Breanna (2 page)

Neither of them moved for two hours except to find shirts, the bathroom and more food. Mrs. Aimes wasn’t due for a few days and the woman on the floor was still 10

sleeping. It was noon when Jas stood up and stretched, the tee shirt straining across the muscles on his chest.

“Do we know anyone we could call?” Nick asked, sensing the concern.

“Mariana would come out if we asked,” Jase admitted, opening the front door and latching the thick glass screen door in place. Rain was pelting down furiously on them, the ocean invisible in the distance and thunder rattling windows now and then.

“Well, she’d come out if you asked.”

“She doesn’t approve of your coffee,” Nick laughed softly.

“Damn naturopaths…..” Jase looked at the printer churning out pages. “What’d you find?”

“Background checks on your applicants. Filed requests for criminal checks,” Nick lifted the stack, quickly sorted and stapled before handing two pages to Jase. “Breanna Cooper.”

Jase took them, his feet parted and still bare as he looked from the sleeping woman to the pages.

“Thirty….lost her parents six weeks ago….address in Newburg….twenty minutes down the coast….runs a little café….blends her own coffee and teas,” his lips lifted slightly. The thought of the woman their wolves chose blending both coffee and tea making him grin. “There’s nothing here, Nick. She’s….”

“Boring? Normal? So someone just got a wild hair up their ass, knocked her out and dragged her to the beach to slit her wrists and leave her for dead?”

“We need more information. There are two scars on her wrists, but no slits and 11

that quilt was filled with her blood,” Jase pointed out again. “We don’t even heal that fast.”

“When we got handed a mate, she came complete with her own mystery, Jase,” Nick finished stacking the applications and leaned back in his chair, feet up on the edge of his desk and just watching, his attention divided between notes on the applications and highlighting things before passing each one over to Jase.

They’d just finished sandwiches when the soft sounds from the floor held them immobile.

Brea curled on her side, her face snuggled into the warmth.

It had been a while since she’d felt this warm. This safe. A soft groan left her lips. Her head hurt. Pale brown lashes rose slowly and then closed. Light. Annoying light meant it was morning. She was tired. She was responsible. She was arguing with herself again, she realized and stretched her arms from beneath the thick quilt.

Narrow slits barely acknowledged the stone in front of her. The very nicely inlaid stone that radiated warmth and almost had her curling back into the quilt. Her nose twitched. A really nicely smelling quilt. Not her smells. Coffee. Tea. She knew the smells but also knew they weren’t in her little apartment over the shop. If she was in bed, the café wasn’t open yet.

Which meant there shouldn’t be smells inside her little apartment other than soaps and candles. She slowly forced her eyes wider, blinking and taking in the flames behind the metal and glass grate.

A fireplace.

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She didn’t have a fireplace.

At least she didn’t when she went to sleep.

No. No, the voice said. Not sleep.

The scream pierced the silence in the house at the same time everything came rushing through her along with the thunderous roar above them as the storm continued outside.

Jase and Nick were up from their desk chairs but froze when she bolted upright and spun to face them. Shaking fingers gripped the edge of the quilt, pulling it to her throat. Her feet were against the floor and pushing her in crab-like movements until her back was against the stone wall beside the fireplace.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her head not moving while her eyes went from one to the other and back again.

Wow. If you’re going to get yourself kidnapped, you at least go for the rugged, good-looking types, she told herself in the middle of the panic attack. One hand left the quilt she clutched and rubbed the back of her head. She winced when she came into contact with the lump at the side of her head, just above her ear.

“Who….” Sharp amber circles watched them. Hunks. That’s what the girl in her came up with. Snug jeans, taut tee shirts…..damn sexy shadows on their faces. She whipped up her palm when the blonde one opened his mouth. One finger raised warningly. He closed his mouth.

“Where….” She shook her head sharply when the dark haired one opened his mouth, her finger waggling at him. Full, sensuous lips pursed into a taut little bow.

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“Why did you….”

“We didn’t hurt you,” Nick said hastily before she could raise another hand in their direction.

“And we certainly did not kidnap you,” Jase added with a scowl at his friend.

That part should have come out first.

“We found you unconscious on the beach.”

“The dark red car….but it wasn’t you….I was opening my shop….someone….” Brea lifted the quilt a little and peered down at herself. Sighing at the sight of her tank top and jeans.

Her eyes flew to her wrists. She’d felt the pain. Sharp and deep.

Jase stepped slowly closer, inhaling her scent and taking it inside him, allowing it to course through him like the winds outside whipped around the house.

“Someone….” She was breathing too quickly. Too much. Too fast. “I felt them. It hurt. I couldn’t stop them. I heard them talking. A man and a woman. They wanted to kill me. They….they….”

“Nick, get a cold cloth!” Jase moved fast, catching her before she fell into the ledge surrounding the fireplace. Unconscious, he laid her out on the thick carpet in front of the fireplace again, accepting the cold cloth from Nick and laying it over her forehead.

“Well….we got a little bit of a story….” Nick dropped to his heels, his fingers out to touch the strands of amber at the sides of her face.

“Dig deeper,” Jase growled, too aware of the wolf at the surface. He felt it in 14

Nick. Their mate had been hurt. Attacked. Almost killed.

“Her parents and neighbors,” Nick nodded and went to the computer, glancing over now and then from the prone woman to the man he’d called friend for so many years. Jase paced and Nick could smell the fury in the room. “We need it under control, Jase. Scaring her right now….”

“I know. I fucking know,” he said instantly, turning and striding into the kitchen area.

Brea woke slowly, the feel of the cool cloth over her eyes welcome and making her sigh. She heard the sound of a voice, strong and steady and recognized it as the news. But the other voices. The deep, masculine voices whispering a few feet from her.

Those she didn’t know. No, she corrected, she’d seen them, had their images lodged in that part of her that found them appealing and safe.

How did she know that? How could she be so certain, so positive that she was safe with them?

They knew she was waking. They could easily sense the life force coursing through her. Both of them set their work aside, sliding their chairs closer to where she lay on the thick rug, the tawny color of her hair stark against the deep green pillow Jase had slid beneath her head.

Brea lifted the corner of the cooling cloth and suddenly felt like prey. It took a lot of work to keep from letting the breathing get out of hand again. She moved slowly, back to the corner against the wall, next to the fireplace and stared at them. It definitely wasn’t a difficult thing to do, she thought, blinking and taking in the dark and 15

light of the men watching her.

“Nick Gaines,” he said quietly, not altering the casual leaning stance in the desk chair, hands up behind his head, legs extended before him.

“Jase Bishop,” he offered, hands clasp on his lap, one foot up and resting on the other knee. “How’s your head?”

“Pounding. Confused. Really confused,” she said softly, swallowing and looking at the palm that held out a bottle of water to her. She took it, opened it and drank half before handing it back. “Thank you.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Nick asked, his eyes drinking in the fluid movements, the delicate strength in her hands, the long slender arms and shoulders that shrugged slightly. “Is that a yes or a no?” But her attention wasn’t on them any longer, the big screen television holding her vision. They looked from the flames and firefighters and back to the wide eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“No….” it was barely whispered, her head shaking, her hands trembling as she doubled over, burying her face in the quilt.

Nick and Jase moved as if one, both slipping to the floor. Jase pulled her against him; Nick kept the quilt on her, his palm stroking lightly over her head.

“The computer,” Jase lifted her against him while Nick went to the desk, his hands moving over the keyboard for the news station. Jase settled her into the larger recliner, letting her curl down away from them both for the moment.

“Suspected arson,” Nick read quietly. “Blended Lives, a local café that created 16

their own special teas and coffees went up in smoke early this morning in a suspected case of arson. The owner, Breanna Cooper is unavailable for comment at this time. The shop was considered a popular meeting place and cyber café and was doing well since its opening two years ago. Police are investigating.” Both males turned when the woman spoke, on her feet for the first time since they found her, both felt the breath catch in their chests. Tall and lean, muscled and curved were the words each felt inside their minds. Sweet and stunningly pretty found a place, too.

“Bathroom, please?”

“Behind you, two doors down,” Jase said, watching her nod and stride away.

Only after the sound of the door closing reached them, did either of them realize they hadn’t done much breathing.

“Remind me to get my wolf a steak dinner,” Nick heard the rasping edge in his voice. Added to that was the stark realization that his cock was sitting up like a begging puppy made him grumble and adjust his jeans. “Damn.”

“Yeah….no kidding. And to think people told us we were wasting our lives waiting for our mate,” Jase thought about the simmering sensuality he felt behind the thick amber lashes and sighed.

“You talk like it’s a done deal.”

“Since when did you run tail from anything?” Jase snorted softly. “And Breanna is not something either of us can run from. It’s just a matter of convincing her to love us both.”

17

“Oh….hell…is that all,” Nick rolled his eyes. “It seemed almost plausible in the abstract.”

“Now you’re talking like a programmer,” Jase said with a laugh, standing up and putting chairs back in their places.

Both men stood waiting as she came down the hall. The evidence of her tears in the reddened eyes and shining eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, hands wringing in front of her.

“Come over here and sit, Breanna,” Jase held out a chair between both desks, the men waiting, watching as she nodded and sunk into the oversized office chair.

“You know who I am.”

“I went through your pack when we brought you to the house,” Jase confessed, sliding the wallet toward her over the desk surface.

She shrugged. “I guess what’s in the pack is all I have now. It’s okay. Nothing secret in there,” she struggled to find a smile and failed. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, Brea. You haven’t done anything to be sorry for,” Nick pushed up from the desk. “You haven’t eaten in a while,” he stepped forward and took her hand from her lap, pulling gently. “Come into the kitchen with us and we can fix something or you can rummage. Mrs. Aimes keeps the kitchen well stocked.”

“How did I get here?”

“Sandwich or soup?” Nick opened the fridge and pulled the door wide for her to see as Jase found plates after making sure she was sitting at the large, heavy table.

Brea listened to the rumbling in her stomach. “A sandwich, please. I never got 18

around to breakfast.”

Nick laid out things on the table for her, holding up juice and accepting the shake of her head.

“Ice water, please. You’re both being really sweet,” she sighed and reached for the loaf of bread.

“What do you remember?” Jase asked after sinking into a chair across from her.

“I…I got up normal and went down the outside stairs to open the café,” her fingers shook a little as she lifted the small bag holding ham. “I heard them talking. I heard them saying I’d never know my power. That it was all wasted on me and I’d never destroy them,” her voice came out a low, husky whisper, her head shaking. “That had to be a dream. It’s all just part of some bad dream and I’m going to wake up soon and be baking a batch of muffins or…or blending coffee…..” Jase reached across the table and gripped the fingers that began shaking at the same time her voice cracked and tears flowed over her cheeks.

“Brea….we don’t know what happened…..the why part, at least….but you’re safe here,” Jase saw those soft amber eyes filled with tears and knew he had to leave for a while. “Nick, I’m taking the bike and going into town. You want anything?” Nick met the almost silver eyes with a shake of his head.