by Zoe Chant
“Dooooooom,” was Breck’s contribution.
“Details, man!” Bastian demanded.
But just then, Jenny appeared at the door to the kitchen, looking gorgeous and freshly showered. Breck and Bastian greeted her politely and excused themselves.
“Lunch rush is about to start,” Breck explained. “As much of a rush as eight guests can be!”
“Going to grab food from the buffet and head to the pool,” Bastian said with a wave.
The front door clicked shut behind them, but the open windows made their parting comments carry clearly: “Damn, I need some of that mate action.”
“Are you an idiot, man? Flex your muscles at one of the guests and get a roomkey or three, but don’t ever wish for a mate.”
“Good mooooorning,” Laura sang as she and Tex came down the stairs behind Jenny, propelling her into the kitchen.
Travis stopped staring and stepped forward to give Jenny a quick, shy kiss on the cheek once she was in reach, hyper-aware of her twin sister and her mate at the kitchen bar behind him. Jenny grinned as foolishly at him as he knew she was at her.
“After lunch, I was going to go try to help Scarlet with that contract she was asking about,” she said, accepting the plate Travis had already prepared and sitting with him at the kitchen bar. “I was able to read some of those magazines that I know you guys only have around for the articles, so I think I can probably make some sense out of Scarlet’s contract now.”
“Fantastic,” Travis said.
“You never doubted for a moment, did you,” Jenny said in wonder.
“Not for a second,” Travis could say in all honesty.
“That makes one of us.” Jenny was even beautiful when she ate, with graceful fingers, and a mesmerizing mouth. Travis realized he was staring and had to concentrate on eating his own food, glancing up to see that Jenny was watching him as avidly as he’d been watching her.
Their exchange of gazes did not go unnoticed.
“Oh, aren’t they adorable,” Laura said sweetly to Tex.
“Like a southern lemonade,” he agreed. “New mates, you know. Can’t keep their eyes off each other.”
“You speak from such a position of superiority,” Travis said dryly. “Being a whole week ahead of us at this.”
“You know, I’m older than you by six minutes,” Jenny reminded her.
“But not wiser,” Laura said mockingly.
Travis thought it sounded like an exchange they’d had many times.
Jenny took her plate to the trash and brushed off the crumbs before putting her dishes in the dishwasher.
“I’ve got a bathroom to re-tile,” Travis said, following suit.
“Tiling sounds really complicated,” Jenny admitted, as they put their shoes on at the front door.
“It’s pretty straight-forward,” Travis said modestly. “I could show you how to do it.”
Jenny’s eyes danced with amusement. “I’ll come by after I’m done with Scarlet, and we can test the final product.”
“Get a room!” Laura laughed at them from the kitchen.
“Yes, ma’am!” Tex loudly and deliberately misunderstood her, and there was a playful shriek and the smack of a loud kiss.
Travis took Jenny’s hand as they left the house, and it was incredibly delightful just to have to her hand in his, fingers entwined. He was reluctant to let her go when their paths diverged, and he drew her in for a long, lingering kiss.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you later,” he said, when he finally released her lips.
“Me, too,” she said breathlessly back.
He stole one final kiss, then turned his back decisively and marched away down the path, glancing over his shoulder to find that Jenny was walking backwards so she could smile after him. She gave him two thumbs up and mouthed “Great ass!” before turning and scampering up the steps towards the top of the resort.
Chapter 18
Jenny was smiling and watching her feet as she wandered up the steps and steep paths towards the place where Scarlet’s office perched at the top of the resort.
The building was empty.
Jenny waited a short while in the green, shady courtyard, wandering between the plants and reading the little tags that were in with each one. She fingered one of the flowers, but remembered Travis’ warning about picking anything, and left it in peace.
After a while, she wandered back down to the bar deck, where Tex was polishing each of the bottles to a sparkling luster. Jenny walked to the railing to look below.
Magnolia waved at her from one of the deck chairs, and she waved back with a shy smile. The only other person on the deck was a man built like a small tank, who looked up over his sunglasses when Magnolia waved.
“Where’s Laura?” she asked, returning to the bar and sitting on one of the bar stools. She’d rather go find Travis, but was hesitant to interrupt his work more than she already had. Despite his assurances, she suspected that laying tile was a tad more complicated than she was up for and knew she’d only slow him down. She waved off Tex’s offer for a drink; she didn’t want to freeload at the resort any more than she had to.
“Lydia is taking the week off, because the incoming storm has scared some of the guests off, so Laura offered to help out in the spa,” Tex said. He showed her on the brochure where the spa was, circling it with a pen.
“Thanks,” Jenny said, and she slipped off the stool to find her sister. She paused and turned back around. “Thanks for… being great for my sister.”
Tex gave her a soft, crooked smile. “She’s everything to me,” he admitted without shame.
“I can tell,” Jenny said thoughtfully. “And she adores you, too.”
“Much like you and Travis,” Tex said gently.
Jenny gazed back at him. She and Travis hadn’t said anything about love, but she wondered if he felt it as deeply as she did. Tex seemed to accept it as foregone, but was it, really?
“Thanks again,” Jenny said, taking the brochure that Tex had marked up.
She breathed deeply, wondering if she was imagining the strange feeling of pressure and rain in the air. It was sweltering hot and clear, and the path to the spa was steep, like most of the walkways in the resort, but a stiff breeze had sprung up.
Footsteps crunching swiftly in the gravel behind her made her turn curiously and find the hulking man from the pool deck following her. He didn’t look like a good candidate for the spa, but they did animal grooming as well. Maybe he was going to get a good brushing. Jenny nodded politely and turned back to the path in front of her, scooting over so that he could pass her, as he seemed to be in a hurry.
Her otter screamed a warning at her too late for her to dodge the crushing blow that came from one of his large fists, and Jenny’s world went to blackness.
Chapter 19
Travis was kneeling in the work area, splattered to the elbows in grout and cutting one of the tricky corner pieces when Lynx yowled inside him, all claws and panic.
He dropped the tile, not even caring that it broke, and leapt to his feet.
Lynx couldn’t lead him, only knew that something was wrong, that his mate was in trouble, that they had to do something. So Travis went to the bar, and he came in the back entrance just as Laura came sprinting from the side entrance. Not for a moment did he think she was Jenny.
“Something is wrong,” he said, fighting down Lynx’s blind panic.
“Something is very wrong,” Laura agreed, eyes wild.
Tex put his guitar down. “What is it?” he asked, looking from one to the other in growing alarm.
“Jenny, she’s gone.” Laura tapped the side of her head.
“She’s hurt,” Travis added. Lynx snarled and Travis could feel him pacing anxiously.
Tex came out from around the bar. “I told her you were at the spa, love,” he told Laura, reaching out for her hand. “Ten minutes ago, maybe fifteen.”
“I didn’t see her there,” Laura insisted. “I just
came from there, I would have seen her!”
Travis, finally with a direction to go, loped for the path to the spa, every sense alert for some clue to what had happened, and where his mate was. Laura and Tex were close on his heels.
“Hold up!” Tex said, coming to a stop behind him.
Travis turned to see Tex standing up with a discarded brochure that Travis had ignored, blown up into the hedge. The spa was circled in pen. “This is the brochure I gave Jenny.”
Laura gave a little moan of worry and Tex put an arm around her. “We’ll find her,” he promised.
“Can you smell her?” Travis demanded. Lynx had hearing so keen he could tell when an engine was the smallest bit out of alignment, but he couldn’t smell a cigar a meter away. Tex, on the other hand, had a bear’s better-than-bloodhound nose.
Tex gave a sniff, walking in a circle around the area where he’d found the brochure. Finally, he shrugged and shook his head. “Guests, staff, Laura… I can’t smell Jenny specifically, or tell where she is.”
Travis snarled and balled helpless hands at his side. “Someone took her,” he insisted.
The distant sound of the resort van coughing into life was clear to Travis’ keen hearing. “And with no boat, there’s only one way off this island!”
Travis bolted for the resort entrance.
Chapter 20
Jenny woke when the van went around a hairpin curve and she slid into the side of the vehicle.
“Ow,” she said out loud before she could stop herself.
“Dammit,” a rough voice said. She realized after a moment that it wasn’t addressed at her.
“No, I told you, I’m going to need that plane now. I don’t care if there’s a storm incoming. This place is crawling with shifters. The lifeguard is a dragon, did you know that? Yeah. They’re gunna to come looking for her, I haven’t got that kind of time.”
There was a pause in the conversation and Jenny was able to lever herself up and peer over the back of the second seat back. The driver was the gorilla from the pool deck, wearing clothing now, and the throbbing in Jenny’s head suggested that it was his fist that had caused her unconsciousness. Her hands were tied together, and just as she was considering whether she could shift her way out of the knots and escape, she met his eyes in the rear view mirror.
“Shit,” he said. “And fuck you, too,” he added as an afterthought into the phone. “It better be there when we get there. That was the agreement.” He hung it up as vehemently as he could with a tiny button on a tiny box that was dwarfed by his large hand.
“Don’t try shifting,” he warned Jenny. “I’ve drugged you with some fancy shit that should prevent you from werewolfing or any other magic crap. Man, is your boss pissed at you right now.”
Jenny was trying to wrap her head around why anyone at the firm would be this angry with her when the werewolf statement sunk in. A wolf. They thought she was a wolf shifter like Laura. No, they thought she was Laura. This pleasant mountain of a man must have been sent by the mob that her twin sister had worked for.
Was he telling the truth about shifting?
Jenny reached for the otter within her, and was alarmed to find silence. She reached for Laura then, trying to use their odd twin bond to make some kind of meaningful contact. Silence met her again. Though her head throbbed, Jenny didn’t think it was just a concussion. The mating bond… that was stronger than either of those things, wasn’t it?
Travis…
Jenny scrunched her eyes together against the pain that bloomed behind her eyes at the effort.
“I’m not Laura,” she said.
“Sure you’re not,” the man laughed gruffly. His voice went mockingly high. “You’ve got the wrong guy, mister! I swear!”
“I have a twin sister,” Jenny said, offended.
“Oh, that’s a good one,” the man said flatly. “I’ve never heard that one before.” His flat tone suggested otherwise.
The road they were traveling was full of tight corners and steep grades. Jenny found that her feet had also been tied, and it was a challenge to remain upright without being able to spread her limbs. She wedged herself against the window, and glared at the man in the rear view mirror.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.
“I’m just the collector,” he said. “I deliver you to your boss in LA and get paid. Blacksmith said in one piece if possible, but he wasn’t too picky. Guess he’s not so happy that half his crew got nabbed by the pigs a few days back.”
His phone rang then, and he nearly missed a curve answering it. “Wrench,” he said sharply.
It took Jenny a moment to realize he meant it as his name.
He glanced back at her, listening to the phone intensely. He swapped ears, navigating another corner and a series of epic potholes. “I know,” he said, clearly trying to keep his voice down. “I’m on a good job right now, I’ll have the money real soon.”
Jenny’s otter senses weren’t all gone; she could hear him without effort, even over the sounds of the van and the rising wind outside. The jungle was whipping alarmingly, and in the few places they drove through clear areas, she could see Wrench struggling to control the van against the wind.
“No, it’s a sure thing. You can sign her up for the class, I’ll make sure it gets paid.”
Jenny could almost hear the voice at the other end, but not quite.
“Yeah,” Wrench said ambiguously. It was night and day how different his voice was on this conversation compared to the last. “Can I talk to her?”
If his voice had been less gruff with this conversation, it was now an order of magnitude more gentle, and as quiet as Wrench could manage. “Hey, kitten!”
The chatter at the other end was even clearer, high-pitched and eager. Jenny could make out the words ballet, friends, music, and dancing. She watched Wrench in the mirror, re-evaluating him as he conversed with the girl at the other end of the phone. Even his face softened, and when he took off his sunglasses because the sky was growing dark, his eyes looked gentle.
Was this Stockholm syndrome? Jenny wondered. It wasn’t that she didn’t still want to kick the man in the knees, but it was hard to hate someone who would buy ballet lessons for a little girl. Even if it was with dirty kidnapping money.
“I gotta go, kitten,” Wrench said at last, as they broke out of the jungle at the end of a little private runway. Barely audible, he added, “Love you,” before hanging up and glaring suspiciously at Jenny in the mirror.
Jenny pretended that she hadn’t heard a word, and wondered if she’d imagined the gentleness.
Wrench parked the van at the end of the runway, and cursed when he opened his door and the wind blew it shut before he could get out.
Jenny considered struggling when Wrench came around the van to pull her out, but she knew at once that it would be futile and settled for stomping on his foot as he set her down. She tried again to shift to her otter shape, and the wave of dizziness that came with the effort made her almost fall over.
But she could tell that whatever it was she’d been given was weakening. Her otter was there again, growling and gnashing sharp teeth in frustration. Jenny played up her dizziness and slumped into Wrench.
Wrench cut the cords at her ankles, and hauled her to her feet. Jenny knew she had no chance of outrunning him in this form; she had enough trouble standing upright against the whipping wind.
Wrench’s phone rang and he answered it with a growl of his name, turning away from the wind and repeating it louder when it wasn’t heard the first time.
“He’s nuts to try it,” he shouted. “But we’re waiting.”
He hung up, and pulled Jenny into the dubious shelter behind the van.
Jenny looked at the way the trees were bending in the gusts. “You might want to make sure they know what to do with your money when you die in a fiery plane crash. Wouldn’t want your kitten to default on her ballet lessons.”
She was rewarded with Wrench’s ala
rmed, embarrassed look. “You’ve got better ears than I thought,” he snarled, not amused. “I’ll be glad to hand you off.”
The rumble of the approaching airplane was hard even for Jenny to hear over the wind, which was now roaring, crosswise to the runway. She pointed her bound hands in that direction. “Well, here it comes now.”
Wrench looked, and they both watched in horror as the little plane was caught in a gust, twisted sideways and over-corrected, spitting back out over the ocean to crash into the waves offshore.
Chapter 21
Travis skidded to a stop at the top of the resort.
The van was long gone, down the winding jungle road that led to the airport on the other side of the island.
He howled in rage, and Tex and Laura, panting, came up behind him.
“I thought that Costa Rica didn’t get hurricanes,” Tex said, staring at the sky and holding onto his hat. There were thick dark clouds gathering north of the island, and the wind was beginning to pick up with a vengeance.
“This isn’t a hurricane,” Breck said, coming out of the office. “Have you seen Scarlet? Did she take the van?” He looked from one to the other, picking up on the urgency of the situation. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know who took the van,” Tex said.
“But whoever it is, they’ve got Jenny,” Travis told him, gnashing his teeth.
“I can’t feel her,” Laura said in anguish. “Not… not quite like before, it’s a little different. Like there’s cotton between us.”
“Yes,” Travis said, glad for her words to put what he was feeling into context. “That’s exactly what it’s like.”
Breck looked from one to the other in growing alarm. “Kidnapped? Who would kidnap her?”
“Fred?” Tex suggested.
“He’s still in prison,” Laura said, shaking her head. “This feels more like the cartel’s M.O.”
“The cartel?” Breck asked in disbelief.