Bite Me if You Can (31 page)

“What did Mortimer and Bricker say?” Lissianna asked as the men reclaimed their seats.

“Morgan and Donny may be here somewhere after all,” Lucian answered. “A second credit card from another one of Morgan’s victims at the house was activated at a hotel in Iowa. As soon as he was informed, Bastien sent Pimms and Anders there. They were two of my men who were in the area,” he explained to Leigh, before continuing, “When they raided the room that had been rented, they rounded up a young couple who had apparently escaped with Morgan and Donny the morning we hit the house.”

“So four of them escaped that morning?” Rachel asked with a frown.

“Six,” Lucian corrected. “There were two other men with Morgan and Donny. Apparently, they’re the ones who flew up on the plane from Des Moines, new turns that Mortimer and Bricker wouldn’t have recognized.”

“Morgan sent two up on the plane?” Lissianna asked with surprise. “Why didn’t they all fly up?”

“Morgan has a phobia to flying,” Etienne answered, then added, “Apparently, while he was tired of the long drive with the seven of them crammed in the van, he didn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket. He sent two of the men on the plane, gave the second credit card to the couple Pimms and Anders caught and told them to take turns driving, travel straight through without stopping, and meet him here in Toronto.”

“But they stopped at a hotel and got caught for disobeying him,” Rachel said.

“The van broke down,” Greg explained quietly. “They took a room to sleep in while it was being repaired.”

“But where are Donny and Morgan?” Leigh asked with a frown.

Lucian hesitated, but reluctantly admitted, “Morgan had the couple drop him and Donny at the train station. They bought tickets to Toronto with cash.”

Leigh stilled, alarm coursing through her. “How long does it take to get here by train?”

When the men exchanged grim glances but didn’t rush to answer the question, her eyes widened and she said with dread, “They’re already here, aren’t they?”

“They could be,” Etienne admitted solemnly. “And if not, they will be soon. Unfortunately, they paid cash and didn’t buy the tickets in their own names, so we don’t know exactly which trains and transfers they took and when they’ll arrive.”

“If it’s possible they’re already here, shouldn’t Mortimer and Bricker be at the house watching for them?” Lissianna asked.

“Pimms and Anders flew straight here after handling the couple in Iowa. They’re at the house now,” Greg assured her. “Two more men are watching the train station here in Toronto, though we suspect it’s too late to catch them there. Mortimer and Bricker are here to watch the bar. Morgan apparently planned for everyone to meet up here tonight, so he may show up at some point.”

Leigh glanced around, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. It looked like she’d been wrong and Donny and Morgan were headed her way. She found it hard to believe, but apparently they were.

“We should call it a night,” Greg said quietly.

The women all nodded in agreement and started to gather their things.

“We also think Uncle Lucian and Leigh should go stay in a hotel. Just to be safe,” Etienne added.

Leigh stiffened, her eyes shooting to Lucian. His face was expressionless, no upset showing, but she was sure he would be. He’d had to leave the hunt for Morgan in Kansas to bring her north and oversee her turning. Now Morgan was on his home turf, and rather than be able to stand and fight, Lucian had to rush her to safety. He had to resent it.

Leigh’s unhappy thoughts were interrupted when Etienne added, “There’s a slim possibility that Morgan was already here in Toronto and watching Uncle Lucian’s house when they swung by to pick up his things this afternoon.” He turned his gaze to Leigh and continued, “They may have followed you back to Marguerite’s and are waiting until you’re alone to do anything. We all think you should head straight to the hotel from here rather than stop there and risk running into him.”

“But Julius is at the house. We can’t leave him alone without food or water,” Leigh said with concern, then her eyes widened and she asked, “Morgan wouldn’t hurt Julius, would he?”

The men all exchanged glances, then Greg said, “We could take Julius for a couple days.”

“Or we could,” Etienne added, then hesitated. “But it might be better if he stays with Lucian and Leigh. He’d be added protection.”

Lucian nodded. “We’ll pick him up on the way out of town.”

“But you can’t,” Lissianna reminded him. “You shouldn’t go to the house by yourselves. Besides, what hotel takes dogs? Especially Julius-sized dogs?”

There was silence as everyone considered the matter, then Rachel sat forward.

“Okay, here’s an idea,” she said. “Greg and Etienne head over to get Julius. The rest of us go to our place to wait for them. Then, when the guys bring Julius back, Leigh and Lucian take my car and head out of town.”

“Why your car?” Etienne asked.

“In case Morgan is already here somewhere watching. If he follows us to the house, all he’ll see is a car leaving the garage. The windows are darkened. Lucian’s car will still be there, and hopefully he won’t think it’s them leaving.”

“That’s good, but there’s still the problem of a hotel that will take dogs,” Lissianna pointed out.

Everyone frowned, then Thomas sprung upright. “The cottage.”

“The cottage?” Leigh asked with confusion.

“I have a cottage on the lake,” he explained. “It’s about two and a half hours south of here. You guys could go there with Julius. Morgan couldn’t possibly know about it.”

They were all silent, then Greg nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

Leigh remained silent as everyone stood and began to make their way out of the club. She waited until she and Lucian were outside and walking a little behind the others before saying, “You don’t have to do this.”

He slowed to a stop and turned to peer at her in confusion. “Do what?”

Leigh bit her lip. “I realize you probably want to be in on catching Morgan. I appreciate that you gave up the hunt to look after me during the turn, but it seems unfair that you’ll have to give it up again when he’s come to your own hometown. You don’t have to take me to a hotel. I can go by myself, maybe take Julius just in case, and you could stay and be in on the hunt.”

A soft smile curved Lucian’s lips and he raised a hand to brush it gently down her cheek as he shook his head. “Leigh, your safety is my top priority.”

She peered up at him uncertainly. “You aren’t going to resent me for—”

“Of course not,” he assured her as if she were being silly. When she still looked uncertain, he said, “Leigh, I’ve been alive thousands of years, and been a warrior for most of that time. I’ve hunted and brought in more rogues than I can count. I have nothing to prove, no burning desire to chase him down and bring him in myself. You’re my main concern. If Morgan’s after you, I want to make sure you’re well out of the way and he can’t get his hands on you. I don’t mind leaving the actual catching of him to others. Besides, there will always be another hunt.”

When Leigh let her shoulders relax, a small, relieved smile pulling at her lips, Lucian smiled back and took her hand to urge her after the others.

“You can turn your windshield wipers off. The rain has stopped.”

Leigh ground her teeth together and flicked the switch to turn off the wipers. They’d been on the road for two hours. Julius had finally stopped drooling over her shoulder about half an hour ago and gone to sleep in the back. She wished Lucian would do the same in the front seat. He was driving her crazy.

Everything had gone according to plan except one thing. They’d gotten to the house, Greg and Etienne had shown up with Julius, they talked for several hours, going over what to do if there was a problem and so on, then piled into the attached garage of Rachel and Etienne’s home. That was when things stopped going according to plan. Lucian got into the driver’s seat, stopped in surprise and cursed. Rachel’s car was a stick shift. Much to Leigh’s surprise, Lucian didn’t drive stick. It seemed that until they’d invented automatic cars, he’d had a driver, and so never bothered to learn.

Foolishly, Leigh had said it wasn’t a problem, she drove stick. She’d been regretting it for almost every minute of the last two hours. Lucian was a backseat driver. “You’re going too fast. You’re going too slow. Turn up your defroster. Turn off your wipers. You should have turned your blinker on sooner to give anyone following more time to slow down... ” Never mind that they were the only idiots on the road at three o’clock in the morning!

If they were going to survive as life mates without her wringing his neck, she would have to never drive again, Leigh decided, then blinked at her own thoughts. It was the closest she’d come to acknowledging that all the arguments and persuading Thomas, Lissianna, and Rachel had done that night were beginning to work. Sort of. Maybe. She wasn’t ready to jump in feet first or anything, but they could date for a while, see how it went... then, maybe, down the road—say in a year or two, if they got along—they could consider this whole life mate thing. She had jumped into her first marriage and regretted it. She wasn’t jumping again.

“Turn right,” Lucian said suddenly, and Leigh blinked her thoughts away.

She flicked on her blinker and turned, hoping they were almost there. Thomas had said the cottage was two and a half hours away on the lake, but that would have been at a normal speed limit. With the roads empty and Lucian driving her crazy, she’d sped up whenever he wasn’t looking at the speedometer, hoping to shorten the trip before she drove into a passing tree just to end it herself. Not that it would actually end anything, she supposed.

“There it is. Slow down.”

Leigh ground her jaws together, pressed her foot down on the brakes and wondered if they could take a bus back when all this was over. Or a taxi. Anything to avoid another drive like the one she’d just suffered.

“There,” Lucian said with a sigh as she pulled to a stop in front of the “cottage.”

Leigh stared at the chalet style house. She should have known the Argeneau idea of a cottage wouldn’t be her idea of a cottage. To her, a cottage was a two or three room shack with the basic necessities. This was bigger than most people’s homes. It was also gorgeous.

Grateful to see the end of the trip, she turned off the car and opened her door, nearly tripping over her feet in her haste to get out. A bark from Julius told her the dog was awake, and she opened the back door of the car as Lucian moved to the trunk. Julius leapt out of the backseat, trailing his leash behind him. Leigh caught it and drew him to a halt, grimacing when she found it wet.

“Can you pop the—” Lucian’s request died as Leigh hit the button on the remote to open the trunk. He leaned in to retrieve their bags and the cooler they’d brought. Once again they were without their own clothes and personal items, but the men had brought Julius’s dog food with them, and Rachel had filled bags with food and drink and some clothes for them both from her own home. She’d also packed a cooler with enough blood to last a couple days.

Lucian managed to gather everything in one trip, shaking his head when Leigh offered to help. Shrugging, she followed him to the door of the cottage, leading Julius. The mastiff was well-trained. He walked at her side, then sat down on his haunches when she paused on the wooden deck at the front door. Leigh patted him absently for the good behavior as Lucian stubbornly struggled with everything and tried to open the door at the same time.

After a moment she lost her patience, stepped up to his side and snatched away the keys he was fumbling with.

“You need to learn to accept help,” she said impatiently as she sorted through the keys, looking for the one she assumed would open the cottage. “You can’t do everything and control everything yourself. Even Superman needed his Lois Lane and Jimmy.”

Lucian’s mouth tightened and he followed her stiffly inside when she got the door open.

Leigh went to close the door behind them, then realized Julius was still outside. She’d dropped the leash to take the keys from Lucian, and the dog was now dragging it around the yard, jerking at it when it caught on things as he ran around, leaving his mark everywhere. Once satisfied that he’d staked out his territory, the dog trotted inside and stood patiently while Leigh removed the leash.

“Good doggy,” she murmured, patting his head. Julius gave her hand a swipe with his tongue, then padded off into the cottage, leaving her to close and lock the door.

Leigh surveyed their temporary new home with disbelief as she followed. The ground floor was one large living room with a small corner set off for a kitchen. The wall facing out on the lake was all glass, and there was lots of wood and light colors. It was beautiful, of course. These people didn’t appear to do anything by halves.

Ignoring Lucian in the kitchen, Leigh picked up the bag with their clothes in it and set it on the stairs leading to the second level. She knew it must be where the bedrooms were, and didn’t want to forget to take it up with her when she went to investigate. For now, she was content to take in the main floor.

Leigh peered over the comfortable looking furniture and glass and wood tables, then walked to the wall of glass and peered out at the lake. It was a calm night, no wind in sight, and the moonlight glinting off the placid surface looked so inviting she wondered if she’d be able to find a swimsuit around here. It was late fall but had been warm the last few nights, and the water should be beautiful.

Her thoughts were disturbed by a glass of wine appearing suddenly before her. Leigh followed the hand holding it, up the arm, then to Lucian’s face.

“I’m sorry.”

It was obvious Lucian wasn’t used to apologizing. He muttered the two words with the attitude of a six-year-old ordered by his mother to apologize, and her tension slid away as a laugh bubbled from her lips.

Lucian immediately relaxed, a wry smile claiming his lips.

“I guess that wasn’t the most gracious apology,” he admitted. “Thank you for not throwing it back in my face.”

“Which? The wine or the apology?” Leigh asked as she finally took the glass.