“Wait. Whoa. We are really going to do this?” Pixie protested, as they rushed to Bobbi’s car.
“We can’t leave an eight-year-old unprotected. We’ll go there and wait until we can get a team from Shifters, Inc. to show up and relieve us. Then we’re going wolf and bear hunting.”
“And then?”
“When I find Jax, I am seriously going to throw down. There will be blood on the streets.”
“Goodie!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Just promise me we won’t be stuck with the kid for too long. Brats and me…we don’t mix.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t be there a minute longer than we need to. Now, call Tyler and find out what the hell’s really going on. And needless to say, we’ll never take our assignments from Jax again.”
Pixie grabbed her cell phone and dialed.
Jax and Heath, she found out, were taking a private courier plane to a small, war-torn country called Turak, in the Middle East, to talk to a family of antique dealers who might have knowledge about a series of art thefts at Kenneth’s homes.
They were to offer the family safe passage out of Turak, in exchange for any information that they might be able to provide.
If Kenneth had been there, Bobbi knew, he would have discussed the assignment face to face with all of them, and they would have worked out who would be best suited for the job.
Tyler, however, was completely frazzled by being handed control of Shifters, Inc., even temporarily. He’d done his best, but he hadn’t followed through and verified with Bobbi and Pixie that they’d accepted their assignment.
If he had, Jax would never have gotten away with his shenanigans.
“Now how are we going to find them? Are we going to have to wait until they get back?” Pixie wondered.
“Hells to the no,” Bobbi said. “Leave it to me. I know people, in places. I will get us there, and steal the assignment out from under their sorry snouts.”
Kenneth was probably going to bite her head off when he got back from New York, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to be sidelined with a babysitting job while her boyfriend and her brother ran head first into danger.
She picked up her phone and started making calls. She had worked for the National Shifter’s Council for years as an Enforcer; she’d developed many connections worldwide, ranging from legal to highly shady. Tonight, she was tapping in to the shady side.
They pulled up in front of the hotel minutes later, parked, and entered the lobby. They spotted the prince immediately; he was standing in the middle of the spacious lobby, next to a middle aged woman and two human bodyguards. The bodyguards weren’t employees of Shifters, Inc. Bobbi realized that the prince probably travelled with his own security staff.
“There go Thom and Rafael,” Pixie said, pointing.
Bobbi spotted two big, bulky shifters in suits rushing out a side door. She suspected that Jax wouldn’t really have told the bodyguards to leave no matter what; he’d have told them to watch out for her, and leave as soon as she was pulling up to the front door. That way, she’d be stuck with the safe babysitting job, while he and Heath rushed headlong into a war zone. Or so he thought.
Forcing a smile on her face, she walked up to the woman, who was pleading with Prince Reginald to stop jumping on the leather sofa. Businessmen and women at the check-in counter were glaring at him.
“Cut that out,” Bobbi snapped at Reginald. She turned to the nanny, a middle-aged, copper-skinned woman with a round, creased face and hair pulled up in a bun. She was a crocodile shifter, which actually made a strange sort of sense. Crocodiles, unlike many other reptiles, had strong maternal instincts and were fiercely protective of their young. “I’m Bobbi Simpson, from Shifters, Incorporated.”
“I am Gopika, nanny to Prince Reginald.” Her accent was that of an Indian woman educated in an English school. “Thank you so much for coming. You are a coyote, yes? So you have sharp teeth and you are very cunning. Reginald, dear, please do stop that!”
“Why should I?” Reginald folded his arms across his chest and pouted. “Who’s going to make me?”
“I will,” Pixie snapped. “And show that woman some respect, or I’ll beat your ass.”
Everybody except Bobbi gasped.
Reginald’s eyes flew open with shock. Then they filled with tears. He took a deep breath as if he were about to let out a mighty bellow. Before he could say anything, Pixie pointed at a group of businessmen who were standing by the check-in counter. “See that fat guy over there? Run over there, and kick him in the shins.”
Before Bobbi could protest, before anyone could say anything, the prince leaped off the sofa, ran over, and kicked the man in the shins, with Pixie in hot pursuit.
“I am SO sorry!” Pixie cried, grabbing Reginald up in her arms. “My little brother is out of control these days! We need to adjust his medication. Reginald, say sorry.”
“Sorry,” he smirked.
The fat man glared at him. “He doesn’t need medication. He needs incarceration. Get that brat away from me before I press charges.”
Pixie rushed back to Bobbi. “Up to the room, now,” Bobbi snapped.
They all trooped over to the elevator.
“All right, what did you do?” Bobbi said with resignation as the doors closed.
Pixie pulled a wallet, a Rolex watch, and a box of Tic-Tacs out of her pocket. She opened the Tic-Tacs and popped two in her mouth.
“What?” she said to Bobbi. “The box hadn’t been opened!”
Then she handed the Rolex to the prince. “Here, since you helped me, you get half,” she said. “I’m keeping the wallet.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Bobbi growled in disgust.
Reginald began dancing up and down in the elevator with excitement. “Show me how you did that! Show me! Show me!”
“Only if you behave. Settle down, already, you’re giving me a headache,” Pixie instructed him as they reached their floor, and he instantly stopped dancing around and followed her, worshipfully, down the hallway into the luxury penthouse suite.
“These men who are with you, they’re the prince’s personal bodyguards?” Bobbi asked Gopika.
“Yes, he always travels with them. However, his parents like to have local security watching over him, as well, since they will be more familiar with the area and any threats he might face.”
Bobbi nodded. “Thank you. There has been a little bit of a mixup with the assignments tonight, but I am about to get you two excellent bodyguards who will provide the prince with top-notch, dedicated protection during his visit here.”
She walked over to the window so she could speak in private, and dialed Tyler’s cell phone number as she watched Pixie askance. Pixie was letting Reginald practice picking her pocket while Gopika pretended not to notice.
Anything to keep the kid quiet, she thought with exasperation. I just have to get Pixie out of here before she turns the kid into a professional felon.
“Tyler, you will have two bodyguards come to the hotel, immediately. As you know, Jax and Heath tricked me into taking this assignment. It’s not happening. Why? Well, for one thing, Pixie’s teaching the prince how to pickpocket. Yes, you heard me. You want his parents to come back and find out that he’s now, literally, a cat burglar? I thought not. I have arranged for a plane to fly us to Turak. The plane is leaving in six hours. It will drop us off outside of Turak, and then we’ll fly back with Jax and Heath. Never mind how I found a plane. Just start getting our paperwork ready.”
It took about half an hour before the bodyguards showed up. While they waited, Pixie taught Reginald how to cheat at cards, and Bobbi sat and planned various gruesome revenge scenarios involving her double-dealing boyfriend.
When the two new bodyguards walked in, Reginald pouted and stamped his feet. He pointed at Pixie. “I want her to stay!” he told Gopika, eyes filled with tears. “She can be my new nanny when you leave next month.” Then, suddenly, he grabbed his nanny’s hand. “You ca
n both be my nanny. I’ll have two nannies.”
“We have to go now, or we’ll be in trouble with our boss,” Bobbi told him. “We’ll be back in one week, and you’ll still be here. If you behave, we’ll go to Disneyland with you when we get back.”
“You promise?” he asked doubtfully.
“Yes, and think of all the pockets we can – ow! I mean, all the rides we can ride on,” Pixie said, rubbing her arm where Bobbi had punched her.
Despite Reggie’s tearful protests, they headed out quickly.
“I don’t have a passport, by the way,” Pixie said, as they pulled away from the hotel.
“Good, because you’re not coming. Shut up!” Bobbi said, before Pixie said anything. “Take you with me into a war torn country, when I need to concentrate on the mission and can’t get distracted by trying to keep you alive? You, with all your piercings and rainbow hair, in a Muslim country, standing out like a glowing beacon and drawing attention to us?”
“I can dye my hair black in like no time. I’ll take out my piercings and wear a veil and dress up like a modest Muslim girl,” Pixie said. “It’ll be like fun. Like it’s Halloween and I’m wearing a costume. Come on, of the two of us, I can break into buildings much faster, and nobody’s wallet is safe from me. Nobody’s. You need my skills. We can get Tyler to make us whatever fake paperwork we need real quick before the plane takes off.”
“This is a terrible idea.” Bobbi already knew she’d lost.
“As are all your ideas. All right, then it’s settled. Road trip!” Pixie rubbed her hands together gleefully.
Chapter Five
The full moon glowed overhead, a giant, luminescent pearl fixed against the black velvet drapery of the sky. A fat stone cupid in a fountain held a pitcher which poured an endless stream of water into the fountain’s bowl. When the weather grew colder, the fountain would be shut off so the water didn’t freeze.
Chloe shivered in the chill night air, and she quickly pulled her sweater on. Now the glamorous ensemble was complete.
“Would you like my jacket?” Kenneth asked.
Oddly, her heart leaped in her chest at that. She realized that she desperately wanted to say yes, to have his jacket, warm from his body heat and smelling of him, wrapped around her like big strong arms.
But of course she couldn’t say yes to this man, the grandson of the man who’d betrayed her grandmother in every way that a man could betray a woman…this man who was photographed with a different woman on his arm every week, as she’d realized when he started leaving her messages weeks ago, and she’d looked him up online.
She’d felt an odd sensation the very first time she saw his picture – a sensation which had made her even more determined to avoid him at all costs.
Great job I’m doing with that, she thought to herself.
“Oh, no, the sweater’s plenty. My mother knitted it for me,” she added, not knowing what else to say.
“She’s very talented,” Kenneth said politely.
“Your date was stunning. I see a real love match there,”she said to Kenneth, wanting to steer the conversation away from family, and also, wanting to needle him. He was being all gentlemanly and charming, and she needed for him to stop it immediately.
He rose to take the bait. “I couldn’t agree more. Of course, I don’t think she and I shared as much of a connection as you and your almost-fiance.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. That man you were pointing at? I’ve never seen him before in my – ouch!” she tripped on the gravel path as her heel sunk in and caught on something. Kenneth reached out to catch her, but she quickly stepped back. “I’m fine!”
“And graceful as a cat, I see.”
Actually, for a member of the cat species, Chloe was exceptionally clumsy. It was her secret shame that once, when she’d been up a tree in panther form, and she’d leaped to the ground…she hadn’t landed on her feet.
Well, it would have been her secret shame, if it hadn’t happened in front of all the other third graders on the playground. “Clutzy Chloe” had stuck as a nickname until high school. Then it became “Four-Eyes.” Most panthers didn’t wear glasses in their human form, either.
“Shut up,” she grumbled, as they kept walking. Their breath left puffs of condensation in the chill air. “If you were a gentleman, you would have pretended not to notice.”
“Did I say that I was a gentleman?”
“Well, you dress like a gentleman, you talk like a gentleman…”
“But if I were a gentleman, would I lead a beautiful woman that I barely know out into the dark…” she suddenly realized how far they’d wandered from the old mansion. They were alone in the dark, cold night. “…and do this?”
And before she could say a word, he’d spun her into his arms, making her stumble again in the gravel, and she fell into his arms, and then…he kissed her.
It was like no kiss she’d ever experienced before.
His strong arm circled around her, and he tipped her chin up with two fingers and pressed his warm lips against hers. She was so startled that she didn’t protest…her lips parted, and she accepted as his mouth claimed hers. He tasted like the whisky he’d been sipping earlier, smoky and intoxicating.
His tongue swept through her mouth, caressing, probing.
She felt herself melting into him, with a sense of rightness and belonging that she’d never experienced before. She never wanted the kiss to end. He was ravishing her mouth, conquering it like a pirate, leading her tongue in a slow, sensual dance, and it felt delicious…He was so warm, so strong…how could she ever tear herself away from this embrace?
What was this sorcery that made her feel exactly as if this man was her fated mate? Of course he couldn’t be. The coincidence would be too bizarre.
She pressed her hand up against his chest, against the pleated white tuxedo shirt. Beneath it, his chest was broad and rock solid, a wall of muscle. Her entire body tingled with pleasure, and she felt a throbbing between her legs, a deep hunger and a need to be filled by him, only by him.
His muscular arm tightened against her waist and pressed her up against him as if he wanted to meld with her, and she let out a little whimper of pleasure deep in her throat, and heard a responding growl rumbling up from his chest.
And suddenly it occurred to her – why her grandmother had gone crazy. To have this, and then to have it snatched away, and worse, to find out it was all a cruel lie –
And surely this must be a lie. A man like Kenneth wouldn’t be her fated mate. His fated mate would be like him, sleek and sophisticated and self-confident, a ruler of the jungle, not some nearsighted, stammering cat that tripped over its own paws. If he was kissing her, it was because he wanted something from her.
Summoning up the last reserves of her rapidly fading willpower, she wrenched herself from his arms and stepped backward. It hurt; it was like ripping off a band-aid, and where she’d felt warm and safe in his arms, now she felt cold and empty.
All the more reason to get this over with and get away from this dangerous man.
“Why do you keep calling me and asking me to work for you? Why me, of all the experts in the world?” she demanded. “I know I’m very good at what I do, but there are many others who are equally as good and who’d jump at the chance to work for you.”
He looked down at her, his eyes glazed with passion – or pretend passion. That must be it. A man like him would be able to fake any emotion to get what he wanted.
“Are you sure you want to talk about this now?” his voice was husky with desire. Could he really be faking it? Could he stir so much raw passion in her without feeling it himself?
His grandfather had done it, she forced herself to remember.
“Yes.” Her voice trembled in the cold night air, and she hugged herself.
“All right.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You are a world-renowned expert on the culture of Sumer. There have been several break-ins at homes t
hat I own in Europe, where I have artwork displayed. There have been brutal assaults on the employees who live in my houses; one of them is in the hospital still, unresponsive, not expect to recover.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She stared up at him, baffled. “But what does this have to do with me?”
“All of the artwork that they took was ancient Sumerian statuary, from a time period circa 3000 B.C. In every case.”
Her heart pounded in her chest.
That sounded very much like the artwork that Kenneth’s grandfather had stolen from her grandmother right before he dumped her, so many years ago. Could her grandmother somehow be stealing it back now, perhaps having hired people to do it for her?
“This particular collection of artwork has never been catalogued before. I’m not sure why; just about everything else that my grandfather collected has very thorough documentation. I want you to come with me to my house in Italy and catalogue the collection for me. I want to know where it’s from, what time period, what its significance is. This might help me to figure out why thieves are suddenly targeting it.”
“You want me to do what? School is still in session!”
“You have one more week left before Thanksgiving break, and the dean told me that he’d find another professor to stand in for you as long as you need to.”
“I bet he did,” she muttered. Of course the dean had; he’d do anything to get the endowment that Kenneth had promised him.
“But you still haven’t explained, why me, in particular? I would think I’d be the last person that you’d want to hire. My family has a very unfortunate history with yours, and we have no reason to trust you.”
His Purrfect Mate Page 4