Aedan: Harrison Ambush – Erotic Tiger Shapeshifter Romance (4 page)

“Oh, Daddy. You just have to. Mom saw it right away.” He studied them hard now, enlarging them so that he could see one thing that wasn’t alike. Nothing. “You just don’t understand how important this is to me. They’re as different as night and day.”

Not to him. But instead of saying that he wasn’t seeing it, he told them both that he’d work to make it right. He’d bet his next shipment coming in that if he were to tell the baker to use the new flower, no one would know the difference. Feeling pretty good about his solution to the problem, he escaped to his office. He might even have a cot brought in to stay there until this wedding was over.

~~~

Paddy looked around the room he was in. Not moving until he was sure of what had been going on since he’d gotten here, wherever here was, he thought about his granddaughter. She’d been killed. His heart broke for her and he felt tears fall down his face.

“Mr. Neal?” He turned his head slowly to the right to look at the man he’d not noticed being there. “My name is Aedan Harrison. You’re in my home.”

“Is there anyone here looking for me?” He shook his head and stood up, stretching as he did. “Christ, you’re a big man. Ever have anyone tell you that?”

“My mother. You should see my older brother, Riordan. He’s about three inches taller.” Paddy started to sit up, feeling at a disadvantage laying down with this man towering over him. “You’re to be as still as you can. If you want up I can help you, but you shouldn’t try to move too much on your own. My brother, Ennis—he’s a doctor—he said he’d knock me on my ass if he had to come back here again and put in new stitches.”

“I got up before.” Aedan nodded. “I remember that now. Had to piss like.... I do now, too, as a matter of fact. Think you can help an old man out?”

He laughed. “Old man? I think not. Ennis said you’re fit for a man about half your age. And that he’s never heard of a person driving across the state bleeding as bad as you were and still being as feisty. His words, not mine. Let me get you up and going. But let’s go easily this time. I don’t want to have the shit knocked out of me if my brother comes back.”

Aedan helped him to the bathroom, and when he shut the door behind him, Aedan said he’d be right outside the door if he needed him. He’d been all right moving along the floor, weak but moving. But standing here now with his dick in his hand and his body as weak as a kitten, Paddy was pretty sure that he might have to drag his ass back to the bed before he was done. And more than likely, the kid would have to carry him too.

Finishing up, he turned on the water after flushing and held onto the sink. With a quick knock to the door, Aedan came in but didn’t touch him. Paddy was glad for the man being kind enough not to point out how shitty he looked. Paddy looked in the mirror again before standing up as straight as he could and hobbling back to the bedroom on his own. The only way to get stronger was to get over the weakness, he used to tell his— He stopped that thought.

“Mind if I sit for a spell? I mean, I know that I should be lying down and all, but I want to talk if you’ll let me. Don’t even care if it’s about the weather for now, just need to hear a voice.” Aedan led him to the chair that he’d been sitting in and helped him sit. When Aedan got the small coverlet from the bottom of the bed, Paddy allowed him to cover his legs up, being that they were bare assed naked. Paddy, not one to hang out in only his boxers, was grateful to be covered up.

“My cook is bringing you up something to eat. I’m afraid that it won’t be much right now. Ennis said you can have some broth and some tea if you want. Just liquid until you heal a bit more.” He asked how long he’d been here. “This is the third morning. The first time you woke up, yesterday, Ennis had been here having dinner with me and Darcy, my other brother. He gave you something to knock you out again and told me to keep an eye on you. We don’t have your medical records, so we haven’t any idea if you’re on anything.”

“Nothing much. A low dose aspirin is all. Don’t even care for taking them, but my granddaughter insisted.” He looked away, the pain of her death tearing into him. “She was all I had in the world and they killed her.”

“She’s not dead.” Paddy hurt himself turning back to the man. “I don’t know what you were told, but a friend of ours has her hidden away. When he was here yesterday, he told me—”

“I was on the phone with her when they shot her. I heard…you would not believe how many shots I heard. She can’t have lived through that.” Aedan got up and pulled out his phone and handed it to him. The picture looking back at him wasn’t flattering nor was it a good one, but he’d know that face anywhere.

His baby girl. She was bandaged up and had tubes in her, but she was alive. Touching the small screen, he felt his heart break in two knowing that he might have been responsible for her being hurt. When he handed the phone back to the man, he sat there not able to say a word. Aedan seemed to understand.

“She had on a vest. I’ve been told it was the best on the market by my sister-in-law. Army issue, Storm said. It’s more than likely what kept her alive until she could get help. Mason, the man that told you to come here, has her phone as well. I guess she took a great many pictures with it before he took her away.” Paddy asked him how she was doing. “I only know that she’s in critical condition and that they’re doing everything they can for her. And that she’s not in the United States. He figured that she’d be safer by not being here until she could be moved back.”

“I was told to come here. Well, not to this house but to another one if I was ever on the run or needed to lay low. I only knew to come here when I met up with this Mason person. A vampire. He the one that has her?” Aedan told him it was the same person, and that Storm had told Mason to have Paddy drive to Aedan’s house. “I thank you for that. They tried to kill me as well. I’m sure that…what do you know, young man?”

“Nothing. And if you want to know the truth, it’s probably less than nothing. I know your name and hers. That she was shot, as were you. And other than her being a cop and shot in the line of duty, that’s about it.” The short knock at the door had Aedan going to answer it. When the tall man came in holding a tray, Aedan put out a portable table for him to use to eat from. Paddy wasn’t sure how much he could eat or even if he wanted to, but he knew that he had to get his strength back or he’d not be able to help his baby girl. “Your guns and other weapons that you had on your person are there in the top drawer of the dresser. The car that you came in, it’s been looked over by the best and there are no tracking devices on it at all. The money and other items you had are still in it. Storm said to tell you good job on having it set up. The keys to the car are in the ignition as well.”

“Thank you so much. You just never know in our line of work when you might have to skedaddle out of town. But I was wondering if I could use your phone?” Aedan said that he could but he’d rather he didn’t. “I have a relative that I need to get in touch with. He’ll be able to help out some with all this.”

“The president? Howard Wayneright is who you want to call?” Paddy said nothing, and the spoon that he’d only just filled with broth fell to the bowl. “He’s been calling me on a burner every couple of hours. And so you know, he’s a good friend of my family as well. As I mentioned, Storm Browning is my sister-in-law.”

“Well, I’ll be cock-doodled.” Aedan laughed and Paddy smiled. “Nikki, she said I have a way with putting together words that make her laugh. She’s really all right, boy? Don’t kid an old man when his family is all he’s got.”

“I don’t know if I’d say she was all right, but according to Mason, she’ll live. The vest, as I said before, saved her life.” Paddy had spent a small fortune on that thing and was glad now that he had. “I could have hired you a nurse—there was one willing to come here and stay with you—but I was afraid, if you want to know the truth. I didn’t want to bring anyone else in that might talk. And Howard, he told me that you and Nikki are the world to him.”

“You sound like a man who’s got some experience in this sort of stuff. Browning, you said she was your sister-in-law?” He told him she was married to his brother, Riordan. “Just how many of you are there? I know of four already. You, the one you called Darcy, I think, this Riordan person, and Ennis the doctor.”

“Six. Six of us boys, as my mom calls us, two sisters-in-law that I’d not fuck with, and my parents. I talked to Storm a few hours ago. Her and Riordan came home last night and she said she’d be over to see you when they were briefed.”

Paddy nodded. “I don’t have a lot of contact with Howard, not for a lot of years now. It was determined when he started making a name for himself in the political field that we would cut ties. Not so much for him, but to keep the two of us safe. He talks to me, again on a burner, but we don’t go out and see him, and Nikki has never met him at all. As I have said, it was safer for all of us.” Aedan asked how. “Well, Nikki is undercover. I was as well when I was working before she came along to live with me. So, if we were to show up at a few functions, even one, and have our pictures taken, our careers would be over. And the kind of crappola that we deal with, it’s better if we’re not associated with a man who can call out the national guard with only a single phone call, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I can see that. I never thought of it that way.” Paddy nodded and ate more of the broth, which was delicious. “You knew when you got here that I wasn’t human. Mason said he never told you. How did you know?”

“About five years before I was to retire, I worked with a man that was a shifter. He said he was elite. It was the most amazing and terrifying thing in the world working with someone that could be anyone and anything. He showed me a few things that helped me, I guess you could say. And gave me ways of keeping myself safe when it came to a showdown with one. Not that I’ve had any trouble with any of you shifters, but I guess there are some bad ones out there, like in any race.” Paddy eyed Aedan. “Some kind of cat, I would think. And before you tell me I’m wrong, let me tell you how I deduced that. There are no spiders in this house. A home this old, while well maintained, would have a few somewhere. No dogs either. I’m allergic so I can tell they’ve never been here. And your eye color reminds me of a tiger. Not sure what kind.”

“I’m a Bengal. Pureblood too, if that matters to you.” Paddy smiled, feeling pretty good about still having it. “I’m impressed. I don’t say that often to someone I’ve only just met. But my brother is here, Riordan. He’d like to have a word with you about your safety and that of this family. Another of my brothers, Mac, his wife is expecting and it’s important to all of us that she’s safe. Storm? Well, anyone coming here to cause harm had better be more afraid of her than any of us. I’m sure that you know not only what she is but how bad ass she is.”

Paddy nodded and said he’d see Riordan now. Aedan left to get him, taking the tray out as he did. Leaning his head back against the seat, Paddy thought about his Nikki. If she really was alive, which he had no doubt now that she was, she’d be a target of any one of the men she’d been working to bring in. He knew one of them personally, and was sure he was looking for her and him as well. He didn’t want to get this family into trouble, at least any more than they were in now, but he also knew that he wasn’t up to the task of keeping himself safe, much less them.

As soon as the door opened Paddy reached for his sidearm that wasn’t there. Looking at the man, Riordan, Paddy thought if anyone could keep him safe while he was laid up, this family would if they were all as big as this one. Christ, he was strong looking too. But when he smiled at him, as he was right now, Paddy could also see the kindness in him, and that made him trust the guy more.

“Mr. Neal? I have word from Mason that your granddaughter is awake and talking. Not much…she’s as closed mouthed as my mom at Christmas. But she seems to be on the mend.”

Paddy couldn’t help it, he cried like a little baby. It was the best news he’d ever had in his life.

Chapter 3

Nikki hurt all over. And when she’d asked the doctor how bad it was, he only stared at her for several seconds before he handed her a mirror and let her have a look for herself. She didn’t think there was any part of her body that wasn’t black and blue right now. And most of that was covered in lines of stitches. The vest had done its job, that was all she could think about right then.

She also had figured out she was no longer in the States, and that she was in a house where a room had been rigged up to be a care unit, and not in a hospital. It had taken her an entire day to figure out just where she was. The South of France didn’t sound like it would have been a place she would have been taken when she’d been hurt, but then, who the hell knew anymore? But she wasn’t dead, and that was the best news.

“Miss?” Nikki looked at the nurse and said nothing. They’d been coming in every half hour or so and asking her if she remembered her name, which she did, if she knew why she was here, which she wouldn’t answer under threat of death, and if she remembered the president of her country’s name. That she was sure of. “You have a visitor. May I bring him in to see you?”

“No. I don’t know anyone, and I don’t want you to bring a stranger in here with me.” The nurse smiled at her and moved out of the way of the door, and there stood a stranger. Upon waking, she had found a gun next to her in bed, she pulled it out and pointed it at the man standing there. “I don’t know you. What the fuck do you want?”

“No, you do not know me, for the moment anyway. May I have a seat? The sun is too much for me.” She nodded and realized that he was a vampire. And more than likely a great deal older than her and the building she was in put together. “Your grandfather sends his love. Well, that’s not what he said. He said to tell his baby girl that he has her back. And that come your next birthday the two of you are going on a cruise to see how the underworld really lives, and not this joke here on earth.”

It was him. There was no doubt about it. Only the two of them would want to go to the underworld, knowing that they’d been to hell and back too many times for them to count. But Nikki hadn’t just fallen off the wool wagon, as her grandda said, so she held the gun on the man.

“Where is he?” He told her he was at a friend’s house. “Here? Wherever here is. And that would be my next question, by the way. Where am I and how the fuck did I get here?”

“You are in my home in France, as I believe you have figured out. And I brought you here so that you could be safe. Or as safe as I could make you.” She nodded. “This would go so much easier if I did not have to worry that your finger would slip and you’ll kill me. Could you please put the gun down? When I brought it to you, I thought you’d feel better. Paddy said that you slept with yours under your pillow.”

“I still don’t know you.” He told her. “Just Mason? No sire name? I find that hard to believe.”

The gun was too heavy and she didn’t so much put it down as she dropped it. Her entire being felt like he might have drained her and she was still recouping her losses. She asked him if he’d given her his blood.

“No, I was forbidden to. By your uncle. Who sent me, by the way.” Uncle Howard. That explained a great deal. “He said that you were very distrusting and for good reason. But for my last name. The deed to this house has Smith on it. If I did have a last name, I have long since forgotten it. At my age, it meant very little to me then and now. And I would prefer that you called me Mason anyway.”

“Grandda told me once that to let anyone bite me, for any reason, would give parts of my life away that I’d never get back. And in my line of work, that’s not a good thing.” Nikki laid back on the pillow. “The men who shot me, do you know if they’re looking for me?”

“I do and they are. However, they do believe, like the rest of the department that you worked for, that you are dead. And for now, that is the best way to keep you safe. Your body wasn’t recovered, but you left behind just enough blood that no one would think that you could have survived.” She nodded, thinking of the day she’d been shot. “You’ve been under my care for over a week now. Your grandfather, as I mentioned, is awake and doing much better knowing that you’re not deceased. I have contacted someone that can let him know that you’re awake and seemingly with all your faculties. Are you?”

“That remains to be seen. He was hurt too?” He told her what had happened. “Do you think I could talk to him? Just long enough to hear his voice? I don’t want him to…he’s all I have in the world.”

“He said as much about you. But I’m afraid, for now anyway, that the two of you have to remain distant from each other. The men that shot you, they’re looking for the two of you as we speak, and it would undo all that we’ve done to keep you both alive if you were to have a long conversation. I don’t know what they have in the way of tracers, and while I have some knowledge of phones and what they can do, I’m sure there are others out there that know a great deal more. The people that are watching over him, they’re innocent in all of this. Only doing a favor for your uncle.” She felt tears fill her eyes when she thought of her grandda being hurt because of her. “What can I tell you so that you don’t worry overly much?”

“The men who tried to kill us…do you know if the police are looking for them?” Mason said that they were not doing much of anything as far as he was concerned. “Because the department is dirty. My captain, I’m betting.”

“That would be my guess as well. Paddy said that he told you to take James and not go directly home. I think, to hear my friend—his name is Aedan, by the way—but to hear him talking, your grandda might be blaming himself for you being shot. They were there waiting on you, were they not?” She nodded. “He thinks he might have led you right to them.”

“No, they knew where I was. Or at least where I was headed. Home. I was on the phone with him when.... I took some pictures. Do you know if they’re safe?” He said that the phone was in his lair and no one could get to it. “But is it on?”

“I took the sim card out after making sure that all your pictures were uploaded onto it. Very smart of you to have done that, by the way. Then when it was apparent that you had done that, I destroyed the phone. No one will find the information that you took where it is now.” Nikki thanked him and felt her body getting weaker as she laid there. “When you wake again, I’ll arrange to bring you some snapshots of Paddy. And I’ll take some of you for him when you are less…I was going to say weak, but I think he will not believe me if I were to do that.”

“No, he’s pretty savvy for an old man, or so he keeps telling me. Are you going to take them now?” He asked if that would be all right. “Yes. But would it offend you if I flipped him off? I mean, it’s something that we do.”

“No. It will more than likely ease his mind and heart to see that you have your humor still.” He pulled out his phone and took several pictures of her. Blowing him a kiss in the last one took a lot out of her, and she laid back. “Now, you should rest. The nurse that has been caring for you is loyal only to me and will never tell anyone where you are, even under threat of death. If it comes to that.”

When she was alone, Nikki closed her eyes and willed her body not to hurt. She knew that she was lucky to be alive, and was going to take care that she stayed that way. Just knowing that her grandda was going to be all right as well made her rest easier. She wondered how badly he’d been hurt, and thought of Adkins and his gang that had been there when she’d turned up James.

They weren’t expecting her to be where she had been. She knew that now. It hadn’t been their plan to take her out with witnesses, and had they been on her street, just one block over, there wouldn’t have been any. Even now, she’d bet anything that no one had inquired after the woman that had been shot, nor had they said a word to the police. Adkins was going down for this and a great many other things that she knew about him. Nikki looked at her forearm and wondered if anyone had noticed the deep scar there.

Touching the tiny chip that she’d put there several months before the shooting, she thought of her grandda helping her with the minor surgery. He too, had a matching one in his leg with all the same information on it as hers did. Grandda had said that if anything happened to either of them, then someone would know what to do with the chips, provided that they weren’t cut out of them after someone killed them. Nikki doubted anyone that she knew would think to look where they had hidden her files.

Moving as gently as she could to check herself, Nikki felt like she had several broken ribs in addition to the bullets that had not been stopped by her vest. She had been just on the verge of taking the sucker off when she’d talked to Grandda, and was now glad that she’d left it on. Christ, there was little doubt that she would not be alive had she not.

Adkins had been on her radar for months before all this shit had gone down. And the six months that she’d been underground with a small cell of his men had been enlightening, as well as very stressful. Nikki knew that she’d done a good job at slowing down his drugs coming into the city, but not enough to stop the man altogether. That was going to take more. A lot more than what she had right now.

Had she not studied every nuance of the man and the people that worked for him, she was sure that he would have found out long ago where his mole was. It surprised her to no end that her captain, a man that she had figured out was dirty, hadn’t turned her over to him. But then, he wasn’t very smart, and he thought she was working on a prostitution ring, nothing that Adkins ever dealt with. Over ninety shipments, all of them drugs, had been confiscated at the pickup point before it had hit the houses to be broken down and sold off.

Nikki trusted no one but her grandda, and for good reason, she supposed. She was working with a partner, a handler that she gave information to, but nothing more than a few small time dealers and a couple of meth labs that were about to be closed down anyway.

Mostly it was about the cat houses, the places that would bring in men, fuck their brains out, then take them for all they had. Pictures and video were used to blackmail the men, and most of them, more than half, killed themselves rather than dealing with the fallout.

But the busts of drugs and shipments that she’d been responsible for had been given to her grandda, and he’d handed them off to people he knew. It was why whatever happened never came back to bite her in the ass. It wasn’t the cops but the Feds that were getting the kudos. But she could live with that too, so long as that shit was off the streets.

Closing her eyes, she tried not to think about how much she hurt. Not just her body, but her heart as well. She and her grandda had talked a great deal about what would happen in the event that something like this ever come to pass. He was to go away, never to return. She knew that he had enough money and other paperwork to live a good long time. And trusted lawyers to get him her pension as well as her insurance money in the event that she was killed. Which they both knew was highly likely.

Nikki wished that he was here with her now. That he was holding her hand like he had when she was a little girl. And telling her stories about his days as a beat cop working his way up as an FBI agent. Christ, she loved that old man more than she did herself.

~~~

Aedan wasn’t sure what to do with his hands. Nor his body, for that matter. Every time someone would walk by him in the television studio, he’d feel like begging them to tell him what to say. But he only had to look down at his hand, the one that his mom had put a small mark on, to know that he was going to be all right. The small magic marker drawn paw print did a lot for his nervousness.

He was going to be in a debate with the current governor…an idiot for sure, but this had been planned without Aedan’s knowledge. Aedan had been at his office, the one that he used to work for the Harrison Firm, when his phone buzzed. Picking it up while still reading over the paperwork that he should have turned in yesterday, he barely heard his secretary telling him who was on the other end before telling her it was fine.

“Mr. Harrison, Aedan Harrison?” He sat up in his seat when he heard his name from an unfamiliar voice. “This is Cable News 10. We’re wondering what kind of ticket that you’re running under, and what you think about the debate tomorrow night.”

“Debate?” She laughed and told him that it was tomorrow night on television. Then she proceeded to tell him that her network was carrying it live. “I’m sorry, but I’ve not been notified of any debate. Are you sure about this?”

She laughed again and he wanted to smack her. Not prone to violence, he had to let out a long breath before he reached out to Riordan to see what he knew about it.

Nothing. Are you sure?
He told him what Penelope, the caller, had told him.
Let me do some checking. Can you get her to give you a few minutes?

I’m sure she won’t notice. She’s been going on for the last five minutes about how her station, Cable 10 by the way, is carrying all the debates, as well as some Christmas line-up that will knock your socks off.
Riordan was still laughing when he told him again to hang on. When she took a breath, Aedan cut her off. “I’m sorry, but I’ve not been notified of any debate, and I’ve contacted some people, and they knew nothing about it either. Can you give me some short details on it?”

“You were to be notified by courier a week ago.” He told her he had not been. “I’m sure that I have the receipt here somewhere. Let me find it on my desk.” She asked if he had signed for it. Aedan told her that he thought he’d remember something like that. “That’s strange. I was just given a list of names that were going to be there, just you and the governor it turns out, and to contact you to get information on your ideas for the state. I have no idea where the receipt is. And it would only be the one that was attached to it when I took it to the courier office.”