Kiss of Heat (20 page)

“Did you hear me, Sherra?” She could feel the determination emanating from him and hid her smile at the sound.

“I hear you.” She cleared her throat lightly. “I can take care of that this evening after I meet with Doc.”

Silence descended behind her, a thick anticipatory silence that throbbed like a silent heartbeat. It could be felt, but it couldn’t be heard with anything more than the internal senses.

“I won’t let you go. Ever,” he told her then, moving behind her, his arms coming around her waist as she allowed her head to fall back to his shoulder.

“I haven’t asked you to,” she said. “I’m stubborn, Kane. I’m not stupid.”

It wasn’t easy for her, letting go of the pain and dealing with the fears that still haunted her. But she knew she hadn’t truly been living until Kane reappeared in her life. She had been existing, nothing more. She didn’t want to exist any longer. She needed to live; she needed to love.

“Very stubborn,” he amended, kissing the side of her neck softly.

Sherra smiled, a wry curve of her lips as she acknowledged the statement.

“It won’t be easy,” she finally whispered. “
I
won’t be easy. There are still scars, Kane,” she warned him.

His arms tightened around her. “We’ll heal them together, Sherra. However we need to.”

She nodded slowly before standing straight again. “Time to go to work, stud,” she said softly, her voice filled with amusement. “You can play later.”

“Sounds good to me,” he chuckled as he released her. “I’m heading to the guesthouse with Callan and Taber this morning. Lawrence has proposed an idea that could work to get the houses we need in place faster, combining both our ideas,” he said, more than a little amused. “Lawrence Industries has a small construction sideline headed by one of his most trusted friends. He’s willing to provide the materials at a cut-rate cost as well as technical assistance in training our men to build what they need themselves,” he told her. “We have enough land here to make them self-sufficient to a degree, and I still feel that’s the best way to go.”

Sherra sighed in resignation. Unfortunately, she agreed with him, but they needed buildings now, not months down the road. Perhaps this could be the solution to it.

“Let me know how it goes.” She finally nodded in agreement. “I have to do another inventory check today. Somehow the count on the rifles Merc insisted we buy is off by one. I have to figure out if it’s our mistake or the supplier’s. I hate it when weapons are off, Kane. It makes me paranoid.”

“No kidding. Let me know what you find out. We’ve not had any non-secured personnel other than the Lawrences and security on them has been too tight to allow for a theft that far away from their guesthouse, but we need it solved.” He grimaced as he pulled on a light jacket over his dark blue cotton shirt. “I’ll get hold of you later and see if we can’t meet for a little…uhh, lunch.” He wagged his eyebrows at her as he grinned wickedly. “Later, kitten.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead before leaving the room and heading down the hallway.

Sherra stood still, aware of the silly little smile on her face as Kane left. There had been no choice left last night but to trust him, to give him everything blooming within her. Not just the hunger for his cock, but the hunger for his touch, his smile, his laughter. A chance to heal.

“Damn man. I can’t understand him, and Merinus won’t let me kill him,” she drawled in amusement as she shook her head and moved for the door. She might as well just give in and love him, she finally told herself as she headed to her own room. And why wait to begin moving into the life he was offering her?

* * * * *

“Sherra?” The little voice and the soft knock at her door had Sherra stiffening in reaction as she recognized Cassie’s voice.

The door opened slowly and the little girl peeked in. Her face was somber, her long brown hair laying in long thick curls down her back as she stepped into the bedroom.

“Who’s watching you today, Cassie?” Sherra asked curiously.

“I don’t know, Sherra.” The little girl was more than confused. “I woke up and no one was there. Someone is always there when I wake up.”

Sherra stared at the little girl in confusion. Cassie still wore her gown and robe and clutched her teddy bear like a lifeline.

“I’m scared, Sherra,” she whispered. “My fairy said to come up here. She seems kinda worried.” The little girl moved closer as though in need of comfort or protection.

Sherra grabbed her communications link from the dresser and pulled it on over her head as she switched it onto the house channel. She knew Taber, Callan, Kane and Dawn were with the Lawrences, but they wouldn’t have left the little girl without a guard.

“Who has house duty?” she snapped into the link.

No one answered.

Flipping the link to a main channel, she heard only static.

“Cassie, did you see anyone when you came up here?” Sherra asked her quietly, moving to the French doors and peeking past the curtains outside.

“No.” Cassie was holding her teddy bear closer now. “I didn’t see anyone, Sherra.”

“Do you know how to hide, Cassie?” Sherra asked her, feeling the familiar rise of danger edging up her spine.

Cassie’s eyes widened in sudden fear. Her lower lip trembled. “I want my momma,” she suddenly whispered, a breath of sound that showed the little girl knew well the dangers that could be moving outside their room. “Momma doesn’t leave me alone.”

Shit. No one was moving outside. Where the hell were the guards?

“Okay.” Sherra turned back to the little girl. “Do you know how to be quiet? No matter what?”

Cassie nodded fiercely.

“I want you to stay right behind me, Cassie. And don’t say a word. Don’t make a sound unless I tell you to. We’re going to go to Merinus’ room. Okay?”

Cassie nodded quickly.

Moving to the door, Sherra pulled the gun free of her holster and peeked out carefully. All the doors were closed; the guard normally on duty at the end of the hall was absent. Damn. Damn.

She glanced behind her at the kid. She was pale, trembling and moving with damned near every shift of Sherra’s body.

“Okay, nice and quiet,” Sherra whispered as she eased the door open.

She stepped out into the hallway, checked it quickly then pulled Cassie from the bedroom and moved stealthily for the second wing of the upstairs bedrooms where Callan and Merinus’ suite was located. Pausing at the turn in the hall, she flattened Cassie against the wall then checked it as well. No one. Fuck. Where the hell were they?

Moving carefully down the padded hall, her senses razor-sharp, she moved for Merinus’ room. She was no more than three doors from it when the new scent slammed into her head. Alien. Foreign. Waiting on them.

She stopped. There were two doors between her and Merinus’ room and one of them could possibly be opened just enough to allow anyone hiding in the room to see her pass by.

Sherra moved for the door beside her. Turning the knob she eased it open and pressed Cassie inside before following her. Closing it just as silently, she indicated silence to the little girl as she moved to the wide window on the other side of the room.

Looking out, she breathed a sigh of relief as she caught sight of two guards moving along the perimeters of the house grounds. Opening the curtains wide she slowly lifted the window, praying she wasn’t giving her position away to the enemy two doors down.

She was within a second of gaining their attention when she saw them go down. First one, then the other. Her eyes widened. No sound was made, but within a second they had fallen, dead or unconscious, she wasn’t certain.

Fuck. Fuck. Looking around frantically she dragged Cassie to the closet on the other side of the room.

“You stay here.” She pushed the tearful child into the small room. “I mean it, Cassie. No one will know but me where you are hidden. You don’t move. Do you hear me?”

She kept her lips at Cassie’s ear, her heart breaking as the little girl shook and shuddered, though she nodded her head quickly.

“Stay,” she ordered her again before backing away and closing the door slowly.

Whoever was waiting in the room up the hall had somehow managed to take out the communications link and/or the communications personnel and was quietly waiting. For what?

She moved back to the door and opened it slowly, peering down the hall but seeing nothing that would immediately raise her suspicions. She stepped from the room, flattening herself against the wall, weapon held ready, watching intently.

A second later Merinus’ doorknob turned. Aiming her weapon, Sherra watched coldly as it opened and the other woman stood framed in the doorway, shock widening her eyes at the gun Sherra had leveled at her. Just as quickly, the door closed, then locked.

Smart. Sherra smiled with cold determination. At least the other woman was safe. That was all that mattered. She could almost feel the waves of fury pouring from the other room now. Whoever was in there had seen Merinus’ escape back into her room as well.

A second later three loud reports sounded from Merinus’ room. The gunshots were a clear signal to any Breed within hearing distance. The bastard might have taken out the guards in the house, and those on the grounds, but there was no way he could have gotten them all.

She heard a curse, soft, filled with menace, and leveled her gun at the approximate height to severely wound rather than kill. There was only two ways out of that room, the window or the door. But she wasn’t expecting what stepped from the room.

Roni came first, closely followed by the chauffer/nurse who had come in with the Lawrences several days before. There was a smug victorious smile on the man’s face as he held the gun to Roni’s temple and kept her carefully in front of him.

“Very lucky,” he grunted. “But not quite good enough.”

He faced Sherra with malicious contempt.

“So where’s the kid? She wasn’t in her room or with her guard.”

Sherra kept her expression cold and her gun ready. “If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.”

His beady eyes glittered with fury. “Drop the gun or I’ll kill her.”

Sherra shook her head as she allowed a mocking smile to curl her lips. “No way. And if you kill her, you’ll fall in the next second.”

He wasn’t nervous. He was cold, calculating. He had Roni by the hair, a tenuous grip at best, his gun at her temple. Sherra’s eyes met Roni’s. She could see the resignation in the other woman’s eyes. Somehow he had taken out their men. Sherra wasn’t certain how he could have managed to do it, but he had.

“Well, we could consider it a standoff.” He smiled slowly, like a viper preparing to strike. “You think that warning is going to get help here in time? I made sure your boys were out for several more hours. The best.” He grunted sarcastically. “They were easy, Sherra.”

Sherra shrugged lightly. “Seems you forgot about me, though. I’m not so easy.”

Her gaze met Roni’s. The other woman moved her eyes up to indicate the hand holding her hair, then quickly looked to the floor. God, could she pull it off? She did it again, frantically. Up, then down. Was she going to drop?

Sherra angled her weapon at Roni’s head. If the other woman didn’t move fast enough… She swallowed tightly.

Suddenly, Roni dropped. His gun went off the same second Sherra’s did. The bullet dropped the would-be assassin immediately as she ran to him, kicking the gun aside before dropping beside Roni.

“Bastard!” Roni came up like a demon, lips curled back, fury lighting her eyes as she kicked the fallen would-be assassin.

Merinus’ door flew open at the same time feet pounded on the stairs and male voices began to scream out in fury. It was chaos.

Kane, Callan, Taber, more than a dozen Feline guards and Seth Lawrence rushed into the hallway.

“Are you happy now, Mr. Lawrence?” Sherra snarled in his face as Taber rushed for his wife. “Was it worth it?”

He stared down at the chauffer, his gaze somber, filled with misery before it went to his sister. Regret flickered in his eyes.

“No, Miss Callahan, it wasn’t.” But he didn’t take his eyes off his sister.

“Sherra, you didn’t kill him,” Kane said in surprise as he stood up from the fallen body. “Flesh wound.”

“Not yet,” she snapped as she turned back to him. “I want to know who hired him first. Then I’ll kill him.” She stared back at Kane with brutal fury. “This time, Breed Law will be enforced.”

She turned and marched back to the room where Cassie awaited her. Pulling the closet door open she knelt in front of the sobbing girl, her heart clenching. Cassie didn’t make a sound, but her shoulders were shaking violently as she held her teddy bear close to her.

“Come on, Cassie. It’s all over now,” Sherra whispered as she picked her up.

“I want my momma.” The heart-rending sobs came then. “I want my momma now. Now. If you don’t get my momma I’m gonna bite all of you. I will. I will…” She buried her head in Sherra’s shoulder, her arms wrapping tightly around her as her sobs tore through the room.

Sherra turned back to Kane, tears filling her own eyes as he watched her with quiet pain.

“Come here, Cassie.” Callan moved to Sherra’s side, his wife staying close beside him as he eased the little girl from his sister’s arms.

She went easily, and though her tears didn’t abate, neither did her demands for her momma. Kane lifted Sherra in his arms and only then did she realize that she was shaking, hard shudders of reaction, fury and fear quaking through her.

Sherra wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face against his neck as she let the tears free. She cried for the past, the betrayals, the losses, the child they had never known. The bitterness flowed from her in deep gulping sobs as she held onto him. Her support, her heart.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Terrible Tylers converged on the property within hours. Six brothers, along with their father, John Tyler, and their uncle, Senator Samuel Tyler. It was pandemonium and Sherra completely understood why Merinus was always so reluctant to have them all at the estate at the same time.

They were hardheaded, stubborn and opinionated. Every one of them had their own idea of how things should be handled and every discussion turned into a war of words. But they all loved Merinus, and they were all determined they were now there for the duration to be certain she was protected.