call a husband. I’m a Wulven Kindred and
you’re my bride—my wife.”
“ You’re crazy,” Kate said
flatly. And he certainly looked it. His black hair was long and
shaggy and his face was badly in need of a shave. Now that she saw
him in the light, she could tell the piercing blue eyes were
red-rimmed, as though he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“ I’ve been looking for
you,” he said softly. “For so long. I was so afraid…”
“ Tell you what,” Kate said
evenly. “I don’t know where you saw me or why you fixated on me but
you need to take your crazy and move along. You go away and forget
about me and we’ll pretend this never happened. But you mess with me again and
I’ll blow your head off!”
He shook his head in despair.
“ Kate,” he whispered
hoarsely. “Baby, do you really not know me?”
“ I’ve never seen you
before in my life,” Kate said, glaring down the barrel of her
Glock. Except in your dreams, whispered a little voice in her head but she
pushed it away. “And I better never see you again if you want to keep
breathing,” she continued. “I mean it, buddy— back off.”
“ All right,” he said
quietly. “I’ll leave you alone.” He gave her one last, despairing
look and turned away.
Kate watched him go down
the deserted upper deck of the mall with a strange feeling in her
gut. Of course the big guy’s assertion that she was his wife was
insane but she couldn’t help feeling just a little sorry for him. Probably she
looked like someone he had lost. Maybe he had PTSD or some other
condition which was sad…but it didn’t make him any less dangerous,
she reminded herself.
She debated on calling the security office
and reluctantly decided against it. There would be all kinds of
questions about how such a petite woman had gotten away from such a
huge, menacing attacker without a scratch. And no doubt her gun
would come up—she didn’t want that. Speaking of which, she realized
she was still holding the Glock openly in the middle of the mall.
Quickly, she holstered it, glad for once that the upper gallery was
so deserted.
“ Well, I’d better get to
work,” she said to herself in a low voice and was glad to hear that
it didn’t tremble. She glanced at her watch and was surprised to
see that her break wasn’t quite up. The whole incident in the
hallway had barely taken two minutes—she wasn’t even going to be
late if she hurried.
Lifting her chin, Kate
walked briskly down the hall, her heart pounding to the beat of her
clacking heels. It was all right—everything was going to be all
right. The guy from her dreams had come after her but she had
confronted him and driven him away. And come to think of it, that
was probably what the dreams had been about all along. It was just
the Knowing trying to warn her she was going to be in danger.
But I’m fine now, Kate thought as her store came into sight. Just fine. Danger over. Crisis
averted.
She had never been more wrong in her
life.
Chapter Four
“ Hmm…I don’t know.
It is a lovely piece.” The
customer looked at his wrist where the gleaming Yacht-Master Rolex
was nestled in a wiry growth of black arm hair.
“ It certainly is,” Kate
remarked, trying not to stare at the way the black strands curled
around the gleaming gold links of the watch. Her customer was
completely bald but he made up for it by being the hairiest man
she’d ever seen in her life.
This being Florida, he was dressed for the
weather outside, in shorts, a t-shirt and a very regrettable pair
of sandals. His arms and legs looked like they belonged to a
chimpanzee and curly black tufts stuck out of both the front of his
t-shirt and the back, proving he was every bit as hirsute under his
clothes.
Even his toes were hairy
like he was a freaking hobbit. Kate could tell because of the
sandals— man-dals her mom would have called them with a sniff—she hadn’t
approved of men wearing open toed shoes. It had never bothered Kate
much
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley