Your Treat or Mine (3 page)

Chapter Two

Beautiful Struggle

Amelia jerked
her hand, testing the handcuffs that bound her to one of the desks that
occupied the small room that housed the burial plot’s security and considered
her current predicament.

She kept trying
to think positively, but her mind was screaming one thing loud and clear.
You
are so screwed!

Damn!

She’d been sure
she wouldn’t have any real trouble acquiring the Tiger’s Phallus and Wolf’s Cock,
thinking the Council was sending her on a twisted adult version of a scavenger
hunt.

Too bad she
hadn’t counted on actual security.

Amelia pursed
her lips and considered the room around her. Security or no security, she was
going to accomplish her mission. She hadn’t gone to Wharton, graduated at the
top of her class, gotten a job at one of the nation’s fastest growing companies
to give up now.

She glared at
the handcuffs. All she needed was something she could use to pick the locks.

Amelia thought
of the endless parade of action movies her mother loved. One scene stuck out of
her memory. Smiling to herself Amelia bent forward, over the desk and shook her
head vigorously. After what felt like an eternity, she heard the soft ping as one
of the many pins in her hair fell to the table.

“Gotcha,”
she grabbed the closest pin and attempted to pick the lock.

According
to her friends and family, she was feisty, opinionated, assertive and bossy.
Those individuals who weren’t her friends would call her a “bitch” or “ball
buster”. Then there were the men who discovered she wasn’t as easy to get into
bed as they’d assumed. They called her frigid.

But
the way both of the security guards looked at her made Amelia’s body heat with
need. And neither of them looked like the kind who would run away the first
time her bark turned into a bite.

Big.
Hot. And wicked.

She
smiled to herself as she battled the lock on the handcuffs. Okay, to be honest,
only the blonde was wicked.

“Little Red, let me introduce myself. I’m big,
bad and all wolf.”

The most disconcerting fact was
that the man who said those words was gorgeous. Breathtaking, actually. With
slashing eyebrows, sharp cheekbones, full lips, and smouldering hazel eyes, he
had to be the most attractive man Amelia had ever met. His friend came in a
close second with black, wavy hair, thick, masculine eyebrows, dark espresso
eyes, a firm mouth, and the strongest jaw she’d ever seen.

Amelia had barely been able to
keep it together enough to prevent herself from jumping the blond security
guard. The light in his hazel eyes, the smirk on his full lips, and the sexy
growl in his dark voice had all combined to make his words the most erotic
thing she’d ever heard.

They’d been more potent than
anything any vampire had ever said to her.

And they said vampires could turn you on with a word…

“Finally,” she said softly when
she heard the distinctive click that told her the lock on the handcuffs hand
opened. As much as the blond security guard and his equally handsome brunet
friend turned her on, Amelia had a mission she planned on accomplishing.

Although she would never admit
it, even under threat of death, there was something about both men that kicked
up her libido.
Figures!
Of course she
was forced to run away from the only two men to ever truly catch her attention.
Another ironic fact in the sad life of Amelia Brockman, she thought as she made
her way to the very door the blond had dragged her through. Amelia breathed a
sigh of relief when she found it was unlocked.

She didn’t breathe again until she
found herself standing outside the mausoleum. She shuddered and wrapped her
arms around her as she made her way down the stairs. Sometime during the few
minutes she’d been inside, the autumn night had dampened, taking on a wet
quality that made the night feel a hundred degrees colder.

“Stupid outfit,” she muttered as
she made her way back to the area she’d been searching before the security
guard found her. As far as Amelia knew, it was the shortest route to the exit.
Even though she wanted the chance to show JAK, Inc. what she was really made
of, something told her getting arrested would not make the Council look upon
her favourably.

*
 
*
 
*
 
*

“Everything okay?”

Vittorio nodded his head as he
strode into the backroom. “Yeah,” he murmured as he flung a stray leaf off his
shoulder. “It was just a bunch of teenage boys trying to impress some girl.” As
much as he’d hated leaving the human alone and handcuffed, he’d had to check
out the disturbance while Riley made the call to the higher ups.

“Remember when we were that
young?”

Vittorio did, all too well, but
he knew what Riley was doing. He was trying to distract him from the issue at
hand. “What did headquarters say?”

“I haven’t called,” he responded.
“I was thinking it might be smarter to call Rikard instead.”

Christ!
Vittorio glanced at his partner,
shook his head and wondered why he had to be the reasonable one. “For the
record, I still think we should call headquarters and inform them of the break
in.”

“Trust me, V. This is a much
better idea.” Riley murmured as he dialled his brother’s number.

“Every time you ask me to trust
you, I end up regretting it.”

Riley pressed the last button and
turned his head slowly to look Vittorio in the eye. “You make it sound like I’m
always getting you in trouble.”

“Aren’t you?” Vittorio retorted.
Riley and Vittorio were best friends. And best friends didn’t lie to one
another. The truth was Riley had the ability to get him, simple, steadfast
Vittorio into the worst kinds of trouble.

Secretly, Vittorio was thankful
for that.

Riley shrugged one mountainous
shoulder in answer before returning his attention to the task at hand. He
pressed another button and the familiar sound of the phone dialling rang
through the air. Riley had placed the call on speakerphone. “Hi, Rikard,” he
said. “I’ve got something important to ask you,” he continued before Rikard
could respond to the greeting.

“What is it now, Riley?” Rikard
growled in exasperation.

Vittorio understood what the wolf
was feeling. Rikard was Riley’s older brother and had been forced time and time
again to get him and Riley out of the situations they usually found themselves
in.

Tonight wasn’t going to be any
different, Vittorio thought.

Quickly Riley informed his
brother of all that happened, paying particular attention to each and every
detail about the woman who claimed to be looking for the Wolf’s Cock and
Tiger’s Phallus.

“Did you search her?” Rikard
asked, cutting Riley off in the middle of his sentence.

Vittorio sat up a little straighter.
There was an urgency to Rikard’s words that the older wolf rarely used.

“No,” Riley admitted slowly.

“Damn it,” Rikard cursed. “Did it
not occur to you that it would have been impossible for a woman wearing that
outfit with those shoes to hop over the gate?”

Riley glanced at Vittorio with
wide eyes. They’d missed the obvious. Probably because they’d both been staring
too hard at Amelia, wondering what she would look like naked, to think.

“Search her. Search every inch of
her. And her basket too. Don’t call back until you find out what’s she’s really
there for.”

“I’ve got to go,” Riley absently
muttered into the phone before lowering the receiver. Just before the phone
call ended the low sound of Rikard’s growl cut through the air.

“Shit,” Vittorio cursed savagely
as he ran a hand through his hair.

Rikard was the coolest wolf he
knew. If the older shifter was getting anxious there was a real problem at
hand.

“You want to bet there is
something they’re not telling us?” Riley threw over his shoulder as he headed
towards the exit.

Vittorio had been thinking along
the same lines. The higher-ups in all three families tended to keep secrets on
a need- to- know basis, regardless of whether the information was personal or
business related. Because of that, those at the bottom of the chain tended to
find themselves dealing with shit because they had only half of the needed
information. “Yeah, I suggest we get back to that woman and find out why she’s
really here.”

Both men hadn’t taken more than
three steps into the hall when Vittorio realised something was wrong. The
woman’s scent was faint.

As though she’d already left the
vicinity.

Shit!

Riley took off, running through
the short hall. Vittorio started to follow Riley when it occurred to him both
men would be too much manpower to take down one human female. Almost at the
last moment, just before Riley would have ran out of the exit, he yelled, ”Remember
she’s human. You can’t shift.”

The reminder pounded through
Riley’s mind with every step he took. Remember she’s human. You can’t shift.
You can’t shift, he thought as his quickly pumping legs ate up the space that
separated him from the human female.

He darted around a corner, pulse
pounding, and spotted her several feet away from him. He paused for a moment
and simply took in the sight. The night sky was bright with the full, silvery
moon. It shone down on Amelia silhouetting her lush figure to perfection.

As he looked at her an undeniable
need rose within him. Riley felt his beast clawing to get next to her.

He took a single step forward—and
landed on a twig. The sound of the branch snapping seemed absurdly loud on the
quiet night air. Riley watched in irritation as Amelia jerked, looked over her
shoulder and stared at him.

The moment their eyes connected
he knew she was going to run.

He relished the moment.

Amelia stared at him for exactly
four seconds before taking off, running as quickly as her short legs could
carry her.

Instead of chasing after her
immediately, Riley stood where he was and counted to twenty. He wanted to enjoy
the chase. He wouldn’t be able to do that if it ended too soon. So he gave the
little human enough time to put some distance between them.

Just to add some flavour to what
had suddenly become a game.

Once the obligatory twenty
seconds had passed, Riley began the chase. Adrenaline pumped thickly in his
veins. Awareness prickled every inch of his skin. Every one of his sensory
powers increased with each step he took. Though he didn’t shift, he was capable
of allowing his wolf to come to the surface. With that, his senses became
stronger.

She darted around another of the
seemingly endless headstones, but Riley knew the chase was already over. She’d
taken a wrong turn. Amelia would run for a few more feet and then find her exit
blocked off by one of the plot’s larger mausoleums.

With careful steps he took the
corner. As he rounded the curve heard the low, harsh sound of her frustrated
curse. She’d run up against the mausoleum.

Riley knew the way the plots were
placed in that region of the cemetery gave her only one way out...and he was
standing in front of it. “Come out. Come out, where ever you are?” he called at
the top of his lungs.

“Asshole,” he heard Amelia swear
before she appeared several feet away from him. Her back was to him and she was
gingerly trying to make her way past the mausoleum.

Riley had judged the female too
quickly. The chase was not over.

Both of his eyebrows lifted in
surprise at the sight of her hopping over one of the headstones of his
forefathers. Apparently she’d discarded her shoes.

He growled at the sight of her
naked feet on the hard ground. Even to his own ears the growl was dark and
dangerous. Riley didn’t like the sight of the human running barefoot. She was
going to hurt herself that way.

He wanted to protect her.

“Amelia,” he called softly. Or as
softly as he could manage in his adrenaline fuelled state.

She stiffened for one second.
That was the only indication Riley received, but it was more than enough to
know she wasn’t going to stop running.