Venice Heat (13 page)

“Answer,” Eiji spat. His eyes burned a little with the change because his anger had erupted, and fine white hairs skimmed along his arms. If he wasn’t careful, he would shift to the white wolf, the form most of the women in his family took on.

He squeezed Travon’s neck, and the man gasped and gurgled for air. “I-I c-can’t tell if I c-can’t breathe.”

Eiji let him fall to the ground, and Travon rolled to his knees, rubbing his neck and panting. He glared up at Eiji while he crouched. “You’re going to pay for that shit.”

“My cousin,” Eiji repeated.

Travon took his time standing. “I don’t know nothing. Just that she died, and she was one of us.”

Eiji’s eyes widened. “In your pack?”

“No, never!” His gaze grated up and down Eiji. “Why would we want…Anyway, I meant wolf. She was there back at that house, and then she died.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t give a fuck, Chinaman.”

Eiji gritted his teeth. “I am Japanese.”

Travon shrugged. “You got the message. Follow what Darryl says. He’s not good with people crossing him.”

Eiji had had enough. He poked a finger in Travon’s chest and strode closer. “You tell your alpha to stay away from Shae. She’s a good girl. She doesn’t need your kind of trouble, but she will decide what she wants. I will stay by her until she knows what that is.”

He thought his declaration would anger the brown wolf shifter, but instead Travon threw his head back and laughed long and loud. Eiji hitched his shoulders, eager to do more than threaten. The violence that rose in his chest pushed him to want to demonstrate his strength using Travon and send him back to Darryl in a body bag. Still, he needed to remember who he was. He enforced the law. He didn’t break it, even if he was in another country. His headquarters often worked with the United States’ law enforcement agencies, and he would not bring shame on his superiors by behaving dishonorably away from home.

“You don’t even know what kind of woman you’re taking care of, do you?” Travon taunted. “You don’t know who she is?”

Eiji growled. “Not a good idea to insult her character in front of me.”

Travon whistled. “Damn, man, you got it bad. Her pussy must be tight.”

The relaxed hand at Eiji’s side connected in a fist with Travon’s chest. The man stumbled backward and crashed into the tree before sliding down its trunk to the ground. His eyelids fluttered, and his head lolled on his neck as he tried pulling out of the disorientation. Eiji stooped and rested his forearms on his thighs, steepling his fingers.

“Is there something else?”

Travon tried glaring, but his gaze wasn’t focused. When he spoke, it was with slurred words, but Eiji already saw the swift healing taking place, native to shifters of all kinds. That was why he hadn’t held much back during the hit. He could have crushed the man’s chest cavity, but that would incite a war, one he might not win with no one behind him.

“She’s a Keith,” Travon said in a raspy tone. “You’ve heard of them?”

A cold breeze raised goose bumps on Eiji’s arms and along his back. “Keith.”

“Yeah, shifter hunters.
Killers
.”

Eiji had heard of the them. They had not touched his family personally and had no extensive work in his country as far as he knew, but even his superiors had heard of them and speculated about bringing the Keiths to justice should a threat rise in Japan. The belief in people who could shape-shift in Japan came from a different perspective, he imagined, than in America. The Keiths were murderers in most Asian eyes, no matter their cause, and this man was telling him Shae was one. Shae—the woman he had intended to bring home as his mate.

“Tell me about Izumi,” he said. “Did you kill her?”

“No.”

“Your alpha?”

“Look, I don’t know anything about that, like I said. I just know she died. She wasn’t one of ours, so we didn’t look out for her.”

Eiji had come to America to bury his cousin. Her instructions were not to be transported back to Japan. She had become like these people, caring more for becoming a star and obtaining wealth and recognition than about family. By rights, Eiji should have turned his back on her as well, the way his family had. He had kept his distance, but never broke contact. Always, he had hoped Izumi would see reason and come home. Now it was too late. She had died alone with no one around her to help guide her spirit to its resting place or to pray for her.

Eiji heaved a sigh and dismissed the dark thoughts. Izumi had made her choices, the same as he, to live apart. Although she hadn’t had the challenges nor the stigma of being born in dishonor. He didn’t think of himself as less, just different, and he’d had thirty-three years to come to terms with what he was.

When he could, Travon worked to stand. He swayed on his feet, his jaw tight, obviously embarrassed that Eiji had gotten the best of him. Something told Eiji this would not be the last time they faced off. “Don’t touch her.”

Eiji worked to keep from knocking Travon on the ground again. “What does Darryl want with Shae if she is, like you say, a Keith? They are enemies of the wolf.”

Travon grinned. “That’s for Darryl to know and you to mind your own fucking business. Like I said, don’t touch the girl. Just get her through the change, and we’ll come for her. If you even try to take her out of Venice, we’ll know, and you will be sorry. Hm, maybe you’ll be sorry either way.”

“I do not accept threats. Darryl will have to deal with the consequences of what he did to Shae.”

“You threatening my alpha?” Travon’s chest swelled, and he bared sharpened teeth, but he made no move to approach Eiji.

“No, I’m not.”

Travon laughed. “In the end, you’re just a pussy. You know who’s strongest around here. We’ve got ten guys in our pack, plus the girls, and at any time, Darryl can call in favors if he needs to. Who you got?”

He hesitated. Sometimes in his line of work, he needed to bluff in order to make the bad guy think he had a whole team behind him, but this was not the situation for that. He sensed the better move was to allow Darryl to think he stood alone and weak. That way his strength would be overlooked and underestimated. He already knew what would happen if Shae did not choose to mate with him. She had lied about who she was and continued to. She knew why Darryl wanted her, and it was not just because of her incredible beauty.

Eiji turned on the balls of his feet and started back toward the house. Travon shouted after him, but he pushed his hands into his pockets and continued on. When he reached the door, he listened and sniffed to see if he’d been followed, but the wolf shifter had left the area. Eiji figured they had a bit more time. Darryl would not approach Shae until she was fully wolf. The danger to her turning did not lie in death now, but in finding her right mind during the change. The aggression of the wolf could overtake her human side, and she could be no more than a vicious killer. In that case, he would have to put her down.

He let himself in the house. Shae stood in the kitchen at the refrigerator. She’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt and stared into the box, unseeing. Her toes curled on both feet as if in defense against the chill or life in general. She appeared more vulnerable than he’d ever seen her. Both desire and a need to protect her rose in him. He looked away and walked to right the chair he had knocked over earlier. After retrieving the teakettle, he started to make some and decided he wanted something stronger. His cousin had left a stock of both sake and wine. He took down a bottle of the sake, along with a glass from the cupboard, and had a seat. Two glasses swallowed, he poured a third and took his time.

“So your name is Shae Keith.”

Chapter Nine

The room did a flip at Eiji’s simple words and then righted itself. She continued to stare into the refrigerator. After a moment, she removed bread, mayo, mustard, and meat and cheese and set them on the table. Hunger was the farthest thing from her mind. How had he found out? What did it mean for their friendship and his helping her through the madness of becoming a shape-shifter? Denial didn’t occur to her. Eiji’s words weren’t a question. At the same time, they weren’t an accusation. She detected no emotion at all, not anger, not surprise. How the hell did she take him? No man confused her about what he thought or felt like Eiji did, and it drove her insane.

“Yes, it is,” she said in answer to his question of her name.

“Darryl wants you as his mate.”

“To somehow rule my family. I don’t pretend to know the inner workings of his plan. Maybe he thinks he can change us all, one at a time, before anyone is the wiser. We can’t all be his mate, can we? I mean us girls?”

He watched her, and something told her he was trying to figure out why she wasn’t defending herself or her family’s ideals. She refused to.

“No. Just one.”

“Lucky me.” She put down the knife she’d been using to spread mayo on her sandwich and sighed. “Look, I’m not going to pretend I haven’t done the things I did. Since you don’t seem surprised or confused about learning my last name, I assume you’ve heard the details of what we do. We…”

Damn, it was hard to say for the first time. She licked her lips and stole a glance in his direction. He stood with his feet apart, arms folded. His expression appeared grim, but closed off. The warmth and gentleness she’d received at his hands and in his words during her sickness had evaporated into thin air.

“
I’ve
killed shifters…with my own hands. I believe—
believed
—they were abominations that don’t deserve to live on this earth. Damn, I sound self-righteous or like some religious nut. The truth is I’m not sure I don’t still feel that way. Look at what Darryl did to me and what nine times out of ten he’ll probably do to others.”

“Kill yourself.”

She had brought her sandwich to her lips to bite for lack of anything better to do. At his words, she choked and coughed because the food went down the wrong pipe. Her eyes watered, and she blamed the pain in her throat rather than welling emotion. “Excuse me?”

She peered into his eyes and caught a flash of anger. “I said if you feel you are an abomination, one that will only hurt humans, who are better than you and more deserving of life, kill yourself. It is honorable.”

“Don’t give me that honor bullshit,” she screamed. “I have a right to—”

“What?”

The sandwich thumped the bottom of the trash can where she’d thrown it, and she cleaned up her mess, slamming jars on shelves and banging the refrigerator door shut. “I don’t know! Why aren’t you telling me how much you hate me now that you know? Why aren’t you trying to kill me in retribution for all your brothers my family slaughtered?”

“It is not for me to kill you.”

She put her hands on her hips. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged.

“Forget you. I don’t need you, Eiji. I can take care of myself.”

She dragged the trash bag from the can and started past him. Her shoulder bumped his arm, and his hand snaked out to capture her wrist. She found herself forced to face him, the bag slipping from her fingers. Eiji thumped her against the wall. Before he could bring a hand to her throat, she knocked it away and punched him in the face. She thought he’d block the hit, but he took it full on. She almost laughed at the surprise when his head snapped back on his neck. The impact gave her time to attack a second time, this one with her knee. He moved without effort and lightning fast. One hand covered the other to push her knee back down. Shae’s legs gave, but Eiji caught her and pulled her close. She shoved against his chest.

“How long are we going to play this game?” she demanded.

“I am aware of no game.”

“You know what I mean, Eiji.”

“You have a decision to make.”

When she wiggled in his hold, he let her go. She took two steps back, but not too far, so he wouldn’t feel the need to come after her again. “I’m guessing being your mate isn’t on the table anymore now that you know who I am.”

He didn’t say a word.

“That’s what I thought.” She stifled the hurt even though she had turned his high-handed solution down. “Am I going to be attacked again for taking out the trash?”

“I did not attack you.”

“Whatever.”

Eiji stepped around her and picked up the trash bag. She watched him walk to the door and then turned toward the bedroom. Apparently, she was to be held hostage a little longer.

That night, when she lay in bed, she expected Eiji to join her, but he never came into the bedroom. She knew he was still in the house because she smelled him, and if she listened hard, she could pick up the quiet breaths he took as he slept. Loneliness and rejection tasted bitter in her mouth. Eiji had felt like the only person she had on her side, but he had been there because he didn’t know the truth. Now he did, and while he didn’t walk away, he wasn’t there either.

Sleep took its time coming, and when it did, she tossed and turned so much, she woke up repeatedly. By morning, the agitation of the previous night drove her to get out of the house. She showered and dressed in a bikini and sundress with flip-flops. She waited until Eiji occupied the shower and then left the house, headed toward the beach. Rather than walk the boardwalk, she continued to the warm sand and on to the water. Freezing cold, the waves came in to cover her feet. When the squishy sound her flip-flops made jarred her raw nerves, she took them off and walked along holding them.

After some time, an odd feeling came over her. She stopped and looked around. Darryl stood not ten feet away, and bile rose in her throat.

“Good morning, baby.”

“Kiss my ass. I know what you did to me, Darryl, and it’s not going to work.”

He laughed and strolled toward her as if he had all day to get there. “If I wanted, I could have you stripped and spread for me right here for all the world to see.”

“And the moment you let me go, I will cut your throat.”

He waggled a finger and chuckled again. “I like your fight. It’s going to feel good to break you.”

“No man can break me.”