He tried to smile at the joke, knowing she was trying to ease the strain he was feeling, but he couldn’t manage. Not even for Kelly. Aiden scrubbed his jaw and leaned back in his chair. No one had seen or heard from Troy for weeks and it was eating Aiden alive. Not even Evan or Marcus, and they were looking. He’d had no choice but to contact them.
“At least there hasn’t been another murder,” Kelly said. “Not here and nothing similar anywhere else. Not even a peep from Detective Wright beyond a few phone calls on the case.”
“I know. I know.” He shook his head, “Where the hell is he, Kelly?” He meant Troy, and he knew she knew that. They’d spent every waking minute together, and he’d held nothing back. Why would he? He was just going to have to erase her memories, erase himself from her life.
She pushed to her feet and walked to him, sliding into his lap, where he willingly invited her. “I love you, Kelly,” he said, before he could stop himself. “I fucking love you and the idea of losing you, like I have Troy, is eating me alive.”
She pressed her lips to his, then smiled against his mouth. “I fucking love you too and you aren’t going to lose me.”
“Kelly,” he said, leaning back to look at her. “You know-”
“I know that you think you can erase yourself from my mind, and us from my memories, but we’re more than that Aiden. You can’t erase us from my heart.” Her cell phone started to ring and she reached for it and then stilled, her gaze lifting to his. “It’s Detective Wright.”
“It’s Saturday night,” he said, a chill racing down his spine. This was trouble. He felt it in his bones.
“I’m on call,” she said. “I have to answer.”
He nodded and she took the call. He could hear the conversation. “Another murder,” Wright said. “We want you on scene to examine the body this time.”
“Where?” she asked, her gaze touching Aiden’s.
“Eclipse,” the detective said. “And hurry. It’s a madhouse here. Come to the backdoor.” He hung up.
Kelly was stiff, still holding the phone to her ear. Aiden took the phone from her. “It’s a trap, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s a trap.” He kissed her. “And I’m going to kill that bastard for even trying to set it.” He stood her up. “Let me make some quick plans.” He grabbed his phone and dialed Evan and Marcus, and was forced to leave a message for both of them. He dialed Troy and left yet another message. Damn, damn, damn. This was going down and he was all that was going to be standing between Kelly and hell.
***
Kelly parked behind the bar and her cell phone rang. She knew it was Aiden. “Get the hell out of there now,” he said.
“No,” she said. “We need to end this.”
“What?” he demanded. “No Kelly. We agreed that you’d leave if this wasn’t obviously a police operation. There’s no police Kelly. No yellow tape and no fucking police.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t walk away if this is your chance to catch Andres.”
“Kelly-” She hung up and opened the door, shoving her phone in her purse. She stepped outside. The night was dark, humid, starless. Lightening flickered in the sky, a storm passing, or coming, she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She walked quickly towards the building, but not as quickly as her heart raced. She wore jeans and flats that made her feel more ready to run. She was going to need to run. The thought chilled her to the bone.
The instant that she arrived at the back door, it opened, and Detective Wright appeared, music blasting behind him. The club wasn’t shut down, but then she’d known that when she drove up. He motioned her inside.
She didn’t move. “Where is everyone?”
“Basement level. They’re worried about public panic. They’re keeping this as low key as one can after the seventh murder in a short period of time.”
“Basement?” she asked. “Who has a basement in Texas?”
“Apparently this place. A basement and a dead body.”
She inhaled and let it out. How did one run away in a basement? They didn’t, she thought. They didn’t. She was walking into a trap alright.
She walked forward, passing him, her arm brushing his. A wave of nausea overcame her. The man oozed evil, be it real or imagined, but like the storm, it didn’t matter. It simply was what it was.
A stairwell up and a stairwell down were directly in front of her. “Going down,” he told her, stepping behind her, his hands touching her waist. “Hustle. We don’t want to draw unwanted attention.”
She started down the stairs, and the idea of that man at her back, was almost too much. She was halfway down when a tall man stopped at the bottom, his eyes glinting orange. A memory of Troy’s eyes during his attack drew her up short. She turned to run and smashed into Wright. He smiled. Someone grabbed her from behind. She fought and fought, but it wasn’t enough to save her from the warm, coppery taste of the liquid one of the two men poured down her throat.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Aiden blasted through the backdoor of the bar, not giving a shit about anything but getting to Kelly. He’d sworn to protect her. He would not fail her. He couldn’t fail her.
A vampire greeted Aiden just inside the entry with a snarl. Aiden returned the greeting with the cooper blade in his hand. The vamp dropped like a rock, not expecting such an open attack. Another came at him, and this time a scuffle followed, that was more like a game of peewee football. He was done with it and down the stairs, grabbing Wright by the shirt, in seconds. He tossed him aside and watched someone dragging her down the remainder of the stair.
“Aiden!” she screamed.
He didn’t stop charging forward. He was in front of her, sending her a mental command to sleep, to spare her witness to what was to follow. He swung over her, and slammed his blade into her attacker, clear to the bone. A howl of pain followed and he maneuvered Kelly behind him, kicking what turned out to be Andres, down the remainder of the stairs. He took off and started running, knowing from experience that Andres took a blade like an inconvenience he would quickly recover from.
With Kelly in his arms, he found the top of the stairs and kicked the door open, only to find Troy once again waiting for him, the SUV pulled up, the back door open. Troy, however, was not inside the vehicle. He had Detective Wright sprawled across the hood, a blade slashing through the air. Wright dropped to the ground, his head rolling, no ash to follow, no bloodlust present. Just a whole lot of asshole.
Aiden was in the backseat in seconds, and Troy was behind the wheel, and had them moving, just as fast. Kelly was asleep and shaking. Why was she shaking? “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded of Troy.
“Right here,” he said. “I just didn’t want to hear you bitch—bitch.” He met Aiden’s gaze in the mirror. “They drugged her, Aiden. You need to wake her up before she strokes from the pain, right here and now.”