Lora Leigh - Soul Deep

Stay down. Don’t risk being seen. Stay covered.

Definitely stay covered.

Amanda lay on her side, her back to Kiowa as she tried to hug the wheel cover and keep from touching him.

Cold hard reality had almost returned. Enough to realize what had happened and to remember in bleak clarity the hours before when it had all begun. How long had passed? It was nearly three in the morning now, Simon had told Kiowa a bit ago. The lights from the vehicle following them flipped in and out of the back glass, casting odd shadows around her.

Nearly three. It had been just after seven when she had closed her door on the trick-or-treaters. Seven hours. In seven hours her life had changed so drastically she was certain she could never right it again.

She shuddered at the thought of it. Not in distaste. She wished it were in distaste, it would make it easier. It would ease the tears that slid silently down her face and the ache that lay heavy in her heart.

What had she done? How had it happened? And why was she still being tortured with the need for more?

“How much longer, Simon?” Kiowa snapped from beside her, his voice harsh as he demanded the answer.

“A little over an hour,” Simon answered back. “Callan has one of the new cabins ready. They’re gathering intel now. We should have something when we get there.”

“Sinclair there?” His voice was a raspy growl. He was pissed. Good, so was she.

“He’s flying in with Elizabeth and Cassie now. He should be there just ahead of us.”

She could feel the tension filling the Jeep now. Between her and Kiowa. The more she burned, the madder he seemed to get.

Could he tell? she wondered. Did he sense the building arousal? Just what she needed. The son of a bitch didn’t just drug her with some kind of weird animal aphrodisiac, but he could sense the effect of it.

“Dash Sinclair is in on this?” She spoke up then, stilling the tears as anger washed over her.

She had met Dash Sinclair and his wife Elizabeth. Their daughter Cassie was a sweet, if odd little child. They had met with her father during one of the endless meetings the month before.

“None of us were in on anything, Ms. Marion, but protecting your hide,” Simon told her harshly. “Things are turning out bad, I admit, but we did our best.”

“Your best sucks,” she informed him furiously. “They’ll find me.”

Her father would not take this lying down, she thought. If the Breeds thought they had trouble before, it would be nothing compared to what her father and brother would bring down on them now.

“They have to know you’ve gone first,” Kiowa snapped. “The five men I took out behind your house disappeared, Manda. And they didn’t walk away. Your security detail is still sleeping peacefully and breathing. For the moment. And your father doesn’t have a clue you’re gone.”

She blinked back at him. She remembered Tammy Brock then, her nervousness, her request to use the bathroom. How had they convinced Tammy to help them? Better yet, why had her bodyguards ignored the back door indicator light as they had? At no time was she supposed to use that door after dark. She never had.

“The security detail was helping them,” she whispered in shock. “They had to be. Tammy deactivated the alarm on the back door when she went to the bathroom, but they should have known that. The safeguards would have warned them of that.”

“Damn, she’s a bright one, Kiowa. You might want to consider keeping her.” Simon’s glowing praise was slightly mocking.

Bastard.

“Why would they do that?” She shook her head, refusing to turn and even glance at Kiowa. If she looked at him, saw his eyes, his mouth, she would be a goner. “I can almost understand Tammy if it’s money. Kylie is so sick. But why did the guards help?”

“Well, that’s one we’re trying to figure out,” Simon answered her. “Who’s this Tammy person anyway?”

She quickly explained what had occurred with Kylie’s mother. The trip to the bathroom, Amanda seeing that the alarm had been deactivated. As she spoke, she had to forcibly push back the building awareness of the man at her side and the slowly rising hunger. It was like a demon inside her, claws raking at her womb, demanding the hard thrust of his cock, the white-hot release of his semen.

“Rumor drifted in that the hit would be made just after Dash made contact with the Feline Breeds,” Stephanie revealed, her voice soft, obviously less antagonistic than the two chest-beaters sharing the vehicle with them. “We were delayed in putting together a plan to protect you when his wife, Elizabeth, went into labor. As soon as they were able to travel, Dash met with your father. He didn’t seem to take the threats seriously.”

Amanda couldn’t control the hitch in her breathing then. Neither her brother nor her father had taken a threat against her seriously? They hadn’t even told her?

“You’re lying,” she whispered then. “My parents wouldn’t risk my life.”

“They put a damned good detail on you,” Kiowa assured her. “The four men protecting you are the best. All he had to go on was a rumor, no hard intelligence. And I believe you refused to move into the White House for any length of time.”

Sarcasm colored his voice now.

But he was right, she had refused to move into the official Presidential home for any reason. The fight had been a bitter one. Why hadn’t he told her there might have been a threat? She might have changed her mind.

No, she amended that thought, she wouldn’t have. She was high on her own independence, her new job, her friends and her home. She would have required proof, not rumor.

“What now?” she asked then.

“Now, we get you to safety then contact your father,” Kiowa answered her sharply. “And we keep you there until the vote on Breed Law comes up next week. With your safety assured, President Marion will vote the bill in rather than shoot it down because you have a gun at your head.”

“And since you’ve mated with a Breed, why everything’s just going to be peachy now,” Simon drawled mockingly. “Ain’t we all lucky?”

She would have jerked up if Kiowa’s hand hadn’t suddenly pressed her back down.

“What the hell is he talking about?” she snarled, flipping around as she held the blanket close to her nakedness.

“Ignore him. He’s a twit,” Kiowa advised, his voice dangerously soft.

“Funny, he doesn’t sound like a twit. An asshole maybe, but not a twit,” she pointed out furiously. “Why did he say that?”

“Because he wants to cause trouble. Simon likes causing trouble. Don’t you, Simon?”

Amanda did not trust his tone of voice in the least.

“Oh yeah, trouble is just my middle name, ain’t it, Steph?” he drawled.

“Or something,” she replied. The underlying messages were driving Amanda crazy.

“You’re lying to me,” she told Kiowa then. “Why lie to me now?”

He breathed in roughly. “Look, Manda, it’s about as clear as daylight that you don’t want to know anything more than you already do. Just stay down and leave things alone for now. We’ll talk later.”

“I don’t want to talk later,” she replied with all the false sweetness she could muster. “I want to talk now. I want to know why the hell he called me your mate and just exactly what being a mate entails.”

His brow lifted sardonically. “As you stated earlier, you are very well aware of what an animal is. You figure it out.”

She could feel herself paling. It didn’t help the heat building in her pussy.

“What did you do to me?” Fury was enveloping her. Unfortunately, it was driving a less wanted heat higher.

His teeth flashed as he smiled. There, at the side of his mouth, his canines glittered savagely. Her shoulder ached as though in response, the heat there spreading through her.