Falke’s Captive

by Madison Layle

  “Yes, sir,” Kelan agreed, because they expected him to. But it was far from over. He had to figure out why Beth made him feel this way—unsettled and unsure; edgy with a possessiveness he’d never in his adult life experienced.

  “Not exactly.”

  Kelan turned at the sound of Axel’s voice to see him, Gunnar, Dakota and Heidi walk in. “Ax? What’s going on?”

  “Heidi has something you need to hear.”

  Heidi was frowning. Axel and Gunnar stood protectively on either side of Dakota, who looked at Kelan with worried eyes. His gut clenched. This didn’t sound good.

  “That scientist of yours—”

  “She’s not mine,” he interrupted through gritted teeth.

  “Whatever! She came to my office today asking for permission to withdraw a second vial of blood from Falke.”

  “A second?” Son of a bitch.

  Heidi nodded. “She must’ve taken the first sample while you were unconscious at the lab. What’s worse is that she’s already tested what she’s got. She brought the karyotype to my office. She knows the cougar she tested has an abnormally high number of chromosomal pairs.”

  “Tell us,” Fridrik ordered, and Heidi recapped everything that had happened at the clinic.

  “Do you think your threat of prosecution will work?” Burke asked.

  “I don’t know, Dad. I doubt it. The problem is she already has a sample to work from. If she has a large enough sample and the right equipment to do more in-depth testing…”

  “We can’t let that happen,” Burke said.

  “We won’t.” Kelan stood and looked from his fathers to the rest of his family. “I said I’d handle it, and I will. Whatever it takes, I swear that woman and her sidekick won’t be able to threaten this family anymore.”

  “Kel,” Reidar said in a warning tone.

  Kelan growled under his breath as emotions warred within him. He didn’t want to hurt her, but no way in hell could he let her expose their family’s secret. “You and I are going to make damn sure she doesn’t have any evidence to test or use against us. Her lab’s behind the hotel, a semi trailer with a simple doorknob lock. Should be easy to get in. We can go in when it’s dark, destroy the evidence and get out before anyone even knows we’re there. No harm, no foul.”

  Reidar raised a challenging eyebrow. “And I have to go why?”

  “You’re the computer whiz.”

  “Oh.”

  “Boys?” Fridrik said, making them turn to face the family patriarchs. “Be careful.”

  “We will, sir.” As Kelan and Reidar left, Kelan stopped by Axel and glanced at Dakota. “We’ll take care of it. I promise.”

  Axel nodded and then closed the door after the pair walked out.

  Outside in the hall, Kelan stopped Reidar.

  What?

  Kelan eased closer to the door and held up one finger. Just a minute…wait for it.

  “About damn time you told us!” Burke’s voice boomed.

  Reidar grinned. Kelan was happy for his brothers, but they had a lot to protect, and they’d damn well do it.

  Let’s go.

  Beth opened the door to the lab and stepped inside. Professor Whitmore, seated at the computers, turned around and looked at her. “Well?”

  “Sorry, Professor, bad news.”

  “Tell me.”

  Beth walked over and sat in the other office chair, setting her laptop case and purse on the floor beneath the desk. “As it turns out, the town vet is sister to the brothers who own the cat.” She wouldn’t get into the whole no one owns him thing with her scientific-minded professor. She didn’t really understand their strange attachment to the animal. Professor Whitmore definitely wouldn’t. “They are all very antagonistic toward me when it comes to that cougar, but even trying to talk to Heidi who is a scientist herself didn’t produce any results. They’re protecting that cat with everything they have, including threats to have us thrown out of town.”

  Professor Whitmore leaned back in his chair, tapped his lips with his index finger and nodded. “I can see why they’d be protective. I would too.”

  Beth frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’ve used a portion of the original sample to re-run the tests and verify your findings. My conclusions are identical to yours. This cat is a genetic anomaly. This cougar could be the answer to future generations, a super cat that could save future species.” He grinned.

  She shared his smile. Cougars weren’t on the endangered species list, which was why they’d chosen to study them—a perfect transition between domesticated felines and the big cats at risk of extinction. If they could gather the right data, engineer the perfect DNA profiles through cloning, they had a promising chance of saving a variety of big cats in the wild for centuries to come. This was her dream, to be on the cutting edge of scientific discovery and most importantly help preserve the genera of felidae for all mankind.

  “This cougar could put us on the map. This is…huge!” He sat forward and tapped her knee with his finger. “Don’t you see? After all these years of research, I’ve finally found something special.”

  An inkling of unease snuck into Beth’s brain. He hadn’t discovered this; she had. He said it could put us on the map, but that he’d found something special.

  “We need that cat or at least another blood sample, Elizabeth,” the professor continued. “Any way we can, we’ve got to get one, because we have to duplicate the original findings with a second round of tests. I’ve checked the sample for impurities and can’t find any, but without duplicating the test we have no proof.”

  We. Beth pushed her emotions aside and brought forth the professional scientist. The professor would be sure to share any accolades. More research funding. Papers published in international scientific magazines. She grinned as she envisioned their pictures, side-by-side, in Scientific American with an article detailing the tremendous discovery of a super cat living in the Wenatchee National Forest.

  “As it turns out,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “I’ve gotten to know a couple of the brothers in the last few days, so I could approach them about it. They aren’t as inhospitable as their siblings, so they might be willing to help me out. It’s not like we’re going to kill the cat. We only want more DNA samples to study, right?”

  “Right. Of course. Do that. We need that cat, or this means nothing.” He waved his hand toward the computer screens and shook his head. When he glanced at her again, a look of awe shown in his eyes, a gleam she’d never seen in the six years she’d studied under him. “Think of it, Elizabeth. A whole new genetic code no one has ever discovered…until now.”

  She was thinking of it and the promise it could mean for the dwindling numbers of big cats in other parts of the world. Recognition aside, she reminded herself that helping stop the path toward extinction was the most important thing here.

  “I can talk to them tomorrow night, after we spend the day in the field.”

  Professor Whitmore shook his head. “No, no, no. You need to concentrate on the Falke cat. Tim and I can do the fieldwork. I sent him out as soon as we got here to mark trails.”

  Beth frowned. She was the one who’d laid out the maps, the areas to do the tracking. Now she was being brushed off to go cozy up to the brothers? “Prof—”

  “Would you rather I entrust Tim with the task of getting the Falke sample?”

  Well, when he put it that way…“No, sir.”

  “I know you can do this, Elizabeth. You’ve got the important job.” He swiveled his chair around and opened the small refrigerator used for storing samples. “I also want you to mail this back to the university. Mark it for Dr. Sayers.” He put the vial of Falke’s blood—or what was left of it—into a padded cooling box. “I’ll call him tonight when I get back to the hotel to let him know to expect it.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, taking the box. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “No, I don’t want to taint his findings. I’d
rather they independently corroborate ours.”

  “Okay.” She frowned at the box, uncertain about entrusting such an important sample—all of their evidence—to the postal system. “Are you sure—”

  The professor scowled. “Are you questioning me?”

  “No, sir,” she said quickly, standing and picking up her purse. If she pissed him off, he could dump her like dirty underwear and get an assistant who wouldn’t second guess him. “I’ll get right on it. Could you please ask Tim to install the software he got for me?” She motioned toward her laptop case on the floor.

  Professor Whitmore nodded dismissively. “Sure, sure. Just get us access to that cat, and get that sample sent off to Dr. Sayers. I want to have him start breaking down the DNA.”

  “Right away.”

  “Good.” He turned and opened a drawer, withdrawing a couple of capped, sterile syringes in sealed plastic. “Take these. Call me as soon as you get the new sample. Get two if you can swing it.”

  She slipped the syringes into her purse. “I will, sir.” She headed out to her Jeep, just as Tim came out of the trees fifty feet to the west.

  “Hey, Lizzy.”

  She ground her teeth and dropped the cooling box into her purse. “Did you find anything?”

  “Some scat,” he said, coming up to her. Sweat beaded his brow, and his red T-shirt had damp stains around his neck and sides. “What’d you find out from the vet?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing useful. Professor Whitmore is sending me on some errands. I left my laptop under the desk. Could you install that software if you have the time?”

  “No problem. What does he have you doing?”

  She shrugged. “Sending off the rest of the Falke sample to the university. He also wants me to go talk to the Falke brothers again.”

  “The ones—” He looked as if he literally bit his tongue.

  “The ones what?”

  “Are they the…? Uhm. Are you sure you should be spending more time with them?”

  Her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out how to tactfully tell Tim to mind his own business.

  His voice dropped lower than before when he said, “Look, I’m not tryin’ to butt in—”

  “Then don’t.” She straightened her shoulders. “I’m here to do a job. The professor wants me to get more samples from that cougar, and that means I have to convince its owners that it’s in their best interest. That’s all I’m—”

  He didn’t look in her eyes. “I saw you.”

  That stopped her. “What?” His face showed concern, which kept her from ignoring him. Pushing up her glasses, she asked, “What are you talking about?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at the trailer, then back to her, and leaned closer. “I saw you with’m.”

  “Saw me…” Even to her the innocence in her voice sounded forced.

  “When I was at the lab, putting in the camera. I came out and…I could see in your window. You were…”

  Her face flamed hot. The window was up high. Second floor. He couldn’t have seen that much. She tried to visualize the position of the trailer in reference to the closet door against which Kelan had taken her.

  “Who—”

  She cut him off. “I don’t know what or who you think you saw, but becoming a peeping Tom doesn’t become you, Tim.” She started to walk off again.

  “Lizzy, stop. It wasn’t like that.”

  “Get this straight. What I do in my room on my time is my business.”

  “Look, I know that. I haven’t said anything to the professor, and I won’t. I promise, but I’m just worried about you. That’s all. I don’t want to see you hurt. This is a tourist town, and a fling with the locals could only spell trouble. I thought this research project was important to you.”

  Warring between embarrassment and the fact Tim really was a nice guy, she forced a smile. “It is important to me. Thank you, Tim, for your concern, but it’s not necessary. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” She opened the door of her Jeep. “One more thing.”

  “Hmm?” he murmured, a frown on his face.

  “It’s Beth, Timmy. Not Lizzy.”

  He smiled, the worry melting away. “Sorry. Beth.”

  She grinned. “Could you bring the laptop back to the hotel tonight? I’m not sure if I’ll make it back out here before you two close up shop.”

  “No problem. See you tonight.” He gave a wave as she shut her door and started the vehicle.

  As she drove the ten miles back to Leavenworth, she fretted over Professor Whitmore’s words. Part of her said that this was his ball game, and she was there to play backup. He was the one with the grant, the funding, the support of the university. He’d chosen her to come along for the ride because he knew she needed field experience to finish her dissertation. And if he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have been in the woods that day.

  Regardless, she was the one who’d discovered the Falke cat, even if by total accident. She hoped he’d share the limelight if it came to that. Starting her professional career as a Ph.D. with this kind of co-discovery to her name would be huge. She’d be able to pick where she wanted to work, and with whom.

  Big cats had been her passion since she was a little girl. If this was as big as she and the professor thought, she’d be able to work in her chosen field, doing whatever she wanted. A dream come true.

  If the professor acknowledged her contribution.

  She pulled in front of the building that housed the Leavenworth post office and frowned. Closed for lunch between eleven and one. She glanced at her watch. Eleven-fifteen. She couldn’t sit here for the next two hours waiting, so she headed to her hotel.

  She put the box with the sample in it in the room’s mini fridge. It wasn’t as if she could drop it in a mailbox and hope it got to Seattle undamaged. She grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and downed it all. Her bed had been made by the hotel staff, and it looked inviting. She had two hours to kill and had been awake most of the night.

  She should go over to Catamount Outfitters and see if she could find Kelan and Reidar. A yawn grabbed her, and she decided facing those boys would be much better when she was rested. Maybe while she napped she’d get a brilliant idea about how to ask them to help her that would make them say yes.

  With a small grin on her face, she slipped her purse over her head, set it on the low dresser along with her glasses, and then unlaced her hiking boots. If the professor wouldn’t let her be out in the forest, hiking and sweating and doing what she wanted to be doing, she’d catch a little cat nap—that thought made her chuckle—while she waited for the post office to reopen after lunch. She could drop the package off on the way to the store, after some shut-eye.

  “It’s almost eleven in the morning. What are we going to do? Go in with guns blazing?” Reidar asked, sarcasm dripping off his words. His gut told him this was a bad idea, no matter how well his brother thought he’d planned it.

  Kelan, sitting in the driver’s seat, turned his head and gave Reidar a fierce scowl before looking back at the road. “No, smartass. We check it out now, maybe stop in and say hi to Beth while she’s working so you can get a look at the computer system, and then go hang out at the shop until dark. Then we make our move.”

  Reidar yawned and rubbed his eyes, exhausted from barely sleeping last night. What terrified him was that it might be the only night they ever spent with Beth. The very thought made him irritable.

  Kelan smirked. “One night with a woman, and you’re ready to curl up and sleep away the day.”

  “I don’t like this,” Reidar said, not in the mood for Kelan’s teasing, He stared out the side window.

  “She’ll never know. We go in, grab the blood sample, you do your magic and make everything disappear from the computer, and we’re out. No big deal.”

  Reidar gave him a look that plainly said, “Bullshit.” This was the biggest deal of their lives, and Kelan wouldn’t admit it.

  “Okay, she might figure out that
it was us, but so what? She won’t be able to prove it. You know I’m a whiz at breaking and entering. How do you think I’ve been able to retrieve my collar so many times over the years without the women finding out?” He chuckled. “Some of them treat it like a trophy.”

  Reidar clamped his lips shut, his teeth clenching in annoyance. His brother was a moron if he thought he could convince Reidar that everything was cool. Kelan had as much turmoil going on inside as Reidar did. He’d seen the emotion in Kelan last night. Sensed it in his passionate fury toward Beth, and then in the tender way he’d touched her later in the night. They were the same in that before Beth, sex never meant anything other than physical relief and mutual enjoyment. But, last night, all of last night, had been different. Special. They’d finally found a woman who…fit. Beth fulfilled their needs. Smart and sexy, kind-hearted and kinky, she was the most spectacular thing to ever happen to them.

  And now they were going to go fuck it all up because Kelan made a big damn mistake. They never, ever, under any circumstances went off alone in catamount form in the middle of the day on public lands. Ever. It was a rule. One his brother never should have broken.

  He wanted to punch Kelan square in the face for it. Only, Kelan was the hothead in the family, not him. Fisticuffs would not solve their problem. So he sat back and waited as they drove down Front Street then turned in behind the Bavarian Inn.

  “Son of a fucking bitch,” Kelan shouted as he hit the brakes and slammed his fist against the steering wheel.

  “What?” Reidar braced himself with a hand on the dashboard and searched for whatever had set his brother off.

  Kelan shook his finger toward an open spot in the back parking lot. “The fucking semi is gone.”

  Reidar’s stomach clenched.

  Kelan pulled into a parking spot in front of the back door and got out. Reidar followed.

  “Kel, don’t do anything stupid,” he warned.

  His brother marched up to the front desk, shook off the anger, pasted on a pleasant smile and said, “Hey, Ritchie. How you doing?”