Come on ... let's go....
His skin was already burning something fierce. It wouldn't be long before he'd be dead.
Kevin shot them through the gates before they'd finished opening and across his long driveway. Too long, he realized as Kevin hauled ass down it and they still weren't under cover. Why the hell had he bought a house with a two-mile driveway? Okay, slight exaggeration, but damn. It seemed like forever before they were inside the garage.
Jess breathed a long sigh of relief, and he leaned back in his seat. "That's about as close to bacon as I want to come for a while."
Without commenting on that, Jimmy came around to open his door and let him out. "You need any help with her?"
He shook his head. "Nah, I got it. Thanks, though."
Jess had just pulled her from the car and was heading to the back door when Kevin blocked his path. The Squire pulled out a pair of cuffs. "You need these?"
That actually made him laugh. "Think I can handle a little filly without them." Then again, given the whipping she'd put on him earlier, he might want to rethink that.
Pride goeth before a fall....
Kevin returned them to the pouch on his belt. "All right. We'll see you later."
Jess inclined his head to them before he carried her into the house.
He hesitated inside the door. Now what to do with her? He hadn't thought this far ahead, and while he should have done it in the car, he'd been a little preoccupied with thoughts bursting into flames.
His best bet would be to take her into the basement with him. There was plenty of room down there to keep her locked up and away from anyone who might think about releasing her before he wanted her set loose.
Or worse, her hurting Andy while she was trying to escape.
That definitely wouldn't do.
All right. Back to the original plan. He'd hold her downstairs in his domain.
He carried her to the hidden elevator and into what Andy called his six-thousand-square-foot dungeon. It hadn't been all that easy to find a house in Vegas with a basement, especially one this size as well as a home that also had a stable for his horses. When Andy first told him about this place, Jess had thought he was joking.
Andy wasn't. The house was actually sixty-five thousand square feet. Seventy-two thousand under the roofline.
It was amazing what a man would do for his horses.
Hell, he'd lived in smaller towns. But all things said and done, the house was perfect for him, since it allowed him to stay downstairs undisturbed. Down here, he wasn't locked in by the daylight. He could live an almost normal subterranean life.
The house had a total of eighteen bedroom suites, with three of them being in the basement. He took her to the one closest to his room and laid her down on the bed. He started to walk away, but something about her held him by her side. She looked so fragile like this. However, the painful throbbing in his jaw where she'd slugged him said she was anything but.
What had made a little thing like her hunt them so viciously?
The Daimons must have lied to her. They did that a lot. Countless humans had been used as their tools over the centuries. The Daimons promised them eternal life, and in the end, they murdered the humans when they were done with them.
But her anger had run deeper than that. She'd fought like she had a personal grudge.
He sighed as he thought about the last time he'd seen her parents. That had been one screwed-up night. To this day, he could still see the blood splatters that had covered the room. The blood that had covered him ...
There had been no sign of Abby in the house, and he'd definitely looked for her. He'd always hoped she was at a friend's.
The most disturbing thought was that she'd been there. That she'd seen them die. That thought made him sick to his stomach. No child should witness the horrors of that night. Just like he wished Artemis had spared him the sight of what happened after he'd been killed.
Some memories weren't worth keeping.
And when the police had been unable to locate her, they'd all assumed her dead.
Yet here she was ...
Grown up and kicking ass.
Frowning, he ran his hand down the side of her cheek. She had the softest skin he'd ever felt. Smooth. Inviting. Warm. He'd always loved the way a woman's flesh felt under his fingers. There was nothing more succulent.
Her features were exotic and intriguing. So different from Laura's, and at the same time, he could see enough of Laura there that it tugged at his heart. Laura had been both a haven and a hell for him. Around her, he'd felt connected to the past, and that connection had stung as deep as it'd comforted. He'd tried to let her go, but he couldn't sever the tie.
Now he wished he had.
Maybe then Abigail would have had a normal life. A woman her age ought to be out with her friends, having fun and enjoying her youth. Not coming after Dark-Hunters. Definitely not killing them.
A smile tugged at the edges of his lips at her ponytail. He didn't know why, but that reminded him of her as a kid. She'd had a lot of spunk even then. And it was weird to be so attracted to her now, having been there when she was born. He tried not to think about that whenever he was with a woman. On a level he didn't want to acknowledge, it bothered him. He was old enough to be their great-great-great granddaddy.
But he wasn't altruistic enough to be celibate either. There was only so much a man could do. Especially since they didn't know how old he was. To them, he was another mid-twenty-year-old guy they met in a bar and took home.
However, Abigail knew.
And she hated him for it.
He turned her face toward him. Her eyes opened just a slit, and when he saw them ...
He pulled back.
What the hell? His heart pounding, he gently lifted one lid. Sure enough, her eyes were red with yellow threads running through them.
She wasn't human after all.
At least not fully.
Oh yeah, this was bad. Real bad. Was she the enemy from the west that Ren had been talking about? Prophecy and Oracle warnings never made much sense to him. Trying to unravel them was enough to give even the stoutest mind a nine-day migraine.
And he was too tired right now to think it through. He needed some sleep before he dealt with this. Or at least a break ...
He covered her with a blanket, then made sure that she had no way out of this room until he was ready for her leave.
At the door, he lowered the lights so that she'd be able to see the room when she came to, but not so bright that they'd disturb her.
He glanced back at her, and his breath caught in his throat. With this light and with her head tilted, she looked so much like her mother that it temporarily stunned him and took him back in time.
He saw Matilda lying on the bank of the stream where she'd taken him for a picnic not long after their engagement. The sun had been so warm that she'd fallen asleep while he read one of her favorite dime novels out loud to her. Her serene beauty had enchanted him and he'd spent hours watching her, praying for that afternoon not to end.
I love you, William.
He could still hear her voice. See her beautiful smile.Clearing his throat of the sudden lump, he shook his head to clear it, too.
Abigail wasn't Matilda.
But as she lay there without the hatred shooting out of her eyes at him, she was every bit as beautiful, and it stirred emotions inside him that he'd sworn he buried.
Not wanting to think about that, he went to his room and pulled off his coat and weapons. While he undressed for bed, his thoughts sped around his head as he tried to figure out what had happened to her.
Where she'd been all this time.
I should have checked her for an ID. Yeah, no duh. That would have given him her address and let him know if she was still a Yager or if she'd married.
Feeling like a complete dolt, he went back to see if he could locate one.
He pushed open the door and froze.
The bed was completely empty, and she was nowhere in sight.