Up in a Blaze Read online

  All of it was that bitch Betty’s fault he’d been sent to prison to begin with. All he demanded was for dinner to be on the table when he walked in the door and a cold beer waiting for him. Was that too much to ask? Apparently so, since she decided to test him by being a few minutes late. He’d had to show her that her behavior was unacceptable. Instead of taking her punishment quietly, she’d somehow managed to call the cops. He ran his hand over his face. That night had been nothing short of a nightmare.

  He knew he’d drank too much, and combined with his white hot temper for the bitch who couldn’t seem to follow a few simple rules, he figured he’d finally snapped. Why else would he see strange objects in his home? There was this beast, this hideous beast. He closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his heart rate down. Shaking his head, he chuckled to himself. There was no way a huge beast had been in his house. He must have been hallucinating.

  He’d gone back to the house after posting bond before his trial. There were no signs of anything strange, anywhere. There was blood, some his, where he had fallen down the stairs, some the bitch’s, some her sniveling son’s, Timmy. Yeah, when the kid had jumped in front of his mother to help her, he’d also shown the kid who was boss of that house.

  He stared at the bottle of booze sitting in a brown paper bag next to him. He hadn’t drank since his escape from prison, but it looked like it was going to be a long night. He wasn’t leaving until they released the little bitch he’d attacked. She was the key to finding Betty and finishing her off. No one got away with walking away from him. No one.

  Chapter Two

  Donte watched his mate attempt to get comfortable on the plane. He had to admit, it sure beat flying commercial. His stubborn mate had insisted she could and would sit up for the three plus hour plane ride, but now, an hour into the flight, and with a little mental push from him, her eyelids began to flutter as she swayed slightly in her seat.

  He pocketed his phone, after checking on the latest on the open cases. Because Betty was Walter’s sister-in-law, and now Cassandra would be coming to Texas, Betty’s ex was now listed as an open case with the rangers. Technically, they couldn’t do anything unless the idiot was stupid enough to step foot in Texas, but with a case already open against him, if he were dumb enough to try to come after either of the women, Walter had full authority to apprehend him. The only snag was the guy was human, so ultimately he would be dealt with by human laws. If he were a vampire, Walter could have just killed him and been done with it. That was one nice thing about dealing with vampire law in Texas. The rangers quickly took over any cases where a vampire looked to be involved, and justice was meted out swiftly. They simply didn’t have the set up to lock away a vampire, let alone keep a facility out of the human’s site.

  He caught his mate swaying yet again as it became harder and harder for her to remain awake. “I’ve got your pain medicine in my pocket if you want to take some,” he stated as he turned his attention to her.

  She frowned at him. “I was going to try to stay awake, but I don’t think that’s possible.” She shook her head, trying to knock the lethargy down, but failing to do so. “Damn, I really didn’t want to sleep on this plane ride,” she grumbled.

  The plane had to be the nicest she had ever stepped foot on. When they had arrived at the private airstrip, she had hit the panic button, not sure where Donte was taking her. It had taken him calling Betty on his phone, and letting her speak to her friend, to confirm some friends of her brother-in-law, Walter, were flying her and Donte back to Texas so she didn’t have to worry about being in a crowded public plane. Betty had seemed excited she was on her way, and she clung to the cheerfulness she could hear in her friend’s voice like a lifeline. Could she be happy in Texas? Even more important, would she be safe?

  She looked around at the inside of the plane. It was equipped with a lovely long couch, several recliners, and the loveseat they were sitting on in the main sitting area. They had also been told there was a small bedroom area that she was welcome to use when they first boarded the plane, but she had quickly nixed that option. As it was, she was having a hard time trying not to acknowledge what a good looking man her escort was.

  When she had woken up from taking her meds yesterday, it had been night. She had slept all afternoon and evening, but when she awoke, she’d found Donte sitting in the exact same spot he had been in when she fell asleep. She had told him to go get something to eat, or take a walk to stretch his legs, but he had refused. The nurse came in shortly thereafter and gave her another pill for her pain, and she had fallen back to sleep almost immediately.

  Now she was sitting beside the good looking hunk, trying to fight off sleep, and not be a total bitch just because she was in pain. Because really, it wasn’t his fault he was so good looking, was it? And nice on top of that. The guy had been nothing but cordial to her since their original spit-spat when he walked in the door, and she was pretty sure most of that was just her being a bitch because she hurt so damn bad.

  She sighed and held out her hand for the medicine he was carrying for her. “You think there’s anything to drink on this plane?”

  He gave her his award-winning smile as he stood from his seat. “I am sure there is. Sit tight, I’ll be right back.” He disappeared out of her sight and she leaned her head back up against the back of the loveseat. It certainly was more comfortable than anything she had ever owned. She thought about her escort. Donte had jet-black hair that was a bit longer than what she would have expected for a Texas Ranger, the ends brushing over his shoulder. His olive skin hinted to a Hispanic descent, and his muscles!!!! Lord have mercy the man had the build of a body builder. She wondered how often he went to the gym to maintain a body like that.

  She opened her eyes to watch him walking down the aisle toward her, a man whom they had met briefly following him. “Miss, could I offer you juice, water, or soda?”

  “Water will be fine, thank you,” she replied as she watched the man turn on his heel and disappear a quick second later. Although he wasn’t bad looking at all, compared to Donte, he didn’t even begin to measure up. She heard Donte chuckle as he sat back down beside her. “What is so funny?” she growled. What had gotten into her? She usually wasn’t this cross with others.

  Donte gave her a wide grin. He’d read her thoughts about the steward not being anything compared to him. So she likes the way I look, he thought. Well that was all fine and good, since she already owned his heart, even though she didn’t realize it yet.

  The steward returned a moment later with a bottle of water in his hand. “Is there anything else I can get for you, Miss?”

  “No, I’m good, thank you.”

  “Do you happen to have a pillow she can use?” Donte spoke up. He was determined to get his mate to rest, one way or another. Hopefully a pillow under her head would provide a measure of comfort.

  “Certainly,” the steward replied as he walked over to an overhead compartment and opened it up, producing both a pillow and thin blanket for her.

  Donte took the blanket and pillow from the steward and thanked him. Turning to his mate, he stated, “Hold on,” before he hit a button on the side of the loveseat that started reclining the seat. He stopped about half way back when he heard her gasp.

  “Damn ribs. Hurts every time I try to move,” she grumbled.

  “I know, babe, I’m sorry.” He hesitated, not wanting to cause her any more pain, but wanting her to rest comfortably at the same time. He gave her a minute, then continued to lower her side into a reclining position.

  The seats didn’t go completely vertical, but they were close. In the end, he dropped his own seat back part way so she could rest her head on the pillow propped up by his shoulder. He spread the lightweight blanket over her and gently ran his fingertips down her cheek in a ghostly caress.

  “Take a nap, hon. I’ll wake you when we arrive home.”

  Cassandra closed her eyes, her eyelids becoming too heavy to keep open. Ho
me, she liked the sound of that word. She wondered what home meant for the gorgeous ranger who was her escort. Not that she would ever find out. Gorgeous men like him didn’t go for nobodies like her. If there was one thing she’d learned in her short life, was that people born into poverty rarely ever escaped it.

  Oh sure, she had tried. She had gotten away from her alcoholic parents at a young age. Went to school. Made good grades. Even went to college. But in the end, it didn’t matter. She was sitting with a business degree that was worth about as much as the paper it was written on.

  She felt his cool fingertips on her cheek, and wondered why he was doing that. Did he just feel sorry for her? That must be it, she thought. He already explained that he hated to see any man mistreat a woman. She let herself entertain the dream for just a moment of what it would be like to have someone like him all the time. Someone who loved her for who she was. Someone who saw the real Cassandra Vicors. Someone she could lean on in troubled times. Someone who would love her unconditionally.

  As long as Donte was touching her, he had access to her thoughts. As he sat in the background watching her thoughts play out like a movie to him, he grinned. It seemed the mating heat was already starting to affect her, she just didn’t understand it yet. Oh, but she would.

  He waited until she was completely asleep, then slipped further into her thoughts. Because he was the last thing on her mind when she fell asleep, it was rather easy to manipulate her thoughts into dreamland.

  They sat on the edge of a small pond, holding hands, the warm sun smiling down on the two of them.

  “Tell me what you want most in life. If it is within my abilities, it will be yours,” he whispered as he brought her hand up to his mouth and lightly brushed his lips across the back of it.

  Her look of despair cut through him like a knife.

  “What is it, love?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, trying to make it come across as not so important. Only he saw right through her. It was very important.

  “I want to feel safe. I want to feel love for the first time. True love, not just lust. I want the chance to be able to live life a little, not just work sixty hours a week to barely keep a roof over my head.”

  He graced her with a tender smile. “You’re safer than you realize, and I think you will find love knocking at your door in the very near future. With this new love interest in the immediate future, you’ll find your entire life is going to change. All for the better, I hope.”

  She arched an eyebrow up at him. “You?”

  He brought her hand back up to his lips, loving the softness of her skin. “Let’s just take things one day at a time, baby. But yes, I find myself developing feelings for you, even though we just met.” He knew that for her, a human, it would seem very fast. They had just met the day before. But to someone like him, who had searched for many years before giving up on finding his mate, it didn’t matter that they had just met. His heart had jumped out of his chest and landed in her hands, where it would stay for the remainder of his long life. Now he just had to give her time to accept things, and court her along the way.

  “Well, I do feel extremely comfortable around you,” she stated, but with a frown on her face. “Which is rather odd actually, I usually don’t trust people so easily.” Hmm, it sounded as if fate was giving him a bit of a helping hand with his stubborn mate and making her go through at least some of the pull new mates go through. Hopefully, that would help him win her over faster.

  “Baby, if you believe nothing else, believe this. I would lay down my life for you in a heartbeat. You are safe, I give you my word.” He looked over at her with a twinkle in his eye. “And should you ever decide to share your heart with me, it will be equally as safe.”

  Her question of “Why?” threw him for a second. “Why are you even showing me any attention whatsoever? I mean, look at you. You’re built like some great warrior, and you are extremely handsome. You could have any woman you wanted.”

  Oh yes, fate was on his side! She had just inadvertently told him she loved the way he looked. He shot her a grin as he gently ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “Baby, you are the one that’s beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you find me so appealing, but you, my love, are the beauty.” He moved his hand around to her hair, sifting his fingers down the long chocolate strands. “I love this long hair of yours,” he stated before he brought his hand back around to her face. “And your big doe eyes, one look into these eyes and I’d never be able to deny you anything.” He brought his thumb up to gently swipe underneath one eye. “And this cute little button nose, I could nibble on it all day.” His thumb went down and trailed a line down the center of her nose. “And these cute little bow shaped lips,” he added as his thumb continued downward, stopping to lightly stroke across her bottom lip.

  He groaned when her tongue peeked out and swiped her bottom lip. His mind had conjured up an image of those lips wrapped around his cock, sliding up and down, her mouth a warm, wet cavern that had his dick engorged to painful levels.

  In her dream state, he brought their bodies closer together, so they both were leaning on a hand, facing each other in a reclining position on the soft grass. His hand came up again to stroke the soft, smooth skin of her face with his fingertips. “May I kiss you?”

  Her heart rate picked up in speed until it was near galloping, but he waited patiently for her answer. He had to win her trust. She finally gave a small nod of her head and sucked in a lung full of air. He gave her a smile meant to say, “It’s okay, you can trust me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  He leaned forward and slowly sipped her lips as if she was the sweetest of nectars. He loved her taste, and forced himself to go slow, when all he really wanted to do was plunge into her mouth, devouring her as if his life depended on it.

  It was while he was swiping her bottom lip, asking for entrance, that her nightmare raised its ugly head. While Donte didn’t understand everything, he understood enough to know that something was very, very wrong. He was inside her thoughts, controlling things himself. There should have been no way for her nightmare to break through, but break through it did, the results hitting him as if he’d been body slammed into a boulder.

  “You won’t live long enough to enjoy life, slut.” An unknown voice broke through the pleasantness of the shared kiss.

  Her reaction was swift and made simply out of pure fear. She pulled back, the look of horror filling eyes that had been so full of trust just a couple of minutes ago. “What did you say?” she asked in bewilderment as she scooted a safe distance from him.

  “Babe, I didn’t say anything. What did you hear?” He knew exactly what she had heard, having heard it loud and clear himself, but there was no way of admitting that to her.

  He watched as she shook her head, trying to dispel the ugly image that had appeared quite literally out of nowhere in the middle of their kiss. The image was that of an un-kept, grubby, dirty middle-aged man, and he didn’t doubt for a second that he was staring at the likeness of Gregory, Betty’s ex. How in the world had the man managed to penetrate her thought process like that?

  Donte made the decision to end their shared dream and just remain in the background of her mind while she slept, hoping to learn something, anything he could use to bring an end to this criminal who had somehow figured out a way to access her mind without being anywhere near her.

  *****

  Cassandra slowly started to wake, knowing immediately that the nap she had taken hadn’t helped her feel any better. With the help of Donte, she carefully sat up, her ribs protesting every inch she moved.

  The plane landed smoothly, and they were making their way to the door before she knew it. She wondered how many people they were going to run into and just how bad she looked. She felt as if a mac truck had hit her, and imagined she looked just as bad as she felt.

  She heard her friend’s voice as soon as they reached the door of the plane. “Cassie, oh Cassie! Over here, hon!” H
er friend was standing between a nice looking, well-dressed man and woman, and she wondered if this was Betty’s sister and husband. She looked down at the steps ahead of them in order to exit the plane and winced. Yeah, her ribs so didn’t want to go there.

  Donte stayed with her the entire time, taking the steps at a snail’s pace right along with her. Her mind went back to the dream she’d had of him while she slept, and she hoped she hadn’t talked or moaned in her sleep. Gawd, now that would be embarrassing! She cast a quick glance over to him, but he revealed nothing, creeping along next to her, allowing her to use him to lean on.

  By the time they had made it to the bottom of the stairs, Betty and her two escorts were waiting at the bottom. “Oh, hon, look at you! Are you okay?” Her friend wrapped a gentle arm around her shoulders to give her a warm hug. “I am so sorry he did this to you! If I had thought for a second he would go after you to get to me…” Betty trailed off, just holding one of the nicest people she’d had ever met. When she and Timmy were living in California with Gregory, Cassie had been her one and only true friend.

  Cassie stood for a moment, just absorbing the warmth and love radiating from her friend. She couldn’t help but be a little bit jealous of Betty. She’d been beaten so badly just three short months ago that they weren’t even sure she was going to live. Once her family had arrived, she’d been moved to a private facility, but Cassie hadn’t seen her friend since the incident. Betty had called her once, to tell her she was moving to Texas, and that she was feeling much better, but she hadn’t heard from her friend since until a few days ago.

  To look at Betty now you would never guess the young woman’s life had been in peril just a short time ago. She practically glowed with good health these days. Must be something in the Texas sunshine. Or maybe the water, Cassie thought.