“What the hell are you doing here?” She was trying for a menacing snarl, but it came out in a hoarse croak.
“Well, good morning to you too. Or rather, good afternoon.”
“I asked you a question!” she yelled. Then she winced. “Ouch. My head. Why can’t I shift, you mongrel pile of dog turds?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll wear off in about eight hours. My family owns a pharmaceutical company. Mostly sports enhancement products, made with extremely diluted werewolf blood, but they experiment with other stuff on the side. Sometimes I steal things from their lab. This particular substance suppresses the ability to shift.”
She choked on her fury, glaring at him. “I am going to murder you in so many ways, Austin.”
He gave her a pleasant smile. “No doubt. You’ll have to get in line, though.” He stood up. “Let me give you some aspirin.”
He walked over to the small desk in the corner, grabbed a water bottle, and went to sit next to her on the bed. He pulled an aspirin bottle out of his jacket pocket, poured some aspirin tablets into his hand, and handed them to her. She grabbed them with her free hand and stuffed them in her mouth. Then he opened the water bottle and handed it to her. She sucked it down greedily.
Austin settled back down in his chair. She threw the empty water bottle at him, and it bounced off his head.
He just smiled. “You were so busy having your brother put trackers on my truck that you never stopped to think that I might have done the same to you.” Then he shook his head regretfully. “What a waste of handcuffs and a motel room. The things I’d like to do to you right now.”
Her traitor heart did a little lurch in her chest.
Oh God, the thought of being handcuffed while Austin had his way with her…kissing his way down her body…torturing her with his tongue and fingers, his hands on her thighs, spreading her wide open…
Her headache started to recede. A lazy sensation of pleasure warmed her body.
She realized that Austin was watching her with interest.
“Are you picturing it too?” He grinned, resting his elbow on his knee and leaning forward. “Where are you in the fantasy? Just so I can make sure I’m keeping up. Has my mouth reached your pussy yet?”
Motherfucking fur-face son of a Chihuahua.
“I have no idea what you mean.” She gritted the words out, eyes blazing with fury. “Uncuff me now, you idiot, or you have no idea what I’m going to do to you. You’ve never actually seen me angry.”
“Oh, I think I’m getting a good idea of what it looks like.” He reached down to a duffel bag on the floor, and pulled out a wrapped sandwich. Wait, that was her bag. He’d taken one of the sandwiches from her cooler. Roast beef with horseradish. And he unwrapped it and took a bite as she tried to murder him with the strength of her glare.
“Tasty,” he said appreciatively. “Your mom sure makes a mean sandwich. I know it was her because I scented her on the wrapper. You tell her I said hey next time you see her.”
Her stomach rumbled, and she felt saliva pooling in her mouth. Her mother’s sandwich’s always did that to her. “I’m hungry. Give me a bite.”
“Say pretty please.”
Savannah swallowed a scream of rage, mostly because yelling really made her head hurt. “Austin, when I get free from these handcuffs, and I will, I’m going to put my foot so far up your ass I’ll kick your fangs in with it. Now give me a bite of that damn roast beef sandwich.”
He got up from the chair and sat down next to her again. He held out the sandwich, and she leaned closer to take a bite. Just when it was almost at her lips, he snatched it away from her.
“Promise me that you will not try to commit suicide by wolf, Savannah. Promise me you won’t go after Roy.”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about. I was chasing after you because I love you so much.” Savannah summoned up a sweet smile and blinked hard. “Meet your new stalker.”
Austin threw his head back and laughed, a rich sound that sent thrills through her body. “Oh my God, that’s beautiful. Tell me, Savannah, what do you love about me?”
“Mostly that you’re really good at sex. Uncuff me, and we’ll do it again.” She blinked again and cocked her head to the side.
Austin started laughing so hard that he was almost crying. He was close enough for her to punch on the side of the head with her free hand, so she did, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
“I’m sorry,” she said, with a vicious bite to her tone. “Are you laughing at the idea of having sex with me again?”
“No, it’s just that you really are absolutely terrible at flirting. Great at sex, terrible at seduction.”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. Heat flared low in her belly, then exploded through her body like a flash fire.
“I missed you,” he murmured against her mouth. “And I’ll miss you again when I leave. But sweetheart, you just can’t take on Roy by yourself, because he is a fucking demon with powers like nothing you’ve ever seen before, and also, I made an agreement to work alone on this one.”
Then he kissed her, and she found her lips parting eagerly.
Why was her mouth such a shameless hussy?
His tongue slid inside her mouth and swirled around hers, tasting her, teasing her. When he pulled away, he stifled a groan.
His whiskey-colored eyes glinted with wry humor. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m so hard it hurts now, and there’s a million things I’d love to do to you. “ God, the rumble of his voice was so sexy. “Maybe if I’m the luckiest wolf in the world, we can replay this scene again someday, handcuffs and all, and I’ll lick you from head to toe. But I doubt I’m that lucky.”
“My mother says you make your own luck,” Savannah said automatically. Agh. Why was she quoting her mother at a time like this?
Austin stood up and backed away from the bed. Savannah yanked on the cuff. It wasn’t going anywhere.
She felt as if she might burst into flames, although whether it would be from arousal or fury she wasn’t sure. “You really do not want to leave me alone, handcuffed to a bed in a hotel room, Austin. Trust me on this. There are lines that you do not cross.”
Austin shook his head. “Savannah. Did you do the research before you took on this job? Roy is psychotic. He killed not just those poachers, but an innocent family of three, including a teenager. He is feral, and he makes me look like a pussycat. There’s a good chance that even I won’t survive an encounter with him, and you have absolutely no chance in hell.”
She forced herself to speak calmly. “I’ve won against worse odds. I take down criminal shifters five times my size, for a living. I’ve gone up against a psychotic bear shifter, and I’m the one who lived to tell the tale. I am going to go after him, and you are going to let me do it. May the better shifter win. You know, me.”
He shook his head. “Savannah, if this were any other situation, I would let you go.” Regret drifted over his face. “I’ve never told you this before, but you have made bounty hunting more fun than it’s been in years. Hell, ever. There is nothing that I’d rather do than go after the same mark as you. I might even let you win.”
“Treading on very thin ice, there,” she snapped.
He continued with a rueful smile. “I know you’ve got those tranq darts in your bag. Tranq darts don’t work on me – why do you think they’d work on Roy, who’s easily twice as powerful as I am?”
“Because they’re special.”
“Do tell.”
He reached down and grabbed the bag that contained the rifle and the darts. The bag she’d hidden under the hotel bed, which he’d apparently found and pulled out while she was unconscious.
She straightened up. “Don’t you fucking dare, Austin.” Ice dripped from every word.
“Sorry. I have no choice.”
“You have no idea what dosage to use, idiot!”
“I’m not planning on using them. I’m taking them so you can’t use them. Without the darts
, even a stubborn-ass redhead like you must realize that you have no chance. If I survive this, I promise you, I will pay off your restaurant’s debt. Now, the receptionist at the front desk has the handcuff key. I paid her very well to leave you here for another eight hours. Not going to be comfortable, but you’re not going to die. I’m going to lock the door behind me.”
He walked over to the table, grabbed two more water bottles, and tossed them to her. They landed next to her on the bed.
He paused in the doorway, her gun bag dangling from his hand. It was dark out, with the light from a streetlamp framing him in sickly yellowish light, and she could hear highway noises behind him.
“Goodbye,” he said very gently.
She just looked at him steadily, not saying a word. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of threatening or begging, because obviously his mind was made up. At least he looked regretful as he locked the door behind him.
A minute later, she heard the sound of an engine turning over, then she heard his truck driving out of the parking lot.
He was doing it. He was leaving her. He had actually left her alone in the hotel room, throbbing with arousal, suffering from a severe case of blue clit, and helplessly restrained to the bed.
She sat up and began feeling around the headboard, desperately searching for a way to dismantle it. She found nothing.
Then she slid off the bed and planted her feet on the floor and tried pulling the entire bed towards the door. It didn’t budge.
She settled back down on the bed, trying to figure out her next move. She could scream for help, but if she knew Austin, he would have made sure that there was no one in the rooms on either side of her, and nobody coming to clean the room either.
Then she saw the doorknob rattling. She sniffed hard. Her ability to scent was muted considerably in human form, but she could swear she smelled…Anthony?
The door flew open, and Anthony rushed in.
“Oh, my God!” she cried out, relief flooding through her. “I never thought I’d be happy to see you!”
He looked hurt. He held up his hand; something tiny and silver gleamed in it. “I got a handcuff key. You want me to uncuff you, you have to be nice to me and tell me I am the smartest and handsomest fox in all of Foxhaven, and you have to personally serve me pizza every day for a year. Also find me a girlfriend my age. Or you could date me. Well, nah, you’re kind of old.” The little bastard. She was twenty-two! “Set me up on a date with Jessamine.”
She yanked on her handcuff chain. “How about if I agree not to rip your throat out?”
“Works for me.” He quickly hurried over and freed her. She leaped to her feet, rubbing her wrist, which was sore from yanking against the cuff.
He looked at her askance. “Jeez, Savannah. Why didn’t you just shift?”
“Oh, why didn’t I think about that?” She slapped her forehead. “I forgot I was a fox!”
“No need for sarcasm. I am your actual hero.” Anthony pouted.
She sighed. “Yes, you are. Thank you for uncuffing me. That bastard injected me with something that made me unable to shift for about another eight hours.”
“Wow.” Anthony’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing. He also stole all of your tires. And I think he did something to your engine.”
She gaped at him in amazement. Grudgingly, she had to admit that she admired Austin’s foresight. But she was still going to make him into a fur skin rug, the bastard. Or at least steal his mark from him. “That son of a Seabiscuit.”
“Good thing I followed you here in my own car.”
His own car? Right. She walked over to him until she was standing a foot away, and fixed her gaze on his. “Anthony, you are fourteen, and not to be mean, but your family doesn’t have two nickels to rub together.”
He grinned. “Good thing I boosted a car and followed you here.”
“Why did you do that, you little juvenile delinquent? And do I even want to know why you have a handcuff key. Do I? No, I don’t.” She frowned at him. “It really was you breaking into those stores downtown, wasn’t it? No, I don’t want to know that either. Damn it, Anthony, you can’t steal things. This has to stop. People are giving you a pass for now because you’re young and you haven’t gotten caught in the act. Yet. But you keep this up, and I’m going to be hunting you as a bounty, and in case you haven’t noticed, shifters don’t like to waste a lot of time on rehabilitation. You’re going to end up as a nice little hat.”
His expression turned serious. “I wouldn’t normally boost a car, but I’m backed into a corner, Savannah. You’re going after that Roy guy. I know there’s a million-dollar bounty. Let me help you, and give me part of the reward. If you gave me a hundred thousand dollars, it would be enough for me to support my whole family for the rest of our lives. We don’t need much, just a house.”
She looked at him. “Do you understand that Roy is huge, unbelievably dangerous and psychotic? That he’s killed people? I train for this kind of stuff, Anthony, I’ve been training in self defense and takedowns since I was little, because my dad was a survivalist and he made me and Jessamine and Niall practice this kind of stuff since we were toddlers. But you do not have the training, or the knowledge, to survive someone like Roy.”
Anthony’s gaze slid to the ground, and his face wrinkled in misery. “My mom left. Three months ago. Ran off with some trucker guy she met at the rest stop.” His shoulders hunched against the pain of what he was saying. “I bring home pizza every day from your restaurant for my brothers. And I hunt. And we have a little vegetable garden and four chickens. But we haven’t paid the rent, and the landlord’s going to kick us out in a week. I could get us a little mobile home if I had even, like, thirty grand, and then the rest I could use to send my brothers off to college or trade school.”
“Oh. Oh,” she said, and suddenly felt like the most horrible person in the world. She’d been so focused on what a little jerk Anthony was being lately that she hadn’t stopped to figure out why. She’d been caught up so much in her own troubles that she’d been ignoring everybody else. Anthony hadn’t always been a troublemaker.
She should have talked to him instead of yelling at him.
And he wasn’t even worried about his own future. He was just trying to provide for his little brothers.
She swallowed hard. “You have to tell my mother. She’ll take you and your brothers in.”
He looked at her suspiciously. “But you don’t even like me.”
“I don’t like my sister, either, but I love her. And I wouldn’t let her starve any more than I’d let you and your brothers starve.”
“Did you just say you loved me?” Anthony’s eyes flew open wide.
She flushed with embarrassment. “I did not! I tolerate you. Like an annoying cousin who really annoys me, annoyingly.”
He managed a weak smile. “We can’t ask that of you. Your family has its own problems, with Algernon going after your restaurant and all. I’m already taking more food than I should, and I know that you guys can’t afford to pay me, but you do anyway. And I did steal those pies.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she sighed. “It was just food. Tell my mom. If she knew and your brothers were going to be out on the street, and you didn’t ask for help, she’d be very hacked off.”
Then she walked over to the heating grate in the wall, thanking her lucky stars that Austin hadn’t looked there. If he had, she would have been screwed.
She popped the grate off and pulled out her real bag. “I have a bunch of extremely strong doses of sedative in here. Austin thought he stole all my sedative, but I actually had a bag out as a decoy in case he came after me. He just took a bunch of syringes full of water.” She frowned, suddenly feeling uneasy. She was furious with him, yes, but she didn’t want him to die. Had she just set him up to go after Roy thinking he had ammunition that didn’t really exist?
No, he wouldn’t have set out on this mission counting on being able to steal h
er sedatives. He was taking on this job because he thought his Dominus power would be enough to subdue Roy. He’d told her didn’t plan on using the tranks.
She leaned against the wall, thinking hard. She probably could use the extra help. If she let Anthony come with her, he could drive while she kept an eye on Roy. She’d have the tranqs, she’d make sure that nothing happened to Anthony.
“I will make you a deal,” she said. “You can tag along, if you obey me and do absolutely everything I say. I am not kidding around here. If you disobey me, it will get us both killed. I may need your help getting his unconscious body back to my car, but if at any point I tell you to leave, you leave. If I tell you to run for your life, you run, do not look back, and do not try to help me. I’m a big girl – I can take care of myself. And yes, I’ll give you a portion of the reward. Got it?”
“Hot damn!” His eyes lit up. “Road trip!”
They left the room, and Savannah tried to stifle the sinking feeling that she was making a terrible mistake.
Chapter Eight
Austin dashed from one pine tree to the next, seeking what scant cover there was on the mountainside. He was halfway up the mountain, sliding on loose shale and pebbles. The tree line up here was scrubby and didn’t offer enough cover.
It was late afternoon. He’d left Savannah behind, safely handcuffed, several hours ago.
You have to stop thinking about her. Focus on the job.
There was no breeze, the air was hot and dead still, and he didn’t hear a sound. Not even birdsong.
It was as if the entire mountainside was holding its breath. As if all the local wildlife was smart enough to head for safer parts. Smarter than him.
He stood there for a minute, holding perfectly still, but all he heard was the thundering of his own heart pounding in his ears.
It was like that old cliché. “It’s quiet out here. Too quiet.”
He knew he was getting close. Could he actually take Roy on? He would find out in the very near future.
He had the tranq rifle that he’d stolen from Savannah slung around his neck. At first he hadn’t planned on using it, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he would likely need every advantage he could get.
The Billion-Were's Foxy Forever Page 9
