Page 2 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

Lucy

W e shouldn’t have split up.

The thought played on a loop, even though it wasn’t like my brother would’ve been any real help.

Charlie was a lover, not a fighter. I’d been defending him since I was seven years old, and a boy made him cry on the playground.

To be fair, he would defend me to his last breath…

and at least I wouldn’t have been alone as I watched the doorknob to my motel room turn.

I knew I’d locked it. I’d double-checked before I took a shower.

I wasn’t sure who was on the other side, but if I had to guess, I’d say that the baseball bat in my hands wasn’t going to do much but piss them off.

I tightened my fists around the handle, making sure I didn’t choke up too far so I could really swing.

I’d have seconds to do whatever I could to get away.

Light shone in from the streetlamps as the door swung open slowly. So slowly.

As soon as a shadow stepped inside, I swung as hard as I could.

Aluminum connected with flesh with a sickening thunk.

Gasping, I pulled back and swung again as the man closest to me went down.

The one behind him was smarter or had better instincts, because I watched in horror as he caught the bat in mid-swing and ripped it out of my hands.

I didn’t wait to see if he’d use it. With a grunt, I rushed him. My shoulder hit his sternum, and he let out a whoof of air as I knocked the wind out of him. He stumbled backward, and I shoved past.

Straight into the arms of the third man.

“Stop,” he ordered quietly, carrying me back into the room as I bit and scratched, shoving at any part of his body I could reach.

Nothing I did seemed to have any effect. He wasn’t even breathing heavily as I kicked my legs and twisted back and forth. His arms were like frigging rocks, tight enough to keep me contained, but not tight enough to hurt. He also smelled really good.

I scoffed and dug my chin into his collarbone.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” the man holding me said softly, gently closing the door with his foot.

“Pretty sure I blacked out for a second,” the man on the floor groaned. “Fuck.”

“You’re such a dumbass,” the one with the bat said, prodding him with it.

“Lucille, stop,” the man holding me ordered, grunting as I twisted enough to elbow him in the gut. My hair had fallen in my face, and I could barely see in the dark, but I didn’t stop trying to shove him off.

He knew my name.

“Get off of me,” I wheezed, my breath seesawing in and out of my lungs.

He dropped me to my feet instantly.

I stepped backward toward the window as he flipped on the light, making the man on the floor curse.

“We’re here to help you.”

“Get the hell out of my room,” I growled. It sounded very impressive, considering the fact that I was two seconds away from shitting my pants.

“Sorry, no can do,” the man with the bat said, his words cutting off as his head snapped to the side to look at the man who’d been holding me. “No shit, Ulf?” he asked.

The man nodded.

“Awesome,” the man on the floor said with a sigh, lying back flat.

Something about these men felt familiar, which ratcheted up my panic. Where had I seen them before, and how the hell did they know who I was?

“We’re looking for Charles,” the man who’d held me said carefully.

“You’ll never find him,” I replied without thinking.

Then I actually looked at him, and it felt like the floor had dropped out from under me.

He was gorgeous . His light brown hair was long enough to brush his collar, but it was smoothed away from his face and looked like it hadn’t moved in our tussle.

A little demoralizing that I couldn’t even mess up his hair, but whatever.

His light blue eyes were framed with dark lashes, making them pop, and his chin and cheeks were covered in five o’clock shadow a few shades darker than his hair.

He looked like a model or something. It was a little disconcerting.

“We found you ,” bat man said with a shrug.

I clenched my teeth together and lifted my chin. I wouldn’t tell them anything. Charlie might’ve been my older brother by thirteen months, but I’d been looking out for him since we were kids. If they thought I was the weak link that would lead them to him, they were dead wrong.

I looked back at the handsome one, almost reflexively. God, he was…

“We’re Zeke’s brothers,” he said, running his hand down the back of his neck.

He was fidgeting. What did that mean? Was he lying?

“I don’t know anyone named Zeke,” I lied. “Sorry, you must’ve gotten the wrong room.”

The man on the floor laughed, then groaned.

“I’m Ambrose Boucher,” the handsome one said, pointing to himself. “The asshole with the bat is Chance. The one you knocked out is Danny.”

I stared at him blankly.

“Do any of those names sound familiar?” he asked, his eyes searching my face.

Of course they sounded familiar. They were my brother-in-law Zeke’s brothers’ names. There was one missing, though. Barry? Brandon? No, Beau. It was Beau. But just because he knew the names didn’t mean those were their names.

I tried and failed to look away from him. It felt compulsive. I had to fight the urge to speak.

What the hell was going on? Had I hit my head or something?

“You’re Lucille Franklin,” Ambrose said. “Your brother is Charles. He was my brother Zeke’s mate, right?”

I stared at him blankly for a moment. His sentence sounded wrong, but it took me a moment to realize why.

Was. He said was.

I took an involuntary step backward, that small word hitting me like a blow to the solar plexus.

We’d known that Zeke was missing. When he hadn’t come back for me and Charlie in Belgium, we’d followed his directions to the letter, quietly making our way across Europe and taking a merchant ship home.

I’d stashed Charlie and come back to Baltimore, even though Zeke had warned me not to.

I’d figured that I could be in and out quickly enough that no one would notice.

I’d hoped that by the time I got back to my brother, Zeke would’ve already caught back up with him, ready and willing to rip me a new one for taking the risk.

“She didn’t know,” Chance—no, Danny—said quietly from the floor.

Ambrose winced.

I tried to control my breathing, but it felt like I couldn’t draw in enough air.

Zeke was gone ? That couldn’t be true. They had to be lying. Zeke had explained it to us. Vampires had long lives and were harder to kill than humans, but once a Vampire was mated both the Vampire and the mate became immortal .

I took another step backward, a lump in my throat.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away, but I had to.

I needed to get back to Charlie. I wasn’t sure what these men had done to Zeke, but we needed to find him.

Maybe his real brothers would help. From what Zeke had told us, they were the best of the best. If they hadn’t realized yet that their brother was in trouble, I had my doubts, but Zeke had told us a hundred times that if we were ever in trouble to find the Bouchers.

“She’s panicking,” the one with the bat—fake Chance—mumbled.

“Our brother Zeke has the night sky tattooed across his chest,” the handsome one said quickly.

“He’s missing the end of his third toe on his right foot.

He lost it by dropping an axe on his foot when we were children.

He maintains to this day—” His voice grew rough, and he cleared his throat.

“He maintains that Chance startled him, and that’s why he dropped it.

Not because it was too heavy. His favorite food is marshmallows.

Can’t get enough of them. When he smiles, the left side of his mouth rises a little bit higher than the right.

He’s not a drinker. He takes his coffee with cream but no sugar. ”

“Stop,” I snapped, the weight on my chest growing heavier and heavier.

“He was closer to our mother than our father because he was the baby,” Ambrose finished quietly. “And she coddled him.”

Chance and Danny were silent.

Shit. I believed them.

“Who did we meet in Europe?” I asked, watching Ambrose’s face closely for any kind of tell.

“Matthias,” Ambrose replied easily. “Zeke probably called him our cousin, even though there’s no blood relation. You also met his mate.”

“What did Zeke want to be when he grew up?”

“A cattle rancher. He even designed his own brand.”

My shoulders slumped.

“We are Zeke’s brothers,” Chance said, helping Danny up from the floor.

“Is he dead?” I asked, glancing between them.

My eyes moved back to Ambrose almost instinctively.

He gave a tight nod.

“That’s impossible,” I whispered.

“How much did Zeke explain to you?” Danny asked gently.

“Everything,” I hedged. I believed these males were his brothers. I could see the resemblance now that I no longer felt like the panic was going to suffocate me, but that didn’t mean that I was going to blindly trust them.

Zeke may have promised that we could trust his family if anything went wrong, but he’d also promised that he and Charlie would live forever, and look how that turned out.

Chance moved behind Ambrose and used the baseball bat to slowly pull back the curtain. “Sun’s coming up, Ulf.”

“We need to leave,” Ambrose told me. He hadn’t looked away from my face since the moment we met, and it was beginning to make me a little self-conscious. Did I have dried spit on my cheek or something?

“Feel free,” I said, waving at the door. “Don’t let the door hit you.”

“We can’t leave you here.”

“You absolutely can,” I argued.

“Do you have any idea the kind of danger you’re in?” Danny asked dubiously.

“Oh, I think I have a better idea than you do,” I shot back. “Where have you been the past few months?”

The audacity of these Vampires.

“Ambrose,” Chance called, his voice low.

“Problems?” Ambrose asked, his eyes still on me.

“Don’t touch that,” I ordered as Danny reached for my bag.

“Same human male has crossed the parking lot twice,” Chance told Ambrose.