Claimed: The Dark Christmases Trilogy Read online

  Copyright © 2019 by Z. L. Arkadie

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN: 978-1-942857-48-8

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Also by Z. L. Arkadie

  Join My Mailing List

  Chapter One

  It felt as if the expanse of the grocery store had caved in on me. My head turned dizzy as I split my attention between Jasper and the checkout clerk, who was a dead ringer for Bryn Christmas. Trapped in indecision, I focused on Jasper’s voice. He had called me again. His tone was cautious, implying that I shouldn’t be reckless.

  But my eyes remained on the young woman working the register. Her skin had turned red and blotchy as she tried not to look in my direction while passing grocery items over the scanner. Suddenly, she glanced at me as she waited for the customer to complete the transaction on the keypad. Very quickly, I could see noticeable differences between her and Bryn. She was slender but not as frail as Bryn. Her hair color and style were remarkably similar to Bryn’s, but the cashier’s loose curls were about two inches longer. But the young woman wore a diamond stud in her nose. Bryn didn’t.

  “Holly,” Jasper said, this time louder. I looked up at him standing beside me with his lips near my ear. “Let’s talk.”

  It felt like ages since he’d been this close, but it had only been a day since we’d last kissed. His breath, which smelled faintly of mint, warmed my earlobe, momentarily hypnotizing me.

  His closeness acted as a powerful agent against my determination to immediately address the woman at the cash register and find out why she was a dead ringer for his sister and my friend. Jasper took my shopping cart by the handle.

  He turned to glance at the woman behind me. “Excuse us.”

  The woman batted her eyelashes as if she’d just been sprayed with charm dust. “Sure, darling.”

  Bryn’s counterpart, who I was sure was Eve, watched Jasper and me and rang up groceries, as though the fact that I’d said her name hadn’t yet fully sunk in, but she was coming to some sort of awareness that I was in the Long Island grocery store because I was looking for her. I walked beside Jasper as he pushed my cart down the aisles, glancing behind me until she was out of sight. His large hand was wrapped securely around my biceps, but I could tell he was being careful not to hurt me. The curious eyes of other shoppers were on us. Anxiety gripped me as we turned down an empty aisle where the spaghetti sauces and other like products were shelved.

  Once we were out of anyone’s sight, I snatched my arm out of his grasp. “What are you doing here?” I hissed, keeping my voice low. Truth be told, I was happy to see him, but it was a big mistake to lose sight of the woman I suspected was Eve, and I wanted to hurry up and put eyes back on her. I gestured toward the registers. “Did you see that? She looks like Bryn. We can’t let her get away.” I took a step away from him.

  Once again, he caught me by the arm. “You’re making a scene.”

  I frowned and took stock of all the emotions that were soaring inside me. My anxiety, pain, and anger—especially anger—were through the roof.

  “You never answered me. What the hell are you doing here, Jasper?” I asked, snarling.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but I had more to say. “I mean, yesterday you left me high and dry at the studio, and when I tried to call, you didn’t answer your phone. Then your future father-in-law showed up at my suite and threatened my life.” I slapped my chest. “No, not my life—he threatened your life.”

  Quickly, he gripped my shoulders and tugged me against him. “He did what?” Now it was Jasper who was making a scene, even though there was no one in the aisle to see it.

  I shrank in his grasp as I tried to figure out how to answer his question. I surely didn’t want Jasper to go out and beat Arthur Valentine to a pulp. But that had more to do with Jasper’s safety than Valentine’s well-being.

  “Forget it,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. He wants me to leave you alone. You’ve already decided that for us.”

  Jasper probably saw in my eyes that I didn’t want my claim to be true. Deep down, I hoped he hadn’t decided to leave me alone. His glare made me dizzy. “Did Arthur himself go to your room?”

  All I could do was nod.

  His face tightened as his chin floated upward. “Did he touch you?” He sounded pained.

  The memory of Valentine’s goon grinding his erection against my ass made me want to vomit. I squeezed my eyes shut to forget it.

  “Shit, I’m going to kill him,” Jasper said through clenched teeth.

  I hadn’t meant to anger him, so I softened my gaze as much as I could. “He didn’t hurt me, Jasper. I’m fine. Just let it be. I don’t want you in prison for murder.”

  His blinking increased, as though he were trying to process my suggestion. But I could tell Jasper was unable to let it be.

  “Plus, I have a more pressing issue facing me. Did you see her? The Bryn look-alike?” I added, trying to make him focus on what was really important at the moment.

  His lips pressed together tightly, but slowly, the tension was easing from his mouth. “Yes, I saw her. Who is she?”

  “Her name is Eve, and I can’t lose her right now.” I thumbed over my shoulder. “So I have to go. Maybe I’ll talk to you later and maybe not.”

  He snorted. “We’re doing this together,” he said in a tone that suggested I was stupid to think otherwise.

  I tapped myself on the chest. “This is my thing, not yours.”

  “She resembles my sister, so this is more my thing than it is yours.”

  I scoffed. “I’m not leaving her in your hands, Jasper.”

  His head flinched back. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

  “If I leave her in your hands, she might get lost in the deep dark cemetery of the Hudson Bay or something.”

  He shook his head slowly. “Is that what you think of me—that I would murder an innocent woman?”

  My anger had betrayed me by melting away because I had offended him and felt awful about it. “I don’t know what I think of you,” I said flatly.

  His lips parted as he stared into my eyes. It was as though we were the only two people in the entire supermarket. I could tell he wanted to kiss me, but something was holding him back.

  His breaths trembled, and then he cleared his throat. “Her name is Eve?” he whispered.

  I felt my eyebrows pull together then release. “Yes.”

  “Is she the result of your trip to Chattanooga?”

  I nodded.

  “Let me talk to her, and you stay close,” he said.

  Suddenly, I was struck by a thought. “You said my name.”

  He grimaced. “What?”

  “You called me Holly. If she’s Eve, then she knows who I am.” I bolted down the aisle. Eve had warned me to leave her alone, and now she knew I was in the place where she worked. Jasper had tipped her off because he was trying to be controlling. He couldn’t help himself.

>   Jasper matched me step for step until his powerful figure swept right past me. The number of shoppers in the store seemed to have doubled, and all the new bodies were in the way. My eyes found what I thought was the same cash register Eve had been working, but another girl was ringing up groceries at that station. Jasper stepped past me and searched the next line and then the next. Finally, we looked at each other in defeat. Eve had escaped us.

  Chapter Two

  Jasper charming one of the girls working in the coffee-and-tea aisle was an interesting sight to behold. His smile was warm but not overdone. His tone was confident and not too syrupy. I imagined being in her shoes and gazing into his striking blue-green eyes for the first time. The store clerk was too mesmerized to notice me standing about six feet away. Jasper had just told her that Eve was his sister—which as far we’d both ascertained was the truth—and they had a family emergency he needed to speak to her about.

  “Oh,” the girl said absentmindedly, probably wondering why Eve had never mentioned this particular family member. She quickly perked up. “I’ll go get her. She might be on break.”

  Jasper smiled tightly as he nodded. She watched him until she figured out that was his way of saying thank you, then she skirted up the aisle. The girl couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty. She swung her hips and straightened her posture for Jasper’s viewing pleasure, but he quickly rested his glower on me instead.

  I smiled at him weakly. “Must you always choose to look so miserable?”

  “I can’t believe you still don’t trust me.”

  I felt the tension clutching my neck. “After yesterday, how can I?”

  “There were extenuating circumstances.”

  I folded my arms. “Then please, do tell.”

  “I will. Now is not the time, but soon we will talk.”

  My breath came faster and stronger under the force of his stare. Thank goodness the girl was strolling in our direction with her eyes fixed on Jasper.

  “Eve wasn’t feeling well, so she…”

  That was all I heard before I tore down the lane. I ran past cans, bags, and packages of consumable products, down the pathway of an empty cash-register line, and across the front of the store, not stopping until cold air and rapid snow flurries blasted my face. I scanned the parking lot. A few cars moved in and out, but I couldn’t see who was inside them.

  “Shit, I think she’s gone,” I said under my breath.

  “Do you have her home address?” Jasper asked.

  I hadn’t noticed him standing beside me. It took every ounce of control not to say something snappy or off-putting. I wanted Jasper to pay for causing me to lose Eve but even more for how he had made me feel the day before. But alas, I wasn’t the spiteful type.

  “Yeah, I have it,” I finally confessed. “I’ll have my Lyft driver take me.” I touched his shoulder. “If I hear anything, I’ll call you.” I looked up at him. “You will answer, won’t you?”

  “I sent your driver away,” he said as if it were no big thing.

  My mouth fell open, and I was choked by fury and shock. Finally I coughed. “You did what?”

  “You’re safer with me,” he said in the tone he used when he was being controlling.

  I smashed my hands on my waist. Now I felt like fighting. “No, I’m not safer with you—not according to Valentine.”

  Jasper pushed up the sleeve of his coat to check his expensive wristwatch. “We don’t have time for this, Holly. I’m sure Eve is on the run. If we lose her now, it’ll take me longer to find her.”

  Damn it. Yet again, he was right. My emotions were out of control, which wasn’t like me at all. I had to get a grip.

  “Okay,” I muttered. “Let’s go.”

  When he stepped off, I followed him, keeping my eyes fastened on his self-assured gait. He walked like a man who owned the world. Everything about him was refined—his shoes, his pants, the black material of his coat, and the cap he wore to keep his head warm. I remembered that even Jasper’s underwear looked freshly laundered. He was just fucking impeccable, and that turned me on.

  After a moment, he slowed his pace so that I could catch up to him. When I was beside him, he took my hand. “Your hand is cold. Why didn’t you wear gloves?” he asked in a tone that made me feel like a scolded child.

  An extensive answer came to mind, one that took into account how long I’d raced around the building searching for an inconspicuous way out. I’d been burning up from all the exercise of walking up and down stairs and racing through corridors, and when I hit the outside air, I couldn’t tell that I needed gloves. Plus, even if I had realized my mistake, it would have been too late to go back and get my gloves from the sofa, where I had left them.

  “I forgot them,” I said as he pointed his remote control at his car, a silver SUV. The engine was percolating. The closer we got, the more I could hear the heater roaring inside the cab.

  “It’ll be warm when we get in, but for now…” He took a pair of gloves out of his pocket. “Put these on.”

  It felt like a Jedi mind trick. Since he’d said I was cold, suddenly I was shivering. All I could do was nod as I slipped his comfortable gloves over my hands. As soon as Jasper opened the front passenger-side door, warm air flowed out of the cab. I realized there was no one on the driver’s seat.

  “I thought you had a driver.” I climbed in.

  “Buckle up.” He waited patiently for me to grab my seat belt. “I started the vehicle remotely,” he said once my seat belt latch clicked.

  I smirked. “Nice new features for expensive cars, I guess.”

  Before I knew it, Jasper’s lips were on mine so delicately—we were kissing. With precision, his fingers unbuttoned my coat and rewarded themselves by cupping my breast and pinching the tip as our kissing deepened. My body yearned for more of what was happening between us, but Jasper’s lips were forced to abandon mine. We had to get on the road. Time was of the essence.

  I took my cell phone out of my purse and looked up Branson’s message. Jasper plugged the information into the car’s navigation application. The system accepted the address, and then we were en route to Eve’s house.

  “By the way, how were you able to find me?” I asked.

  “Find you?” he asked.

  “Yes, at the grocery store.”

  I sat back and studied his flawless profile as he rubbed the other side of his face. Jasper kept his eyes on the road and his posture rigid.

  I smiled to purposely lighten the mood. “Do you have my coordinates plugged into your spy satellite?” I asked, joking.

  His jaw flexed, then he glanced at me with narrowed eyes. “Understand, Valentine is dangerous.”

  I abruptly adjusted in my seat. “Understood.”

  He sighed sharply as he rubbed his chin.

  I ruffled and unruffled my eyebrows. “Don’t worry, Jasper. I wouldn’t be surprised if you stuck a tracking chip in my skin while I was sleeping. Anyone who has your control issues would do something like that.”

  He glanced at me swiftly, and I could see the shock in his eyes.

  My mouth fell open. “You put a tracking chip in my skin?”

  I watched him in silence for several moments.

  “Open your purse, unzip the part where you keep coins, and search through your loose change,” he said, keeping his scowl directed at the road.

  I frowned curiously but did just as he instructed. I always kept loads of dimes, nickels, and pennies—plus a few quarters—on me, not by choice but because I usually made purchases with bills and would just drop the extra coins in the little pocket. When the pouch became noticeable, I would dump the change in a container I kept under my bed.

  Finally, I found a small round device that resembled a coin cell battery but was about the size of a nickel.

  I held up the object, frowning at it. “Did you put this in my purse?”

  “Yes.”

  The navigator told him to take the next right. Snow flurries pelted th
e window as he explained how on the night before last, he’d dropped the tracking device into the pocket so that he could make sure I was safe. The moment Valentine had discovered I was in the city, he believed I’d come there for Jasper and saw me only as a threat. Valentine wanted nothing—especially true love—to distract Jasper from marrying his daughter and making a clean run for the presidency.

  As I pressed the tracker between two fingers, I didn’t know whether to be angry or relieved. I believed Jasper’s concern for my safety was legitimate. I also understood that Jasper had a hard time asking for permission to keep tabs on me. I had demonstrated on a number of occasions that I found his incessant worrying about me a little unnecessary. But at the moment, I wasn’t angry, nor did I feel betrayed. Instead, a dose of reality had slapped me in the face. I had never taken Valentine as seriously as I’d taken Jackson and Leonard Howsley. Back when I was investigating the Howsleys, I had luckily received protection from the FBI because my exploration into their criminality had triggered an investigation by the agency. I had uncovered loads of incriminating evidence that the Howsleys had purposely put lives in jeopardy, tried to cover up their actions, and continued with their harmful pursuits. Even after the Howsleys had been convicted and sentenced, the bureau guaranteed my safety and ensured that the Howsleys would never touch me.

  “It’s okay, Jasper,” I finally said in a tone of one who had surrendered. “You were right. I thought I could handle Valentine until he…” I squeezed my eyes closed, thinking of his haunting face under the scant glare of light coming from the lamp as he sat in the chair by the window. I tried to forget the sound of Valentine’s voice warning me. “He said he wouldn’t kill me—he’d kill you.” When I turned to look at Jasper, something became abundantly clear: I couldn’t lose him. I could never exist in a world that did not include Jasper Christmas.