Jared (7 page)

“Please.” Tessa was running out of time.

“Date
tomorrow night
, nice dinner, drinks, dancing…” His smile grew as it gazed down her body. “and you sleep with me.”

Her head snapped back as if he
’d
slapped
her. “Ah, no. Make that….
fuck no.” S
he threw his words back at him. She grabbed her stuff
stomping
her way toward the
front
door.

“Tessa.” Bobby’s voice carried across the noisy bar. Turning Tessa caught the keys he threw at her. “One scratch on my car and I’m taking it out on your ass and I do mean that literally.”

Throwing him
back
her keys she headed to the back door where Bobby always parked
feeling
like she had just made a deal with the devil
. “Thanks Bobby.
I’ll have it back tonight scratch free.
”

“
Not one scratch Tessa
.”
He called
out the warning
.
“And I will pick you up at eight.”

“Fine,
but dinner is all I’m agreeing to
.”
Tessa
warned
flipp
ing
her hand up as she went out the door.

Flicking
the
lights off
,
she turned into the gravel dri
ve. Tessa squinted trying to see as
she pulled in front of the old shack that had been
let go by the owners for years and had been the
local hangout for teenagers before it started
to
rot away.

Adam walked out of the house.
She had always been jealous that she had been the one with red hair. Adam’s hair was longer than he usually wore it and t
he blackness set his golden eye off like a beacon
,
a
g
olden eye
that use
d
to be the
s
ame shade of green as hers.
“Why
are
you driving Bobby’s car?”

Tessa slammed the car door. “Because I didn’t want them to follow me. I left my car in front of t
he bar, slipped out the back
.”
Wagging her eyebrows up and down Tessa grinned. “Pretty sneaky huh?”

“And he agreed to that?” Adam
gave a suspicious glare. “I’ve never known Bobby
to
give up his keys for anybody.”

Tessa looked behind him at the shack where a flood
of
light shone through the window. “Is
big mouth
still in there?”

“Yeah, where else would he be?”
Adam
replied
letting it go that she totally ignored his question. “
So the warriors just let you go?
” He scanned the woods behind her.

Tessa snorted. “I really don’t think the
y’re
very good at what they do. I mean first I almost got away climbing out my window, but I got stuck in the tree.”

“You climbed out the window?” Adam laughed.

“Yeah, but
Jared,
the one we chained to the chair
,
caught me.”
Tessa frowned.
“Then I just stood up and told them I had to leave because of my job, which I did, but I knew I was going to ask Bobby for time off so I could come out here
to
let you know what’s going on
and they just let me walk out the door.”
She
replied in one long breath then
chuckled.

“They did
,
huh?” He again scanned the area.

“On the smartness scale I’d say they rank pretty low
, I mean sucky low
. I thought they were supposed to be the best. Not real impressed here.” Tessa rolled her eyes catching sight of her brother’s face. “What?”

Adam didn’t answer just stared behind her.

“They’re behind me aren’t they?”
Tessa cringed, her stomach coming up to meet the back of her throat.
Dammit. Turning
quickly she watched the three warriors
head their way looking ready for anything. “Run Adam!”

“Yeah, run Adam.” Jared responded
as his eyes zeroed in on her
. “We warriors aren’
t too high on the smartness scale your sister is rating us on so we might all three
just
stand here with our heads up our asses and
let
ya go.”

Tessa
looked away from Jared’s intense stare
. Seemed her foot found her mouth once again. Glancing
up
at Adam
,
she
cringed
. “I’m sorry.”

“Where is he?” Damon stopped in front of Adam his eyes glowing black.

Adam nodded his head toward the shack. “He’s in there.” He looked at Jared. “I was going to bring him back as soon as I got what
I
wanted from him, which I have so you can take him.”

“Thanks for your permission, but we don’t need it.
”
Jared replied not liking the kid
’
s cocky attitude.

“Well
,
I think you
’
r
e
wrong
…
warrior.” Adam smiled as
five
half-breed
s surrounded them.
“You seem to be outnumbered.”

Faster than anyone could track
,
Jared had Adam in a head lock. “Let me tell you something you little shit, I’ve been around longer than you can even imagine.
I have killed mean son
s
of
bitches that would make you piss yourself.
I can and will kill you with no remorse.”

“No!” Tessa ran at Jared tripp
ing
over something in the yard, but caught herself. “Please no. You can take
big mouth
, just leave us alone.”

“Get her the fuck out of here.” Jared roared not caring which one did it as long as they got her out of harm’s way. This could get ugly real fast and probably would.

Sid picked her up walking away with her clawing and kicking.

“Don’t hurt her.” Adam
started to fight, but soon lost his gusto as Jared squeezed tighter
. “Just don’t hurt her.”
He wheezed.

“No one is going to hurt her. Now tell them to back
off
.” Jared ordered
,
catching
sight of Damon
standing
at
his side. Jared watched as
the
half-breed
s faded back some. “Now listen and listen good
you dumbass, you need to lose the at
titude and listen to us or you’
re going to have warriors from all over climbing up your ass and your sister is going to be right in the middle of it. Nod if you understand.”

Adam nodded without hesitation.

“Good.” Jared glanced around to make sure everything was calm and cool. “I’m going to let you go, but if you decide to get stupid I am going to take you out.”

“I’m good.” Adam wheezed
.

Jared let him go, but kept his guard up. “We are going to have a long conversation, no lies, no hiding anything from us and we will do our best to help you, but if you decide to play stu
pid I will lock you up or kill you, depend
s on what stupid card you play.”

Rubbing his throat,
Adam
tried
to talk, but croaked instead. Clearing his throat he tried again. “
I don’t giv
e
a fuck anymore
.” Adam looked over at where his sister was still fighting
Sid
. “If it wasn’t for her
,
I would have
gone
ahead and killed myself.”

Jared felt
his
pain, but he couldn’t let the kid know it.
Pity
was the last thing the kid needed right now.
“
Yeah, go ahead and take the pussy way out.”

“I didn’t want this.” Adam’s tone turned angry. “I don’t want to be a mindless killer.”

“None of us want this life, but we got it and we deal with it so you need to man up and do the same.”
Jared hissed knowing this kid needed a badass response. The more they felt sorry for the kid the worse of
f
he will be. Jared looked at the other
half-breed
s who were keeping their d
istance, the worse off they’
d all be.

That seemed to straighten the kid
’
s spine a bit. “Why didn’t you guys help us when we ask
ed
?”

Damon and Jared shared a glance.
They were never told about
half-breed
s in the area.
“Not sure about that Adam, but
I promise you we will find out
.”

“We really didn’t mean any harm.” Adam nodded toward his sister who seemed to
have
calm
ed
down slightly.

Jared also glanced up at Sid and Tessa waving them down. “Call Duncan. We need to get them to the warehouse where we can talk and figure out what the hell is going on.
”

“Already called. He’s on
his
way.” Sid replied letting go of Tessa’s arm so she could rush to her brother.

Tessa stood next to her brother
, eyes wary,
ready to protect him if necessary. “What are you going to do with him?”

“As soon as we get him into the warehouse we
’re
gonna hang him by his fangs
, beat him senseless
before
lock
ing
him in a room tied to a bed with silver chains.” Jared replied gaining a chuckle from Damon and Sid.

Tessa scrunched her nose at him. “Silver
doesn’t
work on him.” She snorted then tapped her temple. “Guess you all rank low on the memory thing too.”
She jumped slightly when Jared growled at her.

“Keep pushing
,
Red.” Jared glared
at her
. “Just keep pushing.”

Tessa shrugged her shoulder before turning to her brother. “Sense of humor isn’t their strong suit either.

“If we were going to hurt either of you
,
it would have been done before now.” Jared’s tone was sharp as a whip clearly stating he was losing his patience.

“There’s more of us than this.” Adam indicated with a nod of his head.

“How many more and where are they.” Jared sighed not liking where this was going.

“At
least ten more that I know of.” Adam looked around
at the others.
“
Most scattered when we escaped.”

“I need you guys to get a definite head count, names or whatever you can. We
need
to track them down.” Jared turned toward Damon. “Can you take a few of these guys with you and meet us at the warehouse?”

Damon nodded as
Sid headed for the small shack. “I’ll get dickhead and me
e
t you all there.”

“You take them.” Jared nodded behind him at the other
half-breed
s who had ventured closer. “I’ll go with these two.” He glanced at Tessa
,
waiting for her to argue, but she just raised both eyebrows as if she was totally innocent of what he was looking at her for.

Sid walked out with Chad who glared at Damon, but kept his mouth shut. Then his focus turned on Adam and Tessa. “You know he had big plans for you.” He chuckled when he nodded toward Tessa. “
Especially
you
,
baby doll
.”

Sid pushed
Chad past them
when both Damon and Jared growled. “You are the stupidest son of a bitch I’ve ever met. Shut the fuck up and move before I pick you up and throw your ass to the car.”

Chad tripped catching himself, but laughed loudly. “Just wait.” His annoying derange
d
giggle floated through the fog that was starting to settle in the dusk. “This isn’t over by a long shot.”

“I can kill him now.” Damon snarled his golden eyes turning black as they followed Chad.