Page 41 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

Ambrose

I ’d been staring at financial records for two days, and I still hadn’t figured out how they were connected to the conspiracy we were investigating.

That’s what it was. A fucking conspiracy.

There were lists of names we recognized in Zeke’s files, some with asterisks next to them and others with question marks.

We weren’t sure if he’d discovered that they were part of the group who were kidnapping Vampires and their mates or if he’d been checking them out and decided that there wasn’t a connection.

The financial records belonged to both humans and Vampires.

There didn’t seem to be any organization or method to the information he’d compiled.

I’d been cross referencing deposits in one account with withdrawals from the others.

I’d found enough connections to know that I was moving in the right direction, but not enough to see any discernible pattern. It was infuriating.

I looked up from the table as Lucy threw her leg over the arm of the couch. She was reading a novel she’d borrowed from my mother that didn’t seem to be holding her attention. Every few minutes, she shifted like she couldn’t get comfortable.

“You don’t have to sit in here with me,” I told her, setting the papers down. Chance had laughed his ass off when I’d asked him to print out the financials instead of looking at them on my laptop. There was something to be said about holding information in your hands while you studied it.

“What else would I do?” Lucy asked, popping up to smile at me over the back of the couch. “I’m good.”

She disappeared again, but I couldn’t make myself go back to studying the accounts.

Historically, the period after a Vampire met their mate was a time for the two to discover each other and enjoy themselves. It was the equivalent of what humans called a honeymoon period. We should’ve been in a hotel somewhere, ordering room service and lounging naked in bed all day.

Instead, we’d been mourning my brother, escaping kidnappers, going under sedation in an attempt to avoid the mating heat, fighting off attackers, healing from gunshot wounds, and trying to unravel a plot that seemed to grow bigger with every piece of information we uncovered.

I fucking hated that she wasn’t getting the experience that she should’ve had.

“Come on,” I said, rising to my seat. “Let’s go do something.”

“Like what?” she asked, sitting up on the couch. “It’s not like we can be out in public with these neon targets on our backs.”

“We’ll go for a walk on the property.”

“I thought you needed to decipher those statements,” she said, gesturing at the messy table. “I’m not trying to distract you. I can go read in the bedroom.”

“Then I’d be more distracted,” I confessed, pulling her to her feet. She was moving much easier now that the stitches had been removed from her leg.

“The heat hasn’t been so bad,” Lucy said, leaning into me.

“That makes sense,” I replied, running my fingers down her spine. “In theory, mating heat should be inherently good for you. It’s the way we recognize the person who is specifically made for us.”

“It definitely takes the guesswork out,” Lucy joked.

“So when you were hurt, it should’ve mellowed. Your body was already trying to heal itself. Adding severe mating symptoms to that would’ve been counterproductive.”

“That makes sense,” she replied. “Also, Severe Mating Symptoms would be a good band name.”

“It also might be subsiding because we’ve already completed the bond.”

“We’re stuck now.”

I smiled. “It won’t ever go away completely, though.”

“Oh, goody.”

“It’s nature’s way of keeping us connected.”

“Because we obviously couldn’t have done it on our own.”

“I don’t know,” I teased her. “You seem like a runner.”

“I resent that.” She smiled as I backed her toward the bedroom. “I’m a fighter, not a runner.”

“I can’t argue that.”

“Your parents still can’t go very long apart, can they?” she asked, walking backward.

I shook my head. “It’s painful for my mother. I’ve heard a lot of theories, but Alice believes that the heat symptoms are more severe in human mates longer because it keeps them near their physically stronger partner.”

“So they’re protected,” Lucy said in understanding. “You gotta love evolution.” She got a strange look on her face.

“What?”

“I wonder if that’s why the symptoms were so bad when I was sedated,” she said thoughtfully.

“Because I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that something wasn’t right, and the bond was like, Danger, Will Robinson !

That could be why you didn’t feel it as strongly.

Because you thought you were doing the right thing. ”

“Could be.”

“So you’re agreeing that you need to listen to me from now on because my body has some kind of magical barometer for danger?” She nodded. “Cool.”

“Or maybe you just missed me,” I replied, leaning down to kiss her.

“Fair point,” she whispered against my lips.

I pulled away slowly. “Come on. Let’s get some fresh air.”

The downstairs had been cleaned up the day after the humans tried to storm the house, but there were still things left to do to get the house back to its original condition.

Cleaners had come in and scrubbed the walls and floors, but the couch was a loss, and so was the large area rug that had covered most of the hardwood.

It was nearly impossible to get that much blood out.

Windows still needed to be replaced in the front and back.

The floors needed to be sanded and refinished. The front porch needed to be repainted.

It was a work in progress. We’d boarded up the windows until the new ones came in, so Lucy hadn’t seen the living room in full daylight yet. She paused at the bottom of the stairs in shock as my father and Beau lifted one of the replacement windows into place.

Beau cursed, and Reese laughed. She was curled up in a chair, watching them work.

The noise must’ve snapped Lucy out of it because she strode forward.

“Sorry,” she said dryly. “I think that’s the one I broke.”

“Then you should be lifting it into place,” my father replied, grunting as he positioned the window from the porch.

“I’m still healing,” Lucy said with a grimace and a shrug.

“You look fine to me,” Beau grumbled.

Lucy looked at me over her shoulder. “Aren’t you going to offer to help?”

“We’ve got plans, remember?” I reached out, and she grabbed my hand.

The front porch was stained so badly that I took Lucy out the back so she wouldn’t have to see it. When we got outside, she tipped her head back and took a deep breath.

“How did you know I needed some fresh air?” she asked happily. “God, it smells good out here.”

“You haven’t seen the sun in days,” I said dryly, leading her further from the house.

“I know. I was turning into a Vampire,” she said with a mock shudder.

I laughed and tried to tickle her, but she jumped just out of reach.

“Funny,” I replied, nodding.

“Really? No issues with sunlight, huh?” She clicked her tongue.

“Humans have gotten it wrong for centuries,” I said as we wandered into the woods. “The only thing they got right was the blood.”

“But we didn’t even get that right,” she said, turning toward me and walking backward. “We thought you went around biting people.”

I smiled. “Only the ones we like,” I joked.

“Look, you can’t even see the house,” she said, pointing over my shoulder. “That was fast.”

“It’s pretty thick out here.”

“Should we go back?” she asked nervously.

“We have six Vampires on the perimeter,” I assured her. “Motion sensors, trip wires, and Chance is monitoring cameras placed throughout the property. We’re—” I stopped before I said it. I’d told her she was safe before, and I’d been wrong.

“So we should probably keep things PG then,” she said, ignoring the mine I’d just avoided. She raised her voice and lifted both her middle fingers into the air. “Since Chauncey is watching.”

I just shook my head. Their animosity had started out genuine, but I was beginning to see that it had changed into a running thing between them.

I was glad. Reese had softened Beau a lot, and by the time Lucy met him, he’d started keeping most of his shitty comments to himself.

But Chance didn’t have anyone to soften his harsh edges.

Beau had been a quiet jerk. Chance was an in-your-face one, which made him twice as obnoxious.

“Why are you frowning at the trees?” Lucy asked, moving closer to run a finger between my brows. “It’s a beautiful day, and no one is currently trying to kidnap us.”

The words were light, but they hit me like a slap in the face. When she started to pull away, I stopped her.

“I fucked up,” I said quietly, cupping her face in my hands.

I’d had one job. I’d been waiting for it my whole life, had prepared for it, dreamed of it, and I’d failed.

Protecting my mate was what I’d been put on the earth to do, and I’d failed.

Watching her as the sunlight coming through the trees dappled her skin in light and shadow, it hit me.

We could’ve missed this moment. I’d gone off on some harebrained plan, convincing myself that it was to rescue Finau’s mate when the truth of it was that I was trying to avenge my brother’s death…

and I’d left her behind when we had wolves at the door.

“When?” she asked, searching my face.

“You told me not to do it?—”

“I told you to leave Charlie behind,” she reminded me. “I didn’t tell you not to do it.”

“I knew you didn’t like it.”

“I don’t like a lot of things.”

“I put you in danger.”

“Ambrose, come on,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I was already in danger, remember? That’s how we met.”

I couldn’t seem to draw air into my lungs.

She’d been trying to reassure me, but she’d done just the opposite.

Lucy was right. I’d known she was in danger before I’d even known she was my mate. In my hubris, I’d assumed that once she was on our property that she’d be safe from the danger that threatened her. I couldn’t have been more wrong.