Free Trent by Kathi S. Barton Page B

I’d want a thing
to do with any of your business dealings?” Max tried to think what he’d told
the woman when he’d seen her on the streets that day and again at the hospital.
“Come now, you must have had a reason to have one of your henchmen hold her
while you spit on her with your anger. Bad move on your part, that. You do know
that I can trace a man through his scent, no matter what he might have done to
his physical appearance?”
    “What do you mean you can trace someone
through their scent?” He was trying to think if he’d ever heard that Noah was a
shifter, and hadn’t. The man was a recluse and a pain in his ass, but he’d
never known anyone to say he was anything but a human. “Did you have someone
take my DNA, Noah? Is that what you’ve done?”
    “No, my dear boy. I tasted it. And that alone
gives me all kinds of information that most people I know would never have
realized about you.” Max tried to think what the fuck he was talking about when
he spoke again. “Being a vampire affords me all sorts of gifts that you should
be finding out about soon enough. But I will tell you right now, I have a memory
like a steel trap. You can change your looks, but I know you better than you do
yourself.”
    The laughter echoed in his head long after
the man hung up on him. Max laid the phone back in the cradle, and his hands
shook. He also felt the beads of sweat as it rolled down his back and pooled at
his spine. He was in so much trouble here. More than he would ever thought he’d
be in. Noah Stark was a fucking vampire. And he knew everything.
    ~~~
    Trent tried to make the stupid pole work, but
all he seemed to be able to catch was the trees around him or some hidden log
or weed in the bottom of the lake, just waiting to tangle him up. He looked
over at Joe when she laughed. Who would have thought that someone having fun at
your expense would make you feel so good?
    “You’ve never done this before, have you?” He
shook his head and handed her his pole again. She had a magical touch with it.
Every time he was tangled, she just make a few adjustments and he’d be free to
get it messed up again. “How could a man that has such a lovely home here not
know how to do something as basic as fishing? Not to mention baiting a hook, or
even untangling a line when it is just above your head?”
    “My dad tried to teach us when we were boys.
He’d haul us up here and we’d make a weekend of it. It never was a very good
adventure for us. We’d fight and whine and he’d end up coming out here to fish
on his own. I think it was simply a way to give my mom a break. She needed it
with us. Not to say that she didn’t love us, but I would imagine that six boys
running full tilt around a house would make any woman a little tense.”
    He watched her rather than try to cast out
again. Twice now he’d had to go out into the warm water and retrieve his pole,
and both times she’d stood on the dock and laughed. Tomorrow they were going to
go out in the boat. He was terrified to think how that would end. Sure, the water
was warm and it felt good on his poor beaten body, but he just knew he was
going to tip them and he’d drown her trying to save her. He wasn’t the
outdoorsman type.
    “When Noah and I were on the run, we’d do
this for my food. It was less fun then, wondering if I’d be able to get a meal
or not.” She cast her line in and watched the tiny bobber on the end as she
continued. “Then one night while I slept, he went into town and got me some
food. I woke the next morning to eggs and other treats that we usually could not
have carried with us after we fled his home. It was hard at times, but Noah
always took care of me. And I him. Michael has been with us forever, as well as
Meggie’s relatives. We’re all the family we ever needed, I guess.”
    “I would imagine that you had to run a great
deal. Do you still?” She shook her head and smiled at him. “Christ, you’re
beautiful.”
    “Thank