Page 6 of Bound by Vengeance
He turned his back on her and walked over toanother window in the kitchen. Her eyes ran over the bare Formicacountertops, the cracked and chipped blue tiling, and the whitecabinets sagging on their rusting hinges. There was no table orchairs.
To her right, a small hallway ran to theopen door of a bedroom. When she stepped back, she saw an airmattress with a blanket tossed over it inside the room.
Keeping one eye on Nathan, she crept acrossthe weapons room to examine the newspapers. There had to behundreds of articles pinned to the wall. A yellow highlighteremphasized some sections of the papers; others had words,locations, or dates circled in them.
The more she examined the circled words andhighlighted sections, the more words—like brutal, neck wound,savage, blood loss, violent animal attack, police have noclues—jumped out at her. Many of the locations centered in Boston,but a fair amount were in surrounding towns. Some were in NewHampshire and a couple from Connecticut.
On the map, countless thumbtacks were placedin the same locations as some of the articles. Vicky suspected afew more tacks had come from somewhere else, most likely fightsNathan had with Savages recently. A cluster of red pins were stuckinto some woods in Plymouth.
“Is this the location of the warehouse whereJoseph was keeping his recruits?” she asked and pointed at thecluster.
Nathan settled a blind back into placebefore looking at her. “Yes.”
“All of this is because you’re trackingJoseph.”
It hadn’t been a question, but he answeredanyway. “Yes.”
Vicky glanced around the apartment again. Anapartment with the weaponry to go to war, but she suspected thiswas a one-man war.
“Are you going after him on your own?” sheasked, ignoring the twinge of anxiety the possibility gave her.
“I plan to do whatever’s necessary to takehim down.”
“But you’re the leader of the hunters. Youhave numerous men who follow you; why aren’t they helping you withthis?”
He didn’t respond as he walked by her to thehallway. She stepped back to watch him turn a light on beforedisappearing into a small bathroom.
When he reemerged, her breath caught and herheartbeat doubled. He’d washed his face and pushed his dampenedblack hair back from his forehead in a way that emphasized theplanes of his handsome features and the black stubble lining hisnarrow jaw. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him as he stalkedtoward her with a fluid, predatory grace.
“My men are helping me with other things,”he said after another minute passed.
“You’re workingwithRonan to huntJoseph.”
“I am.”
“Does he know about this?” she asked with awave of her hand to the map and weapons.
“No, and I’d prefer it if you didn’t tellhim. This ismyproject.”
“You want Joseph for yourself,” she guessedand knew she was right when a muscle in his jaw twitched. “That’s asuicide mission.”
“No, it’s not,” he said brusquely andstopped beside the kitchen counter.
He rested his hand on the green Formica andset his stake down as he tilted his head to study her. Of averageheight, she was slender, but the way she stood pushed her jacketback to reveal her rounded hips, and the black, formfitting sweateremphasizing her full breasts.
Her skin was a sun-kissed golden color thatmade his mouth water as he envisioned running his hands over everyinch of her curves. While he’d held it, he’d noticed her hand wassilken, and he imagined the rest of her body was much the same.
When her inherent, sweet jasmine scenttickled his nostrils, his fingers curled on the counter as hestruggled to suppress his growing lust for this woman. No, not justa woman, avampire, and a pureblooded one with a lot ofpower.
Heneverwould have considered itpossible to experience desire for a member of the vampire species,yet as he watched her stroll back toward the newspaper clippings,he found his gaze dipping to her firm ass. He shifted his stance tohide his growing erection from her when she glanced over athim.
The sharpening of Nathan’s cypress scentdrew Vicky’s attention back to him. She stopped breathing when shediscovered him watching her with the ravenous stare of a man whocraved a woman’s body. Red warning bells screamed in her head asher body quickened in response to his need.
She felt a pull to him, but she’d neverexpected to have him desire her too, not with what she was. Disgustwas what she expected from him, notwant.
However, there was no denying what was onhis mind as his gaze lifted to her breasts. When he shifted hisstance, her eyes fell to the noticeable bulge in his jeans, and thesight of his arousal caused her nipples to harden.
Banging this guy is a bad idea! Don’t bestupid!she reminded herself.
