Forsaken (26 page)

Dom
accidentally bumped a floor display with the cart and muttered
something under her breath that I was pretty sure was a profanity in
Spanish. Even if she hadn't sworn, I still would have known she was
angry. Power arced off her in unpredictable waves, sometimes lashing
out with enough force that I found myself unconsciously rubbing my
arms and other times subsiding to a background hum that wasn't any
worse than the fluorescent lighting above us.

"Are
you okay, Dom?"

"I
think so. I just haven't felt right since before I came back."

I
shook my head, worried about her again. Dom was here to take care of
me, but there wasn't anyone to take care of her.

"Let's
finish the shopping and get you back home. Maybe you should sit this
dinner out."

Dom's
power flared up again and for a minute I thought she was angry with
me.

"No.
I'm not sitting anything out. My job is to make sure you're safe."

It
wasn't the kind of argument I was going to win while standing in line
waiting to pay for our food. I shrugged and decided that once Mom got
home, I'd have better odds. Even Dom would have a hard time arguing
both my mom and me to a standstill.

I
started to exit the store and then had to stop abruptly as a guy
about our age hurried past with a woman a couple of years older
tagging along behind him.

Dom's
power pulsed out again as she almost ran into me.

"Adri,
what just happened?"

Dom's
smooth voice momentarily took on an even deeper accent than normal as
her frustration peaked.

The
guy who had just walked in front of us stopped and looked back. What
had begun as curiosity suddenly turned to anger as he took Dom and me
in. He moved towards us aggressively, and Dom was suddenly between
him and me.

A
split second later, the woman that had been trailing the guy was
between him and Dom.

"What's
going on, Shawn?"

"She's
a southerner. I felt her power as I walked by and then I heard her
talk."

It
was the one disaster I hadn't even considered. Dom had been clear
that shape shifters weren't allowed east of the Mississippi. I'd
expected vampires or mermaids, not another shape shifter, but there
was no denying the power lashing out from both him and the
girl that I was realizing was his bodyguard.

I
tried to pull Dom backward into the store, but she was on high alert.
I would have had better luck moving a bronze statue.

"Listen,
'Shawn,' I don't have any quarrel with you. I'm not what you think.
Just back away and we can all go our separate ways."

There
was absolutely zero give in Dom right now, but I knew she couldn't
win a fight against two wolves. If one or both of the pair in front
of us was a hybrid, then she had even less chance of surviving. There
was only one thing I could think of to do. Dominic was screening the
right side of my body from their view, so I pulled my phone out and
dialed Rachel's number. It went through to voicemail but that was
okay; I didn't actually need to talk to her. I cleared my throat and
then held up the phone.

"I
don't know who you are, Shawn, but you need to calm down. Dominic
isn't your enemy, but more importantly, if you hurt either of us then
our friends will hunt you down and kill you. I promise you that."

The
girl let out a low growl that was only barely audible to me, but
suddenly Shawn was pulling her back with confusion once again
flashing across his face.

"Dominic,
like Dominic from Sanctuary?"

"Yes,
that's right. Who are you?"

"Shawn
Bishop."

Dom
bit off another curse. She was in rare form today. She looked back at
me for a second. "Shawn is the heir apparent to the Chicago
pack."

Shawn
nodded and pointed to his companion. "This is Vicki. What are
you two doing in New York? Alec is already on thin ice with the
Coun'hij. The last thing he should be doing is letting his people run
wild like this."

It
was said with a smile, but Dom didn't return the gesture. "Where
Alec sends us is his business. Your pack may be the largest in North
America, but your father is hardly the kind to court problems with
the Coun'hij. He doesn't know where you are right now, does he,
Shawn?"

It
was Shawn's turn to go all frigid. "That's our business."

I
held up a placating hand. "Okay, so we all have things we're
doing here that we're not anxious to have the rest of the world know
about. Let's just agree to keep each other's secret and part ways
without trying to kill each other."

Shawn
shook his head and pointed at me. "You haven't told us who you
are."

"My
name is Adri."

"Okay,
Adri. We'll leave you to go about your business and we'll go about
ours. If, however, you tell anyone, it will eventually make its way
back to me and then there will be an accounting."

"That's
fine. I've kept bigger secrets than this."

It
wasn't until we were almost back to my house that Dominic finally
seemed to get control of her beast. The flashes of power suddenly
died out and then she turned to me with a look of amazement.

"Adri,
your ploy shouldn't have worked. Shawn is about as dominant as they
come. Forcing his hand like that really should have had the opposite
effect. Who did you call?"

"Rachel.
Which reminds me, I need to text her and tell her not to do anything
about that message."

Dom
nodded absently, but it was obvious she was only half listening.
"Something very odd just happened, Adri. I just can't figure out
why Shawn would have been in New York or why he would have backed
down so quickly."

I
shrugged and hit the elevator call button with the hand that wasn't
carrying the food. She was probably right, but I couldn't think of
anything that was less important. What Shawn did or didn't do wasn't
going to have the slightest impact on my life.

Walking
into my house and finding out that Mom still wasn't back, however,
was the kind of thing that was going to have a very immediate impact
on my night. She was late, not just the
'not-here-when-she-said-she-would-be-here late.' No, she was later
than even the hour leeway I normally gave her past her stated arrival
time. I had a very bad feeling about this, and it only got worse when
she picked up my call on the first ring.

"Adri,
honey. I'm sorry—I know I'm late, but I just can't get away
right now."

I'd
barely seen her for the last couple of months, and now she'd canceled
our New Year's Eve dinner. It was disappointing, but it was also
something I could live with because it meant I could put off meeting
Russ for another couple of months.

"It's
okay, Mom. I'll just put the ingredients away, and Dom and I will
order some takeout."

"Actually,
that's what I wanted to talk to you about. What would you think about
you and Dom having dinner with Russ still?"

I
hated it. Mom already knew that without asking me. Unfortunately,
that meant she didn't really care how much I didn't want to have
dinner with Russ.

"I'd
rather not, Mom."

"I
know, honey. It's just that this is the second time I'd be canceling
on him at the last minute. I don't really think he's going to take
this well, but I don't want to drive him away. I...well, I
thought if you guys still had dinner together that maybe it would
help soften the blow and give me another shot at making things right
in a couple of weeks after everything slows back down."

Somehow
I didn't think things would ever slow down, not really. My bet was
that Russ was smart enough to realize that. Mom took my pause as a
sign that I was weakening.

"It
would really mean a lot to me, Adri. I've tried to give you your
freedom and not ask very much of you lately. I know how hard it was
for you to decide to leave Sanctuary, but I think it showed that you
are ready to be an adult. Can you please do this for me?"

I
knew my mom was using guilt on me but that didn't necessarily stop
her ploy from being effective. Ultimately, I didn't really have a
choice. If I told her no and then Russ walked out, she'd always blame
me. If I helped her the best I could and he still walked out, then it
wouldn't be my fault.

"Okay,
I'll do it. Dom hasn't been feeling very well lately, but I think she
can make it for a few more hours. I'll cook dinner and then I'll play
nice with Russ."

"Thanks,
sweetie; that means a lot. I'll call Russ now and make sure he's okay
with the change in plans."

I'd
told Mom that Dom wasn't feeling well because I'd wanted to dish out
a helping of guilt the other way—not that it had done any
good—but when I looked over at Dom it seemed like she really
wasn't doing very well.

"Dom,
the door is locked and nobody is getting in here without you being
able to hear it from the other room. Why don't you go lie down and
get some rest? You look like you really need it."

"Okay,
but just for a few minutes. If you need something just yell. I won't
be going to sleep."

The
fact that she'd agreed actually made me more worried about her. Dom
wasn't the kind to give in so easily, not unless she was in really,
really bad shape. I already knew that trying to convince her to go
home wasn't going to work, so I just crept over and shut the bedroom
door before getting started on the lasagna.

Cooking
wasn't my favorite thing to do, but occasionally it served as a good
distraction. For the half hour or so that it took to put everything
together and preheat the oven, I managed to leave aside worries about
Dom, Russ, or what might be happening with the pack back in
Sanctuary.

Once
the lasagna was in the oven, the table was set, and everything was
more or less ready to go, I went into the living room, set the alarm
on my iPad, and put one of my new favorite songs on repeat as I stuck
the headphones in my ears.

I
figured the heavy drop to the music would stop me from falling
asleep, but it turned out that I was more tired than I'd realized.
The next thing I knew, the doorman was buzzing to ask if he could let
Russ come up.

"Yes,
please, Vince. Thank you."

I
rolled off the couch and headed to the kitchen, where Dominic met me
looking like she'd just woken up and was more than a little
disoriented. A quick look confirmed that everything was ready to go
so we both stumbled into the bathroom and ran fingers through our
hair.

A
few seconds later, Russ was knocking on our door. Dom answered it
while I grabbed juice from the fridge. I turned around from putting
it on the table and had a hard time pulling my eyes away from Russ.

He
was tall, but not tall and lanky, tall with the kind of shoulders
you'd see on a rodeo cowboy. He looked like someone who spent a lot
of time outside working for a living, who'd then been stuffed into
designer jeans and a charcoal polo that did incredible things for his
gray eyes.

It
took me a second to realize he was waiting to shake my hand.

"It's
nice to finally get a chance to meet you, Adri. Honestly, I almost
told your mom no when she called tonight to rearrange plans. Spending
the evening with two underage girls didn't sound like the smartest
thing I could be doing, but I couldn't resist the chance to finally
see what Nicole's daughter was like."

It
was an abrupt reminder that he was the enemy. The fact that he was
gorgeous as well as rich didn't change anything other than to make
him a little bit more dangerous.

"Yeah,
well, I'm afraid I'm not much like Mom. The lasagna's almost done
though, so I guess you'll at least get to compare our culinary
efforts."

He
smiled—even his smile was amazing—and held up a bottle of
wine. "I didn't have a chance to make it back home and drop this
off after your mom told me she wasn't going to be here. Can I leave
it here without the two of you drinking it?"

I
took the bottle and looked at him oddly. "If I'm the kind of
girl who would drink it, wouldn't I also be the kind of girl who
would lie about it?"

He
shook his head. "I don't think so. Not if you're anything at all
like your mom. I think you probably break rules, but I don't think
you like lying about it. Your mom breaks plenty of rules, but she
doesn't do it out of some kind of immature need to prove she can
break them. She breaks them because she sees something on the other
side of the rules that she thinks is important enough to justify
breaking them. Does that sound familiar?"

"Yeah,
I guess that does sound familiar. I didn't realize my mom was like
that too though."

Russ
shrugged. "I don't have kids of my own, but I've noticed that
parents are often slightly different with their kids than they are
when their kids aren't around. That's one of the reasons why I was
actually willing to have dinner with you and your mom so soon after I
met her. At some point, I'd like to see what she's like when you are
around."

He'd
given me plenty to think about already. I was starting to feel like
I'd come to a gun fight with a knife. If I wasn't careful I'd find
myself liking him despite my best efforts. I held up the bottle of
wine and then put it on the counter. "Dom and I won't drink
this, and we won't give it to any of the lame kids from my school. It
will be right here waiting for my mom whenever she gets back."

I
got a serious nod from Russ in response to my promise and then my
iPad started beeping at me. Pulling the food out of the oven gave me
a chance to gather my wits about me again. By the time the food was
on the table and we were sitting down to eat, I felt ready to do
battle again.

"So
tell us a little bit about yourself, Russ. How did you get involved
in fashion? Is that where you made your money?"