Brunes’ face morphed into a mask of vicious, seething hatred. “That bitch wasn’t fucking a vampire! She was fucking my guard! My guard! Riding his damn cock like a fucking whore. She was a whore. I am the last king of the lykaen community. The last thing I need is a whore to rule at my side. She did it right here. Right in this house. Under my nose when I went to bed at night. In our bed when I left the house.”
Brayden kept his focus on the gun and the door. Brunes wasn’t one to act alone, that he knew. Some stealthy bastard might be creeping up behind him as they spoke. “How did you not smell him?”
“He was defective. I chose him to be my personal...guard because of a birth defect. Something was wrong with his hormones and he never left a trace. Made him quite useful for certain jobs.”
Yeah, he knew just what kind of jobs a man with an untraceable scent could do.
“How did you find out?”
Brunes narrowed his wild eyes then cocked the hammer of the gun. The hard metal snap made every muscle in Brayden’s body tense, ready. What Brunes didn’t know, was that he was in love and had a woman to find. He wouldn’t be dying here tonight.
Brunes bent over to his knees with laughter. When he stood back up, he was sucking in deep, unsteady breaths. Tears of laughter rimmed his eyes and he wiped them away with his gun hand. “The last person you’d suspect. My own precious daughter.”
Brayden stilled. “Sarina?”
“I’ll tell you...the innocence of a child. She came to me crying one day that she’d seen mommy hugging a man without clothes. It frightened her.”
“Why didn’t you just kill your wife then?”
Brunes’ smile was cold; his eyes dead and vacant. “Killing impatiently leads to mistakes. I’m not an impatient man.”
While Brayden contemplated his escape he asked, “How did you get her to the yacht?”
Brunes smiled wider. “You were wrong about that one, too. I didn’t drug her. She came willingly and compliantly, if a bit sad. I had Sarina taken away. I told her I’d kill her if she didn’t take a little trip with me. Of course, she knew what I meant, but hey, at least I kept my end of the bargain. I never killed Sarina.”
“So you beat her until she was unconscious, then tossed her off the side. Did you pay Daniel to help cover it up?”
Brunes shrugged. “I’ve done many things to see to protection.”
“And you killed Daniel, because...?”
“He was getting soft.” Brunes sighed, then put his finger over the trigger. “You know, you should have left it alone. The case has been closed for a long time. I’m afraid you brought this upon yourself. Just like my bodyguard did by fucking my wife.”
Brunes might have the advantage with the gun, but Brayden had something he didn’t—speed. Brayden dove across the room in a blur of motion. A shot fired. Brayden ducked, then lunged into Brunes. They both slammed into the heavy wooden desk, shoving it across the carpet and into the wall. Wood splintered and cracked. Brayden grabbed hold of Brunes’ arm then slammed it into the corner of the desk. Brunes screamed as the gun fell to the floor. An uppercut slammed Brayden’s teeth together. He tasted blood, but he had anger and determination on his side. He slammed his head forward and caught Brunes’ nose. Bones crunch and blood flowed and some of the anger bunched up inside of him released at the sight.
Brayden stepped back, then hammered two jabs across Brunes. But he didn’t fall. In fact, he laughed a hoarse, wheezing sound as he collapsed back against the desk.
“If only you knew...” he said.
Brayden wrapped his fingers around Brunes’ throat and squeezed applying pressure. Brunes fought him, latched onto his wrist to tug him away, but his strength felt like that of a baby’s next to his own.
Still, Brunes laughed, his eyes wet with pain-filled tears. “I have your woman.”
Brayden’s grip tightened. Flesh, tendons and muscles gave way under his grip. It felt so good he didn’t want to stop. Wanted to keep squeezing until it crushed, collapsed under his fingertips.
“You’re lying.”
The corner of Brunes’ mouth tilted up then his eyes darted behind Brayden. That was all the warning he had before powerful electric jolts shot through his body. His grip fell from Brunes’ throat, his knees went out, then he fell to the floor in convulsions so hard his teeth clanked together and his muscles clenched to the point of pain.
“You can stop that now. Thank you,” said Brunes.
The electrical shocks stopped, but still his body twitched like he was hardwired to an electric shock machine. The convulsions stopped, but still his muscles jumped and spasmed. Arms grabbed his, lifted him, then shoved him into a chair. He couldn’t quite keep his head up. It rolled backwards so that he was staring at the ceiling. No matter how hard he tried to make his neck work, he couldn’t lift his head.
Brunes came into view, towered over him. Then his head slammed left, right, left, then right again as Brunes laid into him with hard fists. The pain didn’t matter. It was a minor flair to the shocks making his limbs twitch. A feminine cry sent his eyes wide. God, he knew that sound. Fuck, no, he couldn’t have her.
“Bring her over here,” Brunes ordered in a hard voice.
A rush of footsteps ran across the room, then there she was standing over him. She’d been crying. Her eyelashes were wet, eyes red. Anger, the kind he hadn’t felt in a long time exploded inside of him. They’d taken her from him, then hurt her. She collapsed against him, sobbing, trailed soft wet kisses across his face before she was yanked away. Finally, his head worked. It hurt like hell, but he lifted his head to take in the scene.
Five heavily armed guards filled the room. Brunes’ face was a bloody mess and that made Brayden smile darkly. Vanessa’s arms were tied behind her back in a way that brought nasty memories of her naked in the forest in a very similar situation. One face, though, he didn’t see in the room.
“Where’s Joseph? I believe he might object to you treating his mate like this?”
Vanessa lunged forward before the guards yanked her back by the arm. She winced and he fervently started moving his fingers, his toes to get his circulation back to normal. If he could buy a few minutes, he could stand.
“They killed him!” cried Vanessa. “They shot him in the head.”
Brunes cast a disgusted glance her way. “Shut her up, will you?”
The guard on her right slapped her hard across the face. Brayden saw red. In a flash, he struck. With two lethal cracks, he snapped the guard’s neck holding her, then shoved Vanessa behind him as the other five guards raised their rifles.
Brunes held up a hand to them. “Relax. I don’t want this to go fast.”
Just then, the windows at the back of the room shattered in a loud explosion. Glass flew across the room. Swat-clothed men stormed into the room shouting commands. One man wore no swat clothes whatsoever.
“Dmetri?” Brayden asked, dumbfounded.
Dmetri’s eyes shone with determination. He flicked him a glance, then swept on the guards with a flurry of attacks and cringe worthy kicks. But Brunes ducked down below the fighting, crawling quickly toward the gun still lying on the floor. Brayden flew to him. He caught Brunes by the back of his long hair, then made his face kiss the floor—hard. He did it again. One for the death of Sarina’s mother, another for Daniel, one for the guard he’d murdered, and twice as many for taking Vanessa and hurting her. He wasn’t finished, but arms flew around his chest pulling him away. He growled at them and launched one brutal kicked to Brunes’ head. The old lykaen’s head whipped back, then he slumped to the ground.
“Never touch my woman,” Brayden growled.
“Relax, man, relax.” Dmetri’s slightly accented voice penetrated through the raging fog in his mind.