Harmony's Way

CHAPTER 16

What the hell was going on?

Harmony allowed Lance to retain his hold on her as they entered his office, turning to face him as the door slammed shut behind him.

“You have reports to finish.” His voice was hard, simmering with anger. “Get them done so we can head home.”

“Lance…”

“Get.” The sudden finger he raised, the chastisement of whatever she was going to say had her eyes widening as she stared back at him.

“What…”

“Reports.” His tone was dark, dominant.

A frown snapped between her brows. She would be damned if she was going to let this attitude continue.

“Argue with me right now, and I promise you, that spanking I keep threatening you with is going to happen.” His face was suddenly in hers, his nose almost touching hers. “Until the sheer terror evaporates from my system from whatever the fuck was going on out there, then I’d suggest you tread lightly.”

“I was going to tell you…”

“I heard enough!” He stomped away from her, his shoulders stiff, every line of his body radiating rage. “For God’s sake, Harmony.” He turned back to her as he raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Just do the damned reports.”

The words were pushed between clenched teeth as anger sizzled in the air between them. What had he heard? And why was he so furious?

“You know, Lance, the alpha thing is a real turn-on,” she pointed out. And it was. She was getting wet, fast. “But to be perfectly honest, you are overreacting. I was going to tell you…”

“What?” His voice rasped like dark velvet. “That you were in serious danger of being taken from me?” It was obvious he was holding onto his control by a thread. “That whatever or whoever you decided to secretly meet with was within seconds of hurting you?”

Her eyes widened. “Dane wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Dane!” His lips were clenched as he leaned them on the desk, staring across it as a thread of jealousy stole into his voice. “Let me guess. The same man who’s rescued you for the past ten years? The one who keeps a close enough eye on you that he steals you from beneath Coyotes’ noses with an inch of your life to spare?”

Her brows arched. “Yeah, that’s the one,” she answered mockingly. “Should I also point out he’s the one who saved my life, countless times…”

“The same one who was within seconds of kidnapping your ass,” he snarled.

“I wouldn’t let that happen…”

“This time, you couldn’t have stopped it.” His jaw bunched as she watched him forcibly restrain himself from saying more. “Go do the damned reports, Harmony. Now. Please.”

She inhaled slowly.

“I’m a big girl, Lance,” she said slowly. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”

“Yes, you have.” He nodded shortly as he straightened. “And several times those bastards hunting you have damned near killed you. Until I can get a handle on the sheer terror clenching my balls right now, then I’d suggest you drop this subject.”

He was impossible.

“Fine.” She waved her hand dismissively as she turned her back on him and headed to her office. “I’ll go do the damned reports. But later, I’m going to kick your ass for being so stubborn.”

He was stubborn? Lance stared at her retreating back in amazement. She had the nerve to call him stubborn? The woman could have written the book on stubborn.

Breathing in roughly, he sat down in his chair, staring at the closed door in disbelief. She had no idea how close she’d come to being taken. Within seconds. He could still remember the imperative cry that suddenly filled the air, making his knees weak as the sound of danger, of Harmony’s absence, began to shriek through his mind.

If she resists, we’ll take her… The hard voice had drifted past his ears as he came out of his chair. Knock her out and we’ll have her on the heli-jet before she awakens.

It was the first time in his life that actual words had whispered past his ear as the air called to him. She had no idea the danger she had been in. The man who had rescued her for ten years was now intent on taking her.

Why?

He rose from his chair and paced the office, pausing at the window and staring into the dark landscape of the park beyond.

The side of the department was now well lit, something Lance rarely bothered with unless there was an event in the park itself. The lights from the park illuminated the area enough for safety’s sake, but there were still shadows to hide within. Shadows that suddenly seemed ominous.

He braced his hands on the window frame as he stared into them, searching for answers, for movement. He should have let her explain, but he’d be damned if he could handle her confidence in the unknown Dane right now.

She was smart, and she was damned tough. But that bastard had been her savior for too many years. That kind of relationship built a trust that could so easily be used against her.

Jonas. Dane. The killing in Pinon. They were all connected somewhere. Somehow. And Alonzo. He had seen the fanatical hatred in the reverend’s eyes and knew they hadn’t seen the last of him.

“I’m finished.” Harmony stalked into the office and slapped the reports on his desk as he turned to her.

He glanced at the clock. It was close enough to midnight to leave for the night. He had finished the paperwork waiting on him and his second-in-command had shown up early.

“Did you have dinner?” he asked with a frown.

She didn’t eat enough, and that bothered him. How she managed to keep going on the amount of food and rest she took in amazed the hell out of him.

“Yes. I ate.” She frowned heavily. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing, because I doubt you ate enough to keep a bird alive. Let’s go. You can eat with me before we head to the house.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Well, I am, and I hate eating alone.” At least she was following him—that surprised him.

“You’re getting too bossy to suit me,” she informed him, moving to his side as they neared the lobby doors.

“I’m not bossy, ask anyone,” he growled. “I’m as easygoing as they come.”

“I’m glad I wasn’t eating when you made that little statement.” She gave a mock cough. “I would have choked.”

He threw her a glare as they moved through the night, the summer night surrounding them, the hint of rain bringing a relief from summer’s heat.

“Let’s go—”

“Sheriff Jacobs?”

Lance turned at the sound of the county prosecutor’s voice.

He turned to watch as she moved out of her vehicle and walked toward them.

“Stephanie.” He nodded in greeting. “You’re out late.”

“I had to come into the office late.” Her smile was strained as she nodded in Harmony’s direction. “Alonzo’s lawyer just bailed out Ms. Lancaster’s assailant.”

“He was slow,” Lance grunted. “I expected that earlier.”

“He also bailed Tommy Mason.” She dropped her bombshell with a grimace. “We just released him from lockup.”

“Well, low and behold, the U.S. justice system prevails once again.” Harmony’s snide comment had Lance mirroring Stephanie’s grimace.

“He’s only out on bail,” she assured Harmony. “The trial will be another matter.”

“Good luck there.” Harmony leaned against the front of the Raider, watching the prosecutor mockingly. “Personally, my money is on Alonzo. He knows how to hire lawyers, Ms. Atwater, and if Mason is part of his organization, then Alonzo will see to it that he goes free.”

“Like hell.” Lance turned to her then. “Not here, Harmony. Not in this case. Tommy fired on officers and we have your testimony that he was holding his wife hostage. He won’t get out of it.”

“Then he’ll disappear into Alonzo’s organization and you’ll be lucky if you ever catch up with him.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter. “So much for the promise I made to that kid, huh? I bet he’s real safe right now.” Lance saw the shadows of pain and rage burning in her eyes when she turned that bright, false smile up at him. “So, did you mention dinner? I’m hungry.”

She wasn’t hungry, she was brooding. He could see it in her.

“Lance, I’m really sorry about this,” Stephanie said softly. “The bail was ridiculously high. We had no idea Alonzo would step in like this.”

Lance sighed wearily. “Let’s pray he sticks to his routine and spends a few nights drinking and having fun before he goes home. I’ll have the deputies keep an eye on him and see if we can’t pull him back in.”

Stephanie nodded her dark head in agreement, her brown eyes concerned as she stared at Harmony.

“Bring him back in, Lance, and we’ll keep him this time.”

Harmony snorted at that.

“Thanks again, Stephanie.”

She nodded again before turning and moving back to her car. Lance turned to Harmony, taking in her emotionless features, her raging eyes as she watched the other woman leave.

“Have you slept with her?” She turned her gaze to him, arching her brow as though curious.

“Did I ask if you’ve slept with Dane?” he growled. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“And if I have slept with Dane?” The question wasn’t a comfortable one. “I wasn’t a virgin when I came to your bed, Lance.”

“This has nothing to do with Mason, Harmony,” he snapped.

“Mason is a moot point.” She lifted her shoulder negligently.

“And that means?”

“Exactly what I said,” she told him coldly. “And since I can tell you have slept with her, I should warn you, I could get very jealous. Are you ready to go now?”

She swung away from him, moving with flowing grace around the Raider before jerking the door open and stepping inside. Lance followed suit, feeling the tension mounting inside him as he heard the wailing moan on the wind. It wasn’t one of pain, or one of fear. It was the sound of the dead.

The drive to the house was made in silence. Harmony could feel the fears and the rage growing inside her. She had asked Jaime Mason to trust her. To disobey his father and she would make certain he was gone forever. Only to have Alonzo free him.

Justice. Even Death’s justice sucked. She couldn’t make a move, either as an officer of the law, or as Death, until Tommy Mason struck out at his child. It was the one boundary she had never crossed. And now she was paying for it.

As they stepped into the house, Harmony turned to Lance, watching as he set the alarm before turning to her.

“We were followed.” The look on his face was savage.

“Yes. We were.” Harmony loosened the Velcro straps that held her holster to her thigh before removing the belt from her hips and heading toward her bedroom.

She was only a few feet from the doorway before a manacle clamped around her upper arm and she was pushed against the wall.

Surprise and heat sizzled through her at the dominance reflected in his dark expression and tightening his normally sensual, full lips.

“As you said earlier, you’re a big girl,” he stated, his voice rasping. “Don’t do something stupid at this point and let him get the jump on you. He will take you, Harmony. You can’t trust him.”

“He’s trying to protect me…”

“Bullshit! He’s trying to protect himself for some reason,” he snarled. “Just like Jonas, Harmony. There’s something Dane wants. There’s a reason why he’s pulled your ass out every damned time the Council managed to capture you. Haven’t you ever asked yourself how he knew where you were, the fact that you were taken? According to you, you have no friends. Why did he do it?”

It was a question that plagued her more and more often.

“There’s always a job to do,” she retorted, hearing the flimsiness of her excuse. “Something he needs me for.”

“A job he couldn’t do on his own? He could rescue you from Coyotes, but he couldn’t do whatever he sent you out for?”

Harmony shook her head desperately. “There’s nothing I have that anyone could know about.”

“Do you really believe no one but the scientists you killed in those labs knew about the information you stole?” he growled. “What about the rest of the information you had? You stole a computer hard drive, hard copies of experiments and reports, as well as the information on the first Leo. What other secrets are you hiding, Harmony?”

She stared back at him in confusion. He was destroying her preconceived notions, just as Dane was destroying her trust in him. She had always depended on Dane, she realized then. Had always known that somehow, some way, he had her back.

“I don’t know,” she finally answered. “The files on the hard drive are encrypted and I couldn’t break the code. The only thing I was certain of were that the hard copies of the information on the first Leo were the only proof in existence that he lived. Madame LaRue was too triumphant, too assured of herself to have made a mistake and let the information out.”

“And you’re protecting him.” His hands loosened on her arms, but his body held her firmly in place. “You spend your fucking life killing to protect others. Who protects you, Harmony, that you don’t first have to pay a price?”

“There’s always a price to be paid.” She had accepted that long ago. Even before her escape from the labs, before she had met Dane or learned the ways of the world she lived in. “If the first Leo is alive, then he deserves to live in peace. In what safety he’s found.” Leo was her forefather, her only connection to a lineage; she couldn’t allow him to be destroyed, any more than she could have allowed Jonas to be destroyed.

“The price you’re getting ready to pay is unacceptable.”

Harmony shivered at the low, raspy tone of his voice and the heavy, aroused dominance that filled his face.

“And, by God, you won’t be paying it alone,” he continued a second before his head lowered.

Her response was instantaneous. She had never known hunger, never known need until Lance. This hunger, this need, was all consuming, terrifying, and sent her arching to him as her lips opened beneath his.

It wasn’t a long, hungry kiss. They were short, desperate kisses as his hands released her to tug at her shirt, to fight to pull the material over her head.

Did she hear material rip?

Hell, she didn’t care. He was no less desperate to get her naked than she was to get the clothes from his body.

She wasn’t a fool. She knew how very close she had come to being taken from him. But one thing about it, eventually she would have awakened and she would have fought through hell itself to be back here.

Right here in Lance’s arms.

“Fucking shirt has to go.” He tore his lips from hers, leaning back long enough to finish tearing it down the front. So it had been her shirt ripping.

He pushed the material to the side, baring her swollen, lace-covered breasts as he stared down at them with a drowsy, erotic expression.

“Good Lord, I love your breasts.” His hands framed the rapidly rising and falling mounds. “And your sweet, pretty nipples.”

His fingers ran beneath the soft lace before lowering it, using the bra to frame her flesh as he revealed it.

“There. Just like that,” he crooned.

Her head tipped back as his lips swooped down, taking a hard tip beneath them as he lifted her in his arms and began moving.

“I need you,” she panted, feeling the flames building in her womb, shooting to her pussy. “I need you now.”

“You’ll have me. Now.”

Before she could do more than gasp, he had her on her feet, turned, then pressed to the bed.

“Get on your knees.”

A shudder shook her at the submissiveness of the position she knew he wanted from her. He pushed her shoulders down as one hand gripped her pants.

Within seconds her lower body was bare and he was moving, kneeling behind her.

For some reason, she had expected foreplay. Except for the one event in his office, Lance was always very big on foreplay.

But there was no foreplay.

She screamed as she felt his cock penetrate the liquid heat of her vagina. Her back arched, the long wail of agonizing pleasure that tore from her would have shocked her if she’d had enough sense to think at the moment.

“You’re still so fucking tight you kill me,” he snarled as he gripped her hips, his own shifting, stroking her inside, sending shooting fragments of pleasure to torment her nerve endings.

She was so full. He was hot, hard, and he took her breath with the pleasure that suffused her, the emotion that built inside her.

His control was gone. How he had sustained it this long she wasn’t certain, but it was shot. She could feel it. Gloried in it.

As he began to move, the heavy length of his cock fucking into her with hard-driving strokes, Harmony could do nothing but brace herself, fight for breath and take him.

She was helpless beneath him. Lost in a world of sudden, irrevocable pleasure with no beginning and no end. There was only Lance and the brilliant heat of his touch, his possession.

“Damn you. Are you going to let them take this from us, Harmony?” He thrust inside her hard and deep, each impalement taking her breath, stealing another part of her ability to think. To reason. “Are you going to let anyone take this from you?”

The orgasm, when it hit, was unexpected. His arm curled beneath her; his fingers found the blistering ache of her clitoris and stroked it with devastating results.

She knew she screamed his name. She felt her muscles tighten then dissolve as excruciating pleasure whipped through her. Stars exploded around her and she was lost in the chaos. The pleasure. Her head thrown back as she let her body, her senses, absorb every pounding thrust that elevated her release.

She was lost and she knew it. The sexual dominance that had lurked just beneath the surface was free. Lance wasn’t a man to be crossed; she had known that all along. He wasn’t a man who would stand back and hope for the best.

And he wasn’t standing back now.

“We’re not finished.” The rough statement, delivered in a graveled, hungry voice, had her womb clenching and her breath catching.

“Wait…” Just a moment. Just long enough for the violent sensitivity to ease within the muscles clenching his thick cock.

“For what?” He leaned over her, holding her still as his thighs flexed, causing the throbbing crest of his erection to stroke her internally. “What am I waiting for, Harmony? For you to think? For you to trust someone who will fucking destroy us?”

His hips jerked against her, driving him deeper as her breath shuddered in her chest and her fists knotted into the blankets beneath her.

“For some bastard to decide you’re better off without me?”

“No!” The agonizing emotion she heard in his voice tore at her heart as she felt his lips at her neck, his breathing hard, harsh at her ear.

And she felt his pain. His fear. The scent of it wrapped around her, mingling with his determination, his strength.

“Mine.” He nipped her ear as she felt the slow retreat of his cock, rasping over burning nerve endings. “Do you hear me, Harmony? You’re fucking mine!”

The latter part of the declaration came with a hard, quick thrust that had her bucking beneath him. Oh God, it was so good. The whipping tendrils of pleasure seemed to flare from her sensitized pussy along the rest of her body. Her nipples ached, her clit began to throb in renewed need and her flesh began to sensitize to the point that she could feel the air against it, moving over it. Another caress. Another pleasure that had her crying for more, muted little feline growls leaving her throat.

“You like that, baby?”

“Yes…” Whimpers were all she could manage. “Oh God yes, Lance. I love it.” She pressed back, feeling the slower impalement, the rock and shift of his hips, the press of his balls against her swollen clit as he drove in to the hilt.

“Are you going to let them take this from us, Harmony?” His voice turned to a croon.

“No. No. I swear…” Her head thrashed as she reached desperately for her building climax. “Please, Lance. Please.”

“Always mine, baby.” He nipped her ear again, stealing her breath with the animalistic dominance in the act. “Do you hear me? You’re fucking mine!”

“Yours.” Her cry shocked her. It rose unbidden from her lips, shattering the air around her. “Yours, Lance. Always Yours.”

The sound that came from his throat could have been a Breed’s rough growl. But her declaration broke the last threads holding his control.

The thrusts inside her were rough, primitive. But that was what she needed, she realized. So hard they shook the bed, shafting inside her as she began to fly. As though he pierced her spirit and set it free with the exquisite pleasure ripping through every nerve ending in her body.

Even the air around them seemed to obey his will. It caressed her exposed flesh, licked at her nipples as she fought to hold herself in place, breathed over her sweat-dampened skin until the pleasure became too much to bear.

“Lance…” Her wailing cry was desperate, shocked, as rapture began to flame around her.

“Come for me, Harmony. Give it to me, baby. Give it all to me…” His voice was guttural, so rough, so deep it was animalistic as his cock seemed to swell inside her. “Give it to me, baby. And I’ll give you…”

She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t cry. Harmony felt every muscle, every bone in her body lock in place as something began to swell inside her womb. This wasn’t pleasure.

It went beyond ecstasy. Her vision turned dark and she began to shudder, deep hard tremors shaking her body as she felt her release begin to pulse through her.

The muscles of her cunt tightened, swelled, trapping him inside her. She heard his agonized, shocked groan, then felt her pussy ripple as her orgasm reached its height, milking his flesh, stroking him until she felt the hard, heated pulse of his semen inside her.

He was growling behind her, whispering something as his body jerked and shuddered against her own.

Harmony collapsed beneath him, unable to maintain the strength in her arms. Her cheek pressed into the blankets as she fought the agonizing tightness in her pussy. Her muscles spasmed with each furious spurt of seed Lance released, and each shattered male groan at her ear.

“Baby.” He lay against her back, his voice tortured. “Sweet God. Harmony…”

She jerked with the hard spasm that tore through her at his voice, then his own dark groan at her ear.

“Easy, sweetheart.” His hands caressed her gently, soothingly. “It’s okay, baby. I’m right here.”

She was crying, whispering his name, and he was kissing the tears from her cheek.

“I’m here. I’ll always be here.” One hand smoothed her hair back as the other slid down her hip, her thigh. “Always, Harmony.”

One last shuddering tremor racked her body before she felt exhaustion swamp her. True exhaustion. Her breath shuddered from her chest, and softly, gently, darkness closed around her.

Some time later, when he came to his senses, Lance gathered their clothing together and headed for the bedroom.

The torn articles were tossed in the trash, the others in the hamper in the washroom, as he palmed his cell phone.

Moving back to the kitchen, he flipped the phone open and punched in Braden’s number.

“Cuz, you’re becoming a distraction,” Braden growled as he answered on the fourth ring, his voice heavy with arousal.

Lance grimaced. He really didn’t need to know Megan had a sex life.

“Where do your loyalties lie, Braden?”

There was a long silence as he waited for the Breed to answer.

“Fuck. I knew this was going to happen,” he finally snarled into the line. “I knew it. Hell, Lance, my loyalty is with my wife. Period. What hurts Megan hurts me, so I guess I’m stuck with your fucking fight.”

He didn’t sound happy about it, but Lance knew his cousin’s husband. Beneath the growling protest was an edge of excitement. He knew a fight was coming, and Braden did love a good fight.

“She’s conceived.”

Silence filled the line for long moments.

“Well. Hell.” Braden finally breathed out roughly. “You’re certain?”

“The winds are.” He could feel the answer in the air around him, clear to his soul.

“That’s good enough for me.” Braden sighed. “What now?”

“Jonas wanted her pregnant for a reason,” Lance said softly. “He wanted to use it. What would her pregnancy result in?”

“Her death,” Braden grunted. “She’s the ultimate killer. Pregnancy would weaken her. Make her vulnerable. Easy to overpower.”

“And when Death is in trouble, what happens?” The more he thought about it, the more he knew exactly what would happen.

“She’s taken,” Braden answered, suspicion heavy in his voice now. “Always by the same team of men. Taken and hidden.”

“That team is here in town. They nearly took her last night. We had a tail on the way home and someone is watching the house now. They’re getting ready to move in.”

“And Jonas has taken a sudden leave,” Braden revealed. “He’s unavailable at the moment and no one knows where he and his three best enforcers are. Merc, Rule and Lawe.”

“They’re here, and they’re waiting. What the fuck is behind this, Braden? If Jonas wanted to contact the men who have helped her, why not just ask her?”

“She would never trust him.” Braden’s sigh was heavy. “When she killed the scientists and escaped from the lab, Jonas truly believed his mother, Madame LaRue, was a victim. That she was forced to cooperate with the other scientists to protect him and Harmony. He had no idea the monster she was. Harmony did. When she tried to tell him, he brushed her off, grew angry. It was years after Madame’s death before Jonas learned the true scope of her cruelties. By then, Harmony had learned to distrust him. She would never trust him now and Jonas knows it.”

“Then why keep me in the dark?” Lance asked. “If I had known…”

“Lance, you don’t understand Breeds,” Braden growled, his voice rough. “Trust, outside of our own small prides, is not a commodity we have. Jonas knows you, he likes you; otherwise, he wouldn’t torment the living hell out of you. But he doesn’t trust you. Jonas more than any of us, because of his mother, knows the price of trust.”

He wiped his hand over his face as he paced to the closed window, feeling the darkness surround him, the hint of a presence beyond it.

The cell phone was secure; Lance had made certain of that. And he knew Braden’s was. The house was being watched, but whatever he said now was safe.

“What do you need?” Braden finally asked. “You’re a part of Megan, a part of my family, Lance. My loyalties lie there, as does my trust.”

“Her safety,” Lance breathed out roughly. “I have to ensure her safety, Braden, or someone, somehow, will take her from me. I can’t let that happen.”

He could feel the rage boiling inside him, a complete fury directed toward those who would use her.

“I’ll be over tomorrow afternoon.” He could hear Braden’s determination as well. “Megan says to make certain she stays inside until then. Don’t let her out of your sight, Lance.”

“That one is a given,” Lance growled. “I’ll shackle her to me if I have to. She’s not going anywhere without me.”