Siren in Bloom [Texas Sirens 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (29 page)

“Stress. Of course. I’ll go see if I can find you something.” Finn turned and walked toward the bathroom.

She had so little time. Grabbing her purse, she moved as quickly as she could. She opened the door and slipped out. The moment she had the door closed again, she sprinted.

The carpet beneath her masked the sound of her feet pounding against the floor. She ran as silently as she could toward the elevator. She would use the stairs but she was all the way up on the sixteenth floor. But, perhaps…

She broke for the stairs. Finn would figure it out pretty quickly, and then he and Lucas would look for her. They would check through the apartment first, but then they would look in the hall. They would find her standing by the elevators.

If she ran hard, she could make it down a couple of flights of stairs and then catch the service elevator at the back of the building. She’d used it many times while working on the penthouse. It was large and utilitarian, unlike the elegant main elevator. It was big enough to hold furniture and appliances. It ran down to the garage.

From the garage she could make it to the street very quickly. She would be gone before Wolf or Leo was even told she’d left the apartment.

Her steps echoed through the stairwell, every single one making her wince, but she didn’t hear another set. Her breath sawed in and out of her chest. If she survived, she was joining a gym. Her muscles burned, but she didn’t stop. She had so little time.

She burst through the door on the fourteenth floor and made for the left hall.
Fuck
. She turned. It was on the right. She passed the main elevator, rushing past doors that led to suites. This was part of the hotel Julian ran for his guests and club members.

There it was. The service elevator. Thank god.

She could catch her breath while she waited.

She pressed the door to call the elevator. Her hands were shaking. She looked up and down the hall. Tears threatened.

She didn’t want to do this. God, she didn’t want any of this. She wanted to be back in that too-small bed, pressed between Leo and Wolf. She wanted to be back there, and she wouldn’t leave. She would just stay in that bed, in that moment when everything seemed possible. It had been a nice dream. She’d been loved and cared for. She’d been what they needed. She hadn’t needed to pretend or be someone she wasn’t. She’d just been Shelley.

And that was over. Even if she survived this little encounter, she doubted Wolf would forgive her. She knew Leo wouldn’t. It would be more direct proof that she couldn’t trust.

Trust. What the hell was that supposed to mean? How did wanting him to stay alive mean she didn’t trust him?

Where was the damn elevator? Panic threatened to swamp her. Time was running out. She pressed the button again, but it was finally opening. The doors split apart, and she started forward.

Only to stop in an instant because the elevator wasn’t empty.

Leo Meyer stood in the center, his face a mask of cold fury.

Her breath hitched. Her heart raced. If she hadn’t had such good control of herself, she might have peed a little because Leo looked ready to kill. His normally warm blue eyes had gone an arctic shade—the color of water just before it froze. He turned those dark eyes on her, his mouth a flat line. He held a cell phone in one hand.

“Fourteen,” he said simply before shoving it into his pocket.

No hellos. No questions about what had happened. Just a number spoken to whoever was on the other line.

He took a single step forward, and Shelley gave in to her instincts.

She turned and ran.

She wasn’t even sure why she was running except for the fact that Leo scared the crap out of her. The man in the elevator was a predator, and she felt like prey. She ran almost mindlessly, not really knowing where she was going. She headed back toward the door to the stairs. Her chest felt like it would burst.

If she could just make it to the stairs, maybe she could salvage this.

The door to the stairs swung open, and her nightmare was complete.

Wolf stalked out of the door. She had no idea how many flights of stairs he’d run up. She’d been pretty sure he’d been on the tenth floor. But he didn’t show it. His breath was perfectly normal as though he’d just gotten out of his easy chair instead of run full tilt up a bunch of flights of stairs.

She faltered as she tried to stop. She fell, her ass hitting the ground. She tried to get back up, managed to get to her knees, but got hit by a Mack truck from behind. She fell forward, her chest hitting the carpet and the breath whooshing out of her lungs.

“Not on your life,” Leo whispered in her ear. She could feel the heat of his body holding her down. “You try to run again and you will regret it. I swear to god I won’t hold back and no safe word in the world will be able to fucking save you. Do you understand me? If you move one inch that I don’t tell you to, I will give up all my rights in the club, all my rights as a Dom, for the simple joy of beating your ass until I’m satisfied you can’t run again.”

“Maybe we should find out why she ran in the first place, brother,” Wolf said.

Shelley could see his boots in front of her face. She struggled to breathe, but there was a part of her that was happy to be on the floor. If she was here, she didn’t have to look into Leo’s eyes and see the rage there. She put her face down on the floor, submitting completely. Tears leaked out of her eyes. She couldn’t fight them.

She couldn’t fight anyone.

Leo cursed, the sound a low growl in her ear. “Don’t you fucking cry. You don’t get to cry.”

“Leo, come on,” Wolf said. “Can we figure out what the hell is going on?”

Leo pushed off her, his weight leaving, and she could finally catch a real breath. She was shaking. Her time was up. It had to be. She’d failed. Leo turned her over, and her own anger bubbled to the surface.

“You have no right to do that, Leo. Let me up and let me go.” At the very least she could distance herself. It probably wouldn’t work, but she could try. Maybe if she could get to the restaurant, whoever this asshole was would at least see she’d tried.

She started to roll up, but Leo straddled her hips, pinning her arms with his hands. His chest hovered over hers. “No.”

“Leo, you can’t tell me no. You have to let me go.” She tried to fight, but he was too strong. He was so strong. She struggled, but it was a weak, ineffectual thing.

Leo’s icy-cold eyes stared down at her. She could feel his cock. His eyes might be cool, but there was a part of him that was heating up. His cock thickened against her pussy, but there wasn’t a lick of desire in those eyes. “I don’t have to do anything. It’s been recently pointed out to me that I have allowed you to manipulate me over and over again. I’m done with allowing you to do that.”

“Manipulate you? Are you kidding me?” What the hell was he talking about?

“Leo, I think we should go back to the condo and sit down and talk this out.” Wolf was the calm voice of reason. “We have no idea that she was planning on doing anything dangerous.”

Thank god one of them had patience.

“Really, brother,” Leo said. “Can you think of a good reason for her to have run away from the men we asked to watch out for her?”

Wolf shrugged, those big shoulders moving up and down. “Maybe she was scared. Maybe she was looking for one of us.”

Leo laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “She ran the minute she saw me.”

“Dude, you looked kind of psychotic. You still do. Maybe you should try a sympathetic smile,” Wolf offered. He looked down at her. His handsome face was upside down, but she found comfort in it. His lips had curved slightly, his eyes warm. “Want to explain this whole thing, baby? We weren’t trying to scare you. We just need to tighten up security when it comes to you. We were going to come up to explain it to you. Finn and Lucas were just watching out for you until we could do it ourselves.”

Leo got up, his muscular body moving with grace. He ran a hand through his hair, shoving it back. “She wasn’t looking for us, Wolf. And she wasn’t hungry and trying to find a goddamn vending machine. If she had been doing either of those things, she wouldn’t have felt the need to steal your extra gun.”

“What?”

Wolf didn’t look quite so reasonable when he reached down and hauled her up.

“It’s in her right-hand pocket. At least I assume she stole it from you. Maybe she has a whole bunch of guns I don’t know about. I wouldn’t put anything past her at this point,” Leo said. His fists were clenched as he pulled his cell out. “We have her. Tell the others they can stand down. No. We can handle it. We’ll be back down in my office in five minutes. Yeah, she’ll be with us. No. She’ll be in one piece, boss.” There was a long pause as Julian obviously made a request. Leo shook his head before replying. “I told you she’ll be in one piece. I promise nothing more than that.”

Wolf had her up and on her feet. His hands ran down her torso, stopping when he got to the gun.

“Wolf,” Shelley began. She couldn’t quite find the words. She thought she could handle Leo’s anger more than Wolf’s disappointment.

Wolf reached under the cotton front of the jacket and pulled the gun free. His eyes closed briefly, and his mouth firmed into a grim line. “The safety isn’t on. I left the fucking safety on. I know I did.”

Shelley looked down at the gun. It was a foreign, dangerous thing, and now she was starting to realize she didn’t know much about it. “I might have fumbled with it a little. I might have hit it. I don’t know. I didn’t really know it had a safety.”

She’d never worked with handguns. Her father and brother had used shotguns and rifles on the ranch. How was she supposed to know?

There was a loud crack. Shelley started. Wolf wrapped an arm around her middle and hauled her back.

Leo had put his fist through the wall.

“What are you doing?” Shelley asked, shocked. Leo was always calm.

“Hush or I’ll start your punishment here and now,” Wolf promised. “I’m only calm because my brother isn’t. You’re going to keep your mouth shut unless you want to apologize sweetly and beg for some forgiveness.”

“I am sorry, but you don’t understand what you’ve done,” Shelley said, trying to wiggle away. Tears coursed freely now. There was a huge part of her that wanted to do exactly what Wolf had said. She wanted to get down on her knees and ask them to forgive her. She wanted to calm Leo down. She didn’t like seeing him on the edge of his control.

Leo pulled his fist free of the wall. Miraculously, he hadn’t broken anything but the wall. There were scrapes, but he managed to flex his hand.

“Are you done taking it out on the walls or should we move on to other inanimate objects?” Wolf asked. He didn’t let up on his hold.

Leo’s face was a blank as he turned back to them. “Better the wall than her ass. I can’t touch her right now. Set the punishment for later. Neither one of us is in any headspace to lay a hand on her.” Leo took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he seemed to have more control. “Why?”

“It’s none of your business. I would really like to go now.” They couldn’t hold her. They couldn’t force her to stay here. She would get her things and leave. She would try to text this guy back and figure out another meeting. She would find another gun.

“Try her phone, Wolf.”

Sneaky, too-smart-for-his-own-good son of a bitch. “Hey, that’s mine.”

Leo was too smart, and Wolf was too fast. He had the phone out of her pocket and tossed it to his brother.

“Damn it,” Shelley cursed.

Wolf’s arm tightened around her waist. “I have a very good memory, love. Every time you curse me or Leo, you’re doing nothing but adding to your punishment. And it’s bad right now, Shelley. I can’t begin to tell you how bad it is. Do you see how that vein over his right eye is throbbing?”

Sure enough, Leo’s eye twitched. He didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t look up, merely began going over the contents of her phone. His mouth tightened.

“That’s his tell. You think you’ve seen him mad before, but you haven’t until you’ve seen that little tic. You pushed him too far.”

“I was only trying to protect you.” There was nothing left to do. Leo had read the text.

“Mother fucker.” Leo read the text out loud. “Bring her along, Wolf. I don’t dare lay a hand on her. We’ll deal with her when we get her down to my office. I want to see if Ben and Chase can do anything with this. And I want a full workup on Holder, man. I don’t like the fact that he showed up just as someone is after Shelley.”

Shelley dug her heels in. “No. You guys have to let me go.”

Wolf simply lifted her up, and in a show of pure power, turned her in the air until she was over his shoulder and her stomach was flattened against him.

“Damn it, Wolf, you do not have to obey him.”

Wolf started to follow Leo back to the elevator. “That’s not what our momma said.”

He was frustrating. And it was very difficult to talk to his ass. Even though it was a spectacular ass.

“Besides, if I hadn’t listened to Leo, you probably would have gotten away. I was going to take the main elevator,” Wolf admitted. “But Leo said that you would probably run either down or up and try to get to the service elevator because you would think we would go up to the condo.”