BodyGuard (Butterscotch Martini Shots Book 2) Read online

  As he searched for a cave, or a rock outcropping where he could lay low and avoid lightning strikes, he caught movement from the corner of his eye and whipped his head back to see what it was.

  At first, he thought there was nothing there. But after a few seconds, he noticed a slight movement in his peripheral vision. When he turned his head to look at the area straight on, it was almost like the air had a translucent finish as it shimmered in the wind. As he stared, trying to figure out what to do about it, there was a blinding flash of light that forced him to look away momentarily.

  When he looked back, the spot was gone. Instead, there was a woman on the ground who sputtered as she cursed like a sailor, arms and legs flailing as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  Alex was still in his shifted form, and blended into the background, so she hadn’t noticed him.

  “Son-of-a-bitch! You stupid stink weed.” The woman flailed her arms and legs like a turtle stuck on its back as she fought to stand with a massively heavy pack on her back.

  He shifted back to his human form so he had all of his senses, and smiled as he recognized the stunning young woman.

  Quayk SpellMaker.

  She still hadn’t noticed him, as she continued to issue threats and curse at whatever had pissed her off.

  “I will get even with you, so help me, I swear I will. I’ll set you on fire and I’ll take the hedge trimmers to you, and I’ll…I’ll set you on fire again.”

  She finally managed to get her pack off her shoulders and bolted to her feet. Her cowgirl hat flew off her head and she caught it neatly with one hand as she pulled twigs and leaves from her tangled black hair with the other, still cursing and stomping her feet.

  When she finally looked up and saw Alex, she froze.

  He smiled. “Miss SpellMaker, I presume.”

  “Who the hell are you?” She reached for her pack, clearly reluctant to leave it behind.

  Alex took a slow step closer, approaching her like he would a scared colt.

  Her gaze was wild and she was poised to run, but she wasn’t scared. She was determined not to be caught. He could read it in her eyes.

  She was the most magnificent woman he’d ever seen. Her huge ice-blue eyes flashed fire and her thick black hair was wild around her face as she stood in shorts and pink cowgirl boots, with long tanned legs, and her hat in hand.

  It was like a punch to the gut, and he swallowed hard to ease the lump in his throat.

  This woman is my target. Her father is my client, not to mention she’s a princess and he’s the freaking King of SpellMaker.

  Quayk shifted slightly to get a better hold on her pack.

  “Now, Miss SpellMaker, I am not here to hurt you. But I won’t let you run. Your family hired me to find you, and I intend to take you home. So please—don’t try to run. You’ll jus—.”

  She bolted, abandoning the pack in favor of freedom.

  “Shit!” Alex took off after her, shocked at how fast the woman could move. As she slipped through the forest easily, he was forced to crash through like a bull in a china shop.

  As they ran, the storm picked up strength. The trees were bent almost to the ground and limbs crashed down around them as Quayk continued to put more and more distance between them.

  Alex tried to call to her, to warn her this was a magical storm, and extremely dangerous. He doubted she could hear him.

  Suddenly and ear-splitting crack sounded and he watched as a tree began to fall toward Quayk as she bolted through the forest, unaware.

  He screamed, “Quayk, look out!”

  She must have heard him because she looked back over her shoulder. Her eyes grew round and she tried to outrun the tree, but he watched as the canopy of the huge pine engulfed her slender body.

  Alex hurried toward where he’d last seen her. He half crawled and half ran, as he scrambled over and through branches to reach her.

  Finally, he saw a flash of pink beneath the tree, and he made his way over to the woman as she lay face-down beneath a branch.

  When he finally managed to reach Quayk, the first thing he did was check for a pulse. Strong. He looked around and didn’t see any blood.

  Maybe she just got knocked out.

  He pulled a knife from his belt and began to cut branches to free the girl, as lightning flashed close enough to make the hair on his body stand out.

  “Shit.” He talked as he worked to free her. “Quayk, come on, you have to wake up. We have to get you out of here. This storm is dangerous. Come on, girl, talk to me. Wake up.”

  She groaned.

  With the last branch pulled away, he was still afraid to move her, unsure what he would find when he turned her over.

  He leaned close. “Quayk, can you hear me? Are you hurt? Can you move?”

  “No,” she mumbled with her face still pushed into the ground.

  “No what?” He asked. “No, you’re not hurt, or no, you can’t move?”

  He heard her drag in a ragged breath. “No, I don’t want to move. Go away.”

  “All right, that’s enough.” Anger and relief warred inside him—anger at how close she’d come to being killed, and relief that she hadn’t. He took her snarky response as an indication she was okay.

  Standing, he reached down and grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up until she could get her feet under her.

  She grunted, but didn’t scream out in pain. So as soon as she was able to stand, he bent over and swooped her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  She screamed, but he sensed no pain in the scream, so he started off in search of a place to hide from the storm as she began to kick and buck on his shoulder.

  “Put me down, you Neanderthal. I am not going home. I’m fine.”

  He reached up with his free hand and paddled her on the butt. “Hold still or I’ll tie you up with a vine and leave you out here to drown in this storm.”

  She stopped fighting. “You’re crazy. It’s not even raining.”

  “It will be. This storm isn’t natural. It’s magical, and seems set on killing both of us.”

  With that, another bolt of lightning struck the ground at the far side of the clearing. Quayk screamed loud enough to blow out an eardrum, and Alex crashed through the bushes in the opposite direction as he tried to hold onto the bucking woman on his shoulder.

  “Hold still!” She was getting heavier, and harder to hold onto.

  “Cave,” she shrieked.

  He froze. “What?”

  She pointed off to the right and screamed again, “Cave.”

  He looked in the direction she pointed as a branch crashed down behind him. “There’s a cave over there?”

  “Yes, you idiot. Get moving or put me down before you kill both of us.” She bucked again, but he held tight.

  “Get me there.” He bolted in the direction she had pointed, and a split second later, he spotted a dark spot against a pile of rocks. “Is that it?” He continued to run in that direction.

  “Yes, hurry.” Another bolt of lightning struck behind him, and he heard a tree fall through the brush as he ran through the opening in the rocks.

  Once inside the cave, he stopped. It was pitch black. He bent and dumped Quayk on the ground as he fell down next to her. His sides heaved as he tried to catch his breath.

  Suddenly, a soft light filled the cave, pushing the darkness out.

  He turned to look a Quayk. “You do that?”

  She nodded. “Years ago my sisters and I spelled this cave to recognize when one of us entered, and give us light.”

  He nodded. “Handy little spell.” He turned to look at the opening, which was completely filled with tree branches. “Shit, that was close.”

  A split-second later, there was a faint gong sound, and a furry creature of some kind landed on his face making a horrid sound that was a cross between a growl and the clicking sound a battery makes when it’s dead.

  He jumped to his feet and reached to pull it off, but it was quick
. Every time he’d reach for it, the damn thing would hop to another spot, only to return to his face and pummel him with its furry wings and scratching with sharp claws.

  “Ow. What the hell? Get off me.” He grabbed empty air every time the insane flying squirrel leapt to a new spot. The demented clicking growl was unnerving.

  The damn thing is possessed!

  Quayk squealed as she surged to her feet, “Don’t hurt her,” and with a quick swipe of her hand, she had the ferocious varmint in her grasp. She pulled it close to her chest and cradled it like a baby.

  Alex regained his footing and stared at the black and white striped creature as it glared at him over the top of her hand and hissed like a damn cat.

  “What the hell is it?” he demanded as he retrieved his cowboy hat that had been knocked to the dirt in the altercation.

  Quayk stroked the animal and made soothing cooing noises, but it refused to be calmed. The damn thing just hissed, and then barked at him like a puppy.

  Alex stared. “It looks like a cross between a bat and a skunk, but sounds like a cat crossed with a dog—something dredged up from the bowels of hell?”

  The little creature lunged forward and snapped at him, and then dove back into the safety of Quayk’s hand.

  “No silly, she’s a sugar glider, and she’s my familiar.”

  He’d read in the research Digit pulled up that her familiar was a sugar glider named Mango, but he’d never actually seen one before.

  Quayk tried to comfort the glider, “Don’t listen to him, Mango. He’s a mean man. You’re a beautiful little girl.”

  “Beautiful?” He stared at the creature the size of a chipmunk. “That thing’s got crazy written all over it.” He pointed. “You keep it away from me. It ain’t right.”

  Quayk huffed and turned her back to him as she continued to soothe her familiar.

  Alex dropped to sit on the dirt floor again as he watched Quayk slowly walk toward the entrance to the cave. At this point, he was too tired to care if she ran again. Shifting took a lot of energy, and his altercation with the furry bat with claws had caused an adrenaline surge that left him slightly shaky as it wore off.

  Quayk looked over her shoulder at him. When she saw he wasn’t coming after her, she sidled toward the branch-filled entrance.

  When she was about five feet from the entrance, Alex heard a slithering noise.

  Quayk froze.

  Something moved up the side of the opening to the cave, and he shouted, “Snake. Get back!”

  Quayk jumped and bolted back about ten feet before she turned toward the entrance again.

  Alex was on his feet, but he stopped when he realized what he’d seen wasn’t a snake. It was a vine—and it was moving.

  “What the hell?”

  As he watched, the slithering vine turned into twenty slithering appendages, and within seconds, hundreds of slithering vines had sealed up the doorway.

  “Holy shit, what is that?” He looked at Quayk, who didn’t seem surprised.

  “Vines.”

  He stared at her. “I know that. What the hell are they doing?”

  She scowled at them. “Same thing they’ve done all day. Interfere in my life.”

  He looked from her to the vines and back again. “Would you care to elaborate?”

  She rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath as she bent her knees and plopped to the ground. The sugar glider jumped to her shoulder and hid in her hair. “They’re Japanese Kudzu vines, and they’re magical.”

  “I know what they are. Why do you think they are interfering?”

  Her crystal blue gaze met his and the tears that shimmered in her eyes knocked the air from his lungs.

  “They serve the magic, and right now it is intent on keeping me here to ruin the rest of my life.” She picked up a stick and began to scratch in the dirt.

  Alex moved to sit next to her, but was careful not to get too close as he propped his wrists on the tops of his knees. The last thing he needed was to wrestle the demented bat again. “What do you mean, ruin the rest of your life?”

  She stared at the floor of the cave. “They are in cahoots with my father to force me to marry Hollister Firedrake.”

  He didn’t miss that she spat out the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth.

  She lifted her gaze to his. “I hate him, and I think he hates me too.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought magic was supposed to ensure you fell in love with the right man.”

  “I thought so too.” Her voice took on a pouty edge. “Dad says it always works. I guess I’m just defective.”

  He stared at her as she scribbled in the dirt. That made two of them. Two magical beings who were the first of their kind—defective units.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  They sat in silence for a short time, Quayk listened to the storm rage outside the cave. She had never seen a storm with this kind of intensity, and certainly not one that lasted this long. This storm gave her the willies.

  Alex broke the silence. “I don’t suppose there’s another way out of this cave?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. This is it. If you go behind that rock over there,” she pointed to a rock that appeared to be flush to the wall on the opposite side of the cave, “there’s a small pool of drinkable water. But it’s fed by seepage through a tiny little crack in the ceiling. Not even enough of a crack for daylight to drift in.”

  Alex pulled something out of his pocket and wrapped it around his ear, tucking part of it into the ear. His dark hair fell over his eyes as he leaned his head forward.

  “What’s that?” She craned her neck to get a better look at it.

  “Communications device.” He held up one finger. “Hey, Digit, you out there?” A moment later, he tried again. “Digit, can you hear me?”

  Apparently not getting any response, he said, “Well, I can’t hear you at all, Digit. So if you can hear me, I have Miss SpellMaker and she’s safe. This storm is hellacious, so we are holed up in a cave. As soon as there’s a break, I’ll bring her home. Do not…repeat…do not come looking for us. This storm is dangerous. I don’t want the team out in it.”

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “My team. I don’t want them to do anything stupid like try to search for us in this storm.”

  “Your team?” It hadn’t occurred to her there might be others out searching for her. Her spirit sagged as she realized she was probably surrounded by people bent on taking her back. He pulled in a deep breath to push back the hopelessness that threatened to engulf her.

  He blew out a deep breath as he nodded and glanced at his watch. “It’s been three hours since this storm hit. It’s got to let up soon. But until it does, they won’t be able to find us through any means.”

  Quayk shrugged. “It’s a magical storm. It can last forever.”

  He met her gaze. “What do you think it wants?”

  Her gut clenched with fear.

  Me.

  But she refused to say it out loud. “I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn.” She raised her voice and yelled at the storm, “Magic can go straight to hell for all I care. I’ll die here before I’ll marry that blueblood gasbag.”

  The corners of Alex’s mouth quirked up. She could see was trying not to laugh.

  Well, at least he’s trying.

  “Why do you think magic picked him as your husband?”

  Anger flared inside her. “He’s not my husband. Don’t you ever call him that!” She cringed at the whine in her voice. It made her sound like a spoiled brat.

  He looked away, but he persisted. “Okay, so why do you think magic picked him to be your intended?”

  She glared at him. “He’s not my intended. I don’t intend to do anything with him.”

  From his profile, she could see him smile this time and shake his head. “All right, you know what I mean. Why him?”

  Unable to answer, she lowered her gaze to Mango, asleep in her lap.

  I don’t
know. Why a man I hate?

  She shrugged.

  “You must have some idea. Haven’t you asked yourself that question?”

  She could feel his gaze on her as she stroked the top of Mango’s head. The sugar glider shifted positions, but never woke. Anger churned in her stomach like a lake of acid. “I’ve asked myself that a million times, and I have no answer. I will kill myself before I marry the man.”

  His brows rose, but he didn’t push it any further.

  He picked up a small stick and changed the subject as he scratched in the dirt. “So, why do you think the vines sealed us into this cave?”

  “So I can die here,” she snapped. “With a man who never shuts up.” She regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. He didn’t seem like a bad sort, and he was trying to be nice.

  She looked up and found him staring at her. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”

  He grinned and shrugged, and for the first time she noticed how drop-dead gorgeous he was. When she realized she was staring, she looked away.

  “Hungry?”

  She looked at him. “What?”

  “Are you hungry?” He reached into a pocket on the side of his pants, pulled out a granola bar, and offered it to her.

  “Aw crap!” She slapped both hands on the ground at her sides.

  At the same time, Alex jumped to a crouch as he looked around the cave. “What?” He looked at her. “What is it?”

  Startled, Mango leapt from her lap and landed in front of Alex, hissing and snapping.

  She took a deep breath as she picked up her familiar and cuddled the animal close. “My pack.”

  Alex squinted at her. “What?”

  “My pack,” she explained. “We left it outside in the storm.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah.” But he watched her from the corner of his eye, as if he thought she might be crazy.

  “My pack is full of food.”

  “Oh-kay.” He nodded.

  “And money.” She sighed. “Lots of money.” She looked at him and was surprised to find him grinning. She stared as she waited for him to spit it out.

  Finally, his grin stretched wide and he said, “Sixty thousand dollars, to be exact?”