With Just Cause (11 page)

Damn it!

Deandra kicked at the dust of the road,
scuffing the toe of her canvas shoe. What the hell. Might as well
have her shoes match the rest of her attire. She looked worn, old,
and used, exactly as she felt. She’d probably be covered in dust
before she reached the hacienda. The road department out here
hadn’t even graveled this stretch and the Bradley’s well-maintained
asphalt ended at their overbearing gatepost. Good riddance to it.
She didn’t want anything to do with any Bradley ever again.

Ever.

So... she had a dirt road to follow for
eighteen miles. Might as well be eight hundred. She’d gone about
three, each one getting slower as her mind fought to absorb today’s
events. There wasn’t much moonlight, but that didn’t seem to
matter. She’d put her night vision goggles up, but they actually
made it harder to see. She’d chucked them back in the dirt about a
mile back. She should be thrilled to still have hyper senses. It
was probably a side effect of making love to a vampire.

At least there was something she’d gained out
of this. Maybe it would help her in the future. Having the ability
to see and hear and smell beyond physical normality in a maximum
security prison couldn’t hurt. It might even be helpful. Deandra
swiped at her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry. Nope. Regardless of
how the road blurred before her face and her eyes kept watering.
She wasn’t admitting to tears. Geez. That would be the frosting
atop this cake.

The dust swirled suddenly, choking her, and
then Grimm was there. Right in front of her. Massive. Gorgeous.
Spine-tingling. She gasped a moment before she was grabbed, lifted
against that sculpted belly and chest, and then just held, while
everything about him shuddered.

“Deandra, my love! Finally! Do you have any
idea how long I’ve searched—”

“Put me down.”
No. Don’t do it!

They dropped. His legs flexed on the
landing.

“Now, let me go.”

His arms opened. She stepped away. One step.
Another.

“Are you angry? Forgive me. I know I’m late.
But it took forever to find my mother’s ring. You don’t know how it
is! You put something away, and over the years you forget where.
And then it took quite a search to locate you. Len was certain
you’d be at the Bradley Ranch. But no. I checked.”

“That probably went over well.”

“I wasn’t seen! I am rarely that stupid. You
don’t know what happens when a Bradley catches a glimpse of
me.”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Deandra
replied.

“You do?”

“I had a bit of conversation with an old lady
named Grace. She’s... uh... some sort of relation. Wait a minute.
You’re doing an awful lot of talking all of a sudden.”

He winked. Her heart replied with a hard
staccato of beats. She ordered it to cease. She might as well try
to quit breathing. What was she doing? He was dead. Or rather...
undead. There wasn’t any future for them. There wasn’t anything
other than more heartache.

“You noticed? It’s strange, but all of sudden
I want to talk. I want to communicate. I need to talk and listen,
and share... everything! I have been so favored! I had no one to
talk to until now. And then like magic, you appear. Standing in a
window, as if it’s nothing to upend my entire world. My love. My
mate. My only—! But I digress. I wanted to do this right and for
that I had to find my mother’s ring.”

“Your... mother’s ring?”

He grinned, showing off some pretty
impressive canines. “You are second-guessing me, and I’m not even
on bended knee yet. What do you think?”

He held out his hand where a little ring
glittered from a spot just before the knuckle of his little finger.
It looked like a round-cut, perfect ruby. Close to a karat in size.
Set with what could be diamonds on either side. It was
stunning.

“You like it? It’s the only thing she gave me
that the Bradleys allowed me to have. But I know if he could have
found it, my cousin would’ve taken it from me too.”

“Your cousin?”

“Woodrow Bradley Junior. Who else would shoot
me in the back? And for what? He had a wayward wife. They ran into
me in town. The moment he introduced her I knew she’d be trouble.
How could it be my fault that she... uh... she—”

“She wanted you?” Deandra finished for
him.

“Exactly! How was I to know his wife
tormented him with me? I never went around any of them.”

“Is there no end to the black history about
you?”

“How is it my fault? I didn’t even live on
the ranch. I moved on. Got a government job. Lived in the big city.
That bastard crept into my house while I slept. Shot me in my bed.
And then while I lay there bleeding, he told me why. He was
jealous. Always had been. His wife’s lust was too much. The heir to
the Bradley Ranch... envious of a bastard half-breed? Didn’t make
sense.”

“Does to me,” Deandra replied. “But just tell
me you made him pay for it. Okay? That’s all I want to know. That
one of the stinking-rich Bradleys had to pay for what they
did.”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Cancer got him. Ate him up from the inside.
Took him a powerful long time to die. He suffered. It looked real
painful, too, especially toward the end. I know. I’d visit him at
night. To watch.”

“You tormented him. Please say you did.
Didn’t you?”

The smile he gave her was fairly
nasty-looking. Especially with the fangs he displayed. Deandra
gulped. He looked wicked. And infinitely sexy.

Sexy?
Had she even lost her common
sense? Grimm was a monster. She was supposed to be distancing
herself. Ending this.

“Oh, enough sordid history. What’s past is
done. What do we care? The future is ours! Yours and mine. And.
So.”

He lifted his eyebrows and looked unsure for
a moment. Then he set his shoulders and went on one knee in the
dust at her feet. The pulse her heart gave was intense, sending
warmth whooshing through her.

“Deandra? My love. My one and only love.
Will—uh... will you marry me?”

He pulled the ruby ring off and held it up to
her. Looked up at her with an expression that was close to killing
her. This was impossible. It had to stop. She had to find the
fortitude to say and do things totally at odds with everything in
her entire body. She’d use facts. Truth. Something besides this
love emotion hovering so near the surface!

“You’re dead.” She told him. The words
warbled.

“Actually, I believe the term is undead. And
yes. I am. Call it my dark side.”

“But... you’re a
vampire
.”

“I know. But all men have faults. So I am a
vampire. Is that so bad? Truly?”

“You’re joking, right?”
Crap
. There
was that phrase again.

“Deandra, please. You are my mate. My love.
The only woman in the entire universe for me. I love you. I want to
marry you. I want you by my side for all eternity. Please say yes,
that you will marry me. Please?”

Her heart was turning into a live entity that
shot pain everywhere. “You should’ve told me.”

“You’re right, Sweetheart. And I would have.
I swear. If you hadn’t found out from Len I’d be here telling you
everything right now. But he said it wouldn’t matter. You lit out
for the Bradley Ranch the moment you suspected my danger. Can you
please look beyond my faults and say yes? Please say yes, my love.
Please?”

“Oh... Grimm.”

She swayed in place. There wasn’t any way to
resist such a perfect man. Perfect proposal. Perfect ring. She was
moving her left hand out when a movement in the road beyond him
caught her eye. Oh, crap. She’d forgotten the Hunters sent after
him.

“Got you!”

Deandra leapt Grimm before the words ended,
shielding him from an arrow coming at killing speed. It hit with a
sickening thud into her right breast, sending fire and agony down
her arm and through her torso. The momentum also carried her
crashing into Grimm, who went full-out onto his back on the road
with her atop him. Like an automaton, Deandra groped for her left
gun with her working hand. Grimm grabbed for the right pistol. He
sat up, bending her with it. And then they both fired; the sound
simultaneous and loud.

Both Hunters fell, both shot with perfect
accuracy right in the centers of their foreheads. Their crossbows
landed on either side of them. She and Grimm had reacted as one.
Together. Indivisibly and indelibly linked. With just cause. And
perfect aim.

“Nice shot.”

She and Grimm said it simultaneously. And
she’d have laughed except the pain grabbed her again, this time
encompassing her entire right side.

“Hold on, love. I’ll get... this out.”

Grimm spoke between gritted teeth, then
smacked at the arrow shaft; sending it shooting out her back, and
dousing her with blood. A moment later, he had his shirt off,
ripped in half, and was holding the wads of material to the front
and back of her. She heard his destroyed shirt start singing
somewhere near her chest. Grimm swore, lifted a thigh to keep
pressure against the exit wound and a second later he was fumbling
through the pad of material for what turned out to be a cell
phone.

“Yeah?”

Words came through the phone. Something about
the hacienda and damage control and then her name. It sounded like
Len.

“Got her.”

Len answered, barely audible. She could make
out words about a team. Containing the letter D. Then a break.

“Send them.”

Grimm was back to short remarks. That was
cute. His voice was going to haunt her. It already did. Len said
something more. Waited.

“Yeah. Two bodies. Head shots.”

Then Grimm tossed the phone aside and bowed
his back, putting his face close to hers.

“Oh, Deandra my love. How could you do
something so courageous? So incredibly brave? That was sanctified
wood. Had it pierced my heart—?”

“I did it because... I love you, Grimm.” The
words came out garbled. Filled with liquid. She coughed, and a
ribbon of blood came up with it.

“And... you’ll marry me? We’ll be together?
From now until forever?”

Agony was overtaking her world. Making the
night even darker. Giving her a view tinged with burgundy. Like
blood.

“Grimm?” she whispered.

“Yes?”

“You still got the ring?”

He grinned down at her. “Oh yeah.”

“If I become a... vampire... it takes away
pain? Right?”

“And suffering. And deformities. And
diseases. And aging issues.”

“And you’ll be... there waiting?”

“You just try and get rid of me,
Sweetheart.”

“Then, what are you waiting for? Get
cracking, Cowboy. Before I get annoyed with you. You don’t want to
see me annoyed. Remember?”

It would’ve sounded better it she hadn’t
sputtered with blood through it. But he grinned, bared sharp fangs,
lifted her fully against his chest... and stabbed into her throat.
And replaced the pain with bliss.

-o0o-

Jackie is an Alaskan author who crafts
full-length Scot Historical novels for Kensington, while
moonlighting with her paranormal series: Vampire Assassin league,
available in ebook. She loves hearing from fans, who can contact
her at
www.jackieivie.com