Wicked Game Read online

  Chapter One

  Eden

  Waking up with Asher’s arm around me from behind, I realise he must have come to bed after I’d fallen asleep. I open my eyes and blink. Nick is lying in front of me, topless. He has one arm under his pillow and the other close as if he’d been holding me too and moved in his sleep.

  All kinds of thoughts rush through my head, most of them naughty. I can’t believe they both got into bed with me. I mean, after last night I knew we were closer, but this went beyond my wildest dreams. Anyone who walked in would assume the worst, but that hadn’t even happened. Yet, I remind myself. I sit up and remove Asher’s arm, escaping with a little effort and a lot of wriggling.

  Both of them are still sound asleep when I leave the room to shower and change. I consider walking back into that room naked. The thought thrills me, but a couple of things stop me. One, I’m not sure Asher’s ready for an actual threesome, and, two, it’s way too early for Nick to be fully awake if it turned out he was. Damn these early rising bones.

  I creep back to the room and stand in the doorway. They’re both still asleep, though Asher has moved to lie on his other side. Those steamy thoughts push straight back into my head. The things we could get up to between those sheets together...

  Maybe I should have dealt with my lady boner in the shower.

  Wait a second. Why should a Goddess have to? When she has two seriously sexy lovers and a third in the making, there shouldn’t even be time to think about self-love.

  To hell with it. I’m about to slip out of my skirt and T-shirt and crawl back between them, when the doorbell rings. Damn. Who comes to someone’s house at this time in the morning?

  I close the door and move along the hallway, starting to realise I’m hungry as I move down the stairs. The walkie-talkie I’m supposed to keep close by is beeping on the kitchen counter. I’ve barely touched it since my security decided it would be a good idea.

  I pick it up and press the button. “Okay, I’m awake.”

  One of the security guards answers, “Lawson Black is here to see you.”

  “Um, what?” What the hell? Skyler’s new fuck-toy is at my door? At six a.m. “Is he with Skyler?”

  “He’s alone. Would you like us to remove him from the property?”

  “No. It’s fine. I’ll come out.” I step into the heels that I left in the hallway before I disable the alarm and answer the door.

  Lawson is as strikingly handsome as he was the night I met him. He still has that slightly grungy look, with shoulder-length hair that’s almost dark enough to be black. He’s not wearing guyliner today and his hands are stuffed into the front pockets of his ripped jeans.

  “Sorry for the surprise visit,” he tells me.

  “It’s fine. What’s wrong?” I know there’s something. Even if he hadn’t shown up at my house out of the blue, he looks too worried for this to be anything other than serious.

  “It’s Skyler,” he says, sighing deeply. “She’s gone.”

  “Gone?” My shoulders relax. He’s being melodramatic. She probably decided she was done with him. But if that’s all it is, why come all the way out here?

  “She was staying at my place.” He puts a hand into his back pocket and brings out a slip of paper. “We were… helping each other. I had to go to this dumb shitty meeting yesterday afternoon and she was gone when I came back. I’ve already been to her place, and I’ve spoken to all of her band mates. This was on the table when I got home.”

  I take the folded-up sheet of A4 from him and open it. The note gives me chills the instant I unfold it. The writing is red and flowing. It’s nothing like Sky’s barely legible scrawl. Her name is clearly signed at the bottom.

  “This isn’t her writing. Have you been to the police?”

  “I know it’s not her writing.” He shakes his head. “There’s a reason I can’t go to the police with this, but I need help and there’s no-one I can trust in L.A.”

  I look over the note as his words sink in. I have to leave. Don’t look for me. I’m not coming back. Sky.

  “You know who took her.” I don’t know how I know that, but it’s true.

  He nods. “I know she’s your best friend. She told me she hasn’t always been the best friend to you, and she feels shitty about that. The way she talked about you, I knew you were the only person I could come to with this.”

  I pass him the note back; our fingers brush and I send the Goddess light into him. It happens instantly, and I instantly know he isn’t lying. He’s sick to death with worry. He loves her. “Come in.”

  He walks inside and closes the door. “I know she doesn’t tell anyone about her upbringing. None of us do. It was fucked up.”

  “It’s obvious she’s hiding something dark. She wasn’t speaking to me before I left L.A. I was pushing too hard for her to lean on me.” Now I feel doubly guilty for not being able to help her.

  “She doesn’t trust easily. She can’t.” He leans against the door. “I was luckier than she was. I got out before she did.” He hesitates before he tells me the rest. “We were brought up in a cult. Children of Moonlight. You’ve never heard of it, because the guys at the top silence any members who escape, if they even so much as think they’ll try to talk about it. It’s not easy to get out, believe me.”

  A cult? Poor Sky. I can’t even imagine how awful it must have been. It explains so much. I wish she could have told me herself, but I understand. She tried so hard to bury her past. I knew it had to be bad. This is more horrifying than I’d imagined. “So, you think they have her?”

  He nods. “I know they do. The note is what they do when they take someone. Sometimes they’ll hint at suicide if they think the person is unlikely to be missed. It’s written in her blood.” His expression tightens. “I can’t call the cops, because the cult reaches that far and further. They have members in the F.B.I. It’s not safe to speak to anyone in L.A. about this. Her band think I’m a stalker. That she told me to fuck off and I didn’t take the hint. That ex-bodyguard of hers man-handled me out of Kira’s place.”

  “Lawson, I don’t know how I can help you with this.” I want to, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t understand what I can do.

  “Eden, I came to you because I know what you are.” He smiles wryly at me. “Not just because you’re Skyler’s best friend. She needs someone she loves to fight for her. Who could be better than a Goddess of Love?”

  I feel my mouth drop open. He knows? How the hell… I shake it off. Priorities, Eden.

  “Do you know where to find Skyler?”

  “I have some ideas on where they might take her, but they move around a lot. It’s been twelve years since I escaped. I’ve tried to keep my ear to the ground. I have a friend who’s willing to say yes to an offer she was given, by a recruiter. They start out making offers like that. Eventually, if they want the person badly enough, they take. So that’s on a time squeeze too. We can follow her, find out where they take her. It’s a one-time shot though. We have to get my friend back out along with Skyler. I can’t do this alone.”

  He has a plan, I guess. That’s something. It freaks me out a little to think about what he wants to do though. We could really use someone with some combat experience or someone used to these kinds of abduction cases. “You say you can’t trust the cops in L.A. What about someone from out here?”

  He raises his eyebrows. “You have someone in mind?”

  I nod. Eli has been on my thoughts a lot lately, but I didn’t think I’d end up wanting to call him for something like this. On the other hand, going into a dangerous situation wouldn’t be risking my life, but he wasn’t immortal. I don’t want to put him in this kind of position. Maybe I can just ask him for some advice.

  “I need to get back in a few h
ours,” Lawson tells me. “I have a private flight booked. I’ll give you my number, so you can call. If you can make the flight with me, we can get this operation rolling.”

  I hand him the pad that’s on the phone table. He writes down his number.

  “I’ll be there.” It’s a promise I intend to keep, even if I can’t settle my stomach for thinking about what we’re going to do. My nerves are on edge.

  He breathes out a relieved sigh. “Thank you, Eden. The sooner we can get Sky back home, the better.”

  He leaves on that ominous note, while nervous butterflies create a storm inside me. My best friend has been kidnapped by a cult. Her new guy knows what I am, and I need to call the sheriff I just started dating for advice on a dangerous situation. I’d thought my biggest problems were solved by causing my enemy to fall in love, but it seems they’re only just beginning.

  Chapter Two

  Asher

  Waking up expecting to find Eden keeping the bed warm next to me, and finding instead her other lover, is a bit of a shock to the system. I suppose I should have realised it was a possibility when we made our decision last night. Eden needed to be protected. We were only going to actually sleep.

  It had seemed like a no-brainer. Now I wasn’t so sure. Without Eden, I was just lying inches away from a very muscular and tattooed night club owner. Which would be perfectly fine if I enjoyed that kind of thing. As it is, I feel more inclined to get up than to lie around now. I move quickly and head straight for the shower in Eden’s master suite. I’d left my case in her room before we came to bed, intending on using her main shower when I got up.

  The mirrors are all steamed up. I notice right before I take my glasses off and put them inside their case. Eden can’t have been up for much longer than me. I get ready as quickly as possible, eager to go and find her. I’d taken a fair bit of time off work recently, and while that was mostly fine in a town this sleepy, I didn’t want to rock the boat too much. I had a few hours until I needed to be there, so I was hoping to spend that time alone with Eden.

  I walk downstairs and find her standing at the kitchen counter in a denim skirt and backless T-shirt, talking on the phone, with a bowl of cereal in front of her. She straightens as I come toward her, gaze drifting over me slowly.

  “Um, what?” She shakes her head a little and pulls her gaze away. “Okay, yeah. That makes sense.”

  I wonder who she might be talking to as I move toward her coffee maker and figure out how it works. I hadn’t bothered with the effort when I was staying while she was gone. I only ever feel the need for the stuff when I have a full day of work ahead.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She sounds a little nervous.

  I wish I could make out the caller’s side of the conversation. My curiosity has been stirred. I ignore it as I start making coffee, find the mugs, and then lean back against the counter next to her.

  She glances at me and smiles, but it’s not an easy expression. Shit. Something’s wrong.

  “I don’t know how long I might be gone.”

  I straighten at her words. She’s going somewhere? She just got back.

  She sighs and leans into me. I can’t hear the other side of the conversation. I have to wonder who needs her to leave town this time. Does she have to go back to L.A. for work? I hope she’s not going to be gone for long.

  “We’ll be careful.”

  We? I can’t wait for her to put down the phone now. When she finally says goodbye, I have to ask.

  “Who was that?”

  She puts the phone down on the counter and moves back. “Sky’s in trouble. I have to go back to L.A. I called Eli to get some advice.”

  “What do you mean Sky’s in trouble? What kind of trouble?” That friend of hers is every guy’s worst nightmare. I can’t imagine her ever not being in some sort of trouble. That only makes me more anxious. What could she have gotten into that would have Eden so worried?

  “Lawson Black was here first thing this morning.” She moves to the coffee maker and pours a cup for me. She doesn’t drink it, at least, not often. She told me before it was a gift from her manager.

  “Lawson Black?” How do I know that name? It’s familiar but I can’t quite place it.

  “He’s big news in the rock world, apparently. Sky just started something with him.”

  Okay, the pieces are beginning to fit together, but they still don’t quite make a complete picture. “He came out here because of a fight with her?”

  “No. He came out here because she went missing. It’s kind of a long story and I didn’t get all of it. I said I’d go back to L.A. with him to help track her down.”

  “Missing how?” Usually if that woman ‘disappeared’, it was because she was on a bender. There were a dozen stories about worried band mates missing tour dates to go out and find her. I still don’t get how any of it ties into Eden needing to call Eli.

  “Kidnapped,” she says with a wince.

  “Kidnapped?” That’s a completely different story. I feel kind of guilty for assuming Sky was being her usual inconsiderate self. Wait a minute. If it’s that serious, why did her new guy come out here instead of going to the authorities? “You need to call the police.”

  “It’s not that simple.” She frowns as she stirs her cereal and then drops the spoon in the bowl. She looks at me, crossing her arms. “She was apparently brought up in a cult. It’s why she can be so abrasive, Asher. She doesn’t trust people. Lawson was in the same cult. It’s how he knew about it. They both escaped at different times. I don’t know if they even knew each other back then, but what he told me about the cult sounded messed up. He thinks they took her. He found a note.”

  I let it sink in, a ball of dread forming in my gut. “So he thinks she was kidnapped by a cult. That doesn’t sound like something you should go near, Eden.”

  “She’s my friend, Asher. I can’t abandon her when she needs me the most.”

  “I don’t understand what you can do, exactly. Why didn’t Lawson go to the police, or his bodyguards?” Or anyone else on the planet but you?

  Her expression tells me there’s something she’s not sure she should say. She already has doubts in her head about this. Good, maybe I can make her see some sense. “I’m immortal, Asher, and my Goddess light makes me powerful. I don’t need to be afraid of what could happen. He couldn’t go to the police because there are members of the cult in the L.A.P.D. He won’t know who to trust. They kill people who try to get out.” She hesitates, but I wait for her to finish. “He knows what I am. He knows I’m a Goddess. It’s why he came to me.”

  “He knows? I don’t like this.” She might not be risking her physical self, but she has no idea what kind of toll this might take on her spirit. There must be some way to convince her not to go. “Goddesses aren’t destroyed in physical ways, Eden. You might be impervious to bullets, but what about the rest? You said Cupid told you you’re meant to do good in this world. What if this Lawson guy is lying? If he knows you’re a Goddess, who knows what he might be planning.”

  “He wasn’t lying, but you can come with me to the airport to meet him if you want. You can use my light to see for yourself.”

  Damn. She’s determined to do this.

  “I can’t let you go alone. I’ll take holiday time and come with you.”

  “Eli said the same thing,” she murmurs, rolling her eyes.

  “He did? And is he going with you?” A hint of relief takes some of my tension. I’d feel better if she had someone with her. Someone with an actual gun and the backbone to use it would be perfect.

  She sighs. “I told him he couldn’t come. I don’t think he was listening though.”

  Is it enough? The ball of dread growing inside me doesn’t have an answer. I still want to go with her. I don’t like that some guy Skyler was dating came here and gave her a crazy story to get her to go back to L.A. “I’ll come to the airport and meet him.” If he has nefarious plans, I’ll see them when I touch him w
ith her light. “If he’s lying I’m driving you straight back home.”

  “He’s not, but you’ll see when you meet him.” She pours her cereal down the drain.

  I pick up my coffee. I don’t blame Eden for being worried about her friend, but I don’t like any part of this. It’s all too strange and I’m filled with too many questions. One thing is certain. Lawson’s going to have to answer all of them without making me angry.

  Chapter Three

  Eden

  I head upstairs to pack my bag for the flight back to L.A. when it becomes obvious Asher’s mood isn’t going to shift enough to let him relax and enjoy my company before I have to leave. When something’s bothering him it tends to play on his mind until he finds a solution. I just hope Lawson’s honesty is enough to settle his worries. Somehow, I doubt it will be, but I don’t have the time or the patience to worry about that.

  I smile at the bed Asher moved into the room for me. Even if it can’t be used yet, since I’m refusing to sleep in this room until the balcony door has been removed and the entry point bricked up. It was thoughtful of him to do this for me.

  I go into my walk-in and pick out jeans and T-shirts that are dark and casual. I just need to be comfortable while we’re tracking Sky down. I hesitate before I pack sexy lace underwear. Chances are, I won’t get the opportunity to start anything with Eli while we’re gone, but just thinking about him coming along awakens nervous butterflies in my stomach.

  It’s going to be different with him. He’s new.

  I might not have seen Asher for a long time, but the feelings were already there when we got together. I already loved Nick too. Everything happened so fast, but it was right.

  With Eli, we’re only just beginning to get to know each other. I don’t know if I remember how to take things slow. I’d been with Hunter for so damn long. I didn’t really know how to be single. I’d barely lasted two weeks once I got over the heartache of what my ex had done. The haze of lust I’d be walking around in hadn’t totally cleared.