Jade (Rare Gems Series) (10 page)

“What sort of things?”
He laughed and she flushed. “I’m sure whatever it is I can get it later. I don’t want you to be bothered with having someone bring it to me here.”

“He should be about to you if you’re in the food court. His name is Donny and he will show you identification if you ask for it.”
She saw a man coming toward her with a large bag. “And when I send you things like I’m sure you thought I was sending you, I’d not do it in a busy mall but in the privacy of our bedroom. By the way, our bed came today. We’ll break it in later.”

Donny was smiling at her and handed her the bag.
Before she could ask him, he pulled out his driver’s license and showed it to her, as well as his badge that said he worked for Witt Corporations. He told her he was there to answer any questions she might have.

She pulled out the little box and
opened it to find a fully charged phone and a note attached to it. It said that all the numbers she needed for now were programmed in. She looked at Quentin’s smiling face when it started ringing.

“I guess it works.
The other things in the bag are to keep you safe. I know you’re all bad assed and can probably protect me better than I can you, but I wanted you to see the pictures of the people I want you to keep an eye out for.” She thumbed through the pictures and handed them to her sister as he told her what else was with the bag. Jade pulled out the last box and stared at it for several seconds before she realized Quentin was speaking to her.

“What did you do?” He laughed.
“I’m serious. If this is what I think it is, you can just take it back. I have a car that I’m buying. It’s not like this one, but it’s something I can afford.”

“You can afford this one
, too. Plus, if you and Angie go out, I want to be sure you’ll be okay if someone tries to hurt you. I don’t want a thing to happen to either of the women in my life.” She started to protest again, but he cut her off. “I want you to have this because I’ve fallen in love with you and want to give you the world. The car is nothing compared to what I’d like to give you. Please let me do this for you.”

Jade wasn’t sure what to say. She looked up at Donny
, who was looking around like he expected someone to attack. Either that or he was going to go with them to that store again. Shuddering, she asked Quentin.

“He’s going to go with you at a safe distance.
I think if you send him into the store I think you’re talking about, he might quit.” He laughed with her this time. “My father and brother are out there, and I don’t want to take the chance that they might try to hurt what is mine.”

“Am I yours, Quentin?”
She flushed when she realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry. That was a stupid question. I wasn’t fishing, I swear it. You just said you thought you were falling in love with me and I have to be stupid and—” She stopped talking when he said her name.

“I’m wrong. I’m not falling in love with you. I’m head
-over-heels in love with you. And I know you weren’t fishing. That’s what makes you asking so wonderful.”

Tears filled her eyes as she tried to control her emotions.
She was in love with him, too, but was too overwhelmed with everything to say anything to him now. When she nodded, knowing he couldn’t see her, she felt his laughter. Then he spoke to her through their link.

“I can feel you. It’s as if you’re touching me
with your love and it’s all around me. I’ve never felt anything so…so overwhelming before. Is this really how you feel about me, love?”

“Yes,”
she told him as she ended the call. “
I’ve never loved anyone before. Never, and to be honest with you it terrifies me a great deal. It’s almost too hard to believe.”
He sent her his love, and it wrapped around her like a warm blanket and filled her up
. “Oh Quentin, I do love you.”

“And I love you.”
He laughed again.
“I’m beginning to see why you’d not gotten a cell phone before this. Is this the way you speak to everyone? It’s amazing.”

“Not everyone
, just family and now you. But as you know, I couldn’t afford it before now.”
She stood when the others did to move out.
“Will Donny be driving Angie and me around? I don’t want to make him quit if we go to another store.”

“He’ll be fine. Donny has been my body guard for a very long time.
Since before my father did—”
She could feel his anger and wondered about it.
“We have to talk about my father and why he’s no longer a part of my life. Tonight, all right? We, you and I, will sit down and talk about a lot of things.”

She told him it would be fine.
Moving out the doors to the parking lot, she saw the car immediately. It was a car only in the sense that it had doors and four wheels. The rest was…well, she wasn’t sure. It was the biggest SUV that she’d ever seen, and it was hot cherry red.

“Oh yeah, no one will notice you coming.” Sapphire laughed as she crawled into the back seat with her and
Angie. “It’s much nicer than the one that Blair and I have. I might have to have him outdo you.”

“Please don’t. This is…it’s too much.”
Sapphire took her hand as her other sisters got in as well. “I don’t want all this.”

“But you need it and you most assuredly deserve it. Enjoy it, love. Men like our mates aren’t the norm. We are very
, very lucky.” Jade nodded at her. “Now, let’s go and spend some money.”

Holy Christ,
Jade felt as if she was in big trouble here.

Chapter 10

Quentin was looking over the spread sheet for the newest project he was thinking of getting involved in when his phone rang.
He barely glanced at the caller ID and answered it. There were so many people calling him over the past three days that he was getting irritated. He had to hire someone to answer his phone.

“Mr. Witt, Quentin Witt?”
The voice sounded nervous. He picked up a pen to write down anything he might say. It was important, he knew, that if someone was going to threaten you to have as much detail for the police as possible.

“This is him.
Who is this and what do you want?” The man didn’t say anything for several seconds, and Quentin nearly hung up.

“This is Doctor James at County General.
Do you by chance know a Miss Debra Winters?” Quentin felt his body drain, and he went lax against his seat. His first thoughts were that Roger had killed her, too.

“I do. What’s happened to her? I’m not her family
, but I will—”

“No. I realize that.
” Doctor James cut him off. “She’s told us that and…she wants to see you. I mean really wants to see you. She’s been here since last night and, frankly, I’m not sure how she’s survived this long. But she is screaming for you. She said she needs to see you right now.” The doctor took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to tell you this over the phone, but if you could see your way here as soon as possible, it might ease her way. She’s…she’s not well.”

Quentin g
rabbed his coat from the back of his chair and asked the man to repeat where he was going. “I don’t know this area well, so if you could give me the address, I could get there much quicker.”

“Yes, she said you’d just moved here from Texas.” The doctor told him how to get there as well as the address. “Sir, do
you know if she has a next of kin we can notify as well? You see she’s only said your name and that she needed to talk to you. She’s afraid that you’ll…she said that you might not come but that I was to convince you to be here.”

“I’ll be there.
Tell her I’m on my way.” He was moving out the door to the elevator when he realized that his brother might be there and asked the doctor if she had anyone there now.

“No, she was found in the parking lot yesterday afternoon and brought into the emergency room. One of the doctors here was able to find out her name by recognizing her from the paper.”
Quentin reached for Blair to see how to contact Diamond or Ruby to see if this might be a trap. “I’m going in to assure her now that you’re coming.”

Quentin ended the call just as Blair reached him back.
“I’m on my way out the door. Good job on using your new skills. I was—”

“I’m so sorry
, but I need to contact one of the others at the hospital. I just got a call from a Doctor James and he said that Debra was there and in bad shape. How do I…? I don’t know…do this with them?”

“You can’t,”
Blair told him, and Quentin pulled out his phone to figure out how to call them.
“But I can. You head on over to the hospital and I’ll get in touch with Diamond. She is in charge over there and can get more information than anyone I know.”

Five minutes later
, Blair confirmed that Debra was there and was indeed in bad shape.
“She’s lost a great deal of blood, but the doctors don’t know how. They think she’s bitten herself.”

“But you don’t think so.”
Blair said he didn’t.
“Do you think that my brother bit her so badly that she’s bleeding to death? Doesn’t someone have to seal those kinds of bites?”

“They do
, but I don’t know that it was him. Diamond is checking on her now. But you should hurry. There really isn’t a great deal of time left.”

Quentin was shown to a room that was not a normal hospital room. The walls were all windows and there was a
guard outside the room that didn’t look like anyone he’d fuck with. When the nurse showed him to the room, the guard stepped back but not far enough where he could no longer reach him. Quentin stepped into her room to find Diamond there already. Debra lay quietly on the bed.

“She’s resting for now
, but she’ll wake soon. She’s having nightmares, she said.” Diamond moved closer to him. “Debra’s been bitten by a vampire, and most if not all the bites have not been sealed. She’s lost too much blood and refuses a transfusion. I’m sorry, Quentin, she’s going to die if she doesn’t get help.”

“Quentin?
Is that you?” He moved closer to the bed and turned back to Diamond when she nodded. Christ, the woman in the bed looked nothing at all like the Debra he knew.

Her skin was pasty white and brittle looking. Her lips
, which had once been full and lush, looked dried and cracked, pale as her face. The colors of her eyes were faded to almost clear and were sunken so deep into her head that she looked dead already.

“I’m here.” He almost took her hand
, but Diamond told him not to. “Did Roger do this to you? I’ll kill him if he did.”

Her laugh was
maniacal. Quentin felt it like nails down a chalk board. There was something very off about this, and he was afraid for Jade and his daughter.

“I contacted him. You told me his name once
, I think, or maybe you told Roger. Things are fuzzy now.” She closed her eyes for a second. “He’s coming for you…not you but that woman you’re fucking. He wants her dead because he didn’t kill her before and he likes to hurt people.”

“Who?” But he had a feeling he already knew who. And the why.
He started to ask her how she’d met him when she threw back the sheets. “Mother fuck, Debra, did Ballard do this to you?”

Bites. All over her body
that he could see. When she pulled her gown up, they were there on her belly and breasts. Her arms looked like she’d taken a razor to them, just like her legs. Even her feet were bitten, her toenails black from them. Some of them bled still, while others seeped out something that didn’t look like anything but pus. He started to take a step back, but she grabbed him. Her grip was very strong for as weak as she appeared.

“H
e’s going to kill her, then you. Kent will kill Angie, too. Not that I liked the brat, but I’d never want him to do to her what he’s done to me. And he will.” She closed her eyes and he could see she was straining to stay with him. “He’s going to kill you all, but you have to kill him first.”

“I will.” She dropped her hand and laid there.
Before he could ask her if she needed anything, she bowed up off the bed and screamed. Quentin started to reach for her but Diamond threw him back just in time. Debra screamed once more. Then she exploded.

Quentin was still sitting in the hallway waiting for someone to tell
him he could leave when someone touched his arm. He looked up to find Blair there and Jade running down the hall toward him. Quentin stood up and went to her, grabbing her up in his arms and holding her.

“They said you
weren’t hurt, but I didn’t believe them.” Quentin kissed her mouth, neck, and cheeks. “I have to see you.”

When she pulled back from him
, he still held her hand. After what seemed an eternity, she was satisfied and let him hug her again. They were still holding each other when Sloan appeared beside them.

“It was Ballard. He found that she was talking to someone
, I would imagine, and he killed her. I would say that she was in a great deal of pain when he did it, too.” Sloan looked back toward the room and then back at him. “I have his scent now as well as his blood from the girl. She’d been…he’d turned her most of the way and by the next moon, she would have been a vampire like him.”

“Evil you mean?”
Sloan nodded at Jade. “What can we do to stop him? We have to do something before he hurts someone else. No one should suffer like that poor woman did.”

Sloan looked like he wanted to tell her no
, but he looked at her family then back at her. Quentin wouldn’t want to face any of them if he had to, not as a foe. Sloan seemed to understand that.

“I would like to suggest
some things first. Some you might be all right with, others…well, they are things that could help you all.” He nodded toward a room, and Quentin and she followed him. As soon as the door shut behind them, he sat on the bed and started talking.

“I would like to suggest that you convert Quentin. It will help him in the long run
. When you’re both wolves, there are things you can do as a mated couple that you cannot as a human and wolf.” Quentin nodded before Jade could say anything. “Secondly, you should both think about having the little girl have a body guard. Even at the school. She’s the one that I would take to control you, and she’s ripe for the picking.”

“Ripe for the picking? I’m not sure I know what that means.”
Quentin looked at Jade when Sloan didn’t answer him. “Do you know?”

“He means she’s too trusting. She’d go with someone without thought to whether or not they’d hurt her.” She looked at him as she continued.
“Kent or even your family could tell her she was doing something you wanted her to, and she’d willingly go with them.”

He wanted to deny it but really wasn’t sure.
She was very trusting and was friendly, too. And someone evil, like this Ballard person, would exploit her just to get what he wanted. Quentin looked at Sloan.

“What else?
You want something else, what is it?” He stood up and walked toward them. Quentin was suddenly very afraid.

“I would very much like to have your
permission to bite you both, and Angie.” Jade said no almost immediately, but he watched him. “I can find you, all of you, if he takes you. I will also be able to talk to you through a link that will let me know if you’re hurt or afraid. I will find you if he takes you, any of you.”

“And how much will you need?”
Jade moved away from him and he could feel her anger. He could understand her to a point, but he didn’t want anything to happen to any of them. But Sloan’s way would insure that they had a better chance of getting out alive.

“A sip.”
Jade left the room, and Sloan sat down. “I won’t hurt her. I know that she doesn’t believe that, and, frankly, I can understand that, but I won’t ever harm her. You know that.” He did, too.

“I’ll talk to her. In the meantime
, take mine and we’ll—”

Sloan
told him he couldn’t do that unless his mate approved. “She’s going to be mad at me anyway. If I take your blood, even freely given, she will hate us both. And as your mate she can’t hurt you, but she can make your life a living hell if you cross her.” Quentin thought that Sloan might be right. “I am.”

“She’ll come
around. I’ll talk to her.” Sloan nodded. “I will ask her about Angie, too. I don’t want her to ever think that Angie is anything but our daughter from now on.”

“Good idea. Have you told her about
Isabel yet? It might help her.” Quentin shook his head, and Sloan nodded. “It’s up to you, but the reason I ask is that if she knew what your father’s part in her death was about, she’d be more inclined to take care with the child. And this time I’m going to find him and he will no longer be a threat.”

Sloan disappeared after that.
Quentin paced the room for several minutes before he moved out into the hall with the others. He was handed his clothes in a large plastic bag and told that he could keep the scrubs they’d given him. Thanking the nurse, he went to find his family because regardless of blood, they were his family.

On the way back to his house, he asked them all to stay for a while. He had something to tell them.
All of them agreed, and Annabelle said she’d bring some steaks, too. Quentin was about to tell them of his first wife, and he didn’t want to have to tell this story ever again if possible.

“
Isabel Cole was Angie’s mother.” Angie sat down in Jade’s lap as they sat around the living room in the big house that Blair told him was the pack house. “She and I didn’t love each other, but we married because Angie was on the way.”

He’d told Angie that he and
her mother had loved her very much, but the two of them just were not in love with each other. They got along and may have eventually fallen in love, but soon after their daughter was born, she was murdered.

“My father did it. And though I was never able to prove it
, I think that Roger had something to do with it as well. He, Roger, was brought in for questioning, but nothing ever became of it.” Quentin started pacing. “We’d been home from the hospital for about two weeks when my father came by to see the baby. I had kicked him out of my life when I’d turned eighteen for lots of reasons, but mostly because I no longer trusted him. It wasn’t just money, because at the time I had very little. It was because he was a thief as well as a man who lived on the wrong side of life, and was just about to take the plunge into being nothing I wanted to have anything to do with. Especially now that I had a family.”

“But he didn’t back off
, did he?” Quentin shook his head at Blair’s question. “How did she die?”

“Strangulation.
He tied her up to the beams in our house and held her on a chair. He said it was an accident, that he’d only wanted to teach me a lesson. But she’d slipped off while he was out making some other deal and died. She was there for five days before we found her, because Dad had skipped out when he realized what he’d done.” Quentin stopped pacing and looked around the room for a second before continuing. “He told us this in the courtroom. Dad had been his own attorney and couldn’t fathom why we, anyone for that matter, would find any of this his fault. It had been a surprise to us then, and Angie got to hear her grandfather tell us that he’d killed her but it wasn’t his fault.”