The Mercenary Read online

  “Hi, Adam suggested I came to talk to Eddie,” she announced.

  “Make it quick, you’ve got maybe one or two songs tops before he’s gonna do his spiel.”

  His spiel? Though she had no idea what he’d referred to, Jodie nodded and started to climb the ladder, secretly pleased she had elected to wear pants. Ignoring the protests from her back and ribs, she kept going to the top. Finding out what had been going on with Danny mattered too much to her. Eddie sat there scrolling through a list of songs on his laptop when she started to haul herself into the box.

  “Jodie!” He cried over the music. “You shouldn’t be climbing up here!”

  “I’m sorry, Leon said it was okay and...”

  “No, I meant because of your injuries. Here,” he helped pull her the rest of the way up, motioning for her to sit down on the small stool next to his swivel chair.

  “I know this isn’t the best time to bother you, but I need to talk to you about Danny.”

  “Ahhh fuck,” he sighed. “I’ve got to do a voice over in about a minute or so. Let me get that out of the way and I’ll stack up some songs so I can take a break.”

  She prepared to leave, but he told her to stay put. Jodie felt ridiculous sitting next to Eddie as he charmed the crowd with his rich deep voice. She watched him tweak all the knobs and buttons on the sound system as he made some adjustments, and then the music roared to life again. Jodie couldn’t help but feel impressed. She’d had no idea what creating a club atmosphere involved. After setting the strobe lights on a repeating loop, Eddie stepped over Jodie and lowered himself onto the ladder. He helped her to climb down, before they slipped out the back to the courtyard and sat down at the table.

  Eddie combed a hand through his shaggy black hair and leaned back in the chair. Now that they were under decent lighting Jodie could see the dark circles under his eyes, he looked tired and drawn. Having just had five days off, she’d have expected him to look refreshed.

  “What’s going on Eddie?” She asked in a small voice.

  “Ainsley doesn’t know about my other job. I know Danny has told you what we do for a living when we aren’t here at the club, but I chose not to tell Ainsley and I have my reasons. I didn’t go to my family as I claimed to have done; Danny and I were working, along with a few others. This situation with the Pigs is getting out of control. I can’t tell you more than that.”

  “Where is Danny? I’ve been so worried.”

  Eddie’s sea-green eyes softened, “he would have never disappeared if he could have avoided it. He‘s had Mark watching over you.”

  “Who the hell is Mark?” Jodie wailed in desperation.

  “He’s someone else who shares our line of work. He’s a Kodiak bear, as big as Rufus and Jarvis when in his other form.” Eddie said, confirming her suspicions on Jarvis. “He’s been in the woods by your house almost the whole time, you’ve never been in danger, I promise.”

  “That doesn’t reassure me,” she said with evident frustration. “Where’s Danny, Eddie? Where is he?”

  “He asked me not to tell you.”

  Noticing the regret in Eddie’s tone, Jodie knew she’d been right. She had felt it in her gut all along, something had happened. “Why the hell not?” Her voice had gone all shaky and she really needed him to start giving some answers that made sense.

  “You’ve been through a lot and some of that is our fault. I told him not to get involved with you, I’m sorry.”

  “How can you say that? What about Ainsley?” Jodie’s eyes glassed over.

  Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ainsley is different. And the pigs aren’t interested in her. I wish I could explain all of this to you, but it’s not my place.”

  “Please Eddie, just tell me.”

  So it boiled down to shameless begging. Jodie started to cry. She didn’t mean to, and though she hadn’t sobbed or made any noise, the sprinkling of tears on her cheeks did enough. Eddie noticed and took pity on her. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a set of keys.

  “This one is for the first door. When you get to the next door, ask for Rufus and tell him I sent you. Did you drive here?”

  Chewing on her lower lip, Jodie shook her head.

  He sighed again and pulled out another set of keys. “Take my car then. Eighty-seven Black Horse Drive, park in the driveway.”

  “Okay,” she sniffed.

  “Will you be all right to drive?”

  “Yes,” without hesitating she nodded, hoping she hadn’t made a mistake.

  Eddie needed to get back to the music, so Jodie said goodbye and headed down the alley toward the street. Struggling with the big heavy gate at the end, her back resisted as she tried to pull it open. She had trouble climbing into Eddie’s ridiculously high vehicle, but once Jodie got inside, the pain eased and she was soon on the way. She knew Black Horse Drive, the street before hers, also backing on to the forest. Jodie also knew number eighty-seven would be right at the end somewhere.

  Her suspicions were confirmed as she pulled into the driveway. A huge concrete building loomed ahead, almost looking like a prison with its windowless exterior and reinforced steel front door. The manicured hedges and gardens at the front of the property did little to conceal the uninviting vibe the place gave off.

  Jodie could imagine why they needed such security, though it didn’t make the place any less hostile. She’d seen the house once when out walking and had wondered what the place was for. It didn’t resemble any house Jodie had ever seen. Danny had lived so close all this time and she had never even seen him before Luke moved in. She hadn’t run into him around town, she would have remembered.

  A large palatial cast-iron gate prevented her from going right down the driveway, and judging by the sensors, wouldn’t open without remote activation. The gate sat flush with the front of the house, leaving enough room to park in the driveway as Eddie had suggested. Jodie noticed a security camera pointed at the spot where she’d parked the car, so she swept a gaze over the building again. Unable to shake the feeling she’d trespassed where she didn’t belong, neither foot would move forward.

  Trying to act nonchalant didn’t help; Jodie felt as nervous as hell as she climbed the front steps and shoved the key into the door. Another security camera pointed down at the doorstep. Jodie’s hand began to shake so much lifting it to the lock that she dropped the key ring. Wincing, she bent down to pick it up and tried again.

  When the door swung open, she just stood there staring for a moment, peering through the entrance. A long hallway stretched out in front of her, followed by a second door. There were no rooms off to the sides, just the one door at the end. It gave off a very unnerving vibe, making the short passage seem a mile long. I can do this; she tried to convince herself, taking a few hesitant steps forward.

  Knocking on the door, Jodie shifted her weight from one foot to the other. What if they had some kind of secret knock, something she couldn’t even begin to guess? A loud voice demanded that she state her business, so Jodie asked for Rufus as instructed, adding that Eddie Pirini had sent her.

  The door opened at once and Rufus stood on the other side. Allowing her to move past him, he bolted it shut again. Also reinforced as the first had been, this door had two dead bolts and two enormous slide bolts. The thought of needing this much security made Jodie feel a little ill. When Adam had said they had a house in town, she’d pictured some homey little fixer upper. Never in her wildest dreams had she pictured this fortress.

  Wearing black jeans and grey wife beater, Rufus’ enormous body became unmistakable without so many layers hiding his form. His massive arms, all muscle, were almost thicker than Jodie’s thighs. The vast width of his chest threatened to overwhelm her as she stared up at him. Far from gorgeous like Danny or alluringly handsome like Eddie, in a raw and rugged sort of way, Rufus could be described as attractive. He was the epitome of masculinity, which appealed to some women. There is something that draws you to him. Jodie snapped back to reality as
Rufus’s rumbling voice echoed around her.

  “I don’t know if he’ll want to see you,” Rufus apologized. “But you can try.” He opened another door and waved her through, “second-to-last door on the right.”

  Walking past several doors, startled at the sheer number of rooms, Jodie gulped in a breath. Glancing back, she saw that just as many rooms extended in the other direction. Jodie wondered how many people lived there, but the thought didn’t last long as she opened the door to Danny’s bedroom.

  The place smelled of death. Not the sort of smell that came from blood and gore, the kind of smell that hovered uninvited when someone had died. A stench that could never really be explained, a person either knew it or they didn’t. Jodie had gone with her dad to collect her grandfather’s body before the funeral; she knew exactly what death smelled like. Danny’s room reeked of it. So much so, that for a moment she believed he was dead.

  He lay on his stomach, chained to the iron bed-frame, face obscured by an abundance of sleep tousled caramel hair. Restraints snaked their way around his torso, each wrist shackled to the solid iron bars of the headboard. The blankets stopped at his naked hips, leaving his entire back exposed. Three wounds in his upper buttocks stood out against his pale flesh in an angry red mess. It looked like someone had carved him up.

  Jodie wanted to look away from the horror but couldn’t, and stayed rooted to the spot. Desperate to find some sign that he still clung to life, she willed him to turn around. Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. He moaned softly in his sleep and tried to roll over. It didn’t work with the restrictions, which distressed him so much, that he woke up with a defeated sigh.

  Now wide-awake, he sniffed the air and his head whipped around. “Jodie,” he gasped. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m sorry, I just got so worried I hadn’t heard from you and I didn’t know what was happening, so I went to see Eddie and he gave me his keys...” the words just kept pouring out of her mouth, yet none of the questions she wanted to ask even came close.

  “I wish you hadn’t seen me like this,” his shame crushed Jodie like a vice.

  “Did this happen because of your other job?” “Yes,” he said.

  “Why are you chained to the bed?” Jodie could not keep the distress from her tone, it just seemed so wrong that he be a prisoner in his own bedroom.

  “I got shot, honey. The bullets were filled with powdered silver and as you can see, Rufus and Eddie had great fun cutting it out of me. No matter how hard they tried, they’d have never been able to get every last bit. Silver is a poison to us and it’s torture for me that there’s still some in there. If I hadn’t been restrained, I’d have tried to get at the last remnants. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself and it would have driven me crazy. It’s enough of a mess without that happening.”

  “How long have you been restrained?” She couldn’t hide the shock in her voice; the cold reality of his profession well and truly slapping her in the face.

  “On and off since Monday. Don’t worry honey, I asked them to do this. If I can’t leave the injury alone, it will take so much longer to heal and I don’t want to be out of action any longer than I have to. The others have enough to do without sitting at my bedside to make sure I don’t self-mutilate. I’m much better than I was.”

  Jodie thought about how long it had taken him to heal that dreadful wound the boar had made in his side. He didn’t even have a hint of a scar now. It had been five days, almost six, since he claimed he’d been shot and the wounds looked fresh. He was healing at the rate of a human. Deciding she didn’t want to think about that too much, Jodie didn’t comment. This brush with death felt a little too real for her, particularly after her own recent encounter.

  Danny seemed to notice the turbulence of emotions she fought to deal with and struggled against the binds, trying to grant himself a better view. “I’ll be okay Jodie. Once my body absorbs the silver and it stops poisoning my system, my recovery will speed up a great deal. Come over here honey, let me see you properly.”

  “You aren’t angry I came?” She asked as she crossed the room. God it’s so wrong to be so casual when he’s shackled like a prisoner, Jodie thought in frustration.

  “I wish you didn’t have to see me like this but I’m not angry. I could never be angry with you.”

  Jodie knelt down by the bed and touched his face. Closing his eyes, he gave a soft murmur, leaning into her touch. His once beautiful hair splayed out around him, dull and lifeless. Brushing a few stray tendrils behind his ears, Jodie kissed him.

  Danny tried to reciprocate, but it was dicult and he didn’t bother to hide the frustration. “The universe sure isn’t making it easy for us, is it?”

  “No... it isn’t, but easy is boring. I don’t like boring.”

  Danny laughed. “Pleased to hear it. Boring is not in my vocabulary.”

  A polite cough sounded from the hallway and Rufus stepped in, his massive shoulder brushing against the doorframe as he stooped to go through. “Everything okay bro?”

  “Yeah,” Danny replied.

  “You sure you don’t want me to take the chains off?”

  Danny looked at Jodie, his grin filled with mischief, “maybe it is time. I’m sure if I start getting frantic that Jodie will be able to distract me.”

  Rufus let out a great booming laugh, “for sure bro, for sure.”

  Stepping back to give Rufus some room, Jodie watched as he took a key off the bedside table and unlocked the padlocks securing Danny’s chains. Rufus didn’t break eye contact as he unwound the restraints and helped Danny sit up. Danny did an expert job of holding the bedding with one hand; otherwise, he’d have shown everything.

  Jodie couldn’t take her eyes off Danny’s body. I want him so badly. The whole room seemed to get a few degrees warmer as Jodie gazed at him and tried to tone down the lust. She knew Rufus could see the way that she looked at Danny, but couldn’t stop herself.

  “You know Danny I didn’t believe you at first but I see it now,” Rufus said with admiration, before turning to Jodie. “If he gets out of hand and you need me, just yell.”

  “What does he mean?” She asked Danny in bewilderment.

  He smiled, “I’ll tell you some day, I promise. For now, I need not to be talking.”

  “That’s my cue to go find a beer in the fridge,” Rufus grinned on his way out.

  “So this is your bedroom,” Jodie quipped, looking around for the first time.

  “Don’t make me come over there,” he warned.

  “Oh no,” Jodie refused, showing restraint she didn’t even know she had. “I need to know that you can keep your promise.”

  “How am I supposed to prove that to you?” His eyebrows went skyward in unison.

  “So far, the more I learn about you, the more confused I get. I need things to start making sense, because I’m starting to go crazy.”

  “Well we can’t have that.”

  Looking at Danny, Jodie saw that he hadn’t met her gaze, choosing to admire her outfit instead. Maybe it the bare midriff... She couldn’t tell but one thing was certain, he hadn’t been paying attention to anything she’d been saying.

  “My eyes are this way,” she reminded him.

  “Jodie...” he groaned. “Please just come over here.”

  “Uh uh,” Shaking her head, Jodie decided to be stubborn. I can’t believe it. I actually have the upper hand. “First we talk. Then I come over there.”

  “I don’t want to have this conversation right now.”

  “Well I do,” she insisted. “Maybe you could start with the connection between us. Both Eddie and Rufus have implied things I don’t understand. Even you’ve implied that there is a lot more to this than what you’ve already told me.”

  “This is not the time for that talk,” the smile had gone from his face, all that remained an unspoken plea.

  “All right then. Tell me why you were in the forest the night I first met your leopard.”

>   “It’s complicated.”

  “It always is with you! I could handle complicated if you would just give me a chance, what I can’t handle are secrets. If the man I’m falling in love with can’t be honest with me at the beginning, then what hope do we have for the future?”

  “You’re falling in love with me?”

  He sounded elated and Jodie realized that she should have put more thought into the words coming out of her mouth. He’d focused on entirely the wrong part.

  “I can’t do this,” she mumbled. Turning to leave, she found that before she could even take a step, he was in front of her. Damned stupid unnatural shifter speed!

  “Don’t go,” he whispered.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, avoiding his sad blue eyes.

  Danny pressed himself against her and the warmth of his nude body made Jodie want to melt. She could feel his arousal; it was extremely difficult to ignore. She knew that if he succeeded in embracing her, the will to leave would disappear. Breaking free, Jodie took off and ran out into the hallway. By the time she reached the foyer area and Rufus, tears welled up in her eyes. Jodie was not the sort of person who burst into tears every five minutes, but since she’d met Danny, she had lost count of the times she’d cried. What’s happening to me?

  Jodie tried to flee without confronting Rufus but she should have known that would never happen. He blocked the exit and gripped her by both shoulders.

  “Whoa! Whoa! Jodie girl, what happened?”

  “I have to go,” she blurted as the tears began to spill forth. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Hey, you can’t leave like this! What did he do?”

  Genuine concern filled Rufus’s expression. “If he hurt you –“

  “Jodie, wait!” Behind them, Danny burst out of the bedroom, half dressed and trying to pull on a shirt.

  Rufus seemed confused, however, he’d been raised a gentleman. Stepping out of Jodie’s way he opened the heavy door. Danny protested, but Rufus ignored him. “You can sort it out later man, let her go.”