Shadow Warrior (Shadow Riders 4)

“What are you thinking?”

“That you’re very good at persuading me with that voice of yours. You speak to me and I would do almost anything to please you.”

“Is that my voice, or because of the way you feel about me?”

Was there disappointment in his tone? Hurt? Her stomach knotted in protest. She leaned her head back against his chest, letting him lift her breasts, the pads of his thumbs brushing caresses over her nipples. There seemed to be a direct line from her nipples to her sex, because every stroke sent darts of fire streaking through her body, sizzling through her veins so that the blood pooled hotly. He could do that so easily.

“I believe it is because of the way I feel about you. I like making you happy. You always manage to make me happy and I like to give that back to you.” It was more than that. She loved giving back to him. She knew she was a pleaser. It was in her to give and she was perfectly fine with who she was. That trait made her very, very good at her job. She hoped it would make her an excellent partner as well. “But, I am susceptible to your voice.”

She turned in his arms to look up at him. “Tell me the rest. It’s very intriguing.” She had no idea where he was going with it. She still didn’t believe, not for one moment, that his family helped the police in their investigations. She had seen interactions between the Ferraros and the detectives. It was a very uneasy alliance.

He hesitated and then pressed his forehead to hers, looking into her eyes. “Once you know this information, you have committed fully to me. We don’t divorce. Not ever. It isn’t done, not without severe repercussions to both of us. Understand that, Grace.”

She couldn’t see how she could understand unless he told her, but she didn’t have plans of running away from him, so she nodded. Vittorio dropped his arms and straightened abruptly. He stepped outside onto the patio and looked up at the stars as if he could find an answer to whether or not he wanted to trust her further. Abruptly, he spun around and stalked her when she backed away from him. He looked like a tiger about to pounce on his prey.

Vittorio caught her hand and drew her back to the chair. She sat down at his silent command and looked up at him expectantly.

“When everyone has absolutely agreed and there is no possible margin of error, the reports are turned over to what is known in our family as a rider. A shadow rider.”

Just the way he said it, or maybe it was the title itself that made her heart plunge, but whatever it was, she was suddenly afraid.

“There are portals in the shadows. Have you ever slipped into a shadow and realized no one noticed you there? Has that ever happened to you?”

It had. Multiple times. There had been a strange sensation, one she didn’t care for, as if her body had been wrenched apart, her chest flying away from her and her body scattered in molecules throughout the shadows. It was just a weird sensation she couldn’t account for, but every time it happened, others would walk right by her and not realize she was standing there. Once, Haydon had almost walked into her.

She moistened her lips and nodded slowly because he was waiting for an answer. She always answered him truthfully. That was their agreement. There would be honesty between them, even if it was difficult. “It’s happened. But I don’t know what you mean by a portal.”

“We refer to the tubes as portals because the shadow itself can transfer us from one place to another.”

Automatically, Grace shook her head. “That’s not scientifically possible.”

“Nevertheless, we’ve done it. I can step into a shadow and be gone from one end of the house to the other. My brother Giovanni was shot and had to have hardware, pins and bolts, just like you have in your shoulder. Because of the hardware, he can’t ride the shadows, so he drives a car here when he comes. The others don’t want anyone, especially Haydon, to know they’ve left their homes, so they use the shadows. It’s necessary to make him think, if he’s watching, that we’re all going about our regular business.”

She stared up at him, trying to change what he said, or change her comprehension. She just wasn’t hearing him correctly. “You are telling me that you and your family are capable of moving in this house, from one end to the other, using a shadow? Not walking in that shadow, but you step in, can’t be seen, and you come out in another room.”

“That is correct. We were trained from the time we were two years old. It isn’t easy. The energy force feels like a strong magnet pulling the body apart. You actually feel as if you’re flying apart. Skin, bones, blood, your very cells. It isn’t a pleasant sensation.”