Night Light

He took another step forward but Warren strode into his line of sight and approached Trevor, shifting back to human form as he did so. When Trevor swayed, Warren grabbed him by the arm and brought it over his shoulder. He hadn’t seen a reason to let Quinn kick a man while he was down.

Trevor looked up at Warren and smirked when he realized their predicament. “Fine mess, now were all naked,” he murmured and promptly passed out.

Warren shook his head and couldn’t help but grin because Trevor had a very good point. It was times like this he was glad he brought his cell phone with him and carried it in the fashion he did. He gently set Trevor against the wall and was about to get the cell phone when he heard Quinn start growling.

Quinn had shifted and was looking over Kat’s unconscious form. Her clothes were a few feet away, shredded by her transformation and not wearable. Deciding to think on that later, Quinn started examining her wounds and paused when he saw the blood still oozing from her inner thigh.

Moving her leg just enough to examine where the blood was coming from, he froze when he saw a mating mark. The growl erupted from his throat before he could stop it. Someone had mated Kat, given her the mark and abandoned her.

Quinn felt jealousy rise up deep inside and leaned close to sniff her skin to see if the scent still lingered. That only infuriated him even more… she didn’t smell like another man, she smelled wonderful.

Looking up at the other man Warren was crouched in front of, Quinn wondered if the mating mark was given to her by the blonde bearshifter.

Warren took out his cell phone deciding to ignore Quinn’s little tantrum for the moment. Kat needed help and he wasn’t about to tell Quinn who the mating mark belonged to. Let him go through the hell of figuring it out for himself.

“Mrs. Tully?” Warren asked then smiled. “I’m doing just fine ma’am. I was wondering if you could meet me at Moon Dance. My sister and her friend Trevor have been hurt and they need medical attention only you can give.”

Warren was quiet for a moment then nodded, “Thank you, Mrs. Tully.”

“I didn’t know you knew Tully.” Quinn said quietly. He’d met Tully not long after the families had split up.

Warren smirked while dialing another number. Did Quinn think he was the only one allowed to spy? “Nick has gotten into more trouble than I care to remember. Mrs. Tully is forever patching him up and her home is always open if we need a place to lay low.”

“I’m surprised we haven’t crossed paths before now.” Quinn responded becoming a little more suspicious.

“Nick, we’re in an alley ten blocks west of the club and we need a ride. Bring clothes for three men, your sister, and drive the Hummer.” Warren hung up the phone without waiting for Nick to respond and turned his attention back to Trevor.

“Is he the one that gave Kat the mating mark?” Quinn demanded.

“That, my friend, is not my story to tell.” Warren said cryptically.

Chapter 5

Nick had just dropped Steven and Jewel off at Night Light when he got the call. Jewel had been very quiet since Dean’s little stunt at the church but he could tell that whatever the fallen had done to keep her calm was starting to wear off. The further away from the church they got, the more paranoid she’d become. He could only imagine the hell his friend was about to go through.

Waving to Steven, Nick quickly picked up his phone and juggled it for a moment when he almost lost his grip. Finally he caught it on the third ring and flipped it open.

“Speak,” he growled. His expression melted into one of deep concern before pushing the gas pedal to the floor. Luckily, he had decided to drive the Hummer to take Steven and Jewel back to Night Light.

He did a quick mental inventory and breathed a small sigh of relief when he remembered that Warren still had some extra sets of clothes in the vehicle from their last camping trip. No one had bothered to remove them and it saved Nick the trip back home. It was a good thing that Warren and Quinn were around the same size… there was nothing worse than trying to squeeze into clothes that were too little.

Turning on the GPS tracker in his phone, he got Warren’s exact location. Turning the next corner without slowing down, Nick knew he wasn’t going to like what he saw once he got there.

As an afterthought, Nick took out his cell phone and called Devon to let him know the new developments. Devon may have left the city willingly, but he’d made Nick promise to call him several times a day to keep him up to date on everything.

*****

Steven got Jewel inside the club and quickly escorted her upstairs. When they made it to his room, he closed the door but didn’t lock it. He didn’t want her to feel trapped.

Jewel blinked her eyes and looked around at the room she’d been brought into. The bed was king sized with a deep green comforter spread over it. A couple of decorative pillows sat on the bed and, of all things, a stuffed animal… a cougar. She couldn’t help but smile at that and a nervous giggle escaped before she could stop it.

The dresser was a black lacquer with a large mirror and in the center was a small bamboo plant. On the other side of the room was a pair of beanbag chairs, a huge flat screen television mounted on the wall, and a game console with numerous games scattered around in front of it.

Jewel couldn’t understand why she felt so calm but it was slowly fading and being replaced by dread. What the hell did she think she was doing here?

“Why did you bring me here?” Jewel asked spinning around to face Steven.

“Because you’ll be safe here,” Steven answered. “You’re not going back to your fiancé or your father.”

What was left of the calm feeling immediately fled and Jewel shook her head vigorously. “No, I have to go back! If I don’t, Anthony will kill me.”

“He can’t kill you if he can’t find you,” Steven reasoned in a voice that was so cold it sucked some of the warmth right out of the room.

“What about Father Gordon?” Jewel demanded her voice level rising. “If they go to him, they’ll find out where I am.” Jewel started pacing. “Daddy’s gonna be so mad and Anthony… I don’t want to think about what he’ll do.”

Steven had a flashback of the handprint-sized bruise she had been wearing earlier. “Why the hell would you protect your daddy when he obviously doesn’t protect you!”

“Who gave you the right to give a damn!?” Jewel yelled back more comfortable now that he was yelling at her.

“You know what? Fine,” Steven opened the bedroom door. “There’s the way out, go back to your fiancé and a marriage you’re being forced into because of Daddy’s inability to take care of business. No real father would ever sacrifice his children to pay off a debt he created.”

Jewel stared at the door and took an uncertain step forward before backing up and sinking down on the bed. She gazed toward the alarm clock and knew it was too late to sneak back in ether way. Two AM… that’s when the guards changed shifts and that had been the only time she could return without being caught.

“What do I do now?” Jewel asked and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Where would I go?”

Steven shut the door and knelt down in front of her. “How about you start by telling me everything?”

“Like what?” Jewel asked.

Steven gave her a small smile, “We can start with your last name.”

Jewel sighed, “My last name is Scott and my father manages a resort in Palm Springs for my… fiancé. God that word leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Steven felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders seeing again how much she hated the fact she was being forced to marry this guy… not that he would ever let that happen now. “Okay, calm down and back up. Try starting from the beginning,” he suggested.

Taking a deep breath, Jewel calmly started talking, just letting it all go. “I was in boarding school when Daddy ran into some trouble at the resort. A government agent had checked in undercover and was trying to uncover all the mafia activity going in and out of the place. When Daddy found out what the man was… he was given orders to kill him.”

Steven nodded, “What happened?”

“Daddy waited too long to kill him… the agent had already given his superiors all the information. When the agent didn’t check in or whatever it is they do, the FBI sent more agents and Daddy was arrested. Anthony Valachi bailed him out of jail after he did something, probably bribed one of the top officials, and all the charges were dropped.”

“Now Daddy’s in debt to his boss. Not knowing how else to pay off the debt, when I came back from school, Daddy told me I was engaged to Anthony and he was actually happy about it.”

Jewel took another breath and swiped her hand over her eyes. “I don’t want to be married yet… I wanted to do something with myself, go to college and work for a living, maybe travel a little bit. This man is twice my age. Now I’m a prisoner, a slave to that bastard and my father’s mistake.”

Steven nodded and fought the urge to get up and pace the room. Losing the battle, he did start pacing. “I can fix this,” he stated firmly but kept pacing. His mind was going a mile a minute.

“Yeah right,” Jewel frowned, “you and what army?” She suddenly remembered the angel she had seen at the church and glanced up hopefully.