Chasing the Storm by Aliyah Burke

thought we were old enough to speak frankly.”
    “What…what about Dale?” He gestured behind him.
    She looked at the boy she used to date. Boy, not man. She waved at him. “What about him? He wasn’t good enough in bed and wasn’t all that fun. These two are…wow.”
    Jeremy cleared his throat, tried unsuccessfully to wipe the shock from his face and said, “I need the charm from Grandma.”
    “Sorry. She gave it to me, I’m not giving it over to you.” She licked her lips, fortified by the knowledge the two men with her would keep her safe. At least for now. “I know you’re trying to kill me, but know this. I don’t have it on me so if you do, you’ll still never get your greedy hands on it.”
    “Kill you? You’re family.”
    “Family you’ve never wanted. We really don’t have anything to say to one another, so why don’t you leave?”
    He shook his head. “I’d really hoped it wouldn’t come to this.” Jeremy drew his piece and the others who’d fanned out before the door did as well.
    Five guns pointed at them. Fear? Yep, she had it in spades.
    Cale moved his body in front of her. “You want to put them away.”
    “No. I want that fucking pendant.”
    “One last chance.” Cale’s tone was hard and unyielding.
    “There’s five of us and three of you.”
    Cale shook his head. “Actually there’s two of you and three of us.”
    “Need to learn to count, dude.”
    Cale shrugged and she counted. Shit. He’s right. What happened to the others? “Where’d they go?” she asked.
    “Tiarnán.” Cale’s explanation was relaxed.
    “And he left two for you why?”
    “He wanted me to feel like I was protecting you.”
    Jeremy glanced over his shoulder and saw he was alone with Dale. There was no sign of the other men he’d arrived with. “What the fuck, man?”
    Cale moved with a blur of explosive motion. Taylor saw it happen but wasn’t sure she believed it. In less time than it took her to blink, he’d disarmed and knocked Dale unconscious. Jeremy was between Cale and the wall, feet off the ground as Cale shoved his face up to his.
    She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she stop him? Would he kill Jeremy?

Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    Cale snarled at the man he held against the wall. He wanted to reach in through Jeremy’s mouth and rip out his spine. The man’s eyes were wide with fear and panic.
    “Let me make one thing clear,” he rumbled. “You look at Taylor sideways again and think that in some way you can get that pendant she received from her grandmother, not to mention kill her, I will introduce to you a world of pain you can’t even begin to imagine.”
    “You can’t do this,” Jeremy sputtered.
    He sneered. “I’m doing it. You’re alone now. The crew you travelled with isn’t here to back you up. Do you really think you can take me? You hide behind the threat of your gun, now you don’t even have that anymore.”
    “She’s my family and I don’t know what lies she’s told you, but I don’t want to kill her. We’ve been searching for her to bring her home.”
    Cale’s power moved within him and he struggled to control it. Never before had the urge to kill been so strong within him. “No woman stays in a place where there are huge bugs on the floor for no reason when she has a home to go to unless death awaits her there. Your lies reek and I despise people who can’t own up to what they’ve done.”
    Jeremy’s expression grew defiant. “Fine. We wanted to kill the bitch. She shouldn’t have been part of the family anyway. She was only around because grandmother refused to let one of her father’s offspring, no matter how illegitimate, not be in the family. She always said we had to own up to our mistakes. And that’s what she is, a mistake.”
    Cale tightened his hand around the neck he held. Jeremy gasped but still maintained his smug arrogance.
    “She wasn’t ever wanted. Not by any of us.”
    “So why try to kill her? Why not just let her