“Hey, Rich, you’re awesome, man,” Kelan said, his grin looking genuine now as he shook Ritchie’s hand.
“You know Heidi’s still single, right?” Reidar asked.
Ritchie ducked his head and grinned, looking like that shy sophomore he’d been back when he panted after their sister. “Yeah, I know. But she’s a vet, and I’m just a desk clerk at a hotel.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Ritchie,” Reidar said as Kelan started down the hallway to the back door. “Give her a call sometime. You never know.”
“Yeah, maybe I will…”
“Why do you give guys like that hope?” Kelan asked as soon as they were back in the car and headed to the forestry base camp.
Reidar shrugged. “He’s a good kid. Heidi could do worse.”
Kelan shook his head and sighed. “You’re such a sap sometimes.”
“Heidi’s going to bring a guy home someday, you know. Wouldn’t it be better if that guy was someone we’ve known forever?”
“Sure, but Heidi wouldn’t give Ritchie Handleman a second look now, and you know it. It was a teenage crush, her first kiss if I remember right.”
Reidar glanced out the side window and tried to remember his first kiss. The only girl he could picture, though, was Beth. Her soft lips, her bright eyes, the way her mouth felt around his cock as she sucked…
Kelan turned the car sharply, and Reidar bumped his head on the window.
“What the—” Kelan slid the car off the rutted dirt road and onto an overgrown ATV trail used by hunters in the fall. “We’ll go in the back way, keep an eye on the place until it’s empty, then go in and do our thing.”
“Should’ve b-brought my pickup. This c-car wasn’t made for this,” Reidar complained as he bounced around at the jostling of the car.
Kelan didn’t disagree. How could he? Reidar hoped the axels held up through the ruts and bumps in the trail. He’d hate to have to foot it back to town. He winced when the right front tire hit a deeper hole and the bottom of the car scraped ground, but Kelan somehow kept his car going.
Until an eight-foot chain link fence stopped them a half mile up the trail. “When the hell did they put this up?” Kelan demanded.
“Remember last year when they had that group of kids coming up here trashing the equipment?”
Reidar said then snapped his fingers as if remembering something. “Wait, I forgot. You don’t bother to attend city council meetings.” He rolled his eyes and got out of the car. “We’ll have to go in au natural.”
Kelan dug into the glove box and pulled out a leather pouch that Reidar knew contained his B&E kit. His brother was right; he probably was the best at breaking and entering of anyone in the whole town of Leavenworth. The former lovers from which he retrieved his collar never complained, and his black-sheep brother had been caught only once as a teenager breaking into McClintock Liquor. Even though Kelan always left enough cash to cover what he took—a fact that helped keep him out of jail-one night Old Man McClintock had staked out his own store and caught Kelan red handed.
Reidar smirked. One of the few times he didn’t get the belt when his brother did. He’d been smart enough to have an alibi that night, far away from McClintock Liquor.
They quickly stripped out of their clothes and changed into catamount form. Kelan picked up the lock pick set in his mouth, and then they hopped the fence.
Just be careful, Reidar told Kelan through their telepathic connection. Remember they’re out here hunting cougars. Don’t get shot again.
I’m going to kick your ass one of these days, Kelan threatened as he took off through the forest toward a clearing about a hundred yards away.
You can try, Reidar said with a laugh.
They stopped at the edge of the woods and peered through the underbrush. Beth’s old, battered ragtop Jeep was pulling away as a slim, young man climbed the stairs to the trailer.
Who’s that? Reidar asked.
Tim, the sidekick. As the trailer’s door closed, Kelan lay down and rested his head on his paws.
Get comfortable, brother. It might be a long wait.
Chapter Eight
Kelan took a swipe at Reidar’s muzzle with his paw. Wake up.
Reidar snarled and bared his teeth at his brother, but he rolled into a seated position and shook the dried leaves from his fur.
When did another guy show up? Kelan had been keeping vigil on the semi trailer that housed Beth’s lab while his brother snoozed away the afternoon in the cool breeze drifting through the pine boughs. The side door had finally opened, and out stepped not only Tim, but a shorter, stout, bald man.
Dunno, Reidar said then yawned.
He wasn’t here when I was captured.
Reidar looked up at the sky, then at Kelan. How long have I been out?
All day. It’s damn near dinnertime. I’m starved.
I am too. We sure those two are the only ones in there?
Yeah, check it out. They’re locking up. Kelan stood, ready to get this expedition over with. Reidar kept saying it wasn’t right, that he didn’t like doing this because it hurt Beth, but his brother hadn’t had any problems sleeping. Kelan had tried to nap, but he couldn’t, despite the lethargy affecting his muscles. Any time he closed his eyes, he pictured Beth with her big innocent eyes and sweet smile. It tore up his insides that they were doing this, stealing from her.
Which disturbed him even more. Taking his own collar back was one thing, but this was different, even if it was his blood he wanted to retrieve.
Since when did a woman get inside his head like this? Never before had he felt guilt because of a woman. He’d always believed in the love ’em and leave ’em philosophy to which most lone catamount shifters aspired. So long as he left the women satisfied and smiling, what was the harm?
No, he didn’t believe in guilt. The only people in his world who could make him experience that particular emotion were his fathers. Now that the Falke boys were all adults, their dads had resorted to guilt trips when displeased. They must have figured the boys had all outgrown the belt.
No guilt. Regardless of his budding emotions toward Beth, Kelan had to do this for the family.
The conflict, however, nearly tore him up inside. Why did doing what was right for his family feel so wrong in his heart?
Tim and the other man got into the semi, which had been disconnected from its trailer. The presence of a third person meant someone else knew of the blood test anomaly. Damn, damn, damn!
After the truck pulled away, they waited a few minutes to make sure the scientists didn’t return, then carefully made their way out of the woods and into the clearing where the trailer sat by itself, hooked up via a thick cord to the electrical pole in the center of the fifty-yard diameter space.
All clear, Reidar said as they reached the trailer.
Kelan transformed into his human body and dropped the lock pick set into his hand from his mouth. “This isn’t the same door that was on here the other night,” he said as he examined the deadbolt. “Might take a little longer.”
Reidar stayed puma and glanced around. I feel like we’re sitting ducks. We should’ve waited until after dark.
“Too hungry.” Kelan’s stomach growled as if proving the point. He withdrew the tools to disengage the locks—not the easy push-button type that’d been on there before—but still not difficult.
When he was thirteen, a drifter had stopped in Leavenworth for a month or so, and Kelan had befriended the old guy. In that month, Pecos taught Kelan all sorts of interesting things—picking locks and jimmying car doors among them—and even gave him the lock pick set. He had to admit it came in handy now and then, even since he grew up and quit breaking the law…most of the time.
“Got it,” he said when the deadbolt snicked open. A brief flash from behind him signaled Reidar’s shift. Kelan turned the knob and pushed the door. Reidar followed him inside and headed straight to the bank of computers on the table while Kelan opened the little fridg
e.
Empty.
“Shit,” he muttered and started a thorough search for the blood sample.
“There’s no password protection on this computer,” Reidar said as he clicked keys. “Nothing’s encrypted. They weren’t too worried about security.”
“Uh-huh.” Kelan couldn’t care less about passwords, security software, or whatever other computer jargon Reidar spouted off about. What he needed to do was find the damn blood sample. He opened every drawer, cupboard, and container, but found no blood.
“Damn, that was easy,” Reidar said. “I’ll just shut this baby down and—What’s wrong?”
Kelan stopped his search and turned to Reidar, his heart thudding in his throat, nearly choking him. Every drawer and door in the small lab stood open. “There’s no blood sample here.”
“Calm down, Kel. We’ll figure it out.” Reidar glanced around the lab and planted his hands on his hips. “Maybe they used it up.”
Kelan growled at him.
Reidar sighed. “That could explain why she asked Heidi for the chance to gather more, but if it’s not here, there’s not much we can do about it.”
“If it’s not here, what the fuck did they do with it? We can’t assume it all got used up. What if we’re wrong?” He didn’t want to think about that, didn’t want to contemplate where it might have been sent, in whose hands it could wind up. He turned and slammed his fist into the wall, needing to release some of the fury and terror warring through him.
“Kelan, stop. Let’s get out of here.” Reidar grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the door. He pulled away, though, and shut everything the way they’d found it, then picked up his lock pick set from the desk. Only then, after one final glance around the trailer, did he follow Reidar out into the late evening sunshine. He made sure the doorknob was locked, but couldn’t relock the deadbolt.
Come on.
He transformed as his brother already had, and ran into and through the woods, leaped the fence by the car, and then changed yet again so they could get dressed.
Once seated in the car, Kelan stared into the thickly wooded forest and thought about running away. It was something he’d contemplated many times as a teenager when he’d fucked up and was worried about getting into trouble.
Only it wasn’t the dads’ belts he feared now.
Instead, he feared for their entire way of life. His, Reidar’s, his siblings’, his alpha’s children.
His parents’ lives.
“Talk,” Reidar said after a long silence.
“Fuck you.”
Reidar punched Kelan in the arm and shoved his head up against the car door’s window. “Talk,” he said between clenched teeth.
Rarely did Reidar’s temper flare, so Kelan knew his brother was as scared as he was. He grabbed Reidar’s wrist. “Let the fuck go.”
Reidar gave him a hard nudge and, with a hiss, sat back in his seat, slashed his hands through his hair and let out a deep breath.
The words that came out of Kelan’s mouth were as much a surprise to him as to his brother, if Reidar’s expression was any judge. “She slapped me last night.”
His brother turned his head and narrowed his eyes at Kelan. “Yeah, so?”
He wasn’t sure why he needed to voice this now, but it seemed to all come out. “Instead of pissing me off, it turned me on. Okay? The last chick to slap me was Stacy Hills in tenth grade when I tried for third base.”
“I remember her.”
Kelan blinked slowly, remembering the pain he’d felt more than a decade—a lifetime—ago.
“Yeah, well, I thought I was in love with her, but when she slapped me, I walked away and never looked back.”
Reidar frowned. “I don’t really understand. What’s getting slapped have to do with the situation we’re in right now?”
Kelan sighed and dropped his head back against the headrest. “I was being a total bastard last night. Beth had every right to slap me. Hell, I wouldn’t have held it against her if she’d slugged me.
But even when she was ready to rip my head off, I could feel her desire, as if she were testing me.”
“Weren’t you doing the same? Testing her?”
Kelan took a deep, steady breath. “Maybe I was, but women don’t test me—us. Ever. They fall at our feet and beg for more.”
“She did beg for more,” Reidar reminded him. “Watching you fuck Beth against the wall turned me on to the point of pain, but you needed it, and obviously so did Beth, so I waited for you to finish.”
“That’s just it. Any other woman would’ve stayed angry. Or she wouldn’t have been defiant in the first place. When I told her it wasn’t a game, I saw that she understood. And she wanted to be part of it.” He shook his head and looked Reidar in the eyes, wondering if his confusion showed. “Maybe she is the one. I don’t know, but if she is, there’s not a goddamn thing we can do about it. She poses a threat that could bring our entire family down, have us all locked up like lab rats. So how could she be the one? I keep asking myself that, but…” He shook his head. “There’s no solution. We have to think of the family. And now there’re babies on the way.” His tone grew more anxious. “And there’s a vial of my blood somewhere, possibly with someone who could destroy us. And it’s all her fucking fault! ”
“But you still want her,” Reidar said softly.
“Yeah. Goddamn it, I want her…so bad, it fucking hurts.”
“I do too.” After a pause, he added, “Maybe we should go talk to her.”
“And what? Ask her where the blood is? We can’t do that.” Kelan sighed. “I just don’t see this ending well.”
Reidar shook his head. “We have to do something. She’s our link. She’s the only one who can stop this from getting out of hand.”
“Look around, bro. It’s already out of hand.” Kelan fastened his seatbelt, started the car and gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. “I swear that woman’s been a total nuisance from the moment she came to town. It would’ve been better if I’d never laid eyes on her.”
“You go ahead and keep lying to yourself. Maybe someday you’ll believe it.”
“I just…I want to spank her.”
“You want to love her.”
“Shut the fuck up before I hurt you.”
“If you want to scrap it out, fine. Let’s go home and get it over with. I wouldn’t mind kicking your ass right now, but at least be honest with yourself. And don’t expect me to believe you care nothing for her. Not even your heart is that cold.”
Kelan had to concentrate on backing the car down the narrow, rutted dirt track, or he would have gladly punched his brother right in the nose.
A knock on the door brought Beth out of a deep sleep. When she glanced at the window and saw how low the sun was, she jumped out of bed and practically leaped across the room to open the door. And there stood Tim, just turning to walk away.
“Hey, you are here,” he said, frowning at her. “I thought you might be out with—uh, just out.”
“Okay. No, you caught me.” She forced a laugh to hide her embarrassment and stepped aside to let him in.
He came into the room, looking wrinkled and not smelling all that great. “Caught you what?” He set her laptop case on the table and looked around as if he expected her to have company.
“Napping. I fell asleep waiting for the post office to open after lunch.”
“Oh.” His frown grew, but he didn’t comment further. Then he gave her a hesitant smile. “I got that software installed. There’s an icon on the desktop called LabCam. All you have to do is click on it, and it’ll link you up to the server that hosts the data backup. You can search by date and time and whatnot.”
“Thanks, Tim. I appreciate it.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I…uh…” What could she say? She’d been awake all night being fucked by two men so she was exhausted and…She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Seven. She’d los
t all day. Eight full hours. “Wow, I didn’t realize it was so late. I guess I needed more sleep than I thought.
Don’t tell the professor.”
Tim smiled. “Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t usually ‘tattle.’” Beth gave him a light shove on the shoulder, making him laugh. “Thanks.”
He shrugged. “What are friends for?”
“I’ve just been so nervous and worried about the research project and writing my dissertation.”
“You should probably eat,” Tim said. He was looking at her as if she had a second nose or third eye. “When was your last meal?”
It took a moment for her sleep-fogged brain to kick in. She was hungry, she realized. “Breakfast this morning.” Had she been in that greasy diner only that morning?
“Why don’t I buy you din—” His words were interrupted by another knock on the door.
Please don’t let it be the professor. Please don’t let it be the professor. She turned around and grabbed the doorknob once again.
“Hey, Beth,” Reidar said, standing next to Kelan.
Relief or excitement—she didn’t care which—made her grin when she saw them in the hall.
“Hey. I didn’t expect to see you two here tonight.”
“Disappointed?” Kelan asked.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Reidar pulled Beth into his arms and kissed her. She didn’t fight, didn’t try to pull away, and he kept it gentle. Against her lips, he murmured, “We came to see if you wanted to grab some dinner.”
“Mmm,” was her response as she leaned into him and then sighed. “I’d love to, but I really need a shower.” She wouldn’t admit she needed one to fully wake up. She felt a little groggy, a little drugged.
Her internal clock was way the hell off. Now she’d be up all night, but at least she should be able to get some work done on her dissertation.
“A shower…hmm?” Reidar hummed then nipped her ear, giving her goose bumps.
Tim cleared his throat.
Without looking at him, without even pulling away from Reidar’s embrace, she said, “Oh, um… guys, this is a colleague of mine from the university. Uh…Tim, these are the Falke brothers.” She smiled, knowing her cheeks were probably cherry-red. “Or at least two of them, Reidar and Kelan.”
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