Roping Savannah

by Jory Strong

  She focused on Draigon. “So you’re a bounty hunter too?”

  “Yes,” Draigon said, and she smiled at the pride radiating off him.

  “You and Kye are going to have to teach me that disappearing trick you’ve got going.”

  Draigon’s face tensed and his body stiffened. An answering look and stiffness appeared in Kye. Savannah shook her head, The Twilight Zone theme song playing in her head. But she didn’t have time to figure out what the hell was going on with them. “We’d better head out,” she said again. “I’ve got to call the captain and if he gives me the thumbs-up, then I’m going to start asking around for The Ferret.”

  I will not allow this, Draigon said. Images of carrying her into the cabin, forcibly restraining her if necessary, flooding his mind. The savage need to have her look to him for pleasure and protection filling him. The intensity of his emotions foreign to him.

  Draigon took a step forward, needing to close the distance between himself and Savannah, to take possession of her physically and lay down the rules that would apply to her now that he had arrived on the scene.

  Careful, Kye said, placing a hand on Draigon’s arm. She does not yet know you. She does not yet understand your claim to her. And the word allow is best used with caution when it comes to Savannah.

  Draigon shook Kye’s restraining hand off. Accepting what the Vesti said even as he resented the reminder that he was a stranger to Savannah while Kye already knew her intimately.

  Doubt trickled into Savannah as she watched the odd interplay between Draigon and Kye. The wild emotions flickering in Draigon’s eyes, the tightening of Kye’s face.

  She must have gotten it wrong. Unless the men where Kye came from paired up by pulling names out of a hat, she couldn’t see these two getting together and living happily ever after with the same woman. Right now she was having a hard time picturing either one of them letting the other one in the bedroom.

  Even without a single word being exchanged, she was starting to feel like a coveted bone caught between two phenomenally exquisite purebred dogs. And strangely enough, she didn’t find it flattering.

  Savannah grinned—but then her kink was two guys at once, not two guys fighting to the death over her. She turned and headed for the truck. She didn’t have time to referee, choose between them or kick some ass right now. Which meant they were going to have to work their little turf-war out themselves.

  Or not, Savannah concluded a little while later when Kye finally pulled the truck over and parked in front of a phone booth. It had been a long drive from the cabin, with her trapped on the truck’s bench seat between two tense men.

  Despite the general—and erroneous, as far as Savannah was concerned—assumption about redheads being hot-tempered, she prided herself on having a great sense of humor and being a pretty easygoing person. But in one short trip with Kye and Draigon she’d had enough of whatever was going on between them.

  Yeah, they were both drop-dead, drench-your-panties gorgeous. Yeah, having two permanent guys was a favorite fantasy of hers. And if one of them was the strong, silent type, that was okay. God knew, she could come up with plenty of words on her own. But there still had to be a connection. And connections weren’t formed without at least some conversation.

  What had transpired in the cab of the truck didn’t qualify as “conversation” in her mind. Every question about how they knew each other or where they were from, or their jobs and training as bounty hunters, brought an odd delay, almost as though they were trying to get their stories straight. And then when one of them finally answered, all she got was a bare minimum of information. She was willing to play twenty questions when it came to The Ferret because hopefully that was going to fall under the heading of job description, but damned if she was going to do it when it came to her sex life.

  Savannah shook her head as she waited for Kye to get out of the truck so she could slide out. Her feet touched the ground and a little jolt traveled up her body and into her heart as her eyes met his. He looked all business, serious, and she didn’t think it was just because of the call she was getting ready to make. “One question,” she said, tilting her head slightly in the direction of Draigon who now stood next to what passed for a telephone booth. “Does he have anything to do with the conversation you and I were having earlier?”

  “Yes.”

  She waited, but when it became obvious Kye wasn’t going to say anything more, Savannah sighed. “Okay then. That was my one question. Now here’s my one follow-up comment. It’s not going to happen unless a major attitude adjustment happens with you two.” That said, she did her best to shut both of them out of her thoughts so she could concentrate on what she was going to say to the captain.

  Dismay rippled through Kye as Savannah moved to the phone booth, pointedly turning her back to both him and Draigon. Symbolically shutting him out, her comment making anxiety curl in his stomach.

  What conversation does she refer to? Draigon asked, positioning himself at Savannah’s back.

  Kye replayed what had transpired with Savannah during breakfast, the memory restoring some of his hope and making him grateful she was willing to accept two males. Not all those who had been matched with humans carrying the Fallon marker had returned to Belizair with a mate. Some had failed because the woman could not be persuaded to accept a second lover.

  By the stars, he couldn’t lose Savannah now. Not when happiness was within sight. Not when the seemingly impossible had occurred and Draigon had accepted him as a co-mate despite Draigon’s long-standing dislike of Lyan. A dislike that was mutual though Kye was uncertain as to why his cousin and Draigon had always been at odds with one another.

  Kye walked over to the phone booth. Noticing for the first time how stunning Savannah and Draigon looked together with their fiery hair and green eyes.

  We must make peace, Kye said, resolutely shutting the door on the cultural heritage of his ancestors. Forcing even the fantasy of having Savannah to himself from his thoughts.

  He had felt Savannah’s growing impatience and irritation as she tried to engage Draigon and him in conversation. And while it was a major accomplishment she was willing to accept both a Vesti and Amato lover, he had learned enough about her over the last few days to realize now how foolish it had been to think she would easily be convinced to leave Earth. She had brothers and cousins, parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts. A job she enjoyed. Goals.

  Kye grimaced. His service to the Council and the necessity of learning to compromise apparently would apply to the claiming of a mate as well. As long as she remained on Earth, she needed to be protected. A challenge that was best met with two mates. And competing against Draigon would only succeed in driving Savannah away.

  We must make peace, Kye repeated, opening his memories and thoughts to Draigon. Allowing him to see all he had learned about Savannah.

  Draigon reeled under Kye’s openness. The mix of Kye’s emotions adding to the turmoil of his own as he learned more about the bond-mate who had already become a fever in his cock and a longing in his heart.

  Savannah left him feeling off-balance, off-center, uncertain and unprepared. She turned his carefully ordered world and expectations into chaos.

  He had thought she would welcome him with open arms. Instead she pointed a primitive weapon at him and regarded him with suspicion.

  He had thought after seeing Adan’s mate that his own would be soft and fragile, and yet she was as fierce and cunning as any warrior.

  He had thought that because she was a law-keeper, they would interface naturally and conversation would come easily. But instead each answer had to be shortened, adjusted because he could not tell her of Belizair and the worlds he had served on.

  And though he had never voiced the belief out loud, or acknowledged it to himself, at his core he had thought a human female, a being not blessed with wings by the Goddess, would be…sexually unappealing.

  But the sight of Adan’s mate and then his own mate Sav
annah had been like the blast of energy from a Ylan stone. Leaving him pulsing with need and yet filled with nervous uncertainty. Frustrated and angry. Aroused. Overwhelmed.

  It was a blow to his pride to be wrong about so many things. And the sight of her with Kye, both what he had witnessed with his own eyes and what he had now seen through Kye’s memories, only added to his feelings of desperation and uneasiness. His feelings of isolation and exclusion. She was his mate by Council law and yet he had been reduced to the role of an interloper!

  Draigon stiffened. The wild mix of his emotions coalescing, focusing on a single target. Kye d’Vesti. The cousin of Lyan d’Vesti. When we are done in town then I want you to leave us. You have had days with her. Now it is my turn.

  Anger rushed into Kye, stirring the possessive instincts of the Vesti and making it a challenge to stay the course of his good intentions and earlier resolve. If Savannah will accept it, then I will leave her in your care, he said, forcing his thoughts away from Draigon in favor of focusing on Savannah and the conversation she was having with her superior officer.

  Chapter Ten

  “Holden, I ought to bust you right down to meter-maid. What part of I’m ordering you back to wherever you’re holed up, right now and stay there wasn’t crystal clear to you?”

  “I—”

  “Save it. It’s too late. This is out of my hands now. You want your shot at the action? You got it. But you better watch your ass because if you go maverick the guys you’ll be reporting to are going to shred any hope you have for a career in police work—and that’s only if you don’t end up behind bars for obstruction.”

  Savannah’s heart beat triple-time in her chest. “What guys?”

  “The ones you’re going to be meeting as soon as we finish our little discussion. Vaccaro and Kelleher. FBI.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, and you’ve landed right in it. Now you’ve got to do your best to get out of it without doing too much damage to yourself. Career-wise and heath-wise. Watch your ass, Holden. It’d put a serious dent in my supply of salsa and my poker fun if I had to deliver bad news to your family.”

  “What can you tell me?”

  “Not a lot. After I got your message I did some checking to see if your apartment was on anyone’s watch list. No takers. Then I did some asking around about the Easy Times Casino and what may or may not be going on there. Then I looked into your informant’s rap sheet and made a couple of phone calls to New Jersey and found out Becky Jaworski had bailed out her boyfriend a couple of times—one Ricky Nowak, otherwise known as The Ferret to you. Nice nickname. I better not find out you’ve got one for me.”

  Savannah grinned. “I don’t. But only because I can remember your real name.”

  “Keep it that way. The link between Becky Jaworski Traynor and Nowak was a good catch, Holden. Especially as Traynor’s wife now seems to be in the wind same as Nowak is.”

  “Missing as in someone has filed a missing person’s report?”

  “Not as far as I can tell. And don’t ask me for more. That’s as far as I got before having the Feds show up at my home to tell me that what you were doing on your vacation was their problem now and I shouldn’t ask any more questions about Traynor, Nowak or the Easy Times.”

  A shiver of excitement danced along Savannah’s skin. The Ferret was right, whatever he knew, it was big time. Big enough to involve the Feds. “So where do I meet Kelleher and Vaccaro?”

  The captain told her, even gave her directions before saying, “If you don’t get answers that satisfy you, call me. That’s where I draw the line here. I don’t want you operating in the dark. My people aren’t going to be used as cannon fodder by the Feds.” He hesitated then added, “Something’s going on over in Vice, besides you stepping on toes and pissing people off. So watch your back there too.”

  Savannah’s stomach went queasy. “Bad cops?”

  “I don’t know, Holden. It’s just a gut feeling, but I want you playing with a full deck if you insist on playing.”

  “Thanks, Captain.”

  “I’m wasting my breath here, Holden, but if things get too hot and you want out, call. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  Savannah dropped the receiver into the cradle and looked up to find Kye and Draigon doing the weird twin-expression thing, both of them wearing identical frowns, both of them radiating tension.

  A tendril of uneasiness uncurled in her chest as her gaze wandered downward, encountering the odd wristbands they wore. Kye’s set with swirling purple stones, Draigon’s set with dark red stones flecked with gold.

  For the first time it occurred to her how easily they could abduct her and take her back to their home—wherever that was—and the thought ratcheted up the level of adrenaline already coursing through her at the prospect of being involved in a big case. She only had Kye’s denial that they weren’t part of a cult. She didn’t have proof either way as to whether it was true or not.

  Savannah rolled her shoulders then realized what she was doing—loosening up in case there was a fight. But it didn’t stop her from stepping away from the half-shell of the phone booth in order to give herself room to maneuver. She hadn’t grown up among brothers, cousins and ranch hands without learning to tell when trouble was brewing. One look at Kye and Draigon said trouble had arrived.

  “You heard?” she asked, meeting Kye’s eyes.

  “Yes.”

  It was close to a growl and despite the tension in the air and the prospect of being in on a big investigation, Savannah’s nipples went tight. “Good. So here’s the deal. I’m not against you two coming to the meet with me. I’d rather not leave the truck unguarded. If the Feds ask, then I’ll tell them I’ve got a couple of bounty hunters turned bodyguards at my back since I’m still officially on vacation. They’re not going to like it, but they’ll have to live with it since they wouldn’t be asking for my help if they didn’t need it.” That was a given. But she didn’t care why she was being asked, only that she was finally getting her chance.

  “No,” Draigon said.

  It is a mistake to fight with her over this, Kye said.

  You intend to allow her to put herself into danger?

  There is no allowing or disallowing. She is a policewoman, a law-keeper here. How can you expect her to be other than what she is? What I do not intend to do is to make her so angry that she tries to send me away, Kye said before retreating to the truck.

  Draigon turned his attention back to his now scowling mate. A sickness forming in his chest at the possibility Kye was right and that Savannah might truly become angry enough to spurn him.

  “No, as in no, I don’t like your plan?” Savannah asked, not bothering to hide the irritation that had been simmering since Draigon arrived on the scene. She’d been willing to cut him some slack since she could see how awkward it could be to suddenly arrive and try to turn a twosome into a threesome, but he was in for a rude awakening if he intended to turn macho on her—at least outside of the bedroom.

  “Getting involved is too dangerous,” Draigon said.

  “News flash. I’m already involved. Besides the great sex, why do you think Kye and I are holed up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere?” She frowned. She’d had a fleeting thought earlier that the reason for Kye’s disappearance the first morning they were at the cabin might have been to get in touch with Draigon. To explain the situation and call for backup, maybe even help Draigon set up camp nearby—which would have explained Draigon’s sudden appearance on the scene with no visible means of transportation. But now…

  Savannah shook her head. Dealing with them was beginning to make her feel like she’d actually stepped into The Twilight Zone and right now she just didn’t have time for it. “Look, Draigon. Here’s the situation. I am going to meet Kelleher and Vaccaro. You can stay here or you can come with me. Your choice but make it now.” She decided to soften the challenge to his ego by adding, “This is my big chance and I’m not going to blow it because I l
et a gorgeous man go all caveman on me.”

  Warmth from the knowledge that she found him desirable flowed into Draigon despite his anger at her decision to place herself in danger. But there was no mistaking the determination in Savannah. No mistaking the truth in her words. She would leave him standing where he was, and without Kye’s assistance there was no way he could force her back to the cabin. The only thing he could do was to go with her, to keep her safe until he could claim her and convince her to leave this primitive planet.

  Between us we can see to her protection, Kye sent from the truck, as if reading Draigon’s thoughts. The Council rules are clear. Bond-mates must agree to return home with us of their own free will. She will not walk away from this in favor of a future we are forbidden from disclosing.

  It rankled, but Draigon knew Kye was right. I do not like this.

  Nor do I. She does not yet have the protection of the Ylan stones and this planet is more primitive than many where the Amato and Vesti serve as law-keepers. But until Savannah has closure in this matter she will not consider what we will ask of her.

  Draigon nodded slightly. To Savannah he said, “I will come with you. But do not expect to be without one of us guarding you at all times.”

  “I don’t think it’s going to be a hardship having you two as bodyguards,” she said, her quick smile and amused laugh stirring the heat in Draigon’s cock and making his chest expand with anticipation.

  They returned to the truck with Savannah once again sitting between the two men. Once again feeling their tension, and yet the nature of it seemed to have changed, making her think Kye and Draigon were concentrating on the possible danger ahead rather than whatever else had been going on between them.

  Maybe her earlier guess had been right after all. Maybe both men had just been feeling awkward. Kye because he’d had her to himself for the last few days. Draigon because he was the odd man out.

  I could keep you satisfied without the aid of another, but the choice isn’t mine to make, Kye had told her, and now that she thought about it, the words didn’t sound like those of a man who wanted to form a threesome. Which would explain why Draigon’s sudden appearance hadn’t exactly been a welcome sight to Kye.