Page 55 of Kidnapped By the Beast (Beasts of the Kindred #11)

brANDT

The stink of stale beer, cigar smoke, and human sweat hit him the moment he shouldered through the side door of Bad Intentions.

The room was thick with it—grease, smoke, and desperation, coating his tongue like ash.

However, he also smelled something else—the familiar, sweet fragrance of the woman he loved.

Lexi’s scent—he was so attuned to her he could have picked it out of a thousand others.

He followed her sweet fragrance through the crowded bar, down a dark service corridor and around a corner. There he stopped because he could see her—his Alexandra—across the room, standing inside the doorway to a room lit by glaring studio lights.

She was shaking…and she was naked.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, trying to cover herself, tears tracking her cheeks.

The sight of her—so vulnerable, so humiliated—made something inside Brandt snap.

The pudgy human male standing beside her must be Butcher—and there was no doubt in Brandt’s mind that she hadn’t gotten naked for no reason.

This fucker had forced her to strip.

Rage rose in him—sharp as a blade—and dropped a bloody curtain over his vision. Brandt knew in that instant he would kill anyone—everyone—to keep her safe.

But first, there was other business to attend to. Two officers stood at the edge of the room with their backs to him, watching Alexandra with interest. They were thick-shouldered brutes with dull eyes and clenched fists.

Brandt was glad to see that neither they nor Butcher had noticed him yet. All their attention was on Alexandra. Brandt caught the gleam of a gun in the lone shark’s meaty hand, raised casually as if her life were already his.

Slowly, he moved.

Silent as a shadow, he closed on the first officer, one hand clamping over the man’s mouth before he could grunt a warning. The officer’s eyes bulged, arms flailing, but Brandt snapped his neck with one brutal twist. The body sagged and he lowered it gently to the floor without a sound.

One down.

He moved forward. His boot scuffed the floor and the second officer turned, eyes widening, but he was too slow.

Brandt drove his fist into the man’s throat.

A strangled wheeze burst out, cut short as the man crumpled, clutching his ruined windpipe.

Brandt caught him under the arms and lowered him silently beside his companion.

Two down.

His pulse thundered, but his breath stayed steady. The whole encounter had taken just a few seconds. And Butcher, oblivious, was still gloating at Alexandra.

Brandt’s gaze flicked back to her. She was trembling, her skin flushed with humiliation, golden nectar leaking in shining trails over the swell of her breasts. She clutched herself tighter and looked up, her green eyes locking onto him and going wide.

Her look—hope and despair mingled together—seared into his chest.

I’ll never forgive myself for letting this happen to you, little Lexi. But I swear to the Goddess, no one will ever hurt you again!

“Hey—what are you looking at, girly?”

Butcher turned then, catching Lexi’s shift in expression. He started to pivot…but too late.

Brandt was already there. He surged forward and seized Butcher’s wrist. His fingers closed like an iron vise and the gun clattered to the filthy floor.

“Ow! What the fuck?” the human snarled. “Let me go!”

“I don’t think so. You must be Butcher,” Brandt growled, glaring down at him.

Butcher’s small, piggy eyes went wide, his mouth working as the cigar stub fell from his thick lips.

“Who the fuck are you?” he managed at last.

Rage roared through Brandt’s body and he saw the other male’s face as a wash of bloody red.

“I’m the one who’s going to kill you for touching my woman,” he growled.

He released the male’s wrist only to lock both hands around Butcher’s thick throat. He lifted him with effortless strength, hauling his bulk into the air like a child’s doll.

The Rage pulsed through him, hot and red.

This bastard dared to strip her…dared to shame her…dared to put his filthy hands on her.

For that he was going to die.

Butcher clawed at Brandt’s hands, face turning from red to purple. His legs kicked uselessly in the air, one shoe falling off to bounce on the filthy floor. His eyes bulged, panic overtaking him as he wheezed, trying desperately to draw a breath.

Brandt squeezed harder—harder. He could feel the pulse hammering beneath his fingers fluttering, then slowing. He could see the light dimming from the human’s ugly little eyes and still he didn’t stop.

He wanted the male to feel it, to know that he had touched the wrong woman. He wanted it to be his last fucking thought—the realization that he had brought this on himself—that he had caused his own death.

At last, the thick body went slack. Butcher’s head lolled, his eyes rolled back, his tongue protruding grotesquely from his mouth.

With his prey dead, the Rage eased back and Brandt let go. The carcass dropped to the ground with a dull, final thud.

And then there was silence.

At last, Brandt turned to Alexandra.

When he saw her, the haze of Rage lifted completely, leaving his heart raw.

She was still clutching herself, tears spilling freely down her cheeks, golden nectar glistening on her breasts. She looked so small—so breakable.

“Are you all right, little Lexi?” he asked softly, making his voice gentle.

He put out a hand to her but she flinched back, trembling.

“You…you killed him,” she whispered, her eyes wide and frightened.

“He was hurting you,” Brandt said simply. “Hurting the woman I love. I won’t apologize for what I did.”

Her eyes went even wider, shock flashing in their green depths.

“What…what do you mean?”

“Just what I said,” Brandt told her. “I love you.”

The words hung heavy between them—it was the first time he had ever admitted the truth aloud. His chest ached with uncertainty—did she still feel for him as she had before? But the admission also felt freeing. Finally he could speak his love aloud—finally he could bare his heart.

Before he could say more, though, a groan came from the corner.

Brandt whipped his head around, muscles tense. An old man struggled weakly to rise, his face swollen, one eye purple and swelled to no more than a slit.

“Uncle Herbert!” Lexi gasped, scrambling to pull her blouse around her shaking body. Her fingers fumbled at the buttons, useless.

Brandt stepped forward silently, steadying her trembling hands, fastening the fabric for her.

The brush of her skin under his fingertips nearly undid him, but he forced himself to have control.

He knelt at her feet and helped pull up her discarded skirt.

The zipper had been ripped open but the clasp at the top still fastened.

The minute he had her dressed, Lexi rushed to the old man.

“Oh, Uncle Herbert—are you all right?”

“Lexi-girl…why are you here?” His voice was weak, but his one good eye warmed at the sight of her.

“I’m here to take you home, Uncle Herbert,” she said, stroking his gray hair back. “That’s all that matters. We’re free now—Butcher won’t bother us anymore.”

Brandt bent low, sliding an arm carefully under the man’s shoulders. He lifted him easily to his feet.

“Are you well? Can you walk?” he asked.

“I think so.” Uncle Herbert nodded. “But who are you?”

“He’s the one I, uh, worked for on the Kindred Mother Ship,” Lexi threw over her shoulder.

She had spotted the stack of bills on the table and was shoving them fiercely into a bag.

“Here,” she said, shoving the plastic bag filled with cash at her uncle.

“You’re going to put this in the bank for the next time you have to pay property taxes. Butcher won’t be asking for it again.”

Her gaze flicked to the body on the floor in the next room and she shivered.

“I don’t understand.” Uncle Herbert shook his head, still looking dazed.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to understand right now,” she told him. “Come on, Brandt—help me get him out of here, would you?”

Wordlessly, Brandt put an arm around him and bore the old man’s weight. With Alexandra on the other side, they got him out of the bar and into the night.

As they left Bad Intentions together, Brandt felt the oath he had once clung to turn to dust behind him. The Goddess had been right—Alexandra was meant to be his.

And he would never let anyone take her from him again.