Big Bad Wolf (24 page)

Nick grinned as he watched her throw her head back and laughed.
She was getting feistier by the day.
And suddenly, he wanted her again.
She stopped in mid-laugh.

“Let’s get something to eat,” he said, his voice low and full of dark promise.
“Then I’ll show you who your master is, little Red Grasshopper.”

Jaymee made a face at him.
By now she’d learned to recognize that blatant male look.
“What bad puns you have, Mr. Wolf.”

For the first time in eight years, she couldn’t wait to get home.
After paying Dicker and Lucky, they prepared a simple meal together.
Dinner was the way Jaymee had always imagined romance to be — on the back porch, with the view of the setting sun and the shadows and golden lights of the lake in the distance, and her lover feeding her cold meat and wine.
They kissed and joked, drawing out the evening into night.

“T
omorrow, I’ll help you with the
old house,” Nick said, lazily twirling her curls with his forefinger.
The sunset was bright, making her hair a fiery halo.
He remembered it against him, the way it caressed down his chest when she trailed kisses down his body.
He shifted position.

Jaymee snuggled deeper into his lap.
“You’re a hungry monster,” she murmured, absolutely aware of his discomfort.

“Wolf,” he corrected.
“Let’s get to bed, so we can have your head start tomorrow.”

She chuckled.
“I’m sure you want to just rest, so we can work on the remodeling,” she mocked.

“Of course.
You don’t have to do a thing, just lie there,” he promised, and gently nudged her off his lap.

They were making their way to the old house, kissing and teasing each other, when Nick suddenly pulled her to a stop.
He looked around sharply, his eyes alert.
Puzzled, Jaymee followed his eyes, but there was nothing but trees and shadows.

“What is it?”

“Shhh.”
Nick hadn’t been able to shake off that ‘being watched’ feeling for a few days now.
This time, he was sure.
Putting Jaymee behind his body, he carefully looked for signs.

Jaymee stared at the appearance of a knife in Nick’s hand.
A huge, ugly thing, with serrated edges.
A Bowie knife.
Where had he hidden that thing?

A voice suddenly came out from among the shadows — disembodied, hushed, deadly.
It made her blood run cold.
“I was beginning to wonder whether you’
d
lost all your training.”

Jaymee gasped, looking around.
She couldn’t see anything.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a swishing noise, and something streaked past.
Nick cursed and grabbed his arm.
She turned and gaped in horror.

It was the strangest feeling, as if she w
ere
watching everything from far away.
But this was real; she knew it was unbelievably real.
That was real blood oozing out between Nick’s fingers where he was clutching his bicep.

The evening sun was spotty among the trees and bushes, making it impossible to discern between shadows and shapes.
Jaymee looked around, trying to calm her overworking imagination.
Right now, even the trees looked gothic and menacing.

She glanced back Nick, who had instinctively pulled her closer.
He wasn’t paying attention to her right now, his gaze darting around and searching for their unseen assailant.
The deadly expression on his face made her catch her breath.

There was a whooshing sound from her left, and he immediately pulled her out of the way.
The thing, whatever it was, flew by her at tremendous speed, so close she felt the little breeze it made.
She was too shocked to make a sound.

“Better,” the disembodied voice continued, dark and sinister in the stillness.
“I think I’ll go for the jugular next.”

“Come out, damn it!” Nick challenged.

Jaymee could only stare in muted horror as a shadow jumped in front of him and started attacking.
Nick pushed her from him with one hand while his other blocked a chop.
She watched with disbelief as the two men fought, both strangely silent through their exertions.
They moved in some kind of stylized exercise, although the grunts of pain when their punches and kicks connected told her the fight was quite real.
Their assailant had his back to her.
He wasn’t as tall as Nick, but was obviously as strong and capable, as he countered Nick’s blows with swift retaliation.
She found herself gripping her throat in horror when one of his kicks connected and Nick cursed, grabbing at his wound, before he ducked low.
The Bowie knife fell on the ground.

There must be something she could do!
Wildly searching the ground around her, she picked up a sturdy looking branch.
Without further thinking, she charged at the stranger with the branch high and aimed at his head.
Either she missed, or he moved, she didn’t know—she had her eyes closed—and the momentum of her forceful blow brought her right in the middle of the action and she landed on her knees.
Frightened out of her mind, she hurled the branch in her hand at the attacker, then whatever she could grab—rocks, twigs, dirt, whatever.
Someone’s arm encircled hers to her body and lifted her off her feet.
Screaming, she kicked out in panic, trying to escape, her loosened hair flying around her shaking head like a whip.

“Stop it!
Damn it, Jaymee!
Stop!”

It took a few frenzied minutes before it sunk in it was Nick who had imprisoned her in his arms, and that the attacker was standing in front of them.
He just stood there, watching, his hands relaxed by his sides.
Jaymee ceased her struggles and stared back, her breath coming out in short gasps.

“Damn it,” Nick said in a low voice, “what the hell did you do that for?
You could have met with me later.”

It took a second or two before Jaymee registered he wasn’t talking to her, but to the stranger.
She went limp with astonishment.
He knew their attacker?
Why, then, did this man try to hurt him?

“How?” asked the stranger.
He was very soft-spoken, as if he seldom raised his voice.
There was a hint of mockery in it now.
“I didn’t know you’d grown a Siamese twin for company.
It’s been almost three days, and I still haven’t seen you actually alone yet.”

Nick gently put Jaymee on her feet.
Turning her around, he studied her dirt-streaked face, making sure she was unharmed.
He lifted a few curls plastered against her cheek.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?”

She nodded, still trying to grasp what was happening.
“Your arm!
He…he shot you or something!”

Rage filled her at the thought of his being injured, and she was about to whirl around to confront the enemy again when Nick gathered her into his arms.
He looked down at her tenderly, a small smile forming on his lips.

“It’s OK,” he assured her, reading her mind, knowing her fiery temper by now.
“He didn’t really hurt me.
He was playing around.”

Jaymee looked up and followed his gaze as he looked over her head at the other man, who lifted an insolent brow in answer.
She frowned, more than a little confused.

“Playing around?”
She touched Nick’s injured arm, checking the wound that had stopped bleeding.
There was a vertical slice across the flesh, but it didn’t look very deep.
“This is playing around?”

Her voice was slightly higher than usual.
She showed him the blood on her fingers.

Nick sighed.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Jaymee...” he began.

But Jaymee wasn’t in the mood to be placated.
She turned around to face this man who was “playing around.”
The first thing that caught her attention was his strange eyes, set off by the tanned face.
They were very light, the color of chipped ice, as they glittered out of his face.
Her mouth gaped as realization dawned.

“Why, you’re related!”

He had Nick’s eyes, the same shape, down to the long eyelashes, although there was no blue in them as he returned her stare with the same familiar watchfulness Nick had.
The deadly coldness in them made her shiver, in spite of the humidity of the evening.
Wolf eyes.
And this one was a killer wolf.
He was shorter, but had the same slanted shoulders, the same whipcord leanness.
His face was rugged, with chiseled features.
She realized he looked so menacing because there was simply no expression on his hard face.
But those eyes.
And those long, long lashes.

Nick stroked her tensed back.
“Yes, this is my cousin, Jed.”

The man didn’t attempt to shake her hand or acknowledge her in any way.
Instead, he turned his attention back to Nick.

“I got tired of waiting.
After checking her out, I calculated no risk in exposing myself when she’s with you.”

“You didn’t answer my message.
I couldn’t know for sure whether you’d reach me so soon,” Nick explained.

Jed nodded.
“Too dangerous.
I need to talk to you face-to-face.”
The corner of his lips lifted in a mere trace of mockery.
“I’m sorry to have to interrupt your plans.
I’ll try to make this quick.”

Nick squeezed Jaymee’s shoulder lightly, then walked over to his cousin.
She continued staring, absorbing the meaning of “checked her out” and “too dangerous.”
She watched the two men lock arms in salute.

“Long time, cousin.
Hoo-yah, Airborne.”

“Hoo-yah.
All-the-way,” Jed greeted back softly.
“We thought you didn’t jump out of the boat in time.”

Nick shrugged.
“It was close.”
He stepped back, then moved toward a clump of trees.
“Were you standing here when you tried to scare me, you son of a bitch?”

“No, I was at six-o’clock.”

He frowned.
“Funny, I thought I saw a shadow here first.”
A wry smile suddenly curved his lips, and he gave a loud sigh.
He called out, loud and mocking, “If I find worms in my hair this time, I’m going to turn you over my knee!”

The rustling of leaves above Nick caught Jaymee’s attention, and her eyes widened even more when someone popped out from the low branches, hanging upside-down.
A woman—she noted, growing ever more amazed—because of the two pigtails hanging down.

“So if they’re spiders, I’m OK, right, Cousin Kill?”

Not a woman, Jaymee realized, but a teenager.
With green hair.

Nick reached up and tugged at the green pigtails.
The owner deliberately tumbled down and he caught her in his arms without missing a step.
“You’ve grown, little trouble,” he said to the bundle he held.

“Little Trouble” wrapped her arms around Nick’s neck and gave him an affectionate smack on the lips.
Jaymee felt a tug of jealousy.
“Not so little.
I’m a grown woman, Kill!”

“One with green hair.
How interesting,” drawled Nick.
He set her down and looked at Jaymee again, his arm around the younger girls’ shoulders.
He gave her a searching look, but couldn’t gauge her mood.
“This is my second cousin, Jaymee.”

“Little Trouble,” chirped the girl with an impish grin, giving a small wave.

Jaymee liked her immediately.
She had an engaging smile and the face of a doll.

“Grace,” Nick said, pulling a pigtail.
“Her hair is usually a very normal brown.”

Grace, Jaymee assumed, must be Jed’s child, although with her green hair and dark brown eyes, she didn’t share any family resemblance to the two men.
She was actually very exotic looking.
She must also have a foreign mother, judging from the almond-shaped eyes and high cheekbones.
She was about her height, with a slim body, a lively face, and especially bold eyes.

“Hello,” she greeted back.

“Sorry we startled you, Miss Barrows.
Jed didn’t mean it, honest.”

Jed?
She called her father Jed?
This was giving Jaymee a headache.
And how did this girl know her name?
With a helpless shrug, she glanced back at Nick.
He was studying her, that watchful look back in his slate-gray eyes.
With his dirty tee
-
shirt, his black hair dampened by sweat, and dried blood staining his arm, he looked intimidating.
Letting go of Grace, he walked back toward her.