Beg Me to Slay (19 page)

Tegan frowned. “She won’t wake up and talk to the police?”

“No. She’s gone.”

She glanced into the backseat. “She’s just a vegetable?”

“Basically, yeah.” He turned to her. “Are you hurt?”

Tegan shrugged, unfastening her seat belt and reaching for the door handle. “I’ll live.”

He touched her hand, and she froze. “I wish this had all been different.”

“Please don’t.” Tegan looked at him and sighed. “Don’t make this any tougher for me.”

“You don’t think it’s tough for me, too?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You amaze me. You tell me that being with me makes you feel guilty and walk out of my life, then the second I start to think I can move forward, you’re telling me you miss me.” She got out of the car and bent down to look at him through the open door. “Missing me isn’t going to be enough to make this work, Gabe. You told me you loved me, and you walked away so I wouldn’t get hurt. Well, guess what? You hurt me more than any of those demons ever did.”

She slammed the door and walked toward the waves.

Gabe watched her go. Her words stung. Probably because most of them were true.

He got out and opened the trunk. Bending his arm, he circled his shoulder a couple of times, loosening the newly healed muscles. After wrapping Tina’s body in a blanket, he carried her down to the sand, and then walked over to Tegan.

He stood beside her, and she didn’t sock him. He took that as a good sign. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“Me too.” The ocean wind blew her hair back, but her gaze never left the waves.

“Do you think you could ever let me make it up to you?”

He held his breath, and she looked up and met his eyes. “Do you think you can let go of the past?”

Her gaze pinned him, forcing him to face the truth of his life. Could he let his guilt go? He ground his teeth together, picturing his life without Tegan, a life that included her smiling at someone else. Maddock had been right about one thing: if Gabe stayed on this path, it wouldn’t matter how many demons he sent back to hell. They would have already won.

“I want a future, Tegan.” He brought his hand up to caress her cheek. “I want a future
with you
.”

Her eyes searched his, still wary. “What about the demons?”

“I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.” He waited, hoping for a smile, for any sign of what was going on in her head.

She reached up, covering his hand on her cheek, and finally rewarded him with a smile that stole his breath away. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

He bent his head to kiss her lips, groaning at the sweet taste of her tongue. His whole body came alive as he pulled her close. He savored her kisses and leaned his head against hers. “I’m sorry I walked away.”

“I’m glad you came back.”

The corner of his mouth curved into a crooked smile. “Me too. That Brian guy was dancing awfully close to
my
girl.”

Tegan laughed, and the sound lit him up inside, confirming he was a complete idiot for ever letting her go.

“I could get used to being your girl.”

Gabe grabbed her hand, their fingers entwining. “Good.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “I love you, Tegan.”

“I love you, too.” She grinned at him, rising up on her toes. “You should definitely kiss me now.”

Gabe pulled her into his arms, his lips claiming hers, hard and urgent. Her tongue tangled with his, and he drowned in the sweet taste of her. He finally broke the kiss, sweeping Tegan up into his arms. “Can I give you a ride home?”

Tegan wrapped her arms around his neck. “That’d be great, since my car has a couple flat tires.”

“We’ll have to worry about your car tomorrow.” He stole one more soft, lingering kiss. “We’ve got some catching up to do.”

She wet her lips and gave a sexy smile that made him rock-hard in his jeans. “
Lots
of catching up.”

He couldn’t get her back to her place fast enough.

Epilogue

Tegan closed the old text she was studying. Since Gabe had moved in two months earlier, he’d had her prepping for the future. In his line of work, he never knew what would come next, so she had to be ready for anything. She pulled on her gi and brushed her hair into a ponytail. If she got downstairs to the dojo soon, she’d have about twenty minutes to herself to warm up before her teen class arrived. She jogged down the stairs to the dojo and froze in her tracks.

“Gabe? I thought you were working.” She frowned.

Then she saw what he was wearing: the gi she’d bought him. He always wore sweats and a tank in the dojo, and this was the first time she’d ever seen him wear it.

He turned around and bowed, keeping his eyes on hers. “I got off early.”

She smiled. “Oh…”

The bathroom in the corner of the space opened, and a short man in a tool belt came out with a plunger over his shoulder. She was about to ask what had happened when she noticed the embroidered name on his shirt. “Mr. Lago?”

The portly plumber grinned and tipped his stained baseball cap. “Gabe invited me.”

She’d never seen Gabe’s demon snitch in his human disguise. He was actually kind of cute, like an older Mario from the Nintendo video games. She glanced at Gabe, poised to pepper him with questions, when the front door opened so hard it slammed against the wall.

Devon scrambled past the rest of the car-pool crew. “Did you ask her yet?”

Gabe chuckled and shook his head. “No. She just got down here.”

“Oh good.” Devon yelled out the door. “We didn’t miss it, Mom.”

Tegan raised a brow. “Miss what?”

Heather, the only girl in the advanced teen class, grinned at Gabe and then bowed to Tegan with a giggle. “You’ll see.”

Tegan crossed her arms, her hip swaying to the side. “What’s going on?”

Before Gabe could answer, her dad walked through the door, proudly displaying the family tartan with an embroidered red dragon on his kilt. Her mother clasped his hand tight. Tegan’s heart fluttered up into her throat.

“Daddy?”

Gabe approached her father with a grin and shook his hand. “Good to see you, Maddock.”

Her dad gave him a wink. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

Tegan dropped her arms when Gabe turned toward her with a velvet box bearing the Welsh red dragon emblem on its lid. He nodded to Devon. The teen raced over with one of the chairs she kept at the edge of the room and placed it behind her.

“Sit down, Sensei,” Devon whispered.

Tegan’s palms sweated, butterflies filled her stomach, and her fingertips tingled all at once. She sat down, her gaze locked on Gabe’s. He knelt on one knee and smiled up at her.

“I used to think being alone was my destiny, but you changed all that the day our paths crossed. All of the people in this room have come into my world, too, because of you.”

She blinked back tears and took the hand he offered, her heart racing like crazy. Gabe gave her fingers a squeeze and flipped the box open with his other hand, displaying a diamond set into a Celtic knot ring. “You claim I saved your life, but Tegan, you gave me back mine.”

A tear slipped down her cheek, and Gabe’s gaze held hers until everyone else in the room faded and it was only them.

His voice was soft and deep. “
Wnei di fy mhriodi i
?”

Tegan slipped out of the chair and into his strong arms, laughing and crying all at once. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Tegan.” Gabe held her tight, his hand cradling the back of her head. She breathed in his scent and thought she might never stop smiling.

Her class whooped in the background and her father bragged about coaching Gabe on the Welsh Gaelic pronunciation. Tegan had never been happier.

Her gaze wandered, and a smile curved over her lips. “I’m staring at our spot on the back wall,” she whispered against his ear.

Gabe laughed and growled low. “I am a very lucky man.”

Acknowledgments

I wrote this book during a really dark time in my life. My mantra became “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Gabe and Tegan came to me, both wounded survivors, and by writing their story and watching them heal, I healed right along with them. Big thanks to my editor Danielle Poiesz for all of her spot-on comments and feedback. Thanks to my agent, Laurie McLean, who found a home for this book right away. I also want to thank Panda and Denise Fluhr for being my first readers and encouraging me to finish this book fast.

Thanks to Katie Clapsadl for all her help promoting this book and to the Night Angel Legion! You’re the best.

And thanks to my husband, Ken, for believing in me and my writing even when the road gets rocky. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.

Read on for a look at

Moonlight

The first book in Lisa Kessler’s exciting Moon series

Now available from Entangled Edge

Chapter One

Lana

“I’ll have an Intimidator with extra bacon and two baskets of Cajun fries.” I handed my menu to the waitress, who raised a judgmental brow.

“That’s an awful lot of food for a tiny thing like you.”

I was actually twenty-five, but without ID to prove it, a truant officer would probably haul me right back to high school.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got a big appetite so…” I kept the fact that even though I looked small I could probably wrestle the big guy at the counter to the floor in a heartbeat to myself. I could also eat fast. With any luck, I’d be out of there before the creeps in the matching jumpsuits tracked me down again.

The waitress glanced over to the ladies room and back again. I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m not binging and purging. Can I just have the burger and fries? Please?” I debated asking for dessert, too, but my order should’ve been enough food to keep me from getting blood on my hands later.

“Of course.” She snatched the menu from me and hustled away before I could give her my drink order.

Great. Oh well, I wasn’t thirsty anyway.

After fidgeting with the silverware, unfolding the paper napkin, and placing it in my lap, I glanced around the restaurant. I was running out of things to keep myself busy, and my paranoia grew with every passing second. Sighing, I peered out the window across the parking lot and then up at the dark night sky. No followers. No moon either.

I shivered. The new moon hadn’t been my friend in years.

Each new moon night meant waking up someplace I’d never been before, without any memory of how I got there. The sleepwalking started around the time I turned eighteen. At least that’s what I hoped it was—it
seemed
like sleepwalking. But my body only reacted in time with the phases of the moon, Lunar Phases. I’m pretty sure that’s where we get the word “lunatic” but don’t quote me on that.

Over the years, I learned to deal with “it,” but not so much what “it” might be. And last year after a visit to Bellevue, I thought I might finally be getting closer to figuring out this odd monthly cycle of mine, but it only made my world unravel even further.

Then there was the squirrel incident.

My gut retched at the memory, and I checked over my shoulder. New moon nights made me tense, but this one seemed different. Something felt off.

I faced the table again, shaking my head. Nothing looked suspicious. No men in white coats armed with sedatives in the next booth.

Maybe I’d finally lost them.

It wasn’t like Bellevue Hospital in L.A. would find me here in The Hot Rod Café in Reno and lock me up while I waited for my bacon cheeseburger and two baskets of fries. They wouldn’t come this far. At least I hoped not.

So why did my heart race like crazy?

The bell on the door jingled.

Oh, God. They found me.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled, and my muscles knotted with adrenaline, aching to run, to escape. Cold sweat beaded along my spine as I fought stay in my seat. Forcing my lungs to breathe, I made a conscious effort to keep from hyperventilating and did my best not to let the panic show on my face when I turned around.

A tall, dark-haired man filled the open doorway, wearing blue jeans and a black Aerosmith concert tee. His bright green eyes scanned the restaurant, and I caught myself staring. I couldn’t help it.

He was maybe six feet tall, but I sucked at guessing heights. His black leather boots were scuffed—more like hiking boots than biker boots—and he wore a heavy silver chain around his neck with some sort of pendant hanging in the center of his chest. His very well-muscled and very broad chest.

When he looked my way, my jaw snapped shut. His dark hair was messy in that way that looks dangerous on a guy but sloppy on a girl. From under his stray locks, his gaze connected with mine. I was pretty sure I started gnawing at my lower lip. It was a bad habit, but I usually did it when I got nervous. Either way, he took it as an invitation of some sort.

I didn’t have a great grasp of what guys considered a “come hither” look, so maybe I gave him one. I’d thought it was a “leave me the hell alone” look, but who knew.

When he got to my table, my gaze caught on the pendant around his neck—a bullet. Or at least it looked like a bullet. Weird. My eyes moved farther up, to see his face. The right corner of his mouth twisted into what might have been a smile, but my alarm bells rang inside.
Time to get out of the restaurant
.

“Aren’t you going to invite me to sit?”

I frowned and rubbed my moist hands against my jeans. “I wasn’t planning on it. There are plenty of other tables open.”

He glanced around the café and then at me again. My pulse shot up in response.

“You’re not at any of the other tables.” Even with curls of hair hanging in his face, his emerald eyes bore into me.

“That’s the point.” Hopefully my voice carried more conviction than I felt. Stupid hormones. Gorgeous or not, I had no idea who he was or why he seemed so intent on my company. I had to get rid of him. “I wasn’t looking for company.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Neither was I.”

“Good, then go sit someplace else.”

Oh, thank God. The waitress headed over with a huge tray piled high with my food. Saved by a burger.

He stepped aside to let her work, and when all the baskets were on the table, the waitress straightened and looked at tall-dark-and-handsome at twelve o’clock. He stood there shamelessly while she gave him a slow once-over.

She glanced at me with a wry smile. “Is this gentleman with you?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but he beat me to it.

“Yes, I am.” He plopped down across from me in the booth and winked. “Thanks for ordering fries for me, doll.”

The waitress seemed satisfied and sashayed back to the kitchen. I glared at my unwanted dinner guest and picked up my one-pound bacon cheeseburger. “I’m
not
your ‘doll,’ and these fries are
not
for you.”

“You’ve got quite an appetite for a little thing.”

“Yeah, so I’ve heard.” I shot an evil-eyed glare toward the waitress, couldn’t help it.

“So what’s your game?” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “What the hell are you doing here during new moon?”

I almost choked on my burger.

Dabbing my mouth with the napkin, I scooted up in my seat a little. Up close his eyes looked like a dense forest of green. Easy to get lost in them if you looked too long. And I was getting lost.
Crap! Focus, Lana
.

He couldn’t possibly know about me and the new moon. Unless… But he didn’t look like the type who worked in a psych hospital.

I leaned back again and forced my mouth to move. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He pressed his large hands flat on the table, his shoulders tensed, and something in his eyes looked…confused? “I smelled you from outside the building. Why do you think I came in here?”

Without thinking, I kicked him under the table. Hard. I also took more than a little satisfaction in seeing the surprise on his face. “If you’re
trying
to sweep me off my feet, telling me I stink isn’t the way to do it.”

He smirked. “If I were trying to sweep you off your feet, you’d be swept. Period.” His tone was deep, leaving me unsure if he was threatening or teasing.

“Wow! You’ve managed to elevate pompous to an art form.” I snapped up a few fries and gave him my best get-lost glare. “Leave me alone.”

His eyes narrowed on me, but then the door opened and he spun around. Four men in matching gray riot gear came in. The burger I ate turned to stone in my stomach.

I’d seen the leader’s face in my rearview mirror before. They were here for me.

My unwelcome companion got up to intercept them. “Can I help you?”

His broad shoulders blocked my view. I hoped that went both ways and the goons couldn’t see me either.

The leader came closer. “This doesn’t concern you.”

I shimmied under the table and slid out of the booth. The head guy rested his hand on his gun. My heart raced. I couldn’t let somebody get shot because of me, but my years of self-defense classes didn’t really prepare me for a group of armed, trained attackers.

“I think they’re here for me.”

My dinner date didn’t take his attention off the ring leader. “I don’t care who they came for. No reason for them to come in here with guns.”

The mention of guns sent gasps around the café. I sent up a silent prayer that someone in the bathroom was calling 911.

The leader didn’t move. “Step away from the lady.”

“Can’t help you there. Why don’t we take this outside?”

“I don’t have time for this, asshole.” He nodded his head and his goons lunged forward to grab my protector’s arms.

He yanked his arms inward, cracking the goons’ heads together with a hollow thump. One of his arms came free and he used it to send another one of the men sailing across the café. The man’s head crashed through the pie display case and his body lay limp. My muscled friend punched the second man in the chin, knocking him off his feet.

While he fought, the leader drew his weapon. “Watch out!” I shouted.

He tackled the leader around the waist just as the pistol fired. Screams pierced my ears and glass shattered. Hopefully that meant the bullet exited the building without hitting anyone. One more punch and the man lay motionless on the floor.

My hands trembled at my sides while I kicked the gun away from his fingertips. Cyrus was embroidered on the upper left of his riot gear. He looked much less threatening when he was unconscious. Before I turned to go, I noticed something on the inside of his wrist. I squatted closer. The inside of his wrist had a tattoo, a lion’s head with an “N” branded in the center. My chest constricted as I squinted my eyes for a better look. I’d seen that emblem before.

I’m losing it
. All I needed was to pass out here in front of all these people. I took a step toward the door when my protector grabbed my hand. The moment I gripped his, he stumbled and glanced at me over his shoulder, frowning.

He blinked and shook it off before I ran toward the exit with him. “Sirens.” It took a second before I heard the familiar sound. He had some crazy amazing hearing. “We need to go. Now.”

I agreed completely. Dodging glass and bodies, we made it to the door. Outside, I yanked my hand free and glanced at my rental car in the parking lot. At this point, driving probably wasn’t a great idea since I could lose consciousness at any time during the new moon. Shit.

“We can’t be here when the police arrive.”

His voice jarred me from my thoughts and I managed a nod.

“Good.” His lip began to curl up into a smile, and then his expression quickly blanked. “Let’s run.”

I turned to bolt in the other direction, but his large hand caught my arm.

“This way. Away from the city.” Electrical pulses shot up my arm, probably shock from almost being shot. Or the new moon working its craziness on me. How long could I run before I blacked out?

Whoever this guy was, his instincts were good. The last thing I wanted was to be sleepwalking in downtown Reno. When we got a few miles from the café, he slowed. I should’ve been winded, but I wasn’t even out of breath.

“Thanks for helping me ditch those guys back there.” Brushing my hair back from my face, I stared up at the handsome stranger who just saved my bacon. “I don’t even know your name.”

“I’m Adam.” He offered his hand and I shook it, feeling that same strange tingle.

“Lana. You were pretty amazing tossing those guys around back there.”

He shrugged, his muscular shoulders rolling back. “Who were those guys, and why are they after you?”

The image of the tattoo inside the gunman’s wrist popped into my head again. What did it mean? I forced my focus back to Adam. I’d have to figure it out later.

“I should be asking you the same question. You came looking for me. Why?” I jammed my hands in my pockets, reminding myself that I had a cylinder of pepper spray and my cell phone. Just in case.

His eyes narrowed. “Because in the past two weeks jaguar shifters have killed humans in my city and left mutilated bodies out in the open. I won’t let that happen again.”

I took a step back, doing my best to process this crazy talk. “Shifters? You lost me.”

“Like you.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. He didn’t appear to be joking. “Now why don’t you tell me who those men were in the diner?”

“Like me?” I shook my head. Maybe he was drunk. “Look, I’m just passing through. I appreciate your help back there, but I’ll be fine. I’m not who you think I am, so you really don’t need to get involved.”

“Someone tried to shoot me. I’m already involved.”

I groaned. “I didn’t ask you to protect me.”

“You didn’t look like you wanted to go with them.” He pinned me with his intense gaze.

“I don’t know who they are, okay?” My arms felt heavy.
Please don’t black out now
. “Bellevue tried to lock me up for seventy-two hours and ship me to a psych facility back east, so I escaped. I’m guessing they sent these guys to bring me back.”

One corner of his mouth twisted up. “Do you really think a hospital would send men with guns to shoot you?” He shook his head, his arms dropping to his sides. “Why are you playing games?”

My head pounded. “I’m not playing anything. In fact, I was minding my own business having some dinner until you barged in like a crazy person.”

“Tonight is the new moon, and instead of staying away from people, you’re in the middle of a restaurant. If those hired guns hadn’t taken you out, my Pack would have.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I frowned. “Your Pack?”

“I should’ve taken care of you myself. You were in my sector of town, but you don’t seem like the others, and now…” He hesitated, clenching his jaw. “I couldn’t do it.”