Free Darkest Caress by Cross Kaylea Page B

downed half the mug before his cell rang. He knew who it was without looking at the display. The lawyer, telling him everything was in place so they could take possession of the new house today. Thanks to some foresight and a bit of mental persuasion, the whole legal and logistical process had completed itself in a matter of hours instead of weeks. “Today’s moving day,” he told Cade when he hung up.
    Cade set down his mug. “That fast?”
    “Yep. Moving truck will be here within the hour.” He was nothing if not efficient. “I want you to set up the training area first thing.”
    “Okay…”
    “Where’s Vaughn?”
    “Dunno, haven’t heard from him in a few days.”
    Not an unusual occurrence, but Vaughn needed to be informed of what was happening. Would be nice if the guy stayed around more often. It made logistics a hell of a lot easier when they were all in the same place—one of the main reasons Daegan was moving them all into one secure location. They needed a safe home base for training and operations, and the estate on the water was ideal for their purposes. The Baltic and Irish limestone it was built of merely solidified it was where they were meant to be.
    But forcing Vaughn to move in could be a problem. He was a loner and hated being around anyone else. Still hard to see him like that after all these years. Before the unthinkable had happened, he’d been the life of the party and Daegan’s best friend.
    He pushed the painful memories away with a sigh. As he turned away, Cade flipped on the TV, but Daegan didn’t hear a thing over the static in his head.
    He ran a hand through his hair, tried to gather his thoughts. His mind was in chaos, and he resented the hell out of it. The lack of sleep was definitely starting to catch up with him. He’d spent most of the night twitching and sweating in his car, down the street from Liv’s place. Partly because he’d hoped she’d contact him, but mainly because he didn’t want to leave her unprotected.
    When it was clear Aaron wasn’t going to do a repeat performance of the attack and the physical symptoms of the Heat Cycle got too bad for Daegan to handle, he’d caved and rented a cheap motel room for the remainder of the night. Luckily the man at the desk had taken his money with barely a glance at him, because no way could he have made it all the way back to West Van in that condition.
    Holed up in that shabby room, for almost five hours he’d made repeated trips into the shower to take the worst of the edge off the sexual need with his fist and a bar of soap. Right up ’til sunrise he’d waited for his phone to ring, but Liv hadn’t called. Hadn’t even texted him. He had no idea how she’d coped with the vicious erotic torture she must have endured, but he’d been too proud to reach out again. A male could only take so much rejection from a woman, let alone his mate.
    When the physical need finally became too much for her to take, she’d eventually have to come to him. And that had better happen soon, or he would lose his mind. Literally.
    “Um, Dae?”
    He stiffened at the warning tone in Cade’s voice, his mug poised partway to his mouth. “What?”
    “You’d better take a look at this.”
    Ah, shit. What now? He spun around to face the TV.
    While his cousin turned up the volume, Daegan focused on the newscast. It featured a breaking story about a rash of deaths involving recently paroled dangerous offenders in the area. Seemingly healthy men in their thirties and forties, all convicted rapists or pedophiles. All suddenly dead. Four fatalities in the past week, to be exact, the autopsies listing massive heart attacks as the cause of death.
    Cade set down the remote and let out a low whistle. The muscles in Daegan’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth hurt.
    The reckless bastard .
    “Fucking Vaughn,” he growled, hitting his number on speed dial. They didn’t need this added risk right now.
    Vaughn picked up on the second ring with a