. Some parents coddled their human children and wouldn't allow them to take part in

the human world, but a few others, like hers, felt that since she was human she should live like one, and at least socialize

among them. For the most part she'd enjoyed attending school with other humans. It wasn't until her senior year that everything

changed.

When she needed Caine the most he started to back away from her until one day he didn't even acknowledge her, leaving

her all alone in the world. Her parents were barely home. At that point she'd barely had anything in common with her human

friends and found herself leading a solitary existence while she was at school.

At the compound she had friends, Sentinels her own age, but even they started to treat her like she was different, weak,

because she was only human. No one cared what she did or where she went, so for a while she stopped coming home to the