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Eshe didn&039;t even think, she just punched out at hireed to take her on as an enforcer nearly a century ago, a feue hunter was somewhat rare Not unheard of, but rare He&039;d told her at the tiue hunters to take her seriously, she couldn&039;t take any crap from them Eshe had taken him at his word and spent ue hunter after another onto his ass She still did it roughly once a year This year it was apparently Bricker&039;s turn
Propping her hands on her hips, she glared down at hirowled, "Would you care to rephrase that?"
Bricker didn&039;t appear to be in a hurry to get up Rubbing his jaw, he stayed sitting and let his eyes rove briefly over her black boots He then glanced up the length of her to her face and raised an eyebrow "Mike Tyson in drag as a slutty milkmaid?"
Despite herself, Eshe snorted with a, she let her hands drop from her hips and then held one down in a silent offer to help him to his feet Bricker didn&039;t hesitate to take it
"I forgot how hard you could punch," he htened beside her
"Yeah, well, don&039;t forget again," she suggested dryly, turning to start down the stairs to the front lawn Bricker was i?" he asked with interest,his stride to hers
Eshe paused and turned to scowl at hi to find Ar to seduce hihtly
Eshe narrowed her eyes "Are you reading me?"
"Well, dressed as you are I don&039;t really need to bother reading you to figure out what you&039;re up to, do I?" he asked wryly, and then added, "But yes, I ah that mind of yours, Eshe Very ie that Bricker could read her He&039;d never been able to read her before this, but finding a life hts fro with her Forcing herself to cal Ary, is it?" he asked with interest
"Yes He&039;ll be set off his stride by it, vulnerable towhy it had sounded soherself earlier
"Right, and this hot barnyard sex you&039;re planning won&039;t affect your stride Right?" he asked gently
"Barnyard sex?" Eshe asked with disbelief
"Stable sex?" he offered
Eshe took abreath and then cleared her throat and said, "Look Don&039;t worry about it Armand can&039;t be behind the murders anyway He was at court when his life mate Susanna died in a stable fire at their home, and he was home on the farm when his second wife, Althea, died in a fire in the hotel she and her parents were staying in, in Toronto He couldn&039;t have killed either woman"
"And Rosamund and Annie?" Bricker asked with interest
"He was on the farm when they died too, but while I suppose that means he could have killed them, he couldn&039;t have killed the first tomen, so if they&039;re connected he&039;s in the clear"
"Right, because he was at court when Susanna died and here on the farm when Althea died in a hotel fire in Toronto," Bricker reasoned
"Exactly," Eshe said with relief, glad he agreed
Bricker nodded repeatedly and then asked, "And we knoas at court and then on the farm and nowhere near Toronto because?"
"He told ht," Bricker drawled "He told youand he&039;d have no reason to lie, right?"
Eshe opened her ain and stared at hi
"I don&039;t suppose he offered soently "Maybe he was at court with someone? Or maybe he had a visitor at the farm who could prove he was there and not in Toronto at the time of the fire?"
Eshe closed her eyes briefly as she realized what she&039;d done She&039;d simply believed him Armand had told her his stories of his wives&039; deaths and she hadn&039;t doubted a single word, or even considered doing any fact-checking What the hell had she been thinking?
"Yeah," Bricker said carefully "Maybe this whole seduction thing is a bad idea Maybe all this life mate business has set you a little off your stride, huh?"
Eshe turned abruptly on her heel andnow?" Bricker asked, falling in beside her again as she rietObviously that has left me a little slow today"
"Yeah, that&039;s probably it," Bricker agreed soleh at ain," she warned griet here?"
"About half an hour ago," he answered, glancing at his atch as he followed her inside "The door was unlocked, but I thought I&039;d better wait outside so I settled in the rocker, and fell asleep I didn&039;t hear you two get back, but woke up when Armand let the screen door clack closed behind hio down to the barn, find Arh, leading hierator when she recalled that the blood wasn&039;t there anye in his walk-in closet as proue i Lucian and letting him know he should send soet back before I head out"
"Calling Lucian?" Bricker asked with surprise "I thought it was just sleep you needed? A little rest and you&039;ll be right as rain"
"Rest isn&039;t going to help," she ad in defeat "He&039;swhen I&039;et his pants off"
Bricker&039;s lips twitched, but he ht face as he said, "Well, that&039;s perfectly normal You should have seen Mortimer when he found his life mate, Sam, or Decker when he found his Dani Hell, it was boob city in the back of the van on Highway 401 with Decker"
"Yes, but Nicholas&039;s life didn&039;t depend on Decker," she pointed out,into the hall to retrieve her leather pants from the hall floor where she&039;d left theirl&039;s life did"
When Eshe paused and aze, he added, "I&039;ve never known you to be a quitter, Eshe Lucian sent you down here for a reason, and you know he isn&039;t likely to change hisyou here now Just trust hi at once, he added, "At least sleep on it Who knows, maybe a little rest really will help You can always call Lucian tomorrow if it doesn&039;t"
Eshe stared at hiestion Maybe if she slept she would be a little more on the ball And she could stay here with Armand On the other hand, she really didn&039;t think sleep was going to help much She couldn&039;t think clearly when she was around Aroing to slow things down ly, and she could see Armand when she woke up
"Fine, I&039;ll sleep on it, but I don&039;t think it willtoward the stairs She heard Bricker&039;s ht, but merely raised her hand in a wave as she went Herthat had happened since her arrival for her to expend the effort needed to say anything She really was exhausted, but suspected it wasn&039;t just her lack of sleep behind it There was also the fact that she really could have used a couple s of blood just then; three or four would have done it She generally needed only three or four a day, but she&039;d shorted herself the night before, and then the wine tonight had used up blood she really hadn&039;t had to spare
Unfortunately, she had no idea where the blood was She&039;d already been through Ar and hadn&039;t seen any evidence of a refrigerator there Obviously it was built in, and she didn&039;t feel like searching his closet again Really, all she wanted to do right then was sleep She was exhausted after as essentially a roller coaster of a day She&039;d arrived suspecting Armand was a murderer, found out he was her lifeto do her job His rejection on returning home-and that&039;s what it had felt like to her-had been the final straw
Herto understand what had happened there At the mall he&039;d been ready to rush her back to the house and jump her bones, but after the meal he&039;d apparently lost interest How could a life h her mind on a note of disbelief and was followed by the fact that a life mate wouldn&039;t lose interest Whichwhat they were for some reason, or that he could resist her because he wasn&039;t really her life mate Perhaps she really couldn&039;t read him because he was difficult to read and not because he was her life mate After all, Lucian couldn&039;t read him, she reminded herself Maybe that&039;s all it was for her too, she thought
Of course there was the reawakening of her appetites for both food and sex, Eshe acknowledged, but then worried that thatPerhaps she was only interested in food and sex again because she thought he was her life hts, Eshe decided that sleep was really what she needed It should clear her thoughts at least a little In the ain and see if she ca different, she reassured herself as she walked into the guest roo the dark rooli, she peered at her reflection for ahow short and sexy the baby doll was It had been a good choice on Ar else in the store could have showed her off as well as it did
"How the hell did he resist ust to stride to the bed
"How the hell did I resist her?" Armand muttered under his breath as he mucked out one of the stalls in the horse barn He could still see her in his olden in the di her breasts and flowing down to barely past her hips, the skintight leather pantsher look alht Damn, all he&039;d wanted to do was throw her to the floor and-as she&039;d put it-have his "wicked ith her Instead, he&039;d said he had work to do and left the house, rushing down here like the devil himself was on his tail
Ares just looking at her raised in hi, there was no way he was going to be able to resist her againwhich et her out of there as soon as possible He couldn&039;t even afford to spend one night with her Ar hiht and then send her away He now suspected the truth was that one night wouldn&039;t be enough He&039;d need another and another and another untiluntil he was ed unhappily That was his fear Telling her about the deaths of his wives hadIt had resurrected all his doubts about those deaths being accidents, and reawakened his worries that so their lives, then covering theht only his wives had been killed, but after their talk at dinner, Arhter-in-law Annie&039;s death too
He needed to call Lucian now and get him to send someone down to collect Eshe and take her to a different safe house His house just wasn&039;t that safe for Eshe d&039;Aureus, he thought, and straightened to reach in his pocket for his phone
"Wow!"
Arlanced sharply toward the open barn door as a man in leather pants, T-shirt, and leather jacket strode inside and along the stalls toward him His nose rinkled with distaste and his lips twisted with disgust as he aze
"The smell in here is pretty rank, buddy I don&039;t kno you put up with it Have you ever considered some air fresheners maybe? Or a different job?"
"Who the hell-"
"Justin Bricker You can callhis hand "I ith Eshe"
Armand automatically shifted his phone to his other hand and took Bricker&039;s His gaze slid over the younger immortal as he shook the hand and he arched an eyebrow, "So do all of Lucian&039;s enforcers have a thing for leather, or is it just you and Eshe?"
"I rode my bike down, and leather protects your skin better if you wipe out Means less blood needed to repair you after," Bricker explained, and then grinned and added, "But I think Eshe has a thing for it To tell the truth, I&039;ve never seen her out of it"
"And you won&039;t," Arht of this young kid seeing Eshe undressed
"Got it She&039;s off liuy It&039;s not like she&039;d even give ht? So do you think you can releasecan be a bitch"
Ar stupid as he realized that it hadn&039;t only been hisof a jealous idiot Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair and then asked, "So what are you doing here?"
"Lucian sent ht you twolife mates and all, and he sent hed and then adest he take her soht?" Bricker said lightly "Now that I&039;m here there are two of us to watch her She&039;s safe as a bug in a rug"
"Rugs get stepped on," Ars," Bricker said easily "But at least the rug offers so"
"I don&039;t know," Arested easily, leaning his arms on the top of the stall "If you&039;re still worried in the e his ht, but didn&039;t say as lance around the stall and then the barn again
"So, you live out here on purpose?" Bricker asked with open disbelief
Armand stared at hih burst from his mouth It seemed obvious the felloasn&039;t impressed, and he asked, "City boy?"
"All etically "My uncle had a farured out the attraction of treading through enerally try not to do that," Armand assured him with amusement
"Good to know," Bricker said, and then raised an eyebrow "Is there anything I can help with?"
"It&039;s kind of you to offer, but I think I have everything under control," Ar the boy would be more hindrance than help If he&039;d never been on a far "Perhaps you should just go back to the house and keep an eye on Eshe"
"She went to bed," Bricker said with a shrug, and then added archly, "Alone Not the usual outcome between life mates, I must say Decker and Morti season when they met their lifebut this shiny white baby doll and knee-high leather boots when I stopped her You&039;re welcome, by the way"
Arer at the idea that this punk kid had been the first one to see Eshe properly in just the baby doll, and confusion over the "you&039;re welcome" bit "What am I welco it out here in the barn with the horses looking on," he pointed out, and then frowned and said, "Or maybe I saved her the slivers Either way, soet slivers in their ass thanks to my intervention"
"Gee, thanks," Armand said dryly, but wasn&039;t sure he es of Eshe in that daainst the stall wall and-
"Crap!" He set aside the rake he&039;d been using andinside, finding Eshe, and living it rather than i it
"So, I&039;ll just finish up in here, shall I?" Bricker offered, bringing Ar man had taken his place in the stall and picked up the rake He was now glancing from it to the hay on the floor with consideration
Armand felt his shoulders slump He had chores to do Twice the aer to do the Bricker help out, but it was only very briefly Justin Bricker didn&039;t even appear sure what to do with the rake he now held It seeht But toer, Arone; he needed someone now so that he could spend time with her