Wicked Circle

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

The sun had set as Johnny and Toni emerged from the church. Toni preceded him into the limousine. As he sat, Aurelia reached to shake hands with Toni. “Hi, I’m Aury. And you are?”

Toni didn’t take the proffered hand. “Nobody you need to know.”

Aurelia pursed her lips in irritation. Johnny shook his head once to indicate she should back off. It was a silent ride to the den.

When they arrived, Johnny held the door for Toni and pointed at his Maserati. “Wait over there.” She walked slowly away. He led Gregor aside. “Get my car keys and my wallet from my desk, and the gym bag under my desk. Toni and I are going for a drive.” Gregor nodded.

As the rented limo drove away, Aurelia watched the men trudge onto the lift but did not join them. “Are you coming, Aury?” Gregor called.

“Go without me.” When they were out of sight, she set down her attaché and drew closer to Johnny. “What’s going on with the woman?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.”

Her lips pursed, then stretched as they rounded. “Oh, I’m certain that you can handle a lot.” She cast a fleeting look toward the car and the woman standing beside it. “Did I hear you say you were going for a drive?”

He crossed his arms and glowered down his nose at her. He knew what she was up to. “If you were eavesdropping you did.”

Closing the slight distance between them, Aury tossed her head, and her long, pale hair spilled behind her shoulder, revealing the best contours of her swan neck. “I’m a tenacious woman, sire. That rubs some men the wrong way . . . and I only want to rub you the right way. I trust you can see that my persistence doesn’t have to be a bad thing.” She spread her arms just enough to make her blouse stretch tighter across her chest.

She had to know what she was doing, exposing her beautiful flesh to him. Johnny wanted to ignore her, but he was mesmerized by her tone, her scent, and the eagerness in her body.

“I mean . . . diligence can be very rewarding, and . . . well,” she mimicked his pose in a manner that deepened her cleavage. “I intend to give you my every effort.” Her voice dropped at the end, and the sparkle in her eyes was full of carnal promise.

Her breasts were nearly touching his folded forearms. Just the slightest forward lean would break the ice and establish a basis for further contact. He had only to reach out and instigate it—an accidental touch, a fond caress . . . and he would trigger a compulsive, consuming, crushing landslide of passion.

He kept his arms firmly crossed, grasping his own elbows. The self-imposed physical restraint allowed him to resist the overwhelming urge to touch her. Without it, his hand might have raised of its own accord. He said nothing aloud, but repeated Persephone’s name to himself silently.

Behind them, the elevator clanged and whirred as it descended again.

Aury wasn’t done. “You were fabulous today, sire. How about when you’re finished with your drive, you and I celebrate?”

Johnny knew he should tell her no, but his mouth wouldn’t open and refuse her. The elevator arrived.

“Think about it,” she said as she retrieved her attaché and strutted to the elevator. Gregor delivered the gym bag and the key to Johnny. “I dropped your wallet inside.”

“Thank you.”

“Should I follow?”

“No. I do this alone.”

“Sire, wait.”

Johnny spun, ready to chew Gregor out—then he saw the cord Gregor was holding. The phone charger for the car.

“Since your gym bag already has a change of clothes, I assume you won’t be back tonight. Keeping your phone fully charged and answering it might calm the others should they become nervous over your whereabouts.”

The tension drained off Johnny. “Thank you,” he repeated, recalling that Gregor had heard her cite how long she’d been on a bus.

It was a five-hundred-and-sixteen-mile journey; according to the GPS, a full eight hours. Three hundred and twenty-eight miles of it was I-90—which the Maserati covered in just under four hours as Toni slept. Johnny did eighty-five while she slumbered, enjoying the music of the engine, lost in his thoughts.

That was a long time to think.

In the first hour, he’d considered how aggressively he’d been behaving and wondered if the longer he was in human form, the more the wolf-effects wore off . . . but in the second hour he’d contemplated what it meant to be human. He wasn’t fully either, and the time of overlap would be most sensitive.

By the third hour, he’d concluded that hunger, dominance, fight or flight, and sex were all linked to both his human and his wolf. Basic instincts of mammal life. Emotion, however, was the province of only the human animal. Like rage. Rage inspired murder, whereas wolves hunted and killed only to eat.

Since meeting Toni, most of the factors that affected both sides of his nature had been quiet. With the exception of the moments in the den parking garage with Aury and Gregor, he’d felt more in control of himself than he had in days. But in the garage, it had been lust and anger—both very much human territory—that had sought to rule him. Even at the church, it had been his anger and fear that had made him aggressive.

So, emotion could numb him. Could damn near immobilize the bestial side of him, if he was able to be vigilant with his feelings. His emotions could buoy him above the wolf in all the ways that man was meant to be more than an animal, like courage and compassion, and in none of the ways that man’s superiority became man’s shortcoming, like rage and greed.

It was just after ten o’clock when they picked up I-81 north at Syracuse.

Toni awoke. They agreed on a burger joint for a food and facilities break, then were back on the road. Johnny kept the speedometer at seventy-five.

“What’s he like?” Johnny asked.

Toni smiled. “He’s all boy. He can’t sit still. His mind is on anything but his schoolwork. He climbs everything. He catches frogs and digs up worms. He’s full of energy and he’s . . . he’s just vibrant!”

Johnny realized he was smiling.

“He’s got a mouth on him, though. I should be tougher on him than I have been, but . . . he lost his mother. I lost my daughter. Spoiling him helped us both get through it.”

“Does he remember her?”

“Oh, yes. There’s a picture of her beside his bed and he . . .” Her voice thickened, cracked. “He kisses Mommy good night every night.”

Johnny didn’t have to see her tears to know she was crying.

“Where is he now?”

“With some family friends. I’ll call them in the morning and go get him.” She resituated herself in the seat. “I was thinking, once we get to Saranac Lake, I’ll show you where the house is and you can drop me off. I’m sorry, but I don’t have a guest room. I don’t even have a couch, just a short love seat—”

“I don’t mind staying at a hotel.”

She sighed gratefully. “Thank you.”

“No, Toni. Thank you.”